Smallville (Season 10)

Oh, thank god, it's finally over. Smallville has been an absolute rollercoaster of quality since the very start, going from "let them cook" (Seasons 1-2) to "let's fucking go" (Seasons 3-5A) to "it's so over" (Seasons 5B-7) to "we're so back" (Season 8) to "it's so over again" (Season 9). But I've gone too far to stop now, so will Season 10 manage to stick the landing?

The cool thing about seasons that know they're going to be the final season going in is that they're usually able to pull out all the stops, and Season 10 of Smallville has so much going on, maybe even too much. This season brings in so many DC characters, from the Suicide Squad to Apokalips, and it even promotes the JSA to reoccurring side characters. Even Supergirl is back, and she's pretty great too in her few appearances. Where Season 9 focused too much on a single storyline, I'd argue Season 10 is so overstuffed that not everything is able to be properly developed. However, the stuff that worked this season really worked. Lois learns about Clark's identity early on in one of my favorite moments in the series, and seeing them form a truly loving and healthy relationship just makes my day, it was absolutely adorable. Chloe being sidelined was a bit of a shame, but in exchange, we got Tess becoming the Watchtower for the season and it was great. The storyline in the first half of the season about the vigilante ban was also a fun plot that involved pretty much the entire cast of superheroes, and felt like a strong payoff to all the metahuman discrimination plotlines across the series. Even The Suicide Squad was surprisingly fun too, especially the show's charmingly western take on Deadshot. As a whole, Season 10 had a much lighter and more fun tone. We even got some fun and experimental one-offs like Homecoming and Fortune, and they easily stood out as some of the best episodes in the season, if not the entire series.

That being said, Season 10 did have its underwhelming bits as well. Nothing unforgivably bad, but not quite as good as they could've been. In particular, this season has a villain issue. Season 10 has so many villains that the show struggles to fully develop or utilize it all, leaving it feeling like it doesn't really have a proper one. Darkseid could be argued to be the main threat, but he feels wasted since he's basicaly just a mist that could possess people rather than an actual threat. The implication that he's responsible for all of humanity's worst moments including both the vigilante ban and real life tragedies like the Holocaust also just sucks. One of my least favorite tropes is when a show reveals all of human's failings are because of some mythical threat. Like no, sometimes people just suck, I'm sorry. For as much as I loved the vigilante ban arc, I also thought Slade Wilson was a real waste of the name even if on his own merits, he's a decent threat. And then there's the Luthors. I don't envy the writers for having to find a way to bring Lex back to keep the show in line with Superman mythos, but it means that the result is this convoluted storyline of clones, alternate universes, and the return of a very hammy Lionel that would be enjoyable if it didn't feel so aggressively CW. And yet, despite all of these issues, none of this really frustrated me all that much aside from maybe Darkseid. The concept shuffling of villains did keep Season 10 feeling propulsive and well-paced, with each episode bringing something new to the table. I don't think most of these ideas are inherently bad, just a bit underdeveloped.

Highlights:

Homecoming: This is up there with Reckoning as one of the most beloved episodes, and it works really well as a 200th episode in how it pays respect to the high school era of the series. There's been so much crazy superhero drama that I almost forget how humble the first few seasons were. Clark's "christmas carol"-esque plotline is the best use of Braniac in years and does so much to right his character after the events of Season 9, elevating his relationship with Lois so much. The subplot about Oliver coming out as the Green Arrow is quite compelling too.

Icarus: I've already voiced my praise for the VRA arc and Icarus is probably that storyline at its best, with the whole heroic cast being forced into hiding. Befitting a midseason finale, this episode has quite a lot of strong plot swerves like Clark finally making his proposal, Carter's tragic death, and Slade being banished to the Phantom Zone.

Fortune: Easily the best one-off in the entire series, Fortune is a hilarious riff on The Hangover that manages to squeeze in all-timer comedic moments like Clark running into a wall, Oliver dressing in drag, Emil doing his best Elvis impression, and just the pure joy of seeing the whole cast get sloshed together, Tess included. I criticized Season 9 for feeling fairly lacking in terms of cast, but Fortune really hit home how much Season 10 fixed this. Also, Chloe's farewell was quite well executed too.

Finale: It's very easy to want to be hyperbolic with series finales. Besides, they're one of the most important parts of a show. A perfect ending can elevate a show, and a bad ending can possibly tank it. But sometimes, a series finale is just fine. It does its job. There are things I would change about it, but it still leaves me generally satisfied. Smallville's finale is one of those. I'm not huge about how it treated the Luthors, between Tess's unsatisfying death and Lex losing his memories, and of course, I'm still not huge on Darkseid as a whole. But on the other hand, Clark finally learning to fly, the ending timeskip, and Clark and Lex having one last proper meeting were all great moments. I know some were annoyed we didn't see Clark fully in the suit, but that final shot is still quite iconic in its own right.

Season 10 of Smallville may not be as lovably angsty as Season 3, nor as much of a rollercoaster as Season 5, nor as tightly-written as Season 8, but it was easily the most fun season of Smallville. Even if not all of its ideas were the most developed, there was never a moment when I was bored, apathetic, uninterested, or frustrated. It brings together all the characters, plot points, concepts, iconography of all previous nine seasons into what feels like the ultimate farewell for this behemoth of a show. So yeah, I'd say, against all odds, Smallville really does stick the landing.

4/5 Stars

 

Well, now that the show's over, here's my ranking of the seasons:

1. Season 3
2. Season 10
   
3. Season 5
4. Season 8
5. Season 4
6. Season 2
7. Season 6
   
8. Season 7
9. Season 1
10. Season 9
    

And here's my ranking of Smallville's season finales:

1. Commencement (Season 4)
   
2. Phantom (Season 6)
   
3. Salvation (Season 9)
   
4. Tempest (Season 1)
5. Covenant (Season 3)
6. Exodus (Season 2)
7. Doomsday (Season 8)
8. Finale (Season 10) 
   
9. Vessel (Season 5)
10. Arctic (Season 7)
    

Smallville (Season 9)

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

Smallville (Season 8)

Season 8 of Smallville almost feels like an entirely new show. It's now set in Metropolis, Lana and Lex are both demoted to very minor characters, and the main romantic focus has been shifting to Clark and Lois. In some ways, it feels like Smallville should have made this kind of shift years ago, maybe even after Season 4. And while this season still has its fair share of issues, it still feels like a refreshing change of pace.

Season 8 has a pretty messy first episode that tries to unravel a lot of the messy plotlines set up by Arctic. You can tell the showrunners want to pull off a soft reboot of sorts with this season, but they also realized they still have those pesky cliffhangers to deal with so we get shit like Clark being trapped in Russia. Once that's all resolved though, Season 8 really comes alive with its second episode where Clark finally moves to Metropolis and gets a job at the Daily Planet alongside Lois. It's been a while since we really got Clark and Lois sharing a lot of screentime, but I immediately remembered why I love these two together, they have such incredible chemistry and seeing them actually develop their relationship for the first time since Season 5 makes the whole season for me. Oliver Queen being promoted to a major character was also great, Justin Hartley got to really shine as the Arrow more than he has in previous seasons. With Lex and Braniac both (partially) gone, Smallville also needs to find some villains to replace them, to mixed results. The Lex replacement is Tess Mercer, and yeah, she's alright. No one can top Michael Rosenbaum's Lex so they didn't try to, Tess is her own unique character whose cold exterior makes you wonder what she's hiding. Even better is the season's main antagonist Davis, aka Doomsday. His whole Jekyll & Hyde arc isn't usually my cup of tea, but Sam Witwer's charistmatic, layered, and intense performance does so much to sell his conflicted nature. I'm not at all familiar with Doomsday from the comics so I don't know how accurate this version is, but hey, it's well-executed enough that I don't think it matters. At its best, Season 8 feels so fresh, almost as if it had a renewed sense of energy and inspiration to it.

Barring that shaky first episode, the first half of Season 8 was some of the best Smallville I've seen in a while. Between the fun episodic storylines involving Clark and Lois, the surprisingly well put together series of storylines that pay off in two of the best Smallville episodes in quite some time, and the strong balance of tone makes for an incredibly fresh experience. Even if I have a few issues with some of the plot points, like Chloe briefly forgetting about Clark's identity and Lana showing back up only to push Lois out of the show for a few episodes, that midseason payoff was so strong that I didn't really mind. However, once again, I do think the second half is noticeably weaker. I didn't mind Lana's return at first since Bride and Legion were such good episodes, but then she and Clark got back together again and her arc just kept dragging on, leaving me desperately waiting to see Lois again. After that's over, we have to deal with Chloe's messy relationship drama with Davis and Jimmy's already irritating jealousy issues being cranked up to eleven, culminating in a fairly unsatisfying and messy finale that resolves it all by killing both. Not to say that there weren't great moments in Season 8's second half, though, it's got its highlights. Tess had some fantastic character development with her faith in Lex being shattered, and the more lighthearted experimental outings like Infamous, Stiletto, and Hex gave this stretch of the season a real sense of fun. However, it was a noticeable step-down and it's a real shame that what was slated to be one of Smallville's best-crafted seasons just couldn't stick the landing.

Highlights:

Bride: As I said earlier, I think the double whammy of Bride and Legion make for some of the best Smallville episodes we've gotten since, like, Phantom at the latest. Even with those aforementioned controversial bits like Lana's return, Bride manages to cram so much into itself. The creepy documentary-style opening, all the cute throwbacks to early Smallville, the reveal that Lex is in fact alive, and of course, the Red Wedding-esque debut of Doomsday make for an episode that feels like it can rank alongside Smallville's best season finales in terms of sheer spectacle and shock factor.

