Last Friday, the series finale of Smallville, puting an end to 10 season show that chronicled the days of young Clark Kent before he donned the iconic red and blue suit and became the greatest hero of them all, Superman.
The finale overall was alright, not spectacular but not craptacular either and considering I was expecting worse, I'm satisfied.
From someone who grew up a Superman fan since the 80's, I actually like Smallville, yes I said I like Smallville. When I first heard of the show, I wasn't really interested. I pretty much had the same reaction as a lot of people, "Superman meets Dawson's Creek? No, thank you!". However, several years later as I was flipping through the channels I caught a glimpse of an episode from Season 1 and thought "Why not? There's nothing interesting on.". and next thing you know, I was hooked.
I thought the first 4 seasons were pretty good, despite the liberties taken, the first 4 seasons feel they could fit in the comic canon. The season 2 episode Ryan was a really nice and touching episode. Since the early seasons were made before Superman's past as Superboy was brought back into continuity, I kind of like that Superboy like touch they did with having Clark wearing red jacket, blue shirt and jeans. I also liked the idea that it was because meteor shower in the pilot, why the Kents were able to hide the ship from sight.
Season 5 was meh and then things started going downhill since season 6 but then things started going back on track during season 9 and season 10 was a satisfying if not a great conclusion.
The writing wasn't all that great, in fact it was sloppy at times and several plotholes, Season 1's Kryptonite Freak of the Week episodes got old really quick and several of the show's romantic plots got really annoying at times. The show also feature various allusions to the Superman mythos, which were nice but can be annoying when they over do it.
However there were some memorable moments in the show, a lot of it had to do with the efforts of the show's cast.
The chemistry between Clark and Lex in the early seasons were among the show's main focus and for a good reason. Paying tribute to the Pre-Crisis relationship between Superman and his arch-nemisis Lex Luthor before the John Byrne reboot, the idea of them being good friends once sounds intriguing and I'm glad they brought that idea back in the modern run of the comics. It had the ingriedients of a tragic drama, you knew their frienship was going to be crushed but you couldn't help hope things would work out.
I also loved every scene involving Clark and Kents in the early seasons, there was an opening scene of one episode where the Kents were having a normal family breakfast moment until Clark heats a piece of toast with his heat vision (Love that scene).
Let's not forget the Season 9 TV movie Absolute Justice, where Clark under the name The Blur, teams up with veteran superhero team, the Justice Society to take on the metahuman assasin, Icicle.
The season 10 episode Scion, when Clark decided to take care of Conner (formerly Alexander Luthor, a clone of Lex) that scene actually has Clark act more like Superman would than J. Michael Straczynski's "Grounded" Superman in the comics (which is improving after Chris Robinson took over and starting fixing the damage done by JMS)
The inclusion of many of DC's major, supporting and lesser known characters was an interesting one from the Legion, the Kryptonian renegade Zod played wonderfully by British actor Callum Blue, the cyborg villain Metallo, the Justice Society right down to the ruler of Apokolips himself, Darkseid.
As for the acting, it isn't ground breaking but its competent but there were some real gems among the cast, Michael Rosenbaum is the best Live Action Lex Luthor, I wasn't a big fan of Gene Hackman's Lex and less said about Spacey's Lex the better. John Glover gave a fantastic performance as Lex's father Lionel Luthor.
John Schneider and Annette O'Toole had wonderful chemistry as the Kents and Tom Welling really surprised me and did a decent job as Clark Kent although I still have issues with how he played the character, which is the fault of the writers. And finally, certain guest appearances such as Christopher Reeves himself was a nice touch.
Also a shout out to Erica Durance is one of better on screen Lois Lanes, Allison Mack really caught my eye as Chloe, she was quite an interesting character and a much better Lana Lang than well, Lana Lang. Clark's Smallville sweetheart Lana Lang played by Kristin Kreuk, started out fine but then got overused to the point the writers eventually ruined the character.
Justin Hartley did a decent job as Henry "Oliver" Queen, also known as Green Arrow, which seems to be a combination of Oliver Queen and Bruce Wayne, which when you think about it is sort of a throwback to Green Arrow's Silver Age years. And I liked Aaron Ashmore's Henry James "Jimmy" Olsen and it was nice that they brought him back as the character's young brother, the real Jimmy Olsen in the finale.
The special effects on the show isn't going to win any Emmys but it was competent enough, however there wer signs of budget cuts.
However, while I'm happy a show connected to my all time favorite superhero is the longest running superhero show ever, I can't help but think of how much the show could've ended on a much better note if it just ran for 5 or 6 seasons as originally planned before the CW network decided to extend it after seeing how popular it was compared to the rest of its programing roster.
Smallville is at heart, a hit and miss show, not a masterpiece but not a terrible show either, still would rather watch this than Superman Returns quite frankly.
Love it or hate it, Smallville got some reaction and it gets kudos for keeping Superman in the public eye and possibly introducing the character to a new audience.
On a final note, always remember to look up in the sky....
