Warner Brothers recently dropped the prices of many of their TV show DVD sets to $19.99, enabling me to pick up some sets I coveted but couldn't justify at $50. Such as, say, Smallville. We just finished watching the first season and I have been forcibly reminded why I loved the show, why I stopped watching the show, and why I consider it one of the most wasted opportunies in the history of television.
Smallville, if you've missed it, is the story of Clark Kent before he became Superman. No cape, no costume, no flying (mostly). Just an American boy growing up in a very weird small town. Clark discovers his emerging powers, fights ethical and moral battles within himself, tries to act normal while secretly using his powers to help people, and wends his way through the tricky avenues of friendship, loyalties, and love. I'm not going into a synopsis of the show - that's available elsewhere online, in much better detail. But I tuned in avidly, one of the very few shows I bothered to remember to watch, and I was excited at the prospect. I love the Superman character. He's the quintessential American hero. Thanks to a careful upbringing among honest, honorable people Clark simply doesn't see the point of using his gifts to benefit himself over others. John Byrne, whatever his faults, captured this perfectly when he retooled the entire Superman comic series back in the 80's. The movies, whatever their faults, at least started out with the right idea. And in the hands of talented writers and artists Superman becomes admirable not just for what he can do, but for what he chooses to do and why.
I started off loving Smallville despite the silly monster-teen-of-the-week bits. I liked Clark and his family, I liked his friends (although Lana changing from the red-haired country girl of the comics to a dark-haired exotic beauty was a trifle annoying) and I thought the actors playing the Luthors deserved buckets of Emmys. And the notion that Clark was actually sent to Earth to rule just floored me.
But I got more annoyed every week as the plots took us farther and farther away from Superman history. I don't demand that they comply, word by word, with What Hath Gone Before, but some inner consistency would be nice.
Why is Clark's dead father an ongoing character?
Why is it that his powers are so easy to get, lose, and trade? His dad got 'em, some girl from a car wreck got 'em, some kid hit by lightening stole 'em... kinda takes away the uniqueness of being Clark if his abilities are that transient.
What the hell is up with the Cave of Plot Device? Jor-el was here before? He's still around? Clark was prophesied?
After the government took away the first three or four super-powered teenagers, why didn't they quarantine the whole town and test everybody?
Why isn't Clark in jail? He's at the scene of every major disaster, murder, or accident. They sort of touched on this with the new sheriff but didn't keep up with it. For that matter, why don't the cops try to hire Clark?
Once Clark found out kryptonite could hurt him, why wouldn't he take some time every weekend to go kryptonite-hunting with Pete and destroy every rock he found? If heat vision didn't do it there should be some cavern or crevice he could dump it in. What with the sheer amount of kryptonite available it's a miracle Clark survived childhood.
If you had no clue about your origins and you heard from a rich, world-class scientist who spoke your native language and knew where you came from, wouldn't you hang around and pump him for everything you could? Hell, intern with him for the summer or something.
How exactly is Clark going to maintain a secret identity later on around Lex?
"Hold it, Luthor. Your mad scheme ends here!"
"Clark, why are you running around in your jammies? Are you feeling all right?"
Why doesn't Clark practice more to find out what he can do? He still seems to constantly be surprised when a new ability pops up.
Did he pay back all the money he stole during his red-k summer?
Someone on the Smallville staff needs to figure out how strong Clark is and how resistant to damage so that he doesn't shake off something ten times worse than what knocked him out last episode.
Yeah, it's a TV show, you have to expect cheesy special effects. But please, people. When you swing an axe at something unbreakable, the ax bounces. Maybe it bends a little. Or the handle breaks. And the person swinging it hurts their arms. It doesn't shatter into a million dramatic, slow motion pieces. Neither do chain saws or knives. Really.
Watching the first seasons again brought back the stuff I loved: -- The relationship between Clark and his parents. They weren't perfect, but they were unfailingly honest and supportive. -- The relationship between Clark and Lex. It got repetitious, but nothing like this has been seen before. -- The relationship between Lex and Lionel, and Lex's battle against his destiny. Easily the best part of the show. Lex and Lionel are played perfectly, with so many levels going back and forth you need a flowchart to catch them all. Lionel is the most magnificent bastard to walk the earth and it's a thrill to watch him operate. -- The problems Clark faced, and the real dilemmas he had to deal with. He made some hard calls in there, especially regarding Lana when she was with Whitney.