Legion: And right off the heels of Bride, Legion is a surprisingly fun payoff for pretty much the entirety of Season 8's first half. Despite my misgivings with the Chloe/Braniac stuff, it felt really rewarding to see Clark finally send Braniac away for good. I actually really liked the Legion and how they serve as a commentary on the consensus around Smallville, all the jokes about "no flights, no tights" and Chloe being an original character were not only quite funny and charming, but gives the episode a lot of interesting subtext.

Hex: Was this the funniest episode of Smallville? Hex starts off as a pretty standard body swap where Chloe ends up in Lois's body, but it really comes alive when Clark accidentally wishes to be a normal reporter. Tom Welling's performance as "skeptic Clark" was absolutely hysterical, and made for a nice bit of levity just as the season was starting to get a bit darker again, almost reminiscent of Buffy's seminal Tabula Rasa. Also, Zatanna showing up was nice, she's always a fun presence. 

Doomsday: Doomsday is often considered the worst finale, and one of the worst episodes, of the series for a number of reasons, and I... didn't hate it? Pacing-wise, it is an absolute mess and tries to cram so much into its short runtime, not properly conveying a lot that happened. Just to cover everything, you have the returning Legion, the introduction of the Watchtower, the Justice League vs Clark, Clark vs Doomsday, Davis and Jimmy killing each other, the reveal that Jimmy has a younger brother also named Jimmy, Tess summoning Zod, and Lois traveling through time. It's a lot and naturally not everything is as well-executed as it could've been, particularly the Doomsday fight which felt really short and cheap since Clark couldn't actually fight Doomsday this early. However, the central conflict at play with Clark warring with the Justice League over his belief Davis could be saved, only to have his faith in humanity shattered when he realizes Davis was always a monster is a genuinely compelling one. Jimmy was also at his most likable for the entire season, and the thing he left behind being the Watchtower itself is pretty cool. And of course, the Zod cliffhanger was very exciting. There is a lot here to like, it just could've been a bit more refined.

Overall, Season 8 is very much a transition season, an attempt to bring the show in a new direction while also pruning all the elements of prior seasons that weren't working. While the process was at times awkward and frustrating, it's hard to deny that this season was a massive breath of fresh air, with more thoughtful and engaging writing, a great tonal balance, and a far stronger core in the lovable relationship between Lois and Clark. If Smallville can keep up this pace and smoother over those rougher edges, we might be in for the best arc of the entire show.

3/5 Stars

Smallville (Season 7)

Have you ever seen a season of TV that just left you scratching your head? Not bad, not great, just... weird? That was Season 7 of Smallville for me, a season that I really should have loved. It's got a lot of really interesting plotlines, premises, and developments, and as a whole I found it to be more enjoyable than Season 6, but in practice, the execution just feels consistently off.

Season 7 tries to do a lot all at the same time, maybe a bit too much. It tries to cram in the debut of Kara/Supergirl, a plotline about Bizarro, a plotline about Braniac, lots more Kryptonian lore, Lex finally becoming the supervillain we know him as, Chloe dealing with being a meteor freak, Lana entering a proper relationship with Clark and trying to get revenge on Lex, a convoluted storyline about Lex cloning his brother, Lionel's death, among many others. Some of these plotlines do genuinely work, especially in the first half. Bizarro is a great antagonist, Tom Welling really hams it up as him and all of his focal episodes rank as some of the season's best. The midseason arc where Bizarro replaces Clark is a highlight of the season and feels like a noticeable shift towards the "midseason finale" structure we'd see a lot in the 2010s. Kara is also quite likable, Laura Vandervoort plays her well, and serves as a solid foil for Clark. Chloe dealing with the casual discrimination towards meteor freaks is pretty engaging, Lex's slow turn to being a supervillain is generally well-executed here, and most surprisingly of all, Lana is actually quite fun here. Her relationship with Clark is a lot more enjoyable to watch now that she knows about his powers, and while there is still a bit of drama between them with Lana's attempts to get revenge on Lex, it's honestly pretty believable and well-written for the most part.

However, a little over the halfway point of the season, things completely fall apart. Kara gets abruptly sidelined for a few episodes, comes back with amnesia, and spends like two more episodes before getting sidelined again. I really liked Supergirl as a character but it really felt like the showrunners just don't care about her. Lana also gets sidelined as she's put into a coma for the entire final third of the season before unceremoniously leaving in the finale. The show introduces an absolutely absurd Veritas plotline where we learn there was this secret society composed of Lionel, the Teagues, the Queens, and the Swanns plotting around Clark's arrival all this time. It's the kind of stupid retcon bullshit I always despise seeing in shows. There were still some highlights like Lionel's death in Descent and the neat AU episode in Apocalypse, but so much of this final stretch of the season felt equal parts convoluted and underdeveloped thanks to just how many balls the show was struggling to juggle. And I think the biggest example of this is Lex. As I said, his descent into darkness this season was one of the highlights, but he barely had any time to actually be a supervillain since Michael Rosenbaum left the show after the finale. He learns Clark's identity like five minutes before he permanently leaves, it's underwhelming and the potential drama that could've spawned from this feels barely tapped.

Highlights:

Gemini/Persona: As I mentioned earlier, I thought the Bizarro arc in the middle of the season was really good, easily the highlight of the season for me. It was really fun to see Bizarro try to live Clark's life, and as a reverse, I liked seeing Clark return and try to convince everyone that he's the real him. Also, a lot just happened in general, even I didn't love every plot swerve. Between the initial Bizarro reveal, Lex killing off both of his clones in the span of two episodes, Brainiac coming back, Chloe coming out to Jimmy about her powers, Lana souring on her relationship with Clark, a lot happened across both of these episodes. And to top of it all off, the Pioneer To The Falls needledrop at the end of Persona might just be one of the show's best, utterly chilling.

Overall, Season 7 almost has the opposite problem of Season 6. That season clung onto and dragged out a single awful storyline that brought down the whole season in it, while Season 7 stuffed in too many storylines for it to reasonably handle without giving some of them the short end of the stick, leading to an incredibly messy final half. And yet, I would probably rather take this than Season 6, even if that season arguably hit higher high points. For all its faults, I do think Season 7 was a more thoroughly enjoyable experience throughout because at least it kept tossing new wild ideas at you. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't.

2/5 Stars

Smallville (Season 6)

For a while, it felt like Smallville had really started to find its groove with Season 3, Season 4, and the first half of Season 5. However, the second half of last season started to wane in quality a bit, and sadly, Season 6 only ends up continuing that downward trajectory. Despite being roughly the same length, this season felt like it took a lot longer to work through.

Season 5 felt like it was split up into two distinct halves and Season 6 goes even further with this. The first half of the season is very much focused on the introduction of the Green Arrow, quite the nostalgic storyline for me considering I grew up with the Arrowverse. This version of Oliver Queen isn’t quite as… noble as his successor, but he’s a great foil for Clark and easily the most interesting and complex superhero we’ve met so far. The culmination being the first Justice League team-up of the show also made for an easy highlight of the season. Probably the most interesting thing about this half of the season is how little focus Clark got. We had several episodes that focused primarily on Oliver, or Lois, or Lana and Lex, which was a nice change of pace. It’s just a shame two of those characters suck ass. I’ve been back and forth on Lana but I already wasn’t a fan of her getting with Lex last season, and their relationship in Season 6 is absolutely miserable to watch. The sheer hypocrisy of being pissed at Clark for lying to her, only to cling onto Lex who's also blatantly keeping secrets from her just annoys me so much. And the aggressively soapy, constant angst and drama Lana causes throughout the season really bogs down the experience, and it only gets heightened when Lana reveals she’s pregnant.

Thankfully, the season does get better in its latter half, which is funny since that half is arguably primarily about Lex and Lana's marriage. It introduces a number of genuinely interesting plot points like Chloe discovering she might be a meteor freak, has a good amount of fun and creative one-offs like Labyrinth and Crimson, and most importantly, Lana gains some freaking sanity for once. She starts to realize Lex is a pretty awful person and tries to break it off from him and finally discovers Clark's secret, with the finale in particular being an incredibly cathartic sendoff for most of these irritating plot threads. That being said, there's still way too much angst here. More than any other season, Season 6 felt primarily like a soap opera, pushing the romantic storylines way too far into the forefront with everything else fighting for screentime. It all just feels so... ugly to watch.

Highlights:

Justice: Justice was just a fun crossover episode between all the superheroes we've met so far. There wasn't much to it in the way of actual plot progression or character development, but it was incredibly entertaining, between seeing characters like Bart, Cyborg, and Aquaman again, to the pretty fun final battle, to all the enjoyable banter between the league members.

Phantom: Despite all my issues with this season, it managed to have the second strongest ending behind Season 4. The entire first half is filled with payoff after payoff, so many plot threads from across the series finally being addressed. Clark telling Lana about his secret was obviously the highlight here, but you also have Lana tearing Lex a new one for his actions, Lionel's deal finally being elaborated on, an extended farewell to Martha as she leaves for DC, the Project Ares team being almost entirely killed off, and the reveal that Chloe has healing powers. The second half is a typical Smallville finale drama bomb with most of the cast being either presumably dead or trapped in a flooding dam, and while Bizarro's debut is really cool and very well-handled, my one gripe is that the ending feels somewhat abrupt. However, everything else about this finale was so great that I really can't complain.

Overall, Season 6 is easily the worst season of Smallville than the first. It does have its fair share of fun episodes, the Arrow and Chloe/meteor freak plotlines are neat, and the finale was strong, but the entire season is heavily bogged down by Smallville romance at its worst. I think Lana was mishandled in a lot of ways, but forcing her with Lex was probably one of the worst decisions this show has made to date, and it made for a season that was occassionally entertaining but frequently a slog.

