I need some help with a skippable viewing of Smallville

[Bored at 3:00AM]

I've never seen Smallville whole and don't even want to. Saw enough to not want to watch the bad ones. I know there is too much filler.

I'd be interested in the best episodes, the most fun, and the ones that show Superman 's mythology.

That's what the episodes in the first post are supposed to be. From the sounds of it, that's pretty much the most essential episodes. Anything that's in italics is there for plot reasons, but can be skipped if you want to go even faster.

[Hypestyle]

knowing the fate of Allison Mack makes viewing Smallville kind of depressing for me, now. (sigh)... I'm sorry, it just does..

[Jim Kelly]

knowing the fate of Allison Mack makes viewing Smallville kind of depressing for me, now. (sigh)... I'm sorry, it just does..

Not so much for me. I was never a big fan of the character when I saw the series originally. I lost interest in the show back then and only saw the occasional episodes in the final seasons. So when I rewatched the whole thing last year, Chloe was not such a hero in the first few seasons and she did stuff in later seasons that was outright criminal. The season where she helped kill off Jimmy Olsen, her husband, and knowingly aided and abetted a serial killer, showed us exactly who she was. And there was no coming back from that. Even if Mack hadn't been a criminal in real life, the show made Sullivan a character I couldn't root for. I just wanted her to die a slow painful death.

[Bored at 3:00AM]

Not so much for me. I was never a big fan of the character when I saw the series originally. I lost interest in the show back then and only saw the occasional episodes in the final seasons. So when I rewatched the whole thing last year, Chloe was not such a hero in the first few seasons and she did stuff in later seasons that was outright criminal. The season where she helped kill off Jimmy Olsen, her husband, and knowingly aided and abetted a serial killer, showed us exactly who she was. And there was no coming back from that. Even if Mack hadn't been a criminal in real life, the show made Sullivan a character I couldn't root for. I just wanted her to die a slow painful death.

Yeah, she's a surprisingly minor character in the first season, at least when using the skippable viewing guide

[Multiverse]

Love the Season 6 Episode "Combat"; has the BEST fight scene in the entire series.

Though I'd add the following:
S1 EP8 "Jitters" - Fun LuthorCorp Storyline
S1 EP14 "Zero" - The storypoint of Lex's scandal at Club Zero reaches it's foregone conclusion

S2 EP2 "Heat" - Clark learning Heat Vision is fun as heck
S2 EP8 "Ryan" - Ryan's ending is tragic
S2 EP11 "Visage" - Whitney Fordman is a sad tale.
S2 EP 12 "Insurgence" - Hostage situation with Martha is epic
S2 EP16 "Fever" - Something about that scene when Jonathan talks to Martha about hiding the Spaceship Key speaks to me.

S3 EP3 "Extinction" - Really brings the Meteor Freak problem to the forefront (and the scene when Chloe realises her Meteor freak files have become a hit-list)
S3 EP10 "Whisper" - Clark learning Superhearing (though I do wish this is the episode where he started wearing glasses, they could have used this incident as the reason to start wearing them)
S3 EP17 "Legacy" - Lionel really starts rocking his Big Bad material here

S4 EP19 "Blank" - Chloe helping amnesic Clark is adorable

S5 Ep2 "Mortal" - Seeing powerless Clark in action is awesome (and the true start of the Clark/Chloe Teamup)
S5 Ep11 "Lockdown" - Season Premiere comes back to bite
S5 Ep18 "Mercy" - Smallville meets Saw; NUFF SAID

S6 EP2 "Sneeze - Clark learns Superbreath and debut of Oliver Queen
S6 EP13 "Crimson" - Red-K Clark at his best
S6 Ep19 "Nemesis" - one of my favourite Clark/Lex stories.

S7 EP8 "Blue" to S7 EP10 "Persona" - Epic battle of the House of El and the whole Bizarro storyline is awesome
S7 Ep18 "Apocalypse" - Dark Future storyline

S8 EP8 "Bloodline" - Ties up the Kara plotline of S7 and builds up Doomsday
S8 Ep10 "Bride" - Just for the final half
S8 Ep14 "Requiem" - Just for Toyman, Toyman's AWESOME!!!

