Look, it’s hard to care about a Whitney episode of Smallville. Hell, “Kinetic” doesn’t even really bother to reveal it’s a Whitney episode until a third of the way in, so what does that tell you? Though I poke fun at how little Pete has appeared so far, that’s because I want him to have … Continue reading
Smallville delivered a firmly middle-of-the-road episode this week, giving us a solid enough weekly adventure, if not a particularly exciting one. “Leech” is the sort of midseason episode I expect to come up a lot in this retrospective, one that doesn’t do much more than was expected of television in the early 2000s. Fortunately, there … Continue reading
Honestly, I’m just happy that Smallville doesn’t have episodes this dull more often. I know, I know, I’m still early on in the series; the bad times come later. Still, TV was a much different beast in 2001, still extremely episodic and not concerned with ongoing storylines and developments. Frankly, back then, you got dull, … Continue reading
In keeping with the theme of the episode itself, the villain of this week’s Smallville was about as forgettable as they come. Nothing against the invisible Jeff Palmer and his attempts to do right by his sister, but there’s no denying that the central focus of “Shimmer” had far more to do with Clark and … Continue reading
Man, you guys, Kevin Costner’s Jonathan Kent may have been right in Man of Steel after all; Clark using his powers to save a dog is a danger to his secret! Of course, that doesn’t change the fact that the DCEU version was a terrible father, with “Rogue” serving as a great showcase for how … Continue reading
This was a solid episode of Smallville, one that offered a more sympathetic meteor freak as well as offering the first real showcase for John Glover’s Lionel Luthor. Admittedly, “Jitters” wasn’t the most original story, trotting out the old hostage situation storyline for the back half of the episode. Still, there was plenty to be … Continue reading
Hey, I didn’t know Lois Lane showed up this early in Smallville! Quite the bizarre origin story they gave her, though, what with the terrible fat suit and the Kryptonite-laced protein shake turning her into a meteor freak. On top of all that, “Craving” has her going by a completely different name, probably hiding her … Continue reading
However else I may feel about an episode of Smallville, I think the show is always better when a guest star is someone who’s actually gone on to have a career. “X-Ray,” for example, was helped a lot by casting future star Lizzie Caplan as that episode’s meteor freak. And while it’s impossible for the … Continue reading
So, fun fact, this is one of the few Smallville episodes I can remember seeing, and may well be the first time I ever saw the series. Other than that? Well… “Cool” wasn’t the most thrilling hour of television. It’s an episode that continues the show’s trend towards the more generic freak-of-the-week focus that defines … Continue reading
So far, Smallville has done a good job of giving me something to latch on to in each episode, but the closest I found to compelling material in “X-Ray” was the appearance of an actress who would eventually have a career, Lizzy Caplan, in the role of antagonist Tina Greer. It’s not that this was … Continue reading