2/5 Stars

Smallville (Season 5)

Hey, it's the "Good sex, bad Lex" season!

Okay, in all seriousness, Season 5 kickstarted a new era for Smallville. Where Seasons 1-4 are a supernatural teen drama set in high school, and Seasons 8-10 apparently blossom into a full-on superhero show, Seasons 5-7 seem to straddle the line between the two which leads to it being the most divisive stretch of the show. And just from Season 5, yeah, I can see why. This season is kind of a lot, but I'll be damned if it wasn't super entertaining.

The first twelve episodes of Season 5 are generally pretty great, aside from the unfortunate double whammy of Thirst and Exposed, two of the show's worst one-offs to date. It feels like the writers really wanted to push the show forward, so we ended up getting a lot of payoffs to stuff that the whole show was building up to. Clark actually tries to have a stable relationship with Lana for a bit, and it almost manages to work. Lex and Clark have a really massive blowout and finally end their friendship pretty much permanently. Braniac shows up as played by Spike from Buffy and has a surprisingly engaging arc where he coerces Clark to free Zod. Multiple other superheroes like Aquaman, Cyborg, and a weird Batman proxy start showing up. And of course, there's the incredibly engaging plot where Clark loses his powers and gains them back at the cost of someone else dying, revealing in the 100th episode to be Jonathan. Season 5 moves through these plot points at a fast pace, making for a really unpredictable and thrilling experience for most of its first half.

If the season kept up this momentum throughout, I'd easily be willing to call it my favorite season so far, but sadly, the second half of Season 5 does lose a bit of steam. We do get some good episodes after Reckoning, but nothing really tops the Milton Fine or election arcs in terms of pure excitement, at least not until the finale. It also doesn't help that Season 5's worst episodes tend to be some of the worst episodes of the show so far. I already mentioned Thirst, the almost comically cheesy Buffy parody, and Exposed, the one where Lois does a pole dance, but there's also episodes like Tomb and Fragile that really don't stack up to the rest of the season. Even the finale felt a bit weaker and messier than previous seasons, with the neat premise of Zod's arrival mixed in with a chaotic apocalypse plot that gave way too many Angel Season 4 vibes than I would've wanted (I'm still traumatized by that season, huh?).

Highlights:

Arrival: Kicking off the incredible three-episode arc that starts off Season 5, Arrival stands out as one of the more focused season premieres alongside Exile, mostly based around Clark running around Smallville trying to help everyone recover from the second meteor shower, only to lose his powers for not returning to train at the Fortress Of Solitude. I especially liked seeing Chloe reveal she knows about Clark's abilities, their friendship this season was really great and wholesome.

Hidden: Meanwhile, Hidden ends off the arc with a bang. Clark gets shot, pretty much dies, gets resurrected and regains his abilities at the cost of someone close to him dying soon. As usual, I like the storylines of crazed meteor freak haters, and the threat of a missile launch destroying Smallville elevated the stakes to quite high levels.

Solitude: I really liked the Milton Fine plot and wish he was around more this season, the morally grey mentor role he took with Clark was quite cool. Solitude was a strong ending to his storyline, at least until his reappearance by the end of the season. You got a cool fight between him and Clark, the reveal that the Kryptonians are trying to resurrect Zod, and a close scare where Martha almost ends up being the one who dies.

Reckoning: Reckoning is arguably the most iconic episode of Smallville, and it's not hard to see why. This is an absolutely crushing 100th episode that gives you everything you thought you wanted before ripping it all away. Clark tells Lana about his powers and they get engaged in a genuinely sweet sequence, Season 5 really did sell me more on their relationship than the last few seasons combined, but of course, it couldn't last. Clark telling Lana about his abilities led to her death, so instead, Clark and Lana break up, and Jonathan ends up being the one who dies, and just after winning the election too.

Overall, Season 5 was probably my favorite season so far in terms of my viewing experience. Its fast pace, constant massive shifts to the status quo, and several standout arcs made for a really fun time. However, it just couldn't keep up that momentum to beat out Season 3 overall. Its low points were low, and its second half was a noticeable dip in quality, but as a whole, I still found this to be quite the enjoyable season of Smallville.

4/5 Stars

Smallville (Season 4)

Well, I'm back to reviewing Smallville. I was out on vacation the last month and couldn't watch TV, but now that I'm back, I can finally get a resolution to that nasty Season 3 cliffhanger. From what I can tell, Season 4 is the end of the high school era of the series, chronicling Clark's senior year. Does it live up to the last three seasons of buildup? Well, mostly.

Season 4 is honestly a pretty polarizing season for me because it has a lot of high points and a fair amount of low points. Let's get the high points out of the way first. Lois Lane finally appears in Season 4 and she is almost immediately the best character of the show. Witty, funny, curious, fast-talking, has incredible chemistry with Clark, Erica Durance absolutely nails Lois right from the get-go and might even rival Margot Kidder as the best live-action version of the character. With Lois comes a generally much more light-hearted tone than last season, Season 4 has a generally much lighter, more energetic, and more comedic feel to it and I actually really enjoyed it. As much as I loved seeing Season 3 put everyone through the wringer, Season 4's comfy senior year vibes really helped it stand out as a fun watch throughout, and the goofier standalone episodes (Transferrence, Onyx) were actually some of the highlights this time. It's also a more sex-focused season which I guess makes sense since the characters are past 17, one episode in particular definitely feels like it's aping Buffy's iconic Surprise/Innocence two-parter. Chloe, as usual, was also a highlight as this season marked the point where she learned of Clark's true identity, and seeing her grapple with this new information made for some of the best dramatic material and character growth of the season.

However, where Season 4 falls flat is in its overarching plot. Season 4 primarily revolves around a pretty drab MacGuffin hunt for three Kryptonian stones. While it does lead to a pretty fantastic finale where they send Clark to the Fortress Of Solitude, the actual lead-up to this moment is miserable for a number of reasons. First off, this whole plot arc ties heavily into Lana getting possessed by a bunch of witches which not only is a level of supernatural completely out of Smallville's usual territory, but it's also just really dumb and screams of the writers trying to find something to do with her. Then, there's Lana's dull new boyfriend Jason who's also involved because his family is also looking for the stones, and honestly I couldn't be arsed to care about them either. The Lana/Jason stuff is such a blight on this season, it's all so boring and stupid and uninteresting, and I'm always tempted to skip to the characters I actually care about whenever they're on screen. I though Lana did get better in the last two seasons, but Season 3 was such a perfect sendoff from her that she feels entirely unwelcome this season. What does she even lend to the show anymore? Chloe and Lois are far more interesting and dynamic female leads who actually grow and mature over the course of this season, and all Lana really does this season is be an annoying drama magnet who, if anything, has regressed since last season in terms of her attitude.

Highlights:

Pariah: Any time Smallville deals with meteor freak discrimination usually leads to a pretty great episode. Pariah feels like a massive turning point in that regard with Alicia's death being a really crushing tragedy that showed off the worst of Smallville. She wanted a chance to just live her life and be with Clark, but the town rejected her and that can definitely hit close to home for people. 

Beyond that though, I adore Chloe's storyline in this episode. I really wasn't expecting her to just learn Clark's identity all of a sudden, but I was especially surprised by her reaction. Smallville totally could've went for the standard liar revealed trope where Chloe gets pissed at Clark, but she tackles things with a lot more maturity, using the opportunity to change her perception of meteor freaks as a whole and deciding to quietly support him until he trusts her enough to tell her. What amazing character development, Chloe rules.

Spirit: Spirit feels like a Season 2 episode of Buffy in the best way possible, it could totally rank among the likes of Halloween or Band Candy. The concept of a prom queen possessing the other characters is great, but what really elevates it is the fact that Smallville doesn't do the easy voice replacement that most body swap episodes go for. It actually goes the length and has its cast act like a prom queen so you end up getting some of the funniest performances from actors like Kristin Kreuk and Annette O'Toole in the whole show. Onyx and Transferrence are great, but this was my favorite gimmick episode of the season.

Commencement: This finale was absolutely nuts, even by the standards of Smallville finales so far. It honestly feels like they crammed an entire season's worth of plot in this single episode, for better or worse. Clark only just now learned he was supposed to get all the Stones, so the episode plays out like an incredibly tense episode of 24 where he races to unite them all before the meteors hit, all the while a timer is constantly shown ticking down. The pacing did feel quite rushed for this reason, but I still think it all came together in the end. We got to see at least a part of the graduation, Clark and Lana properly kissed again (thank god, I thought it was gonna be will-they-won't-they for three more seasons), and the ending even teased the Fortress Of Solitude. I liked that we got rid of the Isobel/Genevieve stuff within the first minute too, Lana's whole murder thing was the most interesting she's been all season. And as usual, there were a metric ton of cliffhangers. What happened to Lionel? Did Jason die? Did the Kents die? Where did Clark end up? What happened to Chloe and Lex in that cave? And what will be the fate of Smallville after yet another meteor shower?

Overall, Season 4 is a bit of a mixed bag for me. At its best, it's a far more consistently fun season than its predecessors, more comfortable in its own skin. The standalone episodes are better than ever, Lois adds a truly welcome jolt of life to the cast, and the finale ranks as the series' best to date. But it's dragged down hard by the weak Stones plotline and the dull characters it revolves around. I still found this season to be a more thoroughly enjoyable watch than the first two, but it doesn't come close to reaching the dramatic heights of Season 3.

3/5 Stars

Other Shows I Watched in 2024

So, now that I've gotten back into reviewing longform TV shows, albeit a lot slower, I thought I'd give a quick summary of my thoughts on the other shows I've seen this year but didn't end up doing a full review for, whether it was because of a lack of material or me just not wanting to write TV reviews at the time.

