It used to be a simple case of “If you don’t like it, don’t watch it.” Hell, if I don’t like a show, I just don’t watch it, but hear me out. With “Smallville” it’s different. At one time it used to be an excellent show, one that promised to be all about Clark Kent and his transformation in to Superman. Then somewhere on the fourth season, it was sold down the river and this show about Clark became a show about everyone else but Clark. I’m a hardcore true to the blood Superman fan and it’s not as easy as “If you don’t like it, don’t watch it.” I still sit and endure “Smallville” to this day because I pray and hope that it will return to its former glory of being about something.
Something big. I can’t accept that it’s an Elseworld’s tale. I can’t admit that it’s a good show, either. It’s awful and what was once an experience about watching Clark become Superman is now an endurance test about a similar character named Clark Kent who will become something someday. Superman? Doubtful. This continuity doesn’t belong to Superman. Hell, this continuity doesn’t even belong to Jimmy and Lois Lane anymore. Season Seven didn’t fill me with hope either. It’s a pretty terrible bit of pussyfooting that further drags its heels on turning Clark in to Superman with the introduction of Supergirl, the one and only vapid rip off who isn’t any better. She’s further evolved beyond Clark Kent here and that doesn’t make matters better.
She’s annoying, obnoxious, and serves no purpose but to remind viewers what Clark isn’t, and inspire resentment. Then when we have the chance to see Clark do something like, say, fly in episode “Descent,” Clark openly refuses not to at the whims of Lana’s health. Even in spite of genuinely good episodes like “Gemini” which sported sch a great surprise ending, we’re fed three more episodes like “Canary,” in which Black Canary is given a drastic overhaul to look like a clash between a Butch Lesbian dressed as a KISS Cosplayer; and “Hero” where Pete returns as a stretching superhero after eating… Kryptonite… gum. “Smallville” Season 7 won’t convince hardcore Super buffs to follow along with its storyline. As a Superman fan, “Smallville” holds no intrinsic value, but as someone holding out hope, I still have to see if it gets better. There’s always denial.
As for the DVD, we’re given some great extras, regardless of what you think of the series. The features are more Superman than the series to be honest. “Supergirl: Last Girl of Krypton” is a seventeen minute fluff piece about Smallville’s Supergirl that barely focuses on her origins in the comics. It’s basically an admittance that she was just a way to market off of the potential girl comic book readers. It’s good if pretty damn sexist. There’s also the excellent “Jimmy on Jimmy” where quasi-Jimmy Aaron Ashmore interviews almost every other Jimmy in Superman cinema who ever lived including Marc McClure, Jack Larson and Sam Huntington! It’s brilliance, period!
The rapport between the actors is light and funny, and there’s great interplay between this brother hood of men who have played Olsen. “Smallville Legends: Kara and the Chronicles of Krypton” is a series of mini-webisodes chronicling the rise of Kara as Supergirl. The animation is sub-par and the voice work is average; Supergirl fans will love it more than anyone. And finally there’s “Smallville: Visions” a DVD Comic book with a mini-story branching off the series. All around it’s a great boat of extras for fans. This is a case where the extras are infinitely better than the actual series, and in spite of hating the show as a Superman buff, I’ll keep the set closely because of the extras that celebrate being a fan of the Man of Steel. It’s the Sloth of my Superman collection.