Smallville: Complete 6th Season – HD DVD
October 10, 2007 – 10:46 PM - Posted by: Brendan Surpless
– The Television Show Itself
– Video Quality (1080p in VC-1 on SIX 30gb discs)
– Audio Quality (Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 @640kbps)
– Bonus Materials (are slim, but still interesting)
– 
– 2006
– 921 minutes
– Warner Brothers
Buy it for $52.95 at Amazon.com
This HD DVD release of Smallville Season 6 contains the entire 2006-2007 broadcast season on 6 discs with 22 episodes, presented in widescreen and commercial free. Upon viewing this season once more for the purposes of this review, it was more enjoyable viewing it continuously without a week of interruption once and again. This is how TV shows were meant to be seen, without the cruel restraints of networks and their outdated and illogical midseason rules. More shows really need to follow 24’s example in this regard.
It is difficult to discuss this season in detail without assuming viewers have seen the previous 5 seasons of Smallville, but no matter. The story continues the saga of Clark Kent, Superman when he was in his teen to early twenties and the trials and tribulations that his fantastic and unearthly powers bring to his earthly existence and the people that surround him. New challenges await Clark as he masters his powers and discovers new ones. In the new character department, the addition of the Oliver Queen (portrayed by Justin Hardley) is a welcome treat as the initial mystery surrounding his character is quite interesting. Clark’s not quite sure how he should treat Oliver, as he starts to become infatuated with Lois Lane (Erica Durance). Is Oliver really a common guy, or is there a layer to his mystery? All these little points add up to what is an incredibly strong overall season.
The most important thing to be said about Smallville is its mastery of the season premiere and finale. I am not sure that I’ve seen a show so consistently excellent each season in this regard. But while the premiere and finale are some of the best examples of modern day television at its best, the middle filler episodes, unfortunately I might add, share too many of the typical clichés that previous seasons used.
While the makers use heart and soul in their beginning and ending efforts, a lot of potential is seemingly wasted throughout the season, once again plagued by filler episodes that fail to further establish existing characters’ personalities or often poor attempt to introduce new ones (this once being the case with the villain of the week in the premiere season). Fans breathed a sigh of relief when that plot device was done away with, so to see it here again in a form is disheartening. Episode 10, Hydro, is a paragon of this problem.
Still, despite the standard filler clichés, Smallville Season 6 is a very strong season with new, interesting characters, plots that see our existing characters take themselves further and a beginning and ending that may be the best the series has seen yet. Bring on Season 7!
Video Quality on this release is in the Warner Brothers standard VC-1 in a 1:78:1 Widescreen Aspect Ratio on SIX 30 Gigabyte Dual- Layered HD DVD’s. Smallville Season 6 has the type of image that suits its subject perfectly.
The biggest positive in this transfer is that the show’s themes are brought together with many splendid colors and images, most of which seem right out of the comic pages of Superman. I recall watching the season during its broadcast only to find myself noticing that there was a consistent buzzing to the show’s image. Turns out, thanks to this HD DVD release, that the consistent buzzing was nothing more than a poor broadcast. Detail, which is sometimes rather impressive and sometimes poor, really showed off the intricate sets the producers and writers thought up for the show. Particularly I liked the dark, very sinister looking detail shown for the Phantom Zone. All in all this is a fine effort from Warner.
Audio Quality on this release arrives with the standard Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 @640kbps. Smallville Season 6 sounded good enough with the Plus 5.1, but a lossless track would’ve been nice here.
Dialogue was intelligible and simple. Surround usage, in particular, was great. In fact, I loved the WHOLE episode ‘Zod’ (the 1st episode). Surrounds were active, sharp and responsive, especially during the sequence where two of the characters were fighting in the forest. As the punches landed, I felt the sub boom and shake around the room creating a truly effective atmosphere. However while the bass is effective here, the bass is pretty much absent throughout the rest of the season, never really meeting the boom of this sequence. Most fans of Smallville will find the 5.1 track good enough, but I can just imagine what a lossless track would’ve sounded like. I guess we have something to look forward to for with Season 7.
Bonus Materials
- Green Arrow Interview: Here we’re treated to an interview with actor Justin Hardley, who portrays the Green Knight. While the interview was informative, I felt like it was going through the standard interview motions.
- Smallville Tribute: Easily shining as one of the better features contained within this package, we’re treated to a 30 minute tribute to the varying Smallville fans around the world. This is due to idiosyncraticies among fans such as a red and blue martini called a Clarktini or fans being called Clexs, a name for those who believe in a possible Lex/Clark relationship. It is both entertaining and disturbing at time, with personal Walls of Weird and devoted fan letter communities.
- Deleted Scenes: The deleted scenes are nothing essential, but the idea of a reporter and an Escalade is a funny touch.
— Review written by Brendan Surpless
