Smallville Running Diary: Part 1 (Season 1, Disc 1)

Since I've never seen the show, like at all, and I don't want to run into a whole bunch of spoilers in the other thread (SPOILER....CLARK LIVES!), I'll put it in here where I'll keep a running diary of my thoughts on Smallville.

First off I should say, I have very little knowledge of Superman and most of it is the little crossovers he's had with Batman in Hush and Dark Knight Returns, the Batman animated series, and his own series of films. I really liked the first two, never watched the second two, and I thought Returns was boring. Overall in the first two, some of it was a little goofy and there's more gags in the second, but I still liked them. They're entertaining stories, and the first one has an absolutely awesome origin.

I only recently watched the older Superman films, I never got into the character because frankly, I find the character to be rather dull, his rogues list is almost non-existent, and frankly I don't like how invincible he is. So this is my mind-frame coming into this show.

I watched the first two episodes last night:

Episode 1: Pilot, Episode 2: Metamorphisis -

It's funny that they couldn't even give a title, I guess the title of the pilot is Smallville.

I really enjoyed the opening scene. Outside of the special effects being rather low-budget, (I almost laughed when I saw Lana's parents get crushed), the scene really helps portray what seems like a theme throughout much of the first season (Clark's arrival caused a lot of strange and sometimes tragic things to happen in Smallville). We get an introduction to the adults of the series and subsequently an origin (in a way) of the three young'ns, main characters, of the series.

The rest of the series reminds me of a mix of X-men and early Buffy. Clark right off the bat has two friends in high-school who immediately remind me of Xander and Willow. They have this scene where there is a ton of exposition and the wall of weird in the background. The high-school setting, of course, and the superpowers, of course remind me a lot of that. Although Buffy had much better dialogue and wasn't so ham-handed as it is here, at times. Overall it's still enjoyable I just hope that some of the speechy, melodramatic Dawson's Creek elements will be toned down a bit.

As for the X-men comparison, I'm talking about the way Clark wants to be normal, he really does act like a younger mutant, a teenager with powers, would. It's a completely different impression than I had of Superman before. I always viewed Superman as who he is, comfortable in the suit, comfortable with his powers, comfortable with his position in life and Clark as the disguise. Here, we see that Clark kind of who he is, and with the help of his parents, especially his father in these episodes, and through his life he will develop a Superman aura, identity, along with the strong moral compass. We can see his willingness to self-sacrifice right from the outset with his constant saving of people, but even more than that is the conclusion to episode 2 where he puts Lana's necklace on her door without the need to gloat that he found it.

I like Lex, he comes across as polite, yet sneaky and mischievious. It's interesting and better long term planning that Lex stays in the background and gets built as a villain while the jock pretends that he's a somebody. The dynamic between Lex and Clark is really fun to watch in these early gray episodes, as Lex is less black and white, and there seems to be a little fighting for Clark's soul. I like that Clark's moral compass isn't completely set yet.

The other villains are really nothing to write home about, the first episode has an electric boy or Electro, and the other episode has bug boy, or Toad. Neither one is that deep, and they're there to be the villain of the week, while the series builds up greater threats (I hope). It's fine for the early part of the series, but on a long term basis, this villain of the week thing will get boring. I actually really enjoyed Bug Boy's outing, as they spent more time building up an origin, a background, and everything, making him more than just a throw-away villain. The electric kid was little more than just a throw away villain. It really irked me that Clark won both fights by accident, if this becomes a recurring occurence, it'll get boring really quick.

Lana is really one-dimensional here and serves no more purpose than to look and act cute. She does it well. Clark's friends didn't really do much, outside of help with detective work, exposition, and comedic relief. I can see Chloe having a bigger part later, but not quite yet. Clark's father gets a lot of screen time in these early episodes as he really does get speechy and fills us in on Lex's father, as well as his own moral compass and place in the world. He doesn't seem all that bad in these early episodes and actually tries to help Clark out a bit.

I really liked how they worked in classic ideas and weaved them right into the story in a modern way, the "fortress of solitude," Lana's kryptonite necklace (which looks like it could play a big part in this series), the S on the chest.