But it got to where there was too much stuff that made me want to crawl into the screen and just start slapping people. The new mythologies. Kryptonite everything. The musical relationships. The ending-every-show-with-someone-pining-for-someone-else. The fact that 10 seconds of conversation in every show would have saved entire relationships. "Can't talk now, Lana, I have to go save Chloe, she doesn't know she's dating a murderer." How long does that take to say?
For that matter, just frigging tell Lana. How can you worry that knowing will endanger her when she's endangered every single episode? Just tell her! Everybody else that visits the show finds about about Clark in the first fifteen minutes, I think they hand out flyers at the Smallville visitor center.
Season Two is where they lost me. Every episode dripped angst. Every episode was a hide and seek game with the spaceship key, which got more screen time than Pete. Every episode I had to watch Clark pine over Lana, Chloe pine over Clark, and Lana pine over everything. I finally stopped watching, the good parts of the show -- and they were still there -- weren't enough to make me forget the "oh, come on" parts.
This season we started watching again, solely because James Marsters is on it. So far I haven't been impressed. And you have no idea how disappointed I am about that.
[ October 14, 2005, 11:31 AM: Message edited by: Chris Bridges ]
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Is James Marsters good? He's the only possible reason for me to watch the show, and I am tempted.
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Are there any spoilers here for anything beyond the first season? A friend of mine has seen the first season and loves it, but isn't yet finished with the second season. If it's safe for her to read Chris's initial post I'll send her a link to this thread.
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Chris, I emphatically agree. Except I got completely disgusted and stopped watching early in the second season.
But yeah, the show had incredible potential, despite its blatant disregard for the mythos. But it squandered it. Posts: 32919 | Registered: Mar 2003
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Ron and I had this same sort of conversation the other night. See, I rented season... 4? disc one because it just came out. So we're a year behind.
We watched the first two episodes and ended up pretty much MST3K-ing them. At the end of ep2, we laughed and said, "Well, at least we know it can't get any worse."
Then we saw the first ten minutes of the "Scabby Abby" episode and decided we were WRONG. I think it may have been the flashback to Freshman year... and I simply could not IMAGINE Tom Welling being fourteen and looking like THAT.
Seriously. If fourteen year olds really looked like that, there would be lots more pregnant teachers in jail.
It was just so painfully sad, to see this show turn so awful. I mean, it isn't even funny when Ron compares Lana to a monkey anymore. The thing with the artful Cryptonian tattoo? It was too embarrassing to make fun of.
It was all fun when it was just, "Ha, ha! Anybody can just walk right in on Lex at any moment. His security sucks!"
But now, it's like laughing at friend who has been horribly disfigured in a car accident - it just isn't funny to make fun of something that broken.
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So are you saying Smallville is differently abled now?
And there's no way Tom Welling could look like that and not hav Lana, along with half the other girls in school, fawning over him.
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I like that Smallville is apparently a nexus for pre-superhero youth to all stop in and visit at one point or another. I know they did a Flash episode, and an Aquaman episode.
If Wonderwoman, the Wondertwins, and a young Bruce Wayne all swing through town, they could start a Superfriends club at Smallville High.
Gimmicks scream desperation to me.
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I liked the Flash episode. It did exactly what I was hoping the series would do: it introduced an old character in a new way with nods to the history of the character without staying restricted to that history, it offered ethical dilemmas inherent in having superpowers, and it demonstrated that Clark's upbringing and personal strength is more important than the fact that he can juggle tractors. Also it was action-packed and funny in places. It worked for me. I dread the Aquaman episode, though. They've lost my faith.
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I guess I don't have a problem with ONE. But when you have a stream of them, it looks like a gimmick, like they need something to bring in viewers because they aren't getting it done without it.
And as soon as I heard they were bringing in a young Lois Lane, I ended all thought of ever watching the show again.
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Yup. Lois Lane bugged me beyond belief. Is it that difficult to write good stories without using gimmicks that ultimately ruin the storyline?
When I watch it now I have to assume it has nothing whatsoever to do with any Superman story I've ever heard of and just watch it as a cheesy superpowered Dawson's Creek.
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What annoys me is the idea of Lana getting annoyed over Clark keeping secrets. Of COURSE he's going to keep secrets. Why can't superhero girlfriends ever understand this?
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Yeah. From Lana's pov, Clark could be secretly doing Lex or something. Not that I've ever *cough* heard anyone imply that *cough*
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Aha! We figured out how to watch the 2nd season without getting too annoyed to continue.
