The more I think back on Season 8, the more I come to appreciate it. Even with its flaws, it felt so thoroughly well-balanced between fun superhero antics and really personal drama and angst. It was both comfy and gripping. Season 9, in theory, should just be more of the same with a bit more of an emphasis on the angst part. This is, after all, Clark's darkest hour. However, in practice, I just wasn't vibing with this one, man. And not for the obvious reasons like Season 4's bad witch plotline, Season 6's LanaXLex, and Season 7's... everything, I just didn't find this season especially engaging.
Despite how generous I was towards Season 8's finale, I can't exactly say it led to the most thrilling start for Season 9. Between Clark cutting himself off from humanity and Oliver quitting being the Arrow entirely, the first few episodes were such a mopefest that mostly led to a dry spell of fun Clois moments. Thankfully, things did pick up a bit with those two as the midpoint of Season 9 had Clark and Lois finally start properly dating, and it was great. Their relationship was easily the best thing about Season 9 and generally remained the one thing that kept me going, because the rest of the cast felt really lacking. With Davis and Jimmy dead, Lana gone, the rest of the League generally MIA, and Oliver and Chloe spending decent chunks of the season isolating themselves, Season 9 felt really sparse in terms of the character roster. It really was primarily about Clark, Lois, and the season's villain and it made the whole season feel kinda lonely. Maybe this was the point, maybe the writers intended for Clark to distance himself from most of the rest of the cast, but man, did it make for a dull season a lot of the time. Metallo was here which is cool, but he wasn't around much and was a shadow of his animated self in terms of characterization. Chloe was definitely the lowpoint, though, as her whole arc about her secret surveillance kinda came out of left field and made her really unlikable compared to how much I enjoyed her in earlier seasons.
But ultimately, what really ruined Season 9 for me was the main overarching plot. Out of every season of Smallville so far, Season 9 is the most Kryptonian-centric, featuring none other than Zod as the villain. And it really made me realize that I could not give less of a shit about Kryptonians, just in general. I never found them interesting. Zod can be a fun antagonist when given a charismatic or interesting performance (I don't even like Man Of Steel but Michael Shannon freaking killed it), but Callum Blue just doesn't have the sauce, especially compared to how much of a tough act to follow Witwer was. I couldn't really believe him as this powerful war leader, and as such, wasn't really invested in the Kandorians that much. The main plotline also just felt really hard to follow for me, between all the cloning, Clark's unconvincing attempt to befriend Zod, and his ridiculously complex coup. The Doomsday arc was a lot simpler, sure, but I ended up really loving the moral complexities at play over whether or not Davis should be killed, protected, separated from Doomsday, etc. Zod's storyline just didn't engage me in quite the same way. And this is kind of a problem because Season 9 was also very light on one-offs compared to the previous season, practically every episode had something do with Zod and I just wanted it to all end by the second half.
Now, were there some good elements? Sure. The Checkmate plotline was actually pretty fun because it is always fun to watch Amanda Waller manipulate everyone around her, Chloe and Oliver's new relationship was actually kinda cute, the JSA two-parter was a very welcome change of pace, and of course, I can't deny that the finale was incredible, and built up to quite effectively at that.
Highlights
Absolute Justice: As I said, I really liked the Justice Society of America two-parter. It was a fun distraction from all the Zod, and most of the new characters like Stargirl and especially Doctor Fate were done quite well. It's got a lot of comic book-y charm to it, and I honestly wish the whole season had this kind of energy to it.
Salvation: Despite how much I disliked the main storyline of Season 9, I'm really surprised the writers still managed to stick the landing so well. Salvation doesn't quite have the overwhleming clusters of plot twists that prior finales like Tempest, Covenant, Commencement, and Phantom had, but it still feels big in that pretty much every character and plot point from this season is brought to a head. The fight between Clark and Zod was actually genuinely lengthy and satisfying, especially coming off the heels of last season, and Lois finally learning Clark is the Blur was a long time coming.
I'm gonna be honest, Season 9 might be my least favorite season of Smallville. And I know that's quite a high bar considering like half of this show's seasons are frankly pretty subpar, but here's the thing. Prior to Season 9, all of the worst Smallville storylines were still kind of enjoyable in a dumb fun sort of way. The early seasons had a lot of that teen drama charm, and Seasons 6-7 were so balls to the walls crazy that I couldn't help but remain invested. Season 9 lacks the glaring flaws of prior seasons, but it also commits the worst sin a season of TV could be, it's boring. The Zod plot just isn't interesting enough for how much the season revolved around it, and the cast wasn't strong enough to make up for that.
I really wish I liked Season 9, especially with how much good things I've heard about it. I've even seen
some people say this is their favorite season, and hey, good on them. It is a more focused season, after all, it just so happens to be focused on a storyline I found insufferable. Hopefully, Season 10 can end things on a stronger note.
1/5 Stars
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