Season One: The Year of the Freak-of-the-Week

[GHScorpiosRule]

Okay, I knew there was something else, and I just remembered it. It irked and peeved me, when Lana just stormed right into the Torch office in "Hug" and asked if Pete and Chloe would leave and let her speak to Clark in private. Really? Like you couldn't have asked if Clark could step out of the room and speak with him privately somewhere else? And they left! And of course, Herself gets on her High Horse, when she's going on and on about how Whitney would never do this, don't you know what he's going through right now? How he would NEVER hurt anyone.

And when Clark tells her that Whitney strung him up in a cornfield, she gets all offended, because she thinks that means Clark hasn't "forgiven" Whitney for that, and that he shouldn't pretend to like Whitney or be friends with him. Like @BkWurm1 said in the relationship thread, I think, that should have been the moment Lana broke off with Whitney, when he grabbed Clark and strung him up. But, I guess jocks will be jocks, so it's totes okay! Blech.

That said, I really didn't think Clark was pretending to like Whitney or be his friend, but at the same time, I don't believe that Clark was being a good friend, or whatever he was, since, he was still trying to figure out a way to pursue Lana, and that Whitney's father's health condition prevented him from doing so. Not a good look for him. That would be the only ointment for me, regarding Clark in this season.

And I don't know if it was Kristen herself who felt uncomfortable, but it always bugged me how she would hunch her shoulders up to her ears whenever she would hold a tray of coffee mugs when she was waiting tables at The Talon.  And amaaaaazing how she suddenly was able to be a good waitress/hostess once she owned a coffee establishment!????

Edited December 30, 2016 by GHScorpiosRule

[BkWurm1]

9 hours ago, GHScorpiosRule said:

"I really think that if Clark's dad hadn't been kidnapped and Clark's secret's weren't being threatened to come out"

Eh? Is this that something happened this season?

I think so?  The reporter had been coming around and threatening to say what he knew about Clark's secret and Jonathan went after him during the wild weather.  I thought all that happened in the season finale but maybe Jonathan going after him (he's more held hostage/trapped than kidnapped) is in the season 2 opener.  Clark's secret being at risk did happen in season one, I know that at least.  

[BkWurm1]

9 hours ago, GHScorpiosRule said:

Okay, I knew there was something else, and I just remembered it. It irked and peeved me, when Lana just stormed right into the Torch office in "Hug" and asked if Pete and Chloe would leave and let her speak to Clark in private. Really? Like you couldn't have asked if Clark could step out of the room and speak with him privately somewhere else? And they left!

Yeah, it's stuff like this that really sets the tone for a character.  Part of me knows it's probably done to save time on setting up another shot but it isn't a good look for the character, a wave of her hand and serfs be gone!  Laurel on Arrow did this in the lair after she found out about Oliver's secret.  It's not natural behavior unless the person is more than a bit self obsessed.  

[GHScorpiosRule]

4 hours ago, BkWurm1 said:

I think so?  The reporter had been coming around and threatening to say what he knew about Clark's secret and Jonathan went after him during the wild weather.  I thought all that happened in the season finale but maybe Jonathan going after him (he's more held hostage/trapped than kidnapped) is in the season 2 opener.  Clark's secret being at risk did happen in season one, I know that at least.  

Yeah, Nixon threatening to reveal Clark's secret took place in the finale along with his fight with Jonathan.  Them being trapped under the crypt was in the second season opener.

4 hours ago, BkWurm1 said:

Yeah, it's stuff like this that really sets the tone for a character.  Part of me knows it's probably done to save time on setting up another shot but it isn't a good look for the character, a wave of her hand and serfs be gone!  Laurel on Arrow did this in the lair after she found out about Oliver's secret.  It's not natural behavior unless the person is more than a bit self obsessed.  

Exactly! Lana toward the end of the season kept acting as if the Torch office was her own personal space where she could just walk in and make everything about her and her problems. Or just walking into Clark's loft uninvited as if she had every right to make herself st home.  It drove me nuts.

