Super Smallville (Smallville)

Member Name: Katieshaz

Product:	Smallville
Date:	19/02/04 (675 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: cast, storyline, music

Disadvantages: a bit predictable

Smallville is basically Superman as a teenager, set in the present day. However I soon forget whilst watching that Clark is in fact the future superman. I haven?t watched any of the Superman films but I am such a huge fan of American teenage drama series that I had to watch Smallville and it is nothing short of an obsession! The first episode of Smallville was shown in October 2001 in the USA.

Smallville is a town in Kansas.The first part of episode one is in 1989. Its population was 25,001 people and was the creamed corn capital of the world. Smallville has a population of 45,001 people in the present day. It was devastated by a meteor shower after the Homecoming game in October 1989, this is when Clark arrived. His adopted parents, of Jonathan and Martha Kent rushed into their field to investigate investigate; they discovered a strange metallic craft had crash-landed. Even stranger was the three-year-old boy who crawled out of the smoking crater and into Martha's arms, totally unscathed. Unwilling to part with the boy, Martha and Jonathan vowed to tell no one. Jonathan hid the craft in an old storm cellar on the edge of their property. He even ventured to the back alleys of Metropolis, where he commissioned a fake birth certificate.

The characters:
Clark Kent is the main character. He is played by Tom Welling who is very cute even though he?s about 26 years old playing a teenager. Ah well. Clark knows all about his amazing super powers and keeps them secret. He is very clever and excels at school. Clark also feels that he is partly responsible for the events of the meteor shower. He saves people a lot of the time and his powers increase over the episodes. Clark is basically a good guy, he has ?more issues than the Rolling Stone,? according to Chloe but he always wants to do the right thing.Clark is convinced that he and Lana are "meant to be together. I've never been so sure about anything in my life." He also has a huge cru

sh on Lana Lang?.

Lana Lang?s parents were killed in the meteor crash so she lives with her Aunt Nell. She is very pretty indeed. She has long dark hair that she likes to flick a lot. She was a cheerleader and in season 1 she is going out with the high school quarterback Whitney Fordman. She?s basically the girl all the guys want. She also wears a meteor necklace that is from the meteor that killed her parents?how um morbid. Clark also has some kind of reaction whenever he is around this necklace. She is sweet and caring and wants to be more than just a cheerleader. The death of her parents has never really left her. She is sensitive and intelligent and quits the cheerleading squad to work part time at The Talon, a coffee shop owned by Lex Luthor in a renovated movie theatre. Lana sometimes annoys me though, she's so perfect! Lana puts a hold on her relationship with Clark because she's concerned that it will ruin three friendships--Clark and Chloe's, Chloe and Lana's, and Clark and Lana's.Lana is played by Kristin Kreuk

Chloe Sullivan is my favourite character. She moved to Smallville in 8th grade from the huge city Metropolis. Her dad Gabe, runs LuthorCorp's local fertiliser plant that Lionel Luthor (Lex's father) bought from the Ross family when it was a cream corn factory years ago. She is also a journalist and dreams of writing for the Daily Planet but in the mean time she writes for the school paper, The Torch. She has a huge crush on her best friend Clark. She and Lana become close friends though, and Lana moves in with Chloe when her Aunt Nell gets married and moves to Metropolis in Season 2. Her mother left when Chloe was 5. In an episode when Clark has a fever (the episode is actually called Fever as well) and is delirious, she confesses her feelings for him.
?I want to let you in on a secret. I'm not who you think I am. In fact, my disguise is so thin, I'm surprised you haven't seen right
throu
gh me. I'm the girl of your dreams masquerading as your best friend. Sometimes I want to rip off this facade like I did at the Spring Formal, but I can't because you'll get scared and you'll run away again. So I decided that it's better to live with a lie than expose my true feelings. My dad told me there are two types of girls. The ones you grow out of and the ones you grow into. I really hope I'm the latter. I may not be the one you love today, but I'll let you go for now, hoping one day you'll fly back to me because I think you're worth the wait.?
Chloe is great as she is sassy and strong and I can identify with the whole having a crush on your best guy friend too. Despite being rather insecure, she is smart, attractive and open-minded and has The Wall of Weird in the office of The Torch on which she displays all the weird happenings in Smallville. Chloe is the sort of girl you can imagine writing fantastic reviews for Ciao! Allison Mack plays Chloe.

