Smallville entered the television universe at a time when a lot of shows (mainly originating on the WB network in the U.S.) involving young people and the supernatural dominated television screens; Buffy, Charmed, and Roswell being the obvious examples. Smallville benefited greatly from timing and many viewers who watched the above mentioned shows tuned into Smallville. Buffy is gone (although definitely not forgotten!), Roswell suffered an unceremonious axing after two seasons, while Charmed is dying a slow, low ratings death. Smallville has emerged as a clever, entertaining and intriguing part of the Superman legacy and much more than another teen show from the WB network.
Smallville chronicles the pre-metropolis adventures of Clark Kent and his fellow residents of Smallville, Kansas. While the first season of the show spent a lot of time setting up characters and exploring Clark’s emerging ‘super’ powers, the second season concentrates on a more solid arc involving friendship, family and identity. During the first season, Clark’s powers were a well kept family secret, but in the second season, his identity is compromised in the first few episodes.
The second season offers some fantastic ‘superman’ moments. Some of these superman moments include Lana calling Clark "man of steel," a fellow student holding a metal S in front of Clark’s chest and Clark leaping a building in a single bound. Rosetta is a stand out episode for both its expansion of the superman mythos and the appearance of Christopher Reeve. However, the majority of the episodes are pretty forgettable and are often only relevant to the rest of the season when they contain small ‘superman’ moments such as those mentioned above.
The release of Smallville: The Complete Second Season is sure to be appreciated by Australian Smallville fans as Channel Nine decided to stop showing episodes after a couple of airings. It is apparent now more than ever that TV DVD releases are the only way to see particular television shows here in Oz. Australian broadcasters continually mistreat a lot of wonderful shows, including The West Wing, Arrested Development and Smallville. Fans of these shows are therefore forced to wait for the DVD release of each season so they can find out what happens to their favourite characters. Well, the wait is over if you want to know what happens to Clark, Lana and Lex in the second season of Smallville.
Smallville is presented in a widescreen aspect ratio of 1.78:1 and is 16:9 enhanced. It is a great transfer with vibrant colours and sharp, clean images and thankfully layer changes occur between episodes. There are a few visual issues with some slight aliasing and small film artefacts apparent, but overall this is a great transfer with only a few minor flaws that don’t really impact the overall enjoyment of episodes.
Dolby Digital 2.0 provides strong, clear, audible dialogue. Surround is apparent, although very sparsely, with only the occasional explosion allowing the subwoofer a work out. Smallville is a show that really warrants 5.1 sound and I thought that it may receive this treatment and improve on the first season release, but alas no.
Smallville: The Complete Second Season, also includes a nice package of intersting extras. Firstly, cast & crew audio commentaries on two episodes. Producers Alfred Gough and Miles Miller provide commentary on the episode Red along with the episodes writer Jeph Loeb. A second separate commentary involves co-executive producer Greg Beeman and cast members Tom Welling, Kristen Kruek and Michael Rosenbaum sharing their insights on the episode Red. This group also provides commentary on the episode Rosetta, accompanied by the episodes director James Marshall. A second commentary for Rosetta is delivered by executive producers Gough and Miller. The producer/writer commentaries are quite enjoyable because they cover all the aspects of each episode; character development, plot and production. But the men behind Smallville are also willing to point out mistakes and laugh at themselves.
Tom Welling and Kristin Kreuk are silent for much of the commentaries, only occasionnally speaking up. Whereas Greg Beeman and Michael Rosebaum are fantastic and rarely mute. Both provide funny and interesting insights into episodes and Rosenbaum in particular is quite hilarious and eventually manages to encourage Welling to speak more on the Rosetta commentary.
Faster than a Speeding Bullet: The Visual FX of Smallville is a 10 minute featurette showcases the people responsible for all the FX of Smallville. Effects in the episodes Vortex, Insurgence and Accelerate are explored in detail in this interesting feature. Christopher Reeve: The Man of Steel is another ten minute featurette covering Christopher Reeve's impact on the canon of Superman and in particualr his guest appeareance in the episode Rosetta. Producers, cast members and Reeve himself all discuss his definitive portrayal of Superman and his involvement in Smallville.
The Chloe Chronicles is the most interesting extra on this DVD release. It is a collection of on-line short video clips featuring wannabe reporter Chloe Sullivan investigating the whereabouts of a Luthercorp employee. Because these shorts originated on the web they are not the greatest quality, but are nonetheless an appealing and worthy extra.
Six Deleted Scenes including a heated scene between Lex and his new girlfriend from the episode Heat. A discarded Clark and Lex scene from the episode Fever and an intriguing Lex and Helen scene from the episode Exodus.
The final extra on this release is a Gag Reel with short snippets of the cast flubbing their lines and making each other laugh. Welling and Rosenbaum in particular have major problems keeping straight faces in their scenes together.
The second season of Smallville is much more involving than the first season and both the audio and video transfer have been greatly improved. While the show is inferior to Buffy and even Roswell, (sorry, but I can’t help comparing!) it has impressive visual effects and Michael Rosenbaum continues to impress as the devious Lex Luthor. Also of note is the price. While the Buffy, Angel and Roswell box sets are around $150, Smallville, is a reasonble $77.95.
