Project Geekology
Embark on an epic journey with Anthony and Dakota as they delve into the vast realms of geek culture, from cherished classics to cutting-edge creations. Join us for an exhilarating adventure of exploration and nostalgia, as we unearth hidden gems and reminisce about the moments that have shaped us. Welcome to the ultimate celebration of all things geeky!
Project Geekology
Smallville - Season 1 (2001)
Long before superhero shows dominated television on the CW, Smallville pioneered the genre with its fresh take on Superman's origin story. The show's ambitious approach - following Clark Kent through his formative years before donning the iconic cape and costume - created a blueprint that countless superhero series would later follow.
Diving into Season One feels like opening a time capsule from 2001. The soundtrack filled with Lifehouse, Papa Roach, and Sum 41 instantly transports you back to a simpler era of television storytelling. What makes this first season fascinating is watching the creators experiment with format and tone - establishing the "freak of the week" structure while gradually building deeper character arcs that would eventually span the show's impressive ten-season run.
Michael Rosenbaum's portrayal of Lex Luthor stands as one of the show's greatest achievements. His nuanced performance creates a character both sympathetic and dangerous, establishing a complex friendship with Clark that viewers know is destined for tragedy. Equally impressive is the Kent family dynamic, with John Schneider and Annette O'Toole delivering what many consider the definitive portrayal of Superman's adoptive parents. Their unwavering moral guidance provides the emotional foundation that shapes Clark's journey toward becoming a hero.
The early meteor rock mythology (they don't even call it kryptonite yet!) creates both a narrative engine for weekly adventures and a compelling metaphor for teenage transformation. Each "meteor freak" represents different aspects of adolescent anxiety - fears about appearance, acceptance, and identity that resonate beyond the superhero trappings. These episodes may seem formulaic now, but they established crucial building blocks for the epic story that would unfold over the next decade.
Have you revisited Smallville recently? We'd love to hear how it holds up for you after all these years. Share your thoughts on the iconic characters, memorable moments, or how it compares to today's superhero landscape!
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New Video: The Divine Structure Hidden in Superman’s Timeline: https://youtu.be/iHgcBcCSJgM?si=9xmcl76NZR3Sdx3w
Welcome to episode 129 of Project Geekology. My name is Dakota. I'm one-third of your host. I'm joined, as always, with Anthony and joining us.
Speaker 3:Rich, super excited to talk to you guys about Smallville. This week. I've been. I mean, I look, I'll just tell you guys off-air this was said. I told everybody involved in this podcast that I would have been willing if this, if, if they were willing to do this, I was willing to just make this a like 100 something episode run of just smallville, like a weekly discussion, breaking each episode down. And, lucky for you guys, our other hosts care about you more than that, so we we will not be doing that, but I'm super excited. I don't know about you, gents.
Speaker 2:Our three fans are grateful.
Speaker 1:You know what I would love to do something like that. I don't know that I have the stamina for it. I have the love for it. I do really love this show. I think, going back to this show again, it's easily in my top five top ten shows ever. But yeah, I don't know that each episode deserves a full hour of my attention, like vocally anyway, but as a whole, season-wide, I think that we can make a really nice episode out of each season, and there's ten seasons. So instead of breaking it up into like half seasons or whatever, I think if we go back to smallville down the line, we'll just do whole seasons, just because it encompasses an entire story and a vibe that each season has, and I think the first season has a very specific vibe that we can talk about as a whole so right, and I, I feel like, even when the show starts to dive into lore, you know, like superman lore, it's not enough to where I feel like I need to break it down into, like you know, two-parter.
Speaker 2:Like rings of power definitely needed to be broken down into two halves. I really wish that we did that with shogun. Shogun 100 could have, you know, gone for that treatment, but you know, this is something that we decided after the fact. But, yeah, no, I, I, I really do think that, you know, I guess, depending on whatever it is that we're covering, yeah, smallville, I, I could, I could say that like we could do the full season in a one-episode run, because we don't really have to do a play-by-play of each episode.
Speaker 1:We will be talking about certain moments in each episode, maybe not each episode, but moments that stuck out to us individually and we'll touch on that as a group. But yeah, it's going to be exciting discussing Smallville and we won't be doing it every single week, but we definitely want to eventually get through the 10 seasons of Smallville. I think that would be a fun goal for us. But as it stands, we're covering the first 21 episodes of Smallville, the first season, starting with the pilot episode, ending in the. I forget what the final episode is called, but it's something akin to oh, it's Tempest, it's called Tempest. So, yeah, we're going to be covering all of that and more you know what. Before we get into any of that, let's jump into what we've been up to this past week. Let's start with you, rich. What have you been up to?
Speaker 3:Hopefully something epic you know I will just recap it quickly, but you know I did attend a number of Met games. They were actually back in town. They were away and had some group tickets lined up a long, long time ago, so these weren't even spur of the moment tickets. Pete Alonso is a very prolific player on the New York Mets, one of my favorites. Despite the fact that Mr Soto got paid so much money, I actually woke up in the offseason every day just looking at Twitter going please tell me they signed Pete Alonso, like I didn't care that we got the other guy. I needed Pete and he's been a Met his entire career, so nobody's really come close to ever being able to do this. He took over the franchise lead for home runs at 254 home runs, so I got to be there in attendance.
Speaker 1:So the record now is 254 home runs for a Mets player.
Speaker 3:Yes, as like wearing a Mets uniform. So for example there was a player, gary Sheffield, who played for a lot of teams and when he played on the Mets he did hit his 500th home run as a Met.
Speaker 1:But it doesn't count. Yeah, because he wasn't a met for most of that exactly I understand so these are two pete alonso is the top of the top when it comes to mets, players and home runs yeah, so it was a cool it was.
Speaker 3:It was a cool moment, like they and you were there for that game yeah that's exciting. How was the stadium? It was crazy. I mean, the only thing that I think you know, obviously, being a person, was, you know I was so happy. I remember sitting there and I was getting anxious during his at bats, because now, every time he comes up, everybody's like oh, oh, this could be it right you know.
