DVD Review: Smallville: The Complete Seventh Season
Reviewed by Craig Byrne
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Not only is the new TV season upon us; it's also a time when complete season DVD sets of our favorite shows start coming into stores. Next week, the year's "must-have" for Smallville fans will be available with Smallville: The Complete Seventh Season. We've been able to get an advance copy for a review, in case you're considering buying it. If you do, remember you can get it at a discounted rate on Amazon.com and support this site at the same time!

For those of you unfamiliar with Smallville's seventh season, in short - this is the one that introduced Clark's cousin from Krypton, Kara Zor-El, into the series, as wonderfully played by Laura Vandervoort. The season also finally had Clark and Lana together without secrets (or are there some new ones?) and Lex Luthor finally made his descent into the evil. The season explored the Veritas group that was tied to Clark's origins; Lois Lane got her spot at the Daily Planet; Brainiac (James Marsters) returned; and Tom Welling turned in a great performance in multiple episodes as Clark's duplicate, Bizarro.

The season boasted guests from past projects as well. In the episode "Cure," Dean Cain of Lois & Clark fame appeared as an evil doctor. Other Super-notables such as Helen Slater and Marc McClure made appearances as well.

With that said, you can also find out more about Season 7 in Smallville: The Official Companion Season 7, due in stores next month. On with the review! Please note that this review is for the regular edition DVD set and not the enhanced BluRay.

Packaging/Design: The best place to start here would be to talk about the packaging, wouldn't it?

Either way... the cover features Tom Welling and Laura Vandervoort, which makes sense to me as they would want to promote that "this is the season with Supergirl." I do have to admit though that I felt it was a bit of a snub not to include Michael Rosenbaum on the cover as well. It was his final season; but not just that, Michael did a fantastic job and really had some good storylines this year. It's a bummer that wasn't reflected on the DVD cover.

Also kind of frustrating about the cover is that Tom Welling is wearing a long sleeved blue shirt in a picture that was obviously Photoshopped. While the Superman homage is nice, I can't recall a single instance of Clark wearing something like that - especially without his iconic red jacket. I know there aren't a lot of individual photos out there, but would it have really hurt them to at least find something he actually wore?

The back cover is at the usual level of Smallville DVD design, and it isn't too bad, though it's frustrating that the entire Veritas storyline as well as Lionel Luthor are overlooked in the season's description. "Descent" was one of Season 7's finest hours and it was sad to see it missed.

The box opens to nicely designed side by side images of Clark and Lex at the Fortress from the season's final moments. Very nice, on the same level as the Justice League open-up from last year.

Images of the cast are on the six discs. Tom Welling/Clark is on Disc One; Michael Rosenbam/Lex is on Disc Two; Kristin Kreuk/Lana is on Disc Three; Allison Mack and Erica Durance share Disc Four; Aaron Ashmore and Laura Vandervoort share Disc Five; and John Glover is on Disc Six. The pictures are nice and are mostly from the Season 6 photoshoots; with a few exceptions - Erica Durance and Laura Vandervoort are from Season 7; and Allison Mack is - inexplicably - from Season 4! Why they did not use a more up-to-date photo of Allison is unknown to me, especially since her character has matured and she looked so great in those Season 6 photos.

Inside is a booklet telling you the contents of each disc; a VERY cool photo of Tom Welling as Bizarro is on the cover. There's a Foreword from Al Gough and Miles Millar, and the booklet is sprinkled with some nice looking photos.

Content & Extras: Smallville: The Complete Seventh Season contains all 20 episodes from Season Seven on six discs. The season is two episodes shorter than the usual Smallville season due to the writers' strike; fortunately, you still get your money's worth as there are several bonus/extra features.

The DVD FINALLY have commentary again after being absent from the Season 6 set, and that makes me very happy. I wish we could have heard some talk about "Descent," "Apocalypse," or the season finale "Arctic" from the episodes' major players, but I believe the recordings were done before they were even filmed. I am glad, though, that the DVD producers responded to the criticism of a lack of commentary from last year, and gave us some again, though nothing will match the greatness of the commentaries on the Season 2 sets which gave us Tom, Kristin, and Michael, nor is it on the "instant classic" level of the "Spell" commentary from Season 4.

I'm disappointed that one thing I was really hoping to see on the set was absent. When it seemed that "Veritas" would be the season's finale because of the writers' strike, the episode was originally prepared as such. Originally, the opening moments of "Descent" - where Lex kills his father - would have been in "Veritas," and Lex would quickly get to the Fortress of Solitude; in fact, Lex's original approach to the Fortress was seen in some trailers earlier this year.

Unfortunately, that approach nor the original "Veritas" are on this set. Even if some originally planned sequences didn't have finished effects, it would have been an excellent addition. One of the best thing about the Heroes Season 2 set is seeing where they were planning on going, which really made that one a must-buy. Why couldn't Smallville do the same?

Fortunately there ARE some good deleted scenes on this, especially on the earlier discs. The best comes from "Fierce" as we not only learn a little bit about the separation Chloe has had from the new "tabloidy" Daily Planet; we also see her learning that her friend Lana is alive. You'd think that would be a really important scene. Also deleted but found on the disc is a scene from "Sleeper" where we learn how Lex got his flight clearance back. It was fairly boring, which probably explains its being cut, but unfortunately the "you're grounded" scene remained in the episodes.

There are some good featurettes on Disc Six and the best to me, by far, is the "Jimmy on Jimmy" feature, uniting Jimmy Olsen actors Aaron Ashmore, Jack Larson, Sam Huntington, and Marc McClure. It's VERY cool seeing these four actors together and talking about the character. However, I do wish that Lois & Clark actors Michael Landes and Justin Whalin had been included, especially considering that both of them logged more time as the character than Huntington and even McClure.

Also on the disc is a retrospective on the history of Supergirl. Many comics professionals as well as Laura Vandervoort and Helen Slater are interviewed in this nicely put together piece.

Rounding out the bonus disc are the interesting Kara and the Chronicles of Krypton mobisode series and a digital comic book.

Sadly, there is no blooper reel.

Video Quality: It looks great.

The Final Verdict: I may sound persnickety in my disappointment about the lack of the original "Veritas," but having the entire season at my fingertips more than makes up for it. Also, as I'm sure many people do just wait for the DVD, it's nice to see Smallville without "an All New Gossip Girl" advertisements popping up all over the screen, and it's a fun experience to get to watch it again all the way through. I do recommend it.

Pre-order your copy of the DVD set!
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Amazon is also listing a higher-definition Blu-ray set for Season 7.

Visit the official Smallville DVD site

 

Read some of our other DVD reviews! The Adventures of Superman: Season 2 The Adventures of Superman: Seasons 3 & 4 Batman: Gotham Knight Birdman and the Galaxy Trio and Space Ghost Doctor Who: Series 3 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 Smallville: Season 6

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