Post by Torgo on Sept 17, 2010 19:09:37 GMT -5
It’s finally happened. After 10 years of angst and whining, Smallville has finally come to an end.
I actually do enjoy the show, but it’s my least favorite live action Superman series (keep in mind, I haven’t seen Superboy). I find the “black & white” (in more ways than one) good guys vs. bad guys of the Adventures of Superman has more charm and the character drama of Lois & Clark to be less overblown.
However, I do feel the occasion demands to be marked as it’s the end of what is (to my knowledge) the longest running superhero series of all time. Save for the combined incarnations of shows like Power Rangers and Ultraman, but that can be considered cheating. Unlike those shows, Smallville has kept basically the same format its entire run (and never adopted an uber-cool subtitle for each season).
I was very late getting into the show. Not until around season 7, I think. I didn’t really find the concept of Clark Kent growing up on a farm to be television worthy. I wasn’t a devoted Superman fan anyway (my sister, on the other hand, loves Superman and has been obsessed with the show since it premiered. It felt like an epic failure waiting to happen, and I didn’t want to witness it.
Yet, the show survived. It kept going. And going. And going. Far longer than it probably should have. How long does it take for a simple alien in a small town to learn he’s destined to wear tights and fly around? Apparently a long freakin’ time.
My interest in Superman started growing in 2006, in the hype of Superman Returns. Growing up I was more into Batman (still am) and I watched his movies religiously, yet around this time when I watched the original Superman movies all over again, I found that I enjoyed them more. Well, Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, not as much, but the first three grew on me a great deal in my adulthood.
In the wake of this, I knew Smallville was still airing and it was getting up there in years. We had to be pretty close to the payoff, Clark becoming the Man of Steel. Maybe it was time to start checking it out.
I Netflixed the first season. First thing that struck me was the menu, and suddenly I heard the unisexual screeching of “SOMEBODY SAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAVE MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!” I prayed to god that it wasn’t the theme song.
It was.
As I made my way through the show, I found that I wasn’t particularly impressed with it, yet I couldn’t stop watching for some reason. I found the show to be a replacement Buffy the Vampire Slayer with much weaker writing. The “Freak of the Week” format was very tiresome, resulting in some truly awful hours of television (“Hothead” comes immediately to mind, chronicling an asshole football coach that can start fires with his mind whenever he’s pissed off. Yet he just seemingly accepts this fact without flinching).
Furthermore, as I dissected the show as it went on, I discovered that it was basically a clone of the early years of Spider-Man...
Clark = Peter Parker
Lana = Sort of a Liz Allen/Mary Jane Watson hybrid
Lex = Harry Osborn
Jonathan = Uncle Ben
Martha = Aunt May.
Chloe = Has some Gwen Stacy qualities
Lionel = Norman Osborn
Whitney = Flash Thompson (he even joined the military!)
I heard the show once referred to as a Marvel take on a DC franchise, but this is ridiculous.
But what was it that I was finding so appealing? Why did I keep popping in the discs when I probably should have just sent them back? I deduced that while the plots were poor and the entire concept of the show was unoriginal (even for Superman. Clark growing up with superpowers was also chronicled in Superboy), it was the character interaction that I found making me want to see more. Granted, it was typical teenage melodrama, but I found it more tolerable than usual (i.e. comparable garbage like Roswell). Perhaps it was because I was familiar with these characters and already knew them. Maybe I was just a little curious as to where this new take would lead.
Curiosity would lead on and I tried the next seasons of the show. Season 2 started to get more compelling as Clark starts to learn more about his existence. Season long story arcs started to mold the series. I love arcs, and the addition to the series was a definite plus.
The show continued to improve steadily until season 4, which was crap. The arc in that season of artifacts destined for “The Traveler” was a chore to get through. Season 5 and 6 were a step up. I enjoyed the inclusion of the Green Arrow, though I admit he’s stuck around longer than he probably should have (series regular is too much. This is Superman, goddamnit). Season 7 was a drift toward mediocrity, but I blame that on the writers strike, especially since two of my favorite shows at the time also suffered, My Name is Earl and Lost.
