9 Reasons in Why Smallville’s Season 9 Rock my World
By: Gaby
If you have made mistakes, even serious ones, there is always another chance for you. What we call failure is not the falling down but the staying down.- Mary Pickford (1893 – 1979)
And thank God Smallville raised again.
For those who know me around the net, they know that I have always been on the “optimistic bench”, as far as Smallville was concerned. If a spoiler came out that sounded less than ‘bright’ I tried always to expect the best, never the worst.
That quality (for me it was a quality) became a flaw around the second half of season 8. You know the said “after the storm the sun always shine” right? Well for me, the sun would never come.
Think about a JENGA game. The first move is Power, the second Requiem, both moves take away two of the three pieces that are holding the whole tower together and stable. An almost perfect Season 8 is about to fall down. But you still have 8 more moves. You are holding up there, even with the critical attack of losing your bases, but still have hopes that you will win this game. By the time you are on Doomsday, you are almost defeated, but you, have hopes, hey there is NOTHING that could make this worst, isn’t it?.
We all know what happened.
Then Comic Con 2009 happened. And once again the hopeless optimistic in me decided to resurface and think, that maybe, somehow Season 9 would make me try to forget all the moments that happened on that second half. This hopeless Optimistic is patting herself on the back.
Granted: Jimmy still was dead (never would understand WHY, cause personally, the “age issue”?, never will buy it) there was no way they could fix that, they could have fix Oliver and Chloe betrayal with just apologizing with Clark about the Doomsday stuff, but the Jimmy “Henry” thing? This probably will be one of the things I won’t be able to forget and forgive ever.
But I dared to give Smallville yet another chance, and a year later I am happy that I did it.
Season 9 was, in one word MINDBLOWING. Of course it has its black spots here and there, episodes like Warrior felt somewhat out of order on the season, but even when uneven episodes like that one, the season never lost steam. In a weird turn of events the second half was as good as the first half. It wasn’t better but the season had a feeling of balance that was missing on previous seasons. In which they started with a bang and ended with a whistle.
Saying this, here there are, for yours truly, the 9 reasons why Season 9 so far is the best season of the show.
9. Special Effects – From a city exploding (Kandor), to epic rescues (Checkmate, Salvation), to buildings falling down (Persuasion) the effects used on this seasons were spectaculars. Props to taking new chances and exploring new visual effects, especially on episodes like Checkmate, the slow motion-comic frame sequences were a weird-but-welcome change on what we usually see on Smallville.
8. Visual – I think on the technical aspect (other than the music) this was one of the things I was more excited about on this season. The Visual part was beautiful. We watched the early days of Krypton (Kandor); Clark and Lois on the rain after the zombie-nightmare (Rabid); a kryptonian ritual celebrating the arrival of a new life (Sacrifice). All these moments had a beautiful vibe and amazingly executed. You could get lost only watching a flower open on water or found yourself being part of a traditional ceremony on a kryptonian funeral (Persuasion). These will be forever remembered as ones of the most beautiful scenes on the entire history of the show.
7. New Pens, New Roles – Not only Season 9 welcomed new pens to the well established staff of writers (Jordan Hawley, Anne Cofell Saunders, Andrew Landis, Julia Swift and John Chisholm), but also some writers took chances and decided to come out of their usual zone and decided to sit on the director’s chair for an episode, and proved that they can not only make great stories on paper. This was the case of Brian Peterson and Turi Meyer. Both long–time writers of the show took a new role and put themselves behind the camera to bring us amazing episodes like Charade (directed by Peterson) and Conspiracy (directed by Meyer but also written with partner Al Septien). A new role also was assumed by Justin Hartley that alongside (another new Smallville writer) Walter Wong and Brian Q Miller, took the challenge to grab a pen and write the intense episode Sacrifice.
