What Does Smallville Do Really Well?

[theenglish]

We all know that Smallville is fluff and inconsistent and what not, but most of us watch it and enjoy it. We know that it misses the Superman mark in many ways, but it has been on television for ten years. That's longer than any other incarnation of Superman outside of the comics.

So, what does it do really well?

For starters, I think the character of Lois Lane is spot on. She is written much better and has more depth than any of the other versions of the characters outside of the comics. For me, she has become the Lois Lane for me, more than Margot Kidder or Terri Hatcher. Agree? Disagree?

What do you feel Smallville gets right?

 

[Admiral_Young]

Interesting question and one hard to touch upon. I would say that the one aspect that "Smallville" gets right is the episodes they do that revolve around the mythology, don't think there will be any complainers. As for Erica Durance's Lois...at first I thought that she was fantastic, until the writers decided to turn her into Chloe and Chloe into Lois and give them both the same "witty" quick dialogue akin to "Gilmore Girls" (i keep forgetting who first brought this up) but it has really bugs me now to the point where I cringe at times at her devliery of lines.

It's been on for ten seasons and that is a remarkable accomplishment but at least five of those seasons it could have been cancelled. The fact that WB/CW has waited until May normally to renew it (some seasons last second) would seem to indicate that they've had nothing in the can to replace it but still have to acknowlege the ratings and niche following the show has.

The show has also for the most part done really good finales, with perhaps the except of last season and the one with Doomsday. I think early on it did a really good job of displaying the family relationship between Clark and his parents and juxtaposing against the dysfunction of the Luthors.

 

[Caliburn24]

What does Smallville do well?

It teases and flirts with we the audience better than any other TV show. Promise after promise, hint after hint of greatness, but almost never delivers.

It has also produced the most attractive female cast of any show on the air. From cast members to guest stars to just bit parts, 99% of the women on Smallville are gorgeous and look stunning in HD.

 

[P0sitr0nic]

I like their kryptonite rocks.

 

[DarKush]

1. Contemporizing the Superman mythos. I think Smallville has done a good job of making Clark Kent interesting even without the suit. Also, Smallville has helped make Clark and Superman more relatable.

2. Luthors. Smallville created Lionel Luthor, who has gone on to be placed in the comics due to his popularity. Plus I think Michael Rosenbaum's Lex is perhaps the best iteration of the character onscreen thus far.

3. FX. Though some are dicey, for the most part, I've been impressed with what Smallville can do on its I'm assuming limited budget. There have been quite a few big screen FX over the years. Most recently I was impressed with how they rendered Doomsday.

4. Chloe Sullivan. Another popular Smallville creation that has found her way into the comics.

5. Bringing in a lot of the DC Universe. Smallville has provided an outlet to get live-action versions of characters would probably never would've gotten if not for the show and for the most part Smallville has had a good take on them. I wasn't a big fan of Justin Hartley's acting at first, but I like what the show has done with Green Arrow. He's a good, and worthy, Bruce Wayne stand-in. Sometimes you forget how much Ollie and Bruce have in common, so it wasn't like Smallville had to even alter GA to get him to fit into that role.

6. Villains. Smallville has done a great job with their bad guys, for the most part. Outside of the Luthors, Brainiac, Doomsday, Zod, and now Darkseid for the big bads, but a lot of smaller bads too which shows their respect and knowledge of the DCU. I mean it was so cool seeing Amanda Waller, Maxwell Lord, Toyman, Parasite, Deadshot, etc. And we still have the Suicide Squad to go.

7. Respecting the Donner films. I think Smallville struck the right balance, unlike Superman Returns, in respecting the Donner films. I will never forget Christopher Reeve's passing of the torch to Tom Welling. I also liked when Margot Kidder and the dude that played Jimmy Olsen did cameos. Of course having Annette O'Toole and Terence Stamp as ongoing characters certainly didn't hurt. And the other little touches along the way.

8. The music at the end, in the earlier seasons. Most of the songs really captured the moment and they introduced me to a lot of good music. I didn't know who Eva Cassidy was until that funeral scene for Whitney's dad. Hand's down one of my all time favorite scenes of the entire series. It got all of the pent longing and frustrations of the characters just right. And it became my favorite version of "Time After Time." Another great musical scene was when Brainiac arrived to the sounds of Depeche Mode.

9. Casting overall. I thought Smallville did a good job with the Kents, Supergirl, Lois, Tess, and so many others. There were misfires to be sure (looking at you Callum Blue), but for the most part I thought they've gotten some good actors.

 

[Rett Mikhal]

It changes time slots faster than a speeding bullet, that's for damn sure.

 

[Greg Cox]

1) Attract non-comic book fans.

2) The most three-dimensional Luthor on screen to date.

3) Chloe.

 

[Christopher]

It's a hard question to answer, because the show has changed over time, and there have been things it's done well at some times and dreadfully at others. I've made my opinion clear that I consider the past three seasons to be virtually a different show from the previous seven. Things it's recently done well that it used to do badly include:

* Moving Clark toward his destiny. For seven seasons, Millar & Gough kept his development arrested, fighting his maturation toward Supermanhood at every step of the way, but immediately upon their departure, the show began moving him toward an embrace of his superhero role -- at least, insofar as they could given the core premise that he wouldn't become Superman per se until the end of the series.

* The music. Mark Snow's scores were awful, just droning, whining atmospherics. The only time he did anything melodic was when he quoted John Williams. But since Louis Febre took over as composer, the music has improved immensely, becoming much more melodic and thematically driven. Now, if only they'd ditch that unbearable theme song and let Febre do a full main-title arrangement of his proto-Superman motif.


