Eight Years
Date: (winter 2001-now)
It was a dark and cold night. My brother and I, with nothing to do, were just sitting on the couch, channel-surfing, making stupid jokes about this and that. We turn to what was once the WB where I hear something which catches my ear, something about a character named “Clark” would only pay attention to women who’s initials are “LL”. Although at this point I had not yet gotten into comics, the connection was immediately obvious to us, as we had both been avid followers of Paul Dini’s animated DC Universe stuff as well as watchers of the short-lived The New Adventures of Lois and Clark. “Clark” was clearly Clark Kent. “LL” was either Lois Lane, Lex Luthor, or Lana Lang.
Noting that the characters appeared to be in high school (Smallville High, no less), we made the conclusion that the show was definitely some sort of Superman in high school thing. I was a bit skeptical of the concept, but I continued watching. The first show that we watched was, appropriately, First Season’s “Cool” where a Kryptonite-infected individual gained the power to suck heat out of individuals he came into contact with. Yes, the premise was kind of lame, but somewhere in the midst of it, I came to really enjoy the show. It could have been the wonder of watching live TV superheroics. It could have been the gorgeous Ms. Kristin Kreuk. It could have been the awesome special effects. It could have been the angsty teenage thing that the show’s characters seemed to embody which I have, somewhat ashamedly, focused on for a time.
But, before I knew it, I was enthralled. In my senior year, as I became more and more into comics, I found that the show was refreshing — it was like bringing comics to real life without being ridiculously campy. I was a big fan of Michael Rosenbaum’s Lex Luthor and John Glover’s Lionel Luthor. Tom Welling’s Clark Kent had his moments, too. Bad Clark. Heat vision. Government/business conspiracies.Yummy.
And then I went to college. And, as lame as this sounds, Smallville served sort of like an emotional crutch for me. I wasn’t really leaving behind everything familiar, because I was still watching Smallville — it was something I used to do at home and it established a sort of continuity for me. I watched as the characters matured, as Lex Luthor became darker and darker, and I felt like I was, in a very detached and dorky sense I suppose, sort of growing with them.
And here we are, Season 6 (the best season by far) — and Smallville currently stands as the only television show that I’ve continuously watched from start to finish as it aired, episode by episode. It will probably end with Season 7 next year, and so again, it will act like a transitional thing for me between college and life as a working stiff (and if Smallville finishes where it’s supposed to, then that means my journey from high school Junior to working stiff is analogous to Clark’s transformation into Superman… hello delusions of grandeur)
“So what are you, man or superman?”
“I haven’t figured it out yet…”