[rue721]

I just watched Reaper, when the dead guy goes around turning people to ash.

I am, yet again, finding Jonathan so aggravating. I just don't understand the guy. He's always freaking out about one thing or another, and he CANNOT loosen up. Something about the combination of being very touchy and anxious, very bossy, and having no sense of humor or interests outside of his farm/family really gets under my skin. I want to get him some wine and Xanax, and make him see some avant garde show and then talk EXTENSIVELY about it afterward (in the most pretentious way possible) ;) Just something to humanize him. Not that I know why THAT would humanize him. I guess just getting him out of his comfort zone would humanize him to me.

This was an interesting episode for Clark, though. He was on the outs with Jonathan because he didn't want to go on their annual father/son fishing trip. What I thought was interesting is that Clark really didn't seem that stressed about being on the outs with Jonathan, even though meanwhile, every other character was having a storyline about how much they were freaking out about their nonexistent relationships with their parents or about losing their parents. I guess Clark and his dad are really close, and he trusts him, so everyone else's anxiety wasn't really affecting him? That's the optimistic read on that storyline, anyway!

Meanwhile, Lex's storyline was about trying to figure out how to stay in Smallville despite Lionel pressuring him to leave, and he flat out said to Lionel that he knew Lionel wanted to keep a shorter leash on him because he was threatening to actually become successful and therefore become real competition. Which IMO was 100% correct. So Lex was looking for ways to appease his dad (and Mr. Kent), to get him off his back, without actually screwing things up for himself in Smallville in the meantime. It was interesting to see the contrast between Lex and Clark, since Clark really didn't seem to be looking to appease Jonathan at all, even though everyone (including Martha) was telling him to at least make an effort. Even at the end of the episode, it seemed like Clark wasn't really stressing, and I'm not even sure if they ended up going on the fishing trip. It's not like he "learned his lesson" really. Lex actually did manage to appease both Lionel and Jonathan, though. Which I guess is meaningless in the long term, but a relief in the short term at least. It's funny, I never think that this version of Lex is especially smart, but seeing him in S1, he actually was pretty bright. He also is already starting with the super-villain monologuing, which I guess eventually dropped away (unfortunately and surprisingly) as his actual villainy grew.

Anyway, also interesting that Clark is apparently having a hard time reading people. He really couldn't get a read on his dad. Did he really think that Jonathan would be OK with skipping their ~bonding~ time fishing in order to sit in the Luthor box at a football game? Martha had to spell out what Jonathan was feeling early in the episode, and Clark really didn't respond at all to what she was saying anyway. And then at the end of the episode, Jonathan also has to spell it out that the fishing trip was meant to be a bonding activity. LOL. In general, watching S1 now, it feels like the show is really harping on how Clark is a terrible judge of people and basically has no insight into anyone's thoughts/feelings. I guess that's meant to explain why he's friends with Lex, while everyone else's intuition and good judgement keep them away.

All the characters are actually kind of difficult to read on this show, though. At least at THIS point in the show. I mean, I don't think that Clark is very deep, but apparently people do choose to see him how he wants to be seen (with his secret still a secret), so he's got at least the one layer. ;) Lana has this thing where nobody knows what she's feeling about anybody else or really anything else, because she just plays sweet all the time. Chloe is always near hysteria, but always about dumb stuff. The shit hits the fan, and she's completely fine, but Clark looks at her funny and suddenly she's a puddle of tears.

