Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		4.0

Smallville: The Complete First Season Blu-ray Movie Review

Waiting for Superman.

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.

To say that Smallville was a creative gamble would be a pretty big understatement. While the franchise had already enjoyed successful TV iterations before -- the previous decade's Lois and Clark (1993-97), Superboy (1988-92) and, of course, the iconic original Adventures of Superman starring George Reeves (1952-58), the newest challenge was to translate familiar characters to a format more appealing to teenage audiences. Though first pitched as a Lois Lane-centered show in the summer of 2000 by Al Gough and Miles Millar (who were greatly influenced by 1998's Superman for All Seasons, a four-limited series by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale). the series would eventually focus on what its creators called "puberty with superpowers": an exploration of how teenage Clark would change through the years. Of course, the gamble paid off: Smallville would enjoy immediate success and go on to become the longest running superhero show in TV history to date, spanning 10 full-length seasons that aired on two different networks.

Although later seasons would greatly broaden the series' mythology in comparison to Season 1's reliance on "monster-of-the-week" episodes, this first run of episodes still does a lot of things right. The expansion of Clark Kent's hometown, which was rarely a major backdrop in the original comics, allowed room for the development of minor characters and the addition of new ones, including friends Chloe Sullivan (Allison Mack, who's a perfectly fine person if you haven't followed the news in at least a decade) and Pete Ross (Sam Jones III). Iconic characters like Lex Luthor (Michael Rosenbaum) were greatly reinvented, while the addition of Lex's overbearing father Lionel (John Glover) allowed for dramatic development arcs and more depth for what might have otherwise been a one-note character. The show's overall tone, especially during this first season, stood in stark contrast with the increasingly bleak comic book landscape of the 1990s, aided tremendously by the decision to make his adoptive parents Martha (Annette O'Toole, who played Lana Lang in Superman III) and Jonathan (John Schneider) younger and more present. Smallville quickly established a unique visual style, balancing heavy special effects with an atmosphere true to both small-town drama and the series' vintage comic book roots. But perhaps the most unlikely factor in its early success was when the series first aired: October 16, 2001, barely a month after 9/11, when audiences were hungry for truth and justice.

This first season seems almost quaint in hindsight, with relatively simple plots and slow-burning mythology that's not afraid to poke fun at itself every once in a while. Standout episodes include "Pilot" (a great introduction that originally aired as a two-parter), "Leech" (Clark loses his superpowers and learns what it's like to feel pain), and "Tempest" (the season finale, starring a tornado as only Kansas can make them). All 21 episodes are 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

• "Pilot" (Syndicated version - see "Bonus Features" below)
• "Metamorphosis"
• "Hothead"
• "X-Ray"
• "Cool"

• Disc Two

• "Hourglass"
• "Craving"
• "Jitters"
• "Rogue"
• "Shimmer"
• "Hug"

• Disc Three

• "Leech"
• "Kinetic"
• "Zero"
• "Nicodemus"
• "Stray"

• Disc Four

• "Reaper"
• "Drone"
• "Crush"
• "Obscura"
• "Tempest"

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

Smallville ran the visual gamut during its ten-year run and, to put it mildly, Season 1 got off to a pretty rough start. Though shot on 35mm film, this first season was finished in standard definition with somewhat lower-resolution special effects to match... or blend in more seamlessly, if you're an optimist. Compared with later seasons (even the very next one, which was finished in HD), it's clearly the caboose on this train. But that doesn't necessarily spell disaster for this Blu-ray's 1080p presentation, which might technically be an upscale but successfully wrings just about every available ounce out of its limited source material. Fine detail and textures are lacking and a few (baked-in?) source defects are present, including light aliasing and occasional color bleeding. Establishing shots don't look great either, with edge enhancement and ringing visible on several occasions. New viewers should come with their expectations in check but, all things considered, this seems to be a well-rendered presentation that easily outpaces the old DVD release. If you've streamed early episodes on Hulu in recent months, which are sourced from the same masters, you'll likely appreciate the modest bump in quality thanks to Blu-ray's superior compression; even with 5-6 episodes per dual-layered disc, it handles everything without any major problems. As always, the included screenshots offer a more tangible consensus of this set's visual strengths and weaknesses, with the caveat that most everything looks better in motion.

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

Season 1 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. (In typical Warner Bros. fashion, lossless 2.0 is not an option.) 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 nicely-prioritized 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 gets a bit more ambitious as the series progresses, so consider this a pretty great effort for a TV series from this time period.

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

Smallville: The Complete First 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. The bonus features mirror those found on the original DVD set, although a few odds and ends (outdated promos and a DVD-ROM based "Interactive Tour of Smallville") are not among them.

• Extended Pilot Episode - The slightly extended version of the pilot episode as it originally appeared on the Season 1 DVD collection (which technically makes the syndicated version the bonus feature, but I digress). Unfortunately, it has not been remastered in HD like the other episodes.

• Audio Commentaries for the extended pilot (featuring co-creators Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, along with episode director David Nutter) and "Metamorphosis" (Gough and Millar)

• Deleted Scenes for "Pilot" and "Metamorphosis"

• Storyboard to Screen Comparison for the pilot episode

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

Smallville first season hit the ground running when it originally aired in 2001, quickly introducing viewers to new and familiar characters that took park in relatively simple, straightforward adventures. While the show would develop a much deeper mythology as it progressed, this is a solid enough starting point and holds up surprisingly well 20 years later. Warner Bros.' Blu-ray presentation wrings what it can out of the limited source material and most of the first season's legacy bonus features have been left intact. Recommended to old and new fans alike.