Speaker 3:So the first time he came up he hit one like, let's say, five feet short of the left field wall, and you're like, oh man, he's trying to do it. And the next step bad he came up and I think that was yeah, he just hit it out like right away and they did uh they had like a graphic.
Speaker 3:They call him the polar bear, so they had like polar bear animations walking past strawberries, because daryl strawberry was the guy who has the record, so it's like he's walking and it's very weird, absolutely ridiculous definitely ai slop like it's absurd and Absolutely ridiculous, definitely AI slop Like it's absurd. And then the play-by-play guy for the Mets actually said he says out loud, he said he's like you know, pete Alonso has reached it, he's on an iceberg all alone, you know like.
Speaker 1:How sad for him, how sad for Pete Alonso. Like that, like that's, so, that's.
Speaker 3:you know, poor, get him off of there so that that was pretty cool yeah, and I just we got to see a bunch of movies we went to see. Now, since we last recorded, I also think I added bad guys too how was that?
Speaker 3:really fun. My, my son, uh, and wife loved the books. They they read them together, like you know, as a as a bedtime kind of thing routine, so he's really been into him. So they went. They were very excited about it and I I thought it was. I just thought it was weird when I realized it was sam rockwell as the lead voice, because I think of him as like that twerp in iron man iron man too yeah, yeah, you know I didn't even realize that there was books for bad guys.
Speaker 1:Very interesting, very interesting. Let's bring it over to anthony. What the heck have you been up to, my guy?
Speaker 2:man. I have been living my 2004 life man or 2005 yeah, man, I've been tell me about it.
Speaker 2:Tell me about it yeah, dude, like I've been watching smallville and playing World of Warcraft. You know, because I've seen Smallville a few times, it's definitely one of those things that I know what's going on so I don't have to fully pay attention and so I'll be playing World of Warcraft and then I'll watch, like what's going on screen and then go back to wow and, dude, it's just been a good time. Like it really brought me back to, like, you know, my childhood doing that. But yeah, I know, I've been just, you know, small villain it up. I mean, I had already seen season one, like a couple weeks ago. So, like right now I'm on season three. I didn't. I mean, season one is fresh in my mind and it's the season that I've seen the most. So it's, you know and it's not. It doesn't really start to deep, it doesn't really start to dive into deeper, you know krypton lore, until you get to season two. So you know, it's nothing too crazy in the first season, but yeah, it's been a good time, man.
Speaker 1:Awesome. That's really cool to hear. I'm happy to hear.
Speaker 2:What about you, Dakota? I know you got some stuff going on.
Speaker 1:Not as much as you might think. In fact, I pretty much have just been binging Smallville, which has been fun. I think a big portion of doing Smallville seasons as a whole for a weekly show means that you're pretty much going to spend most of your time, most of your free time anyway, watching Smallville episodes, and it's a lovely. It's a lovely opportunity to just, you know, revisit stuff that you haven't visited in decades. So for me this was a really, really fun experience, because my wife Jen has never watched Smallville Like she might.
Speaker 1:She might've watched an episode or two here, two here or there, just like in passing, like I might have turned on something, or my brother might have turned on something, and she experienced it that way, but she didn't really ever get into any of the character drama or anything like that. So this has been a really fun experience because I've been able to experience it for the first time through someone else's eyes, even though I know exactly what's going to happen each and every episode. It's fun, I'm really enjoying it and, yeah, I don't think I've been up to anything else. Crazy. I will be going to Iceland tomorrow, so I'm going to be out next week, whether or not there will be a Project.
Speaker 2:Geek ecology show out next week is up to our other hosts, but I will not be present yes, I think that uh well, rich, and I will kind of like plan it out to see what we'll be releasing. So just keep an ear out. That episode will be a surprise and it should be good. Yeah, I think this will be the first time that it's going to be a rich and anthony episode.
Speaker 3:We haven't had a dakota and rich episode, but maybe in the future and we're probably thinking about, like what, a deep dive on the marlins baseball franchise starting in 1997. So anthony's?
Speaker 1:just shaking his really immediately. Anthony just started shaking his head I I love it, I love it yeah.
Speaker 1:I love that. No, I'm excited to hear what you guys come up with for next episode, but for this episode I think we should just dive right into all of Smallville. I want to talk about just going back to this show and what it means or what it meant back in the day show and what it means or what it meant back in the day, because this was before any of the cw like arrowverse shows were a thing. This was before flash. This was before arrow. This was before legends of tomorrow or anything like that supergirl. There was another super man show.
Speaker 1:Actually there was a bunch of shows that all kind of stemmed out of what was the space that Smallville left after it concluded after 10 seasons, Because after the 10th season of Smallville that's when they started Arrow and all that and that spawned a whole genre of like an in-universe series and I think that's awesome that they were able to make that a reality. But that would never have been possible if it weren't for the 10 seasons of Smallville iterating the initial run of Superman before he was Superman, and I think that's a very special thing. I think it's very cool that you know the very first DC comic superhero is the one that kicked off, you know, kickstarted a huge franchise for Warner Brothers and CW. Even though it's not like a huge franchise nowadays, it was for a good portion of the 2010s portion of the 2010s.
Speaker 2:Yeah it, it went on for a while, man. It spanned pretty much from the early 2000s all the way to the early 2010s, and it lasted pretty long. I mean 10 seasons of this show. A lot of shows don't last that long so smallville.
Speaker 1:Actually, I think for a good portion of time it held the record for longest running American sci-fi drama. Wow, you know, like a live action American sci-fi drama. I think it hit like 210 episodes or something like that, something close to around 200 plus episodes that were consecutively released over a 10 year period without any major breaks, and that is a record that I think was only broken by Supernatural. I think Supernatural was the one that you know broke that record, but it's still very oppressive.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. Speaking of that Supernatural, one of the characters of that show was on Smallville in a later season.
Speaker 1:No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. This is only season one. We don't know. We don't know about those people.
