Smallville: Season Four

All cultures appear to have a need for mythology; this serves not only as an explanation of the unknown but also as grand tales of morality, strength and humanity. For decades now a uniquely American mythology has grown, Superman. Warner Brothers has added their own spin to these tales with Smallville, a look at a teenaged Superman, a young man just discovering his super abilities. Now, the forth season has come to DVD, a season with many changes for the characters and the series as a whole. Clark Kent (Tom Welling) has more than the usually problems facing a student entering his senior year of high school. Over the years he has discovered that his abilities are far beyond those of mortal man. While most of his peers are wondering what college or job they will have after high school, Clark is in the painful process of uncovering his roots. He knows that his real name is Kal-El and that he was sent away from the doomed planet of Krypton but his biological father, Joe-El. In this forth season this thread will dominate the action. In the season opener Clark is possessed by the Kal-El side of his personality and on a quest to obtain a Kryptonian crystal that will help him unlock his destiny. This crystal is in the possession of Lex Luthor (Michael Rosenbaum) who is flying it back in his private plane from Egypt. Clark, rather Kal, flies up to the plane and steals the crystal. The producers had previously promised that flying would not be among Clark’s new powers and keep to this by having him forget this ability as soon as the Clark side regains control. Back in Smallville it appears that Chloe Sullivan (Allison Mack) has been killed in an explosion. Chloe’s cousin Lois Lane (Erica Durance) can’t accept that Chloe is dead and comes to Smallville to find out what really happened. Naturally Lois and Clark meet but they seem to be constantly at odds with one another. Meanwhile, Lana Lang (Kristin Kreuk) returns home after a summer in Paris with a new boyfriend in tow, Jason (Jensen Ackles). Lana winds up possessed by her ancestor, a witch from the 17^th century that is somehow involved with the Kryptonian crystals. Chloe was not killed in the explosion; she’s back as nosey as ever, now with Cousin Lois working with her to get in trouble that only Clark can save them from.

Sounds a bit like a soap opera, doesn’t it? This season did more than the usual Kryptonite evil mutant of the week that was typical of the previous seasons but it fell into some distracting plot lines as evident by the magical connection with the distant past. In one episode Lana while possessed by her witch ancestor manages to instill the spirit of two other dead witches in Lois and Chloe. The result for that episode was a poor imitation of Charmed complete with witches revealing a lot of cleavage. I just felt that this whole story line pandered to the more puerile oriented in the audience instead of furthering the plot in a more dramatic fashion. There was also the forced plot device that had Lois, who was in her early twenties, being forced to return to high school because of some missed credits. This was obviously only added to find some reason to have Lois involved in the mysteries that constantly plague Smallville High. Of course while there Chloe manages to get Lois interested in the school paper and Lois seems to be a natural as an investigative reporter. Some old themes are extended in this season. The animosity between Lex and his over baring father Lionel (John Glover) takes a radical turn. Lionel is sent to prison where Clark saves his life and turns the senior Luthor into a humanitarian while Lex turns more and more to the dark side that will dominate his future. One aspect of the old Superboy comics does appear in this season when Clark adopts a dog that was mutated by LexCorp instilling super powers in the animal. The dog becomes that family pet and is named Krypto.

The core cast has certainly grown over the course of this series. Tom Welling was afforded the opportunity to place other aspects of his acting talent on display. In previous seasons Clark was for the large part only the good boy, but the growing influence of the Kal side of his personality gives Welling more of an emotional range to work with. He portrays Clark as still basically the good son but now he his feeling the normal growing pains accompanied by the increasing power and responsibility. Allison Mack’s Chloe was always in the shadow of Clark’s love for Lana but now she has her cousin Lois to hang out with. Mack takes Chloe on more of a journey of maturing in this season; I guess almost being murdered will make a girl grow up real fast. You can’t have any form of the Superman tale without Lois Lane. While the manner that the character was inserted into Smallville was a bit contrived Erica Durance manages to do well with the part. She has great chemistry with Welling that helps to hold together some of story lines. Durance plays Lois as worldlier than Clark, treating him more like the annoying little brother than a future love interest. Kristin Kreuk has one of the more drastic emotional arc as Lana than the other characters. In the earlier seasons she was the virginal girl next door. In season four Lana has to grow up real fast, involved with an older man, having to balance school and a full time business, Kreuk displays a young woman thrust headlong into the world and very strange, dangerous circumstances. Michael Rosenbaum gets to play more of the over the top villain in this season. His presentation of Lex turns darker leading him to the fate that we all know he has ahead.

Warner Brothers maintains their previous standards with the DVD release of this fourth season. The video is presented in a crisp, clear anamorphic 1.78:1. The color balance is very well done with realistic flesh tones and nice demarcation between light and dark. The Dolby Stereo audio would have been better if remixed to full 5.1 but it does provide a full spectrum audio field. Several nice extras are provided in this box set. There are the usual deleted or unaired scenes and selected episode commentaries that most television season set have. One feature I enjoyed a lot was a look at the different incarnations of Lois Lane through the years. This features actresses like Dana Delaney, Erica Durance, Margot Kidder and Noel Neill discussing how they each approached bringing Lois to life. The other feature presented here is a look at what goes into writing an episode of Smallville. While not the strongest season of the series it does manage to extend the story and will be a must have to true fans.

Posted 8/25/05