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Smallville season one thoughts - Part 1
Apr. 27th, 2009 09:59 amOkay, strap in people, we’re going to be talking about Smallville. I'm going back to watch the first season of SV in preparation for an epic AU in which Davis is raised by the Kents and Clark is raised by the Luthors. (And Davis heroically becomes a Krypto-freak serial killer, because THAT'S HOW HE ROLLS. Oh, shut up, like Clark wasn't. At least Davis owns up to it and says little quips after and has sexy times with Chloe WUT)
It’s hard to watch the first season of SV without some nostalgia. After all, back then the show was full of potential. Clark was likable, Lex was cool, people actually smiled! We have no idea it would take eight fucking years (and counting!) before Clark put on a cape. And yes, everyone is a terrible actor. They really have learned to emote over the years.
But the writing! It used to have clever lines and subtext (although it's mostly "d-bags use women, whether it's for sex or for their precious, precious body heat" and "maybe you should be happy with your current weight, although we still hold up Kristin Kreuk as the ultimate standard of beauty, so really we'll full of shit there"). Now we have Tess saying that Davis is Clark’s Judas and Clark’s default response to every situation being petulant jackassery. But I come here not to bury Smallville, but to praise it. Let’s forget for a moment that the show has pretty much become unwatchable except for The Davis And Chloe show, a spin-off that unfortunately is still shown within Smallville.
Pretty much every week, it’s “someone gets a thematically appropriate mutation from meteor rocks, then goes after one of Clark’s friends, usually Lana, sometimes Chloe or Pete.” Although the episode where a heat-sucking baddie tries to date Chloe is good for some lulz. “I finally find a guy I like and he turns out to be homicidal.” A TYPE, CHLOE. YOU HAVE ONE.
So when later seasons try to characterize the meteor freaks (sorry, “meteor-infected”… that’s not much better) as basically the mutants of the DCU, it’s hard to forget that week in and week out, Kryptonite powers have been treated as demonic possession. I guess SV High just had an abnormally high number of potential serial killers in its student body. They should probably stop selling M-rated games there.
Also, Clark’s requisite teen angst tends to have three variants, each painfully obnoxious in their own way.
A. “I was in the spaceship that arrived in the meteor shower! Therefore, I AM RESPONSIBLE FOR THE METEOR SHOWER!" Dude, you were a baby. What were you supposed to do, teeth on it? I could see this working as a ‘all these people died as a result of me coming here, I can’t let that be in vain!’ kind of angst, but even that is too Batman for a Superman show. As something he would overcome and let go of, maybe.
B. “I wish I were normal!” Except, in the pilot episode alone Clark uses his powers to survive a car crash that would’ve otherwise killed him AND to save the entire school from being electrocuted. Yet, no one ever says “Hey, Clark, if you were ‘normal’, us and a lot of your other friends would be dead.”
C. “Lana is dating Whitney and not me!” Okay, fair enough. But anyone else a little weirded out that so much of the young Clark Kent's time was spending macking on another man's girl? Where're those Midwestern values we all love so much? More and more, I'm thinking Smallville Clark grew up to be Superman Returns Clark. Swap out the telescope for X-ray vision and you're there.
It’s hard to watch the first season of SV without some nostalgia. After all, back then the show was full of potential. Clark was likable, Lex was cool, people actually smiled! We have no idea it would take eight fucking years (and counting!) before Clark put on a cape. And yes, everyone is a terrible actor. They really have learned to emote over the years.
But the writing! It used to have clever lines and subtext (although it's mostly "d-bags use women, whether it's for sex or for their precious, precious body heat" and "maybe you should be happy with your current weight, although we still hold up Kristin Kreuk as the ultimate standard of beauty, so really we'll full of shit there"). Now we have Tess saying that Davis is Clark’s Judas and Clark’s default response to every situation being petulant jackassery. But I come here not to bury Smallville, but to praise it. Let’s forget for a moment that the show has pretty much become unwatchable except for The Davis And Chloe show, a spin-off that unfortunately is still shown within Smallville.
Pretty much every week, it’s “someone gets a thematically appropriate mutation from meteor rocks, then goes after one of Clark’s friends, usually Lana, sometimes Chloe or Pete.” Although the episode where a heat-sucking baddie tries to date Chloe is good for some lulz. “I finally find a guy I like and he turns out to be homicidal.” A TYPE, CHLOE. YOU HAVE ONE.
So when later seasons try to characterize the meteor freaks (sorry, “meteor-infected”… that’s not much better) as basically the mutants of the DCU, it’s hard to forget that week in and week out, Kryptonite powers have been treated as demonic possession. I guess SV High just had an abnormally high number of potential serial killers in its student body. They should probably stop selling M-rated games there.
Also, Clark’s requisite teen angst tends to have three variants, each painfully obnoxious in their own way.
A. “I was in the spaceship that arrived in the meteor shower! Therefore, I AM RESPONSIBLE FOR THE METEOR SHOWER!" Dude, you were a baby. What were you supposed to do, teeth on it? I could see this working as a ‘all these people died as a result of me coming here, I can’t let that be in vain!’ kind of angst, but even that is too Batman for a Superman show. As something he would overcome and let go of, maybe.
B. “I wish I were normal!” Except, in the pilot episode alone Clark uses his powers to survive a car crash that would’ve otherwise killed him AND to save the entire school from being electrocuted. Yet, no one ever says “Hey, Clark, if you were ‘normal’, us and a lot of your other friends would be dead.”
C. “Lana is dating Whitney and not me!” Okay, fair enough. But anyone else a little weirded out that so much of the young Clark Kent's time was spending macking on another man's girl? Where're those Midwestern values we all love so much? More and more, I'm thinking Smallville Clark grew up to be Superman Returns Clark. Swap out the telescope for X-ray vision and you're there.