This is where I started watching on TV. Of course, it had to be when Michael Rosenbaum left the show, taking Lex Luthor with him. I thought Rosenbaum was below average as the character, as his knack for staring off into space and delivering super long monologues provided much annoyance. Yet, I must admit I was fascinated with the show’s use of Lex. The mirrored rise of Clark and fall of Lex was fairly interesting to watch. Lex went from an OK guy to an obsessed jackass during the course of the show. This is pretty much where he left off when Rosenbaum chose to leave, though Lex started to grow much darker when he pushed his father out of a window. Unfortunately where the character would go from there was left unexplored.
This isn’t the show’s fault, mind you. There’s no way they could have seen this coming.
This was the same time series creators Alfred Gough and Miles Millar left the show so they could sue Warner Brothers for foreign costs or something (this info came from Wikipedia, so don’t quote me on it). I’d sympathize with their situation, but they’re partially responsible for ruining my beloved The Mummy franchise with Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, so flapjacks them. The show was taken over by a group of people whose names aren’t even worth bothering to remember, so I’m not even going to list them. This group brought the show closer to Clark’s destiny than Gough and Millar ever did with just one season. However they can’t write a well balanced season arc for crap. Doomsday’s story in season 8 was a mess and Zod’s run in season 9 was a bore.
And worst of all, they killed Jimmy. Seriously...what the hell? If you’re going to kill off a character, it should have been Chloe, who was a completely made up character for the series that had no origin in Superman lore. Killing Jimmy Olsen, then introducing the real Jimmy Olsen (who would be the one we come to know in Superman’s legacy), seemed like a step backward from every piece of progression the series had made to this point. I felt that the new writers were disappointed that they came so late in the series run and were trying desperately to prolong it.
Season 9 seemed very slow going as a result, what with Clark alienating an aspect of his life after failing to balance his two alter egos yet again. I’m really tired of that story, and the show has told it umpteen times.
However, season 9’s finale hit the spot. What a grand beginning of the end. It gives me some hope for season 10, even though I anticipate it to start out slow only to pick up steam at the end. I’m not expecting red and blue right off the bat.
With my experiences with the show, I can’t call it the ultimate superhero series. I can’t help but feel it’s a mere stepping stone to that series. I hope the lessons in production values and storytelling in this series lead to the best Superman series ever made. Or even better, the best Batman series. Adam West was fun, but a live action drama for Batman would kick ass, especially if as much effort was put into it as was displayed in Smallville.
I can dream, can’t I?
I actually do enjoy the show, but it’s my least favorite live action Superman series (keep in mind, I haven’t seen Superboy). I find the “black & white” (in more ways than one) good guys vs. bad guys of the Adventures of Superman has more charm and the character drama of Lois & Clark to be less overblown.
However, I do feel the occasion demands to be marked as it’s the end of what is (to my knowledge) the longest running superhero series of all time. Save for the combined incarnations of shows like Power Rangers and Ultraman, but that can be considered cheating. Unlike those shows, Smallville has kept basically the same format its entire run (and never adopted an uber-cool subtitle for each season).
I was very late getting into the show. Not until around season 7, I think. I didn’t really find the concept of Clark Kent growing up on a farm to be television worthy. I wasn’t a devoted Superman fan anyway (my sister, on the other hand, loves Superman and has been obsessed with the show since it premiered. It felt like an epic failure waiting to happen, and I didn’t want to witness it.
Yet, the show survived. It kept going. And going. And going. Far longer than it probably should have. How long does it take for a simple alien in a small town to learn he’s destined to wear tights and fly around? Apparently a long freakin’ time.
My interest in Superman started growing in 2006, in the hype of Superman Returns. Growing up I was more into Batman (still am) and I watched his movies religiously, yet around this time when I watched the original Superman movies all over again, I found that I enjoyed them more. Well, Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, not as much, but the first three grew on me a great deal in my adulthood.
In the wake of this, I knew Smallville was still airing and it was getting up there in years. We had to be pretty close to the payoff, Clark becoming the Man of Steel. Maybe it was time to start checking it out.
I Netflixed the first season. First thing that struck me was the menu, and suddenly I heard the unisexual screeching of “SOMEBODY SAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAVE MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!” I prayed to god that it wasn’t the theme song.
It was.
As I made my way through the show, I found that I wasn’t particularly impressed with it, yet I couldn’t stop watching for some reason. I found the show to be a replacement Buffy the Vampire Slayer with much weaker writing. The “Freak of the Week” format was very tiresome, resulting in some truly awful hours of television (“Hothead” comes immediately to mind, chronicling an asshole football coach that can start fires with his mind whenever he’s pissed off. Yet he just seemingly accepts this fact without flinching).
