“Before the legend…before the icon…there was a teenager named Clark Kent” (Bennett, Gottesfeld intro). The show Smallville features characters from the original Superman movies and portrays the life of Clark Kent from adolescent, to the eventual superhero we know. The show takes place in a town called Smallville, which is like a suburb of Metropolis, where the original movies take place. Clarks best friend, Chloe Sullivan, and his eventual girlfriend, Lois Lane both work at the Daily Planet just like in the movies. Tom Welling plays Clark Kent from his freshman year of high school to now the seventh and final season of the show where he is beginning to realize his fate as a hero. Clark hides the fact that he has superpowers from many people because he doesn’t know how people would act toward him if they knew he was an alien from another planet called Krypton. His adopted parents have always knoww he has special abilities but recently a few people in the past year have found out his secret as well. Those people are Chloe, Lana, and his friends in the Justice league. In an ironic twist, the first time Clark meets his nemesis, Lex Luthor is in a car crash in which case Lex hits Clark with his Porsche and they both fall off a bridge into a river and then Clark, being the hero, saves Lex’s life. After this accident and for the next couple of years, Clark and Lex remain pretty good friends until a girl and Lex’s greed get between their friendship. Lana Lang is Clarks one true love from the time he first saw her his freshman year of high school, then through the time they were boyfriend and girlfriend, and still now although she is married to Lex. This show appeals anyone who likes action, drama, science fiction, or the original Superman movies. A Critic on tvguide.com posted a comment on Smallville with the title “Smallville has no shame” trying to say that Smallville is taking stories from other shows and putting them in their story line. Although there are some bad critical reviews there are many more good ones. Smallville is a very good show which appeals to many different people and has many different story lines for everyone to enjoy.
Although Smallville is based on a science fiction genre the producers added a bit of drama and action so the story is very easy to believe and to make it very interesting. It is not a far fetched show and a lot of crazy things do not happen that would make the story line uninteresting or unbelievable. Another main concept is to have it tie in with the original movies. An example of this is the fact that Clark has all the same powers that superman did in the movies. “The cellar entrance was bolted shut with a two-inch-thick metal chain. He [Clark] knew he could pop the chain with his super-strength, but only if Chloe wasn’t watching” (Bennett, Gottesfeld 134). This is an example of Clarks power like the original Superman had. Another quality of the show is at the end of every show it makes you want to watch the show next weekend because the producers leave a story unfinished or open so you have to keep watching it to see what happens. Clark is living his life trying to fit in as normal teenager just like the rest of his friends. He played football his senior year of high school and works on his farm just like the normal kids do. The producers recently added the Fortress of Solitude so Clark can go there and speak to Jor El his biological father which makes it a believable Superman storyline. The producers also have other characters from the comic books that help Clark on his quest to take down Lex and they are, Oliver “Green Arrow” Queen, Arthur “Aquaman” Curry, Victor “Cyborg” Stone, and Bart “Flash” Allen. All of these characters are part of the DC Comic’s Justice League.
Here is a look at one critic’s point of view. The writer of the review starts off by saying that every season has had the same flow from beginning to end of the season. He claims that half way through every season there is a dramatic change and he notes that last season it was when Clarks dad died and this season when Clark has a dream about never having powers in the first place. He then claims that the entire show is an obvious rip-off of the Buffy the Vampire slayer show because they have to same beginning, middle, and end season flow. This critic even says they took the movie plot from Saw and made an episode out of it, in which case, they refer to the episode Mercy where Lionel Luthor, Lex’s father, has to go through a series of test to survive from a kidnapper. Finally this critic states he is tired of the “Clana” story and he is talking about the Clark, Lana, and Lex love triangle. That story line has been around for over three seasons now and he believes that people are tired of watching it. Also the critic feels that the writers and producers took the Dawson’s Creek love story and put a superhero in the middle and called it Smallville.
Not all reviews are negative here are some Critics that seem to like Smallville as much as most people do. The critics on TV.com give it an overall rating of 9.0 out of 10 which is considered a superb on their scale. Just last week for the episode titled Bizzaro, which was the season opener, was the 5th most watched show that night according to TV Guide which is impressive considering how many shows are on an evening at eight o’clock. The total number viewers last week was 5.08 million. Another writer from tvguide.com feels that “Smallville is not at all campy and is often surprisingly moving as a conventional coming of age drama; it succeeds in adding creative twists to the young hero’s life without compromising the adult pop icon’s legend.” Also on tvguide.com the overall rating is a four and one half stars out of 5 on their rating system. Also another review from tvguide.com states, “Each episode is even better then the last and every week I get pulled in more.” This directly relates to the good planning of writers to make each episode flow well and make you want to watch it again and again. Tv.com lets the people vote as well and the rating statistics is as follows out of 14,921 votes there are 5,624 perfect votes, so over 1/3 of the people believe that the show is perfect. Those are pretty impressive numbers coming from the people who matter most, the fans. Another thing the producers are doing is adding new characters. With new characters this brings about new stories to continue to add to the plot.
Yes there are some people who feel that Smallville steals story lines from other shows or movies or just plain bad. The overall census between the nightly ratings which was rated 5th overall on Thursday night and many credible T.V. sources which feel that it is a very well planned and good T.V. series and it portrays Superman very well. The fact that it received a 9.0 critic rating would go to prove that many critics feel it is good or even the 5,624 people who feel it is a perfect 10. The fact that it relates to a large crowd of people who like drama, action, and science fiction would go to prove that many different people would have to opportunity to like it.
Works Cited
[http://www.tv.com/smallville/show/1718/summary.html?q=smallville&tag=search_results;more;0] Copywrite 2007. CNET networks, Inc. February 4, 2007
[http://www.kryptonsite.com/] January 12, 2007. Mediaweek February 4, 2007
[http://community.tvguide.com/thread.jspa?threadID=800007029] January 28, 2007. Philly. February 4, 2007
Bennett, Cherie, Gottesfeld, Jeff. Smallville: Speed. 2003 by DC Comics. first edition
Bennett, Cherie, Gottesfeld, Jeff. Smallville: Sparks 2004 by DC Comics. First edition
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