Superman: The Animated Series
A while ago, I watched and reviewed Batman: The Animated Series and I enjoyed it a lot. Between Kevin Conroy's pitch-perfect performance, the on-point villain gallery, and stylishly gothic Gotham, it quickly became one of my favorite iterations of the character despite the occasional rough episode here or there. However, at the time, HBO Max had temporarily removed a lot of DCAU shows before I could really get started on the next series, Superman: The Animated Series, so I kinda just forgot about it for a bit while I got into Precure. This year, I finally went back to give STAS a chance and it was... fine.

If there's one thing I can praise about Superman: The Animated Series, it gets the characters right. I don't want to delve into the many complexities of how to make Superman "interesting", but I will say that STAS's iteration of the character is well-executed in how it focuses on Superman's innate connection to humanity (and not on how godlike he is and how he has no time for normal people, Snyder). Lois Lane is also surprisingly compelling in how snarky and energetic she is, and Clancy Brown's performance as Lex Luthor is obviously fantastic and chilling. STAS is also just a more consistent show than Batman was. It doesn't reach any of the lows that show did and there's some minor story arcs and continuity that help the show feel less like a strict anthology. However, the big problem with STAS is that it also doesn't really come close to reaching Batman's highs, and I think that's because of how much weaker Superman's villain lineup is. There are some solid antagonists in Superman like Toymaker, Metallo, Lobo, and of course Lex himself, but the average Villain Of The Week episode in this series lacks the same level of pathos that they did in BTAS. As a result, I honestly can't remember many episodes in Superman: The Animated Series outside of the few Darkseid ones, the rest just kinda flew by me.
3/5 Stars

Justice League
I then went ahead and tried to work through the Justice League series... and I kinda got bored by Season 2. I went in well-aware people didn't think Season 1 was very good, so I at least tried to power through it, as hard as it was. But while what I saw of Season 2 was certainly an improvement, I eventually quit out of boredom. My biggest issue with the series is the production values. Coming off of the hand-drawn animation and meticulous orchestration of BTAS and STAS, Justice League's crummy MIDI score and digital animation felt like a massive downgrade, and the action just lacked zero impact. I don't really care about the characters either, it feels like they're all so focused on the task at hand every episode that over a season in and I just didn't have any attachment to them or their dynamic. The fact that every episode was a two-parter meant the pacing was horrendously slow, and while I heard Unlimited doesn't have this issue (along with generally being considered better), I just couldn't bring myself to slog through the first series any further. I think I just don't care much about the DCAU outside of Batman: The Animated Series.
2/5 Stars

Dungeon Meshi: Season 1
Dungeon Meshi is easily one of the most hyped-up anime adaptations of the year. I've heard so many incredible things about the original manga, so I was excited to check out the anime, especially after learning it'd be produced by Studio Trigger. And yeah, it really is that good. Dungeon Meshi stands out among the usual fantasy fare in anime for the sheer attention to detail in its world-building, diverse character designs, and cast of likable but flawed adult characters. It does get off to a bit of a slow start, with the first half of the season being fairly episodic and light, but after a pretty spectacular midseason finale, the second half of Dungeon Meshi's first season really strikes a strong balance between gripping drama, hilarious comedy, inventive dungeon monster recipes, and bonkers Trigger action. With the release of the season finale, it was announced that we'd get a Season 2 to finish up the story, which also makes this the longest Trigger anime and the only one to have more than two cours. Great season of anime, one of my favorite shows of the year, and I can't wait to see how the story resolves in the next season.
4/5 Stars

Curb Your Enthusiasm: Season 12
Curb Your Enthusiasm finally ended and it was, once again, fine. I think the show kinda dropped off after Season 7 (barring the fluke that was the Spite Store season), and while Season 12 isn't as poor as 5, 11, or 9, I did find it pretty unremarkable for the most part. It had some neat cameos like Matt Berry and David Levy, and was pretty consistent and reliably funny throughout, but I wouldn't really call any of its first eight episodes all that spectacular. The arc of Larry going on trial for giving a voter a bottle of water was pretty neat and a big improvement over last season's arc, but it didn't get as much focus as I would've hoped. However, the season did end on a really strong note. Ken/Kendra was easily one of the funniest episodes of the season, it had everything. The hilariously realistic chaos of Larry getting covid, some of Susie's most ruthless insults, Matt Berry being himself, the titular Ken storyline, and Leon coining the term "We too'd". 

The series finale, No Lessons Learned, was as expected, a recreation of the infamous Seinfeld finale. I hate the Seinfeld finale, but it worked here for a number of reasons. First off, it just fits Curb better. Larry David is more blatantly an awful person, the show gets so cartoonish that Larry being put in prison doesn't feel as jarring, and the show doesn't have any clip shows outside of this one. But also, Larry instead ended the finale with him being let out of prison over a clerical error, so we get the "life goes on" ending that Seinfeld should have always had. The episode was called No Lessons Learned and yeah, that's the perfect ending to Curb. Larry has never learned his lesson, and he never will learn his lesson, and that's how it goes.
3/5 Stars

Strange Hill High
Strange Hill High is one of those shows that I kinda just randomly stumbled upon on YouTube only to be immediately drawn in by the character designs, and the more I looked into it, the more I was convinced that this was something I need to watch. Strange Hill High is a British stop-motion animated comedy with an artstyle inspired by Japanese vinyl figures, co-created by Josh Weinstein of The Simpsons fame, with the ever-hilarious Richard Ayoade playing one of main characters. And yes, it is as incredible as that sounds. I can not understate how fresh and unique this series looks, all of the characters boast these really simple but appealing designs that conveys their personality perfectly. The puppetry is consistently ambitious and the production values are high throughout between some elegant CGI integration for mouth movements and frequent destructible scenery, and did I mention the character designs are absolute peak? The figure designs really tap into that early 2000s pop art style I keep raving about all the time (which is apparently called "superflat pop"?), and it creates this strange feeling of nostalgia despite this being a show from 2013.

Of course, great visuals means nothing without great writing, and Strange Hill High is a very funny show. The main premise involves three students who go to the titular high school and investigate weird happenings ranging from a school clock that can turn back time, to..., to... There isn't much of an overarching storyline, but the individual episodes are so inventive and surprising that it's just fun to see what the show tosses at you next. The writing is incredibly sharp and witty, with an impressive joke-per-second ratio and a charming sense of self-awareness. For what's supposed to be a children's show, the writing feels a lot more Adult Swim, in a good way. It's very unhinged and offbeat in a way that constantly catches me off-guard. The cast of wacky students and teachers are immensely charming and likable, especially the main trio who are all wonderfully voice-acted. The perky and naive Becky is probably my favorite character, but the witty slacker Mitchell works as a great protagonist, and Ayoade's performance as Templeton is predictably consistently hilarious. My one gripe with the writing is that some episodes kinda spiral out of control by the end into sheer convolutedness, but even then it remains fun.

While only 26 episodes (which is still a lot by British TV standards), Strange Hill High manages to squeeze so many brilliant episode ideas, top-notch gags, and wonderfully inventive visuals into its short runtime. It simultaneously feels like it came out ahead of and before its time, and was an unpredictable delight from start to finish. I've noticed increasingly more people are became aware of Strange Hill High this year and I'm here for it, it's a series with some serious cult classic potential that you should absolutely watch.
4/5 Stars

Laid Back Camp: The Movie 
Okay, this one's a bit strange. So I watched the Laid-Back Camp movie around when it came out in the west, but since I didn't have as much to say about it, I decided to jot down my thoughts and add it to the next season's review. Little did I know I would be shifted to another medium by the time Season 3 came out (which I still haven't watched yet), so I thought this was as good a place as any to finally release my review of the movie:

Laid-Back Camp seems like it might be a weird series to give a film, considering its general lack of plot, but I like the approach they took. The main plot of the Laid-Back Camp movie is that the cast are now adults. Chiaki calls them together to set up a camping ground in Yamanashi, during which they relive their own high school memories. It's very simple and there isn't much in the way of conflict, but you don't watch Laid-Back Camp for the story. You watch it for the lush backgrounds, calming and optimistic tone, comfy music, and most importantly, the characters. I loved getting to see the whole cast as adults, it's something we rarely see from a slice of life show and the crew went all the way with it. The characters are more mature and adult, but still very much themselves, almost as if they've all completed their character arcs. Rin is still an introvert, but she's less averse to interacting with people. Nadeshiko is still an extrovert, but she's less aggressive about it and her tone of voice has grown more gentle. The ways in which the characters have grown into adulthood makes perfect sense too, like Nadeshiko selling camping goods, Aoi being a teacher, and Chiaki getting drunk. The movie also expands on the show's themes of technology supplimenting how people engage with nature, with the characters branching out towards Zoom calls and FaceTimes for communication, and a PR robot serving as a somewhat important plot point. As a whole, I really enjoyed the movie. It's more Laid-Back Camp goodness, but with a unique twist that helps it stand out.
4/5 Stars

Smallville (Season 3)

The first two seasons of Smallville were fine. Enjoyable, but they rarely elevated to being extremely good. Season 3, however, is a different story. In a similar vein to shows like The Next Generation or The X-Files, it feels like the quality took a massive boost with Season 3 right off the bat.

