New season: Smallville

If you’ve made it this far and are still tuning in for Season Eight, then congratulations. You’ve just sat through possibly the worst season of Smallville so far and come out the other side, perhaps one of the reasons why the new season has been inserted into a dead spot in the TV schedules. It's not even really set in Smallville anymore, they should change the name to 'Metropolis'. But the good news is things are about to get better, and Season Eight goes some way to redeem the show from a disappointing performance in the ratings in the US during Season Seven.

For dedicated fans of Smallville, sticking with it has been a bit like staying on a sinking ship because there’s still yummy cake on board. Season Seven saw the introduction of Clark’s (Tom Welling) cousin Kara (Laura Vandervoort) as the show went even deeper into the Superman mythology and became even more confused. In doing so Smallville lost much of its mirth, as Clark and co. became increasingly sombre and serious; it’s hard to remember the last time Clark actually smiled. One of the show’s greatest strengths in its earlier seasons was that, aside from all the powers and freaks-of-the-week, it was still about a teenage boy growing up and all the problems that went with it. Now that Clark is all grown up, and his parents are no longer on the scene, he’s relying on his friends for help, even if most of the time he won’t admit that he needs them.

Despite Season Seven’s poor performance, it ended on one of the best cliff-hangers seen on Smallville for a long time. Lex (Michael Rosenbaum) finally learnt Clark’s secret, without forgetting afterwards by being knocked out or having his memory erased. Lex had discovered the truth about a secret society - of which his father was a member - which held the means to control Clark. Chloe (Allison Mack), so often the real star of the show, was arrested by the suspicious Department of Domestic Security, and Lana (Kristin Kreuk) broke up with Clark via video message (harsh). In the final scene we were left with the sight of an incapacitated Clark in Lex’s arms, as the Fortress of Solitude collapsed around them.

As Season Eight opens, Clark and Lex are missing, so Oliver Queen (Justin Hartley, making a welcome return as a season regular) and his merry band of superheroes team up to try to find Clark, and Lex’s replacement Tess Mercer (Cassidy Freeman), the show’s new villain, searches for her predecessor. Season Eight also marks the first season without two of the show’s principal characters, Lex and Lana. The latter’s departure may elicit cheers from some quarters, but Rosenbaum was one of the best things about Smallville, even if he was visibly beginning to get bored in his later episodes. He embodied pure evil well, and it’ll take a while before Cassidy Freeman becomes as threatening and duplicitous as Lex has been for so long. Diehard ‘Clana’ fans shouldn’t worry as Lana will return mid-season for a mini story-arc that wraps up her departure.

Luckily Chloe is given a much more prominent role this season as her relationship with Jimmy Olsen (Aaron Ashmore) progresses and she befriends this season’s antagonist Davis Bloome, a.k.a Doomsday (for those of you that don’t know your Superman history, Doomsday kills Superman in the original comics). In the U.S., where they are now mid-way through Season Nine, the ratings for Season Eight went up, despite Lex and Lana’s departures, or maybe because of it, but either way Smallville experienced a rise in quality which was needed if the audience was still to believe that Tom Welling was a young Clark Kent who, in this season, becomes Superman in all but name. But bless him, he still can’t fly.

Smallville is on Channel 4 on Saturdays at 1pm

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