This past February I began binge watching the entire series of Smallville. It took several months to take it all in, culminating by watching the series finale on October 16, 2016, the fifteenth anniversary of the series premier on The WB
What an amazing series. The premise of young Clark Kent’s journey to the Superman he will become, is riddled with mystery, teenage angst and a boatload of Kryptonite. There are villains aplenty and many special guest stars. Every incarnation of Superman up to the time of this series is represented here, including the actual suit worn in the film Superman Returns.
The series is fun and lively and holds in high esteem its source material. I adored the small town charm of the earliest episodes. Johnathan (John Schneider) and Martha Kent (Annette O'Toole) with their adopted son from the stars, Clark Kent (Tom Welling) are a wonderful example of a mid-American homogenous nuclear family. The parents ingrain in their son the values of honesty, truth and love. It is exciting to see Clark discover his new powers as he matures and as his parents, mere mortals, try to keep him (pardon the pun) well grounded.
Clark’s relationship with his birth father Jor El (Terence Stamp) of Krypton is a rocky, tumultuous affiliation. First of all Jor El, who is only a disembodied voice, gives Clark cryptic instructions that seem maniacal in nature, in direct conflict with Jonathan Kent’s counsel regarding truth and Justice. These schizophrenic life lessons lead poor Clark on a confusing journey to sort out what his true destiny is.
Lex Luthor (Michael Rosenbaum) and his father Lionel Luthor (John Glover) have a relationship that is built on betrayal, distrust and vengeance. Michael proves to be the quintessential Lex Luther, (Sorry Gene). His characterization is so charming and charismatic making his inescapable descent to the dark side all the more tragic. It is great fun to watch the relationship between Clark and his good friend Lex deteriorate into the arch enemies they are destoned to be.
Lana Lang (Kristin Kreuk) is Clarks love interest. Cloe Sullivan (Allison Mack) and Pete Ross (Sam Jones III) join with Clark to form a Scooby-Doo team of teenage crime solvers. There are plenty of mysteries and strange goings on to investigate during these early episodes, as well as an enormous amount of meteor rocks (Kryptonite), maybe too much. All of these younger actors really develop their acting chops throughout the run of the show.
The bulk of my criticism is on the latter half of the series run. The series is actually two different shows. For me Smallville ended when the kids graduated high school. The shot of them walking way from the school on the last day was the closing shot. The five years that followed was in fact a subsequent spinoff series which should have been titled Metropolis. The cast was changed the location was focused more on Metropolis and there were more heros, action and smoochies. And unfortunately there was a rating drop here on the original run, spin offs rarely exceed their parent show.
They kept the high school comradery as tight as they could but it eventually became obviously forced. The high school romance of Clark and Lana went on way too long. We really needed more time to develop a devoted believable mature love relationship with Lois Lane (Erica Durance), and far too much time was taken up with saying good bye to Lana. I was charmed by Lana in the beginning but well into this second half she started to really get on my nerves.
This second half of the series run introduces many of the established DC heros. Oliver Queen-Green Arrow (Justin Hartley) was brought on as a regular as was Tess Mercer (Cassidy Freeman) Lex’s sister. We see the history of the Justice Society. Aquaman, The Flash, Star-Girl, Cyborg and Hawkman all make appearances. Producers did miss a golden opportunity by omitting Batman. I know they didn’t want to present any conflict with the current Batman movie franchises at the time, but come on. I would have loved to have seen Wayne Enterprises go after Luthor Corp.
Most of the iconic villains appear at this point. The villains such as Doomsday, Metallo, Bizarro and Dark-Seid all come on with threatening bluster but are all dispersed too simply. I realize that there are budget constraints but the battle between Clark and Doomsday was shorter than his fight with Rose Greer. Come on people you’ve got super monsters let’s make it more of life threatening risk to fight them. Major Zod (Callum Blue) and Brianiac (James Marsters) were the exceptions, their threats were well paced and they were genuinely unnerving.
I come away from the series with a real appreciation for the character of Superman. His nobility and optimistic attitude is wonderfully illuminated in this fable. I am eager now read the book that inspired this series Superman: The Last Son of Kryton by Elliot S. Maggin. Ancient tales of old have their heroic adventurers, for our culture there is none more recognized and beloved than that of Superman. Smallville is a wonderful look at the character under the cape.
-Michael Wilhelm-