As I write this, on July 11, 2021, Smallville is nearing its 20 year anniversary and it only seemed right to try something. Seeing as 2020 is the year I finally decided to commit to the series, I figured now was as good as time as any to review the series and share my experience. It’s a damned shame I didn’t begin this sooner and cover each episode as I saw it, but better late than never for a longtime Superman fan. Airing first on October 16, 2001, Smallville began the saga of Superman years before he put on the cape, the story instead focusing on Clark Kent, a teenage boy with unimaginable powers (only some of which he has yet discovered) trying to find his place in the world. I love this show, I adore it, I had never seen the show in its entirety until last year when the world was in the grip of a pandemic. It wound up being a real source of joy, being a huge fan of Superman and someone who just wants good entertainment and it's a testament to how much fun it really is that I stuck through all ten seasons, with all its twists, turns, changes and constants. Let's get into it shall we?
Jonathan: Sweetheart, we can't keep him. What are we gonna tell people? We found him out in a field?
Martha: We didn't find him... he found us.
Tom Welling is perfect as Clark Kent, despite being 10 years older, bulkier and taller than the freshman he plays, he has a sincere charm and brings a lot of energy to an otherwise mild-mannered and slightly awkward character. It's not quite the nerdy Clark Kent that you see as Superman's alter ego and despite his handsome, square-jawed looks being a dead ringer for the Man of Steel, he's not quite the seemingly invincible superhero. He's just a kid going through the self-discovery and growing pains of anyone at that age. The tone is perfectly set when, just after being denied the chance to try out for the football team and missing the bus, he cracks a grin and zips past them in a corn field. He's also capable of some great emotional range, after a pretty average day of school and pining over his unattainable crush, Lana Lang (I'll talk about her shortly), he has a chance encounter with the now early-twenties Lex Luthor (I'll get to him next), who accidentally crashes into him and sends them both off a bridge and into the river. Clark manages to save Lex and is stunned that he survived a car hitting him at 60 miles an hour. When his father later tells him to return a truck Lex had given him as a thank you and that it's normal to be upset, he plunges his hand into a wood chipper, revealing he can't be injured and bemoaning the fact that he can never be normal. His father decides to reveal that he was brought to them in a spaceship on the day of the meteor shower and Clark runs away furious that he was never told of this.
Lex Luthor. I can't imagine any other actor playing this incarnation of the character than Michael Rosenbaum, he plays Lex with dry wit and a lot of swagger and cuts a dashing figure for a character not typically known for his looks, but there's just a bit of mystery beneath the cool exterior, even a little sadness having survived a harrowing ordeal that left him bald and coming from a background of incredible wealth, but seemingly a lonely one with a father who's hard with him. Banished to work at the Smallville fertilizer plant by his father, Lex has all the makings of a fun character, a spoiled young billionaire out of his comfort zone and thrust into a whole new world after his chance encounter with Clark. Not yet a villain, he's actually quite warm to Clark and sees a chance at a great friendship, seeing his near death experience as a chance to start fresh. There's a lot yet to be unlocked, but the seeds are planted. Who is this seemingly invincible boy who ripped open his car and fished him out? Lana Lang is gets much more development in this pilot. We first see her as a child in a fairy costume granting Martha Kent a wish, a wish that came true when Clark arrived, but in the span of a few minutes she sees her parents killed before her eyes by a meteor. As a teenager played by raven haired Eurasian beauty Kristen Kreuk, she's a popular cheerleader with her boyfriend Whitney Fordman, who's captain of the football team. Clark tries to approach her, but stumbles over feeling sick due to her green necklace, a piece of the meteor rock that orphaned her, a necklace she lets her boyfriend wear for luck. When Clark is still hiding from his parents, he meets her in a graveyard where they bond. Clark never knew his birth parents, Lana saw hers die and it's still a sore spot for her. It's a sweet scene, if a bit corny, and Kreuk and Welling are both great. Whitney doesn't think so though.
Meanwhile, strange things are afoot as the first character who was affected by the mutating effects of the meteor rocks returns. A boy named Jeremy Creek, who young Lex encountered in the cornfield strung up like a scarecrow as part of a cruel prank, has woken from a coma still a teenager and now attacking his old tormentors with electric powers. Clark spots him at the scene of the crime as a man is carried off in an ambulance and teams with his friends at the school newspaper, Chloe Sullivan and Pete Ross to find more information on him. Here he discovers Chloe's "Wall of Weird," a collection of articles about all the odd events and sightings that have popped up since the meteor shower. Clark sees a picture of Lana from that day and is overcome with guilt, believing himself responsible. Unfortunately he bumps into a profoundly jealous Whitney who drags him off to be this year's scarecrow, Clark is unfortunately subdued by the meteor rock necklace and can't do much about it so when we next see him, he's stripped to his boxers and strung up in a field with a red "S" painted on his chest. Foreshadowing AND a bit of Christ symbolism in one scene, hot damn.
