Smallville: The Complete First Season

“Just because everyone else chooses to ignore the strange things that happen in this leafy little hamlet, doesn’t mean that they don’t happen.” – Allison Mack as Chloe Sullivan

Smallville is without a doubt one of the best comic book adaptations in years!

I must admit when I first heard that they were remaking Superman yet again, this time as a teenager growing up in Smallville, I shuddered and had strange flashes of Dean Cain and Terri Hatcher running through corn fields wearing red and gold Smallville Varsity Letter jackets. But after watching the pilot episode, I knew that for once my fears were unwarranted.

Say what you will about the WB network, they know how to combine gorgeous actors with meaningful, all-be-it teen angst-ridden, storylines that keep you watching week after week. In the case of Smallville, things did look a bit bleak there for a moment or two after the fourth episode had aired and it had followed the exact same formula as each and every previous episode.

In the pilot,'Metamorphosis,' 'Hothead' and 'X-Ray,' it was always the same damn meteor rocks that would manage to show up and incapacitate Clark just long enough for him to be hurt slightly towards the end of the show, and then of course overcome it and thwart his nemesis. Be it a neurotic Bug boy, a flame-throwing psychotic coach or even a shape-shifting Lana-obsessed lesbian, Clark always managed to overcome them all in precisely the same way every time. Luckily the writers found their way out of that repetitive storyline and starting finding new challenges for our hero.

Future episodes like 'Hourglass,' where Annette O'Toole proved that she was definitely not your parents 'Martha Kent' by kicking some serious ass as she defended herself against an ailing 80 year old mass murderer whose youth had been restored to him (played by Eric Christian Olsen) and 'Leech,' where a freak lighting strike transferred Clarks powers to another kid for a time, (played by X-Men's Shawn Ashmore) proved that there were a lot of different directions that this show could and would go in.

In a lot of prequel situations, like UPN's latest Star Trek series Enterprise, for example, knowing what comes after can really ruin the new stories that they are trying to tell. The exact opposite happens with this show. Every time something happens that winks to the mythology of Superman that we all know, it's done in a respectful non-plot altering way. Yes we know that he will eventually learn how to use his X-ray vision properly when he gets older, but that doesn't take away from the thrill of watching him discover that he has this ability. And the show doesn't shy away from the fact that Clark is a kid at an incredibly awkward stage in his life and that in addition to the alien

changes going on inside of him, his human hormones are also raging! So naturally, when he discovers his X-ray vision, he ends up staring into the girls' locker room with a silly school-boy grin on his face as he sees Lana Lang drop her towel.

We of course also know that Clark will eventually learn to fly. So when that is alluded to in the season finale as he enters the tornado to save Lana, it's incredibly exciting for the audience because it's a huge step towards the future that we all know and love.

The casting directors for this show should seriously be considered either the best or the luckiest in the business! Tom Welling could not be more perfect as the future man of steel. (Buying him as a high school freshman is a bit tough, but then again, they do grow 'em big out there in Kansas don't they?) His natural All American good looks combined with his believable, 'aww shucks"¦c'mon dad, can't I please play football with the other kids?' attitude and demeanor make him one hundred percent believable as a man who could basically be omnipotent but would never do anything but help and protect people with that power. I'm frankly amazed that it took Hollywood this long to discover him.

And rediscovering the greatness of one of the original Dukes of Hazzard was just brilliant! John Schneider was one of my idols growing up. (Yea, that's right I said it! :-) And while he doesn't fit the image that we all had of the aging Jonathan Kent, he brings a freshness and a youthful vigor to the character that I think everyone enjoys. And admittedly it would be pretty hard to pull of some of the necessary action sequences that the show entails with a man that actually looked like he was in his late 50's.