We just watch each episode, and just at the end when Lana inevitably gets that look and starts to say something about friends and secrets we back out to the main menu. Nothing of value lost, and we stopped throwing things at the screen. Mostly.
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I think this season has been a lot better than the previous one. Thank God Jason is gone. Thank God Lionel is back and nasty.
I hate them for killing Alicia, but I love them for letting Chloe in on the secret.
Clark can't tell Lana. Ever. Because if he does, he's going to find that his worst fears about how she'll react pale in the face of how she really does.
Consider: Her parents were killed by a Kryptonite meteor strike. She was nearly killed by two vicious and homicidal Kryptonians. She knows that the meteor rock can harm or kill them.
She hates aliens with a bloody passion. I mean hate. If she finds out that Clark is an alien, and worse, a Kryptonian, she's going to do her level best to kill him. There's not a chance in hell that she'll give him any benefit of the doubt, because the combination of her parents' death, her traumatic experience with Super Ken and Barbie, and the massive violation of trust she'll see on Clark's part will turn every positive feeling she's ever had for him into more fuel for her hatred.
Anyway, I wish they'd dump continuity entirely and let Clark wind up with Chloe. Not that she couldn't do a whole helluva lot better, but he couldn't.
Oh, and how weird is it that Tom Welling was born April 26, 1977, and Brandon Routh, who will play the adult Superman in Superman Returns next year, was born October 9, 1979? There must be some sort of time travel involved...
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I loved the show until Lois Lane showed up. Everything changed. I can't stand it anymore. I've seen this happen with manys shows.
I hypothosize that the dynamics changed behind the scenes: Different writer. The producer forced everyone to target a different (probably younger and *more* male audience). Perhaps the addition of the Lois Lane character changed everyone. I don't know.
If I were cool I'd do a research project on this and all shows that suddenly tank.
I watched parts of an episode the other day to see if this season got better. I could watch it, sorta. But it still bugs me badly.
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I initially said I'd never watch Smallville. I mean Clark Kent knowing Lex Luthor when he's younger? It just sounded hokey and all. Then one night I caught an episode when nothing else was on. From that point on (this was the end of season 1), I started watching every week. The main thing that allows me to enjoy the show is that I keep in mind that this has to be a total alternate universe thing. There's just too many errors for it to match up with the comics. With it being an alternate universe, they can do whatever with the characters, and I can just be along for the ride.
In regards to the new season, so far I'm quite pleased. We really haven't had the villain/meteor freak of the week type thing so far. There have been a lot of interesting plot points and stuff to speculate on. Next week brings in Aquaman, so we'll see whether they can keep it up or not.
EDIT: I also disliked them killing off Alicia, but that's because I thought she was an interesting character and quite good looking. I wish they would have kept her around at least a few more episodes.
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I watched Smallville through season two with my best friend, primarily because Lana is gorgeous, Michael Rosenbaum can actually act very well, and it was a great show to pull MST3K on. But then we saw the season premiere of three and came to the conclusion that it was too painful to MST3K on anymore, and that neither Kristin Kreuk's beauty nor Rosenbaum's acting chops could save it for us.
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I thought the show's been pretty dorky, the few times I watched it, but I thought the season opener rocked. The Phantom Zone and General Zod? Yes, please!
Too bad I haven't gotten to watch anything since then.
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quote:Originally posted by pfresh85: *possible spoilers*
I initially said I'd never watch Smallville. I mean Clark Kent knowing Lex Luthor when he's younger? It just sounded hokey and all.
<blink> That's... <laugh> that's actually really funny. You know, up until the late 80s, Clark and Lex had been best friends as kids. In the comics, I mean.
Clark and Lex were classmates, and best friends. Lex was also friends with Superboy (back then, Kal-El had all his powers the moment he landed on Earth, and there are some fun Superbaby stories).
Lex was a super-genius, and had very little patience for the average person. Superboy built him a lab of his own on the outskirts of town, and filled it with just about all the equipment and chemicals Lex could dream of.
Then one day, Superboy was flying by, and saw Lex's lab on fire, with Lex trapped inside. He blew out the fire with his super-breath and saved Lex.
Problem was, Lex had just succeeded in creating life in a beaker. When Superboy blew out the fire, he managed to kill Lex's creation. Possibly, it would have died from the fire anyway, but we'll never know. Also, the fumes from the fire made red-haired Lex lose all the hair on his body.
From that moment, Lex hated Superboy with a passion, and turned to crime.
For those of us who all of a sudden saw this relationship cease to exist retroactively in the late 80s, it was cool to see it being redone on Smallville.
