Finale

DVD, Smallville S10 (Finale)

There was really no way 'Smallville' could end in a satisfying way because it didn't proceed in a satisfying way for much of its run, so to finish at the top of its game would have been impossible. Any series that goes on for years and years will drop in quality, simply because an idea, a concept, even one as compelling as 'Superman before he became Superman,' can only last so long before the juices stop flowing and it either reinvents itself or dies trying. In part it's to do with business practices and the ways of TV production that lessen budgets in order to allow a series to keep going, and there comes a point when it loses the quality it once had. With 'Smallville,' it's difficult to say when that happened, because, though it began well with a strong first season and managed to hold onto a fair amount of that quality into the second, by the third it had gone off the boil. From there on, seasons, and even arcs within seasons, rose and fell at different times, there was no specific decline, it had just stopped being satisfying, at least for me, so I bailed out early in Season 3 and never looked back. Not until a few years later when DVDs had become cheap enough that I felt it worthwhile to visit the other seasons out of curiosity, even though I'd seen the odd episode here and there, and of course had no attachment to any new characters I hadn't been introduced to organically. But after enjoying Seasons 1 and 2 again so much, it made sense to keep going, which is how I came to write reviews on the series, because, although it's not one of the best series' ever, it would still grace the top ten of sci-fi series' I've enjoyed.

Season 4 had some good moments with the football career, Season 5 featured the one hundredth episode, Season 6's introduction of Green Arrow made for the best arc I'd seen post-Season 2, Season 7 was a step down for continuing the mess they'd made of Lex, Season 8 had some interest for featuring Doomsday, then Season 9 was the first time I felt a level of consistency with the characters in a long time. They hit the nail on the head when they paired Lois and Clark and had them basically doing what they did in the films, and while that season had its ups and downs, when it focused on those two characters it worked. Season 10 has been the same, succeeding on the level of Lois and Clark, and with a bent towards nostalgia for the series' past that saw many of the main characters and some side characters brought back, a running theme of the year. But they saved the most surprising till last: Michael Rosenbaum returns as Lex Luthor, completely unexpectedly! I had heard he never came back to the series, but at the same time I had high expectations that, following the trend of the preceding episodes, they'd bring back as many characters as possible for one last hurrah, perhaps with the setting of the wedding a good excuse. They didn't live up to my wishes, of course, because I hoped to see everyone together, smiling and joking somehow, a great group scene of every major character I liked, and we never saw that. The wedding would have been the ideal setting, but that turned into a confrontation, and if Clark had had all his super-powered friends around it would have lost the personal jeopardy of Clark facing Oliver Queen alone.

Sadly, Lana Lang never showed up, except in flashback footage of other episodes, Pete didn't pop up even in those, unless I missed him, having to be content with a cameo in a comic book telling the story of Superman that Chloe reads seven years later, presumably to her and Oliver's child. And I know it was daft, but I even hoped for people like Whitney from Season 1, or Martian Manhunter, and certainly the group of heroes that made up the Justice League. But you can't have everyone, and as much as I try to forget, this wasn't a film, nor was it graced with that level of budget. Yet they still felt the need to end with something big, because that's what's expected. Endings are always tough to do in one sense, and in another, easy. It's easy to ring the bell of sentimentality and nostalgia, another reminder of our own short lives and the experiences we've gone through by seeing the past of these characters sped up into the present, and they did a good job with that side of it. Easy too, to feel the sadness and poignancy of people playing characters one last time, and to remember the good times. Nowhere could they have done this better than with Jonathan Kent, returning as some kind of ghost or vision, just because the writers wanted him to, and we want him to, it doesn't matter that it doesn't make much sense - I'd have happily pretended he'd never died in the first place and seen them all at the farm again as if no time had passed! But that's the theme, time has passed, the past has passed, for both viewers and characters, yet is still with us.

What is much harder to do is to throw up one last challenge for the hero, the thing that he's been gearing up for, to become who he was born to be. They'd been setting up Darkseid all season, but he's one of those faceless characters it's hard to care about, so inevitably he takes over the body of a human villain, the vile Lionel Luthor. But even then, what do you do? You can't have Clark punching Lionel's head in, can you! So he merely flies into him, yes that's flies, finally awarded his birthright for getting through the trials he'd been groomed for, and entering his Kryptonite heritage. It was a good symbol for wearing the suit, because otherwise it'd just be about a guy with powers putting on a costume for reasons of better publicity. Yes, it's supposed to be a symbol of hope for the world, but that's a bit vague, so assuming the mantle of a Kryptonian made sense and gave ridiculous clothing that can seem cartoony in superhero productions, a reason for existence, though it doesn't really explain how the power of flight was unlocked within him. I'd always thought the final episode was called 'Superman,' a perfectly exemplary title that would have summed up the series neatly, but instead it has the less inspiring title of 'Finale' and I found that to be indicative of the blunt way the writers curbed everything to a close.