Naturally along with a more youthful Jonathan they had to bring in a more youthful Martha. (Although I'm not quite sure that anyone young is actually named Martha, but again, Kansas, so who knows? :-) Annette O'Toole is such a wonderful actress and the fact that she was the original Lana Lang of course doesn't hurt her credibility in this world either! These three actors form such a wonderful bond on screen that you just have to assume that they all get along like a surrogate family on set as well. John Schneider just has that look of, "Yeah, I could tell you stories about when I was your age that would make your head spin sonny-boy!"

Now the casting of Lex Luthor, a character that is so closely associated with one of the acting greats of our time, Mr. Gene Hackman, should have presented a daunting challenge. However, it actually turned out to be quite simple. All the casting directors had to do was to give a

quick call over to the Gersh Agency and ask for Michael Rosenbaum‘s agent.

Not only does he look the part of this legendarily infamous character, but he is dead on in his portrayal of this future kingpin of crime. You get a real sense from his performance that this is a character that is struggling to be a good guy even though everything from his upbringing down to his very genes themselves are steering him in the opposite direction. And again, the fact that we know it's going to happen eventually just makes the show all the more interesting to watch, because we want to see exactly what it is that's going to cement him into that future.

Now, after I have laid all of this praise onto the casting directors and the show in general, I have to add one major complaint, Lana Lang. I'm sorry but I can't watch the show without wondering where she came from. Don't get me wrong Kristin Kreuk is a beautiful woman and a talented actress, but I just don't see All American girl from Smallville when I look at her. Now Chloe on the other hand, played by Allison Mack, I think fits in perfectly as the necessary but always enjoyable 'Lois Lane' stand in. (To be honest, I'm always routing for Clark to realize that she's the girl for him and forget about Lana! But again, we know that in the end Lois Lane is the lucky lady who eventually lands him, but that's ok. Clark needs some dating practice before he can become the suave caped crusader whooshing women off to the Fortress of Solitude for dinner and a quick roll in the satin sheets, so why not let it be Chloe?)

I'm still not quite sure why Pete (Sam Jones III) is around, he seems like the character that the producers added without knowing really what to do with him. He starts off almost as Chloe's sidekick but then shows up more and more with Clark competing with Lex for the role of best friend. In fact, Pete's dislike for Lex becomes wildly evident in 'Nicodemus,' when while under the influence of a truth liberating planet, he tries to kill Lex for stealing Clark away from him and also as pay back for what Luthor Corp had done to his family. It's an interesting character arc for him, but I'm not sure it really made sense to introduce that into the storyline 15 episodes into the series. All in all he's a pretty harmless character, but not all together a very interesting one.

Other episodes in the season like 'Stray,' where Clark adopts a surrogate mind reading little brother for a time and 'Zero,' where Lex's misspent Metropolis youth finally catches up with him, help to round out the season and of course 'Tempest' turns out to be

the perfect cliffhanger ending for year one.

Always enjoyable, always exciting and forever pleasing to the eye, Smallville is a great little escape from reality. Who wouldn't want to spend some time in a world where the good guy is always there to protect you, evil is always vanquished and family is always the most important thing?

The DVD extras on this are a bit limited, though one thing that it does include, something that I have been lobbying for since the beginning of TV shows on DVD, are some of the really well produced montage advertisements and previews run on the WB network. There are only a couple included here, but I honestly think that each episode should include the television teaser to the next, because sometimes as we all know, a well cut trailer can be even more fun than the entire show!

The deleted scenes are interesting in that they do help to establish some of the supporting cast members' family, like Pete's family being tricked into selling their cream corn factory to Lionel Luthor in the pilot episode and Chloe's dad meeting Lex in the fertilizer plant. There are also some great Jonathan and Martha scenes that are well worth watching as well.

Some well produced storyboards inter-cut with the actual photography, a tour of the different set locations and some interesting online DVD-Rom material round out the special features.

If you haven't been able to catch Smallville on a regular basis on television and you're not quite sure how you feel about it, you should pick up a copy of season one and give it a try. If you're interested in it enough to have read this far, then you'll definitely enjoy what it has to offer!

Series Grade: A-
DVD Grade: B
Overall Grade: B+