Speaker 2:Yet the the um I know the reference the uh, what do you call it? Um, I guess the rules on spoilers are just that they're non-existent now, but yeah, whenever, whenever we get to, uh, I would love it. Whenever we get to that season, we'll talk about it again.
Speaker 3:Honestly, anthony, I want you to say it right and I want somebody to write into the show and be like I can't believe. I've been waiting to watch the entirety of Smallville and I was listening to season one to see if I would dive in, and you've ruined it for me, anthony.
Speaker 2:That would be wild. You know that. That'd be like like really old hate, like just think about that. It's like what rock were you under?
Speaker 1:so let's talk a little bit about I mean, let's talk a lot about about smallville, season one. I think one thing that I really like about this first season is that it's not immediately grabbing. When I think of Smallville, I think of the long arcs that the characters have, drama-wise, in later seasons. We start getting multi-episode story arcs later down the line and we only really start getting those in the end of the first season when they start threading in story beats that pay off later and for a good portion of season one it's like them continuously just dipping their toes in the pool and seeing, does this work, pose in the pool and seeing, does this work, does this work, does this work? And some of it does, some of it doesn't. So I want to hear your thoughts on, like, what did work this season.
Speaker 1:I know Anthony, you're all the way in season three at this point and Rich, you're well into season two. I started watching season two as well, but we're just talking season one right now. What really worked for you in the beginning of smallville? What didn't work for you in the beginning of smallville?
Speaker 2:let's start with anthony so kind of like it's exactly like what you said. It doesn't grab you right away, I guess, like story-wise, and I think that that's why we got a lot of the freak of the week, you know, especially in the beginning of that season, where it was also a way to kind of showcase what Clark can do at that time, because by the time we get to Smallville, I mean, it starts off with the meteor shower that you know. Krypton explodes, the meteor shower happens, but we don't get Clark at a very young age. Shower happens, but we don't get clark at a very young age. I mean, you see him, you know, as a kid popping up to jonathan and martha kent, but you get him at his, you know, at his freshman year of high school. And so I think in the beginning it's trying to show you what he can do, like what he knows, and there's a lot that he just doesn't know.
Speaker 2:I really like that. We have this young clark that he only know. He knows that he has super strength, he knows that he has super speed and and this invulnerability until, like you know, he comes across kryptonite. But it's, you know, and even then in this season they call it meteor rock. You know they don't even call it kryptonite. So I like that. I like that they build up to the name of it you know, and that even the name of it you know. I mean, you find it out later but it's. I like that there's a lot that you know, even though even if you're a Superman fan, you know about some of these elements. I like that they build them up and, like you said, they start to pay off in later seasons and I think that that's what they do really well, is to really like set the T up and then for them to just, you know, whack away at, you know, at some of these, some of these later story beats.
Speaker 2:But yeah, like you said, I think that the fact that it has a little bit of a slow start Is what kind of messes it up a little bit, but not enough to take you out completely. And I think that at the time that you and I watched it, we were young enough to like really not care about some of this stuff, and so we look back on it fondly, you know. I know, like you and I, we kind of know our experiences with smallville. We watched it back, like you know, when it premiered. So you know yours and I like our experiences are very similar. I'm really like interested in like hearing like what Rich has to say. You know, kind of to answer your question and his relationship with that. Like you know, in those earlier days did you like Rich, did you watch it when it started coming out or did you watch it down the line?
Speaker 3:It's hard to pinpoint, so I think that I didn't watch it at first. What year did it come out? This was 2001. Okay, so I'm 19 at the time and I don't think I had started to watch it. I think I ended up moving in with a roommate who was pretty into it and he tried to get me to watch a couple. And then something kind of my work schedule changed and it was actually a big deal because I used to work in a group home. So you know, I I have to go to appointments and stuff like that, but a lot of the time was spent in the house so you'd have the tv on.
Speaker 3:So when I worked the morning shift, I watched all of charmed, like the woman who was the boss of that shift basically was like, by the way, we watched charmed here, like, so like we. It was always charmed, we never missed an episode of charmed. And then when I worked the night shift, the kind of crew, the shift leader, was a huge fan of smallville, so it was on like every night on, like abc disney or abc family, I think at the time it was called. So that's how I started watching. It was really like he was really into it. I'd watch some of it with him. And then they did one of those random resets when they're doing reruns and he was like, oh, this is the perfect moment for you. So then we binged it. You know as much as you could binge in those days, like we watched it every day, and I don't think they played them on saturdays and sundays. I think they stayed true to the rerun model, let's say 6 pm or 5 pm every Monday through Friday. So you know the Monday show would be the one from the Friday show.
Speaker 3:So I ended up, I'd say, maybe in the middle, probably somewhere in the middle, catching up on it. And there are things I love about it. I do, finally, recall it being, like you know, one of the first superhero shows that I got to watch. So that was really cool. I forgot how much and I'm not saying the actors, but I forgot how many of the characters I absolutely despise, like just I, I can't stand them. If I was their teacher, I would have a hard time holding my disdain back from these students. I, you know, I don't want to name names we'll get.
Speaker 1:We'll get to that.
Speaker 2:We'll get to that for sure are you talking about the, the fully grown adult high schoolers? That you know, back then it was believable, like so it was believable for like dakota and I, because you know we were younger and everybody was older than us. But then, like you look back at it now and you're like nah, these are college kids and they're in high school I could buy okay.
Speaker 3:So like allison mack I can buy kind of as a high school kid I don't know if he's the oldest- tom wellington, tom wellington tom welling is like he. That man looks like he's in senior year of college yeah, no, he, he is, and lana can pass, I think too. And, honestly, pete I'm not sure if it's because he's also smaller and I think that he works for his, I think he, I can buy him being in high school more definitely than tom welling, and then you know.
Speaker 2:Then you've got lex, who, uh, I don't know, is supposed to be like six years older than them and creepily involved in their entire lives, because it's so funny, like when clark would walk into the mansion and look so much like like they're so close in age, yeah, and like they're about the same height and everything too. Like I think clark was a little bit taller, actually I think he's just a bit taller, so it's just so funny. But, like you know, that's just a little bit of the knocks, but it's not just smallville, that's just what it was. That was that time you had people that were well into their 20s playing high schoolers and a lot of movies and tv shows back then so actually, pete was the youngest of all of these guys.
