Mania Grade: C
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Info:
- Title: Smallville
- Season: 8
- Episode: Doomsday
- Starring: Tom Welling, Allison Mack, Cassidy Freeman, Erica Durance, Sam Witwer, Aaron Ashmore, and Justin Hartley
- Written by: Kelly Souders and Brian Peterson
- Directed by: James Marshall
- Network: The CW
- Series: Smallville
SMALLVILLE 8.22 - "Doomsday"
That's It?! By
Rob Vaux
May 15, 2009
Source: Mania
Review: SMALLVILLE 8.22 - "Doomsday"
© Mania
Smallville's biggest problem has always been its own success. It can certainly roll with most punches as adeptly as the Man of Steel himself, but its core always remained the synthesis of comic book origin story and angsty teen drama. In order to retain that, they had to keep things in Smallville, keep Clark (Tom Welling) out of the red and blue jammies, and keep the later events of the Superman mythos safely at bay. How can you do that if your show runs nine full seasons? The bright-eyed teenage cast grew up and couldn't stay stuck in high school forever. So bit by bit, developments crept in that pushed Clark closer to his destiny until suddenly, the show stopped being Smallville and became Superman in all but name.
The series creators still seem to be in denial about this. They've taken so many steps down the road of Clark's life--he's reporting for the Daily Planet, the Fortress of Solitude is fully operational, his arch-nemesis is dead for God's sake, and now his battle with Doomsday has more or less taken place--all sans heroic name, secret identity or shiny red cape. There's nothing else left to do… and yet they keep deferring the moment of truth again and again until their very act of denial becomes a joke.
Alaina Huffman as Black Canary and Justin Hartley as Green Arrow in SMALLVILLE, on The CW Network. Photo: Michael Courtney
© The CW Network, LLC.
That ends up foiling the big season finale, as Doomsday splits from Davis Bloome (Sam Witwer) amid promises of a major death and countless other turbulent developments to blow our fanboy socks off. Turns out that major death wasn't Clark like everyone expected. Instead, it's Jimmy (Aaron Ashmore) who takes the fall, done in by the now-human Davis who's still an obsessive lunatic even without the beast inside of him. They quickly follow that up with an even bigger surprise: this Jimmy may not be the Jimmy, since he has a bow-tie-wearing younger brother who inherits his camera and could "follow in his footsteps" someday. Setting aside the fact that it smacks ominously of "Peter Parker is a clone" ret-conning, the subplot's only real purpose seems to be to tease out the narrative further--to give Clark a "real" Jimmy Olsen whenever he's finally ready to commit to canon, reducing the one we've followed for the past three seasons to a quickly forgotten also-ran.
Tom Welling as Clark Kent and Sam Witwer as Davis Bloom in SMALLVILLE, on The CW Network. Photo: Michael Courtney
© The CW Network, LLC
So too does the remainder of the season finale waffle and dodge and do everything in its power to avoid the big leap forward. It spent over a dozen episodes building towards the big showdown with Doomsday, only to deliver another deferral in its place. We leave him trapped underground after an all-too-brief scuffle, and he'll presumably spend another five or six years digging himself out before the "real" showdown takes place. Meanwhile, all the energy and anticipation the show cultivated so carefully vanishes in a three-minute fight scene and a confusing bit of hand-waving: hardly the way to endear yourselves to your loyal viewers.
To do so with a season centerpiece draws doubts over every other twist Smallville wishes to throw at us. Sure, Zod appears at the last shot, but who cares? Clark's not Superman yet, so any confrontation will either be interminably delayed or won't be a part of Superman's "real" adventures anyway. The twist also further stresses the fact that the DC universe is now pretty much up and running on this show--fully-fledged heroes fighting crime, villains rising and falling, and Chloe (Allison Mack) playing Maxwell Lord when she isn't enabling intergalactic sociopaths with her forbidden love. In light of that, the reluctance to fully break with the show's title--to put that "S" on Clark's chest once and for all--pushes false modesty to ridiculous extremes.
Chloe meets Doomsday on SMALLVILLE (slideshow)
© Warner Home Entertainment
Smallville still has life in it, to be sure. It boasted plenty of solid episodes this season, and with decades of DC canon to draw from, there's nothing that says it can't continue for another eight years. But not as Smallville. The show has proven remarkably adept at evolving to fit new circumstances--a key to its continuing success--and now it needs to cut that final link. The cape is waiting for Clark, and as this season finale proves, it's long overdue. Let him put it on, and allow him to acknowledge the passage of time in the only manner left that still carries any meaning. Until they do, the show remains mired in a past which has long since faded in the rear-view mirror.
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I have to admit, I had some pretty high expectations for this ep. and when Coz, Flash and Canary showed up I got even more ramped up....
Then the fight started and I was on the edge of my seat...
Then the fight was over.
COME THE FRACK ON! Smallville is the CW's top show. Invest some time into making the show as good as it can be. Even if the end result is still the beast getting buried alive, you can still make a spectacle of it.
However, hope is not lost. Maybe we have been looking at this show the wrong way from the beginning. Maybe Smallville was always supposed to be about the Justice LORDS version of Superman. Think about this stuff: Green Arrow kills Lex. Jimmy Olsen dies. Lana has powers and can no longer have contact with Clark. Jonathan Kent is dead. Lois is MIA.
Everyone who could have a hand in keeping Clark in touch with humanity is falling away and the heroes that are there are obviously willing to bend the rules if not break them altogether.
Or maybe that black trench at the end of this ep was just the writers trying to tease something else that will ultimately end up going no where.
I'm just trying to find some reason to hope for this show.