I liked the continuity between episodes, it really helps with the serialized storytelling but at the same time doesn't tie it down where it's impossible to enjoy each episode individually.

Overall they are a couple of fun early episodes, not too deep, and not fantastic in terms of storytelling, plots, and pacing but there's a lot of potential here.

7/10 for both.

Episode 3: Hot Head

The show is progressing pretty typically. While it makes great redemption for Clark to deal with all the weird things that have happened because of his arrival, it gives Clark a potentially limitless amount of stock villains to deal with, all that have different powers, but the villain of the week storytelling really reeks of beginner story telling. Which is fine for right now because frankly it is the beginning of the show, but I don't think I could go with this throughout the show. Usually good shows (such as Buffy) attempt to use the villains as metaphors things that happen in real life. Smallville also attempts to do that, at least with this episode, it's a very thinly veiled metaphor, but it's a metaphor.

The evil coach here is a metaphor for child abuse, biased teachers, and obviously extreme competitive spirit out of control. Not sure what the coach's fire is supposed to represent really and that's pretty common. Why is the guy in the first episode electric? No reason really. It's just amateur storytelling really, face value storytelling. I need more to my tv show and so far, especially in these episodes that are focused around a very particular plot, they're not doing it for me.

As for the other characters, this episode is about standing up for your-self, becoming your own man (or woman in Lana's case). That's the strength of the episode and it weaves through the "villain of the week" plot throughout the episode. It's supposed to help show the strength in Clark, Lana, and Lex as they all stand up for something they believe in and all stand up against their parents or guardians. It's all there to strengthen the characters, Clark once again wants to prove wants the trust of his parents to make his own decisions with his powers, Lana wants more out of her life and wants to stand out, Lex works to be a better businessman than his father.

Again it's not really captivating stuff, and that could be because it's been a long time since high-school although these themes still ring true to me now in my mid 20's, but it's fun bubblegum stuff that needs a bit more polish in terms of characters, and more rhyme, reason and depth in terms of their plots. Worse than the pilot episode and second episode, it's not bad just not as good.

5.5/10

Episode 4: X-Ray

Again another villain of the week with thinly veiled metaphor, actually this metaphor is better than the last, as the villain wishes their life is more like others and thus takes on their facade. It's a nice little metaphor for jealousy of others.

Clark deals with a new power (take a guess which one that is?). There's a hilarious scene when they're in gym class and Clark's eyes go wonky on him and he gets a sneak peek at Lana's :w00t: . It's awesome and really true to what most guys would be doing if they had the power, honestly, glad they acknowledged it.

Lex deals with being framed. It's pretty awesome, Lex bounces back and forth from doing somewaht good things to evil things. He's in a moral middle ground and there's a fight for his soul going on, but his position, his power (both of which he probably loves), makes harder to keep things straight.

Another metaphor is that this episode is all about people not being who they seem at first glance, Clark isn't just Clark he's more than that, Lana doesn't just want to be some cheerleader, she wants to be more than that, the villain isn't who they seem to be, the reporter isn't just doing his duty he's blackmailing, and Lex isn't just some spoiled brat, he's fucking awesome. The only person who really knows who they are and is who they are is Chloe, she makes no bones about who she is. It's refreshing everytime she's on screen really as she's the only one who acts really genuine while everyone else kind of acts like they're in a tv show (it's okay for Lex, because he's evil and evil is cool, and cool gets a pass).

Again another good but not great episode, it's fun but it doesn't really come together as well as I make it seem.

6/10

General thoughts on the series thus far:

Lex is awesome in this series.

Pete is absolutely useless in this series. He has done nothing of note, and I actually had to wiki the character's name because I keep forgetting it.

Like many characters in this show, Chloe has a one note role, but I like her character and I like the actress who plays her. Hope for more of her in the future.

I don't like how much kryptonite there is in these episodes, everyone has some, it's all over the town, and anytime Clark gets in conflict, the villain "just happens" to have some handy.

I hate that most of the villains kind of get injured/die seemingly on their own accord. Only episode 4 breaks the mold as Clark actually knocks Tina out. In the others, the electric guy frys himself, the lizard guy gets crushed because he pulls a lever, the fire coach blows himself up. What the heck.