Superman is no stranger to the screen. Christopher Reeve is practically a household name because of his portrayal of the superhero. If you remember the lore Kal-El is brought into the Kent household as Clark, he grows up, he moves to Metropolis, and he dons cape and tights to become Superman. But what led him to heroics? What keeps him from exploiting his abilities for personal gain? Why does he keep up two identities? We know the noble, selfless hero, but the world is not one to produce such people. We know where Kal-El comes from, we know where Clark Kent comes from, but where does Superman come from?

 

"Smallville" follows the life of an abnormally strong kid as he grows into the world's foremost superhero. Where does Superman come from? From Clark Kent's adoptive parents. Their unconditional love for their son, strong values, and need to work for what they have and do without when funds run low instill in Clark a solid sense of right and wrong that will drive his super persona later in life.

 

"Smallville" is one part comic book, one part drama, and one part teen melodrama. We start with a meteor shower that masks the arrival of Kal-El. The Kents find him and his ship and take him as their own. Flash forward. Clark is a freshman in high school. He knows he's fast and strong, but he doesn't yet know how much so. He doesn't really have any other abilities yet. He pines for Lana Lang who is already dating someone while school reporter Chloe pines for Clark.

 

Clark will soon begin to realize how strong he really is as well as begin to develop more outrageous powers. He begins to have more struggles with life, but nothing too extreme yet. Hints of the life we know is to come are scattered liberally throughout. The most interesting dynamic to me is Lex Luthor. Ultimately Superman's earthly nemesis he has never seemed like a real and threatening character to me.

 

Even in the movies Gene Hackman was more a comical megalomaniac too full of himself to be truly dangerous. He was a wrench in the gears of Superman's life, but he would be fodder for the likes of Jack Nicholson's Joker. Smallville's Lex proves to be tremendously more complex and thus more chilling. He goes from a rich brat (though we see very little of that first-hand, mostly it comes across in flashbacks and comments made about him), to an influential man trying to take the high road in his life while his tyrannical father pushes him towards a heartless legacy.

 

He becomes Clark's closest friend and much like Anakin Skywalker who could have been a great hero, Lex has the potential to be a hero of sorts himself using his wealth and resources to help people. He seems to make genuine attempts to keep himself on a righteous path, but his thirst for knowledge, even when that information is none of his business, and his father's influence will open deadly chasms beneath his righteousness. His friendship with Clark is an excellent irony since we already know the criminal mastermind he will ultimately become, far worse than the father he is trying so hard to defy.

 

There is also a dynamic with Clark and Lana. We know Lois is the ultimate soulmate for Superman, but she's not in the picture yet. Sweet, lovable Lana is the apple of young Clark's eye. Later on this relationship will become a weak point in the series, but for now it's great. Clark's desire for her is initially quiet. They are barely acquaintances when we first see them, and Clark can't approach her because of her Kryptonite necklace.

 

Besides being another bit of irony since we already know Clark will not end up with Lana, the initial relationship has the point of showing that Clark will not take advantage of someone's misfortunes for personal gain even for something he wants as badly as a chance with this girl. It also creates a rivalry between him and Lana's boyfriend forcing Clark to choose between rivalry and heroism.

 

Next is Clark's other friendships, one with a life-long friend the other with a nosy reporter. How does he deal with them and their curiosity? How does he remain friends yet keep his secret? Can he be friends with someone that is investigatively inquisitive by nature? It's good training considering he will be living amongst the ranks of reporters eventually, not to mention this friendship provides a link to the Daily Planet while freeing up Clark himself to develop beyond being a reporter from birth.

 

Okay, relationships and development are great, but you can't have a superhero show without some super-heroics. How do you keep Clark in Smallville and still have unique challenges for him to face? Meteor freaks! Mutants created by the effects of the Kryptonite that fell to Earth with Kal-El's ship. The quality of the application of this idea fluctuates. Sometimes it works out pretty well, other times it's pretty cheesy. Not all of the villains can be as complexly developed as Lex, and there has to be some variations in motivations and situations.