Furthermore, as I dissected the show as it went on, I discovered that it was basically a clone of the early years of Spider-Man...
Clark = Peter Parker
Lana = Sort of a Liz Allen/Mary Jane Watson hybrid
Lex = Harry Osborn
Jonathan = Uncle Ben
Martha = Aunt May.
Chloe = Has some Gwen Stacy qualities
Lionel = Norman Osborn
Whitney = Flash Thompson (he even joined the military!)
I heard the show once referred to as a Marvel take on a DC franchise, but this is ridiculous.
But what was it that I was finding so appealing? Why did I keep popping in the discs when I probably should have just sent them back? I deduced that while the plots were poor and the entire concept of the show was unoriginal (even for Superman. Clark growing up with superpowers was also chronicled in Superboy), it was the character interaction that I found making me want to see more. Granted, it was typical teenage melodrama, but I found it more tolerable than usual (i.e. comparable garbage like Roswell). Perhaps it was because I was familiar with these characters and already knew them. Maybe I was just a little curious as to where this new take would lead.
Curiosity would lead on and I tried the next seasons of the show. Season 2 started to get more compelling as Clark starts to learn more about his existence. Season long story arcs started to mold the series. I love arcs, and the addition to the series was a definite plus.
The show continued to improve steadily until season 4, which was crap. The arc in that season of artifacts destined for “The Traveler” was a chore to get through. Season 5 and 6 were a step up. I enjoyed the inclusion of the Green Arrow, though I admit he’s stuck around longer than he probably should have (series regular is too much. This is Superman, goddamnit). Season 7 was a drift toward mediocrity, but I blame that on the writers strike, especially since two of my favorite shows at the time also suffered, My Name is Earl and Lost.
This is where I started watching on TV. Of course, it had to be when Michael Rosenbaum left the show, taking Lex Luthor with him. I thought Rosenbaum was below average as the character, as his knack for staring off into space and delivering super long monologues provided much annoyance. Yet, I must admit I was fascinated with the show’s use of Lex. The mirrored rise of Clark and fall of Lex was fairly interesting to watch. Lex went from an OK guy to an obsessed jackass during the course of the show. This is pretty much where he left off when Rosenbaum chose to leave, though Lex started to grow much darker when he pushed his father out of a window. Unfortunately where the character would go from there was left unexplored.
This isn’t the show’s fault, mind you. There’s no way they could have seen this coming.
This was the same time series creators Alfred Gough and Miles Millar left the show so they could sue Warner Brothers for foreign costs or something (this info came from Wikipedia, so don’t quote me on it). I’d sympathize with their situation, but they’re partially responsible for ruining my beloved The Mummy franchise with Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, so flapjacks them. The show was taken over by a group of people whose names aren’t even worth bothering to remember, so I’m not even going to list them. This group brought the show closer to Clark’s destiny than Gough and Millar ever did with just one season. However they can’t write a well balanced season arc for crap. Doomsday’s story in season 8 was a mess and Zod’s run in season 9 was a bore.
And worst of all, they killed Jimmy. Seriously...what the hell? If you’re going to kill off a character, it should have been Chloe, who was a completely made up character for the series that had no origin in Superman lore. Killing Jimmy Olsen, then introducing the real Jimmy Olsen (who would be the one we come to know in Superman’s legacy), seemed like a step backward from every piece of progression the series had made to this point. I felt that the new writers were disappointed that they came so late in the series run and were trying desperately to prolong it.
Season 9 seemed very slow going as a result, what with Clark alienating an aspect of his life after failing to balance his two alter egos yet again. I’m really tired of that story, and the show has told it umpteen times.
However, season 9’s finale hit the spot. What a grand beginning of the end. It gives me some hope for season 10, even though I anticipate it to start out slow only to pick up steam at the end. I’m not expecting red and blue right off the bat.
With my experiences with the show, I can’t call it the ultimate superhero series. I can’t help but feel it’s a mere stepping stone to that series. I hope the lessons in production values and storytelling in this series lead to the best Superman series ever made. Or even better, the best Batman series. Adam West was fun, but a live action drama for Batman would kick ass, especially if as much effort was put into it as was displayed in Smallville.
I can dream, can’t I?
