Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		3.0
Overall		4.0

Smallville: The Complete Fifth Season Blu-ray Movie Review

Bright lights, big city.

NOTE: As of this review, the first five seasons of Alfred Gough and Miles Millar's long-running superhero TV series Smallville, exploring the early adventures of Clark Kent (Tom Welling), are only available on Blu-ray as part of Warner Bros.' 2021 Complete Series boxed set. Originally airing between 2001-2006, these episodes now sport new 1080p transfers and lossless audio, as well as most of the legacy bonus features contained on the original DVD sets.

Finally, there's a city on the front cover background instead of another cornfield, as Season 5 of Smallville marks the biggest departure yet (at least on paper). Clark is now bound for college at Metropolis University. The show's visual design undergoes more than a few subtle changes, mostly due to the new environments. A few character dynamics are all but totally inverted, especially in the Luthor household. Two major supporting characters bite the dust, and we even meet a few DC familiars for the first time, including Professor Milton Fine AKA Brainiac (James Marsters).

Behind the scenes, things were rapidly changing too: Smallville was moved to a competitive timeslot of Thursdays at 8:00 pm, which could have spelled disaster but led to some of the highest ratings in the show's history. This would also be the final season that aired on The WB network before Smallville moved to The CW, a joint venture between recently-merged Warner Bros. Entertainment and the CBS corporation, whose own network UPN was folded in as well. While the show's creative team remained intact, one very specific director made his debut this year: Tom Welling, who would helm episode #5 ("Fragile") and direct six more during the next five seasons, including the fan-favorite Season 9 JSA meet-up "Absolute Justice, Part 2". Smallville's 100th episode "Reckoning" also aired this year, cementing its status for possible syndication (a badge of honor that doesn't mean as much now in the age of streaming).

But the real highlights are still front and center, with Smallville charging forward to "the big leagues" with another mostly-solid batch of soapy drama and sci-fi tinted action. Major happenings include the debut of the Fortress of Solitude in season opener "Arrival", a team-up between Chloe (Allison Mack) and fully-human Clark that leads to a memorable confrontation with Lex Luthor (Michael Rosenbaum) in "Mortal", the follow-up episode "Hidden" which sees Clark's resurrection lead to a very notable death later this season, a familiar time-reversal trick in the mid-season stunner "Reckoning", and more. And while there aren't many total misfires this year (save for "Thirst", which is so bad it borders on enjoyable), Smallville developed the bad habit of setting up a handful of potential spin-offs with familiar superhero guest stars. (Aquaman even scored a 2006 pilot, which never came to fruition but is included on the Complete Series Blu-ray set.) For now, this year's crop of 22 episodes is again spread across four discs, some of which include deleted scenes and audio commentaries -- see below for a list of those bonus features and more.

Episode List:

• Disc One

• "Arrival"
• "Mortal"
• "Hidden"
• "Aqua"
• "Thirst"
• "Exposed"

• Disc Two

• "Splinter"
• "Solitude"
• "Lexmas"
• "Fanatic"
• "Lockdown"
• "Reckoning"

• Disc Three

• "Vengeance"
• "Tomb"
• "Cyborg"
• "Hypnotic"
• "Void"
• "Fragile"

• Disc Four

• "Mercy"
• "Fade"
• "Oracle"
• "Vessel"

Smallville: The Complete Fifth Season Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Season 5 of Smallville was the first of the series to reach high definition home video when it hit... um, HD-DVD in November 2006. (Incidentally, it's one of the only TV seasons to be released on that short-lived format.) So while there may be a few dead-technology die-hards out there able to do a direct comparison, for most it'll be the first time seeing this particular stretch of episodes in true HD. In most respects, Season 5 follows the same visual template as previous years... at least under the hood, with the series' mix of bright and inviting colors balancing well with chillier emotional moments and big-city sleekness. It's just another quality 1080p treatment that serves up a respectable amount of fine detail, crisp color saturation, noticeable textures, and deep shadows that don't suffer from extraneous levels of black crush. Again, I'll point out how much the series' filmic roots work in its favor, even if many of the special effects still don't exactly blend in perfectly when carefully examined. But like the show itself, it often works just fine if you don't study it under a microscope: everything looks quite smooth and pleasing in motion with an even, not-too-heavily-processed appearance that suffers from occasional noise and a handful of source-related shortcomings. As the last of the true "upgrades" on Smallville's complete series set -- since Seasons 6-9 were already released to Blu-ray, albeit on poorly-encoded discs -- it caps off the series' first half nicely and fans will be pleased with the results.

Smallville: The Complete Fifth Season Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

As with the previous four seasons, Season 5 enjoys a hefty sonic upgrade over its DVD counterpart, launching from a lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 mix to a full DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio track. (Although I penalized earlier seasons for not including that original mix, the aforementioned HD-DVD release featured a Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 mix so I'll ease up on the punishment this time around.) Either way, I doubt fans will mind: I was impressed with the 2.0 mix back in the day and this presentation expands upon it nicely, offering a few punchy discrete effects and channel pans alongside the front-loaded dialogue and era-specific music cuts. Superpowers, special effects, and the like are often more immersive than the real-world material while still blending in nicely within the series' particular boundaries. Much like its visuals, Smallville's audio would get more ambitious beginning with Season 6, which aired in full 5.1 surround. For now, the conversion of these earlier seasons to that same format has yielded pretty enjoyable results.

Optional subtitles, including English (SDH), are included during all episodes and applicable bonus features.

Smallville: The Complete Fifth Season Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This four-disc set is packaged in a hinged keepcase with attractive cover artwork similar to the original DVD release. No booklet is included, although episode names and extras are listed on the collage-heavy inner print. On-disc bonus features mirror those found on the original DVD release, although a few odds and ends (the "Vengeance Chronicles" webisodes and a few outdated sneak peeks of Superman Returns) are not among them.

• Audio Commentaries for "Thirst" (a candid "worst episode ever" track featuring executive producers Alfred Gough and Miles Millar) and "Splinter" (Gough and Millar, along with actor James Masters)

• Deleted Scenes for "Hidden", "Aqua", "Thirst", "Fanatic", "Reckoning", "Tomb", "Cyborg", "Hypnotic", "Fragile", "Mercy", "Fade", and "Vessel"

• Smallville's 100th Episode: The Making of a Milestone

• Look, Up In The Sky! The Amazing Story of Superman - A teaser for the 2006 documentary.

Smallville: The Complete Fifth Season Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Smallville wraps up its belated new-to-Blu-ray restoration with Season 5, another fine effort from Warner Bros. that cements the Complete Series as a boxed set worth owning for die-hard fans and newcomers alike. (Seasons 6-9 are modestly upgraded as well, mostly due to improved encoding, but the differences aren't as drastic.) Serving up another solid A/V presentation and all but two of the DVD-era extras -- and of course, plenty of fan-favorite episodes -- it's TV on Blu-ray done right. How about Lois and Clark next? Teenage me has a soft spot for that one.