Supergirl Season 1 Review

I have finished watching Season 1 of Supergirl and I must say I am very impressed, it is a departure from the style set down in Smallville and in fact the character of supergirl is very different from that of Supergirl as portrayed in Smallville. Meliasa Benoist is showing herself to be a very competent actress. one of the main difference between Supergirl and Smallville is the addition of humour in the show, Benoist is superb in her delivery and her interactions with Cat Grant, played by Calista Flockhart and it really adds a grounding dimension to a superhero show. Calista Flockhart seems to be really enjoying her role on the show and as the season progresses has changed from the boss from hell to a key ally and friend. Many parallels can be drawn between the two shows, with little nods to the former, such as calling the flash, the blur when he pays a visit in one episode. Unlike Smallville which started out slow, Supergirl starts with a bang, Kara must make herself known to the world in order to save her sister from dying in a plane crash, very quickly the show moves forward and Kara decides she can no longer hide in the shadows, letting her cousin Superman do all the work and she decides to be become Supergirl. She soon has a team of DEO agents along with her sister to help her fight aliens and criminals alike. Other than Kara's relationship with Cat she has her sister and a circle of friends to ground her and help her. It was nice to see the tie in with having the Character of Jimmy Olson move to National City and become part of Kara's life. The show is far more upbeat than Smallville, but the effects and action are on par if not better. I was delighted to see the martian manhunter return, he had been a good friend and guiding force in Smallville and in supergirl his influence is all the more as he is now head of the DEO and as such Supergirls boss. In a few episodes, the plot relied on freak of the week, but unlike Smallville, Supergirl faces off against Aliens that followed her to earth from the Phantom zone. In Smallville many of the freaks of the week were created by Kryptonite. In one episode we see Kara go slightly evil after the effects to Red kryptonite, something we have seen clark struggling with previously and resulted in him going through a dark phase when he moved to Metropolis. The Aliens Supergirl faces off against are interesting and not one dimensional. One of the main villains / not always a villain, is that of Maxwell Lord who is a character similar to that of Lex Luthor, by the end of season 1 we still don't know if he is an enemy or Friend of Supergirl. there is a lot to like about this show and with its nods to previous Superman related shows, there is a lot for Fans to enjoy. Overall I think Season 1 of Supergirl was a success and a very strong start to hopefully a long series run.

Smallville Season 10 Review

I have just finished watching season ten of smallville, a lot has happened this season and during this final build up we get to reflect on all the good and bad things that have happened to clark over the years that have made him the man he will become. Lois saves clark and learns of his powers, she pulls the dagger from his chest and he recovers. Little does clark know that when the portal was open and evil came to earth called darksied. All the Kandorians are gone to the new dimension. This season sees several losses of characters and the rebirth of some old ones that have been lost. Tess is killed in the end which is a shame as she was a good character, but to explain her not existing in the superman world, she had to be written out of the timeline, Chloe leaves with Ollie to start a new life in star city, it is sad to see clarks dearest friend slip out of his life. Chloe was not in many episodes in this season which was a shame was she had always been a backbone to the show. Her character has become a lot more grim over the seasons, gone is the wide smiling, bubby young woman we knew from season one, she has suffered losses down through the years and it has taken its toll on her. But it is good to see that in the future while Clark is busy with lois saving the world, Chloe and Ollie are together and have a son. In a mirror verse we get to see what clark could have become if he didn’t have the guidance and support of the kents growing up. In this mirror verse clark gets to meet Jonathan kent. The mirror verse Lionel travels to clarks world and takes over luthorcorp, the real lex was killed but Lionel, unlike the Lionel we got to know and how protected Clark, the evil Lionel uses the clones to piece together a perfect lex, before he kills tess, she uses a toxin that wipes his memory and this ties into the superman world we know in which lex does not know who superman/kal el/clark is. Kara comes back for one episode but is told by Jor El that Clark’s journey is his destiny alone and Kara had a different path, she uses a legion ring and travels to the future. It was sad to see hawk man die but somewhat comforting to know that he would someday return and find his soul mate once more. The main villain this season Darksied and the influence is touched upon several times throughout the season but is not overdone, most of the season is spent reflecting on the past, looking to the future of how Clark would become the hero he knew he could be. This season was a fantastic finish to the smallville journey and it is darksied in the body of Lionel that finally pushes Clark to fulfill his potential and enables him to fly, with the planet crashing into earth and everyone’s weakness having been exploited by the evil spirit, Clark finally becomes superman, flies up and saves the earth. While the final save is fixed fairly simply, it was the journey that was important. It would have been nice to have seen Pete ross back for one more time and Lana, they could have cured her of the Kryptonite nanites so she could have been at the wedding. She was his first love and it would have been fitting in my book to have her return. One scene that never did come about but I would have seen was to have the JSA team and clark and his heros, aquaman, pulse, green arrow, canary etc all tackle a mission together. This season did not quite play out as I would have imagined but it turned out in my book with full marks and a very fitting end to a great series. To quote jonathan Kent, “remember you will always have smallville”.

