Smallville

Smallville is back for it's final season.  This is a show that likely should have ended a few years back.  It was a great first few seasons and the mythology covered was unlike anything else covered in the Superman universe before.  Then, the show started bringing in every superhero DC could get their hands on and jumped the shark tremendously (probably literally, sounds about right).

The show remained watchable throughout the last few seasons but it lost the luster of the first few and felt as though it was really just biding time while the ratings were good until it can get to the point everyone wanted to see; Clark becoming Superman and this no longer being a prequel to the Superman movies.

Well, that is sure to happen soon now that this is officially being billed as "the final season".  The first episode, titled "Lazarus" still features some of the drawbacks of the last few season; cheesiness, off acting and slightly weak storylines.  But, once the episode starts moving along, it becomes increasingly clear that they fully intend for this season to move along quickly to the resolution fans have been waiting for.  In fact, by the end of this premiere episode, some pretty major plot points occur that everyone has been waiting for.  Things that this reviewer has promised The CW that I wouldn't spoil for you.  Let's just say that the world gets destroyed.  That's not true at all but now you at least know that it's NOT that, so that will narrow it down some.

The episode picks up where last season left off; Clark is stabbed with kryptonite and plunges tens of stories off of a building, seemingly "dead".  Obviously, he's not.  If there's one thing we know won't happen in this show, that is Clark Kent/Superman dying.  Superman is sent into a emotional rollercoaster and must question the meaning of his existence.    The episode pinnacles when Clark comes in to contact with someone from his past and his true destiny is revealed.

As I said, the episode isn't mind bogglingly awesome but that's not what this show was ever about.  The show is about telling the story of Superman before he became Superman.  Telling a story that was either assumed or told in such fractured flashbacks that it just left you wanting more.  The show has succeeded in that aspect and, juding by this episode, the final season will not disappoint.