Has it really been 20 years? Good gravy. Back when Smallville began, I was unmarried, ambitiously preparing for a move to California (never made it), and enjoying the hell out of the idea that superheroes were going to make it to the small screen. Imagine the possibilities.
Anyway, 20 years later, one marriage, five kids, and here we are celebrating the series that started the superhero kick on the CW with Smallville: The Complete Series finally making it to Blu-ray. It has been a good trip down memory lane, as the show, despite its graphics and effects, holds up really well with regard to content.
Let’s dig right into it.
In case you didn’t know this existed
Smallville ran 10 seasons and focused on a young Clark Kent going through an Archie-esque high school experience that would eventually lead him to the Daily Planet and his ultimate destiny of becoming Superman. The story was quite the ambitious journey and solid take on the years never explored in the original Superman movie with Christopher Reeves.
Anyhoo, most of the story content in the show were created through the chunks of Krypton (including Clark) slamming into Smallville and changing people’s lives forever. The show’s initial story containment through these McGuffins was tight but gave birth to endless episodic storylines that could be created from scratch, but also related to other DC characters (though not directly related). The meteorites also helped to bring together the main group of Smallville. The story focused on a handful of characters including Lana Lane, who was orphaned by the meteor shower in episode one. It also created an antagonist with Lex Luthor, who became more sinister, sly, smart, and bald because of the same happening. There were commoners (Chloe and Pete, played by Allison Mack and Sam Jones III) pushed into the story through the meteor shower, though not directly affected by them. Chloe and Pete acted as bridges between the main characters, which worked out well repeatedly, as these side characters could come in to push the main characters into each episodic story. Very carefully crafted characters in my opinion.
The best part of the series was the relationship between Lex and Supe. Michael Rosenbaum is the best Lex Luthor in my opinion. His growth from weakling to power monger was so amazingly done and beautifully acted that he might have outshined Tom Welling in the series. Why DC never adopted Rosenbaum in that role permanently is an unsolved mystery to me. He was that character and he owned him, and everyone before and after him could not stand up to his performance. Yes, Gene Hackman included (I love Hackman as an actor, but he wasn’t as ruthless as Rosenbaum’s Lex).
Tom Welling complemented Rosenbaum’s performance just as well. Welling’s Clark Kent progressed in an opposite and more innocent direction and should have led Welling to his proper and well-earned role as the man of steel. I know that during this series’ run, fans were dying to see him dawn the cape and costume…for five seasons. The story did work well with Welling’s progression from high school goofball to the superhero who would be his character’s destiny. Welling worked well with the material, played a great opposite to Rosenbaum’s Lex, and did everything he could to respect Christopher Reeves version of Superman.
Imagining Welling and Rosenbaum in a Superman movie is a firm reminder of a missed opportunity by WB. For some reason or another, they seem to not like connecting their CWs to their DCUs. Sans one episode of Flash.
In all its character glory, the show did occasionally remind us that stories could drag in the wrong direction sometimes much like a soap opera. Somewhere around seasons 6-8, the show seemed to lose some focus on where it needed and should go. It did bring into play some familiar faces, such as Zod, and bring into the loop the Fortress of Solitude and identifiable DC characters/places that gave hope that the finished version of Welling’s Superman was nearby. Then there were times where the episodes got off track and whacky, such is the case with how Zod was treated, where it was more of a possession than a full-blown character. I would have loved to see Terence Stamp return to that role, and he would have been brilliant, but we got a possession of Lex instead. I’m sure there were some disagreements with how Zod should be presented or if Zod COULD be presented. Regardless, it was neat but didn’t work well. At least we got Terence Stamp as Jor-El, if only by voice. Ultimately, the positives certainly outweighed the negatives when it came to character and story progression. I’m sure as the show became more popular, what Smallville could use that was canon became more available.
Anyway, the series does a good job of progressing all the characters to the final familiar destination of Metropolis and Welling in a Superman suit. The last episode does feel a bit rushed and compacted, though I’m sure the creators knew the series was ending and they wanted to give fans what they wanted for a decade. They delivered, but, oh what could have been.
At the end of the day, Smallville still holds up better with narrative and character progression than any other CW show or WB movie to date. It’s the blueprint for good superhero storytelling and it’s refreshing to visit after 20 years.
Features and quality that come with the release
Back in 2001, the United States was still trying to figure out 16×9 ratios and HD viability. The latter was held up by medium-to-small television stations being able to afford to go from SD to HD. It wasn’t a cheap venture, especially for rural stations. The FCC, in all its glory, did a good job of being patient with the process. Everything really started shifting permanently in the mid-2000s and HD slowly became the norm with the arrival of Blu-ray. On the consumer end, we were all trying not to hate the infamous black bars on our television. Widescreen pictures gave people panic attacks, while the 4:3 pan/scan seemed to be okay. It honestly was a weird time back in those days.
Having given you a healthy backstory, the Blu-ray release of this show does a good job of handling 16×9 delivery and HD quality. The show looks gorgeous and as you progress through the 10 seasons of it, the picture and quality get better. All of that transition is captured on Blu-ray and nothing seems out of place, well, maybe the original intro (you can see the crop lines around the characters – don’t look, it will haunt your production dreams forever). The transition to this format seemed to be carefully done and in Warner Home Video style delivered well. They do a good job with HD upscaling and cleaning. They always have since the HD-DVD/Blu-ray days began.
In terms of features, here’s what you should expect:
– The Adventures of Superboy (1961 pilot)
– A Retrospective Look at the Series’ 10-Year Journey (this is quite cool)
– A Decade of Comic-Con Featurette
– Paley Festival Featurette
– Smallville’s 100th Episode: Making of a Milestone (where the money is made from syndication!)
– Secret Origin: The American Story of DC Comics (neat stuff)
– Audio Commentary, Deleted Scenes, Gag Reels, usual stuff from season releases
The first few features on this release are great, especially that 1961 pilot which is an odd bird, but a weirdly welcomed one. The retrospect and 100th episode are neat. There is a lot of good things here on this features list. Not all of it is gold, but there are some solid additions to help make the price of this release a bit more bearable.
Conclusion
Smallville: The Complete Series on Blu-ray is a great trip down memory lane. The show holds up surprisingly well for 20 years and is a reminder of a few missed opportunities on the film side of the DC tracks.
Regardless, it’s a great release.
