I'm Watching Smallville

Cafe Society
1

Smallville is next on my list of shows to watch. I was pleasantly surprised with Buffy and Angel, so I decided to go back and pick another show to watch that I had brushed off without giving a chance. So I picked Season 1 of Smallville.

Smallville never really interested me. It’s about Superman and I’ve always found the classic superheros a bit boring. Also, I think I’m getting a little too old for high school based stories. But Smallville seems to be popular and, if I get through the first season, it gives me the option of watching nine more seasons and adding it to my list of currently running shows that I watch. Yeah, I just looked that last fact up before typing this. I didn’t really have any idea it was still running.

So, I’ve watched the first three episodes and, while it’s not bad, I am still a bit underwhelmed and unimpressed. He has one weakness, kryptonite, and they’ve already used it twice. But he is Superman and, besides for that one flaw, he is pretty much indestructible. Right? I’m not really sure I can ever really get invested in a fight where one side is practically invincible.

He got adopted into a perfect family. His father seems like a genuinely nice guy with good morals. I’m always a sucker for those types of characters.

The Smart Chick and the Token Black Guy have done absolutely nothing so far. Yay for them!

Lana Lang doesn’t fit the cookie cutter cheerleader roll. Still too early to say anything else but one vague spoiler I picked up sometime ago seemed to suggest she’s going to go on to do some bad/disappointing things.

The bald rich dude is my favorite so far. Unfortunately, I know enough about Superman to know he becomes the supervillain. Lemme guess, Supes is going to kill his evil father and, as a result of his father’s death, he will turn evil. Once he does turn evil, I will stop liking him. I think Spike from Buffy was the only bad guy I’ve ever really cared for.
So what are your thoughts on the show? Like I said, I’ll definitely go through with all of season 1 but I’m not sure about the rest of it.

Any open discussion about the show is okay with me. Just use the spoilers for the later stuff.

2

Well Sam Jones III (“Token Black Guy” to you) and his Playboy model girlfriend just released a sex tape.

3

The best thing about Smallville was the homoerotic tension between Clark and Lex.

Uh, edited for spoilers for later seasons.

When Michael Rosenbaum left the show, it stopped being worth watching at all.

4

Head’s up: Season 1 is terrible. Season 2 isn’t as terrible. Season 3 and onward really start rocking.

As for Superman’s weaknesses, he’s weak to things other than kryptonite. Mind control, magic, other forms of kryptonite, stupidity, etc.

5

It gets better as it goes. Last season rocked.

6

Drinking game: take a thimble every time Kristen Kreuk “acts” frightened by adorably hyperventilating. You’ll be hammered in no time.

7

The early seasons were fun because of Clark being in High School but the series really gets good once he gets out of high school.

Each season is better than the previous. I just bought season 9 on dvd over the weekend and I am rewatching it. The last couple of season have been awesome because of all the character developement.

My favorite episodes have been the ones with:

the Legion of Superheroes and from season nine the Justice Society. Michael Shanks as Carter Hall/Hawkman is just awesome.

8

Kryptonite is like a character. It is going to be used a lot. It’s how they make their monsters of the week. And Season 1 has the most of those.

It does make more sense as you go, though.

9

Another drinking game- take a shot whenever someone gets knocked out. You’ll be unconscious almost as much as they are.

Seriously, it’s a wonder the entire town doesn’t suffer from massive brain damage. Of course, that might explain some of the plotlines…

10

Growing up reading all the Silver Age Superman comics, and keeping at it until the present, and loving the George Reeves show as a kid, and keeping in mind the poor track record of superheroes on TV, I thought Smallville would be a big yawn.

But they did some thinking.

They kept Clark pre-cape, with a good dose of innocence. They came up with, not just a piece of Kryptonite or two, but a meteor shower (postulated that a bunch of his planet would arrive when Clark did – makes sense). Not wild about the “Monster of the week” (although one was Amy Adams), but they got over it.

And they made Lex an understandable, if not quite sympathetic character.

Great scene where, at the end of the “Shaky Guy” episode (Season 2?) where…
… (ahhh, not a spoiler)…

Lex has been hung out to dry by his dad, and looks over at Clark’s parents supporting him. Michael Rosenbaum fills his stare with longing and jealousy and a tiny spark of hate. It also helps that he and John Glover might just be the scenery-chewingest father-son team ever.

You’d be forgiven if you

left the show when Lex does. (Does this really need spoilertagging? Oh, well…)

11

Chug a whole beer every time she ends up in the Lana Lang Head Injury Wing of her local hospital. :smiley:

Smallville is not a bad show, but it’s not a particularly good show. I’m trying to remember the catchphrases that make us roll our eyes at each other - “Let’s just say…” was one of them. It has some clever, funny writing, but it also has clichéd, ham-handed writing.

