The 22-episode 8th season of Smallville aired during the 3008/2009 TV season. It saw a lot of upheaval and change for the show, the largest being in the cast turnover, with original series regulars Michael Rosenbaum and Kristen Kreuk leaving the show (although Kreuk returns about halfway through the season in a recurring role to tie up her storyline). John Glover also left the show after Lionel was killed off at the end of Season 7, and Laura Vandervoort was bumped down to a guest-starring role after Kara was trapped in the Phantom Zone. The big addition to the cast this year was Cassidy Freeman and Sam Witwer. Witwer plays Davis Bloom, an EMT at the medical center who figures into the serial story arc of the season more and more throughout the 22 episodes. Freeman plays the acting CEO of Luthorcorp, Tess Mercer, who is looking for Lex who disappeared, along with Clark at the end of Season 7.
The season picks up 4 weeks after the events of the season 7 finale with Lex having confronted Clark in the fortress. We find out that Lex and Clark are missing, with the members of the Justice League (with Justin Hartley now upped to series regular) searching for Clark and the new acting CEO of Luthorcorp, Tess Mercer (played by Cassidy Freeman), looking for Lex. We find out that Jor-el took away Clark's powers and destroyed the fortress so Lex could not control him. Needless to say, Clark is found and Lex remains a shadowy figure in the background for most of the season. I will not go into too much detail to avoid spoiling the season for the handful of people reading this who may not have seen it yet, but there is definitely a big bad that threatens everyone, and we get to see Smallville's take on the Legion of Superheros and the Suicide Squad (although the show calls them the injustice league). There are fewer notable guest stars this season than in prior seasons, although fans of the current Flash series will recognize Jessica Parker Kennedy, who played Barry and Iris' daughter Nora West Allen, and Tori Spelling reprised her role as Linda Lake in one of the episodes toward the middle of the season.
The Blu-Ray set is a four-disc set, and the show looks and sounds great in the HD format. The extras are much like the prior seasons. Deleted scenes for most episodes, commentary tracks on a couple of episodes, a feature on the season's big bad, a feature on Alison Mack's directorial debut, and a feature on the episode Legion. As was the case with the season 6 and 7 Blu-Ray sets, there is not an episode menu screen that will allow you to choose which episodes you want to watch. All the episodes play in a play-all mode when the disc loads, and then the extras menu loads once all the episodes play (or you hit the disc menu button). But, you can pick up where you left off even if you stop in the middle of an episode and turn your player off.
Overall, the season is very good. It ties up all the storylines from the Smallville setting and moves the story primarily to Metropolis. There are a handful of scenes at the Kent Farm and the Luthor Mansion, but most of the action occurs in the city. The acting and writing are both very good this season, with Cassidy Freeman doing an outstanding job in the role of Tess Mercer. The character was definitely a "replacement" for Lex, but the writers did a good job not making the character a carbon copy of Lex, and she did not try to emulate Rosenbaum's performance. While I still think the show was getting a bit long in the tooth, and any of the seasons from 7-10 could have ended the show, I think its direction in this season gave it a bit of new life. Erica Durance really expanded her role as Lois, including an episode where she had to play Chole in Lois's body and nailed it. Allison Mack was also great (again) in her role as Chole. She has been a standout really in every season, and everyone in the commentary tracks and bonus featurettes went out of their way to praise her acting and her work directing the episode she directed this season it makes her post-Smallville life choices all the more baffling.
Overall, if you liked the prior seasons, you will probably like this one unless Lex or Lionel Luthor were your favorite characters. The show suffered a bit without Michael Rosenbaum as Lex, but it pulled off his absence about as well as possible. The show continued to develop even the original characters and did a good job working the new characters into the story. Overall, I think season 8 was a much stronger season than seasons 6 and 7 and is definitely worth checking out.
The season picks up 4 weeks after the events of the season 7 finale with Lex having confronted Clark in the fortress. We find out that Lex and Clark are missing, with the members of the Justice League (with Justin Hartley now upped to series regular) searching for Clark and the new acting CEO of Luthorcorp, Tess Mercer (played by Cassidy Freeman), looking for Lex. We find out that Jor-el took away Clark's powers and destroyed the fortress so Lex could not control him. Needless to say, Clark is found and Lex remains a shadowy figure in the background for most of the season. I will not go into too much detail to avoid spoiling the season for the handful of people reading this who may not have seen it yet, but there is definitely a big bad that threatens everyone, and we get to see Smallville's take on the Legion of Superheros and the Suicide Squad (although the show calls them the injustice league). There are fewer notable guest stars this season than in prior seasons, although fans of the current Flash series will recognize Jessica Parker Kennedy, who played Barry and Iris' daughter Nora West Allen, and Tori Spelling reprised her role as Linda Lake in one of the episodes toward the middle of the season.
The Blu-Ray set is a four-disc set, and the show looks and sounds great in the HD format. The extras are much like the prior seasons. Deleted scenes for most episodes, commentary tracks on a couple of episodes, a feature on the season's big bad, a feature on Alison Mack's directorial debut, and a feature on the episode Legion. As was the case with the season 6 and 7 Blu-Ray sets, there is not an episode menu screen that will allow you to choose which episodes you want to watch. All the episodes play in a play-all mode when the disc loads, and then the extras menu loads once all the episodes play (or you hit the disc menu button). But, you can pick up where you left off even if you stop in the middle of an episode and turn your player off.
Overall, the season is very good. It ties up all the storylines from the Smallville setting and moves the story primarily to Metropolis. There are a handful of scenes at the Kent Farm and the Luthor Mansion, but most of the action occurs in the city. The acting and writing are both very good this season, with Cassidy Freeman doing an outstanding job in the role of Tess Mercer. The character was definitely a "replacement" for Lex, but the writers did a good job not making the character a carbon copy of Lex, and she did not try to emulate Rosenbaum's performance. While I still think the show was getting a bit long in the tooth, and any of the seasons from 7-10 could have ended the show, I think its direction in this season gave it a bit of new life. Erica Durance really expanded her role as Lois, including an episode where she had to play Chole in Lois's body and nailed it. Allison Mack was also great (again) in her role as Chole. She has been a standout really in every season, and everyone in the commentary tracks and bonus featurettes went out of their way to praise her acting and her work directing the episode she directed this season it makes her post-Smallville life choices all the more baffling.
Overall, if you liked the prior seasons, you will probably like this one unless Lex or Lionel Luthor were your favorite characters. The show suffered a bit without Michael Rosenbaum as Lex, but it pulled off his absence about as well as possible. The show continued to develop even the original characters and did a good job working the new characters into the story. Overall, I think season 8 was a much stronger season than seasons 6 and 7 and is definitely worth checking out.
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