Smallville - Series 5 - Complete (Box Set) (DVD)

...a second meteor shower hit Smallville along with a big black space ship that landed right in front of Lana, Clark had reunited the three stones and had been transported to the north pole, and the Kent Farm had been destroyed - with both Martha and Jonathan inside! Which left a lot of questions to be answered. What happened next?

The fifth season of Smallville had a lot going for it, so much that in AMerica the show was moved to a highly ...
...with 'Vessel', the creators of Smallville have created arguably their best collective set of episodes yet.

This DVD set spans six shiny disks, fit nicely in three of those slim armaray cases that have become popular with TV boxsets (Lost, Friends, Desperate Housewives, Family Guy to name a few) surrounded by a box similar to the previous seasons. In terms of storage (the set is slightly thinner) and access to each disk (they're all ... more

When Season 4 ended, a second meteor shower hit Smallville along with a big black space ship that landed right in front of Lana, Clark had reunited the three stones and had been transported to the north pole, and the Kent Farm had been destroyed - with both Martha and Jonathan inside! Which left a lot of questions to be answered. What happened next?

The fifth season of Smallville had a lot going for it, so much that in AMerica the show was moved to a highly competitive Thursday night timeslot because the network (the WB) had so much faith in the show - and they didn't disappoint. From the season premiere 'Arrival' through to the 100th Episode 'Reckoning' and ending with 'Vessel', the creators of Smallville have created arguably their best collective set of episodes yet.

This DVD set spans six shiny disks, fit nicely in three of those slim armaray cases that have become popular with TV boxsets (Lost, Friends, Desperate Housewives, Family Guy to name a few) surrounded by a box similar to the previous seasons. In terms of storage (the set is slightly thinner) and access to each disk (they're all seperate instead of being slightly on top of each other) I'm all for the idea, it's just a shame that it's noticibly different to the other sets.

The basic overview of the season is that it's main characters have all left Smallvile High and moved onto bigger things, Chloe has got an internship at the Daily Planet, Lana has gone to Met U, Clark's stayed at home for the most part, & Lex has decided to run for Senate, and they're all adapting to their new situations in completely different ways, now onto the episodes.

Disk 1:
Arrival- Clark arrives at the Fortress of Solitude, and has to make a deal with Jor-El so he can go save Chloe, meanwhile two aliens come out of the spaceship looking for Kal-El, terrifying Lana...
Mortal- Clark is now powerless, and is able to get closer to Lana, meanwhile some escapee's from Bel Reve take Lana and the Kents hostage in exchange for some "Kryptonite Cocktails" from Level 3...
Hidden- A dangerous situation puts the human Clark in mortal danger. His life is saved... at a price.
Aqua- Lois nearly drowns, being saved by AC instead of Clark in the process, meanwhile Luthorcorp have been developing a secret sonar weapon...

Disk 2:
Thirst- Lana joins a sororoty at Met U, where blood is the drink of choice, meanwhile Chloe lands a job at the Daily Planet...
Exposed- An old friend of Jonathan's gets implicated in connection to a dead dancing girl, meanwhile Lois poses as a gentleman's club dancer
Splinter- Manufactered "Silver Kryptonite" makes Clark paranoid,
meanwhile Jonathan joins the race to be Senate
Solitude- Martha contacts a mysterious Kryptonian flesh eating desease, meanwhile Milton Fine convinces Clark to destroy the Fortress of Solitude...

Plus Audio commentaries on Thirst & Splinter

Disk 3:
Lexmas- Lex is shot, and is shown what his future could be like, meanwhile Clark plays Santa...
Fanatic- An obsessed fan of Lex does whatever she can to make sure he wins the race to Senate, meanwhile Clark & Lana's relationship takes a turn for the worse...
Lockdown- A surviving witness of the spaceship landing comes after Lex for answers, meanwhile Jonathan learns of Lionel's ties to his campaign
Reckoning- Clark finally reveals his secret to Lana, or does he? Meanwhile Jonathan wins the race to Senate and Jor-El comes to collect...

Disk 4:
Vengeance- Clark meets a masked vigilante known as the "Angel of Vengeance", meanwhile Lionel and Lex are at loggerheads over Lionels attempted takeover of Luthorcorp...
Tomb- The ghost of a murder victim possesses Chloe to avenge her death, meanwhile Martha can't decided whether to take Jonathan's Senate seat...
Cyborg- Clark meets Victor Stone, part man/part machine, meanwhile Lionel comes into possession of a certain secret...

Plus Vengeance Chronicles promo webisodes

Disk 5:
Hypnotic- A woman uses hypnosis to control Clark into breaking up with Lana forever, meanwhile Lex tracks Milton Fine to Honduras...
Void- Lana meets some students who have created a drug that makes thing linger near death, meanwhile Clark learns that Milton Fine is alive...
Fragile- Clark befriends a troubled girl who can shatter glass with her mind, meanwhile Lex and Lana become closer...
Mercy- A mysterious man tries to get revenge on Lionel, putiing Martha in danger in the process...

Disk 6:
Fade- Clark saves the life of a man who turns out to be a hired killer, meanwhile Lana and Lex's relationship becomes official...
Oracle- Jonathan's ghost sends Clark on a killing mission, meanwhile Lionel comes clean to Martha about knowing Clark's secret...
Vessel- General ZOD takes over Lex's body, and only Clark can stop his vendetta - if he's willing to kill Lex...

Plus 'the making of Reckoning' documentary and excerpts from 'Look Up To The Sky...' documentary

Quite a collection, yes? Out of 22 episodes there's only a tiny handful of duds, one being 'Thirst' which even the creators later ddecided wasn't the best of idea's (hence it's toungue in cheek commentary), but the good episodes outshine this so that in the end they don't bring the overall enjoyment down at all. My favourite episodes being Arrival (ties up all of the previous seasons cliffhangers, plus covers a lot of ground in very little time), Splinter (Clark being paranoid, what's not to like?), Reckoning (100th episode that did not disappoint, though knowing the ending ruined it a little), and Vengeance (Clark showing his true colours as to how he wants to save people).

The picture just fills the screen beautifully whilst sound is as usual top notch. The soundtrack isn't as good as previous seasons but that is mainly because they didn't use as many commercial songs - some episodes not using any.

Overall
Smallville Season 5 is a welcome addition to my collection, as it should be to anyone who likes a good drama with a lot of action in it, or lovers of the comic book adaptation genre like myself. In terms of enjoyment you wont be disappointed, and in a way with this series you don't really have needed to see the previous four seasons to understand what's going on, which with some shows nowadays you need to (Alias quickly springs to mind)

My only gripe with this set is the fact that they only do two Commentary's, and they don't even involve the main cast. It's only a small thing I know but they've done more in previous seasons, why not this one?

Okay that's leaving it on a bad note, this set is well worth buying. I paid £26 for mine, which was money well spent. High recommendation. 

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