In 2001, the WB, long known for the genre known as "teen drama", premiered SMALLVILLE: an updated version Clark Kent as a teenager. Among the initial differences is that the show focuses on Kent, his family and friends, NOT SUPERBOY. In fact, this Superboy doesn't fly around in costume. And when he does perform super acts, it's in street clothes... But I'm getting ahead of myself.
The pilot episode, set in Smallville in 1989, sets the tone for the entire series. A spaceship and meteor debris crash into the town with devastating current and future results. The parents of a young Lana Lang are killed in the meteor rain. Young Lex Luthor, in town with his billionaire father Lionel, witnesses the meteor crash first hand, causing him to lose his hair in the process. Martha and Jonathan Kent flip their car over. They crawl out of their car to be greeted by a naked three-year-old boy, who they eventually adopt.
Flash forward 12 years and we meet a 15 year old Clark Kent and his teenage friends, including teenage reporter Chloe Sullivan, Lana Lang, Whitney Fordman and Pete Ross. Clark is slowly, throughout most of Season One, learning about and developing his powers, and also learning about these strange fragments of meteor rock which causes Clark to not only lose his powers but suffer from other strange maladies. He also saves the life of a youthful Lex Luthor, who becomes one of Clark's closest friends while still trying to maintain his connection to the Luthor fortune. Luhtor does his best throughout the series to walk the fine line between hero and villain, despite viewers seeing a vision in Season One of Luthor as President of the United States with artificial hand and standing over the skeletal remains of presumably most of Earth's citizens.
Over the years, currently the show is in Season Five, characters are introduced which further enhance the legend of the Boy of Steel. One of whom is the cousin of Chloe Sullivan by the name of Lois lane. Pretty soon, it is Lois who turns Clark's head. Also introduced over the years are Jor-El(Kal-El's real fathered, as voiced by legendary, and former SUPERMAN actor Terrance Stamp), Dr. Hamilton(no longer named Emil, as in the comics), and Arthur Curry(the once and future Aquaman), a Lexcorp 'cyborg' named Victor Stone.
If you're expecting your standard superhero show, this certainly isn't it. It bob and weaves between scary 'villains' (not really-usually just innocent people who develop scary Buffyesque powers due to the abundance of Krytonite in Smallville), the teen angst of shows like THE O.C. and LAGUNA BEACH, and the heartfelt warmth of shows like THE GILMORE GIRLS.
Yeah: it most certainly isn't a true superhero show. But it is an amazing ride.
The casting on this show is just great. Annette O'Toole and John Schneider play Kal-El's adoptive parents, the Kents. While Schneider is most famous as one of the original DUKES OF HAZARD boys, O'Toole is know to comic fans as SUPERMAN III's Lana Lang. While younger than the Kent's of comicdom, they both have this wonderfully strong but homey attitude about them. Tom Welling plays Clark Kent not as the bumbling hero of the movies nor as the glasses clad boy of the comics. But to believe, from Episode One, that this guy is a 15-year-old, is quite a stretch. Michael Rosenbaum is Lex Luthor and he's one of the shows highlights. He's attractive and domineering and not the heavyset villain we are used to. He drives a fast car and looks like he stepped out of a LIFESTYLES OF THE RICH AND FAMOUS episode.
Allison Mack plays the intrepid reporter Chloe Sullivan who believes that the meteors are responsible for the weirdness in Smallville. She's equal parts young ingenue and Veronica Mars and quickly became a fan favorite on the series. Kristin Kreuk plays Lana Lang with sympathy and pathos. After all, she did lose her parents in the meteor shower that brought Clark to earth. It's a new millennium and Lana isn't the fiery redhead of fandom. Eric Johnson is Lana's football playing boyfriend Whitney Fordman (during Season 1) and he basically exists to be Clark's foil in his attempts to romance Lana. Samuel L. Jones plays Pete Ross for the first three seasons and he's not the guy you remember either. For one, he's African American. So too is Dr. Hamilton.
The creators of the show admit they were greatly influenced by Jeph Leob and Tim Sale's A SUPERMAN FOR ALL SEASONS and it shows. The writing is smart(with some episodes written by BATTLESTAR GALACTICA and current SUPERMAN comic writer Mark Verheiden) and filled with inside references from character's named Swann(Curt Swan was one of the greatest SUPERMAN artists of all time) to the JLA(in the episode AQUA). Truly, this show has some of the cleverest lines on episodic television and some really neat plot twists that run throughout the show's mythology.
If you can get past the teen soap opera overtones and realize this is a television show about a superhero of the future, you'll find yourself easing into a really cool show. The acting is top notch, the writing is sympathetic to the genre and the fans and it boasts one of the coolest soundtracks (and tittle song) on television. SMALLVILLE is a winner which every comic fan should find time to enjoy.