 

Sometimes the villains simply lack positive guidance, sometimes they feel pushed into their misdeeds by situations or pressure, sometimes they're bad people given the power to do more evil. Since most of the time we're dealing with a new adversary each episode there has to be some story about who they are and why Clark has to stop them. This can be rushed at times keeping the characters from being developed as well as they could be in a movie.

 

Smallville does a good job of not being overly campy, but it just can't help it from time to time. There are a few things that drag the series down a bit. One is the over use of Metropolis. Granted some mention of the huge city is necessary and realistic, but it gets mentioned so many times that it can make you wonder how Smallville functions. If you want REAL gas you go to Metropolis to fill up. OK, it's not quite that bad, but it gets close on occasion.

 

Another problem is the effects. Sometimes they're fine, sometimes they don't look realistic. I enjoy the show enough to overlook the unrealistic moments, but they still weaken what could be truly great action sequences.

 

Third is music. The teen alternative sound is over used. Most episodes end with a song and have others throughout. My biggest gripe is when they overlap a singer with the show's dialogue. It's one thing to have a radio playing in the background - source music; it's another to use a song instead of a score. Mark Snow does an excellent job musically, the ending theme is lovely, and there are several scenes that could be improved dramatically with the use of his score rather than a song. Incidentally, the pressures of scoring this series eventually drove Snow away from it, but watching the completed show I have a hard time understanding the need for such vast amounts of scoring when so much of the soundtrack is pop songs.

 

Even the use of POD's "Set It Off," a song I liked long before seeing this show, is not well done. Sure it fits the mood (although the lyrics are completely inappropriate for the scene since it is a very positive and uplifting song), but they cut away and back to the song too many times (cutting out the less intense portions of the sound). Fewer cuts or a fade down without fading out then back up to full-force would have been far more effective. The point is that even with good songs the use of them is not always great.

 

There are some plot issues as well, though they are minor. Some of the stories seem to follow a formula too closely - "meteor rocks" mutate someone, they go super-villain, Clark has to stop them, Kryptonite hinders Clark, Clark gets away from Kryptonite, Clark stops bad guy. The saving grace here is that these formula episodes usually aren't back to back. They are easier to swallow when mixed in with the deeper stories.

 

Another problem is that the kids are not believable as high school freshmen. They look young, but not THAT young. I know we come in later in the year, but they seem to be awfully well established for freshmen. Chloe may be a natural born reporter, but it’s unrealistic to have her walk in and take over the school paper on day 1. Maybe this high school also includes grades under 9th meaning she's been there a while which would aid in explanation, but that’s never addressed.

 

Once you suspend disbelief that these are 14-15 year olds it’s easy to get pulled into the stories. It’s fun to watch Clark developing his powers, frightened by the changes but growing into them. When I watched the pilot episode I knew the Kents were aware of Clark’s strength. It wasn’t until later when he gets bruised from being shot then develops further to the point where he is completely unharmed by bullets that I realized his invulnerability was also still developing. When Clark shoves his hand in the wood chipper in that first episode, Jonathan doesn’t know that it won’t injure him. Watching the action knowing Clark’s limitations is interesting.

 

Acting is a variable. The more accomplished actors are great: John Schneider, Annette O’Toole, and John Glover are excellent. Michael Rosenbaum is the best of the younger actors and really does a nice job of playing Lex as duplicitous while making him seem realistic. Tom Welling is good though he doesn’t seem natural in some situations. Allison Mack and Sam Jones likewise have their faltering moments but are on the whole very good. Kristin Kreuk is the weakest. Her personality is not bad at first, but after a while she seems to have 2 modes smile and big smile. She just doesn’t have a lot of emotional range. Guests and extras vary between great and not so good.

 

I wondered if my perceptions of this first season would change after seeing more of those that followed. Not at all except maybe for seeing the difference in the acting abilities in the younger cast members who improve over the course of the series. The elements that got me hooked on Smallville in the first place still excite me. This show starts off strong, and so much of the early development pays off later on. I’m not one to watch shows about life in high school, but Smallville will be one I’ll follow to the end.