Speaker 2:Yes, he was 18 years old in 2001 was in, uh, kristin, I think she was about that age too she and allison mack were 19 in 2001 so they were roughly around the same age.
Speaker 1:Tom welling was 24. I think michael rosenbaum was a little older than the rest of them dude michael rosenbaum, man like we'll get to lex oh man he's he's so good, but we'll get to it.
Speaker 1:I want to chime in really quick about the first couple episodes or just the first season in general, like as a whole, first seasons are hard, especially for long-running shows like this that are trying to get their feet, trying to find their audience. I think of some of the bigger shows in the science fiction realm and I think of star trek, the next generation. Everyone always says that the first season is really rough and it is. It's the hardest one to really get into because it's just clearly a writer's room of people with ideas like well, let's do an episode about this, let's do an episode about that, let's do an episode about this, and they don't really gel together. There's no real overarching story in season one of the next generation.
Speaker 1:After that point you start getting character arcs and you know multi-season dramas with the cast, and I feel the same thing is happening in this first season of smallville, where it takes a long time before we start getting multi-episode stories and multi-episode arcs for characters. And that's not a bad thing, but it's. It definitely hurts it on a re-watch, I think, for me, just because I do miss the multi-series arcs. So like going back to the first season watching 10 episodes, and it's just 10 episodes of freak of the week and clark is trying to figure out, like you know, what whatever's going on with meteor rocks in that episode. It's fine, it's fine and it's fun, but it's, it doesn't have the draw. That, like the best of smallville has, is what I'm trying to, you know, get at. I think real Smallville doesn't start until the end of season one and like, really, you know, takes off in the beginning of season two and I think it takes a little bit of getting into, just to get into it, if that makes sense. And so if you've never seen Smallville and you start watching and you're four or five episodes in, you're just like wow, this is just villain of the week, a freak of the week, whatever. Just take your time, keep going. It does get better and it's worth putting the time into it because the show's genuinely very good and when we were growing up, anthony and I and rich you were you said you were 19 at the time there was nothing like it.
Speaker 1:There was no long-form superhero live-action content None. You know. There was a couple live-action movies here and there. You had the Blade movie Just before Smallville. You had X-Men, the first movie. Just shortly after the first season, you had Spider-Man the first movie. Just shortly after the first season, you had spider-man, the first movie. But long-form content did not exist for superhero media.
Speaker 1:So this was it, this was the canon that you had to subscribe to for, you know, extra superhero lore and content and just diving into a universe, you know like, besides comic books. This was it, and I think that it did a phenomenal job because it does get into pretty heavy lore. It just takes a while. Like anthony said, they didn't even call it kryptonite they. The word kryptonite does not appear in the first 21 episodes of the show and even past that, it's just not in the first season. It's just meteor rocks up until, you know, clark learns more about his own personal lore. We don't learn that yet.
Speaker 1:So I think it's. I think it's a. Really, you know, subjectively I think it's a. It's a fantastic time capsule and, to you know, a period where we weren't bombarded with superhero content left and right, and it's definitely worth picking up because there was nothing like it at the time. But yeah, there is still plenty to enjoy. Let's finally start talking about some of the characters and some of the inner workings of everybody. I'm going to throw it off to Rich because I know he has some extremely spicy takes for this extremely benign TV series. Anthony and I are going to be perhaps agreeing to some extent and perhaps disagreeing to a larger extent, but we'll start with rich, let's. Which characters do you like and which characters do you not like?
Speaker 3:all right, so I I like the kents I love the portrayal. I think the actors are good. I love Lionel Luthor, a man from Gremlins 2. I can't remember the actor's name, but he's from Gremlins 2 also. I did, by the way, I had to look it up because I was like that man is older than me and he has glorious hair the most luscious hair it is a wig.
Speaker 1:I looked it up no yeah it's a wig you're lying to me.
Speaker 3:No, I was I, you know I I had a feeling, but I liked him a lot. I, I think michael rosenbaum likes- is so it's.
Speaker 1:It's john glover. By the way. John glover is the actor for lionel luther, the father of lex luther.
Speaker 3:I think he's in a muppet, christmas carol too, but I can't remember for sure.
Speaker 3:But anyway, impossible I think mike rosamund does such a good job of. I like I feel like I was fooled in the first, like there, I remember that he's duplicitous throughout, whatever you know, and but it's like you, you start to see. I think the actor just does such a great job. The portrayal is great because the truth is we're Clark's, our analog right, like he's our in some ways. You kind of see the show through his eyes, right, and you're meant to kind of take his side most of the time, right, sometimes he acts like an annoying teenager with his dad and stuff like that, like why can't I play football? Come on, man. Like come on, you know, and that whole episode being about how, no, it's that you don't trust his judgment and that's why he's upset. And it's like the boy doesn't understand that he can literally kill someone. And in his first practice he like used Superman jumping abilities, like first practice on camera. Like I know it's not tiktok era, but my dude, like your dad, was like hey, don't do anything crazy.
Speaker 3:And he's like, by the way, second play of the game or practice, I'm gonna do something crazy so, but you know he's a teenager, so, like whatever, you know he's 14 can't you see that he's 14?
Speaker 1:I mean, I think that's another problem.
Speaker 2:Yeah, man, it's that teenage angst man we all wanted to do our own thing.
Speaker 3:See, that might be another one of the problems also.
Speaker 2:With him looking older.
Speaker 3:Yeah, because you know. Okay. So my main villain, I think the villain of the story, some of you might say maybe one day and I'm not trying to do spoilers, I'm just gonna say the name doomsday, because it's part of superman. I can't remember anything about the show that far. All right. So no, the main villain is not doomsday, it's not bizarro, ladies and gentlemen. It's lana lang from episode one. She is the main antagonist. You're like wait, but lex hits him with a car. It has to be lex, you're wrong. You're wrong. She is in a committed relationship with let's. You know a bag of trash over here in whitney, who, as you guys, can't see this, but behind dakota, in his background, is tom welling, you know being hung out, uh, you know, crucified by whitney in a cornfield in a cornfield just for existing.
