Smallville: The Series - worth it?

Wha? Did I miss that part or am I not understanding?

I’ve watched the first few seasons of this show and precious few in-between, but decided that I needed to see at least the last half hour or so… man I hated the flashbacks and all that weirdness, and most of the effects work was just terrible. The worst was the retarded music… it sounded like it was composed by a ten-year old who just got his first synth keyboard.

In the meanwhile, Clark dispatched Darksied’s ghost by… I dunno. Blowing through the human body of the elder Luthor? Then he just… pushed the planetkiller away. Oooh boy. Wow I hadn’t realized that Darksied was such a wuss. And Lex now… forgot everything? WTF? Ten years of Smallville down the drain, and seven years later he manages to become President. I don’t get it.

And amazingly they kicked in the John Williams music. Thank God. This made the end sequence quite nearly dignified.

— Alan

I think it was even less than that: I’m pretty sure Darksied saw the big “S” on the new suit, and thought it stood for “Stop”, so he just turned instead.

Lamest…ending…EVAR…

The one thing I didn’t mention was that the amazing contrast between the teen-composed music of the final and the kicking in of the Williams orchestral themes is like night and fucking day. Kinda like watching Superman IV and then all of a sudden it ends with Superman I.

— Alan

So yeah, I’m going to stick by my earlier assessment of the last season or two.

Thank god they brought Lex back and used him in such a meaningful way.

Man that was terrible. They couldn’t even get a good closeup of him in the full suit. It was weird. It was as if they were permitted to film only closeups of his face or the full suit at a distance.

I don’t think there WERE any shots of him in the suit period - everything was CGI while he wore the suit. The only exception seemed to be the final shot and I think when he was at the window of the air play tapping at the glass, right?

They should have spent the last few episodes leading up to the finale to deal with the Darkseid stuff, since they really rushed that ending, and then had the finale been all about Lex.

Also - why did we have to have the first hour be all about a wedding that we knew was not going to happen? Really? First she has doubts, then HE has doubts later? Will he? Won’t she?

And does EVERYONE have to kiss each other in this episode? Fucking CW.

Well…let’s be honest, that finale sucked. I suppose a few good moments, mostly at the very end, but the first half was tediously sentimental or needlessly overwrought, Clark seemed to have learned nothing over 10 years and had to have all his motivations questioned yet again rather than reaffirmed, the thematic recapitulations seemed repetitive rather than reinforcing, and well, thank God for John Williams to the rescue.

Pretty much what everyone else said: curiously reticent about actually showing the suit, just offs Darkseid in a fly through, moves whole planets in classically cosmic over-amping of Clark’s powers (that helped fuel Marvel eventually), the reel where Lex runs for president seems to have been lost…well past time for everyone to move on.

Also forgot a major “WTF” from me is Jonathan Kent’s ghost just suddenly being … uh, around and ghostly for not apparent reason. Was his ghost established prior to this episode? Or did they just want to bring that actor back in because, well, why the hell not?

Yea, as Clark mentioned in the finale, he ‘talked’ to his father last year some time and got some advice (this is an unrelated conversation to the ones Clark had with Other-Dimensional Dad). So Ghost Dad had already been established.

Ah, okay, I don’t remember that I guess. It’s still a little jarring to have his dad haunting him, but it’s a minor thing and if it’s pre-established then that’s cool.

Well its over, I can’t say the finale made the “cheese” of the last 3 seasons any better, but it was what it was, and I still got all giddy inside when the Williams theme hit at the end.

Lex’s few moments were ok, but I think he has just been gone too long for me to care.

It was a fun romp for 10 years, but I still think the show should have ended after season 6.

I can’t find the source, but I read somewhere that Welling refused to appear in the Superman suit. I’m not sure if was embarrassed at the notion, or didn’t want it to be his legacy; whatever the reason, it was frustrating as hell. I kept trying to will the camera to pan down. I watched 214 episodes of this stupid show to see him in the suit…I guess we’ll have to settle for Photoshops.

I also watched 214 episodes wondering how Lex would un-learn Clark is Superman. Of course it would be magic ink. And nice to see Tess was properly mourned.

I thought the best point to end it was Rosenbaum’s last season (season seven?). He kills his father and basically completes his journey from someone struggling against his evil destiny to someone who embraces it. And since that was the theme of the show, the juxtaposition of Clark and Lex fighting their destiny along a shared path, it was the natural end point. Have him don the suit in the last episode, kick Lana to the curb (effectively leaving Smallville behind) and leave the future open for Clark and Lois. None of this extended Blur the Superhero who is Superman in everything but name.

Watched the finale out of morbid curiosity. Here’s what I don’t get: why the fuck did Clark and Lois wait 7 years for before they decided to finish their wedding?

I stopped watching Smallville after 2.5 seasons, I think (right after the first encounter with the recording of Jor-El, I guess). The talk here about the finale being terrible isn’t making me want to catch up and watch them. Can someone sort of summarize the arc of the show after that in a paragraph or two, from a high-level viewpoint?

You’ll have to wait for the Smallville movie to find out.

More Lana Angst for a few seasons followed by Louis Angst until the show’s conclusion.

Louis angst was always so much more rewarding though. The only highlight of Lana’s existence were those brief story arcs when she was first being brought into Lex’s world, and being introduced to his point of view. But, that all turned to shit when she became some sort of super spy intent on bringing him down, or whatever the hell they tried to do with her.

Shitty end to a shitty show. I watched every episode, so I can’t blame anyone but myself. Shrug.

Does anyone else get flashbacks to the Seinfeld show when they show Joe Davola’s name in the end credits?

Yeah, that’s probably when it should have ended. Keeping it going, while staying in the pre-Superman purgatory just got ridiculous. The show should’ve either transitioned to Superman/Metropolis or ended. I’d have loved to have seen Clark as Superman in the first few years of figuring things out.

I was wondering about that too. My only guess is they were trying to reconcile the show’s timeline with the comic’s. Obviously Lois and Clark work together a long time in the comics before getting married. I’m not sure why they felt the need to do that, though. The show’s chronology and events will never mesh with those of the comics.

I was fairly disappointed by the finale. I wonder if they didn’t show Welling in the full suit because he continued to be a cock about never putting it on or if it was a cost issue. Routh’s Superman suit was custom made for him, so it probably wouldn’t have fit Welling anyway. So they would be forced to either create a new suit for 5 minutes of screen time or take the cheap way out and use terrible, faraway CG shots mixed with equally terrible close ups. Characteristically, they took the easy/shitty way out. Not much of a payoff after ten years.

There for a while the comics were honestly making a go at integrating Smallville into their timeline, but the longer Smallville went on the most it completely shit up any and all attempts at saying it has fuckall to do with the Superman comics.