Smallville Season 8 premiers tonight. The CW’s take this season:

THE JUSTICE LEAGUE RETURNS TO FIND CLARK AFTER THE COLLAPSE OF THE FORTRESS; THE NEW CEO OF LUTHORCORP COMES TO TOWN — The Justice League, lead by the Green Arrow (Justin Hartley), hits the Artic in search of Clark (Tom Welling), who disappeared after the fortress collapsed. The team immediately has a confrontation with the new CEO of Luthorcorp, Tess Mercer (Cassidy Freeman). Meanwhile, Chloe (Allison Mack) is being held prisoner by a suspicious group who has discovered she has a new power, and Clark has been stripped of his powers by Jor-El. Erica Durance and Aaron Ashmore also star.

I still haven’t watched the abbreviated season 2 of Heroes.  Other than that, Battlestar Galactica sounds like it’s postponed until next April and that’s all I watch.

UPDATED: Impressions of S08E01 past the break

Ok so starting out, they find Clark’s jacked looking straight down in a tube.  Honestly, why didn’t the Lex team see that?  How weird is that?

Next, Lois snooping around in Luthor Mansion.  Does that place have no security or what?  Especially in the super private den where all of Lex’s work gets done, why do they allow anyone in there ever at all!?!?!?

On to Clark with the Russians, on the plus side, he didn’t have amnesia or anything.  But it was, very weird.  Collapsing in the Arctic and being rescued by caviar black market guys seems pretty far out there.

Chloe is now infected by Brainiac which is concerning.  I hope she doesn’t die.  She’s my favorite character.

Martian Manhunter losing his powers by going to the sun seems bogus since in the episode where he’s mortally wounded he says he has to escape Earth’s atmosphere to heal.  So I dunno about that one.  I don’t think we’ve even touched on his real powers anyway, shape shifting, telepathy, super strength second only to Clark.  Oh well.

Clark is finally starting to become the Clark Kent that we’ve seen in all the other iterations.  I can’t believe it’s taken 8 years to get to this point.  That’s almost horrendous but the big thing that will make or break this season for me is if he really does become more independent.  The story arcs I see evolving are Clark finding the need for dual identities, Clark’s search for the crystal to restore the fortress, Clark helping Green Arrow resolve his issues with being a hero, and the fight with Doomsday.  I hope it doesn’t take all season to find the crystal, especially if he’s going to clash with Doomsday since I imagine Doomsday will kill him.  We’ll see though.  I’m looking forward to this season and this premier has me thinking only good things for the most part (except for Chloe, I really hope she doesn’t die!).