Smallville Season 9 Review

I have just finished watching season nine of smallville, alot has happened, I have noticed a patten over the past two seasons that unlike season one which had the freak of the week format, they have villain of the season now, in season eight it was doomsday and for season nine it was zod, zod and his soldiers are released from the orb after doomsday defeat, Clark spends most of the season trying to prevent the kandorians from getting there powers and taking over the world. Again Tess Mercer is an important character but new players are added to the mix like checkmate, red queen, the justice society of America. A feature of this season is Clark's struggle to be close to Lois and not revealing his secret but not lie to her either, he somewhat achieves this by talking to Lois via phone as the blur, but this puts Lois in danger and later gives zod a way to manipulate Lois to gather information on Tess for him. Chloe tries to be the focal point for Ollie and his hero team as she runs watchtower, it becomes her sole purpose and she comes dangerously close to loosing focus on why she is doing this work, Chloe also starts dating Ollie but after loosing Jimmy she does not want it to become serious and is not after commitment but everytime Ollie is in danger Chloe is out of her mind with worry. Clark's mother Martha is hardly mentioned during the show and Lana is in only a few episodes, in a strange turn of events she uses Lex's technology to help build a super suit, she is infused with nanites and after going through extreme training she plans on working side by side with Clark, Lex has a bomb planted on the roof of the Daily planet, Lana's suit will absorb the kryptonite and prevent an explosion but Clark can not get within ten feet of Lana, she later leaves as she can't take not being able to be with Clark. Clark spends most of the season trying to reason with Zod while also trying to prevent him and the others from gaining there powers. But in a strange turn of events, clark saves Zods life with his blood and this gives Zod his powers, he later shares this power with the others who are loyal to him. The kandorians start wreaking havoc around the world, clark and the other heros are stretched thin trying to track them. After Zod betrays one of his own and kill the mother of his unborn child the other Kandorians decide to listen to clark, clark uses a crystal to open a portal to transport all kryptonians to another dimension, clark would also go. But in the final battle between zod and clark, clark is killed, this prevents him from being beamed away. The season ends on a cliffhanger with clark falling from the building with a dagger in his chest. I was not a big fan of Zod as a villain, his menace went on a bit too long and clark with his powers could have stopped him in his tracks long before if he was willing to and clarks reasons for lettings his people find their way is a bit thin, when it is shown that if clark fails that the world will be turned on its head.

