he WB knows how to put together shows that fit its favorite demographics. This time they take the most popular alien hero of all time, Superman, shake up the myth a bit and send him back to high school to create a "reinterpretation" called Smallville.
The pilot opens in 1989 in Smallville, a little Kansas town that claims to be "the cream corn capital of the world." However, this very normal town changes forever when a sudden and violent meteor shower strikes, bringing death and destruction in its wake, along with something else that just happens to be found by a farmer and his wife.
Twelve years later, the town of Smallville has become "the meteor capital of the world," and strange things have become a way of life for the residents of the town. One particular resident named Clark Kent (Welling) is a teen-ager with a secret. He has special abilities he doesn't understand, and all he wants to do is be normal and do normal things, like try out for the football team. But his adoptive father, Jonathan (Schneider), won't let him. Worse yet, he's in love with the girl next door, Lana Lang (Kreuk), but he can't seem to get within five feet of her without tripping over his own feet. She's also happens to be dating the high school quarterback, Whitney (Eric Johnson).
On his way home, Clark is trying to come to grips with it all when a speeding car loses control, running over him and plunging off a bridge into the water below. Clark pulls a bald young man out of the car and revives him. The man turns out to be Lex Luthor (Rosenbaum), the son of an unscrupulous businessman.
More confused than ever, Clark doesn't understand how he could have survived the accident. Jonathan finally decides it's time to tell Clark the truth. But what Clark learns is more disturbing than he ever could have imagined, because if he came when the meteors did, then everything that's happened in
Smallville since then could be his fault. Including the death of Lana's parents.
Superior, stripped-down Superman
Once again, The WB has taken a teen-age superhero who just wants to be normal and developed a very good series that is well written, perfectly cast and exquisitely produced. The producers have taken the Superman myth and effectively adjusted it, getting rid of more of the comic-book elements
than just the Superman tights and cape to develop a story with characters who never find easy answers to their questions.
If there's anything to fault in this superior pilot episode, it's simply that Smallville is so much like its competition Roswell in its themes, tone and feel that it seems very familiar. Some of the reason lies with David Nutter, a fine director, who directed the Roswell pilot as
well. Still, there are other forces at work, which include both The WB and the show's producers, who were hoping to snap up the Roswell demographics and build on them by using a recognizable name, even before Roswell went to UPN.
But while the similarities are significant, so are the differences, which all rest on the shoulders of the characters and the fine actors who play them. Just as Clark (Welling) hasn't yet discovered who he really is, neither has Lex Luthor (Rosenbaum). His fascinating character may be a rich man's son
who has everything, but all he really wants is a friend. Who these characters will become is clearly based on who their parents are, which is quite different from the nearly parentless worlds of Buffy and Roswell. In those shows, the parents are an afterthought. In Smallville, the parents are the key.
We already know how Smallville's story will end. Clark and Lana won't end up together. But this series is about the journey, not the destination. It all comes down to a very well-developed story told by people who know exactly what tale they want to tell—how Clark Kent becomes Superman.
