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Review: Smallville: The Complete Fifth Season DVD Set
Reviewed by Craig Byrne
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It's that time of year again. A new season of Smallville is coming, but before that happens, Warner Home Video is releasing a DVD set of the previous season.

Smallville Season Five was a surprising success for The WB and perhaps everyone involved with the show. The show had been moved to a competitive Thursday night time slot, and of course, any show in its fifth year may seem to lose something. But not Smallville. Very strong material - especially in the season's first half - combined with higher ratings resulted in one of Smallville's best years since Season 2. Now, Smallville is one of the most highly buzzed-about shows, if not the most highly buzzed-about show, on the new CW Network, with a sixth season premiere on September 28.

Season Five gave us some milestones in the life of Clark Kent. (Be warned, spoilers follow) The Fortress of Solitude made its debut. Clark Kent finally consummated his relationship with Lana Lang. His father, Jonathan Kent, lost his life. Clark learned that his close friend Chloe Sullivan knew the truth about his secret, and he gained a confidante. He met future allies such as Aquaman and the Cyborg. And, he got his first taste of Brainiac, played by the ever-popular James Marsters.

KryptonSite's review of the DVD set follows:

The Episodes: The biggest treat of having a DVD set is the ability to have a complete year of a show at your disposal. As always, this gives the opportunity to watch the good episodes and skip over the stuff you might not like as much. Luckily, Season Five is still better than Season Four episode-wise but there are still a few clunkers spread throughout the season.

But, again, now you can go right to the good stuff. So if you liked the first half of "Reckoning" but threw things at the TV when the reset button was pushed and Clark didn't tell Lana his secret, you can always start over at the beginning of the episode and re-live it. If you just want to see the Bo and Luke scenes of "Exposed" and skip Lois stripping, so be it. Or if you want to just see Lois stripping, well, you can do that too. And - best of all! - you can fast forward through the scenes the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th times that Clark and Lana break up this season. (Really? Did ANYONE want to see that? Clark & Lana fans weren't happy because they're breaking up; non-Clanas were equally annoyed because it's "let it go already!")

This also gives an opportunity for people who, say, just want to see the James Marsters episodes to do their thing. Unfortunately as the season aired, Marsters' appearances were so spread out sometimes they could easily be missed.

My personal favorite episodes of the season, which I recommend, would be the season premiere, "Arrival;" the coming of Aquaman in "Aqua" which isn't a fan favorite and features an Aquaman who doesn't hold a candle to Justin Hartley, but is a fun episode anyway; "Reckoning" the 100th episode; and "Vengeance," an underrated episode that teaches a little bit about what makes Clark Kent a hero. And of course you're going to want to catch the last two episodes of the season - "Oracle" and "Vessel" - prior to catching the new season on Sept. 28.

The episodes are in widescreen and look incredible, as is to be expected from a DVD set like this. And I must say, the new Season 5 opening credits look even cooler on the high-definition quality that a DVD offers.

Commentaries: There are commentary tracks for the episodes "Thirst" and "Splinter." "Thirst" was picked because TPTB wanted to pick a bad episode and make fun of it; but as they watched, they realized that it wasn't such a bad episode after all. I was a little surprised that "Thirst" won Worst Episode in this year's KryptonSite Awards, because I thought several elements, such as Chloe doing the Veronica Mars Voiceover, were a lot of fun.

Commentary for "Thirst" was with executive producers Alfred Gough, Miles Millar, and Ken Horton with writer Steve DeKnight. Commentary for "Splinter" featured DeKnight, director James Marshall, and actor James Marsters (Professor Fine). Of the two commentaries, the "Thirst" one I liked the most. I got a few laughs, including Al Gough himself commenting on Smallville's stellar continuity. (I say that with sarcasm) And, it's fun to see them admitting when something is actually not as good as it could be, though I think they did the best job possible in saving "Thirst."

It's unfortunate that a guest star (Marsters) was the only actor available to do commentary, though I'm thankful to have commentary on the DVD's at all, unlike some series which apparently couldn't be bothered to get them done in time. As commentaries are often done during the TV season when things are filming, it's perfectly understandable.

