Day 21: One Of Your Favourite TV Shows

I have too many... Way too many...

But I'm going to talk about Smallville.

I recently started re-watching Smallville, that had an incredible 10 season run, which for any comic book adaptation is pretty incredible... As a kid, I stopped keeping up at season five and I wanted to return and finish it.

The thing is, even though I like Smallville, it is like my least favourite favourite show.

With the announcement of Batman Versus Superman; Dawn Of Justice, directed by Zack Snyder hosting an incredible cast playing the DC comics flagship characters, I started re-watching Smallville with the intent of just getting to know Superman better. Superman being the oldest and often the most controversial superhero of all time. I also started collecting OVAs, I watched CW's Arrow and The Flash, I watched the incredible Young Justice... And watched Zack Snyder's Watchmen again, which honestly, is the best superhero film of all time.

Smallville starts off, as most series in the early 2000s did, as a freak-of-the-week show, advancing the plot slowly, having cameos from then unknown actors... But it did something else. It paved the way for superhero comic adaptations. But it is really hard to enjoy in any way other than nostalgic for a it's first three seasons. Trust me, watching Smallville now is almost torture. Unless, like me, you're kind of bathing in the DC adaptations and preparing yourself for Justice League 2017, don't even bother.

One of the things that the series did punish it's viewers with was eight whole seasons of shoving Clark and Lana in our faces, while never giving us any satisfying resolution to their romance. All while depriving us of what we *really* want to see... Clark and Lois. Also, the show is scared of Clark succeeding romantically. For no real reason. Also, their is a ridiculous surplus of Kryptonite. I feel like often times, the show didn't grasp Clark's real weaknesses, such as his hard stance on morality, Clark's emotional dependency on the people he loves, his inability to cope with failure, his pathological fear of his own powers... And just shoved Kryptonite in there to keep him grounded or something. I also often like to joke that nothing ever gets resolved in Smallville... Literally, none of the characters accomplish their character goals within a reasonable amount of time from the viewer's perspective. Chloe's feelings for Clark are always shoved under the rug and just, poof, there's Jimmy, they're gone. No resolution. We never saw Chloe get closure, we never saw Chloe find any higher truth... Maybe Jimmy just had a great dick or something, I dunno. Lex is also unnecessarily demonised. When the time finally comes for Lex to turn from friend to enemy, he makes a *full* turn. He does unspeakable things that don't nearly match up with any of his motivations. Kara also... Feels out of place. Always. There are only a handful of scenes I can even stand her to be on screen for. And no one ever admits to their feelings. Also, half of Lois Lane's dialog is beyond cringe worthy... And... Sigh... Arthur Curry... I just like to delete most Aquaman incarnations from my mind... Thank you Zack for the gift of Jason Mamoa as Aquaman...

But...

Michael Rosenbaum's performance as Lex is superb. Tom Welling as Clark is also perfect. John Schneider as Jonathan Kent, Glover as Lionel... Perfection... The characters that were well cast, were *REALLY* well cast. Lois and Clark, when they do FINALLY get some screen time have a great natural chemistry, the episode where they form a mini Justice League is rewarding and satisfying, and the cameos are really surprising. Paul Wesley, Ian Somerhalder, Bow Wow, Amy Adams, Cobie Smaulders... Like... Names that really would surprise you. Clark is represented as a great character. And it does have it's moments. Having watched Arrow recently, you have to chuckle a bit at how cuddly Justin Hartley's Arrow really is. CW really has done some astounding work with the superhero comic adaptation shows. And as dated as it is, there are moments that Smallville is visually quite impressive. Doomsday is also one of the series' best villains, besides Lex and Zod.

Smallville just caught it's momentum way too late in the game.

Now why I chose Smallville is because I have a lot to say. Marvel doesn't have this kind of television history. And this is one interpretation of Superman that really is an interesting one. One of the main reasons people dislike Superman is his alienation from the audience due to him being so powerful. The strange thing is, most of his televised incarnations are substantially weaker than comics where he's depicted at his most powerful. Especially in Smallville, most other metahumans give Clark a massive beat down for his troubles. And I mean, Superman's villains are, as a result, ridiculously powerful. But the meat of his story doesn't lie there. The real substance lies in Superman's struggle to fit in while being someone who has godly power, being feared, worshipped and alienated, longing for the simple pleasures of humanity.

Simply put, Superman is a great hero who just got the shitty end of the adaptation stick.

But Man Of Steel and BvS actually have done him right in many ways. And Smallville was where it all began.