Smallville Thoughts
Oct. 18th, 2002 11:01 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sdelmonteIt's been quiet here. Which is to say, it's been anything but quiet for my boss, and while my work piles up, I can't actually proceed. It's been this way for three days now.
And during that time I've been trying to write about Smallville and/or Enterprise, the two shows I watch despite finding a distinct lack of enthusiasm for them among many friends. I've concluded that Enterprise, whatever value it may have as entertainment, leaves little for a nascent critc to say. By now, you either care or don't care, and until someone says, "remember when Next Gen/DS9 got good? It's happening again," you won't have much to say either way.
But Smallville, I think there is a lot to say about it. Just not as much as you can say about Buffy or Angel or The Simpsons or any of a dozen shows with either subtext or satirical value. Smallville is not deep at all. It's just fun. Or is it?
Today, just to warm up, some context.
If you're keeping score at home, Smallville is the fourth live-action Superman-based TV series; and the twelfth major adaptation of the Superman character in some form on TV, in animation, in the movies, on the radio, and even on Broadway. This isn't even including the pilot for a Superboy series in 1959, or the vast number of unproduced Superman screenplays, and counts the Chris Reeve movies as one entity. The legend of Superman has been around a lot.
And then there are the three versions of Superman in the comics: the original Superman, who came to the big city in 1938, and slowly grew more powerful but was originally at about the same level of power as the Smallville Clark Kent; the "Silver Age" Superman, who began his career as Superboy when he was 12, had the powers of a god (including time travel on his own power and super-ventriliquism), and was surrounded on occasion by a whole host of other super-beings from Krypton; and the current Superman, introduced in 1986 at a lower power level but now as strong as ever. It was this Supes that died ten years ago this November and this Supes who finally married Lois Lane in the comics.
One of the strengths of Smallville is that vast history. Each generation of writer and producer can look at what came before, and be selective. There hasn't been a Superboy comic starring a teenaged Clark Kent in twenty years, but without that idea, I think there wouldn't even be a Smallville. And much of Smallville is drawn from the Silver Age Superboy's world. Lana Lang and Pete Ross come from there. So does the idea that at one time Superman and Lex Luthor were best friends. But the gradual development of his powers while a teen was introduced much later, as was the notion of Luthor being not an evil genius but a corrupt tycoon. And moving Smallville to Kansas originated in the first Chris Reeve film - before that, the comics placed it not to far from Metropolis, in what was most likely upstate NY.
The mix and match has produced a great backdrop for the world of Smallville. What's more, only the most anal-retentive Superman fan can complain that the show isn't being faithful to the comic. The comic, and the legend of Superman, keep changing. Surprisingly, the producers of Smallville understood this from day one. Even more surprisingly, the fans do. Complaints about the liberties taken with characters and with the green Kryptonite have been muted.
Wht does this mean? In the space of 64 years, Superman has become the right kind of legend. He has transcended his origins, much as a local clan leader in Britain and a somewhat rebellious Saxon lord in the time of King Richard have. While Batman fans argue about every detail in Birds of Prey - and the debate about how and why Bats would ever leave Gotham has gotten intense - Superman fans accept that his history changes easily. He is the stuff of legend.
And that is the strength of Smallville. Someday, this kid will be the greatest hero the world has ever known. Someday, his life will be legend to another Metropolis, much as the lives of Supermen in worlds created by Richard Donner and Deborah Joy LeVine and Paul Dini and the Fleischer Brothers became legend. Always different, reflecting the times. Always the same, since the values Superman upholds - truth, justice and the American, of course, but also compassion for others and a sense of responsibilty - have never changed.
Dig past the green K monsters, past the soap opera of Clark and Lana, past even the unbalanced friendship between Clark and Lex, and you will find those "core values." Dig past that, and you will see just how a legend is carved out of Clark Kent in the first place.
And that's why I watch Smallville, despite its flaws.
Among other reasons. This, however, will do for now.
And during that time I've been trying to write about Smallville and/or Enterprise, the two shows I watch despite finding a distinct lack of enthusiasm for them among many friends. I've concluded that Enterprise, whatever value it may have as entertainment, leaves little for a nascent critc to say. By now, you either care or don't care, and until someone says, "remember when Next Gen/DS9 got good? It's happening again," you won't have much to say either way.
But Smallville, I think there is a lot to say about it. Just not as much as you can say about Buffy or Angel or The Simpsons or any of a dozen shows with either subtext or satirical value. Smallville is not deep at all. It's just fun. Or is it?
Today, just to warm up, some context.
If you're keeping score at home, Smallville is the fourth live-action Superman-based TV series; and the twelfth major adaptation of the Superman character in some form on TV, in animation, in the movies, on the radio, and even on Broadway. This isn't even including the pilot for a Superboy series in 1959, or the vast number of unproduced Superman screenplays, and counts the Chris Reeve movies as one entity. The legend of Superman has been around a lot.
And then there are the three versions of Superman in the comics: the original Superman, who came to the big city in 1938, and slowly grew more powerful but was originally at about the same level of power as the Smallville Clark Kent; the "Silver Age" Superman, who began his career as Superboy when he was 12, had the powers of a god (including time travel on his own power and super-ventriliquism), and was surrounded on occasion by a whole host of other super-beings from Krypton; and the current Superman, introduced in 1986 at a lower power level but now as strong as ever. It was this Supes that died ten years ago this November and this Supes who finally married Lois Lane in the comics.
One of the strengths of Smallville is that vast history. Each generation of writer and producer can look at what came before, and be selective. There hasn't been a Superboy comic starring a teenaged Clark Kent in twenty years, but without that idea, I think there wouldn't even be a Smallville. And much of Smallville is drawn from the Silver Age Superboy's world. Lana Lang and Pete Ross come from there. So does the idea that at one time Superman and Lex Luthor were best friends. But the gradual development of his powers while a teen was introduced much later, as was the notion of Luthor being not an evil genius but a corrupt tycoon. And moving Smallville to Kansas originated in the first Chris Reeve film - before that, the comics placed it not to far from Metropolis, in what was most likely upstate NY.
The mix and match has produced a great backdrop for the world of Smallville. What's more, only the most anal-retentive Superman fan can complain that the show isn't being faithful to the comic. The comic, and the legend of Superman, keep changing. Surprisingly, the producers of Smallville understood this from day one. Even more surprisingly, the fans do. Complaints about the liberties taken with characters and with the green Kryptonite have been muted.
Wht does this mean? In the space of 64 years, Superman has become the right kind of legend. He has transcended his origins, much as a local clan leader in Britain and a somewhat rebellious Saxon lord in the time of King Richard have. While Batman fans argue about every detail in Birds of Prey - and the debate about how and why Bats would ever leave Gotham has gotten intense - Superman fans accept that his history changes easily. He is the stuff of legend.
And that is the strength of Smallville. Someday, this kid will be the greatest hero the world has ever known. Someday, his life will be legend to another Metropolis, much as the lives of Supermen in worlds created by Richard Donner and Deborah Joy LeVine and Paul Dini and the Fleischer Brothers became legend. Always different, reflecting the times. Always the same, since the values Superman upholds - truth, justice and the American, of course, but also compassion for others and a sense of responsibilty - have never changed.
Dig past the green K monsters, past the soap opera of Clark and Lana, past even the unbalanced friendship between Clark and Lex, and you will find those "core values." Dig past that, and you will see just how a legend is carved out of Clark Kent in the first place.
And that's why I watch Smallville, despite its flaws.
Among other reasons. This, however, will do for now.
