Smallville

I've recently downloaded the first season and have decided to watch it. Some good things. Some bad.

good:

I like small town doesn't equal hick town. They do a good job of making smallville seem less folksy. They also turned ma and pa kent into Martha and Jonathon Kent. They're younger and sexier. Usually this would reek of trying to market it to a younger audience but it instead updates the tone quite nicely while staying true.

clark kent manages to retain his moral code without seeming like such a fuddy-dud. Mainly by showing not just that he has a moral code but that like many teenagers he came to it through trial and error.

Superman as metaphor for alienation of teenagers. It's hard to make superman relevant. Actually, it's not hard but there are very few, very specific ways to do it and this show does one of them very well. By having superman not start out with all the powers but instead grow and develop them and be surprised and confused by them. It works.

It has a clever way of sneaking in and explaining the origin of things, like the best moments of batman begins.

Bad:

It has a bad habit of hitting its audience over the head with what we all know will happen, like the worst moments of batman begins.

The show is structured to have a monster of the week, which prevents it from building on itself.

Also, the body count seems to be really high for such a small town. I mean, Sunnydale was bad in Buffy but at least they made fun of it themselves ("that's why the cost of living is so low").

In general, the show seems like the first season of buffy and I meant that as a compliment. Except the writing isn't as snappy and the acting isn't as good. Neither is horrible (except for moments) but they're just not as fresh.

I can go more than five minutes without hearing music. I promise. I assume this is a wb thing.

Overall:

For better or worse this show is x-files meets buffy meets charmed meets dawson's creek.