Category: SMALLVILLE
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Smallville, “Masquerade”
Up to this point, neither Chloe’s return or the development of Darksied’s crew have been handled quite well. The budget strongly impacts the latter while before this episode, I wasn’t convinced the writers had any plan for the former. Allison Mack was willing to come back, and thus she did. Thankfully, “Masquerade” figures out a…
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Smallville, “Beacon”
Apologies yet again for the delay. Busy Valentine’s Day weekend. Such is life. After last week’s “Collateral,” I was legitimately concerned about the final run of Smallville. That episode was so tepid, uninspired and generally stupid that it set a dangerous precedent for the rest of the season. I don’t want to say I had…
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Smallville, “Collateral”
Apologies for the delay in this review, hectic weekend. When it was announced that Smallville‘s 2011 return would be pushed back a week, I wasn’t really upset. For the most part, this final season has been more scatter-brained and problematic than the last two seasons, despite some very, very great moments. Usually the series is…
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Smallville, “Luthor”
Time travel, alternate universes, these storytelling techniques are such gimmicks — gimmicks Smallville uses on a fairly regular basis. However, because the series is so good when they do employ this gimmicks, I’m willing to give them a reprieve for dipping into an elseworlds-type tale in “Luthor.” Plus, the series is based on a comic…
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Smallville, “Patriot”
Sorry for the delay folks, with the holidays and the end of the semester coming up, it’s going to be something of a crazy time for me. After last week’s episode solidified a number of things in the overarching plot, “Patriot” pushes that narrative forward in a very satisfying way, while still dealing with some…
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Smallville, “Abandoned”
This week on Smallville, it’s all about family and family histories. And though his issues with Jor-El are certainly present here, “Abandoned” works well in letting the two ladies move to the front and deal with their pasts in emotional resonant and in Tess’ case, twisty kind of ways. The result is the second fine…
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Smallville, “Ambush”
Sorry for the delay folks, I had to take a few days off to restore some sanity, and not the Jon Stewart variety. That decision is kind of unfortunate, at least in relationship to Smallville, which turned in one of its better episodes of the season. After a few goofy and gimmicky episodes, “Ambush” felt…
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Smallville, “Harvest”
I noted last week that it would be difficult to top the 200th episode, so there was really no reason for “Isis” to attempt to. However, I didn’t really expect or want the trend of mediocrity to continue into “Harvest,” which is unfortunately what happened. “Harvest” is also similar to “Isis” in that it writes…
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Smallville, “Isis”
After a glorious 200th episode, there was no way Smallville could really top that episode’s events, so the best thing to do is continue the plotlines of “Homecoming” in a natural, but less epic way. “Isis”…kind of does that. In one sense, “Isis” has a number of the season’s best emotional and quiet moments. In…
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Smallville, “Homecoming”
Though it certainly has had its high points, Smallville has never been the same since its 100th episode. Travel back to 2006 with me if you will. At that point, the series was right in the middle of its fifth season and arguably was hitting an unmatched creative stride. The opening 11 episodes of season five…
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Smallville reaches 200: An ode to the undervalued fans
Tonight, Smallville airs its 200th episode, becoming only the 79th scripted series to reach that milestone in the history of television. This is a massive deal, but for the most part, the industry’s biggest and critics are ignoring it. There’s no Entertainment Weekly or TV Guide cover. Alan Sepinwall isn’t writing about his favorite moments…
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Smallville, “Supergirl”
The biggest problem with Smallville as a series, dating all the way back to its origins, is that always likes to make Clark the problem, not the solution. He’s often wrong, made to look foolish and sheepish and spends more time feeling sorry for himself than actually being proactive and heroic. The last two seasons…
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Smallville, “Shield”
I am a massive Smallville fan, but I’m also someone with some perspective on the series. I feel fairly confident in my ability to separate my odd die-hard fandom with the process of evaluating the series on an individual level or as a whole. With that said, the first two episodes of season ten haven’t…
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Season Premiere — Smallville, “Lazarus”
The premiere of Smallville‘s tenth(!) and final season is in a weird position. On one hand, this is the final season! By that I mean the writers should have no trouble moving towards the end of the story that we’ve all been waiting since 2001 for, the journey is almost completely. On the other hand, because…
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Sometimes origin stories take 10 years — Ranking the episodes of Smallville, Episodes 25-1
After the positive response to my ranked list of Lost and Office episodes, I just had to do another. Heck, even if there wasn’t a positive response for those two features, I probably would have done another one anyway because I love lists. I’ve been thinking about what series to tackle for nearly a month…
CB, PhD 