Smallville's third season is pretty interesting in terms of plot because I think many of the overall story arcs are a fair bit weaker than the ones last season. There isn't a strong central theme like Season 2's family theme, unless you count putting the entire cast through the winger as a theme. Jonathan starts the season making a deal with Jor-El to bring Clark back after he left in the finale, and most of the season has them both dealing with the consequences of that, leading to a decently touching arc where Jonathan develops a heart problem. Lionel is probably the strongest part of the season, he's at his most cruel here between blackmailing and firing Chloe, gaslighting Lex, and leaving a certain other character to die. Speaking of which, probably the weakest part of Season 3 is once again the Lana plot in which she meets a new guy named Adam Knight who's later revealed to be a spy for Lionel. This is a great concept in theory, but the jig is revealed way too early, before Adam and Lana could really develop an interesting dynamic. On the other hand, I truly appreciate how much less romance there is this time. The Clark-Lana-Chloe love triangle isn't completely dead, but it doesn't impact the overall plot of the season nearly as much, and the writers took great strides to make Chloe in particular feel quite a bit more mature and likable again. Lana developing a weird friendship with Lex is also genuinely really fun, she's come a long way since the rough first season.

However, the highlights this season were primarily the standalone episodes. Season 3 really went wild with the Freaks Of The Week, offering some super creative and fun concepts.  There's no way to really articulate how cool these episode ideas are without just listing some of them out, so here goes. Clark facing off against a meteor freak hunter, a dream sequence episode, a comedy episode where Clark gets nagged by a hapless reporter played by Chuck McGill, Clark going blind and developing super-hearing, Chloe's friends getting brainwashed into trying to kill her, Clark entering a relationship with a meteor freak over their shared experiences only for her to be a yandere, the group getting a call from a future Lana, I'm sure you get the point by now. I think the big change that made this season so much fun compared to the previous two is that standalone episodes are less focused on a specific meteor freak and their abilities, and more focused on putting the characters in engaging and memorable situations.

Highlights

Exile: Smallville has had a pretty good track record with its season premieres so far, but Exile in particular was a unique breath of fresh air as it took place almost entirely in Metropolis, with Clark using red kryptonite to run away from his problem. I liked seeing Chloe, Lana, and finally Jonathan try to convince Clark to come home in their own ways.

Extinction: Extinction was the first standalone episode of Season 1 and it immediately set the bar by focusing more on the public perception of meteor freaks, with even Lana harboring a bit of a discriminatory mindset after all the times she's been put in danger by them (no wonder Clark doesn't want to tell anyone). I also really liked Van as a one-off villain, despite not having any powers, he's been one of the closest to actually killing Clark. 

Truth: Putting aside that one incredibly uncomfortable moment where Chloe accidentally outs a gay person... this episode was very enjoyable. Chloe gaining the ability to wring the truth out of others and going mad with power over it is both a fun and creative concept for a one-off episode, and it's able to facilitate some exciting bits of plot progression. Among other things, we learn Lana is going to Paris, Pete is in love with Chloe, and best of all, Lionel admits to killing his own parents on recording (which he sadly confiscates).

Memoria: And immediately after, we got what's probably the best episode of the series to date. Memoria was the culmination of all the drama between Lex and Lionel up to the point, finally revealing what really happened with Julian. The reveal that Lex took the fall for his mother is crushing, and the episode makes it clear in brutal fashion that his relationship with Lionel is irreparably screwed up because of it. The subplot of Clark learning about his own mother is cute too, though, especially as it contrasts Lex's rougher past.

Covenant: In yet another crazy Smallville cliffhanger episode, we get, like, half a dozen cliffhangers in the span of a few minutes. Seriously, let me count:

- Clark is taken by Jor-El to be reborn
- Jonathan is left unconscious in the caves
- The Kent farm gets a Kryptonian symbol burnt into it
- Clark learns about Lex investigating him and breaks off their friendship
- Chloe and her father get blown up
- And Lex gets poisoned

It's not all just for shock value though, like last season's finale, Covenant feels like a tragedy that the whole season was building up to, though I wasn't nearly left as mixed by what ended up transpiring. The main plotline of "Kara" showing up did feel like pretty blatant bait, the real Kara would never appear this early in the show, but I think it works in the context of Jonathan's deal finally coming back to haunt the family. The Lionel stuff is even better though. As cool as it was to see Lionel finally face consequences and get denied bail, he was able to wreak havoc on everyone who's wrong him in return. Clark and Lex falling out was a long time coming but it hurt nonetheless, and the final montage of Lionel getting his haircut was fantastic

Overall, Season 3 of Smallville was easily the best one to date. It may not have been as iconic as its predecessor, but it feels more refined. The writing is tighter, the acting is better, the standalone episodes are more inventive, the dramatic highs are more impactful, the romance is diminished, and the final stretch was pretty stellar. The Adam plot was still pretty weak and the middle stretch of the season dragged a bit, but otherwise, I thought Season 3 was a great step-up. Let's hope senior year can stick the landing for this era of the series.

4/5 Stars

Smallville (Season 2)

The first season of Smallville ended with a massive drama bomb, paving the way for a far more plot-driven second season. And that's what we got, Season 2 strikes a much stronger balance between tones, even if it still has some kinks that need to be ironed out.

While Season 1 was almost entirely episodic, Season 2 actually has a bit of a running theme across the season in that pretty much every character is discovering their heritage. Lex learns he has a half-brother, Lana learns who her father really was, and Clark learns a hell of a lot about Krypton, his father, and his true name, Kal-El. While it does veer slightly into soapy "everyone's connected" territory, I found most of these storylines to be quite touching, and the Krypton episodes were easily some of the series' best to date. Another pretty neat overarching plot involves Clark's friend Pete finally learning about his identity. Pete was kind of a nothing character in Season 1, but the fact that he's now the only one of Clark's friends to be in on his true identity makes him a lot more fun and interesting, and it strengthened his and Clark's bond a lot. However, even outside of the serialized elements, Smallville's second season is just way more consistent than its predecessor in terms of the standalone episodes. There's a strong variety of fun one-offs peppered throughout the season, ranging from the iconic debut of the red kryptonite, to an obligatory Die Hard homage, to the return of Ryan from last season. It all just flows better here.

That being said, not everything landed for me this season. The other main theme of Season 2 was "secrets", and if you've seen my review of Pushing Daisies, you should know that I tend to hate it when shows lay the secret-keeping on thick. I'm not against Clark having a secret identity, of course, I'd even say I encourage it, but Season 2 repeatedly has him get in trouble for things that aren't his fault and that he can't properly explain. By the end of the season, I was begging Clark to get some sort of alibi, but the constant fumbles he gets himself into just gets worse and worse culminating in an absolute disaster of a finale. This also really affects the Clark-Lana-Chloe love triangle, which felt a lot more insufferable. Clark spends the season repeatedly screwing up his chances with Lana, who by the way is a lot more interesting this season partially thanks to Kreuk's improved acting, and Chloe spends the season getting caught trying to dig into Clark's past. As you can tell from my usage of the word "repeatedly", I found these storylines to get pretty repetitive, it felt like Clark and Chloe were making the same mistakes episode after episode. The moment-to-moment episodes of Season 2 were strong enough that I could still mostly overlook the frustratingly repetitive character drama, but I do hope that Season 3 switches the dynamics up a bit.

Highlights

Lineage: As I mentioned, I thought the best episodes involving Clark learning about his heritage, so as such, all the highlights deal with that storyline. Lineage has a pretty fun main plotline about a woman showing up to claim Clark as her son, but the most interesting part is all the flashbacks from how the Kents found and took Clark in with the help of Lionel. Even Lana gets a solid storyline here as she tries to meet her own adopted father.

Rosetta: What can I say about Rosetta that hasn't already been said? Clark learns a lot here, between finally fitting the octogonal key in the wall in the caves, learning kryptonian, discovering that he's the last of his kind, and the craziest twist, learning that he was sent to conquer Earth. I love this last reveal, it's a very fresh and unique twist on the Superman mythos that has the potential to set-up a really gripping "defying destiny" storyline. Of course, there's also the great cameo of Christopher Reeve, and his scene is full of that classic Superman magic that I hope later seasons will be able to develop a bit.

Exodus: Once again, the season finale is completely bonkers, though I'm a bit more polarized on it than Tempest. Exodus takes larger swings, the crew has compared it to Empire Strikes Back and I can definitely see why, though I'd also say it feels like Buffy's own Season 2 finale, Beginning. It's the episode where pretty much everything falls apart for Clark and while it did end up being a bit hard to watch after everything that's happened this season, I can't say it's not exhilarating either. The main storyline of Clark deciding between staying and fulfilling his destiny is engaging and the big cliffhanger of him taking red kryptonite and running away was fun, but on the other hand, the Lex and Chloe cliffhangers fell a bit more flat for me.

Overall, Season 2 was a solid step-up over the first. The standalone episodes are more fun, and the overarching plot arcs are more plentiful and interesting, but the love triangle is at its absolute worst here and it drags down the season a considerable degree.

3/5 Stars

Smallville (Season 1)

Well, it's been a while. I've started getting back into watching shows lately, but I haven't really had the drive to make full-on seasonal reviews of them, until Smallville. Being a massive ten-season show with each season containing around 20-ish episodes, there's quite a lot to sift through here, so I thought this was as good a time as any to bring TV reviews back, at least for more longform series like Smallville.

Smallville aimed to be a younger, edgier interpretation of the Superman mythos, showing Clark Kent attending school as he slowly comes to grips with his powers. It's very much a teen drama combined with a superhero show, blending together episodic Freak Of The Week storylines with a metric ton of romantic angst, and it's a surprisingly refreshing combination. With Clark's arrival came a meteor shower that hits Smallville, killing Lana's parents and leaving her a chunk of kryptonite she carries around, searing Lex's hair, and leading to a trend of kryptonite-affected "metahumans". This premise allows the show to really recontextualize Superman mythology in a way that feels natural and cohesive, and it paves the way for a Buffy-esque formula where Clark investigates kryptonite-related incidents around town with his friends from school while also keeping his powers a secret and dealing with the trials of being a teen. It all just clicks together really well. That being said, this season does feel a bit too episodic. While there is a sense of continuity and a few running subplots across the season, there isn't one grand storyline tying the entire season together. The whole season feels pretty quaint and small-scale, though I'm assuming that's intentional and will change as the show goes on.

