No Lex, no problem

With Lex and Lana gone and Clark Kent (Tom Welling) still nowhere near Superman-territory, an eighth season of “Smallville” didn’t seem necessary.

But the departure of those cast members actually allowed the writers to free up Clark from the drama, sending him to the Daily Planet and on his way to becoming the Man of Steel, making season eight the program’s best in years.

The introduction of uber-villian Doomsday upped the ante for a more mature Clark, but also led to intriguing story lines for Allison Mack’s Chloe, who has long been the show’s best performer.  

The features chronicle the show’s changes fairly well and offer solid insights into production on a few commentaries.

Though the quality drops off in the season’s second half, year eight brought fans numerous iconic moments, including Clark and Lois working at the Planet together, comic-faves the Legion of Super Heroes and of course, Doomsday.

For a show in its eighth year, you can’t get much better than that.