S9 Ep2 "Metallo" - Fun take on John Corben
S9 Ep9 "Pandora" - Another fun Dark Future storyline
S9 EP17 "Upgrade" - Need more of Metallo, plus more Red-K Clark

S10 EP15 "Fortune" - Just a hilarious episode
S10 EP16 "Scion" - Great Superboy Story
S10 EP18 "Booster" - Fun story with Booster Gold and Blue Beetle
S10 Ep19 "Dominion" - Phantom Zone Storyline is amazing

[Comic-Reader Lad]

I saw the series for the first time a couple of years ago. I binged the entire thing in a few months from my DVD/Blu-Ray collection.

I really liked it all. There were definitely some episodes that were better than others, but every episode had something worth watching it for.

I haven't seen Superman and Lois yet, but Smallville is my favorite live-action Superman show so far. I never had a problem with Lana. She was always a good character for me. It actually took me a little time to warm up to Erica Durance and Lois. I felt she joined the show a couple of seasons too early.

I will say that like a lot of serialized TV shows, Smallville was sometimes too densely-plotted for its own good -- especially as the series wore on and the teen romance stuff was downplayed in favor of Lex's emerging bad side and Clark's increasing exploration of his Kryptonian heritage. Then, there were season-long story arcs with new characters coming in and out of the series on top of all that.

The one thing I felt the show truly botched was the Season 7 finale where Lex finally finds out who Clark really is and they battle it out in the Fortress. There were so many other plot threads going on that this confrontation was only a few minutes long, then the Fortress collapsed on them in a season-ending cliffhanger. Next season, Lex is gone from the show, so it all felt anticlimactic. That final Lex-Clark showdown should have taken at least half that finale episode to allow all the stuff that built up over 7 seasons to have enough elbow room to be explored properly to give viewers a satisfying climax to one of the major plot threads of the show.

Finally, I'll say that Smallville was Teen-Superman and S&L is Dad-Superman. One day, I hope we get a true, classic Superman series.

[Jim Kelly]

With Superman, you've got live action T.V. shows covering just about every phase of his life. You've got SMALLVILLE, THE ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN, LOIS & CLARK: THE NEW ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN, SUPERGIRL--and now you've got SUPERMAN & LOIS. You even had KRYPTON. Now all we need is SUPERBABY: THE ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN WHEN HE WAS A TOT and SUPERGRAMPS: THE ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN AS A CRUSTY OLD CODGER.

[marhawkman]

With Superman, you've got live action T.V. shows covering just about every phase of his life. You've got SMALLVILLE, THE ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN, LOIS & CLARK: THE NEW ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN, SUPERGIRL--and now you've got SUPERMAN & LOIS. You even had KRYPTON. Now all we need is SUPERBABY: THE ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN WHEN HE WAS A TOT and SUPERGRAMPS: THE ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN AS A CRUSTY OLD CODGER.

there IS a possible future like this O-o' maybe more than one? the DC wiki lists a potential future story where Superman has multiple part Kryptonian children... who are written as young adults and well... start doing their own stuff in ways Kal-el isn't comfortable with. Then you have Kingdom Come Superman.... grumpy old man? YES! Grampa... not really. Although one of the "new" heroes he has to deal with is apparently the half-Coluan daughter of Kara Zor-El.... oh yes... that made Superman feel so many things.

[Jim Kelly]

I was mad at myself, after my last post, as I forgot to mention SUPERBOY. That was like SUPERMAN: THE IN-BETWEEN YEARS.

[LifeIsILL]

First 3 seasons were good, and some of season 4. You can skip everything after that.

It's so weird how the writing for Lex Luthor's side was so much better than Clark's side, like it's almost 2 different shows.

[Bored at 3:00AM]

I just finished the first season with my students using this skippable episode guide and, I gotta say, it works fantastically well. I didn't feel like we missed anything important and characters who I remember being annoyed or bored by, like Pete, Lana & Whitney, had all their extraneous material cut to the point where I genuinely enjoyed all three.

If anyone is interested in trying out Smallville for the first time, or rewatching it again to see if it holds up, I would definitely recommend checking out the skippable guide's episodes for the first season.

I'll let you know if the second season's trimmed down episodes work as well.

[marshal88]

season 1 ep 7 is where amy adams appeared on smallville. you would never thought she'll be lois lane so many years later

[ironman2978]

S10 ep 14 “Masquerade” and 17 “Booster”/season 8 episode 6 “Prey” and 7 “Identity” and 15 “Infamous” and 17 “Hex”/ season 9 episode 8 “Idol”- Clark creating the glasses identity, and showing the importance of Clark the Reporter and Superman’s double identity.