Smallville: Season 6 was a better season than I expected, looking back at it there were a lot of developments that we’ve been waiting since the first season. Unfortunately in my mind I had already given up on this series and moved my concentration and emotional attachment to other more interesting series.
The only reason I am still watching this show is because my wife likes it, and I don’t dislike it. At this point I will watch this show until its conclusion, though I think there was too much padding in the past seasons and I wish they used a tighter storytelling, so that by now this series would be over.
SPOILERS FOLLOW!!
This season introduced one great character, and that is Oliver Queen as the Green Arrow. I think the actor pulled off this role well, and I liked his chemistry with Lois. It would make sense that he would team up with Clark, even though at first there was tension between the two. But the best thing about Oliver is that he had a past with Lex. That’s what made him most interesting to me. Too bad they couldn’t get him for the second part of the season.
However, before he left they managed to make a lot of comics fans happy with the episode Justice. In it they recalled all previous super powered friends of Clark and together they formed a version of the classic JLA group from the DC comics. I wasn’t all that geeked out myself (never been a DC guy) but I thought it was fun.
The main “villains” or monsters of this season were the Phantom Zoners, a convenient way of giving a story reason for the monster of the week and to get away from the usual meteor freaks. Even Martian Manhunter was introduced, although I am not sure it was explained were he came from and what he is.
But the main focus of this series has always been the main characters, Clark, Lana and Lex. And this season they had a lot going on in their relationships. Lex marrying Lana, which I thought was disgusting. I despised Lana even before that, but when she fell for Lex I really stopped caring about her. Towards the end she became something else, from the innocent naive little girl, she became a cunning and conniving bitch. Actually I think I like this change.
Lex became a true villain, even though he keeps an innocent facade. In the first few seasons that facade was believable, I almost believed that he was good (and he probably was), but now it is clear that he has turned bad and is only lying to the public (and maybe to himself).
Clark is… Clark. Ironically, the main character of this series hasn’t really changed much in 6 seasons. He is still the same boyscout, a little naive and too sure of himself (he always rushes into things without thinking and gets beaten because of kryptonite). Frankly I don’t really find him likable, he is too naive and seems to live in a perfect world of his own.
One character that I am intrigued by is Lionel. He has a shoe in both sides: he loves Lex as a father should, but he also is Jor-El’s emissary and wants to protect Clark. His methods are not always clean, but his intentions are good now. Also he seems to genuinely care for Martha, who has always been a supporting role, but even more so now that Johnathan is gone. But that’s fine, it all points to Clark moving to Metropolis and becoming Superman. The problem is that Clark is already in Metropolis half of the time, so it doesn’t really feel like it’s going to be a huge change once he moves there.
The other important character is Chloe, whom I never liked too much but at least she had some important development this season. First of all her relationship with Jimmy Olsen, maybe not exactly great but it was cute and brought new story ideas. And most importantly we saw her mother (played by the great Lynda Carter), and she has a super power. I can’t wait to learn what happened to her in the finale.
Speaking of which, let me discuss about that. Finally Clark tells Lana about himself, which he should have done a loooong time ago. I do not think that Lana is dead, we obviously did not see her explode so I am sure about this. I also believe it was not Lex who put the bomb, so I wonder if it was Lionel. Could he have done it to protect Clark?
What I do believe is that Chloe is dead. Her power really sucked, and I knew the moment Lois appeared dead. She cannot die, she has bigger things to do in the future, but Chloe? She is not part of the comics stories so it fits that she wouldn’t survive. After the death of Johnathan, it appears that the writers do not want to stray from the movies/comics story lines too far. So I am confident Lois and Clark will be together.
Wow, it appears I had more to say about Smallville than I thought. This was a good season, finally something has happened that really changes things. Unfortunately it is too late for me, when I was watching this season I really was not excited at all, I felt apathetic throughout all episodes. I will still give it a positive rating because the quality of this season is clearly good, but mentally I already checked out.
Season Rating: 3 Stars