I really like the show, and catch it when I can (not often, sadly). I’m not one of those Continuity Police, and I’ve not read the Superman comic in my 35 years of manly existence. Smallville to me is an entertaining retelling of the Clark Kent myth - not an offensive disrespectful violation of the Sacred Superman Fantasy.
I’ll go against the grain here and tell you that I think Tom Welling is great in the role of Clark Kent. I’m impressed across the board with the acting. Michael Rosenbaum, John Glover, Annette O’Toole, John Schneider, Kristin Kreuk, all of them have either grown beautifully into their roles or nailed them from the start. AND I think Allison Mack is one of the most gorgeous females on the planet.
Apparently I’m the only one who feels this way - Kristin Kreuk is even more stunning than Ms. Mack. She is absolutely radiant… In five (six?) years, I haven’t even noticed if Lana is a silly character or not, because I’m enthralled by Ms. Kreuk. I even watched Earthsea, just to see how she did. Whoops. (My wife’s even prettier!)
Personally, I approach the show as a nice mix of Sci-Fi/Fantasy storytelling and emotionally resonant human drama. Having no emotional investement in Superman, I can just appreciate the fun instead of worrying about how It All Fits In. Anyway, I’m not “Smart” enough to look for reasons to dislike the show. Just give me superpowers, breathtaking scenery, real human characters and dreams of Lana, Chloe, Lana, Lana and Chloe, and I’m fine. And Lana.
Being simple makes TV-watching really great fun. Try it sometime.
Ooh, that’s a good addition to the Smallville Drinking Game.
Talking about trauma, shouldn’t Lana be, well, dead many times over by the multiple times she’s had the ever-living shit kicked out of her? Speaking of descents into evil, Lana’s got her own going on, and it’s making her marginally interesting. Go, Lana!
Albert Rose, my husband approaches the show from a view 180º from yours (he’s a massive, long-term Superman fan), and he loves the show, too. I guess his viewpoint is simple, too - Superman good. Anything Superman related, good.
I do like Smallville. I like the complication of a rather bland character. Superman in many of the comics was way too much of a boy-scout as well as being absurdly powerful. I like the writers showing him as being vulnerable in more ways than physical and that his powers are more of a burden than a gift in many ways. It makes him a much more believable and interesting character to me. I think Smallville has actually influenced other depictions of Superman. The recent film included some scenes that were directly inspired by Smallville.
It’s not a perfect show, by any means. It’s sometimes cheesy, some of the plots are flimsy enough to blow over with a sneeze, and the hoops they have to jump through to keep Lana and Clark apart (yet with enough closeness to provide hope) would challenge a contortionist. There have definitely been some parts of the series that dragged. Like most of the other people in this thread who mentioned it, I really disliked the witch possession storyline. I think they did it to make Lana more interesting by showing “her” as an evil character, but it was just way too over the top to buy, even for the standards of the show. I agree that the strongest writing is centered around Lex.
People who don’t like looking at Lana, is there something wrong with your eyes? Yes, her character is often annoying, but the actress herself is incredibly hot. Way, way hotter than any other actress on the show.
Looks-wise, I wouldn’t kick any of the women out of bed, but from a character point of view, I’d probably get along best with Lois. Chloe has her good points, but her constant disrespect for boundaries would get her in trouble with me in no time. Lana is sometimes written in a way that appeals to me, sometimes not. When she shows an independent streak, without harping on “honesty,” I really like her.