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Looking back
on 2001, I have memories of driving down
the highway and thinking, “Look…
up in the sky. It’s a bird. It’s
a plane. It’s Superma…. Waitaminnit!!
That’s just a billboard with a picture
of a guy in a cornfield with a big ‘S’
painted on his chest.” That was pretty
much my first introduction into the WB world
of “Smallville.” As much as
I’ve enjoyed the series over the years,
I still cannot believe it has lasted 9 seasons…
AND is starting its 10th (and final) season.
I never would have believed that Lex Luthor
could have survived so many gunshot wounds
and gashes to his noggin.
At the time, I had read many articles and
heard many rumors of this ‘hip new’
re-telling of the Superman saga. The series
hit TV screens at a time when teenage Sci-fi
was hitting its stride on the network. It
had given birth to “Buffy, The Vampire
Slayer” and “Roswell”,
though both eventually ended up on UPN.
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Though I thought both of these shows were great,
the thought of a “Dawson’s Creek-isized”
Superman didn’t really appeal to me. And
there was a general doubt all around that the
show would ‘take off.’
When I finally saw the Pilot episode, I was surprised
at how good it actually was. It wasn’t necessarily
great, but there was something about it that was
engaging. I started to have a feeling the WB might
have a hit on their hands. As I continued to watch
that first season, the characters started to grow
on me and I was able to separate the series from
its ‘Dawson-like’ persona. I thought
that Tom Welling was an excellent choice to portray
the young Clark Kent. He had the perfect look
for the role, and it was easy to see that he had
the capability to grow into the part. In the first
few episodes, Welling was still a bit stiff and
some of the teen ‘angst’ of wanting
to be normal seemed a little forced. But over
the course of the season, he improved immensely.
The one actor who sold me on the show immediately
was Michael Rosenbaum. His portrayal of the young
Lex Luthor was (and still is) note perfect. As
the son of a rich industrialist, he was a picture
of weariness. He gets what he wants, and though
he was not yet the villain he is destined to become,
you can see it simmering just underneath the surface.
His attempts to be the ‘good guy’
are often met with distrust and criticism, and
this just added fuel to the fire burning within.
I was glad to see the series has carried on long
enough to see Lex evolve almost to the point of
taking the character fully into ‘Darth’
mode. He was almost there in the 5th season, and
his continued evolution has made for a fun ride.
Rosenbaum’s performance was enhanced by
the casting of John Glover as his father, Lionel
Luthor. The ever-evolving plot between these two
characters became nothing short of a Greek tragedy.
Glover’s fine performance in the role was
a highlight of every episode he was in and I hoped
that the character would be expanded on as the
series continued. Fortunately, he was… in
spades.
The only slight weaknesses I found in that 1st
season were the stories in general. I wanted to
see a greater plot evolve over the course of the
season, and in some ways it did. But the individual
episodes themselves were more like ‘monster
of the week’ affairs with different Smallville
citizens falling prey to Kryptonite and becoming
‘villains.’ It pretty much happened
week after week, and it became a little tiresome.
However, the series began to mature during the
last part of the season, and that little plot
device started becoming a little less used. By
the time the series reached its final few episodes,
it had become the series I hoped it would be,
a positively charged pre-story of the icon-to-be.
I ended up getting completely sucked into the
1st season, first and foremost by all the references
of things to come, most of them thrown out as
little asides meant to be caught by Superman fans.
As I mentioned, the beginning of the season took
a while to find its footing so at first some of
them were a little trite, but again as the series
went on, they became increasingly clever and downright
prophetic. I was also drawn in by the Lana Lang
/ Clark Kent / Chloe Sullivan triangle. Clark
loves Lana, Lana loves Whitney, Chloe loves Clark
and so on. What at first seemed a bit hackneyed
eventually turned out to be quite emotionally
compelling, and as we moved into the 2nd season,
downright tragic. Being a fan of the underdog
(not the other superhero), I continuously rooted
for Chloe (the lovely Allison Mack) to get Clark,
but it was never quite to be.
A few other small items I have to mention before
I totally get into the 5th season DVD release
is the fact that people get hurt in the series.
And I don’t mean just in the big fights.
I loved the idea that the main characters bruise
when punched, and go to the hospital if thrown
through a car windshield. They don’t just
get up and shake it off (well, except Clark, duh).
Its a little attention to detail that really added
to the show. Though I will admit that as the series
progressed I wondered just how Lex could survive
when he gets knocked out seemingly at least once
in every episode. And I lost count on the number
of bullet holes the boy has.
Throughout the 1st season, we saw Clark starting
to develop some of his powers. He could obviously
already run reaaaallllyyyy fast, but was taken
by surprise when he could see through the wall
into the girl’s locker room. With the 2nd
season, more and more powers started becoming
evident, the most notable being heat vision, which
was presented as a metaphor for sexual-awakening,
with some truly hysterical results. We also got
ever closer to flying, with scenes of Clark saving
Lana from a car sucked up in a twister and making
the jump across the span between Metropolis’
Daily Planet and Lexcorp buildings. There is even
an actual scene of flying, which is somewhat written
off as it turns out to be a dream sequence. There
are even two great episodes dealing with Clark’s
experiences with Red Kryptonite, which made him
turn bad. These episodes might have come off a
little silly, but Welling does a great job of
going all Jekyll/Hyde, and made them wholly believable.
