Rewatching SMALLVILLE from the beginning

[Jim Kelly]

I don't believe they show Clark being Superman in the future, they just suggest it and I think there's a music cue. They do show Luthor in the middle of destruction with Batman's cape and cowl in the background. It's in another episode where we see Superman's arms as he flies--someone else has second sight and can see the moment of people's death by touching them. But when Clark is touched, we don't see him dying, we just see Clark heading on forever.

Another recurring stunt detail, besides the vehicular fires and explosions, is that people get pushed and go flying and usually end up crashing into glass--through windows, glass partitions and glass coffee tables. It's Chekov's glass coffee table--if there's a glass coffee table, someone is bound to go crashing through it. Pushing seems to be Clark's go to move--especially in the early seasons. He doesn't punch, he just gives a mild push that sends people clear across a room or a cornfield.

I'm nearly through the series, just one more season to go. What I like the most is Lois Lane. Every episode that has some Lois Lane is a winner. In season 9, I also liked the Legion, the JSA and Zatanna.

I have not liked anything to do with Krypton--and it's unfortunate that Krypton became the main plot. I could accept Jor-El if it was explained he's a computer program and not the real Jor-El, who is dead. In order to keep using Kryptonians they have to make up all this extra mythology that hurts my brain. Most of the season long plots are not worth thinking about. And I hate that Clark doesn't get to fly but every other Kryptonian can, even though they've just arrived on Earth. It should have been one or the other--either Clark gets to fly or none of the other Kryptonians do.

Zod is just awful. The actor who plays him exudes this sense of being in a stinky men's locker room, with a guy who has extreme body odour.

Chloe did stuff in season 8 that should put her in prison for life and then in season 9, she's lording it over Clark like she's the queen of everything.

It's pretty funny that Oliver Queen follows the same path in SMALLVILLE that he follows in ARROW (and neither Ollie chooses Black Canary over the nerd girl).

Still don't like Tess, who is just this empty non-character that exists to satisfy the plot.

There's a lot of dark and broody stuff in this series that is supposed to be cool, but I just find it mostly silly. I'm not into the whole Matrix look for the not Red and Blue Blur.

There is some impressively grotesque imagery--the make-up artists' work makes my stomach churn. It's not what I'm here for, but I can't fault the craftspeople.

I don't know if there will be more development of the JSA's back story in season 10, but they were ambiguous about what period the Justice Society was active. Given that the actors don't look that old in the present day, I would think they began about ten or twenty years before--which would be in the 1980s or 1990s. But the archive images look like it's supposed to be the 1940s or 1950s.

The main episode about the JSA featured Stargirl and seemed like it was a backdoor pilot for a Stargirl series.