Smallville: The Complete First Season

But Smallville also strikes gold when it takes a turn towards more comic-book territory, as evidenced by the parade of shape-shifting killers and other outlandish antagonists (many generated, in one of the series' most ingenious notions, by the same devastating meteor shower that brought the infant Clark to Earth) that Clark must harness his powers to face and defeat. Gough and Millar, along with their capable cast (which includes Michael Rosenbaum as a young and already bald-pated Lex Luthor, and Annette O'Toole and John Schneider as the Kents) manage to pull off the precarious high-wire act of combining science fiction with coming-of-age drama to create this highly watchable programme. --Paul Gaita

Keep in mind that when Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel created the Man of Steel in 1939 there was no Superboy until 1949, when he began part of the futuristic Legion of Super-Heroes. All we knew about the early days is that just before the doomed planet Krypton exploded to fragments, a scientist placed his infant son within an experimental rocket ship, launching it toward earth. When the vessel reached our planet, the child was found by an elderly couple, the Kents. They adopted the super tyke and with love and guidance shaped the boy's future. As he grew older Clark Kent learned to hurdle skyscrapers, leap an eighth of a mile, raise tremendous weights, run faster than a streamline train, and that nothing less than a bursting shell could penetrate his skin. When his foster parents passed away, Clark decided he must turn his titanic strength into channels that would benefit mankind.

The key part of "Smallville" is that creators Alfred Gough and Miles Millar go back to the simple beginning, with young Clark (Tom Welling) growing up on the Kent farm with Martha (Annette O'Toole) and Jonathan (John Schneider). From the "Superboy" comic books the series borrows the characters of girl next-door Lana Lang (Kristin Kreuk) and best buddy Pete Ross (Sam Jones III). But in addition to covering the basics, Gough and Millar come up with a key triad of additions to the original Smallville mythos.

First, they add young Lex Luthor (Michael Rosenbaum) to the mix, knowing that he and Superman are fated to be (im)mortal enemies, but that for the present he and Clark are friends (after Clark saves Lex's life in a car accident that should have killed them both). The key thing is that they truly are friends and that "Smallville" is as much about how Lex would become a super villain as it is about how Clark would become a super hero. Throw into the mix Daddy Dearest in the form of Lionel Luthor (John Glover), and Lex would have already pulled all of his hair out if it were not for what happened that fateful day in Smallville.

Second, is the brilliant reconceptualization of Superman's arrival on earth where the small spacecraft shows up in the middle of a shower of glowing green meteors that are all that remains of the planet Krypton. As much as the little boy in that spaceship, those meteors change Smallville forever, turning a little girl into an orphans and a young boy bald, and the small Kansas town into the self proclaimed meteor capital of the world. More importantly, those little green rocks will have continue to have an impact as they cause a series of mutations with which young Clark will have to contend. This also accounts for the great in-joke that Clark always becomes a bumbling idiot around Lana because she wears a locket made of kryptonite.

Third, there is the multi-purpose character of Chloe Sullivan (Allison Mack). The driving force of the Smallville High School student newspaper her "Wall of the Weird" documents all the strange things that have happened around Smallville since the meteor shower, making her the show's resident mistress of exposition. But she is also the tragic figure who longs for Clark the way he casts puppy dog glances at Lana, creating a nice example of teenage love triangle pathos.

Overall, Miller and Gough had created an extremely solid premise for their series, which creates multi-dynamics for all of the plotlines. The first season (2001) is book ended by some great special effects, with the devastating arrival of the meteors in the pilot and the three twisters becoming one in the thrilling cliffhanger finale. My only serious complaint is that Schneider's Jonathan Kent has too much of an angry edge, which takes away from his font of parental wisdom. Martha really needs to mellow him out so that he cuts Clark some slap. I understand that Jonathan is motivated by fears and concerns about his son, but I always liked the gentle influence personified by Glenn Ford in the first Christopher Reeve "Superman" film. Turning adolescent traumas into mutant monsters of the week is a hit and miss proposition, but that was true of the first season of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" as well, and look at how well that series turned out.

Yes, we can also throw into the mix that Clark and Lana are played by a couple of cute young actors. Welling is not too serious as the kid who is going to grow up to be the hero who stands for truth, justice, and the American way, and I was going to say Kruek was the WB's new Katie Holmes except after her soft-core Lana scene in the school swimming pool goes way beyond the world's biggest collection of midriff revealing tops. But the bottom line here is that either the Clark-Lana or the Clark-Lex would be enough to make this a good show and "Smallville" has both of them and a lot more, including the brilliant metaphor of the scarecrow immortalized in the DVD collection's cover shot.