Such a procedural formula needs a strong cast that I'd want to follow over the course of the season, and thankfully, Smallville has quite the great cast, for the most part. Tom Welling makes for a really great Clark Kent, he just gets every aspect of the character down pat. His grounded farm boy naivety, his dorky awkwardness with others, his noble selflessness, and on top of all that, he simply looks the part. The fact that Clark in this show is still a volatile teen who doesn't have full control of his powers yet also allows me to actually feel scared for him when he gets in over his head. Of course, Michael Rosenbaum's Lex Luthor is great too, and his friends-fated-to-be-enemies dynamic with Clark is super engaging even if it's laid on a bit thick. Regardless, if Lex has a major role in an episode, he's likely to be the most interesting part of it. Clark's show-original friend Chloe Sullivan was also a surprise highlight (barring all that controversy with her actress), she has the quick-witted snark and go-getting personality of a Lois Lane but has just enough added dorkiness to help her stand out as her own character. Lana Lang didn't really land for me at first, Kristin Kreuk's performance felt really wooden for the first half of the season and most of Lana's scenes felt dull and sullen. Thankfully, Lana did improve in the final stretch as she showed off her assertive side more and Kreuk's acting improved, but she was still probably the weakest link most of the time.

Highlights:

Nicodemus: While most of this season was enjoyable on a base level, there weren't many individual episodes that really impressed me, except for Nicodemus. This episode was just pure fun. The main premise is about a mysterious flower that removes the inhibitions of everyone who sniffs its pollen, from Jonathan Kent going full rage mode, to Lana trying to hit on every male character in her close radius, to Pete almost murdering Lex out of jealousy. I just love how unabashedly nuts this episode was, there's a very chaotic and campy energy to it all. Kreuk gets to ham it up as uninhibited Lana, and the climax has a super fun bit where Clark pretends to be infected by the flower.

Tempest: If there's one thing I knew about Smallville prior to watching it, it's that its infamous for its chaotic, cliffhanger-heavy season finales, and Tempest was one hell of a first impression. I've always had a soft-spot for the trope of paralleling a dramatic story beat with a literal storm, and Tempest ends the season with a giant tornado hitting Smallville and affecting pretty much every character. Lana getting swept up in the tornado, Clark ditching Chloe at prom to save her, the ship activating right in front of Martha, Jonathan chasing Roger Nixon out into the storm over proof he has of Clark's powers, and Lex having to decide whether or not to let his father die to falling debris, that's five goddamn cliffhangers! But on top of that, Tempest also manages to bring every character's arc to a pretty satisfying close, so it doesn't feel like an incomplete episode. It's everything a good season finale should be, just amped up to eleven.

Overall, Smallville's first season was fun, but it was definitely meant to be a more simple introduction to the series. The cast is strong and the formula is solid, but the individual episode quality didn't truly impress me, the acting had a bit of growing pains, and plot progression was minimal. However, the show definitely has its hooks in me and with such a slam-bang finale, I'm very excited to see how it evolves in Season 2.

2/5 Stars

Adventure Time (Season 5) And Why I Dropped It

Season 5 of Adventure Time is... interesting. It has a lot of great episodes and takes a lot of risks, many of which I admire, but it's also bloated, frustrating, and a truly exhausting watch (and this is coming from someone who watched over a dozen 50-episode Precure seasons in close succession). It's easily the most uneven season to date.

Season 5 of Adventure Time has two major storylines, and neither of them are ones I particularly like. The first is about Princess Bubblegum dealing with the fallout of her creation... ugh... Lemongrab. This season does a lot to paint PB in a more unflattering light, between her utilitarian mindset, at times harmful dedication to science, and occassional abuse of power. I can see why many fans would call her a "bad person", but I wouldn't go that far. PB still means well, her likably dorky personality is still intact, and it's revealed that she's the way she is because she's hundreds of years old, which doesn't forgive her bad actions but does explain them in a way that makes her more interesting. So PB is great, but unfortunately, Lemongrab is not. I always hated Lemongrab from his first appearance, both for his often disgusting actions and ear-grating voice, so I was not happy to get so many episodes in Season 5 focused on him, nor was I happy for him to be the main antagonist of the season. There's honestly no deep analysis I can go into why I dislike Lemongrab, I just find him ear-grating, gross, and repulsive in pretty much every way. I can only hope that with this season's finale, Adventure Time will be done with the Lemons for good.

Meanwhile, there's Finn. At this point, it's pretty obvious Finn is going through a bit of a coming of age arc with his immaturity and attempts at being in a relationship. But in Season 5, Adventure Time doesn't hesitate to depict Finn as a weird awkward teenage boy who's going through puberty, is discovering his sexuality, and acts incredibly impulsively and immaturely. It all culminates in a pretty horrid breakup midway through the season between Finn and Flame Princess that I just know was controversial when it aired. It leaves me mixed because one hand, it all feels purposeful and well-executed even if I'll need to see how it's all resolved first, but on the other hand, all of Finn's focal episodes this season are uncomfortable at best and it makes me not like him, the main character of the show. Unlike with PB, I just don't think this season really balances Finn's immaturity and unstableness with many positive traits, which in turn makes me less invested in the frequent problems he starts. 

That being said, even with all my criticisms, Season 5 was still a reasonably enjoyable watch. To give the season credit, Adventure Time seems to get more and more experimental as time goes on, tossing even more episodes focused around side characters and even bringing in some guest animators to lend their own interpretation of the series. I was surprised to learn a lot of fans don't like the guest episodes. Sure they're not "canon" or "lore accurate', but they're pretty visually-stunning pieces of animation that feel like a breath of fresh air in such a long season. And yeah, this season is long, twice the length of Seasons 1-4, and it feels that length. Season 5 is such a bloated season with so many weak episodes (note that I'm not saying filler) that I can't help but wonder if this season would've been better if it was a pared down to be like all the others. As a matter of fact, now that Adventure Time is becoming a bit more plot-heavy, I think that the show only having 11-minute episodes is (like with Steven Universe) starting to negatively impact it. There are so many episodes that feel rushed, under-cooked, or like they end super abruptly. I think Season 5 would've been better if we had around 26 more developed 20-minute episodes than what we have now.

As I got to the end of the season, I looked at the crushing 136 episodes I had left to go and wondered, was this even all worth it? I know everyone praises Seasons 7 and 8 and their mini-arcs, and Fionna And Cake is getting a ton of acclaim right now, but I'm five seasons into Adventure Time and I feel like I'm just not vibing with it. I was willing to give the show the benefit of the doubt at first because the episodes were short and I'm used to series with a slow start, but I feel like nothing has really changed in my perception of it. I still don't find it super consistently funny, a lot of the characters I'm starting to find annoying (Lemongrab, Finn, even Ice King), the plot and lore still feels under-developed, and any good ideas it does have are undercut by the short episode lengths. I like some of the cast but Jake and the occasional Marceline appearance just isn't enough to keep me watching, so I think this is where my reviews of Adventure Time will end, at least for now. Maybe I'll come back and finish, the door is still open, but I just don't think this show is for me.

2/5 Stars

Adventure Time (Season 4)

I probably sound like a broken record by now but Season 4 was yet another improvement for Adventure Time, with a pretty stellar second half and some great pay-offs.

Plot-wise, Season 4 of Adventure Time is the most packed season so far. The main story arc is primarily about Finn's new relationship with the evil Flame Princess, and their attempts at being together despite the latter being able to easily burn the former. It's a solid storyline with some pretty fantastic episodes focused around it, and the lore of the Flame Kingdom is pretty cool. Marceline also gets a bunch of really important episodes this season, focused around her relationships with her father and the Ice King, of all characters. And of course, the Lich finally returns after sitting out Season 3, getting another finale to reveal his long-awaited plot. There's a great sense of forward progression to Season 4, where it feels like plot points set up all the way back in the first season are finally starting to pay off.

On top of that, the standalone episodes are really solid too. This is the first season that feels like it has a lot of episodes focused specifically on characters who aren't Finn and Jake. There's an episode about Princess Bubblegum and Lady Rainicorn, an episode about Beemo, an episode about the Ice King, an episode about Lumpy Space Princess, and even an episode entirely about Gunther. I liked Adventure Time's side characters from the start, so it's great to see them get a lot more focus this time around. Season 4 is also way more willing to experiment with its one-offs, so now we have stuff like an anthology episode, a noir-themed episode, and a bottle episode. That being said, Adventure Time is still a very inconsistent series. Season 4 does have a lot of standout episodes especially in its second half, but its first half still suffered from a lot of weaker episodes like Dream Of Love, Hug Wolf, and Gotcha, the aforementioned LSP episode.

Highlights:

Return To The Nightosphere/Daddy's Little Monster: This was a great Marceline-focused two-parter that expanded on one of Season 2's best episodes. While the second episode was a strong resolution, I especially loved Return To The Nightosphere for its surreal nature and its hilarious DMV humor.

Card Wars: Card Wars is the only episode of Adventure Time that I've actually watched before and while I always liked it for its creative premise, I've gained even more appreciation for it upon rewatch. Not only is it an incredibly funny and charming episode with some of the best Beemo moments to date, but it's also a surprisingly realistic love letter to Magic: The Gathering, not a game I personally play but one I have enough knowledge of to recognize how much this episode does it justice.