I guess Pete and the Kents kind of let it all hang out. I'm not convinced that Lionel even has feelings except maybe anger and envy, so I guess in a way he lets it all hang out, too? ;)

With Lex, it's really difficult to know at this point, because he's always going to do or say what he thinks is the appropriate thing to do or say, rather than what he actually thinks or feels. So on the one hand, I don't think he's always game-playing or lying really, but on the other, what he thinks or feels *personally* seems like it's pretty tangential to the decisions he makes about how to act or what to say. It seems like, with him, everything is for effect. He does X because he thinks it'll make people believe Y, not because he feels any particular way about X. I find him interesting to watch, even very early in the show like this, because he already seems to have the alter-ego thing down. I mean, obviously that came to a fore in Reaper, which is why I'm thinking about it (with the staged kidnapping for Lionel v. the staged Make a Wish football game for Jonathan). But I guess with him, it seems like the alter egos are just his own internal versus his own external self.

[GHScorpiosRule]

Okay, I'm bored, so I pulled up the now defunct (*sniff*sniff*) TWoP and am reading Omar's recaps. And I just had to quote this, because that's exactly what I though when Bo Kent showed up in the pilot!

"Good God, it's John Schneider from 

The Dukes of Hazzard! How did he not age all this time? Tom Wopat looks like a mummy, and John looks like he just stepped out of a spa for teens."

[GHScorpiosRule]

"Creepy Buffy-reject graveyard. Lana shows up with, of all things, a brown horse and some flowers. "Who's there?" she asks. "It's me. Clark." "Clark Kent?" she asks. No, Clark the candy bar."

ME: LOLOLOLOLOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[GHScorpiosRule]

Forgot how much I loved this:

"Annette O'Toole is here, too, but since her role will probably consist of giving Clark Kent hugs when he needs them, I don't see why they needed to hire an actress with talent. Speaking of which, we come to Nell, a vampy, trampy flower-shop lady who in two seconds telegraphs that she's got a thing for Bo Duke. She's wearing a crazy animal-print blouse the likes of which are supposed to be illegal in Kansas. Then she looks at Bo's wife. "Martha," she says, as if talking about particularly stinky poo, "what a surprise." Martha asks for some red tulips. Because this is a flower shop. Nasty Nell asks whether the reclusive Kents wouldn't rather have something more exotic, like tiger orchids. You're talking to

Bo Duke. He doesn't know a tiger orchid from a carburetor. <snip> Bo comes up and booms, "No, thanks! Martha has her heart set on tulips." With his brown jacket and matching hair, he looks like Nate from Six Feet Under. Nell makes a crack at Martha's expense about the tulip being an uncomplicated flower. Nell. You live in a small town in Kansas. Who made you Dorothy Parker? Completely not getting the jibe (huh, maybe she is simple)"

I love[d] Omar so much! But then as I continued reading, I discovered that he hates Chloe! I mean hates her! So, a good portion of my love has died.

[BkWurm1]

4 hours ago, GHScorpiosRule said:

I love[d] Omar so much! But then as I continued reading, I discovered that he hates Chloe! I mean hates her! So, a good portion of my love has died.

I don't recall that at all.  Was it maybe just an early episode thing?  I didn't start reading the recaps until the end of the 2nd season.  

[GHScorpiosRule]

7 minutes ago, BkWurm1 said:

I don't recall that at all.  Was it maybe just an early episode thing?  I didn't start reading the recaps until the end of the 2nd season.  

Well I've only read the recaps for the first two episodes and he really doesn't like her. Again I do love his hate and disdain for Lana.

And from episode one, he's saying there was all this "gay subtext" and I'm just not seeing it!??

[Unclejosh]

Holy bump!  I am just re-watching Season 1 and was wondering if the old Television without Pity recaps of Smallville are archived someone. I loved reading those which were sometimes better than the show itself!

Also recently watched the Michael Rosenbaum podcast with Tom and I liked it a lot.  One interesting thing they mentioned is that the director of the pilot apparently gets $5,000 for every episode for the remainder of the shows run. So Nutter made over 1 million in residuals over the 10 year run of the show and he didnt have to do anything other than direct the pilot.

