"Smallville" Season 5 Premiere TONIGHT

[Zomby Woof]

This should be a good one, as the premieres generally are. Clark and Lex will grow further apart... and the Superman legend gets ever closer to fruition...

I think Michael Rosenbaum (Lex Luthor) is one of the best actors out there. He deserves Emmys for his work on this show.

[Shell Beau]

1. My husband used to watch that show!

I caught the first 2 seasons. He doesn't watch it anymore! Maybe he can get back into it. I thought it was targeted towards teens and it started getting ridiculous IMO. But Tom Wellington (or whatever his name is) is too cute!!! Michael Rosembaum is a good actor.

[Zomby Woof]

2. The "WB factor" CAN be annoying

The weakness of the show is when it panders to the WB core audience, instead of the comics diehards like me. The endless love triangles and WB album music selling, etc. - but I tolerate these to get to the meat of the story.

But at its best, it has strongly realized character interactions and brilliantly uses classical mythology to flesh out the Superman myth. It creatively retells the story without compromising its integrity.

The greatest and most powerful episodes always deal with how things fall apart between Lex and Clark. The weakest and worst always deal with how things fall apart (or come together) between Lana and Clark.

The best episodes are also where Lex and his father Lionel interact. The episode where Lex covers for his mother's murdering of Lex's infant brother is one of the best shows in TV history. It went beyond mere WB dramatics. It was a colossal script, with amazing acting. If more shows could be like that one, and less like the ones where some geek at the high school gets infected with Kryptonite and freaks out, lol...

[Shell Beau]

3. I didn't see that episode about Lex's mother.

But I agree that Lex and Clark together made for the best stories. Especially since we know that Clark and Lana don't end up together. How far has Clark come as far as is abilities?

[Zomby Woof]

4. Last year's premiere he FLEW

This year, I don't know... but the Fortress of Solitude seemed to be under imminent construction at last season's finale, and it appears that he and Lex will hit the point of no return tonight.

Part of the fun is knowing the outcome, but watching the creative way it unfolds. :-) So far, it has been quite original in that regard.

[Shell Beau]

6. Yeah, that was a concern when I first started watching.

How they would go into what we know to be Superman. I liked seeing Lex go from having good intentions to becoming the Lex we know from the comics and the movies!

On edit, I was waiting for him to fly. Is it a regular thing now or just something that happened and he was confused.

[Zomby Woof]

7. The root of that...

Back in the 50's, there was a Superboy comic, and in it, the teenage Lex and Clark were best friends in high school. Lex, who was a genius, but not necessarily wealthy, lost his hair in a science experiment he was conducting in his garage - a huge chemical explosion. Superboy saved him, and Lex blamed Superboy for his hair loss - his rage became uncontrollable toward Superboy as a result. He didn't know Clark was Superboy of course, and it wasn't really Superboy's fault that Lex lost his hair, but their adversarial relationship became complete out of the ashes of a once great friendship.

So for the TV show, they DO make it Clark's fault, in a way. Lex is a few years older and wealthy. The meteor shower which brought Clark to Earth causes Lex to lose his hair. Clark feels considerable guilt over that and the loss of Lana's parents in that shower. The guilt factor is an interesting angle which brings an element of martyrdom to the hero.

The sophistication of the characters' emotions helps this rise above the normal WB fare, in my opinion. :-)

[jonnyblitz]

5. i completely agree with you on Lex

I have watched every episode up to halfway through last season. I watched them back to back over a period of a few weeks and got completely addicted to this show. I need to backtrack and finish watching the remaining episodes i missed from last season and catch up. thanks for pointing out the start of the new season! my friend who tattoos me got me watching this show.

[Dob Bole]

8. It was AWESOME!!!

If any of you are familiar with Superman lore, we've seen Lex for four seasons now. We got a glimpse of the OTHER Superman villian tonight, plus hints of another one who's pretty important!

Awesome!!! Now I can't sleep!!!

[jus_the_facts]

9. I've only seen the first season on DVD...I loves me some Tom Welling....

:evilgrin:

[tuvor]

10. I got sucked into that show once for a good ten minutes.

Yeah, this is why.