Smallville 5x01 - Arrival

Stark

Anyone get this from their US cous... (oh I can't do it it's just not funny), anyone get this from the international terrorism and drug smuggling rings who have controversially branched out into on-demand entertainment the other night? I must say I really enjoyed it. Season 4 was pretty piss-poor for the most part with the exception of the season finale which really moved the plot along nicely. The good news is the Season 5 opener continues the pace, while for once providing a satisfying cliffhanger resolution that doesn't tie things up too cleanly. (Unlike the shameful season 4 opener).

Things look setup nicely for the next episode too. Some of the things I really liked:

The fortress of solitude, Kryptonian villains, Clark losing his powers, the whole Superman II thing in general.
FINALLY, Clark knows that Chloe knows his "secret". I can't begin to express the relief and not having to listen to her less than subtle hinting anymore.
Lex coming dangerously close to Clark with the discovery of Kryptonians, and discovering Chloe close to the Antartic and letting slip that she expected to see Clark there too.

With some of the spoilers I've been hearing, it sounds like Season 5 could be the season that whips Smallville back into shape.

One thing bugged me about this episode though:

What the hell happened to Jason? There was no sign of him in the wreckage of the house. I would have preferred to have seen a body rather than leaving that thread hanging as to be frank, he was a really annoying character and it would have been best to kill him off there and then

soiaf

It was a good season opener alright, answered some questions, and left us with a good few more.

I wonder if

Lana is feeling just a little bit confused/paranoid after seeing the same tattoo as hers on someone who came out of a spaceship

I'm looking forward to

Chloe explaining how she ended up at that hospital.

The new opening credits also promise a lot of interesting things as well!

cosgrove80

It was a strong opening episode alright.
It often seems though with Smallville the first few episodes and the last few in each season are good and the rest come across as filler often with little mention of whatever big story arc is going on at the time.

Hopefully this season will keep up the pace.

Hope they have another excellent Witch subplot this year too :rolleyes:

tvnutz

This was better than anything they did last season. The finale was good enough to make me come back and watch after I had nearly quit the show due to the disaster that was season 4. Then it hinged on this episode to see if I would watch the rest of the season. James Marsters as Brainiac is another reason,he was great in Buffy and Angel. And basically,despite the Clana,this season premiere was really good.

Also,Stark,

Lana was reading a newspaper where it said that Jason died,along with his mother. She didn't seem to bothered even though she was in love with the guy at one stage. They messed up that character,terrible writing,especially since he is a good actor. He is better off as one of the leads in Supernatural,which is a great show and he does a good job in it.

Stark

tvnutz wrote:

Also,Stark,

Lana was reading a newspaper where it said that Jason died,along with his mother. She didn't seem to bothered even though she was in love with the guy at one stage. They messed up that character,terrible writing,especially since he is a good actor. He is better off as one of the leads in Supernatural,which is a great show and he does a good job in it.

Yeah, I liked him a lot in Dark Angel, which made me delighted when I first saw him in Smallville, until like you said, they messed up the characterisation. It didn't help that he was an appendix to a redundant Lana storyline either

Cina

Thank god, Smallville could be good again. I think the general concensus is that Season 4, other than the finale was one of THE worst television seasons ever made, it was cringeworthy at times. The finale kept me watching and luckily Arrival was really good. Glad Lois was added to the credits as she was the only good thing to come out of season 4.

tvnutz

Cina wrote:

Thank god, Smallville could be good again. I think the general concensus is that Season 4, other than the finale was one of THE worst television seasons ever made, it was cringeworthy at times. The finale kept me watching and luckily Arrival was really good. Glad Lois was added to the credits as she was the only good thing to come out of season 4.

Very true,I agree with all of that!

tvnutz

Stark wrote:

Yeah, I liked him a lot in Dark Angel, which made me delighted when I first saw him in Smallville, until like you said, they messed up the characterisation. It didn't help that he was an appendix to a redundant Lana storyline either

Ye it was basically the Whitney saga all over again,except with witches lol

cregser

Good ep. I thought the guy at the end was the T1000 for some reason :rolleyes:

Like you guys, my faith in the show is somewhat restored. Also liked the 60's style crypton costumes with the ladies wearing next to nothing of course

Mr E

Yeah, thank god 5x01 was great. Lots of nice developments. I thought that the krypto-villains

were dispatched a bit too easily.... should have kept them around for at least 3 episodes

. Hopefully the pace is kept up for the rest of the season.

LFCFan

when is it back on over here?

Stark

January I believe.

MisterAnarchy

Very good start to the new series.
The start and end of each Smallville series tends to be very good but then it deteriorates in the middle.
Any truth to the rumour the 5th series will only be 13 episodes ?
The show has been moved to a Thursday night slot in the US which is prime tv and the opposition is fierce.

TCamen

First off, I really liked Smallville last season -- there were some poor episodes, but I think S2+3 were less memorable and interesting than S4.

Anyway, 'The Arrival' was everything I was hoping for and more, though I agree with TmB

that the Kryptonians were dispatched waaay too quickly. I loved the Phantom Zone bit though

The other returning shows I've watched, 'Lost' and 'Alias' haven't shown as much promise in their respective openers as 'Smallville'. It's a bit annoying at this stage, that the returning shows have had spoilery credits @ the beginning -- It would've been nice to not have James Marsters name a full 40mins before his final moment appearance.

Other than that, I'm very happy that 'Smallville' is back on, and I love the new opening titles -- it shows some maturity that perhaps signals the producers/writers recognise that it's about time for some real advancement and development with the characters.

Also, with regards the new Thursday slot, this season premiere posted near-identical numbers to the S4 premiere, so despite the much tougher time period there's definitely viewer loyalty. 'Alias' dropped over 50% of it's post-Lost audience - though it deserved a much steeper drop imo.

LFCFan

Finally saw it last night. Well impressed.

You can see the deterioration of Clarkes friendship with Lex gather pace

. Was also surprised at

how easily the bad guys were dispatched. Something tells me we haven't seen the last of them

.

tvnutz

Seems like a lot of effort went into the new opening credits,yet they still managed to spell Kristin Kreuk's name wrong

TCamen

Seems like a lot of effort went into the new opening credits,yet they still managed to spell Kristin Kreuk's name wrong

Did ya read that on TWOP?

tvnutz

Nah,on Kryptonsite.com