The 2nd season continued to get better and better
with the story of Clark’s past being brought
more to the forefront. The stories became ever
more complex, and issues from other episodes began
to creep up again with often surprising results.
Between the discovery of prophetic cave paintings
and the regeneration of his ship, this history
and his ultimate purpose became ever more apocryphal.
He began to wonder if he was really here to do
good, or if he was meant to rule the planet. There
wasn’t a weak episode in the season. My
favorite had to be “Rosetta” which
dealt heavily with this particular issue. I also
love it because the cinematic history of Superman
collided with its future as Tom Welling met the
late Christopher Reeve.
Reeve played a billionaire scientist who had been
‘watching the skies’ as it were, and
had intercepted seemingly coded messages being
broadcast to Earth. He didn’t know what
they meant, but things become clear as he learned
about the existence of Kent. In the scene they
shared together, the possibilities of Clark’s
existence became ever more complex, punctuated
by some of the music from the earlier Superman
movies. Throughout the series, we would occasionally
catch little notes from the score, but they were
front and center in this episode, to goose bump-inducing
effect. (Be sure to watch right after the end
of the episode for a great little bit of business
between Reeve and Welling.)
With the 3rd season of the series, it just kept
getting better and better. My wife and I had gotten
so ‘into’ the series that we had to
watch the 3rd season episodes as they originally
aired and we were continually blown away by the
events that took place. The mysteries surrounding
Clark’s origins came to a head as clue after
clue revealed that his birth father Jor-El (fittingly
voiced by actor Terrance Stamp) might have had
plans for him that he doesn’t agree with.
The beginning of the season offered Welling a
further opportunity to explore Clark’s darker
side as the first episode still found him under
the influence of Red Kryptonite, and his travels
brought him to the teeming city of Metropolis.
We were also introduced to the character of Perry
White, whom we all know later becomes Clark’s
editor at the Daily Planet. Here he was still
battling the demons of alcoholism, as well as
the stigma of having crossed Lionel Luthor. White
was played by character actor Michael McKean (who
is married to Annette O’Toole by the way),
and he turns in a terrific performance. To make
the season even better, Reeve also returned for
one final appearance.
As good as each episode was in the 3rd season
I would be hard-pressed not to mention the season
finale, “Covenant”, which was easily
one of the most powerful episodes of the series.
I don’t want to give anything away, as the
plot definitely ‘thickened.’ Suffice
to say, the closing moments of that episode are
jaw-droppingly shocking, and the music that plays
in the background adds to its chilling effect.
So far, only the 4th season turned out to be a
little of a disappointment. The dynamics of some
of the cast had changed drastically, and for some
reason the writers opted to ‘turn up the
heat’ as it were. The show became ‘sexier’,
which really didn’t suit it that well. Plus,
the mythology had grown so much as to become a
little too complicated. We were concerned that
we would hit a point where the unanswered questions
would take so long to answer that we would completely
lose interest.
Over the course of the 4th season, the writers
took some really big chances with some of these
really big changes and the series both benefited
and suffered. There were a few episodes that flat
out didn’t work, most were ‘okay’,
but just enough of them were SO good as to make
up for the rest of the season. I really don’t
wish to get into too many details, otherwise this
would become way too spoiler ridden.
Some of what I will point out in terms of misses
was the casting of Erica Durrance as a young Lois
Lane. She’s in several of the episodes (a
few too many) and though it’s obvious that
she is a talented actress, her take on Lane was
increasingly annoying. From her first scenes,
she rubbed us the wrong way and the delivery of
her lines was just terrible. There was a sense
she was over compensating her line delivery with
some kind of weird exuberance. I’d like
to say she improved over the season, but no such
luck.
I’d also like to mention that I did appreciate
the producers working hard to bring some of the
comic book mythology into play in small ways.
For example, there were episodes where we met
pseudo-versions of ‘The Flash’ and
Krypto. But while these were some nice little
touches, unfortunately making the first one a
thief and the second an experiment that came out
of Lex’s labs kinda took the wind out of
the sail. As the season came to a close, we were
once again treated to an awesome episode (but
still not quite as awesome as the third season
finale) that made us hot for the 5th season to
start.
Where the 4th season offered more missteps on
the part of the writers, the 5th season returned
the series to form and began to finally bring
some pseudo closure to many of the issues plaguing
the previous seasons. I don’t want to get
into to many details, but some of the episodes
here were amongst the best of the series. With
some exceptions… I'd like to get to that
first. One of the episodes, "Thirst",
was the absolute worst of the entire run of the
series. It involved a sorority of vampires, the
head of which was named Buffy Saunders. While
a bit whimsical in its attempt to poke a little
fun at "Buffy, The Vampire Slayer",
and its obvious nod to James Marsters (who joined
the cast this season), it was terrible. I wondered
what in the world the writers were thinking when
they did this one, only to have it answered by
a very amusing commentary. It seems the writers
realized just how terrible it was, only a little
too late. A bit of last minute editing improved
it (they say), but in the end it was probably
still a mistake. There was another close one with
"Lexmas", the requisite Christmas episode.