Right now, DC is in the middle of changing everything again. So get used to origins being different from what you're used to.
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It was kind of cool that the voice of Jor-El is played by the guy who played General Zod in the movies.
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Well I didn't start reading Superman until 1991/1992 or so. So yeah, it's probably why I hadn't heard of any of this stuff (or at least why I refuse to admit that some of it exists). Another similar problem in my mind is the fact that they made Metropolis be right near Smallville. Since when is that true? Hasn't it always been that Smallville is in Kansas and Metropolis is on the east coast (like New York or some such place)?
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Smallville was always more or less in the Midwest. Where is anyone's guess. Central City was where Akron, Ohio is. Metropolis... well, I've heard it said that Metropolis is Manhattan in the daytime, and Gotham City is Manhattan at night. So yeah, the TV show has them strangely close together.
The weirdest thing for me in the show, though, is the fact that Jonathan and Martha Kent look exactly like what I'd imagine the original Pete Ross and Lana Lang looking like as adults. Pete was blond and blue eyed, and Lana was the little red headed girl next door.
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Chris, I love those novels. My copies are old and worn, but I treasure them. That's the Supes I know and love. I wasn't wild about his adaptation of Kingdom Come, but his Starwinds Howl online novel about Krypto, and the story "Luthor's Gift" weren't bad at all.
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Yeah. I was sort of stunned when Pete was African-American (I guess they needed diversity in the cast?) and Lana had dark hair. I recalled Pete and Lana (who were married if I recall right) calling Lois to ask about how she was dealing with Clark's death (way back in the Death of Superman days).
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starLisa - Thank you! I never checked online, didn't even know the short stories existed. Just spent a few minutes converting the chapter-by-chapter novels into complete ebooks, so now I can give my battered old paperbacks a rest.
I kinda liked his Kingdom Come. This moral Superman was entirely his style, although he was a bit weaker on the other characterizations.
Didn't mind Pete being black or the odd introduction of Chloe. But Pete was the single biggest failure of the show. Not the actor, but the fact that they underused him horribly.
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Well, Chloe is great. She's doing Pete's part from the comics (knowing Clark's secret identity), although Clark never knew that Pete knew in the comics. Also, Chloe and Lex and Lionel are the only ones in the show who can act their way out of a paper bag. I think they should give Chloe the powers, kill off all three Kents and Lana Lang, and let Chloe-as-Supergirl deal with Luthor & Son.
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No only is Chloe great ... and I'm with you starLisa on the Choe, Lex and Lionel would make a great show ... she also has a fabulous wardrobe!
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I'd love a Lex and Lionel show, and Chloe isn't a bad addition by any means. starLisa, I got a laugh at your Chloe-as-Supergirl idea. Is it bad that I could totally picture that?
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Hey, she's blonde, right? I could see finding out that she's the real Kara Zor-El, Kal-El's cousin, and that prolonged exposure to Kryptonite robbed her of her powers temporarily.
She's certainly got more hero in her than the farmboy.
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I think Chloe is the more adventurous heroine while Clark is the reluctant hero. I could easily see it though. It'd be a fun sort of twist.
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Having said that, I watched the rest of the episodes on the first season 4 disc, and I think I may rent the rest, knowing that my Beloved will not watch any more of it with me. Clark and Lana annoy me. Chloe annoys him, too. It's just becoming an unpleasant slog.
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Even had I no problems with the storylines and inane, "If only someone had taken 5 seconds to explain instead of looking defensive we could have avoided a whole season of recriminations" scenes, the physical stuff bugs me.
In one episode a Jekyl-and-Hyde teen grabs a helicopter and prevents it from taking off. Unless his transformation also made him weigh 800 pounds, this just don't happen. You run to another city, your shoes should be trashed. You shield someone from a fire, your clothes should be at least singed. And Clark's abilities in superspeed mode are wildly inconsistent and usually unintentionally funny.
And then Lex or Lionel says something in just the right way to suggest endless depths of Machiavellan machinations and I sigh and watch the next show.
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Come on. The "SCIENCE" of superman was never anything more than a nod. It was a vehicle. It was comic book (old style) and that was it. I mean Peter Parker becoming Spiderman because of a bite? Even if there was a Super Spider, created through genetic engineering, why on earth would it's bite genetically rewrite Peter so that he had Spider abilities. And why just some of them? Why not super hairy legs? Why not 8 legs? Why not compound eyes?