"Superboy" comics were never half as good as "Smallville"   July 9, 2005
Lawrance M. Bernabo (The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota)
24 out of 25 found this review helpful

Maybe it is that Superman is truly indestructible or that the Man of Steel, who was picked recently as one of the Top 10 American pop culture icons, is so respected that not even Hollywood would dare tug on his cape, because "Smallville" is another successful small screen version of the strange visitor from another planet. Of course, the great irony is that this time around there is no cape to tug on because this television series is about Clark Kent, years before he put on the suit with the big red "S," when he was still in high school, his powers were just starting to kick in, and the girl in his life with the double L name was Lana Lang.

Keep in mind that when Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel created the Man of Steel in 1939 there was no Superboy until 1949, when he began part of the futuristic Legion of Super-Heroes. All we knew about the early days is that just before the doomed planet Krypton exploded to fragments, a scientist placed his infant son within an experimental rocket ship, launching it toward earth. When the vessel reached our planet, the child was found by an elderly couple, the Kents. They adopted the super tyke and with love and guidance shaped the boy's future. As he grew older Clark Kent learned to hurdle skyscrapers, leap an eighth of a mile, raise tremendous weights, run faster than a streamline train, and that nothing less than a bursting shell could penetrate his skin. When his foster parents passed away, Clark decided he must turn his titanic strength into channels that would benefit mankind.

The key part of "Smallville" is that creators Alfred Gough and Miles Millar go back to the simple beginning, with young Clark (Tom Welling) growing up on the Kent farm with Martha (Annette O'Toole) and Jonathan (John Schneider). From the "Superboy" comic books the series borrows the characters of girl next-door Lana Lang (Kristin Kreuk) and best buddy Pete Ross (Sam Jones III). But in addition to covering the basics, Gough and Millar come up with a key triad of additions to the original Smallville mythos.

First, they add young Lex Luthor (Michael Rosenbaum) to the mix, knowing that he and Superman are fated to be (im)mortal enemies, but that for the present he and Clark are friends (after Clark saves Lex's life in a car accident that should have killed them both). The key thing is that they truly are friends and that "Smallville" is as much about how Lex would become a super villain as it is about how Clark would become a super hero. Throw into the mix Daddy Dearest in the form of Lionel Luthor (John Glover), and Lex would have already pulled all of his hair out if it were not for what happened that fateful day in Smallville.

Second, is the brilliant reconceptualization of Superman's arrival on earth where the small spacecraft shows up in the middle of a shower of glowing green meteors that are all that remains of the planet Krypton. As much as the little boy in that spaceship, those meteors change Smallville forever, turning a little girl into an orphans and a young boy bald, and the small Kansas town into the self proclaimed meteor capital of the world. More importantly, those little green rocks will have continue to have an impact as they cause a series of mutations with which young Clark will have to contend. This also accounts for the great in-joke that Clark always becomes a bumbling idiot around Lana because she wears a locket made of kryptonite.

Third, there is the multi-purpose character of Chloe Sullivan (Allison Mack). The driving force of the Smallville High School student newspaper her "Wall of the Weird" documents all the strange things that have happened around Smallville since the meteor shower, making her the show's resident mistress of exposition. But she is also the tragic figure who longs for Clark the way he casts puppy dog glances at Lana, creating a nice example of teenage love triangle pathos.

Overall, Miller and Gough had created an extremely solid premise for their series, which creates multi-dynamics for all of the plotlines. The first season (2001) is book ended by some great special effects, with the devastating arrival of the meteors in the pilot and the three twisters becoming one in the thrilling cliffhanger finale. My only serious complaint is that Schneider's Jonathan Kent has too much of an angry edge, which takes away from his font of parental wisdom. Martha really needs to mellow him out so that he cuts Clark some slack. I understand that Jonathan is motivated by fears and concerns about his son, but I always liked the gentle influence personified by Glenn Ford in the first Christopher Reeve "Superman" film. Turning adolescent traumas into mutant monsters of the week is a hit and miss proposition, but that was true of the first season of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" as well, and look at how well that series turned out.

Yes, we can also throw into the mix that Clark and Lana are played by a couple of cute young actors. Welling is not too serious as the kid who is going to grow up to be the hero who stands for truth, justice, and the American way, and I was going to say Kruek was the WB's new Katie Holmes except after her soft-core Lana scene in the school swimming pool goes way beyond the world's biggest collection of midriff revealing tops. But the bottom line here is that either the Clark-Lana or the Clark-Lex would be enough to make this a good show and "Smallville" has both of them and a lot more, including the brilliant metaphor of the scarecrow immortalized in the DVD collection's cover shot.


