The series recounts the early adventures of Kryptonian Clark Kent as he adjusts to life in the fictional town of Smallville, Kansas, during the years before he becomes Superman.

This season focuses on Clark Kent as he starts his job at the Daily Planet, begins to accept more of his destiny as Earth's hero, and develops romantic feelings for Lois Lane.

In other storylines, Clark and Oliver Queen clash over how to handle Lex when he resurfaces, while Chloe Sullivan and Jimmy Olsen take their relationship to the next level.

[4] Show creators Alfred Gough and Miles Millar also departed the series, allowing Kelly Souders, Brian Peterson, Todd Slavkin and Darren Swimmer to continue as executive producers.

[5] Averaging 3.74 million viewers per episode, the season out-ranked other high-profile shows on the network, such as Reaper and Gossip Girl.

As Souders explained, it allowed the writers to work with "blank slates", and come up with ways to "reinvigorate and reinvent the show".

[33] Jeph Loeb added at the time that season eight explores more of the DC Comics mythology, and introduces new characters, as well as expanding on already existing ones in Smallville continuity.

[32] With Justin Hartley added as a series regular, Smallville explored more of his backstory, including why he chose to become Green Arrow, how he accomplished it, and how he became good at archery.

Oliver would be broken down emotionally—questioning whether he made the right choice to sacrifice all for the sake of being Green Arrow—and that causes him to "butt heads" with Clark, who is beginning to embrace his destiny.

Mack's character would also be picking up the Isis Foundation, a counseling center for people infected by kryptonite, that Lana founded before she left Smallville.

Tess Mercer's primary goal for this season was finding Lex, which drew her inquisitively to Clark, who she believed would be able to help her.

[44] Brian Peterson explained that the new executive producers were looking for a villainous character that was "as great as Lex", with Michael Rosenbaum's departure, and Doomsday fit what they were looking for.

[45] The season eight DVD box set was officially released on August 25, 2009,[46] and sold approximately 183,000 units in its first week; it generated an estimated $6.7 million.

Comparatively, the DVD revenue decreased from the previous year, with the season seven box set having sold over 212,000 units and generating an estimated $8 million during its first week.