With the renaissance of comic books to movies, a TV show like "Smallville" was destined to be. I initially avoided it, but after several friends telling me it was worth watching, I gave it a look.
Season 1 is excusably formulaic. It suffers most heavily from "monster of the week" syndrome (see early Buffy the Vampire Slayer for details). However, unlike Buffy, it hasn't outgrown this feature by season 3 (I haven't watched further than this, as I seriously don't have any reason to keep watching). Furthermore, no plot development really happens. At all. 3 seasons equates to 3 years in the story, yet the structure of the characters' relationships are almost totally static. Given that these characters are teenagers (where 3 years is a lifetime!), a substantial shift in opinions and alliances would be expected. But no, we're presented with the same tired love triangle. By season 3 Pete has been all but written out (given that he's Clark's best friend, this seems a bit lazy).
The writers have managed to create a never ending supply of bad guys by deciding that Kryptonite gives many inhabitants of Smallville crazy powers, which they can never seem to control and always end up doing harm with. They will then get into a tussle with Superman who will gain the upper hand, but then be
* pushed into a Kryptonite rock garden
* fall in Kryptonite manure
* be sprayed by Kryptonite perfume
* eat some Kryptonite gummy bears
unsurprisingly, this mechanic got tedious very quickly.
The characters in this show are, at best, irritating. The "good guys" (Kents, Chloe, Lana) are all hell-bent on being martyrs and will take the blame for anything going wrong, even if they were only vaguely involved (and especially if what happened was out-width their control...for example Clark's persistent "all the trouble happening here is my fault, if I hadn't landed in Smallville everything would be fine" whining). The writers of the show clearly don't like grey area characters, and feel the best way to show someone is a goodie is to make them try to take blame for everything.
Beyond the general self blaming they all tend to have their individual irritating personality foibles. The only one that deserves a special mention is Lana.
Lana wears her heart on her sleeve and gets angsty and upset at the slightest thing. A substantial number of episodes see her going off in a huff with Chloe or Clark for the episode, only for everyone to hug and be best buds at the end. How this whiny bitch can be the girl everyone in school loves is beyond me. She comes across as cold and uninteresting (the fact that she ends up running a coffee house at 16 is also very stupid, but we can chalk that up to stupid teen drama plots).
To be fair the back and forth between Lex and Lionel Luthor is entertaining (despite Lex's persistent pseudo-intellectualism). They manage to keep the power struggle and scheming between themselves quite interesting.
This show had some potential to presenting an interesting perspective on how Superman became what he is. However, the Superman lore is only a thin veneer over a second rate teen drama. If you want superheroes, go watch the 4400. If you want teen drama, watch Dawsons Creek. Only watch Smallville if you want a tedious mix of the two that fails at both.
In summary, I can best describe this as the worst of early Buffy mixed with some Dawsons Creek/The OC/One Tree Hill angsty teen drama. In fact it's mostly angsty teen drama with the occasional moment when Clark has to defeat some unimaginative Kryptonite monster.
Season 1 is excusably formulaic. It suffers most heavily from "monster of the week" syndrome (see early Buffy the Vampire Slayer for details). However, unlike Buffy, it hasn't outgrown this feature by season 3 (I haven't watched further than this, as I seriously don't have any reason to keep watching). Furthermore, no plot development really happens. At all. 3 seasons equates to 3 years in the story, yet the structure of the characters' relationships are almost totally static. Given that these characters are teenagers (where 3 years is a lifetime!), a substantial shift in opinions and alliances would be expected. But no, we're presented with the same tired love triangle. By season 3 Pete has been all but written out (given that he's Clark's best friend, this seems a bit lazy).
The writers have managed to create a never ending supply of bad guys by deciding that Kryptonite gives many inhabitants of Smallville crazy powers, which they can never seem to control and always end up doing harm with. They will then get into a tussle with Superman who will gain the upper hand, but then be
* pushed into a Kryptonite rock garden
* fall in Kryptonite manure
* be sprayed by Kryptonite perfume
* eat some Kryptonite gummy bears
unsurprisingly, this mechanic got tedious very quickly.
The characters in this show are, at best, irritating. The "good guys" (Kents, Chloe, Lana) are all hell-bent on being martyrs and will take the blame for anything going wrong, even if they were only vaguely involved (and especially if what happened was out-width their control...for example Clark's persistent "all the trouble happening here is my fault, if I hadn't landed in Smallville everything would be fine" whining). The writers of the show clearly don't like grey area characters, and feel the best way to show someone is a goodie is to make them try to take blame for everything.
Beyond the general self blaming they all tend to have their individual irritating personality foibles. The only one that deserves a special mention is Lana.
Lana wears her heart on her sleeve and gets angsty and upset at the slightest thing. A substantial number of episodes see her going off in a huff with Chloe or Clark for the episode, only for everyone to hug and be best buds at the end. How this whiny bitch can be the girl everyone in school loves is beyond me. She comes across as cold and uninteresting (the fact that she ends up running a coffee house at 16 is also very stupid, but we can chalk that up to stupid teen drama plots).
To be fair the back and forth between Lex and Lionel Luthor is entertaining (despite Lex's persistent pseudo-intellectualism). They manage to keep the power struggle and scheming between themselves quite interesting.
This show had some potential to presenting an interesting perspective on how Superman became what he is. However, the Superman lore is only a thin veneer over a second rate teen drama. If you want superheroes, go watch the 4400. If you want teen drama, watch Dawsons Creek. Only watch Smallville if you want a tedious mix of the two that fails at both.
In summary, I can best describe this as the worst of early Buffy mixed with some Dawsons Creek/The OC/One Tree Hill angsty teen drama. In fact it's mostly angsty teen drama with the occasional moment when Clark has to defeat some unimaginative Kryptonite monster.