Extras: Besides the commentaries, there are also some great extras on this set. One disc features the Vengeance Chronicles "webisodes" that first appeared on the Internet as sponsored by Acuvue. These previously online-exclusive stories featured Allison Mack as Chloe Sullivan, Denise Qunones as Andrea Rojas, the Angel of Vengeance, Missy Peregrym reprising her role from "Delete" as Molly Griggs, and Yee Jee Tso (Doctor Who's Chang Lee!) as Nick Yang. The quality of story and effects in the Chronicles was extremely top-notch, particularly when you consider it was originally made for the Internet. I hope they do some online-exclusive material like this again. Oh - and whoever included my name under the "Special Thanks To," you rock. So I may be a little biased here.

Then, on the last disc of the set, is a special retrospective on the 100th episode that takes a look at the episode's production from start to finish. This was amazing. Lots of questions are answered - like "Where do they get Tom Welling's jackets?" all the way through to "How does Greg Beeman stage a car crash?" So many of the people who bring us Smallville every week - faces we never see - are spotlighted in this featurette which is one of my favorite featurettes I've seen on any DVD. The folks at RetroFit Films, who produced it, really outdid themselves. I might go so far as to say that this documentary alone is worth the cost of the DVD. You guys won't be disappointed.

Allegedly there is an Easter Egg to go with the Vengeance Chronicles but I do not yet know how to access it. If anyone finds out, e-mail me.

Deleted Scenes: While there's no gag reel on this set, there are deleted scenes - some good, some not so good. For example, a Lois/A.C. scene from "Aqua" is a snore, but a Lois/Martha scene from late in Season Five actually makes Lois seem slightly likeable, rather than the usual annoyance I've been getting from her in the scenes that do air. There's a scene where Martha questions Jonathan about his heart pills. There's a bit from "Mercy" with Lionel getting domestic, which is so amusing. There's a cut scene from "Hypnotic" with Simone and Lois where Clark is accused of cheating on "his girlfriend" - even though he and Lana broke up several weeks earlier. And then finally, the infamous "Clark takes dead Jonathan to the Fortress and pleads with Jor-El to restore his life" scene, which had photos leak back in January, is on there, though the Jor-El voice isn't inserted in. It is good to finally see that scene.

Packaging: The packaging for this one is a bit slimmer than what was used for Seasons 1-4. It kind of annoys me when a studio switches gears in the middle of a series' releases, but what can you do? It's still not as bad as the four different sizes used for the Dallas releases that Warner Home Video has put out.

Now with the smaller packaging Warner has done the "overlapping discs" thing which still makes me paranoid about scratching. But at least this won't break as easily as some of my older Smallville releases did.

As per usual with these sets, the box art and the disc art is excellent. Whoever designs these things does a great job. The little booklet that comes with the set isn't a Smallville High yearbook anymore, but it still looks good. The booklet also features a note from Alfred Gough and Miles Millar where they thank The WB for five great years.

DVD Menus: I love the way each season's menus are introduced, and Season 5 is no exception. Great job.

Overall: This is a really good set. Like I said, I had some issues with the packaging stemming from my dislike of the overlapping discs, but if that's what it takes to get these DVD's out, then so be it. I hope the Season Six set will involve a cast commentary if possible, but hey - that's a year away. I think of the five Smallville DVD sets thus far, this one may be one of the best values thanks to the 100th episode documentary and the Vengeance Chronicles bonus. Any Smallville fan would be "on crack" (as Lois would say) if they were to miss this!

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Read some of our other DVD reviews! The Adventures of Superman: Season 2 The Adventures of Superman: Seasons 3 & 4 The Dukes of Hazzard: Season 1 The Dukes of Hazzard: Season 2 Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law: Volume 1 Space Ghost: Coast To Coast: Volume 3 Smallville: Season 1 Smallville: Season 2 Smallville: Season 3

Smallville: Season 4 Smallville: Season 5 Wonder Woman: Season 2 Wonder Woman: Season 3 Lois & Clark: Season 1 Lois & Clark: Season 2 Lois & Clark: Season 3 Veronica Mars : Season 2