seduced by superman

god help me, the rumors are true, i've started watching smallville. just finished season 1 actually, and though i feel no small amount of shame because of this, i am totally enthralled and completely enjoying it.

i've never been particularly interested in superman. sure, i watched "lois and clark" in my youth and i saw the bryan singer film when it came out, but i always found the man of steel to be a bit on the boring, goody-two-shoes side of super heroics. i tend to prefer darker heroes a la batman or the crow. but it seems that clark kent's farm boy aw-shucks-iness is quite a bit more charming when he actually IS a farm boy and still coltish enough to be believable as a small town teen hero.

to be honest, though, it wasn't the allure of the origins of superman that drew me to the show. like most things recently, the real reason was because of "supernatural." "smallville" airs right before spn on friday nights and being the diligent fangirl that i am, i turn the tv to the right channel well beforehand to make sure i don't miss a minute of winchestery goodness. as such, i've caught the back end of all of season 10 of "smallville," therein realizing that tom welling is SUPER hot. (heh. get it? super.)

anyway, the jist is, i'm boy crazy. always have been, always will be. so i'll suffer through some ridiculous writing and cliched scenarios (not a few of which are clearly stolen from buffy episodes), for the chance to see a big sexy man fight crime. i'm just shallow like that.

here follows the pros and cons of the smallville universe, or at least my first impressions...


pros:

1. strong, capable badass women. i like a show where women are shown driving tractors and running businesses while still in high school. the cw network isn't exactly known for it's portrayals of independent women (at least after buffy went off the air) so it's nice to see a show where the women are consistently badass, even more so in a show that's pretty darned masculine on the surface. in fact, if it weren't for clark's biological advantages, the women would be outshining the men!
martha kent manages to help her somewhat cantankerous husband run the farm, keep the peace between the men in her life AND raise a son who's not only the sweetest boy next door there ever was, but also ends up saving the lives of half the town. she also snakes drains, feeds the elderly and plows fields in her spare time.
and then there's chloe. who i freaking ADORE. she may be a little on the naive side when it comes to her relationship with clark, but other than that tiny flaw, the girl is badass. she (single-handedly?) runs the school paper, scooping the big city news desks with her "wall of weird" exposes. she is consistently upbeat and refuses to take any shit from pete or clark, admonishing them several times for not treating her as well as they should. being in high school and standing up for yourself like that against the guy you're into? not easy, but chloe pulls it off with panache. and she drives a 1961 ford falcon. nuff said.

2. the charm of mid-western america. god, i really really really want to live on a farm in kansas with jonathan and martha kent, which brings me to...

3. possibly the best television parents EVER. i love them and wish they were mine. except for i'd have a gigantic oedipal complex due to the overwhelming sexiness of john schneider. i mean, bo duke was no slouch, but the man is infinitely better looking now.

4. rad vancouver guest stars. like the chief, callie and tory from "battlestar galactica." also non-vancouverites like amy adams, shawn ashmore and adam brody. (*squee* seth cohen!! *squee*)

5. the slashiness. at one point, lex gifts clark with a sword as a going away present. a SWORD. and i always give bonus points for homo-erotic phallic imagery.



cons:

1. worst theme song ever to assail my ears. somebody saaaaaaave meeeeee from the sappy lameness of remy zero, not to mention the other assorted bad pop songs that crop up during the show. "supernatural" has really ruined me with all it's classic rock awesome.

2. pete's token-ness. srsly, what is the point of his character? to highlight the chemistry in clark's only other male friendship? other than bringing some cultural diversity to the white bread mid-west, pete seems completely useless.

3. the romantic obliviousness of, well, everyone. i suppose i should cut them some slack, smallville being a show populated by teenagers, but oh-my-chuck is this shit ridiculous. everyone is in love with clark and he is just too much of a puppy-eyed sweetheart to hurt anyone's feelings, though he clearly only loves lana. (or lex, depending on your preference.) and lana is rockin too much guilt to leave her quarterback boyfriend, even though they don't ever spend any time together and he's kind of a douchebag. so clark ends up asking chloe to prom and i just know he's gonna end up breaking her heart. then i'm gonna cry big crocodile tears even though i know it's coming and i just don't want so much angst with my cheese. smallville should leave the angsting to the winchesters, who are better at it anyway.


4. the cheesiness. although sometimes it's just so much fun.

5. the too-slow build up. someone freaking say the word kryptonite already! "meteor rocks" for the loss. and when the hell does clark discover that he can fly?!? running really fast is cool, but it does not compete with flying! or leaping tall buildings in a single bound, for that matter. i demand more awesome kryptonian abilities!