"Smallville" Fan Reviews

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Originally Aired November 6, 2001
This Week's Reviewers: Kat Picson & Patrick Ho

Once again, we are offered a villain of the week that is good, well-written and well-acted (not just by the Tina Greer actor, but also her mother, Tom Welling, Kristin Kreuk, Michael Rosenbaum and Eric Johnson). This episode, though, seems to tie in much better than the previous two because the villain's problem related to the problems of the other characters: identity.

As much as we all know Superman to be the epitome of "truth, justice and the American way" it's good to know that he is just like all other teenage boys and has issues with the ways his body are changing. (We'll overlook the fact that Tom Welling went through it at least 6 or 7 years ago.) The voice change thing (cross-reference Peter Brady), the facial hair thing, the hormonal changes thing -- those issues are covered in other teenage dramas. Clark Kent goes through the development of his x-ray vision powers. His parents' guidance will keep him from abusing them. I almost expected Jonathan and Martha giving Clark a pair of glasses at the end of the episode to wear, so that he would always be reminded not to abuse his powers. But I know that the glasses are not an essential part of this incarnation.

The side story with Lex Luthor were excellent. We finally see the true Lex Luthor coming out of his adolescent shell. We know that his past is not squeaky clean; his future does not bode well either. Let's just have some more interaction with Clark and Lex so we see their friendship blossoming and then later see the disintegration. It will be interesting to see to see what this reporter's role will be in future episodes. What I don't want is for Lex to know Clark's secret. That just opens up a whole new can of worms that would make for complicated storylines.

Lana's subplot about her mother was excellent. Something about Sara Jane Redmond's acting bugs me, but I like how Lana dealt with her questions. She found the answers herself. The talk on the porch with Clark was excellent; it strengthened the bond they had as friends through the similarities in their family experiences. It does plant a seed in Clark's mind though, when Lana says, "Have you ever tried to look for your parents?" This will probably be explored in future episodes, and truly, I can't wait. This will be a part of the puzzle in Clark finding his true identity.

The supporting cast was good. The Lana/Chloe interaction was excellent. Lana's and Chloe's friends are all male; though in real life it would be doubtful that the two would actually become close, the female banter was refreshing. And Chloe comes through, showing that she is not just about the scoop. Pete needs a bigger role; they are writing him as a smart aleck, and his delivery is fresh. Let's write Sam some more lines, why don't we? Same goes for Martha and Jonathan.

Again, this episode gets a B+ because although the episode tied all the elements together well and most of the episode was written beautifully, the freak of the week formula is getting old. It is becoming repetitive. And next week's trailer does nothing to dissuade the naysayers. There *is* too much kryptonite in this town, people. And there *are* way too many people who are being physically and mentally affected by it. This ties the episodes together, but it's not the common thread we need.

This week: Mystique. Next week: Ice Man. Can we stop watching the X-Men movie on DVD please? Watch a little of the Superman movies. Or watch Lois & Clark's first season and the beginning of the third, and fast-forward through the cheesy villains (like I usually do). Then we may have a good rhythm going.

X-Ray was a nice episode and all, but I think that fact the powers that be (TPTB) keep reusing the same plot tools over and over again is getting to be ridiculous and boring.

1) The three main characters, Clark, Lana, and Lex are discovering themselves, which I can see is okay to have continuously because it will help develop that characters.

a) Clark learns that he has more and more powers and abilities and has to deal with controlling them. In this episode he has X-Ray vision to learn to cope with. It's good that he has his mother to help him keep his morals that Superman eventually gets when she says her line of "just keep my eyes closed." Although the girls’ locker room scene was a nice thing to throw in for guys to watch. :)

b) Lana wants to find out who she really is and keeps searching her past until she finds out everything and only then will she be happy. Last week she was asking about her mother and aunt about their cheerleading past and this episode she finds out that her mother wasn't even really into it and realizes that when she quit cheerleading she was really like her mother even though she thought she was doing the opposite. I just wished we were able to all of hear her mother's graduation speech or at least more of it, it sounded inspiring.

c) Lex becomes more ruthless each time we see him. This will eventually turn him into the adult Lex, which we are all familiar with. Tonight's episode we see how conniving and controlling he can be when he gets the journalist to work for him.

2) The villain of the week. In X-Ray we had the metamorphosing Mystique, er I mean Tina. :) Also the villain of the week always seems to be connected either to the meteor shower or Kryptonite in some way. I know, Krypton is already related to the meteor show and I'm just being redundant.

3) Clark weakened by Kryptonite so the villain can rough him up a bit. So far every single episode right before his fight with the bad guy, he gets near "the meteor rocks" and then gets tossed away. Come on people, in this version of Superman, which I'm pretty sure should be the post-crisis one he has more than Kryptonite as a weakness. The old Superman who was strong enough to move planets and was immune to Darkseid's Omega beams ,was only weak to two things, Kryptonite and magic, but I'm sure any current version of Superman will not be that one. So, this and any other current version of Superman can be hurt by strong lasers, massive explosions (maybe something like half-megaton), and Darkseid's Omega beams, however, I doubt he'll ever show up in Smallville. I guess we can have people who have psychic powers as enemies because that's sort of related to using magic for a weakness. We can always use evil chemists for many different effects, such as creating love potions or poisons. In fact if any of you guys remember, from the old Superfriends, near the end of one episode there was a short of Superman Family Albums, it had a fully haired young Lex Luthor working in a science lab and after Superboy help clean it up, there was an accident which left Lex bald and Lex had hated Superboy/man since then.

So, here is what I feel like every episode has been so far. A bad guy comes to town somehow related to the meteor shower. Clark and company investigates and they realize who did the crime. Clark goes to fight, gets beat up a bit and then kicks butt and saves the day. Oh yeah, and he saves someone somewhere in the episode.

If TPTB keeps doing this, this can get really boring fast. However, I'll still continue to watch the series, mainly because I'm a really big Superman fan and have always been a devoted follower of the Superman mythos ever since I heard of him when I was a child. The series has been doing pretty good, so I like what I see, but I also see room for improvement.

This was a rather decent episode despite the repetition in plot lines, so I would give it a 7.8 out of 10.

We will post some more reviews on this page soon. Thanks to everyone who has sent them in so far!

Superman For All Seasons
Smallville explores the story of a young Clark Kent and his place in the world on television. In the comics, this was very well illustrated in Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale's "Superman For All Seasons." This has been labeled a "must read" by many fans and also listed as the favorite Superman story of recent years by many. Check it out!

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