Burning Low: This was just a really well-rounded plot episode that balanced some really great humor and solid drama incredibly well. We learn more about Flame Princess and why she was in captivity to begin with, PB gets more involved in the whole situation, and Finn completely snaps.

I Will Remember You: Along with Card Wars, this is probably the most iconic Adventure Time episode. Even though I never watched it myself, I remember all the hype around it. Now that I'm actually watching the thing, I will say it didn't quite hit as hard emotionally as I was expecting. But it is still an incredible episode, super heartfelt, and expands on Marceline and the Ice King to great effect. It's also surprisingly funny, balancing the comedy and drama super effectively.

The Lich: Ugggggggghhhhhhhhh, multiverses?! Okay, fine, I'll give Adventure Time some slack. This was from 2012, Avengers 1 had just come out after all. Putting that aside, this was a good finale, super intense too. From the reveal of what the Enchiridion does, to the reveal of Billy being dead, to that juicy cliffhanger, Season 4 ended on a pretty great note.

Overall, Season 4 is yet another Adventure Time season that surpasses its predecessor, with some great plot, creative character-focused standalones, and a strong second half.

4/5 Stars

Adventure Time (Season 3)

Adventure Time has really been reminding me of Star Trek: The Next Generation. That was a series that really suffered from a rough first two seasons, before quickly turning around and delivering a phenomenal and confident third season that I'd easily call one of the franchise's best. Adventure Time's third season isn't TNG Season 3 levels of good, but it's similarly a big improvement.

Season 2 of Adventure Time ended with a pretty massive lorebomb with the introduction of The Lich. There is no Lich in Season 3, but the increased serialization still remains with a vastly increased number of sequel and character-centric episodes. Episodes like Memory Of A Memory, What Was Missing, and Holly Jolly Secrets revealed new facets to characters such as Princess Bubblegum, Marceline, and Ice King. Episodes like The Creeps and From Bad To Worse expanded on the ideas established by episodes like Mystery Train and Slumber Party Panic. And episodes like Too Young and Beautopia were simply just sequels to previous episodes like Mortal Recoil and Susan Strong. It all gives off the sense that the writers have figured out what people liked about the earlier seasons and doubled-down on it. Susan Strong and Mystery Train were great well-received episodes, so Susan's back and we have more detective episodes. The Season 2 finale was critically acclaimed for its serialized elements, so now there's more serialization and continuity.

But even the standalone episodes of this season feel way more confident, creative, and most importantly, funny. While there are still plenty of episodes and jokes that don't land for me (*cough* Another Way *cough*), we have way more genuinely great one-offs like Hitman, Fionna And Cake, and especially Thank You. On top of that, Season 3 also ups the post-apocalyptic scare factor in a lot of ways, tossing in some genuinely dark and unnevering episodes. I think the best example of this is From Bad To Worse, the second zombie apocalypse episode in the series. Slumber Party Panic treated the zombie epidemic pretty flippantly with the zombies being easily taken out by a town who had no idea there were zombies there. Meanwhile, From Bad To Worse is a more intense affair with moodier atmopshere, darker coloring, and a dwindling cast that leads to Finn being the only unzombified person remaining by the end.

Highlights:

Thank You: Thank You is a nearly silent episode entirely focused on a snow golem befriending a fire dog. While it's not focused on any of the previously established characters nor does it progress the plot in any way, it manages to tell an incredibly heartfelt and funny story through its animation, boasting some great physical comedy, and managing to tie it to Finn and Jake's rocky relationship with the Ice King.

Holly Jolly Secrets: At this point in the series, I found Ice King to be incredibly annoying, constantly kidnapping princesses and never leaving Finn and Jake alone. But I gotta say, this episode made me do a big turnaround on the guy. That last secret tape where we learn Ice King was a normal human driven mad by the crown is surprisingly heart-wrenching.

Overall, while still uneven in a lot of ways, Adventure Time's third season is a big improvement in terms of confidence and quality. From the increased continuity, to the more consistently strong humor, to the willingness to be dark and creepy, it feels like Adventure Time is starting to really settle into its own niche.

3/5 Stars

Adventure Time (Season 2)

In my review of Season 1, I said the show wasn't really all that great yet but the potential was there for something truly special. Did Season 2 realize that potential? Sure... eventually.

Outside a surprisingly fantastic first two episodes, the first half of Season 2 is pretty much more of the same if not even worse than Season 1. In particularly, the stretch of episodes from Storytelling to Crystals Have Powers delve into Adventure Time's worst indulgences, from disgusting grossout humor to cringe-worthy torture sequences to Tree Trunks being even more disgusting than she was last season. Thankfully, around halfway through the season, the show managed to properly pick up in quality, with some genuinely fun and creative episodes in close succession like Guardians Of Sunshine, Death In Bloom, Mystery Train, and Videomakers. It feels like the writers suddenly became more confident, and shifted focus from the aimless random adventures that the show started with, to telling inventive, weird, and wonderful stories in this setting and with this cast.

Season 2 also actually manages to progress the lore a bit, though just a little. Halfway through this season, we learn that Finn is actually the last human in Ooo, a plot point that actually gets followed up on in a later episode when he thinks he meets some episodes. In general, this season leaned a bit more on the post-apocalypicness of the show's setting, like how Finn and Jake started a movie club where they watch old human movies. It all culminates in an absolute lore bomb of a finale, which introduces a new villain, pays off a bunch of plot points from the last two seasons, and changes the status quo in a pretty huge way. After two seasons of purely one-offs, seeing an actual serialized plot was pretty cool, and I really hope Season 3 keeps it up.

Highlights:

Mystery Train: I love detective stories, especially when they're set on a train, so it shouldn't come as much of a surprise that this was easily my favorite one-off this season.

Mortal Folly/Recoil: As I mentioned earlier, this was a wild finale. I actually think Mortal Folly was the slightly better episode for how well it introduced the Lich and how action-packed it was, but Recoil was also nothing to scoff at for how much it changed the series. The Lich is now free and out and about, Princess Bubblegum is 13 years old, and Finn and the Ice King had to team up for once. Pretty great stuff.

Overall, Season 2 was certainly an improvement over the last one. While its first half was generally pretty horrible across the board, its second half finally showed a big jump in quality with more interesting one-offs, a stronger focus on lore, and a slam-bang finale that hopefully marked a new shift into serialization.

2/5 Stars

Adventure Time (Season 1)

Adventure Time is one of those shows that I never saw as a kid. I knew of it, but I was always more of a Nick and Disney Channel kid (Phineas & Ferb my beloved). But with Fionna And Cake airing right now and everyone talking about the show again, I thought now would be a better time than ever to finally give Adventure Time a watch. So, how's its first season? Ehh, not great... but I can see the potential.

Adventure Time follows two brothers, Finn the human and Jake the shape-shfiting dog, as they go on adventures in the postapocalyptic Land of Ooo, all the whlie meeting other characters and exploring Ooo's secrets. This sounds cool, but the adventures are kind of the weakest part of the show for me? A large chunk of this season are just Jake and Finn doing random stuff, and the series' comedy just isn't really enough to carry that simplicity in the plot. Adventure Time's sense of humor is very surreal and unpredictable, and to give it credit, sometimes the show manages to catch me off guard. I particularly like how surprisingly dark and crass some of the humor can get, to the point where I wonder how this is even a kid's show. More often than not, though, I can go entire episodes without letting out a single chuckle, and there's an abundance of fart and grossout humor that I just never find all that funny. And with how many episodes in this season are purely comedic silly adventures with just Finn and Jake, yeah, there was a lot in this season I didn't enjoy all that.

Despite that, however, I kept watching. Part of that was because episodes are only 11 minutes which made it super easy to watch. But even more, I kept watching because I saw the potential in what this show could be. I'm always willing to give a slow first season the benefit of the doubt as the showrunners try to find the show's tone and this absolutely feels like it applies. For starters, I like the characters, especially the side characters. Finn and Jake are a solidly charming duo, Princess Bubblegum's interest in science is a fun twist, Ice King is a super entertaining antagonist, and of course, Marceline the Vampire Queen is a scene-stealer in all of her two episodes. Whenever the season does rarely focus more on its characters, it's pretty great. I like how Memories Of Boom Boom Mountain explores Finn's desire to save everyone, I like how existential What Is Life? gets, and I like the silly moral dilemma of What Have I Done? It also helps that the voice cast is stellar, genuinely perfect. John DiMaggio as Jake is one of those roles where Jake could read a phone book and it would be hilarious, Tom Kenny as the Ice King makes him so much more fun to watch, and Starfire (Teen Titans) as Princess Bubblegum and Vanessa (Phineas & Ferb) as Marceline are matches made in heaven.

Highlights: Umm... honestly, nothing really stood out to me. Sorry.

Overall, Season 1 of Adventure Time was not anything particularly amazing. Episodic storylines were often pretty aimless, the humor missed more than it hit, and even the best episodes really blew me away. That being said, the show still has a lot of great qualities that I'm willing to stick with it and see how it grows, from the strong characters, stellar voice cast, charming animation, and interesting world. And to give the season credit, the last few episodes were certainly a step up already.

1.5/5 Stars

Assassination Classroom (Season 2)

Season 1 of Assassination Classroom was a very pleasant surprise, and everyone I know says the second and final season is even better. So that means Season 2's gotta be an unconditional improvement, right? Well, not really, but it was still really good. 