If there's one thing the show has done more or less consistently well over its entire run, it's giving dimension to the main villains. Lex Luthor in the early seasons was a very rich, complex character, and he had a great relationship with Clark. Lionel Luthor was a similarly engaging figure. Both fell prey to the deterioration in the show's writing in the middle years. But the post-Millar/Gough show has managed to recapture some of that. Whereas the comics' Doomsday was a terrible, shallow idea, nothing more than a lame plot device, the show turned Davis Bloome/Doomsday into a complicated character, a sympathetic antagonist with an engaging arc. And last season, the show created a version of Zod that was as complex and nuanced as Lex had been in the early seasons, a friend-turned-rival to Jor-El paralleling Lex's relationship with Clark. Like Lex, Major Zod was a character who had the potential to go either way; you could see the potential for good in him, so it made his villainous destiny all the more tragic.


As for Chloe, I can't entirely agree that the show did her well. She is a good character for the most part, but much of that is due to the casting. The problem is, the writers insist on trying to give her a hip, witty, pun-laden dialogue style a la Joss Whedon, and they are simply terrible at it. Most of her glib dialogue over the years has been achingly bad and I've felt sorry for Allison Mack for having to spout such stilted, unnatural, unfunny lines all the time.

 

[RandyS]

Chole.

 

[bigdaddy]

What Does Smallville Do Really Well?

Gets renewed.

I rather they do a spinoff of Green Arrow, it's awesome it's now "Smallville" that doesn't take place in Smallville and has Green Arrow in a lot of episodes.

 

[Admiral_Young]

They've still handcuffed Clark though to a degree from fulfilling his destiny in order to milk every possible story they could due to the fact they keep getting renewed. I'm not going to turn this thread into a debate but Christopher knows I disagree with him on Clark's character evolution, he has made some progress but it's always handcuffed with some lame catch like for instance the past two or three years worth of stories where he has been moping around brooding about the mistakes he has made in the past. He has had no one to guide him since Jonathon died and the series finally made a point of acknowledging that in "Homecoming" so hopefully now we'll get him flying and feeling more proactive and confident in himself.

I will agree with the change of composers, Mark Snow was average at best but Louis Fevre has transformed the music of the series big time creating some wonderful wide sweeping motifs. I'm sure that Kelly would refer to them as dark and epic.

Chloe has been on shaky ground for the past few seasons, I'd just like to see Ali given a good departure and if that means becoming the Dr. Fate which has been theorized in the hiatus thread and implied with her putting the helmet on (along with Fate's own comment to her last season) then I'm more than happy with that. I forgot to mention Chloe's creation. Lionel's as well since it has given more depth and back story to Lex's character, I think in the comics his parents didn't really have names.

The progression and execution of Lex and Clark's relationship. I think this will be a pinnacle of the series and has done wonders reminding fans that Lex and Clark were friends in Smallville back in the Silverage. This is also something that has been retconned into Lex's comic counterpart first in "Birthright" then again in "Secret Origin".

 

[Christopher]

They've still handcuffed Clark though to a degree from fulfilling his destiny in order to milk every possible story they could due to the fact they keep getting renewed. I'm not going to turn this thread into a debate but Christopher knows I disagree with him on Clark's character evolution, he has made some progress but it's always handcuffed with some lame catch like for instance the past two or three years worth of stories where he has been moping around brooding about the mistakes he has made in the past. He has had no one to guide him since Jonathon died and the series finally made a point of acknowledging that in "Homecoming" so hopefully now we'll get him flying and feeling more proactive and confident in himself.

Well, I acknowledged that those limits exist. I don't think we disagree on the facts, we just place different emphasis on them, have different views about which facts are most important. They are kind of hamstrung by the nature of the show and the fact that it's run so much longer than intended. They can't really rename the show, and apparently Welling is pretty adamant about not wearing the suit, so that does limit what they can do; but I do think that within those limits, they've made some real movement these past two-plus seasons, particularly now that the end is definitely in sight.

 

[Admiral_Young]

I will concede that we disagree on the emphasis. My prediction is that Clark will don the suit before the series finale and there will be some sort of build up before the fight with Darkseid.

 

[Owain Taggart]

Making Superman into a teen drama. I think the best thing it's done is actually elaborate and expand on where Clark came from. We've always heard of Smallville in the movies, and all we've seen is the family farm, but we've never actually seen the town. But I can't really stand the characterization in this show. I feel it's the weak point.

 

[FordSVT]

This.

 

[davejames]

Well... I've always thought the opening credits were awesome.

 

[Frontier]

It is imperfect. It has flaws. It is totally inconsistent and struggled for a long time to even appear as an echo of Superman mythos.

But it captures the over-all arcing spirit well, in broad strokes. Much like pointillism for art. Look at each dot, you see what you see. Look at it as a whole, you see something far superior and even somewhat epic.

I'll miss Smallville when it's gone. My two favorite superheroes are Batman and Superman. Soon, Smallville will end. After this next film, the best live action incarnation of Batman will end as well. It sucks.

 

[Admiral_Young]

That's an awesome picture.

 

[Chess Piece Face]

I think it does Lois and Clark very well. Chloe is fantastic. Most importantly I think it does a decent job of making us care about these characters despite the fact that they live in just about the cheesiest universe imaginable.

Also, it has given respect to the fans many times with things like The Justice Society, Braniac, Legion of Superheros, etc. Remember this started out playing up to teen idiots who watch the WB...now it plays up to fanboys of all ages who only watch the CW once a week. I appreciate this.

 

[Admiral_Young]

Well with respect there were elements from the mythos that crypt into the series from the very beginning. They just chose to slowly introduce and incorporate them and build them up. Once Clark finally made his way to Metropolis they probably felt a need to start bringing in more and more characters. I find it amusing that Clark doesn't even have an apartment in Metropolis, that he still lives in the barn and super speeds between the Planet and the barn.