The Oddness of Smallville

I watched the first Smallville episode late, late Saturday night and realized why I've never been able to get into the show. I'd like to; I think it is a cool idea. But I can't.

It was possibly the strangest plotted episode I've ever seen. There's that probability concept where a million monkeys typing in a room can produce the works of Shakespeare in a thousand years or something like that. That's how I feel when I watch Smallville, like the monkeys just decided to have the characters do THIS. Now, THIS. Now, THIS. Clark gets into an argument with his father, then goes to the graveyard, then has a long conversation with Lana, then returns the keys to Lex, then we see more of the dangerous kid with the electrically powered body. Now, Clark sees the wall of weird stuff in Smallville High School. And he saw the space capsule he arrived in, but he certainly isn't doing anything about it.

Very weird.

Also, my credulity is strained by his being a sixteen-year-old. Or a teen at all. I'm willing to believe that Clark is big for his age (cause he's a superhero and all), but the fact that no one seems to notice that this devastatingly handsome, hunky, 20-year-old looking guy is waltzing around High School strains the imagination. At least, on Buffy, they all kind of look the same. (Actually, Whedon's casting for Buffy was extraordinarily astute; teenagers are a lot weedier, a lot younger and lot more gauche than T.V. teens, but Buffy "teens" manage to bridge the gap between real teens and faux teens very effectively.)

Lex, on the other hand, is a believable 21-year-old, however power-crazed. He is possibly the most interesting character on Smallville (love those ambiguous villains) but there just isn't enough of him to make up for the haphazard plotting and the much too beautiful man. Christopher Reeve, however handsome, had the ability to blend when he needed to. The actor who plays Clark just isn't blendable. And for a superhero, that's kind of a problem. (Note to producers: think Tobey Maguire.)