Smallville Series!

[Failure]

(In advance, is this topic ok in here? or should I have posted this on the JL board?)

Has anyone read the review on the Smallville series on AICN? All I have to say is umm, wait, I may have to censor this, What the heck are they thinking? I mean it's bad enough that it's supposedly Superman meets Dawson's Creek. But they cast Lana Lang as an asian girl? Pete Ross as a black guy? I myself am asian, and I'm all for diversity in tv shows, but you don't mess with what's been established for decades and decades. This is ridiculous, is there no other way they could have gotten diversity involved? It's like that Simpson's episode where they're watching Dawson's Creek, and they hispanic bumblebee man is in it, and Lisa says something like "I'm all for diversity, but this is really pushing it." What I don't get is they created a new friend for Clark, and she's a white girl. Would it be so hard to just have that girl and Lana switched around? Since they don't care about history, couldn't they just have created a new friend for Superman who was black or whatever minority they wanted to fill in?

Now, I don't wanna just harp on the casting. If they felt that those people were best for the parts, then I say fine go ahead. But you know for a fact, there were some exec's saying we need some diversity, otherwise the ratings might not be good enough. You know they didn't care about anything except trying to appeal the show to as wide a demographic as possible.

Now moving on to the plot, I think I've wasted enough time already, but Superboy meets Dawson's Creek. That sounds really, really great. I am definitely, defintely looking forward to this show. God forbid, they try anything new and fresh. Why is it people automatically assume that a show targeted at a teenage, early 20s demographic, has to have all the teen angst drivel in it? C'mon there's a million other shows that can do that. Are people afraid to write anything remotely intelligent? Geez. I'll let you all come to your own conclusions, but I very seriously doubt I am even going to give this show a chance.

Ugh WB, WB, WB. When will you ever learn? First you butcher ROTJ and let BB go, then you let Buffy walk, and you're probably going to let Angel walk. And you replace them with shows like this. Let's hope they do some serious re-tooling.

[The Old Maid]

I'm sure it's all right to post about "Smallville" here. I've only seen a handful of threads on it at the Batman/Superman board (before the move). And this is the "everything else board."

I think the series would've had a good chance of success, and would deserve it, if they'd kept it to the original material. After all, the baby Superman landed on earth circa World War II. What a great setup! You've got paranoia about outsiders -- they might be German or Japanese spies! They might be commies! And you've got a farming community in the Great Plains, where everyone knows everyone else's business. The Kents took a huge risk when they rescued that baby. On top of that, poor Clark grew up in the era of McCarthyism. What a dangerous time to be "different!"

The teeny-bopper trend is a real threat to the Superman mythos. We've seen it undermine Batman (in season two of "Batman Beyond"). But what I'm hearing is that "Smallville" downplays the decisions the Kents had to make. Just how "different" is Clark in this modern era? Kids believe in aliens nowadays & it doesn't scare them. Maybe it's because their parents saw Elvis at the gas station.

A big area of concern is that supposedly Lex Luthor grows up in the same town. And yes, I'll agree they're trying too hard to make it multicultural. Unless you're black, you've probably never heard the term "flyover states." It's what people call most of the Plains and the Midwest -- that is, states you'd see through the window of a plane, but wouldn't care to land in. Clark Kent grew up in a farming community in Kansas, which for a long time meant WHITE community. I'm not saying that America isn't more multicultural. What I am saying is many towns like Smallville aren't. Too many farm families are going out of business. They aren't selling out to nonwhites but to the farming conglomerates. Therefore it's unlikely that Smallville is even the remotest bit cosmopolitan. It could end up looking fake.

Maybe they'll find a way around these obstacles. But I think that setting the show in the present will make the job so much harder than it has to be. True to the material is better than true to the trend.

[Nightwing]

This saying of mine, "I'm scared," is a universal saying that I use when fearing the following situation: We take a show and mix it around so it has a teenage demographic feel to it.

So yeah, the show will do great IF they stick to the original material and plan. But I'm scared that some higher ups or something will make things all Dawson's Creek, because of pop culture or circumstance (circumstance meaning, say, a slight ratings slip).

Stuff like that just happens sometimes with shows. For example, the familiar saying: "The first 2 seasons or so were excellent but then it went downhill WAY fast!" Unless I can be convinced otherwise, my bitter-towards-the-entertainment-industry-mind has only one option to save Clark the harship: don't make the show.

So, on I worry....




P.S. The WWII thing sounds like an interesting setup. Although, back in the forties Clark was around in superhero form to fight IN the war (as were other comic heros).

[The Old Maid]

Yes, that's right, it was pre-WW2 era. I was thinking of the Christopher Reeve timeline for some reason.

Actually that would be just as much a closed society back then too. World War I officials introduced mass paranoia under the guise of uniting the country. The Roaring 20s were followed by the Crash ; the Red Scare ; resurgence of Klan activity ; corporate union-busting. That last one ranged from armed attacks to corporate "walkers" (so called because they stalked a man so closely that they often stepped on his heels. There was no law against it, you see.) And to think that nowadays most newspapers are unionized! What an interesting time for sweet, sheltered Clark Kent to become a reporter. Not a good time, not a safe time -- but an interesting one.

I guess I'm such a stickler for historical accuracy because it indicates professional pride. That, and the modern teen-angst dramas bore me to tears. An old-fashioned Bildungsroman setting would be better.

[Nightwing]

Originally posted by The Old Maid
I guess I'm such a stickler for historical accuracy because it indicates professional pride. That, and the modern teen-angst dramas bore me to tears. An old-fashioned Bildungsroman setting would be better.

So am I!!! But with Superman (or any comic hero), there isn't only one continiuty to chose from anyway, so with stuff like this they (well, the professional fans that is) can pick whatever one they think would give us the most interesting stories.

Hehe, I remember in one of the first Spiderman comics, Peter cashed in his pictures to JJJ and he gave him his check, while commenting: "Here ya go kid, you've earned it. Go spend it on some twist records." Gotta love it.