Smallville season 8
The eighth season of Smallville, an American television series developed by Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, began airing on September 18, 2008 on The CW. The series recounts the early adventures of Kryptonian Clark Kent as he adjusts to life in the fictional town of Smallville, Kansas, during the years before he becomes Superman. The eighth season comprises 22 episodes and concluded its initial airing on May 14, 2009. Regular cast members during season eight include Tom Welling, Allison Mack, Erica Durance, and Aaron Ashmore, along with new series regulars Cassidy Freeman, Sam Witwer, and Justin Hartley, the latter previously featured as a guest star in seasons six and seven.
This season focuses on Clark as he starts his job at the Daily Planet, begins to accept more of his destiny as Earth's hero, and develops romantic feelings for Lois Lane. While Lex Luthor is presumed dead and Lana Lang has left Smallville for good, Clark meets new characters Davis Bloome, Smallville's interpretation of Doomsday, as well as the new CEO of LuthorCorp, Tess Mercer. In other storylines, Clark and Oliver Queen clash over how to handle Lex when he resurfaces, while Chloe Sullivan and Jimmy Olsen take their relationship to the next level. In addition, this season sees the appearance of more DC Comics characters, including Toyman, Bruno Mannheim, and Zatanna, with recurring appearances from Plastique and members of the Legion of Super-Heroes.
Following the end of season seven, Kristin Kreuk and Michael Rosenbaum, who portrayed Lana and Lex since the pilot episode, did not return as regulars for the eighth season, though Kreuk did return as a recurring guest to conclude Lana's story. Laura Vandervoort and John Glover also departed the series after season seven; Glover's character Lionel Luthor was killed off while Vandervoort was written out of the series after one season but made one guest appearance in this season. Gough and Millar also departed the series, allowing Kelly Souders, Brian Peterson, Todd Slavkin, and Darren Swimmer to continue as executive producers. This allowed the series to "reinvigorate" itself by introducing new characters and storylines, as well as developing Clark's understanding of his destiny.
Averaging 3.74 million viewers per episode, the season out-ranked other high-profile shows on the network, such as Reaper and Gossip Girl. It also received an Emmy Award nomination in the Sound Editing for a Series category.
Episodes
Cast and characters
Main
- Tom Welling as Clark Kent / The Red-Blue Blur
- Allison Mack as Chloe Sullivan
- Erica Durance as Lois Lane
- Aaron Ashmore as Jimmy Olsen
- Cassidy Freeman as Tess Mercer
- Sam Witwer as Davis Bloome
- * Witwer also portrays Zod in "Doomsday"
- Justin Hartley as Oliver Queen / Green Arrow
Recurring
- Mike Dopud as George
- Anna Williams as Eva Greer
- Kristin Kreuk as Lana Lang
- Dario Delacio as Doomsday
Production
Writing
Executive producer Kelly Souders explained that the loss of developers Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, as well as series regulars Michael Rosenbaum and Kristin Kreuk at the end of the seventh season, forced the creative team to look at the series from a new angle. As Souders explained, it allowed the writers to work with "blank slates", and come up with ways to "reinvigorate and reinvent the show". Executive producer Darren Swimmer explained that this season features Chloe Sullivan's powers manifesting in a way that they have not previously been seen. He went on to express that the theme of season eight is "double identity"; specifically, Swimmer explained that Clark Kent would begin to understand that he is going to have to live a double life, or he will never be able to continue forward with his destiny. Season eight is about Clark moving forward to his destiny in a way that the show has never attempted before. Swimmer further explained that Clark is acting more with his superpowers, whereas previously he would "react" to the situation; "he's going to seek out trouble". Clark joined the Daily Planet to help his cause, using the Planet as a means to get information about where there is trouble. Clark's heroic actions put him in Jimmy Olsen's sights, who starts connecting things to Clark; this helped fuel Clark's decision to develop a "secret identity". Another reason for Clark's decision to develop a secret identity was the stark contrast between saving people in the secluded streets of Smallville and saving people in the crowded streets of Metropolis. While working at the Daily Planet, Clark was paired up with Lois Lane on various assignments. Lois actress Erica Durance explained the episodes focused more on her character than they have been in the past, and that Lois and Clark are both rivals and supportive partners to each other. Durance also revealed that Lois begins to realize her true romantic feelings for Clark, but that she does not want him to know the truth because she does not know what she wants to do with those feelings. Season eight explored these romantic notions between the two characters. Jeph Loeb added at the time that season eight explores more of the DC Comics mythology, and introduces new characters, as well as expanding on already existing ones in the Smallville continuity. Executive producer Brian Peterson also revealed that there was a chance that the series would break the "No flights, no tights" rule, at least in regard to the flying part of the rule.With Justin Hartley promoted to a series regular, Smallville explored more of his character Oliver Queen's backstory, including why he chose to become Green Arrow, how he accomplished it, and how he became good at archery. This season also explored more of the friendship between Oliver and Clark. Oliver would be broken down emotionally—questioning whether he made the right choice to sacrifice all for the sake of being Green Arrow—and that causes him to "butt heads" with Clark, who is beginning to embrace his destiny. Chloe has more romantic interests in this season. Not only would the character still have Jimmy, but there is still the question of her romantic interest in Clark, as well as a new interest in the character of Davis Bloome. She would also be picking up the Isis Foundation, a counseling center for people infected by kryptonite, that Lana Lang founded before she left Smallville. Mack explained that Chloe was forging her own destiny in this season, and letting Clark learn to deal with problems on his own—previous seasons saw Clark relying heavily on Chloe to help solve the crime.