Pete Ross is Clark and Chloe?s best friend, a typical high schooler with the world's most atypical pal. Pete is loyal to the end, particularly when he learns Clark's secret. Pete has a crush on Chloe but she is too obsessed with Clark to notice. He is also on the football team. Pete is played by Samuel L.Jones.

Lex Luthor and Clark soon become good friends despite their 5-year age gap, when Clark rescues Lex from drowning in the first episode. Lex is the son of a billionaire, Lionel, and he runs the Smallville LuthorCorp Fertilizer Plant #3 and lives in his Scottish ancestors ancestral home that his father shipped over to be built brick by brick in Smallville. Yes seriously. He lost his hair after the meteors hit. Michael Rosenbaum plays Lex.

The Kent?s are Clark?s adoptive parents. Jonathon is the ideal father, he is honest, moral and hardworking. Martha is lovely, she always wanted a child but couldn?t have any and then they foun
d Clark. S
he is kind and intelligent. John Schneider plays Jonathon and Annette O?Toole is Martha. Annette played Lana Lang in Superman 3.

Lionel Luther (John Glover acts this part) is Lex?s unscrupulous father. He is entirely motivated by money and power. I wouldn't say he was evil though, he does try to improve his relationship with Lex.

Whitney Fordman (Eric Johnson) is Lana?s boyfriend. Whitney left Smallville to join the military after the death of his father. He left behind his girlfriend, Lana Lang, who broke up with him shortly thereafter. Though Whitney has had conflicts with Clark in the past, he is not a bad guy.

Guest stars-the British actress Kelly Brook joined the cast of Smallville in a four-episode arc during season one as Lex's ex-girlfriend from boarding school, back to rekindle and fuel Lex's dark side. Christopher Reeve also occasionally guest stars playing astronomer Dr. Virgil Swann.

The acting in Smallville is great. People have said that Tom Welling is a bit wooden though but I don?t agree. The characeter? s all interact well together. There seems to be a lot of chemistry. I for one, would love to see more Chloe and Lex scenes, these two have a lot of chemistry. The episodes are well written as a whole, with a couple of not so great episodes and it is ever so slightly predictable. The main characters are always being injured and going to hospital. Lana and Chloe are always having to be rescued by Clark. Don?t they ever wonder why Clark is always the one at the centre of all the mysterious happenings? The age gaps of the actors is also rather odd, Kristen and Allison are born in 1982 where as Clark is 6 years older and they are all acting the parts of teenagers. Another interesting fact is that most of the cast have their birthdays in April. Kristen is a Capricorn like me though!

The music in the show is great. The opening sequence is Remy Zero singing ?Save Me? which is such a gre
at opening to e
ach episode. I love the opening sequence it looks so dramatic and I like the way the have all the character shots. The episodes have a lot of music. In the episode at the end of Season 2, its Spring Formal and Remy Zero are performing live. Clark says to Pete ?These guys are great!? The music always
seems to fit in with the scenes very well. At the end of the first episode Clark imagines dancing with Lana and 'Everything' by Lifehouse is playing in the background.

The location is great, Smallville seems a nice place to live apart from meteor showers, tornado's and other weird happenings. There are a large pecentage of cute guys. The characters hang out at The Talon a lot or in Clark's barn. Clark has a telescope in there which he used to watch Lana through when he was obsessed with her. As the episodes progress the characters all become closer and hang out together more and thats what I like, the friendship theme and the fact that they all make mistakes but forgive each other. It's very inspiring.

Smallville is showing Season 3 on E4 on Monday evenings (repeated Sundays) and should be coming to C4 soon. I have Season 1 DVD boxset which is great. There are so many websites devoted to Smallville, many with spoliers and transcripts and the USA gets the episodes first. I also love Smallville fanfiction. I would highly recommend Smallville, it has drama, angst, action and a great cast.

Summary: