Smallville: The Complete 4th Season

Superman is one the this countries all time favorite superheroes, the imbodiment of the immigrants search for the American Dream. Created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster in 1933 the Superman myth has been interpreted numerous times by many different people in different mediums: Comic Books, The Big Screen, and Television. The early 90’s saw the series “Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman” achieve huge success but it appealed more towards older audiences. But in 2001 the WB network debuted “Smallville” an interesting new take on the Superman mythos. Taking place in modern times this new series features a young Clark Kent coming to terms with his powers and protecting his secret from his friends and those who could possibly mean him harm. Smallville has been on the WB for 4 seasons now, with the 5 season set to start September 29th, Warner Brothers was kind enough to send us an advanced copy of the season 4 set that is to be released this tuesday, and we have the review.

Series
Clark Kent (Tom Welling) will have plenty of reasons to remember his senior year! The thrilling reinterpretation of the Superman legend evolves in Season 4, whose 22 episodes include the quest for 3 Kryptonian crystals…and Clark’s bold attempt to keep those mysterious stones from destroying Earth. Clark also becomes a highly recruited football star. Lana (Kristin Kreuk) embarks on a new romance with a man she meets in Paris (star of The WB’s upcoming “Supernatural” Jensen Ackles) and Lois Lane (the incredibly hot Erica Durance) - smart, opinionated and entirely annoying to Clark-comes to Smallville. This Season shows how Chloe (Allison Mack) learns the scoop of the century, Lionel Luthor (John Glover) becomes a straight-up nice guy, Lex (Michael Rosenbaum) steps further into the darkness and a new calling awaits Clark - an awakening to a destiny that only he can accept and fulfill.

Season 4 was a huge step for Executive Producers Alfred Gough & Miles Millar, a lot lighter in tone than the darkness of season 3 that began with Clark as his Kryptonian alter-ego Kal-El cause all kinds of havoc in Metropolis and ending with a mysterious naked woman named Kara claiming to be from Krypton and wants to take Clark to start a new Kryptonian socieity. Though there are some darkspots (like Lex and Jason being tortured in China). While not every idea was a hit like the episode “Spell” (Lana, Lois, and Chloe becoming possesed by 17 century witches) there were plenty of great episodes out of the 22 episode season: The Season premier Crusade, Scare, Pariah, Scared, and the incredible Season Finale Commencement which saw another Meteor shower hit Smallville, Clark magically appear in the Artic, and Lana find another Ship that has landed in the wake of the shower. What season 5 has in store for us we will have to wait later this month to find out but from everything ive seen season 5 will be something to remember!
Rating: 8.5 out of 10

Transfer
Broadcast in Hi-Def in widescreen as well as presented here in 1.78:1 widescreen, while the first 2 sets were O.K. as far as video quality goes they really picked the ball back up and ran with it for season 3’s set and kept on running for the in-zone for season 4! This, Lost, Nip/Tuck and 24 are incredible examples of what Television DVD sets should look like. The images are crisp and clean without hints of noise and compression artifacts and looks really good!
Rating: 9 out of 10

Audio
Presented in Dolby 2.0 the sound mix on this season as well as the previous season sets is about the same, not to say that its a bad thing, in fact its quite the opposite dialouge is nice and equal throughout the 6 disc. My only complaint would be the lack of a 5.1 Dolby mix, I mean if its presented on a digital format like it was on HD wouldnt it have a Digital Soundmix as well? Oh well I guess the saying is right, you cant have your cake and eat it too.
Rating: 8.5 out of 10

Extras
One things for sure the Smallville folks sure know what their fans want as far as bonus content goes, you get an audio commentary with actresses Erica Durance, Annette O’Toole and Executive Producers Alfred Gough, Miles Millar, and Ken Horton on Crusade, commentary with actor John Glover, Gough, Millar, and Horton on Transference, and finally commentary with Kristin Kreuk, Allison Mack, Erica Durance and Director Jeannot Szwarc on Spell. But thats not it, you also get deleted scenes on: Gone, Facade, Devoted, Jinx, Spell, Bound, Scare, Pariah, Krypto, Sacred, Onyx, and Blank. You also get the featurettes “Being Lois Lane”, where past actresses discuss the appeal of the character of Lois Lane and how they choose to portray her, as well as “Behind Closed Doors - Inside The Writers Room” which gives the fans a look inside the writing process that goes into creating an episode of the show. Theres also some DVD-ROM content (something no one seems to be doing these days)
Rating: 10 out of 10

Overall
One of the best shows on television (in my opinion) is back and this 4th season while having some O.K. subplots it still retains the level of quality that has kept Smallville a favorite for Comicbook and regular fans a like, seeing things you know are going to happen unfold in ways you didnt think would happen is part of the fun of this series and I really hope the creators keep it up for a few more years!
Rating:9 out of 10

Smallville: The Complete 4th Season
Series: 8.5
Transfer: 9
Audio: 8.5
Extras: 10
Overall: 9
Director: Various
Format: 1.78:1 Widescreen
Sound: Dolby 2.0 Stereo
Rated: TV14
Genre: Action/Drama/Superheroes
Studio: Warner Bros.
Get It On DVD 09.13.05

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