Characters
Peterson and Todd Slavkin introduced more DC Comics characters into Smallville this season. Among those appearing were Plastique and Maxima, the latter coming to Smallville to try to mate with Clark. This version of Maxima had the ability to make herself irresistible to men, including Clark, whom she set her sights on; Charlotte Sullivan was cast in the role. Smallville also introduced the futuristic heroes from the Legion of Super-Heroes. Comic book scribe Geoff Johns wrote the episode that featured the Legion, and suggested that people familiar with the Legion would recognize them when they appeared on the series, as they had some of the quintessential elements of their comic book counterparts. Saturn Girl, Cosmic Boy, and Lightning Lad appeared in this episode. In the seventeenth episode, "Hex", Smallville puts its spin on the DC character Zatanna. Portrayed by Serinda Swan, Zatanna is a magician who comes to town and grants Chloe a birthday wish that results in Chloe's body transforming into Lois. In an interview, writer Bryan Q. Miller explained that he read through archived comics featuring the Zatanna character, but was more influenced by Grant Morrison's writing turn on Seven Soldiers, as well as the television episodes of Batman: The Animated Series and Justice League Unlimited that Zatanna made appearances on. Swan won the role of Zatanna after "acing" her audition thanks to the actress recording Zatanna's spells into her iPod and studying them in reverse—to cast a spell, Zatanna recites the words in reverse.There were two new characters added to the series as series regulars, Tess Mercer and Davis Bloome. The name "Tess Mercer" is a homage to two characters from the Superman lore, Eve Teschmacher and Mercy Graves. As Freeman described her character, Tess is Lex Luthor's handpicked successor; she is "fierce", "fun" and intelligent. Tess's primary goal for this season was finding Lex, which drew her inquisitively to Clark, who she believed would be able to help her. Swimmer revealed that Tess develops a romantic interest in Clark as well. Davis would actually be Smallvilles interpretation of Doomsday, the only character to have succeeded at killing Superman in the comics. In Smallville, Doomsday was represented by a "nice guy" paramedic, who grew up moving from foster home to foster home. His storyline was very dark in that the character would uncover horrible truths about himself. Witwer explained that over the course of the season, his character would come to resemble that of the comic book counterpart he is based on. Peterson explained that the new executive producers were looking for a villainous character that was "as great as Lex" after Rosenbaum's departure, and Doomsday fit what they were looking for.
Reception
Season eight finished 152 out of the 190 shows ranked in the Nielsen ratings, averaging 3.74 million viewers a week. Smallvilles eighth season received an Emmy Award nomination in the Sound Editing for a Series category. In the 2009 Teen Choice Awards, Welling received the award for Choice TV Actor – Action Adventure.The season eight DVD box set was officially released on August 25, 2009, and sold approximately 183,000 units in its first week; it generated an estimated $6.7 million. Comparatively, the DVD revenue decreased from the previous year, with the season seven box set having sold over 212,000 units and generating an estimated $8 million during its first week. Regardless, it was enough for Smallville to earn second place in most units sold during the ending week of August 30, 2009, just behind the season five boxset of House which sold approximately 223,000 units. Even though House sold more units, Smallvilles $6.7 million in revenue was more than Houses $6.0 million, making it the top money earner for the week. In its second week, the eighth season sold 55,000 units, and earning more than $2 million. The third week of release saw another dip in sales, with the season eight boxset selling 30,000 units. At the same time, the end of week three brought the season eight sales past the $10 million mark.