OtLB - Smallville
Nov 2nd, 2009 | By Jason Kerouac | Category: Columns, Outside the LongboxWe’re all about comics here at Panels on Pages, but a geek cannot live on comics alone. Outside the Longbox is our chance to spotlight something outside our typical four-color realm, be it movies, music, TV or whatever.
Nothing is so conflicting in the mind of a comic nerd as the announcement that their favorite hot property has just been bumped up to the big leagues of television or film. The initial wave of excitement is often quickly replaced with the dread of everything that might be changed. Then, the whirlwind as information and promotional images leak out, showing the good, the bad, and the oh so ugly. This all goes away, however, once the time comes to sit down and watch. What happens after that? That’s in the hands of the men and women behind the scenes.
For Smallville, the roller coaster ride has continued.
Initially, this was a show about teenaged Clark Kent (Tom Welling), in high school, dealing with friends, girls, and the freak of the week threat to life as we know it - almost always in the form of a Kryptonite powered villain/villainess. The formula continued in season 2, though Clark finally learned a bit about just who he was, aided by Dr. Virgil Swann and his birth father, Jor-El - played by Christopher Reeve and Terrence Stamp of the Richard Donner Superman respectively. Season 3 continued the basic formula, with mounting tensions between Lex (Michael Rosenbaum) and his father Lionel (John Glover) creating a running subplot.
It was in season 4 that the show really fell apart. Attempting to move away from the meteor-freak-of-the-week dynamic, the writers introduced instead a mystical angle that involved Lana Lang (Kristin Kreuk) being possessed by a witch hell bent on vengeance against the mother (Jane Seymour) of Lana’s then boyfriend (Jensen Ackles). Clark, in the meantime, was assembling some crystals. While moving away from the trusty but rusty formula was a commendable goal, the move to the supernatural was very odd, and the stories suffered. Greatly.
Season 5 then introduced James Marsters as Braniac, made Erica Durance a regular as Lois Lane, killed off John Schneider as Jonathan Kent, and made Lana and Lex snuggle buddies. Which is okay, because in season 6, they get married. Also, the Justice League made an appearance and escaped prisoners of the Phantom Zone took the place of the meteor freaks as the threat du jour. This all culminated with the introduction of Bizarro and the death of Lana Lang. Still with me? Good, we’re almost there.
Season 7 is a clusterfuck. I mean, really, there’s no other word for it. Any sense of narrative is stipped away for repeated body blows to the “shock and awe” center of your brain. Lana and Brainiac return and Supergirl (Laura Vandervoort) joins the cast, and roughly halfway through the season, Clark is replaced by Bizarro, with no one any the wiser. Of course, this is quickly rectified, in time for Kara to be replaced by Brainiac. All of this takes place while Lex is searching for “the Traveller,” a quest which leads him to the Fortress of Solitude and a confrontation with Clark at season’s end. Somewhere in there, Smallville does “It’s a Wonderful Life.”
That brings us to season 8, which brought Clark to the Daily Planet and Doomsday to Smallville. Chloe Sullivan (Allison Mack) married Jimmy Olsen (Aaron Ashmore) and Clark got a visit from the Legion. Oh, and Ollie Queen (Justin Hartley) killed Lex Luthor (not Michael Rosenbaum) while Lana Lang became irradiated with Kryptonie and had to leave. For the third time. Somehow, all of this was better than the prior season.
That’s it. You’re all caught up. So far, season 9 is actually really good. While there’s been some of the usual flip-flopping (Kal-El gave up being Clark Kent for all of about five minutes) and some of the standard episodes in which Smallville rips off an existing property (there’ve already been episodes aping 28 Days Later and Saw), there’s also been some actual growth for the characters. In this past week’s episode, Lois and Clark finally kissed. That’s a huge step for a show that took forever to unite Clark and Lana. There’s also been a fantastic subplot focusing on Oliver Queen. Metallo and Toyman have made appearances, and Green Arrow’s sidekick Speedy has even shown up. This time out, the running plotline is the arrival of Zod (Callum Blue) and an army of Kandorians, and thus far, it seems the best structured of all of Smallville’s story arcs. There’s a lot that could go wrong, but so far, there’s a lot more that’s going right.
With every season now being touted - at some point - as the last, it’s difficult to know how much longer Smallville actually has. If this season can continue on track, I wouldn’t be opposed to another. Then again, maybe it’s time to go out on a high note?
