Episode 8.01
“Odyssey”
Ok, so after season 7’s climax, and after all the tumultuous offseason, I had little hope for season 8. Three major concerns I had:
- No Lex
- No Lex
- No Lex
Ok…so that’s one big one…there were others but they were all related. Lex’s story was the most compelling of the show, so without Lex, there’s going to have to be a ton of compensation.
The other 2 concerns really involve Doomsday and Tess. The two new villains meant to replace Lex as main baddie. Doomsday, I don’t know much about, but it seems that it is so far off the real origin that they shouldn’t have bothered, but I can’t comment on that.
Tess is the literal replacement of Lex. She takes over Luthorcorp. The problem is she’s out of nowhere. It isn’t helped when that’s mentioned in her first appearance. She also tries hard to be as bad ass as Lex, but it comes off cartoony. The major problem is that she has no connection with anyone. Very two dimensional.
I have to admit thoguh that the Best of Smallville lead in worked well in psyching me up despite my misgivings. Opening with the return of the Justice League was probably the BEST way the show could have competed with having no Lex in sight…or Lana for that matter…and as much as I bitched about Lana in the past, she is an important part. I think I’ll be glad to see her in a reduced role.
We open season 8 with Lex and Clark missing from the destruction of the Fortress of Solitude. Lex is nowhere, while Clark is in Germany? And powerless?
Chloe is in a wannabe Gitmo where agents of unknown origin are finding ways to test Chloe’s amazing intelligence.
And everyone is looking for both.
The whole episode is proof that with the new producers/writers, Smallville was a very different show. I don’t know if it will last but gone is the 90210 high school romance piece and here is the action piece based on something out of Heroes.
I have to admit I liked the first epsiode of the new direction, but am unsure of its ability to sustain itself. The action and references are intriguing but the whole show seemed as if it was trying to reboot itself completely. A show with this much overhaul will piss off a lot of fans, and yet it’s almost too old to grab new ones.
The Justice League, Clark, Chloe, etc. all intertwining all seemed a little contrived and very plot driven as were Clark’s “powerlessness”. It didn’t work well really.
But overall it was an interesting take, and a bold attempt to rejuvinate a series that had been slowly dying. We’ll see how it goes into the future.