Speaker 3:And then he oddly leaves his girlfriend's very important, valuable necklace around the neck of this guy who he's just bullying to possible death, which is, you know, stand-up guy, and she keeps seeing him for who he is and not leaving him, but then consistently stringing clark along and this guy's like there's one episode where he's like you know, I'm just trying to leave the door open, mom and his mom's like, clark, the door is closed.
Speaker 1:Right, the door is she actually says those, she says those those words.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean so and it's just I don't. And then what she, just kind of like, drops out of school, decides to run the, the coffee shop which you know. She gets really lucky and lex opens up.
Speaker 1:She's just a I don't think she, I don't think she ever drops out of school I don't know, she stays in school. Yeah, she definitely doesn't stay in school. I don't know how a 14-year-old runs a coffee shop.
Speaker 3:She's managing the talent, she's managing the talent, but she is also in school.
Speaker 1:You just got to roll with it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, man, suspension of disbelief is needed with this show.
Speaker 3:What I do like is I love actually the Freak of the Week stuff is I love actually the freak of the week stuff. I could probably watch like 175 episodes of freak of the week and just see how long they could do it without having to like redo one, you know. But I mean I love the different ways that. I mean, man, that first season, like I'm in the bathroom and I heard like a rumbling because we have the pipe to the outside and when you turn it off the hose the air pressure is kind of built up so there's a slight rumble when it starts and my son put it on and I thought it was the bees. I thought it was the bees.
Speaker 3:I was like, oh man, it's those damn meteor queen bee, you know you know I love it man, I love the bugs and they attack him and the bug kid and then he gets better looking as he molts. I ate all that's like. I think I almost like that stuff better, at least in the first season. Like I think it is moving a little too slow with the lore so I kind of liked that stuff. I do have a little bit of kind of exhaustion already with him being possibly found out and I feel like already in the first season and two episodes or three episodes of season two I think they're like getting like they get entirely too close too many times to being had, I think for the first.
Speaker 2:I'm gonna give it over to you for the first season and a half.
Speaker 1:You know what I mean sure, okay, all right, so a lot was said. Sorry, let's, let's, let's keep on with what rich is saying currently about the fact that there is far too many instances where clark has potentially been had or is coming very close to Lex finding out the truth. How do you feel about, like, what Lex knows now versus you know? What are your, what are your thoughts? You know like there's a lot that goes on in the first season that could potentially out Clark right right now there's definitely a lot of like close calls and I guess that could you know.
Speaker 2:The argument for that would be like, you know, yeah, he's young, so you know, while he's decent at being secretive, you know there might be some instances, especially with him being the the kind, that kind of person that's always at like a crime scene, you know, like how is this guy doing all this stuff?
Speaker 1:every episode? I I have to, I have to, like, I have to think about this show like in a bubble, because did he just start high school and start, like you know, experiencing all of these weird things that happen on a weekly basis? Or did this happen in middle school too, like?
Speaker 2:yeah, they don't really explain it.
Speaker 1:They don't explain it. No, yeah, no, they don't really explain it they don't explain it.
Speaker 2:No, it's puberty. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. It's puberty based. We don't get a young, we don't get a.
Speaker 3:Clark, it's puberty. It's like, you know, you skip from Jesus as being born to the action times. You know, like I think we're made to assume that he wasn't allowed to participate in sports. He, he wasn't allowed to participate in sports. He wasn't, you know. He had to be very limited, and I think also that he would have been way more obedient of his parents.
Speaker 1:So but here's the thing like the, the freak of the week oh, did that what? Did that just start happening when he's? When he entered high school? There was a wall of weird prior to him entering high school, which makes me wonder is chloe a freshman or is she a sophomore? I don't really know. I'm assuming they're the same yeah, school year, but then later on she gets an internship with the daily planet. So I'm a little bit confused, because you wouldn't normally get an internship after your freshman year of high school.
Speaker 2:It's wild Actually, you know what, with you being on on like you know the topic of Chloe, how does she have so much free reign, like just to go into that, into the the torch at any time, like this girl's there at like in the middle of the night working? What school allows a student just to show up at like a newspaper in the middle?
Speaker 3:of the night rich.
Speaker 2:You work at a school. Would you have students that are there in the middle of the night just doing whatever they wanted?
Speaker 3:I mean, almost every building closes at a certain point and even like in the days of lower security, when I first started teaching, you wouldn't have anything like that. I was part of newspaper staffs. I was the teacher in charge of newspapers and there was never a time where it was dark outside and we were working on the newspaper like right, and there was never a teacher they.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's the other thing they could have. I don't know if it would have killed them that much to have, because they end up having to have the principal talk to the student directly, right, principal quong has to, like, talk directly to chloe and basically suspends her for not confirming her sources. The principal usually calls the teacher in charge of the program and and deals with it that way. I don't know why there wasn't that character. I and the character could have eventually, you know, maybe started picking up on clark, but could have been another because it's. It also is kind of crazy that nobody at school seems to. I mean, it's also very easy to get a job there, like desiree got a job.
Speaker 1:No, oh, that was season two, sorry.
Speaker 3:I'm sorry. I'm sorry, let's dial it back Come on, let's get on track, all right.
Speaker 1:So I want to talk a little bit about security. You mentioned, you know, in the low security days of high school. A majority of this season was filmed in a pre 9-11 world. This season was filmed in a pre-911 world and I think that's important because we do see a little bit of influence on a post-911 world by the end of this season. I don't know if you guys are cognizant of it at the time or if you've researched it after the point, but after 9-11 happened, there was a large push in media for like pro-army, pro-marine, you know, type stuff happening, and we actually do get a little bit of that at the end of this season. Where whitney is, I think he signs up to be one of the marines and I think that that's uh, it's.