6. Moving Moments – Yes Season 9 can be labeled of DARK, but you can’t deny that it was also moving. You had Jor El dying on Clark’s arms. You had Zod and Jor El seeing Kandor explode (Kandor). You saw and heard how the heart of Zod’s son stopped on its mother’s womb (Sacrifice); and had Clark asking if he was enough (Charade). These are only examples in how this season played the emotional card so well. Personally I hadn’t cried that much (tears of SADNESS, not frustration) since Jonathan Kent died on Season 5, Reckoning.
5. The Music – what can I say? The score always has been a strong point on Smallville, like always Louis Febres manages to make a scene more memorable and epic just with the music. Example: Clark walking around the museum and unveiling the JSA Portrait on Absolute Justice. The score made that scene go from Iconic, to simply EPIC. The fight between Zod and Clark (Salvation), Clark destroying the RAO Towers (Persuasion) all amazing scenes that probably wouldn’t have the same effect at the end if they didn’t have the perfect score and Louis always finds it.
4. An EPIC Season Finale – Forget about Doomsday, that’s on the past. Smallville just made us forgive and forget (almost) everything that happened last year. Salvation: Best.Season.Finale.EVER. It had all the right stuff. From a tease scene that made all the geeks yell a SQUEEEEEE to a final fight between two men that was as epic as badass. Salvation was the culmination of an amazing season ending with a cliffhanger that is making this hiatus being the slowest one yet because fans are biting their nails in anticipation and excitement about what would be happening when Season 10 starts. Kudos not only to Al Septien and Turi Meyer to pen such an epic episode, kudos to Greg Beeman that couldn’t have a better episode to direct on his return to the show since his last episode on 2005. Beeman’s direction was the ice of the cake Septien and Meyer baked.
3. Story Arcs – Being the Kandorians finding a place on earth, being Lois recurring memories of an apocalyptic future which she witnessed, being Zod and his quest of finding the powers that are the kandorians Birth Right. Being Clark embracing that kryptonian side that in a correct balance with his human one will make him Superman. All these story arcs had us on the edge of our seats during their runs. When one ended another gained more power and become more interesting. That was the beauty of this season that kept you THERE expecting more, giving you more questions, more HOWs, more WHYs, wanting MORE.
2. The Villain – when Zod was announced as the season’s villain, all of us rolled our eyes, we were skeptical, we never believed Zod could work again as a villain. I was never gladder to be wrong. The writing and Callum Blue made Zod one of the best villains of the show, right up there with Brianiac. Blue made loving to hate Zod an easy task. Zod had a goal that never wavered; he manipulated everybody, from Clark, to Lois, to Tess. It was a delight to watch him of screen being BAD. Yet you suffered with him, when Kandor exploded, or when unbeknownst to him, he was killing his unborn child and hearing it die. Smallville has always made excellent casting choices especially on the villain department. I dare to say Callum Blue is one of its best ones yet.
1. Clark, Clark CLARK – The biggest reason why this is my favorite season to date. All revolved around Clark, the main arcs of the season, Zod, Lois memories, The Kandorians, all ended on Clark and was about Clark. From his “resurrection” on Savior to his “sacrifice” on Salvation all the season Clark showed the reasons why Superman is the greatest hero of all times. He was a leader, took initiative, was an active hero, there are so many things that made Clark so amazing on this season 9. For that this is, if not the greatest season ever.
Yes admitting it, the season needed a little bit more of focus on him, although the season’s vibe was the correct one, at some points Clark took a back seat on his own story (Disciple, Roulette), but I trust next season being the final has the right focus.
So there are my 9 reasons to ADORE season 9! Can’t wait for the DVD, I bet it will have a lot of great stuff on it.
By The Way, which were my favorite episodes of the season?
1- Salvation
2- Crossfire
3- Idol
4- Pandora
5- Rabid
6- Kandor
7- Savior
8- Charade
9- Conspiracy
10- Persuasion
11- Metallo
12- Upgrade
13- Escape
14- Hostage
15- Disciple
16- Absolute Justice
17- Echo
18- Sacrifice
19- Checkmate
20- Roulette
21- Warrior