Smallville Season 8 Review

I have just completed watching season eight of smallville, alot has happened this season, following of the back of the season 7 finale in which Lex and Clark faced off at the fort, Lex having discovered the secret of Veritas he uses the sphere on the main console at the fort, this results in the destruction of the fort. Clark is found by Ollie working in Russia and being kept as a slave essentially for a smuggler who found him wonder in the frozen Arctic, without his powers he is unable to escape. Ollie and Clark go to a 33.1 facility and rescue Chloe who thought she was in custody of the government and forced to use her new brain powers to crack codes. Clark who has no powers risks his life and during the rescue finds Lois undercover at the facility. Clark get shot by an arrow after Ollie was injected with a control serum, Clark dies and Chloe can not save him, the Martian hunter appears, taking Clark high into the sky and the sun gives him back his life and his powers but at a cost the Martian is stripped of his as the sun weakens him. Lex is missing still weeks after the fort was destroyed, Clark returns home to find that Lana has left, even though she loves Clark she sees that he has a higher calling and must follow his destiny. a new character has been added to the line up, Tess Mercer, she is relentless in her pursuit to find Lex, with Lex gone she is acting CEO of Luthorcorp. Tess Mercer has become a very important character after she takes over luthorcorp after Lex's disappearance. she was more complex in some aspects than Lex had become and her motivations are never clear is she out to help clark or harm him. there are a few things not fully answered during the season, such as did Tess kill two of her 33.1 team via the implants or was another party involved, why was she so obsessed with getting Clark to follow the texts of Lex's journal and for how long was she talking to zod in the sphere, why was zod in the sphere that was made to control Clark should he turn evil, that the veritas group had, perhaps this will be explained in Season 9. Davis is also introduced early in the season and at first we get hints that something is not all it seems with him, he becomes friends with Chloe and starts to develop feelings for her, but Chloe is with Jimmy so this causes tension, as the season progresses we learn he is doomsday, it was a bit of a let down in the end, they had built up doomsday to be this unbeatable foe, like the terminator it was meant to be indestructible and would only get stronger after any attack, its genetic make up was meant to evolve and adapt, but the show down in the end is fairly tame. Clark's mother Martha is hardly mentioned during the show and Lana is in only a few episodes, in a strange turn of events she uses Lex's technology to help build a super suit, she is infused with nanites and after going through extreme training she plans on working side by side with Clark, this works for a while and they are never happier, Lex has a bomb planted on the roof of the Daily planet, Lana's suit will absorb the kryptonite and prevent an explosion but Clark can not get within ten feet of Lana, she later leaves as she can't take not being able to be with Clark. while Lex does have some influence at the start of the season, he is shown to be injured and kept alive with machines, it is never made completely clear if his injuries were down to being lost in the frozen wastelands of the north or as the fort was destroyed, despite Tess sending a team to find Lex, Lex survives and goes into hiding. There is a big build up to Jimmy and Chloe's wedding, all is well till doomsday crashes the Party leaving Jimmy near death, Chloe is taken to the fort and again is taken over by brainiac. Only with help from the legion from the future can brainiac finally be defeated and Chloe saved. While the season was a good one, Davis bloom and doomsday were not that good a villain, Lex was always up to something but his motivation was often a mystery, professor fines was also good and he kept you guessing what he was up to but doomsday was fairly one dimensional, they over played their hand at trying to get the audience to sympathise with Davis, the story of Davis and Chloe also demonstrated just how far she would go to protect Clark. Jimmy was blowing hot and cold this season, at times he is the perfect boyfriend to Chloe and he could get in a huff over nothing like things like if she helped Clark, it is sad in the end that given the rough journey Jimmy had after the wedding attack by doomsday which left Jimmy in hospital for weeks and resulted in his addiction to pain medication, that in the end when he was getting his life back together and working things out with Chloe and had learn the truth about clark, this made things clear to Jimmy and helped explain so much, and in the end that the split "good" Davis kills him. The whole how to deal with Davis Bloom doomsday was a mess for Clark, Clark believed so strongly in doing the right thing and not taking Davis life but banishing him to the phantom zone that he came at odds with Ollie and his crew who thought that doomsday should just be destroyed and save humanity. Clark was right in principle and both Clark's and Chloe's actions had repercussion's that resulted in Jimmy's death, if Clark had not been stopped by Chloe when he had the portal to the phantom zone open then Jimmy would have lived. While it is said several times that Ollie had killed Lex, we know Lex was always too clever and always cheated death in the past, its not hinted but i would be no surprise to have Lex return down the road. During the early part of the season Lois does look like something might happen between her and Clark but Lana's arrival home ends that, Lois becomes obsessed with contacting the red blue blur and likes to see herself as his confidante, perhaps it hero worship after dating ollie to find our he is the green arrow. Last season Kara was a major character and this season she doesn't even appear, the man hunter makes one or two appearances but it would be nice to learn more about him and explore his character further, this season was good but not as strong as season seven, it was more disjointed and the doomsday build up took too long, it was good seeing Clark join the Daily planet and begin on the path to becoming Superman, working with Lois, in order for this to happen Chloe had to make room and find a new career, which she did heading up the ISIS foundation after Lana left. perhaps this season struggled without Lex or Lionel and trying to find a suitable replacement villain, from the hints it looks like zod will be the main feature villain next season with Tess as the stand in Lex.