12

I’ve had Smalville in my Netflix queue for over a year now bit I keep bumping it down the list in favor of things that seem more interesting. I watched most of the first season when it first aired and never managed to generate much interest. Based on this thread, I’ve decided to bump it back up the list.

13

I just finished watching Season 1, Episode 9. It is not only my favorite episode so far, but the only one that managed to keep my full attention. It might actually be the episode digs is talking about.

A disgruntled and ill employee takes the students hostage in the shit plant so he can go to “Level 3”. I won’t go on to describe it because it’s exactly as digs said.

14

It’s alright. I must like it, because I’m still watching LOL. it’s hard to pin down what about it I really like though.

Things that annoy me (minor spoilers):

[SPOILER]1) Jor-El (and many of the other characters) keeps switching between good guy and bad guy. They end up splitting the difference with “annoying authority figure who’s tough on Clark for his own good”.

  1. The arbitrary loyalty to certain aspects of the Superman mythos. Lex is a villain in the comics, so he has to eventually turn evil. Lana and Clark aren’t together in the comics so they have to break up. Don’t even get me started on what they did with Jimmy. Meanwhile the show is already vastly different from the comics. There’s no reason to pick a few random things as inevitable “because the comics”.

  2. They try to avoid anything supernatural for awhile, but they eventually succumb to adding the mystical.

Although, I’m glad they haven’t

Killed Chloe off yet, even though you can tell they’ve been itching to given her non existence in the comics (there are even some meta moments where they address this).

I’m majorly annoyed that this season (major spoiler):

Lois broke into a lab, and accidently blew it up killing a bunch of people who weren’t really all that evil, and no mention or consequence was made of this.

[/SPOILER]

15

If you want to add it to that list, you’d better hurry up and watch all 9 seasons cause 10 is the last.

16

I’m at the second half of the second season and it’s finally starting to get interesting.

There’s some tension between Chloe and Lana as they’re swooning over the flaky Clark Kent.

Pete still seems completely irrelevant, although he does know Clark’s secret so it’s supposed to make him important or something.

Lex is awesome as always. He is too good to the Kents though. The show would be nothing without this guy.

Clark is finally trying to figure out his origins instead of fighting random bad guys.

Last episode had a billionaire scientist talk to Clark. I didn’t figure it out until the end, but that’s that Superman actor who fell off a horse or something!
ETA: I thought there was already some hot reporter character in the superman comics. Is Chloe pretty much the same person?

17

Lex was awesome - the show lost a lot when they removed Lex.

I thought of another thing to drink to on the show - every time Lana and Clark have an intense conversation about their relationship (and Lana’s eyes fill with tears and lip starts trembling).

18

The thing holding the show back from being a classic is that someone on the production staff likes the woman who plays Lana Lang.

Sadly, he/she is wrong. Lana sucks. She’s pretty, but she’s a terrible actress given terrible lines in a terrible role and…she and Clark have…what’s the opposite of chemistry? Unchemistry? Anti-Chemistry?

Another drinking game. Every time Lana or Clark say the word “Trust” at each other, have a sip of booze. Prepare to suffer alcohol poisoning.

I don’t mind that she’s not true to the comic-book Lana (brave, sometimes foolhardy, impulsive), I mind that they changed her into a suckified wimp who does nothing but whine, bitch and complain.

I keep quitting the show about four Lana/Clark waaaah-fests into the season (and I keep coming back to it when the season’s over hoping maybe it’ll get better–even though I know it never, ever will.)

Frankly, you’ll enjoy the show more (and it’s well worth watching) if you just fast forward past most Lana/Clark interactions.

19

Well, I kind of like Smallville’s Lana - ok, maybe her character is a little flat, but let’s face it - if she has two working brain cells after being knocked unconscious so often it is a miracle. I think the problem is the writers wanted to have it both ways - her going from high school to adult in the show, but they could not transform her into a continuing adult character and still keep to the comic book tradition. Her character had no where to go. I thought they did a good job showing Clark’s frustration in his relationship with her. With Chloe, not being in the traditional Superman, they had much more freedom. Now I hear they may actually put her into the comics. Smallville’s Lois stinks up the place beyond belief. What is the opposite of chemistry? God, she is terrible. Alan Smithee wouldn’t direct her. An unconscious Lana is worth a dozen wide awake Loises any day of the week.

20

We really should spoiler this stuff for the OP.

[spoiler]My only issue with Lois is that she looked and acted thirty when she was supposed to be in high school. I think she is great now.

I have a good feeling Lex will be back at the end of this season as well. I suspect they will tease us right up until the end.[/spoiler]