1. Smallville - The Complete First
Season starring Tom Welling
Great Order
The venerable Superman mythos gets a 21st-century updating in this
imaginative and engaging television series from the WB Network, and
series fans can celebrate the ratings success of Smallville with a six-disc
set that compiles its entire first season. The deluxe package offers a
chance to revisit the origins of the characters and their numerous plotlines,
as well as view deleted scenes and other bonus features. The premise of
Smallville--Superman as a teenager--takes up just a few pages in
Supermans very first comic book appearance (in Action Comics back in
1938), but series producers Alfred Gough and Miles Millar flesh out that
period by portraying young Clark Kent (Tom Welling) not as the noble
Superman-in-waiting, but as an average teen with some not-so-ordinary
supernatural powers, including incredible strength and heat vision (Clark
hasnt lifted up, up, and away as of yet). Clarks desire to fit in with his peers
and make sense of his extraordinary abilities ground him in very realistic
and identifiable terms for the series primarily under-25 audience, as does

2. his appealing and tentative romance with Kristen Kreuk as Clarks
dreamgirl Lana Lang. But Smallville also strikes gold when it takes a turn
towards more comic book territory, as evidenced by the parade of shape-
shifting killers and other outlandish antagonists (many generated, in one of
the series most ingenious notions, by the same devastating meteor shower
that brought the infant Clark to Earth) that Clark must harness his powers
to face and defeat. Gough and Millar, along with their capable cast (which
includes Michael Rosenbaum as a young and already bald-pated Lex
Luthor, and Annette OToole and John Schneider as the Kents) manage to
pull off the precarious high-wire act of combining science fiction with
coming-of-age drama to create this highly watchable program. Smallville:
The Complete First Season offers a very complete and attractive DVD
package that is rounded out by some highly desirable extras for longtime
series fans. The six-disc set offers all 21 episodes of the first season,
including the pilot, in widescreen anamorphic format; Gough and Millar are
featured on the sets sole commentary track, which appears on the pilot
episode. Viewers can also access a number of deleted scenes from
various episodes as well as view original pre-production storyboards and
WB promotional spots. An interactive tour of Smallville rounds out the
extras, but DVD-ROM owners can use the discs to access more features
via the Smallville web site. --Paul Gaita
Features:
* Before the Legend.Before the Icon.He was a teenager growing up in
Smallville. The Complete First Season of the hit series that chronicles the
life of the boy who would be Superman is on DVD in a 6-disc collectors set
with super bonus features.Running Time: 954 min. Format: DVD MOVIE
Genre: TELEVISION Rating: NR Age: 085392425525
UPC: 085392425525 Manufacturer No
Personal Review: Smallville - The Complete First Season
starring Tom Welling
"Smallville" is the first superhero science fiction show I actually have
become enthralled with to the point of watching every week. A creative
spin on the world-famous "Superman" legend,it expertly mixes fantastical
elements with realistic coming-of-age themes and storylines, and boasts
one of the finest young casts on television.
In this first season of the still-running(now in its ninth season)CW series,
the principal cast was comprised of Tom Welling as Clark Kent, Kristin
Kreuk as Lana Lang, Michael Rosenbaum as Lex Luthor, Sam Jones III as
Pete Ross Allison Mack as Chloe Sullivan, Eric Johnson as Whitney
Fordman, and John Schneider as well as Annette O'Toole as Johnathan
and Martha Kent, respectively. Additionally, a very important recurring
guest star this season was John Glover as Lionel Luthor, Lex's cold,
controlling and impeccably dressed father. Throughout this season the
cast works well together, with the possible exception of Eric Johnson
whose character struggles to find an interesting season-long storyline.

3. Michael Rosenbaum's Lex Luthor is worth the price of admission by i tself.
From an acting standpoint, Mr. Rosenbaum's performance would be
worthy of an Oscar if he were on the big screen. Additionally, the writing for
Lex is exceptional, as in the "Smallville" storyline he is a best friend to
Clark Kent, but doomed to become his blood enemy. The creativity and
emotional complexity surrounding the Luthors and their relationships to
themselves and others gives this series suspense for many years as well
as an angle of storytelling maturity.
Before he passed away in 2004, Christopher Reeve had a recurring guest
role as Dr. Virgil Swann, a scientist who periodically gave Clark information
regarding Krypton. Other guest stars from the "Superman" films include
Margot Kidder(albeit for two episodes) as Bridget Crosby, an assistant to
Dr. Swann. Also, Terrence Stamp, General Zod from the first two films, is
here vocally as the Voice of Jor-El.
The pilot episode of this series is one of the best pilots I've ever seen of
any show. It introduces characters, and sets events in motion on a huge
scale with a catastrophic occurrence which reverberates for the rest of the
series. The special effects are cinematic, and announce that the show
intends to divorce itself from the well-meaning cheese that doomed
previous attempts to bring superheroes to the small screen.
Given its subject matter, "Smallville" displays an uncommon maturity and
class and I urge you to try to catch up with it if you have not given it a shot.
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