Speaker 1:It's a very timely thing because the that episode occurs in early 2000 or in the school year. It would be like just starting summer 2002. But it was filmed early 2002, so just months after 9-11 happened, and there was a big push both in media and in the news cycle to just, you know, join your local service of your choice and so be it. But I thought it was interesting because you don't see a lot of that happening in TV shows, where just a character will just join the army and that's how they leave the show for a period of time. I don't remember if Whitney comes back, I think he does for a little bit, but at the end of the season I was kind of surprised because that it is very much a time capsule. You know, like you mentioned in the last episode, anthony, this show is very much a time capsule of the early 2000s and I thought that was interesting. But going back to chloe being allowed into the building at odd hours of the day Again, this was a pre-9-11 show for much of the first season.
Speaker 2:I still don't think that would have been something that would have occurred Perhaps. Yeah, like a student being, you know, like even like I don't know, like I mean, we were in school in a pre, you know, not high school, but we still know we were in school pre 9-11. And you know, for the most part I'm pretty sure that, like you had to be, you had to have some sort of supervision and something especially, and even in a lot of the media that portrays like students in a school paper environment, there was always a teacher that was the editor and then they would read over the students' work. So, whether this being pre or post 9-11, I still think that it's still kind of weird. It's still, you know, like.
Speaker 2:I don't want to try to be poking holes. I love this show and for me it is what it is. You know, that's what gives the charm of the show. But you know, I was like watching it over I I was thinking like, yeah, this is kind of like this. She just gets to do whatever it's a little bizarre she's a staff like she's staff at the school.
Speaker 1:what's even weirder, you know sticking with the chloe side of things. Now, how does she get that job? Because I'm assuming she's a freshman? Everyone else in this show is a freshman, except for Whitney I thought about that too. I think Whitney's the only senior. Everyone else is Pete Clark Lana. Everyone's a freshman. How did Chloe become the editor of the school newspaper? Like usually, that's something that's passed down as you prove your worth over the course of your high school career.
Speaker 2:They gave it to her right away, I imagine she's just such an intrepid reporter in middle school.
Speaker 3:I know she just got so many recommendations.
Speaker 2:It was the accolades.
Speaker 1:It was the accolades that she received. All right, let's jump forward, let's. I think we got to address the, the elephant in the room which is, you know, the villain of the first season, the absolute arch nemesis which is lana lang. Anthony, do you believe that lana lang is the nemesis of the show?
Speaker 2:nah man dude, I I loved lana like she.
Speaker 3:She was my crush on that show well, yeah, you know, and that's she, she could, she could do no wrong, that's okay why I think, okay, that's what I wanted. I just wanted clark to get the girl man. I just she made me so angry I felt for clark I, I feel for him. You know, when he's like I'm leaving the door open, like while she's in a committed relationship with somebody else, like he refuses to date anybody, and then but I think that that makes clark better.
Speaker 1:I think that the back and forth with lana made clark a better character, because ultimately it wasn't a feel-good story throughout. He didn't get the girl. This season we spent a whole season of this character pining for this other character and he did not get the girl. And I think that that is part of the charm of the show in the sense that, like it's realistic, you're experiencing life as a teenager through the eyes of these characters. You know I I say realistic very fluidly. In this instance. I don't actually mean it's a realistic show, but the, the feeling that you get, you know, like not being able to achieve what you want to achieve, or being held back by your parents because of x, y and and Z, or not being able to accomplish this because something comes up in your life, is something very, very teenager, and I think that that is what is actually being showcased.
Speaker 1:I think you know, specifically Lana and Clark, the fact that he's willing to show humility, even though he has every ability to potentially take the girl of his dreams as his own. He could, you know, stop being superman. He could stop being the one who saves everyone. He could be the one who shows up at every party. He could be the one who shows up to to every everything that lana or chloe or pete ever does, but he chooses not to, and I think that is what is the ultimate sacrifice of Superman is that he cannot be what he wants to be while also being the person that he needs to be, and I think that is why I don't think Lana is necessarily the bad person in this show, because I think Lana wants to believe that Clark can be a successor to Whitney, but he never proves her right. Ultimately, personally, that's the way I see it.
Speaker 2:Right, right, like she wants to trust him, but he's shown that there is some stuff that he's withholding from her and she's not. You know, and you know, I think that for a lot of people that would kind of be that would put you off of that. You know, you might still care about them but you might be like, you know, I don't know how close I want to get to this person if they don't really want to share. And you see that like and I know this is like you know later on, but like, the further you get into the show, like, like, you know, she shows her open-mindedness to whatever it is that clark, you know, is hiding and you know it's still apparent in this first season too. But you know, yeah, she has whitney in her life.
Speaker 2:So she's kind of torn, I feel like, because you know, obviously whitney is a senior. She's probably torn because you know she has, I guess, these feelings for Clark that start to develop. But then she is in a committed relationship, which she probably sees that you know that he's going to go off to, you know, at one point you know he was going to go to college to play football. Then he decides to become a Marine. So you know, at some point Whitney was going to leave to college to play football. Then he decides to become a Marine. So at some point Whitney was going to leave, right? So that thought process was probably going on in the mind of this character too. To me I believe so, because of how torn she is.
Speaker 1:And even getting into the very first couple episodes of season two without spoiling anything. First couple episodes of season two without spoiling anything. You know, lana does see and mention that clark has way too many you know secrets that he's withholding. You know it's it's very obvious secrets that he's withholding from them to make a realistic relationship work. And yeah, so I think that that's part of why Whitney just seems to be the better choice for her, I guess. But again, even there's an episode I feel like we could talk. Like Rich said, there's so many things that we could talk about, episode after episode.