Smallville Season 7 Review

Having just completed watching season 7 of smallville, this is my review. following on from the finale of season 6 which unlike previous season finales, season 6 ended with a to be continued finish. during season 6 after Clark escaped from the phantom zone, several phantoms also escaped, the most powerful was a wraith which appeared more predominately towards the end of the season with it finally being able to make an evil copy of clark and survive without a host body. Season seven begins with a bang and some major changes in line up. the season starts with Lionel missing, Lex is trapped in a car under water, Chloe appears to be dead and good Clark is fighting bizzaro clark. what happens to Lex is light a mirror of what happened to him when he first met Clark, out of no where a guardian angle comes and rescues him, in this case it is a new character Kara, who is Clarks cousin, she had been trapped underwater in her ship, when the dam breaks she is freed. on screen this season it is quote character busy, with Chloe, Jimmy, lois, Kara who features predominately, Lana as well as lex, the justice league, a Major character that has taken a complete sideline is Martha Kent, she is mentioned a number of times throughout but has no screen time. Clark finally tells Lana everything about himself, Lana accepts him for what he is and for a time they live very happily together. Lex goes through a long of changes through this season, at the start he is remorseful of the way he treated Lana, he creates a clone of his dead brother to try and have a connection with family but when that backfires on him he has Julian killed, he also has his childhood friend, Patricia swan killed and finally he kills Loinel in his pursuit for the key and the truth about veritas. Lex's character is getting darker and darker per episode as he seems to be loosing his grip, as the people around him like Lana, Lionel and Clark reject him. this season see Clark again face off against Bizzaro and professor fines (brainiac). we learn more about Chloe's new powers as she comes to terms with the enormity of them. but after a run in with fines she seems to loose her power but her IQ jumps off the scale. In an interesting episode we get to see what life would be like if Clark never came to smallville, it turns out this is just a test by Jor El to complete Clarks resolve in following his destiny. After Kara and Clark went to Krypton via a time portal, they stop Fines from killing Clark as a child and return to earth, Clark does not know it at the time but it is fines who returns to earth with him and the real kara is trapped in a mirror marr floating in space. Fines disguised as Kara finds Edward tigue who is the last surviving member of the Veritas group, which was made up of the Queens, Tigues, Luthors and Virgil swan. Edward (robert picardo) is trying to escape and go into hiding again after he surfaced to meet the traveller, he is upset the traveller will not kill lex to prevent him from controlling him, so Edward using Kryptonite plans to kill Clark so he wont fall into the wrong hands. Fines is on the hunt for the sphere himself so he can control Kal El. Clark destroys fines for once and for all, Lana and Chloe come out of the Coma fines had placed them in. we get to see a much darker side to Lana, having been scarred by Lex and wanting revenge she spies on Lex, kidnaps Lionel, sets up the ISIS foundation as a base in which to spy on lex and his secret plans. The season finale is a more tame affair than previous finales. Lex finally learns the truth he as always suspected that Clark was the traveller, lex uses the sphere he had found through the series of clues set out by Veritas, this destroys the fort and strips Clark of his powers. overall this a good season, there are a lot of interesting characters that come and go, such a Julian Luthor, Patricia swan. it is good to see Chloe and Jimmy get close and it looks like Chloe while still a complete friend to Clark, no longer has romantic feelings for him. Clark is facing a tough question throughout, does he play house with Lana, as he has everything he could ever want, good friends, the girl of his dreams, family and home or does he give that up and follow his destiny. with all the different characters it can be difficult to keep straight who know what but it was an interesting and exciting season. this season was perhaps a little less focused than previous season's and did seem to source alot of material from Kara, either learning her way, being rebellious, getting in trouble and danger with Lex and fines, but she is a good addition to the cast.

Smallville Never Gets Old

I recently started to re-watch smallville, I never did watch season 10 only getting as far as season 9 and so rather than just skip to the last season, I decided quite wisely to start at the beginning and enjoy the journey all over again. so far I have gotten to season two and having been so long since I first watched them, they are fresh and surprising at times. It was 2006 when I first watched season one when it was on TV and I re-watched them from season 1 to 9 around 2009-2010, from reading one of my reviews for season 2 I must have missed watching the episode where Clark reveals his powers to Pete due to the fact Pete found the ship out in a field in one of the early episodes of season 2. I have previously given season reviews from season 1 to 6 and I will add the final reviews for season 7 to 10, reading my own words from my reviews of the early season of first watching the show, I have to concur with my findings at the time. I have a lot of viewing until i get to the end of season 7, but I am looking forward to it, after that I will share my thoughts on the final number of seasons. I hear that the X-files is coming back for a mini-series, so there could be hope yet for smallville to make a comeback, even if it is only for a brief red/blue blur of time.

Smallville Season 6 Review

I have completed watching Season six of Smallville. So much as happened this season its difficult to know where to start. At the end of last season Clark was sent to the phantom zone, he manages to escape and defeat zod but in doing so some evil spirits and creatures escape from the zone and arrive on earth, these appear though out the season and Clark must defeat each one. This season introduces some new powerful allies for Clark, Ollie Queen the green arrow is one, he has the same goals as Clark just different methods which brings them to logger heads, the martian man hunter also appears like a guardian figure who has been watching over Clark from the shadows.

One of the good guys from the phantom zone, Raya was sadly killed, i liked her character and she could have made a new love interest for Clark seeing as Lana was marrying Lex. speaking of which it seems that lex has gotten so desperate that he will manipulate those around him in order to try and get them to love him, with lana he has a doctor fake a pregnancy, for a time Lana is really in love with lex and sides with him against clark, this is an interesting twist, you can see that lex loves to twist the knife into clark when he reminds clark of what he has lost.