There were a lot of things to tie up, but they were also going big by giving us Lex again, the real one (okay, technically a clone, but with Rosenbaum back after three years away), something that wasn't strictly necessary, but I can see they were trying to take things full circle. It was wonderful to see the flashbacks of Clark's life, as shown in the series, and equally fitting to see Lex' memories shrivel up as he becomes a blank slate upon which to build, a hopeful ending for a character that had long ago been written out. It was hard to really see what they were doing with him, he plays the part of killing Tess, his sister, to prevent her becoming like him, and there were a number of things like that that had already been sorted out previously and didn't need revisiting. That she still felt she needed redemption took her backwards. I get that she says Clark's already saved her, so his killing of her wasn't required, but it was one of those things that didn't ring true. Another would be the massive planet hurtling towards Earth, sent by Darkseid. As too often happens, the villain doesn't have much of a plan, and it's really only a setup for Clark to show off his flying skills and save the whole world. It was all a bit hokey that Lois gets herself onto Air Force One to see the President and stop him launching nuclear warheads that alone will irradiate half the planet as the only chance to stop this big ball from crashing into the globe. She suddenly becomes conscious that she's got the ID badge of another reporter, but she wouldn't even have got near the plane in that situation!

Then there's Lionel so desperate to recreate a Frankenstein version of his son, using Tess' own heart as the final piece (she gets some good action breaking out of the medical bed and shooting Lionel). It's just hard to buy some of what was going on, but then that's in keeping with a greater part of the series in which far too often the writing was awful, things didn't make sense or were skipped over, using all the stereotypes and attitudes to character and drama that makes me dislike superhero stuff all too often. So from that perspective, they kept up their own standard to the end, it's just that the first part of the episode was much better, the sensitive questioning of both Clark and Lois whether they should get married or leave the past behind (filmed in a great circling through the walls, revolving around the pair, separated by a door). I have to admit that, as much as I loved all that stuff with Martha being upset that Clark had sold the Kent Farm and he was essentially moving on from that past, and it was affecting to see them there with all those cardboard boxes, probably the most moving part of the episode in some ways, it was also confusing. I didn't get whether they really meant it, or who we were supposed to see as right, it was muddled: Clark thinks he should move on, Martha's upset about it, ghost Jonathan shows up to tell Clark his past will always be with him (and I did like every second with Schneider back in that great role, being Pa Kent, and especially the different times someone could see him, and other times not, and they all share a group hug in the barn), but then Clark thinks maybe he does need to keep hold of the past so he will marry Lois…

It was all a bit perplexing, but a lot more engaging than the expected 'action' side of the story. They fired off their guns in the first half, all the emotional, family stuff, nice seeing flashbacks to the whole series as the opening, and then went to Darkseid and the Luthors, which wasn't nearly as compelling, as much as I liked seeing Rosenbaum back. Seeing the rundown of names in the guest credits was pleasing, though as I mentioned, it was slightly disappointing not everyone could have been there, nor was there a proper sendoff with everyone together. There was a lot of hokeyness, like Clark saving Oliver Queen just by telling him he inspired him and believed in him, and the idea of the Gold Kryptonite ring that would take his powers permanently was easily defeated, and there was way too much spouting the word 'hero' throughout. It was like all the moments when the series could be grounded and impressive in its storytelling (like Chloe reminding Clark he's not God and can't be aware of every bird and blade of grass, in defence of him being able to live and not be exhausting every second to save people and use his powers to the max), were cast off and it degenerated into superhero speak. I am judging harshly because it's the cap on a ten year viewing experience that spanned a sixteen year period for me (I found it highly amusing that they skipped forward to 2018 at the end, the year I'm watching it, and Lex is finally President - though I didn't understand why Clark and Lois had waited so long to go through with their marriage after all). So, although I understand the vagaries of TV, I still hoped for better.

That being said, the good outweighed the perplexing. So we didn't get to see a proper image of this version of Superman, except from a distance, or when he runs toward the camera as he reveals the 'S' in classic form. So they didn't use the John Williams theme quite right, using bits and pieces here and there, making the rest of the episode's score sound really cheap and cheesy much of the time (though when the classic theme was used it was wonderful, and fun to see the initial end credits flash up in some small way like the old films). So we didn't get to see all the goodies of past and present together (though Aaron Ashmore got to play Jimmy Olsen's brother in a little cameo at the end, and we hear Perry White's voice!). None of it really takes away that much from the fact that they finally got the series to a close, they brought Clark to the point of being Superman, they had Jonathan and so many elements that had made the series in the past. And it can't be underestimated what having a feature-length finale adds. That alone makes it a bigger experience. If you look at its contemporary, 'Star Trek: Enterprise,' which began the same year, 2001, it didn't get that luxury (although the finale of that series was far superior), and 'Smallville' outlasted it by two and a half times its run. I don't know how, but it did.

The series will always have a special place for me, and even though I can't see myself buying all the seasons to watch again (each bar 1 and 2 was sold on ebay once I'd had the pleasure of reviewing them), I can see myself going through Seasons 1, 2, 9 and 10 again (1 and 2 I'll have to, as I haven't watched it in the era of writing reviews!). At its best it was essential and exciting, provocative and shocking, but also homely and reassuring. That it wasn't able to be consistent in those qualities must rest on the writing, because the actors were generally good, and when they had money, the effects were impressive. It did squander its potential, and was too small and enclosed in its outlook (killing off recurring characters, the film sets outside of the main, classic ones), but it was a TV success that neither lived up to the potential pitfalls I assumed it would at first, nor its genuine chance at being terrific. A mixed bag of a series: it wasn't 'Super,' but it was about being pre-super so may have taken that too much to heart.

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