Product Review: Smallville Season 5 DVDs

The SMALLVILLE DVDs hit the shelves tonight at midnight across the United States as thousands of avid fans rush to the local store to purchase their copy. If you're unsure whether you want to purchase one yourself, perhaps this review will help you make up your mind, because you really don't want to miss this set, especially for any Allison Mack or Chloe Sullivan fan!

Season 5 marked the very first year that Allison has starred in every single episode. On top of her continuous appearance in all 22 episodes, she was also very heavily featured as Clark Kent's best friend and confident, as well as budding journalist at the most prestigious newspaper in DC history, The Daily Planet. And that's just the meat of these DVD disks.

It appears that Season 5 truly WAS Allison's year to shine and fully form Chloe as she is also very heavily featured and promoted throughout the rest of the DVDs as well, from the DVD Insert, to special features, to high compliments in commentaries.

Straight off, once you open the DVD set, you'll notice that the insert/booklet features the Daily Planet and Metropolis on the front cover, and a picture of Clark holding Chloe at the Fortress of Solitude from the episode "Arrival" on the back cover. Now, those are iconic images, for sure. But it doesn't just stop on the covers! Once you flip inside the book you'll see Chloe/Allison very predominantly in multiple images on almost every page, and almost always in a very eye-catching position surrounded by either Lex or Clark.

One of the first disks I wanted to see was the Vengeance Chronicles, since they were something I really enjoyed during the season. These little mini promotional videos feature Chloe Sullivan and Andrea Rojas (Denise Quiñones) who plays superhero to Chloe's reporter while they work together to prove the mysterious Level 33.1 was real and really controlled by the waxing villain, Lex Luthor. One feature that did not originally air with these promotional videos last season was the presence of two easter eggs.

In the VC chapter titled "Level 33.1" there is a moment where Denise's character, Andrea, is standing in front of a set of monitors. If you hover your mouse over those monitors, they turn red. Clicking on the monitors will take you to a separate screen where you can learn more about what went on in Level 33.1 with certain key characters from the show.

A second easter egg is in the last VC Chapter, as Chloe is typing in her Digital Wall of Weird. Clicking on the word "Hero" will take you to an updated version of Chloe's digital wall of weird, featuring some of the season's most important people who piqued Chloe's curiousity.

As if Allison's predominant presence throughout the DVDs wasn't enough, people just couldn't stop talking about her even on the episode commentaries. James Marshall and James Marsters had nothing but fabulous and uplifting things to say about Allison during the commentaries. You definitely don't want to miss hearing those two go on and on about Allison!

Finally, if the above hasn't sold you on purchasing the disks, perhaps a mini personalized tour through wardrobe and make-up by Allison herself will do the deed. Go with Allison while she gets her makeup applied in front of cameras for the 100th Episode documentary feature on the DVDs. The default documentary is a half-hour long but if you buy your DVDs from Best Buy, you will also receive an hour-long documentary made especially for the Best Buy set!

Personally, season 5 was my favorite season so far because of the amazing talent that was utilized on-screen when they choose to expand their use of Allison. There were several episodes that were saved by Allison's amazing performance alone (literally) and she deserves as much kudos as possible. Some stellar episodes to check out immediately for the Allison fan include Tomb, where Allison gave an outstanding emotional production of a scarred woman facing her killer from a decade ago; Thirst, where the fabulous voice of Allison is featured throughout the episode in a Veronica Mars voice-over (or a Comic-Book Narrative) as it tells the story of how Chloe got into the ground floor of the Daily Planet; and Vessel, where Chloe and Clark share an intimate iconic moment with a variant of a Superman song playing in the background.

So, be sure to get your copies as soon as possible! You can purchase them through Amazon.com or get them from Best Buy for the extra half-hour of the Extended 100th Episode Documentary, produced by RetroFit Films and scored by Vengeance Chronicles composer, Greg Nicolett. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!