Dawsons Creek or Queer as Folk? (Smallville)

Member Name: marysiak

Product:	Smallville
Date:	14/06/02 (394 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Lex (Michael Rosenbaum), iconic mythology, makes you smile

Disadvantages: Lana Lang (Kristen Kreuk), teen angst, makes you cringe

We've had one full season of Smallville now and it's time to look back on it and try and figure out what this is going to be.

The pilot episode was quality by most people's standards but the show quickly seemed to fall into stock plot lines that were saved only be the presence of the enigmatic and ambiguous Lex Luthor (as played by Michael Rosenbaum who can also be seen in Urban Legends).

The WB seems determined to play the show as the story of Lana Lang (the often wooden Kristen Kreuk) and Clark Kent (ex-model Tom Welling, who shows promise but still has a lot to learn), but it's the relationship (and I use that term in all it's meanings, many reviewers have picked up on the homo-erotic overtones in the show and the sexual tension between the two leading men can be pretty electric despite constant denial of it's existance by the actors and producers) between Clark Kent and Lex Luthor that really fascinates.

Around mid-way the season started to pick up, pulling away from standard villian of the week format and ripped off 1st and 2nd season Buffy plots (see ep Hothead and compare to Buffy ep Go Fish) with quality episodes like Hourglass, Jitters and Zero. By the end of the season they were pulling out some real writing again with the cliff-hanger finale (Tempest) being the best episode overall and leaving you desperate for season 2.

The question is will they explore the deeper questions and issues that face Clark and his family and friends in the future or will this turn into a Dawsons Creek style teen angst fest. The love triangle being set up between Clark, Lana and Chloe gives us concern that it might be the latter but there has been enough quality writing and acting (notably from Michael Rosenbaum who won this years Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor, Alison Mack as Chloe, Annette O'Toole as Martha Kent and veteran actor John Glover as Lionel Luthor) to hope for better.

This revisit
ing of the Superman myth is looking very good so far but whether it becomes a Buffy the Vampire Slayer or a Roswell only time and the capricious network executives will tell.

Smallville is currently being repeated on E4 and the new season will start in September in the US and January 2003 in the UK. It's definitely worth a watch.

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