Review - Smallville Season 5: The Official Companion

Smallville Season 5: The Official Companion by Craig Byrne. © 2007 Titan Books. ISBN 1-84576-542-7. Paperback. Pop Culture / TV Tie-in. 159 pages. $14.99 US.

Synopsis
Smallville, the hit series which follows the adventures of a teenaged Clark Kent and his friends - including Lana Lang, Lex Luthor, and Lois Lane - is one of the hottest shows on TV. Author Craig Byrne reveals the secrets of Smallville's memorable fifth year, complete with a Foreword by the man behind Lionel Luthor, John Glover. [excerpted from back cover]

Review
Season Five was a monumental season for the show, at least in my humble opinion (definitely better than this year's dismal excuse for a television show). Season Five was the year The WB moved Smallville from it's normal Wednesday nights to the more competitive Thursdays, plus we finally got new opening credits. Tom Welling also made his directorial debut in S5 ('Fragile').

Introduced in this season was the legendary Brainiac, a Kryptonian supercomputer posing as one of MU's professors. I was a huge Buffy fan and adored James Marsters as Spike, so I was thoroughly excited to see someone of his caliber joining the cast, especially since Angel was cut off so suddenly. We also have the death and resurrection of Clark, introduction into Aquaman, vampire sorority girls, John Kent running for Senator, Clark proposing to Lana then Lana dying in a car accident so Clark sacrifices his father to save her (can anyone not see why I loathe Lana), the vigilante Angel of Vengeance, Chloe's reunion with her mother, intro of Cyborg, Lana getting addicted to a serum that allows her to visit her dead parents, Lex and Lana macking, Martha's kidnapping, Lois' brief stint as a stripper, Clark and Chloe kissing as they think the world is ending (*dreamy sigh*), and not to mention some incredible guest stars (Carrie Fisher and Tom Wopat amongst many others).

If you want to learn more about the show, the episodes (perhaps you missed some), delve deeper into the characters, find out which songs were featured in the episodes, get the inside scoop by reading Chloe's blog, read insights on the crew, or just ogle at some fantastic gorgeous glossy photos (sixteen in complete full color, might I add), then Smallville Season 5: The Official Companion by Craig Byrne is the book for you! Buy it for yourself, buy it for a friend ... just buy it!

About the Author
Craig Byrne runs the unofficial Superman website, kryptonsite.com and has been expertly covering Smallville since 2001. He wrote the Smallville Visual Guide for DK, and is loved by Smallville cast and crew alike.