Not flawless, but a very promising start   July 14, 2003
Ed (London, UK)
13 out of 15 found this review helpful

Season One of Smallville is by all accounts, excellent. It's not perfect and a lot of promise goes untapped, but the majority of the 21 episodes contained on this set are really very good stuff indeed. Admittedly the show is still finding its feet, but many of the first few episodes are very strong - it helps the show immensely that it has a spectacular pilot episode, that introduces all the characters in style and sets up the formula for the following six episodes: someone is infected with Kryptonite, gets powers, Clark defeats them. It's a solid formula, but one that could easily drag and get very boring very quickly. A good thing then that the subsequent episodes change gear slightly and go off in their own direction.

The characters first. There are some great ones, like Clark obviously, played to perfection by Tom Welling who, to his credit, is slightly beaten by Michael Rosenbaum's Lex who I can't praise enough. Chloe Sullivan is a very likeable girl, and Lana Lang the perfect foil for Clark. Pete shows a lot of promise but doesn't get enough screentime, whilst irritating jock Whitney Fordman is terrible, with not a single redeeming feature.

The episodes range in quality, from the absolutely amazing (Crush, Tempest) to the downright terrible (Craving, Reaper) and the average, unremarkable fare (X-Ray, Shimmer). But even the worst episodes display great acting and jaw-dropping special effects that must rank as some of the best on TV at the moment. Season Two may have more classics than One, but then One has episodes like Cool - an excellent episode where a jock is turned into a heat-vampire after falling into an icy Kryptonite lake and goes after Chloe; Zero - the season's darkest episode where a old friend of Lex seemingly returns from the dead seeking revenge; Nicodemus - a marvellously entertaining piece where some of the regulars get to act out of character after being squirted by a malignant flower; Leech - in which Clark's powers are transferred to another student at his school; Hourglass - where an old man gets a second chance at life thanks to meteor rocks and a woman predicts the futures of Clark and Lex; Crush - an unsettling tale of obsession and a lot of Chloe; Obscura - a disturbing episode where Lana sees through the eyes of a serial killer after a gas explosion and the marvellous season finale Tempest. And I haven't even mentioned Rogue, Stray, Jitters or Drone.

The season does slip up. The ridiculous four-episode arc with the atrocious Kelly Brooke in, whilst the Lana/Whitney relationship becomes tiresome quickly, but this is a recommended set of episodes. Sadly, you have to wait until next season to see some truly astounding stuff, but I haven't seen any other show besides The X Files to have such a strong and highly watchable first season.


Great Start   July 20, 2005
Aj Hendley Jnr (England, UK)
11 out of 12 found this review helpful

Season 1 is a great start to the Smallville adventure. It succeeds in laying down the groundwork for the series. I would definitely recommend this to anyone. If your looking for an ground breaking box set to add to your collection then get season 2 as it has a lot more depth to both the characters and the plot. In S1 Lana can be a bit cringeworthy at times during the early stages as Kreuk's acting can be sketchy as she seems to be getting into character. The writers don't really have much of a role for Lana yet, except for Clark's love interest and the Damsel in distress on multiple occasions.
Another flaw of this season is the repetitiveness. Person gets effected by kryptonite in some way, clark figures out what is wrong with the help of Pete & Chloe, Clark saves day in the nick of time after overcoming some form of struggle.
This is a great introduction to what is an amazing series; I would highly recommend it. If you don't like this then don't be put off as Smallville is about to get a whole lot better. It is worth every penny, believe me.

Season 4 is especially awesome, watch out for it this October on DVD.


Smallville-the best show since Buffy!!   September 26, 2003
10 out of 14 found this review helpful

Smallville is as good if not better than Buffy was in the first year-it is so cool!!
I am proud to say I have watched it ever since it first aired on Channel 4!!
It is so brilliantly written with the best soundtrack!
Smallville tells the story of a young Clark Kent before he donned the glasses and the cape and became the man of steel, for now he's just the Boy of Steel, although Clark (played by Tom Welling) can't fly (yet) he does have various abilites, discovering more along the way, that he uses for good, he quickly becomes known for always mysteriously being there when anything unusual happens and saving the day. So as his attraction towards Lana grows and Chloe's crush on him becomes deeper, nothing much happens to Pete, and Clark becomes Lex Luthor's first, real, friend!!
With great acting and other brilliant aspects, including the fact that Chloe (Allison Mack) is soooo fit, Smallville Season 1 is a definite must!!