Coincidental time for this to be posted, I started watching Smallville last week. I’m now nearing the end of Season 6 (and stopped reading the article there), but I didn’t really care for the first few seasons and their “freak of the week” dynamic. When it moved out of the high school atmosphere is when I started to dig it. Lana Lang though, my god, worst part in this whole series. Any episode that focuses on her ends up making me cringe.
Her aside, my other big beef with the series is that characters are dumb. Just about every character, at one point, has been somehow unable to control their actions. Yet they often refuse to tell the people they hurt that they were such. The degree to which all these characters keep secrets from each other is just retarded, especially since it’s often not needed at all.
All that said, it’s still decent enough that I don’t feel like I’m losing out by watching it. The actual plot-driving milestone episodes are pretty worth tolerating all the romance drama bullcrap in between.
Forgot to mention, I also REALLY dislike the opening song.
Roller coaster ride is an understatement…I’ve stuck with it throught the great,good,bad, and horrible. This season has been great. For anyone that gave up on it during season 7, I recommend giving it another chance. You might be surprised.
Smallville season 4 is one of the worst things to ever be filmed. And it had Jensen Ackles, who I have serious man crush for. Imagine my inner turmoil over hating it so. Luckily, he’s on a MUCH better show now.
@ Z-ROE - The difference between a good season and a bad season is that in the good seasons, you don’t mind the crap you’re putting up with to get to the milestones. Season 9 has the potential to become the show’s greatest.
@ Russ and Lee - Couldn’t agree more! (well, no crush on Weirdy McNamerson, but…)
i really don’t care for this show, but i really wanna see the Justice Society episode! my cousin on the other hand likes this and watches it alot, no idea why he likes it so much.
Also, i just thought of a way the magic element of season 4 could’ve been better; Mister Mxyzptlk could have been the main baddie of that season since Superman’s weak against magic that could’ve been a slight theme to the season and be his “Whatever Happened to The Man of Tomorrow?” self instead of the lame transfer student from Balkans with metahuman powers.
One (technically, three) of the worst decisions I ever had was buying Seasons 2-4 on DVD… I stopped watching it post-Season 5 and never looked back.
I really can’t recommend strongly enough giving season 9 a try.
I never watched a full episode of Smallville, as a Superman show with no Superman never really appealed to me, and reading this article convinced me that I haven’t missed much.
I never had a problem with that as long as they never intended to drag the story for almost 9 years without Clark ever really becoming Superman. Tom Welling is over 30 and by that age Superman should have already been leading 9 rosters of the JLA, meeting 67 version of the LoSH, dying, zombified, seeing his parents die 7 times and going through half a dozen summer event-size Crises.
Oh, and crying so much that he could solve the water problems of 3 star systems.
Tomer, that is easily some of the funniest shit I have ever read.
the only thing im interested by in smallville is green arrow. but sadly thats not enough to make me watch. maybe if ollie had his own show…..or they could even make a young jla and bring flash and cyborg back….. anything but whiney not quite superman
Hartley as Green Arrow is EASILY the strongest part of this show. The characterization and design have been amazing. It’s depressing when the supporting cast gets meatier roles than the lead.
I’ve been a Smallville fan since DAY ONE! When I saw the promo of the truck driving in the black smoke and then heard…”…Clark?…” I was excited. Got every season on DVD, yes there has been a little bit too much drama, but the 9th season looks really awesome!
I stuck with the show since season 1. Im not giving it up, just like I didn’t give up on Lost season 3. I own all the DVD’s and I feel like I need to rewatch them again full with Wall of Wierdness bonus features. Its going to be a long week for me.
There was a Season 9 episode that ripped off the Sandra Bullock-in-rehab movie? I must’ve missed that one…
XP
Ah crap!
I mean… yeah… Ollie… drugs… yeah…
I love Smallville. I don’t deny it’s had it’s ups and downs, but I still love it.
I’ve preferred the show since it moved away from the freak of the week formula. Despite the fact that two of my favorite characters were dead by this time, seasons 8 and 9 are definitely the best. I love how they are moving the Lois and Clark relationship forward.
Justin Hartley is fantastic as Green Arrow. I really want a GA spin off when Smallville is done.
I didn’t care for the death of Jimmy, nor the reveal that he isn’t the ‘real’ Jimmy.
I never even caught that reveal, but have heard grumblings. What was up with it? He has an older brother named Jimmy, but was using his name for some reason?
Wait, what? He wasn’t the real Jimmy?