Speaker 1:But there's the episode Nicodemus, where Lana becomes uninhibited by this plant that was resurrected after 100 or so years. Uh, it's the most ridiculous episode. But you know what, let's roll with it. She gets uninhibited. She tells whitney I'm only with you because I feel guilty that by leaving you it would do you more harm than good. It proves to the audience that she's only with Whitney for a majority of the season because she feels guilty. And for a good majority of the season Whitney's father has been in the hospital on and off because of heart problems. So there's something emotional holding Lana back from fully giving in to her feelings for Clark or for divorcing her feelings from Whitney. So there's a lot going on. I don't think that Lana is the nemesis of the show. I don't think she's the archnemesis and she wasn't written that way. Let's be frank. She was not written to be the archnemesis of the show. Frank, she was not written to be the arch nemesis of the show.
Speaker 3:But I can see and understand rich's reticence to hate or to to like her based on the moral quality of her choices I don't know rich and I went to an old boys school so you know I didn't have a lot of drama during the day, just kind of went to class, didn't really have cell phones right, so it's just like you went to school and there wasn't any relationship drama during the day.
Speaker 3:I don't know that's fair maybe that's, maybe, maybe it's my own like I'm like what's going on at this school? Like jeez, just go to class so eventful. I don't know.
Speaker 1:My days weren't as eventful at an old boys catholic high school back in the late 90s, so you know, one thing, thing I feel like I should bring up, but maybe shouldn't at the same time because it doesn't really pertain to the show itself. But you know, going back to this show, after one of the main actors was imprisoned for a number of years, it's a strange thing because my wife walked- into the room and went hey, look, it's the sex trafficker.
Speaker 3:Do you think she was sex trafficking back then?
Speaker 1:and that was no, obviously, as a 19 year old, I don't think she was in that position until I think it was after the the show. I'm hoping it was after the show that she got involved with.
Speaker 1:I think it was nexium or something and x yeah, it was some sort of cult it was some weird, weird cult and it really mars the character, even though it's a, I think. I think chloe's a fantastic character. Chloe sullivan was such a good character that they started putting her in dc comics like she was a character that they made up for the show, that they later putting her in dc comics, like she was a character that they made up for the show, that they later retroactively added her to comics. But I think, since the whole situation, they've just like deleted the character. You know, like it's just, it's just not a character anymore and oh, I hit the mic it's not a character anymore in dc comics. I don't think it's.
Speaker 1:It's a real shame because there's there's a lot of moments in this, like where I'm like man, she's a really good actress. You know, like the ability to go from like smiling, faking it to all of your peers to like turning around and like just crying. That takes a lot of acting chops that I don't think a lot of these characters, these actors, have. Personally, I don't think lana could I don't at this point, I don't think had the chops for it. Yeah, it's, it's really. I found her performance really impressive and it's sad to see that.
Speaker 2:You know, it ended the way it ended you know what character, just like you know and and rich brought him up, but you know michael rosen as Lex Luthor, something that I really love that this show brought about, because I'm not too sure if it was prior to the show but like Clark and Lex having this friendship that develops and, honestly, to tell you the truth and I know that this happens later on but I think one of the most heartbreaking things to happen in this show is see the disintegration of that friendship. It is one of the hardest things to watch on screen because, like you're like, oh man, you guys were such good friends, but then I but you know where it's headed. Like you know, you know, like that it cannot be so, but you want it to be so and it's such a good, like the push and pull and just like seeing it, like you know the birth of it in this first season.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there's something to be said about friends turned enemies, especially like as as good of friends as we see Clark and Lex turn out to be in this first season you mentioned you don't know if it started with Smallville, like if this was the first instance of that. It wasn't. This is something that's been happening for. I think it was first shown in the 60s in like a Superboy comic, their early friendship and how that weaved into them becoming arch nemeses. But I do agree. I think that it's a very tragic, almost Shakespearean dilemma that they share. They're fated to be against each other and you could see even from their first couple of interactions and throughout the whole season there's a barrier between the two that they can never break.
Speaker 1:There's a lie that Clark is telling Lex, right yeah there's a lie that clark is telling lex and there's a lie that lex is telling clark. They love each other as close as two people can be with that wall intact. But that wall is intact throughout the entire, the entirety of the show, and they both realize that they cannot break that wall. And for clark it's the I can't tell you know, this rich guy, that I have superpowers or that I'm from another world, because that will open the door to people finding out my secret and potentially ruining my family and all that blah, blah, blah. For Lex it's he cannot tell Clark that he's been researching all of this stuff, he's been researching the effects of the kryptonite and all that, because it proves that he's been researching Clark. And so it's a back and forth between these two characters. They clearly care for each other, but there's certain things that they cannot move past, and it's a really, really good dynamic. I think that they nailed it with this show.
Speaker 2:I think that they nailed it with this show. I like that. You said that it's Shakespearean, because whenever you get to Lex and Lionel, their interactions are so Shakespearean.
Speaker 3:The way they talk to each other.
Speaker 2:It's like something that you would read from Shakespeare. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:My goodness, maybe I should pair this with Macbeth next year.
Speaker 2:Oh boy.
Speaker 3:Forget Revenge of the Sith, I'm going to go full Small. Forget start.
Speaker 1:Forget revenge of the sith, I'm gonna go full smallville revenge of the luther I guess I guess, with you know, bringing smallville into your revenge of the sith mcbeth parallels, you'd have to find an episode that really encapsulates that, because you can't, really, you can't show the whole show, you can't you can't.
Speaker 3:It's a lot, and that's that's the thing with long-form storytelling like this it has to be done I'll probably just show them the euthanasia, episode, because, oh my goodness, that one got quick I don't remember which one, that one that's the one where the mom is feeling she's, she wants to die and she asks her son to kill her and and he goes from reaper, the episode's called mom I don't want to kill you to like within the. You know, because the freak of the week especially has like that first two and a half where what is it? Minute and a half, usually a couple minutes before the, before the intro.
Speaker 3:You know, intro starts, yeah, and then, and it's like he walks in and he's like, hi, mom, you know she's coming a lot of pain, and he's like kill me. She's like no. And then, and it's like he walks in and he's like, hi, mom, you know she's coming a lot of pain, and he's like kill me. She's like no, and then she's like kill me. And he's like fine, like like within it's, it's like it just takes him 25 seconds to decide to kill his mom and then the best part is that she lives.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know I think that's ultimately like how that is resolved.
