The 22-episode fourth season of Smallville aired during the 2004/2005 TV season. It begins months after the ending of season three when Lionel (seemingly) executed a Godfather-Like plan to get revenge on everyone who put him in jail. The season starts with Clark still missing, Lex going after an ancient stone (which becomes increasingly important throughout the season), Lana in China with a new love interest (played by new series regular Jensen Ackles), and Chole presumed dead. Of course, Clark returns in the first episode, but as Kal-El and meets the newly arrived Lois Lane (played by Erica Durance) who was teased in season three, who ends up coming to Smallville to investigate Chole's death.
The season continues to interweave the story of the week episodes within the larger themes of the season, mainly being the story involving three stones with Kryptonian symbols on them. The series continues to get a strong lineup of guest stars including Michael Ironside, Eric Johnson (reprising his role as Whitney in a flashback), Peyton List, Cobie Smulders, Jane Seymour (who has a major recurring role), Sarah Carter (reprising her role as a powered love interest for Clark, and Chris Carmack who guest-starred in an episode which to sharp-eyed observers from MN used the Twin Cities skyline as a backdrop. The show also brought in Margot Kidder, who of course played Lois in the movies, for appearances in a couple of episodes. Her appearance in the first episode was supposed to be done by Christopher Reeve, who had a scheduling conflict during filming and then passed away early into the airing of the season. His death was written into one of the episodes with the character of Virgil Swann dying off-screen leaving a last message for Clark. And, for early 2000s music fans, the band Lifehouse, whose songs appeared more than once on the show, played the senior prom.
The DVD set is a six-disc set. The extras included for this season's release are similar to what was on the DVD sets for the first few seasons. There are commentary tracks on select episodes, deleted scenes for most episodes, a feature on Lois Lane, which included all the living actresses who had played Lois, except for Teri Hatcher, and a feature on the writers of the show and the process they go through to write an episode. A good amount for those who like to go through the extras.
Overall, the series continued to be very strong, weaving in elements of the Superman Mythos, yet keeping its own spin on things. Characters advanced, especially Lex and Chole, and the show managed to weave in a decent amount of humor (mostly in the Lois-Clark interactions). The show also moved away from the high school element with really only a few episodes really focused on the school at all. The show also got around the loose "no tights, no flights" rule again, this time more creatively than the first couple of times. Clark's secret was also discovered by more people, some who conveniently forgot others who unknown to Clark do not. There was a great Lex centric episode that really displayed Michael Rosenbaum's acting chops, and Allison Mack continued to shine as Chole all throughout the season (again making her post-Smallville life even more sad because she should have been able to use her role on the show to springboard to much more). The finale sets up the next season's "big-bad" and again leaves characters in some Jeopardy. Overall, if you were a fan of the first few seasons, this one is definitely worth checking out.
The season continues to interweave the story of the week episodes within the larger themes of the season, mainly being the story involving three stones with Kryptonian symbols on them. The series continues to get a strong lineup of guest stars including Michael Ironside, Eric Johnson (reprising his role as Whitney in a flashback), Peyton List, Cobie Smulders, Jane Seymour (who has a major recurring role), Sarah Carter (reprising her role as a powered love interest for Clark, and Chris Carmack who guest-starred in an episode which to sharp-eyed observers from MN used the Twin Cities skyline as a backdrop. The show also brought in Margot Kidder, who of course played Lois in the movies, for appearances in a couple of episodes. Her appearance in the first episode was supposed to be done by Christopher Reeve, who had a scheduling conflict during filming and then passed away early into the airing of the season. His death was written into one of the episodes with the character of Virgil Swann dying off-screen leaving a last message for Clark. And, for early 2000s music fans, the band Lifehouse, whose songs appeared more than once on the show, played the senior prom.
The DVD set is a six-disc set. The extras included for this season's release are similar to what was on the DVD sets for the first few seasons. There are commentary tracks on select episodes, deleted scenes for most episodes, a feature on Lois Lane, which included all the living actresses who had played Lois, except for Teri Hatcher, and a feature on the writers of the show and the process they go through to write an episode. A good amount for those who like to go through the extras.
Overall, the series continued to be very strong, weaving in elements of the Superman Mythos, yet keeping its own spin on things. Characters advanced, especially Lex and Chole, and the show managed to weave in a decent amount of humor (mostly in the Lois-Clark interactions). The show also moved away from the high school element with really only a few episodes really focused on the school at all. The show also got around the loose "no tights, no flights" rule again, this time more creatively than the first couple of times. Clark's secret was also discovered by more people, some who conveniently forgot others who unknown to Clark do not. There was a great Lex centric episode that really displayed Michael Rosenbaum's acting chops, and Allison Mack continued to shine as Chole all throughout the season (again making her post-Smallville life even more sad because she should have been able to use her role on the show to springboard to much more). The finale sets up the next season's "big-bad" and again leaves characters in some Jeopardy. Overall, if you were a fan of the first few seasons, this one is definitely worth checking out.
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