Comic books have never made sense, scientifically. And we are suprised that a TV show based on a comic book from the 30's has incredibly hokey science?
I laugh at the stupidity of Smallville, like Byron's pulling on the Helicoptor. Or how many times Jonathan can be hit, shot, die, knocked out and still be back to normal the next week. That guy's superman, if you ask me. And Lex, as many times as he's been hit over the head or drugged (even by Clark, in one case), should have severe brain damage. And the Luthor mansion security is a joke and a half. And why doesn't Lex have security camera's all over his library, with all the times someone (usually Clark) has broken in.
Plot devices and artificial excitement.
And Season 4, with the exception of the premier, Run, Transference and the Alicia episodes, well and truly sucked. The show truly jumped the shark. It was like the writers/producers had no care for anything. And the ratings showed that, as it hemorraged viewers. Especially and the finale got closer, I, and other fans, were angry that they were giving us crap like Clark and Lana being parents or some retarded kid building a fake High School and collecting students for it. (Come on! What are they going to do all day? "Let's go to class." And do what? There's no teacher. There's no work. And where will they sleep. The worst. The absolute worst.)
But this season (so far- fingers crossed) seemed like one of the famed ST:Voyager resets. It's like last season never really happened, at least the bad stuff. But I am somewhat worried. It could get bad.
starLisa, I agreed with everything you had to say about the series, especially Lana and her reaction. But I'd still like to see that. Since there's going to be a real triangle (Clark, Lex, and Lana) it'd make Lana's interest in Lex more realistic. Like they become partners against Clark.
Because in a way I believe that Lex has gone bad because Clark has lied to him (terribly, I might add) every step of the way. When Lex did wrong he jumped down his throat. But when Clark (on Red-K) went bad, no apology or peace making or anything. Clark has been the user, always asking for favors. Lex has tried to be his friend and bent over backwards for him. But Clark was never honest about anything, not even when he could be. Lex meant no harm. Now he is much more menacing.
Thanks, big dumb alien. (And that's how Seinfeld saw him. Remember the AMEX commercials?)
But the show has, so far, been really good, aside from a few moral choices and deceptions that I cannot believe Clark would even make. I mean, if he was going to sleep with Lana, you'd think the honorable thing would be at least to let her know he was not human. She really had a right to know, regardless that he lost his powers again this week.
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In regards to Spider-Man, he did at one point have 8 limbs, was hairy, and had compound eyes. It was due to further mutation, in which he became Man-Spider.
I do agree with the general proposition though that it's a comic book series and you shouldn't be so scientifically analytical about it. It's one of those things. If they say it works, then it works.
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The show has definitely lost something. I still watch it, though. And I admit, a big part of it, bigger than the screentime they get, is for the Luthors. The show has definitely blown much of its potential, in an effort to hit a different target audience.
Which is stupid, in my uninformed opinion, because while yes, the Dawson's Creek audience is bigtime, there's that audience plus legions of geeks and comic book fans who coulda tapped in if they'd made a compromise more towards the middle of the line, rather than going Dawson's Creekville.
I agree, IanO. Lex has a lot to be pissed about. Frankly I'm surprised he hasn't already busted out his Billionaire Magnifying Glass and started bursting Kent ants instead of just lookin' at `em.
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Nope, sorry, I remain peeved about physical impossiblities within the defined parameters.
Clark can catch a car? Fine, I'll accept that as part of the story. But Clark catching a car must also include Clark getting knocked off his feet or driven down into the ground. The best Superman (and superhero) stories are those in which the character's powers are defined and they use them in accordance with known physical laws and limitations. Then the character has to get creative with his or her abilities when they're not perfectly suited for the task at hand, and they have to deal with the consequences of such actions. Of course, that requires an intelligent, creative writer, and there seem to be too few of those.
The fewer allowances I have to make, the more I can relax and enjoy the show. Otherwise it's just an endless litany of "Oh, come on" before I switch it off, especially when nearly every major annoying lapse could be easily avoided with some common sense and attention to detail.
Such as Dr. Octopus in Spider-Man 2. Hokey? Sure. Unbelievable? Once you accepted the neural attachments, the physics of it were well-handled. I noticed he always had two arms bracing against the street whenever he lifted anything heavy, and that made sense to me.
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Why does he have to get knocked off his feet or driven into the ground? I mean to him it's like catching a baseball (so that gets rid of knocking him down when he catches it) and as for driven into the ground, do you think the weight is really that extreme to force him down? To me, this seems like nit picky stuff.
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