Smallville - The Complete Seventh Season [2007] [DVD]

30 something actors are playing 22 year olds. The security at Lex Luthors' mansion and at the Fortress of Solitude is as bad as ever (clearly they use the same security company). Clark still can't fly. But hey who care?! This season takes of from the cliff hanger of season 6 and quite literally ends on an earth shattering finale of its own.

Season 7 demonstrates a real maturity in terms of the characters and the wider Smallville universe. For the characters themselves we obviously have to start with Clark and Lex.

What I love about this series is that you don't notice subtle changes that are going - its only when there is a sudden abrupt change that you realise that it had been going on for ages and you find yourself saying "Ah!". Clark in this season is gradually waking up to the fact that his old life is practically gone - most friends and family have moved on. This really hits home with an episode that sees the (thankfully brief) return of Pete. This was a subtle episode that demonstrated that Pete and Clark are very different now - they are friends but have both moved on. Clark towards his greater destiny - Pete to his, well, lesser destiny. But the real tear jerker that forces Clark to face the changes is the video left by Lana in the series finale. Understated and brief - its all the more powerful. Lana functioned as a sort of bubble for Clark - a link back to his carefree past - her leaving all but cuts this.

For Lex - wow. Smallville always managed to avoid having him as a cartoon baddie. What really took off on this season was Lex rushing towards his destiny as the powerful enemy of the "Traveller". We get to see the childhood of Lex and his inner struggles. The moment that he and Lionel have their final encounter - powerful stuff. But what really hits viewers is Lex's view of what his destiny was. The link he has with the Traveller, the impact that has had on his life and how it will ultimately play out - this was biblical stuff.

For the overarching storylines of the series. Well a special mention goes to the Veritas saga. Debate rages on message boards across the land about whether or not writers had planned this from the start of the series. Regardless if they did - the Veritas storyline weaves together almost 7 years of storylines. Smallville has always managed to pull of the secret legends stories, particularly in Season 4 and 7. But there is a real epic storylines going in season 7.

Other storylines wortha mention: the return of Brainiac - always a joy. Bizzario is also great fun. Tom welling clearly enjoys playing a baddy instead of straight-laced Clark. That and he gets to wear a blue jacket and red tshirt, instead of vice versa. And Lionel finally meets his maker.

Few gripes though with this season. Kara could have been a great character. But instead it feels like the writers didn't have a clue what to do with her - Kal-El's blonde flying cousin - bout it. Too much screen time is given to Jimmy Olsen - one episode focused on him - and it is the weakest of the series. He is perhaps the most unengaging characters of the season.

I have seperate views of how much longer Smallville can go on without losing quality. But that does not negate the fact that Season 7 is trully mind blowing.

In the final scene where Lex says "It has to end this way". We always knew where it was going - but so far its been one hell of a ride getting there.

smallville season 7 what can i say except wow !!!!! season 7 has truly done what season 4, 5 and 6 could not it is truly back.

lets first look at season 4, 5 and 6 they were good dont get me wrong but there were too many bad episodes in the seasons and the whole thing of clark pinning over lana and not wanting to tell her the truth about who he is and what he can do begins to grate on ur nerves and lana whinning about how nobody wants to be honest with her easily becomes annoying and so over all the season were not great especially season 6 which featured very lttle of the worlds greatest superhero and finnally season 7 has removed all of that it is action packed and exciting with clark finally beginning to relaise his father jor-el is right and that he has greater destiny than just being a farm-boy, kara is a great addition to the show but the writers should have given her a better story line and more action bizzaro the second greatest villain of all time after lex lutor who has finally become the villain we hope he would, although if im honest the ending was'nt great the orignal ending was meant to be lex's memory was meant to be erased by jor-el and clark was fianlly meant to fly out of the fortress with "S" on his chest and then season 8 was meant to show how hard it really was for superman to become a hero but never the less fantastic job roll on season 8 which i wont talk about and ruin it for everyone but trust me it is different - good different - trust me when i say but this boxset especialy from amazon the best place to buy - so for now up, up and away !

Kicking the season off, Clark fights a bizarro version of himself, picking up the cliffhanger from the previous season. Great start. Then things get even more cool with the emergence of a super . . . girl? Yup, you guessed it, Supergirl herself has arrived on Earth. Her name is Kara. She is Clark's cousin from Krypton and Laura Vandervoort does a fantastic job as the Girl of Steel, who not only proves that blood runs thicker than water, but also has no fear of heights like her farmboy cousin and does plenty of flying to prove it.

Not only is there one Supergirl in this season, but two. Kinda. Helen Slater, who played Supergirl in the 1984 movie of the same name, made an appearance as Clark's Kryptonian mother, Lara, in the episode that shared her namesake.

Season Seven was a load of fun and was one of the best ones of the series so far.

The only episode I didn't really like was "Wrath," where Lana gets Clarks powers and uses them to get her revenge on Lex. Again, this kind of thing was done before in Lois and Clark (the power transfer), and I was getting tired of seeing these repeat ideas as they had done Lois and Clark-type episodes in the past. Speaking of which, the Dean Cain episode, "Cure," made me feel like I was watching Lois and Clark all over again and though this episode was more filler than moved the Season Seven story arc along, it was cool to see Dean Cain back in the Superman universe. They even called his character Curtis Knox (see the initials?).

The last thing that bothered me about this season, more specifically the episode, "Quest," was the major playing up of Clark being some sort of messiah. I'm a Christian, so this probably bothered me more than most, but that aside, it still was overdone. Okay. We get it. Clark's going to save the world one day. Move on.

This season was a step up from Season Six, so 4.5 stars out of 5.

Recommended.

A.P. Fuchs