Clark stops and Jeremy and brings him back to his senses, the poor kid completely confused and not remembering any of the ordeal, and Clark comforts him. Clark is too late for the dance and, in a pretty justifiable bout of pettiness, he pulls one hell of a prank of his own and stacks his bullies' trucks on top of each other before heading home. His dad checks up on him, seemingly not knowing about anything that's happened over the course of the day, and the two share a great moment.
Clark: Dad, I'm really glad you and mom are the ones that found me.
Jonathan: We didn't find you, Clark. You found us.
After that bit of sweetness, Lana appears and dances with him for a bit, the sound of car horns snapping him out of what turns out to be a daydream (d'aww), and he thanks her for the dance from afar. She looks back for a moment, as if hearing him, smiles and walks inside as Clark looks on wistfully.
All things considered, it's one hell of a pilot episode. It perfectly lays out the groundwork for the series and the characters who we'll be following on the adventure and in many ways it feels like a short film about Superman, putting the man before the super, though not quite yet a man. It's the little details too that make all the difference, a good deal of which I brushed past, the book of Clark's that Lana picks up being by Nietzsche, the originator of the "superman" concept, Clark's tendency to daydream such as his fantasy about being a football star and victoriously being embraced by Lana, or the supporting characters' own quirks. Ah yes, the supporting characters. It can't be said enough how much the people in Clark's life will have a profound impact on his life and their early appearances here are excellent. John Schneider and Annette O'Toole as Jonathan and Martha Kent respectively as inspired casting, younger than the usual casting choices for Clark's adoptive parents but somehow making their roles feel more real, less elderly guardians of an alien boy and more like a realistic young-ish couple trying to raise a son in a way we hadn't before often seen. Schneider gets more to do in the pilot admittedly as the firm, yet truly caring father to Clark as he tries to protect and encourage his son in equal measure, but O'Toole is great too in her few scenes as Martha, bringing a lot of warmth and spunk to the role of Martha. John Glover's early appearance as Lionel Luthor is a real treat and it'll be a joy to see him return as Lex's surly father.
His friends are quite winsome too, Sam Jones III is a joy as his childhood friend from the comics, Pete Ross, encouraging Clark to join him for football tryouts lest they be the unlucky freshmen chosen to be strung up in a cornfield for the yearly prank and making bets with Chloe on Clark's tardiness or whether or not he can approach Lana without making a fool of himself. Allison Mack in particular immediately makes an impression as fast-talking amateur journalist Chloe Sullivan, with her choppy blonde hair, thrift store chic and weapons grade snark, she's definitely a lot of fun and for me, winds up being one of the best characters in the whole show. She also, despite her denial, seems to be harboring a crush on our farmboy-cum-superhero, which will be coming up again, for better or worse.
Eric Johnson doesn't have much to do as jock Whitney Fordman, but he does fine all things considered and the seeds are planted for a character who's more than just a meathead. Adrian Glynn McMorran does a good job as Jeremy Creek, the first of the "meteor freaks" that Clark faces off against. Quietly menacing, but not evil, he's just an angry kid with a whole lot of power at his disposal. This is another great recurring theme, many of the folks who get super powers tend to use them dangerously or selfishly, whether they're actively malicious or the newfound power just gets to their heads. It's a great contrast to Clark Kent, who doesn't really want the burden of all this power, but uses it to help people. All the makings of a great Superman. The visual style of the episode balances the ordinary world with comic book flair quite well, the use of warm reds and yellows and blues hearkening to the colors of Superman's suit. Blue tends to be used more for the dark scenes, but Clark does tend to wear blue quite a bit. The Kent house is yellow, their barn is red and the high school uses both heavily.
It also boasts one hell of a soundtrack. The folksy opening of "Long Way Round" by Eagle Eye Cherry introduces us to teenaged Clark as he looks up other teenagers who've performed similar feats as him, "Eight Half Letters" by power pop band Stereoblis introduces us to Smallville High School and Clark's plucky pals, the Calling's "Unstoppable" plays as Lex speeds to his nearly fatal crash and fated meeting with Clark, Jude's cover of "Everything I Own" plays during the homecoming dance and Lifehouse's gorgeous "Everything" plays out the episode as Clark longs for Lana. Mark Snow of The X-Files fame composed the score and it really packs a punch, from the urgency and terror of the meteor shower and frenzied sadness as Lionel searches the decimated corn field for Lex to the powerful and even triumphant music when the Kents discover infant Clark. Snow never once uses any of the John Williams score from the 1978 film and instead weaves his own that never fails to hit any of the right emotional beats. It's really special.
All in all, it's a strong start to a very strong series and one of the better pilot episodes of a superhero show. There's a lot going on, but plenty of room for more surprises. What's Lex Luthor going to do now that he's befriended Clark Kent? What kind of threats will Clark have to save Smallville from? The adventure is just beginning, and what a fun adventure it is.
Come for the middle America charm, stay because you probably got killed.
