"Smallville" (2001) TV series 2001-????

Creators:

Alfred Gough
Miles Millar

Seasons:

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9

Release Date:

16 October 2001 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Sci-Fi

Tagline:

His journey, their battle, our future (season 6)

Plot:

A young Clark Kent struggles to find his place in the world as he learns to harness his alien powers for good and deals with the typical troubles of teenage life in Smallville.

Plot Keywords:

Smallville | Power | Kansas | Meteor Shower | Alien

Awards:

Won 3 Primetime Emmys. Another 26 wins & 111 nominations

US TV Schedule:

Fri. Dec. 25

8:00 PM

CW

Savior

#9.1

Cast

Tom Welling	...	Clark Kent / ... (189 episodes, 2001-2010)
Allison Mack	...	Chloe Sullivan / ... (189 episodes, 2001-2010)
Kristin Kreuk	...	Lana Lang / ... (158 episodes, 2001-2009)
Michael Rosenbaum	...	Lex Luthor / ... (153 episodes, 2001-2008)
John Glover	...	Lionel Luthor / ... (141 episodes, 2001-2008)
Annette O'Toole	...	Martha Kent (132 episodes, 2001-2007)
Erica Durance	...	Lois Lane / ... (113 episodes, 2004-2010)
John Schneider	...	Jonathan Kent (111 episodes, 2001-2006)

Also Known As:

Smallville Beginnings (USA) (rerun title)
Smallville: Superman the Early Years (UK) (promotional title)
Smallville (Argentina) (Spain) [es]
рЮИМШ яЛНКБХКЪ (Russia) [ru]
Smallville (Germany) [de]
Smallville (France) [fr]
Smallville (Hungary) [hu]
Superman, ta hronia tis niotis (Greece) [el]
Young Superman (Japan) [ja]

Runtime:

60 min (including commercials) | USA:45 min (DVD version)

Country:

USA | Canada

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

Brazil:Livre | Canada:PG | USA:TV-PG | Malaysia:U | Australia:PG (TV rating) | UK:12 (some episodes) | UK:15 (some episodes) | Singapore:NC-16 (season 4) (season 6) (season 7) (season 8) | New Zealand:M (season 2) | New Zealand:M (Season 1) | South Korea:12 | South Korea:15 (season 4 and 6) | New Zealand:R16 (season 6) | USA:TV-14 (some episodes) | USA:TV-MA (some episodes) | Singapore:NC-16 (season 7) | Argentina:13 | Australia:M (DVD rating) | Mexico:B | Singapore:PG

Filming Locations:

Aldergrove, British Columbia, Canada

Company:

Tollin

Trivia:

Belle Reve is the name of the estate that Blanche and Stella DuBois come from in Tennessee Williams's "A Streetcar Named Desire". Throughout the play, Blanche gradually becomes insane. In "Smallville" (2001), Belle Reve is the name of a mental hospital. In DC Comics, Belle Reve is the name of a federal prison for super-villains; it is located in Louisiana.

Goofs:

Errors in geography: Although the story is supposed to be set in Kansas, a state almost devoid of hills, many times the mountains of British Columbia appear in the background of scenes.

Quotes:

Chloe Sullivan: Clark has more issues than Rolling Stone.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "The Office: Performance Review (#2.8)" (2005)

Soundtrack:

Save Me

So many mixed feelings...

So, what can I say about Smallville? Firstly, it's an original premise, I'll give it that. It is genuinely cool to see how Superman was when he was a teenage, and for the most part his character development is rather intriguing. The superpowers and other special effects are well done most of the time, and the fight scenes are modest (they could be more involved and lengthy, however). The other characters work as good foils for Clark, and Lex Luther himself has become a highly complex character (even if a good deal of it is non-canonical and rather contradictory). From the get go, Smallville had potential both as an interesting action/fantasy series and a drama.

But what afflicts Smallville is what afflicts most shows of this type: haphazard, episodic writing. In it's good moments, Smallville can pull off some good story arcs and plot lines that evolve the characters so that they become beings that you can actually relate to and feel for and create plot twists and turns that keep the viewer interested. However, when it's bad, it simply puts all the strides the series made into shadow. The show is now in its fifth season, and now the character developments and plot directions made in previous seasons have been seriously damaged and all but erased. For example, Lionel Luther (Lex's father and a newly created character) served as the chief villain for seasons one through three- when they didn't resort to the "villain of the week" formula (which got old, FAST). In the fourth season, Luther was in the process of changing his ways, trying to stop his son from taking the same path as he (which, of course, will fail). However, in the fifth, he reverts back into one of the main antagonists. Huh? Did I miss something? Smallville is constantly plagued with writing that either goes nowhere, doesn't know where it's going, or exploit some fad (one episode is created around Lana Lang kissing another girl with absolutely no other noteworthy plot subjects and another is used to sap popularity from Chinese wuxia films). The series builds story arcs up only to knock them down with some half-assed plot device (such as "make Clark evil" or "Put Lana in mortal danger"). While attempts to create mystery and suspense are present, they rarely succeed.

Most of the story lines make vague allusions to the comics, but most are non-canonical. While this is excusable in a television show such as this, sometimes the writers take too many liberties with canon.

In general, Smallville has a lot of potential, and sometimes it meets this potential. But the capricious and wandering writing really hurts it.