At first it seemed a little trite; with Lex being
shot and in the hospital dreaming of a life he
could have if he would only make the right decision.
It was kind of an "It's Wonderful Life"
take off that could have gone horribly wrong,
but redeemed itself fully by continuing in the
forging of a super villain.
The 5th season also brought with it a huge tragedy
and one I almost didn’t see coming. But
knowing the mythology of Superman, when it happened
the sense of sadness was huge (thanks to the terrific
scripts and performances that brought it about)
but I was also thrilled to see that the show's
creators were willing to make such a huge sacrifice
in the name of said mythology, at the risk of
losing fans. If you watch no other episodes in
this season, the episodes "Reckoning"
and "Vengeance" are required viewing.
The season also brought with it introductions
to the characters of Arthur Curry, better known
as Aquaman and Victor Stone, a.k.a. Cyborg. Two
future heroes… one of which will join Superman
later in life in the JLA (the Justice League of
America, not the Junior Lifeguard Association).
I thought they handled Cyborg pretty well with
his episode, but Aquaman was a bit annoying (which
is probably why he got along so well with Lois
Lane). I didn’t hate him, but he came across
a little too much surfer dude to me, 'bro.'
In the 6th season, we pick up right where we left
off, with Clark trapped in the Phantom Zone and
Lex's body having been taken over by the evil
General Zod. The first episode of the 6th season
is a budgetary nightmare; I can only imagine how
much money was pumped into it. The effects sequences
and shots of Metropolis destroyed by riots are
simply amazing in this episode. My only complaint
is that the huge build up that was the 5th season
finale was for the most part taken care of in
this episode. Well, except for the fact that there
are now several Phantom Zone escapees running
around and it's up to Clark to round them up.
This was another strong season. There were even
less 'bad' episodes this time around than in the
previous couple of seasons. But like most, the
bad were really, really bad. The 6th season’s
'bad' episode was "Noir", which was
kind of cute as it presented the cast in a black
and white 1930's Metropolis…. But that's
all it was… cute. All the rest of the episodes
were pretty darn good, and kudos to the creators
for introducing Oliver Queen / Green Arrow (Justin
Hartley), one of my favorite DC characters ever.
His story arc included bringing in all the other
'heroes' that Clark has met and forming a kind
of early Justice League. It was a little corny,
being all 'cool and hip', but overall it was quite
satisfying.
Season’s 7&8 were kinds of hit and miss,
with the introductions of Kara /Supergirl and
Clark’s becoming a reporter for the Daily
Planet. Every season he gets juuuust a little
closer to embracing his destiny. These seasons
also brought about a tremendous amount of change
as we lost major characters through death or disappearance.
If you’re not caught up yet, I’ll
keep this part spoiler free.
This month we see the release of the 9th Season
on DVD and Bluray (and trust me… Bluray
is the way to go), and finally Clark decides to
become… The Blur. Part Neo, part Goth Guy,
The Blur prowls the streets of Metropolis in search
of crime and criminals. I wasn’t really
thrilled by this chain of events or the look,
but it made sense following the ‘origin’
arc created so many years prior. It grew on me,
and the season ended up being a strong comeback
from the last two. Zod returns, only this time
in the guise of actor Callum Blue, who steals
every moment of film he is in. I was also very
excited to see the introduction of some of the
old Justice Society characters, which initially
I thought would be too campy, but ended up being
a high point of the season. This is the season
that sets the stage for Clark’s final embrace
of his destiny and with the exception of a couple
of weak episodes, fills its role admirably.
The Bluray release delivers some fantastic imagery,
well worth the extra bucks for the format. There
are some very high powered sequences, most notably
and incredible face-off between Clark and Zox,
and the sharpness of the image and clarity of
color really makes for an awesome viewing experience.
As for special features, we get a couple of decent
commentaries a handful of deleted scenes and two
very well made featurettes. One focusing on the
evolution of Zod and the other on the Justice
Society. Great stuff!!
Despite its weaknesses over the years, I am glad
to see “Smallville” continue to be
a hit for the WB, though I am surprised they kept
it going this long. It may not represent the life
of the young Clark Kent as perfectly as many comic
book purists might want it to, but I still consider
it to be a case of re-invention done right. The
next (final season) should be something.
Episodes:
Savior
Metallo
Rabid
Echo
Roulette
Kandor
Idol
Pandora
Disciple
Absolute Justice
Warrior
Persuasion
Conspiracy
Escape
Checkmate
Upgrade
Sacrifice
Hostage
Salvation
Starring: Tom Welling, Allison Mack, Erica Durance
Extras: Kneel Before Zod; Justice for All; Cast
& Creator Commentaries on “Idol”
& “Kandor”
Specifications: 1080p High Definition (1.78:1),
Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound
Studio: Warner Brothers
Release Date: 9/7/2010
MPAA Rating: NR
http://www.wbtvondvd.com
We'll give Smallville: Season 9 (Bluray) a B.
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