Lois for a time dates the ollie but when he has to go and do his green arrow stuff it causes friction, clark even has to fake being the green arrow so ollie can keep Lois off his trail.

This season introduces the justice league, headed up by ollie as the green arrow, with fast kid bart as impulse, aqua-man from previous season and cyborg. they are a good combination and go off to fight crime, Clark is held back from helping them this season by his need to find all the escaped bad guys from the phantom zone. some of the techno abilities that are entrusted to Chloe in order to move the story forward is often hard to swallow, like hacking into satellite footage or bank transfers but still its hard not to like Chloe's plucky side kick image.

im quite sure this is the first season ever than Clark's room is ever shown, also the caves that featured so strongly in the past seem not to be a centre of mystery anymore, so many previous plots let to that location but now its gone out of fashion. Chloe becomes a meteor freak and at first is afraid she too will end up like her mother or one of the other freaks of the week. her powers let her heal people but at a cost she dies for several hours.

lex is become ever more evil, he can lie to Lana's face without a twitch, he is plotting a army of meteor powered super soldiers. Lionel becoming an defender of clark was not something i saw coming but he still uses Lana to defend clark by watching over lex by forcing her to marry lex even though she was going to leave him for clark, Lana at this point had learned on her own of Clark's powers.

the product placement on the show seems to be more blatant than is was in the past with clark driving a new truck yet it is said the farm is just getting by. Martha kent is rarely in the show this season since her being state senator. Lois has a good season with her getting close to ollie and finally have to break it off with him is very sad to watch. The season ends on a shocker that the real clark is trapped up in the north pole and that the phantom is now living as clark, i did not see that one coming and it was great to watch.

its difficult to see why lana would want to be with lex and its questionable did she really fall for him or was she trying to get back at Clark and when she got pregnant felt compelled to go through with it.

This season was a success in my book perhaps not a good as season 5 but it still had some very exciting developments.

Smallville Season 5 Review

I have just completed watching season 5 of Smallville, the latter half of the season really accelerates the clark and the mysterious mr Fine story line. this season contains some of the largest turning points in the show. from the start of the season the friendship between Lex and Clark is strained to breaking point and is strained further after clarks big decision to part from Lana as he thinks that all he will ever do is hurt her, this coming off the back of show 512 where clark tells Lana all only to have her die in an accident, going to the fortress he gets a crystal that reverts time but he only has one go, this time around he lies to Lana and effectively looses her heart. but as Clarks real father warned a price must be paid and in a very sad scene, Johnathan Kent dies in the arms of Clark.

I quirky twist to the show occured in 506 where Johnathan Kents old friend turns up, its none other than Luke Duke from the dukes of hazard, there are a few scenes like Johnathan driving like a crazy man in an old charger that may have been lost on some fans watching.

half way through the season we learn that fines is not trying to help clark but trying to free Zod and almost does so but for a save by Chloe, Fine is killed but we later learn that the missing ship can create more. Fine doops Lex into thinking he is working for the government against an invasion from Kryptons (somewhat x files in manner), they work together to create a cure to the most deadly virus's that exist, but Fine destroyes them all bar one sample which he injects into Lex, preparing the way for Zod. Lex being taken into the ship and then returned unharmed is at first confusing until Lex displays all the powers that Kent has. Lana how over the latter half of the season had gotten closer to Lex still wants to be with him even though he has all these powers.

This season was good, I liked the fact that clark now knows that Chloe knows his secret and has know for some time and did not tell and proves she can be trusted. Lex finding out about his powers is anther matter but Lex seems compelled not to tell anyone, which seems out of character but lex is have strange white eye flash backs so perhaps the stone is compelling him to protect clark or there is a future plan. The Fine character is an interesting one, it is not clear what he is, machine or creature.

It seems that with some of the episodes that the writers were going down to the local video store for ideas, the one where Lana dies and is revived using a meteor cocktale is very like flatliners, the one where Lana turns into a vampire, it has been done in so many other movies and shows and its not very superman like, it was explained as being a mutated version of rabies but its still a stretch, the one with Lionel and Martha going through the tests while being watched by a crazy was very like Saw but this episode was very good, perhaps the general ideas are coming from old movies etc but they are being altered to suit the smallville style and quality of standard we expect from the show. The finale was perhaps not the strongest, last seasons was more of a clincher but it paves the way for an exciting season 6.