The first half of Season 2 of Assassination Classroom was honestly really mixed in terms of quality, arguably the weakest stretch of episodes across both seasons. Where Season 1 felt purposefully crafted to introduce and develop each class member at a good pace, and even the early episodes set up plot points that would get resolved by the end of the season, Season 2A jumped between inconsequential standalones and important plot episodes at an almost disjointed pace and an uneven level of quality. There were absolutely some high points throughout the first half, like the hilarious codename episode and the finals arc that capped off the cour, and the fact that the cast had all been introduced meant the show could play around with fun combinations of characters. However, there were also plenty of low points, most notably the way some antagonists were forgiven way too easily. Both Nagisa's mom and Asano Sr were let off super quickly like they hadn't been committing constant abuse to their respective kids and it really left a bad taste in my mouth.

Thankfully, the moment Season 2B started, the season took a massive spike in quality as all of the show's biggest plot points finally reached a head. The moment the second cour starts, we get a wild three two-parters in rapid succession, each progressively pulling back the curtain on the series' backstory, irreparably changing the viewers' perceptions of certain characters, and completely shifting the course of the series from "kill Koro-Sensei" to "save Koro-Sensei". It's a truly stellar streak of episodes that bring back that feeling of everything being meticulously planned out that the first half of the season had been missing. While the rest of Season 2B wasn't quite as intense and mind-blowing, it brings the series to a really satisfying and emotional conclusion that wraps everything up on a nice bow and even corrects some of 2A's issues like giving Asano Sr the proper comeuppance. While it had some bumps getting there, Season 2 of Assassination Classroom very much sticks the landing.

Highlights: 

Secret Identity/Confession Time: So you know that meme about the Top 10 Anime Betrayals? Yeah, Kaede Kayano's betrayal was voted as #1 by Japanese audiences, and it's not hard to see why. It's a great twist that was set up remarkably, and Class 3-E dealing with her turnaround and racing to save her from her own tentacle implants is both compelling dramatic and tense (and briefly hilarious when Nagisa snaps her out of it by kissing her). It also opens the floodgates for...

Confession/Past Time: ...Koro-Sensei's past finally being revealed! Like with the Kaede twist, it feels entirely planned out from the very start and everything makes sense in hindsight. Koro being the original Reaper and the one from earlier in the season being his protege, sure! The promise Koro made being to the previous teacher of 3-E (and Kaede's sister), makes sense! Koro-Sensei having to uncontrollably destroy the Earth unless he's put down, makes his original deal make all the more sense.

Discord/Outcome Time: Assassination Classroom: Civil War! In case the Kaede and backstory arcs weren't good enough, we get this fantastic storyline about Class 3-E facing off against each other to decide whether they should kill or try to save Koro-Sensei. It's the perfect blend of fun action and compelling drama, and utilizes the entirety of the cast so well that it's hard for me to care. And the big fight between Nagisa and Karma absolutely lived up to expectations, stellar choreography, banger music, and two season's worth of character build-up paid off in spectacular fashion. 

Happy Birthday Time: RIP Koro-Sensei's cake, you will be remembered.

Graduation Time: What can I say about this episode that hasn't already been said? Graduation Time is pretty much an episode-long farewell to Koro-Sensei as the students finally have to kill them, and it's incredibly sad. It took a bit to really get me but once everyone started to break down in tears by the end, even the hard-headed ones like Terasaka and Karma, it did make me tear up.

Future Time: Future Time is a good, satisfying finale that ends everything on a satisfying note, maybe even a bit too satisfying? Nagisa's parents getting back together is admittedly kind of ridiculous, but otherwise, Asano getting kicked off and starting a cram school, Class 3-E using the bounty to buy the classroom, and Nagisa becoming a teacher like Koro-Sensei are good endings. I especially like the time jump and how melancholic it feels.

Dishonorable Mentions:

Round Two Time: Why did Nagisa forgive his mother? She physically and verbally abuses him, forces him to dress up and look like a girl, guilt-trips Nagisa relentlessly, drugs him, tries to force him to commit arson, and Nagisa ends up forgiving her?! Why does anime keep doing this, man?

Overall, Season 2 of Assassination Classroom is a season with high highs and low lows. While it suffers a slow start, some poorly-executed redemptions, and some occasional weak standalones, the cast is as fun to watch as always, and it still manages to end the series on the best possible note with a truly stellar second half.

4/5 Stars

Assassination Classroom (Season 1)

I'm not much of a shonen person, and I'm not entirely sure what drove me to check out Assassination Classroom. That being said, I'm glad I did, because its first season was an absolute blast.

Assassination Classroom has an incredibly weird and inventive premise. It starts with a weird-looking octopus eventually named Koro shows up and blows up the moon. He makes a deal with the government to teach Class 3-E, the lowest ranked class in a prestigious junior high school, with the ultimatum that the students have to kill him in a year or else he'll destroy the Earth too. Yeah, it's wild, and there's a lot to it, but it really is a great concept in a lot of ways. For starters, the sheer concept of an "assassination classroom" is absolutely hilarious. Seeing the students randomly pull out guns and knives in class will never not be hilarious, and all the other 3-E teachers being other assassins and government employees leads to some very fun scenarios. Karasuma and Irina are very unconventional teachers, and seeing them grow into their new positions is a blast. Of course, Koro-sensei himself is a highlight of the series. Despite being a terrifying world-ending threat, he's also super charismatic and a genuinely stellar teacher who goes neurotic over helping them learn, which just leads to a super complex and fascinating character. There's this looming feeling of confliction throughout the season, where you want the students to kill Koro-sensei to save the world and win the money prize they deserve, but you also want Koro-sensei to stay alive and keep teaching them, which in turn leads to the even more interesting element of AssClass's story.

On top of being an incredibly fun story about assassination one's teacher, Assassination Classroom is also a commentary on the Japanese education system, and a really well-executed one at that. Class 3-E isn't just the lowest ranked class in the school, it's a tool the principal uses to stoke fear into its students. He posits that if the worst performing students get shunned from the rest of the school and open to discrimination, everyone else would perform well out of fear of being like them. The saddest part is that a large chunk of 3-E's students aren't actually bad learners, as we eventually learn it's more common that they're only specialized in a single subject, or that their grades fell off for personal real-life reasons. Seeing Koro-sensei desperately try to help 3-E flourish in a school designed to help them fail is just as engaging as the assassination stuff, if not even moreso. It helps that AssClass does an incredibly job at giving the whole class equal amounts of screentime. There is technically a main protagonist in Nagisa Shiota, and a great one at that, but he never overshadows the rest of the cast. Pretty much every episode shines a spotlight on another student, and the show as a whole rarely ever isolates one character from everyone else. This is an ensemble cast through and through, and the way AssClass efficiently develops its massive 22-student class in such a short span of time is probably one of its most impressive feats. 

Another impressive thing about this first season of AssClass is how well it's structured. For a show based on a manga, it's hard to even tell with how tightly-knit Season 1 is, everything gets paid off in a super satisfying manner. Nagisa spends the season taking notes on Koro-sensei's weaknesses, and they're used in the big final assassination attempt. Irina spends the season coming off as incompetent only to show the students how good of an assassin she really is in a final arc. Many episodes focus on the conflict between Class 3-E and Class 3-A, culminating in 3-E's victory in the finals. The list goes on, it's great. That being said, I do have one pretty major criticism with Assassination Classroom, an issue that I've noticed many shonen anime suffer from: Narration. You will not go an episode without Nagisa telling you that they're assassins, they gotta kill their teacher, they have a year to do it, the weapons aren't designed to kill humans, Koro-Sensei is actually a really good teacher, he moves at Mach 20, you get the point. It's exhausting. I get that shonen anime are meant for kids, but they're not that stupid. The vast majority of the narration in this series post the first episode are either things we already know or can easily imply by just... watching the show. 

Highlights:

School's Out, 1st Term: Ending the Class 3-E storyline on a high note, this episode has the students finally manage to beat 3-A on the finals (as well as getting full marks for their assassination lessons). It's a super heartwarming finale to all the school stuff and sets up the final arc in a great way when the students learn they won a summer vacation over 3-A. Also, Karma getting a reality check when he didn't do as well thanks to his cocky attitude was a great twist.

Go Time: If I had any another criticisms about AssClass's first season, it's that it is a bit on the slow side for its first half. I praised how well laid-out it is, but that does mean that a lot of the season's best moments are all in the final arc. That being said, what a final arc. Go Time has the students pull off their biggest assassination attempt yet, and it's an absolute spectacle to watch, which also makes it absolutely crushing to watch them lose when Koro pulls yet another superpower out of his ass. The second half of Go Time tosses in yet another twist when half the students all gets poisoned, with the antidote being ransomed for a frozen Koro-sensei.

Karma Time, 2nd Period: The last four episodes of the arc has the non-poisoned half of the class slowly work their way up a hotel fighting off enemies and all getting time to shine. As you can tell by the title, Karma gets a great moment here as he shows how much he's grown since his failure during the finals. But despite that, Nagisa was just as notable. I think it's really cool that the main character of an anime has a super androgynous design, and it's finally utilized here as Nagisa has to disguise as a girl to sneak through a club. It's a great sequence that shows how much of a pure cinnamon roll Nagisa is, as despite being pulled over by a drunk rich guy, he manages to talk him out of smoking and into bettering himself.

Nagisa Time: This was a good finale. Nagisa's final battle with Takaoka wasn't super crazy choreography-wise, but it got the vibes perfect. Between the compelling drama of Nagisa having to be talked out of not killing Takaoka, and the shadow-heavy visuals, the stakes feel higher than ever. There aren't really any surprises here, but the plot is resolved in super satisfying fashion.

Overall, Season 1 of Assassination Classroom really feels like a complete package. It's funny, action-packed, filled with a very lovable cast of characters, tackles the education system in a super compelling way, and ends on a fantastic final batch of episodes. It may have a bit of a slow start, and suffers from some very ham-fisted narration, but overall, this show is an incredibly good time.

4/5 Stars