 

They still have great chemistry and it was interesting to see Tom relaxed and in a much happier place than he was when making the show which they discussed.  He regrets not taking the time to enjoy it while it was going on.  They both said all the cast got along which was great and they both enjoyed kissing Kristen K.  Apparently Tom also was quite take with Sarah Carter when she guested but of course he was already married at that point but MR was teasing him about it and said he told Tom to not get married so young and when he was so famous as he could have been having a LOT of fun with the ladies.  It actually sounded like Tom banged his way across Europe as a model and had been having "fun" since high school and by the time he made the show he was over the partying and hooking up.

 

Anyway it is recommended for fans.  MR did say that Allison Mack was scheduled to come on in the comments of the Youtube video but I am guessing once all that sex cult stuff came out she went into hiding.

[GHScorpiosRule]

10 minutes ago, Unclejosh said:

Holy bump!  I am just re-watching Season 1 and was wondering if the old Television without Pity recaps of Smallville are archived someone. I loved reading those which were sometimes better than the show itself!

Also recently watched the Michael Rosenbaum podcast with Tom and I liked it a lot.  One interesting thing they mentioned is that the director of the pilot apparently gets $5,000 for every episode for the remainder of the shows run. So Nutter made over 1 million in residuals over the 10 year run of the show and he didnt have to do anything other than direct the pilot.

 

They still have great chemistry and it was interesting to see Tom relaxed and in a much happier place than he was when making the show which they discussed.  He regrets not taking the time to enjoy it while it was going on.  They both said all the cast got along which was great and they both enjoyed kissing Kristen K.  Apparently Tom also was quite take with Sarah Carter when she guested but of course he was already married at that point but MR was teasing him about it and said he told Tom to not get married so young and when he was so famous as he could have been having a LOT of fun with the ladies.  It actually sounded like Tom banged his way across Europe as a model and had been having "fun" since high school and by the time he made the show he was over the partying and hooking up.

 

Anyway it is recommended for fans.  MR did say that Allison Mack was scheduled to come on in the comments of the Youtube video but I am guessing once all that sex cult stuff came out she went into hiding.

I believe if you Google "brilliant but cancelled" it will take you to where the old site is with the archived recaps.

I posted the interview with Michael and Tom in the Media thread a few months ago when it came out. Right before the fall season, I think. Because Tom also talked about his recurring stint on Lucifer.

[Unclejosh]

Awesome thanks!!

[BkWurm1]

Here's the link.  TV Without Pity Smallville Recaps

http://www.brilliantbutcancelled.com/show/smallville/

Edited February 17, 2018 by BkWurm1

[GHScorpiosRule]

11 minutes ago, BkWurm1 said:

Here's the link.  TV Without Pity Smallville Recaps

http://www.brilliantbutcancelled.com/show/smallville/

Omar was the BEST!!!!

[iknowyouknow]

Maybe I just have a strangely sentimental attachment to the beginning seasons of some of my favorite shows, but this first season of Smallville is still my favorite! I just love all the characters this season. The genuine affection between Clark and the not yet evil but morally grey Lex warms my soul. I find the cases/FReaks of the Week really interesting, and there's still a humor and energy that's lacking later on when the show takes itself more seriously. This season also has a lot of my favorite Chloe and Clark/Chloe moments. The Lionel/Lex scenes are golden.  It just feels like this season is so full of hope and possibilities for both the characters and the fans. It's so great to see that other people are still attached to this show! 

[BkWurm1]

Season one had a lot to love.  So much promise!

[Bercilak]

17 years after the fact and a couple of years late to this thread, but the first season is the best season.  No caves, no crystals, no Jor-el, no brain interactive construct, no Kandor, no "wouldn't it be cool if Clark met ______?" episodes.  Mostly, it was just a show about an earnest farm boy learning to come to grips with his incredible abilities while navigating adolescence, high school, his first crush, and his overprotective and well-meaning (but often clueless and emotionally tone deaf) parents.

 

That was Smallville.

Edited March 24, 2018 by Bercilak