Speaker 1:He finds out like oh, she didn't need to die anyway, I think we've come to the point of the you know the podcast where we have to discuss the freak of the week and how it happened, because I'm racking my brain, as you know, as someone who creates YouTube videos and like lore breakdowns and is trying to like make sense of this and that and whatever, and lore breakdowns and is trying to make sense of this and that and whatever, I have to ask what is it about these stones that are from another planet, that are conveniently amping up certain aspects or certain powers or certain skill sets of individuals based on their mood and or life experience, because it's completely reliant on what is emotionally happening, happening at the moment, or what is necessary for them to survive.
Speaker 2:So it's almost like a spiritual imparting from the stone to keep these individuals alive a little bit longer, and it's it's the most bizarre thing ever I would say that, like there's a physical element that like for for the most part, I would say from pretty much almost all of them, there's a, there's a physical element that makes sense, like you had the the bug boy, where he had bugs that were in you know, terrarium and soil that had meteor rocks and and obviously meteor rocks are, they're irradiated. You know they emit some sort of radiation that you know causes something. It's very much so apparent that it's it's irradiated, because when clark gets near like he could, he can even like touch it without it, without like you see his veins just kind of like this like poison. It's like radiation poisoning. That's that's happening. So there, I think that they're pretty good. Um, you know the girl that becomes like a fat sucking vampire you know she she.
Speaker 2:Um, I'm just so crazy. She, she, uh, you know she's drinking the. You know the, the healthy foods that were grown in meteor, rock soil, kryptonite soil but there's a physical act right, but even even that like requires a mental desire, and she's desiring to be thin. Right right.
Speaker 1:That amplifies thinness, for some reason. And that's what I'm trying to say, like there's almost a consciousness to what it's almost like a genie granting you a wish, what it's almost like a genie granting you a wish, but it's, it's the. The wish that the genie is granting you is always like well, be careful, what you wish for, and that's that's.
Speaker 2:that's what it seems to be for most of the cases of these people well, I don't know, you have the guy that fell into the lake that you know he didn't, you know he didn't have a desire to be colder. He came out of the lake.
Speaker 1:He desired to be warmer, and he's now able to suck Well I mean he was in the cold water, that was radiated by the meteor rock.
Speaker 2:So obviously that altered his body chemistry. I mean how he was able to, like you know, suck the warmth. I mean, you know, I I don't, I don't know how that was, but I feel like. I feel like the physical element is the primary and any emotional is like secondary, and it just kind of like I guess they use the emotional aspect of it to make sense motive-wise. You have the coach that I mean he was a hothead, he was angry, but then he was also in a sauna with meteor rocks.
Speaker 2:That's a hot environment, so I would say each environment, I would say the. The catalyst was the environment that they were in, but then the emotion just was like the motive or whatever it was that allowed them to do what they did.
Speaker 1:You know hold on, hold on. We're breaking ground here. Actually, anthony, you actually have struck on a chord that I really like, because I was struggling with this mentally for a long time, determining is this just the kryptonite keeping people alive? Is this just giving this kryptonite, giving people what they want? And I, you, you actually make the connection that it's a bit of both, you know it's it's not only what they want, what they desire or what they need, but it's where they are physically in that moment plus the emotions of what they need, and I think that that's that's fascinating, because I don't think there's anything quite like the freak of the week transformations and any other like major sci-fi or anything kryptonite as, as per smallville standards, is kind of like the radioactive chemicals that you would see in like any other comic book, but they give them meaning with these individuals who experience and are amplified by them in different unique scenarios. So that's fascinating.
Speaker 1:That's a really good catch, anthony, and I was actually planning on like going in on how. Like it doesn't make any sense from either a physical or a spiritual or a mental or emotional standpoint, but when you mix multiple of those things together it actually does form a more cohesive bond. But it's also like, how does the kryptonite know to amplify certain things? You know, like what exact is it? Is it like a conscious, like almost nanobyte sort of thing where, like I want to do what this person wants? Is it, you know, a a more like soulful thing? Where, like, it's like a spiritual existence, where the you know it wants to amplify the soul of the person? I don't know, there's so many questions with the kryptonite and I'm I'm definitely looking and trying to find too much rationale in this early 2000s tv show than I can actually physically find.
Speaker 1:But it is fascinating because it's the crux of the show for a good portion of time, and I just have to mention lex is paying people to study kryptonite. He's just like we can't find anything. But, like you know, we know that there's something in this meteor rock doctor, whatever your hawthorne or nathaniel, whatever your name is, you know, study all this in your, your shack and find me some results, and then you know they come up with the Nicodemus flower or whatever. But, like, all he has to do is go to Smallville High for a week and, just you know, see what happens. Because there's a crazy event that happens every single week in Smallville High and it always has to do with Meteor Rocks.
Speaker 1:Anthonyony, actually, the the poster behind your head right now, it's the welcome sign to smallville. We're in zoom right now and I'm looking at the the smallville kansas population of 45,001 and I keep thinking to myself boy, that number has to be a little bit lower now, because there's at least one or two people that die in every single episode I mean it's, there's no way.
Speaker 2:It's like how well then you have people moving in too. How?
Speaker 3:is lex, not seeing it in the papers, right like all the stuff that's happening.
Speaker 1:He doesn't read the inquisitor.
Speaker 3:He's a daily planet kind of reader let me, uh, let me ask you guys a question. So desiree righte, his brief marriage In season two, were you thrown off by the fact that her pheromones were pink? I thought about that. I don't know why, but I'm just like okay. So I normally don't see women emit any kind of visible pheromones. So if it's meteor rock induced, then it would be green.
Speaker 1:It's the I know it's such a small thing, it's such a unless there are other types of meteor rock that she was infused with. That we don't see at this point in the show or at all in smallville, and we know that there is other types of media Rock.
Speaker 3:But she was originally from Smallville. We do know that, like we could figure, it's probably green. I don't know.
Speaker 2:But yeah, before we stray too far into. Season 2, we'll definitely get back to that at some point. We're visiting Season 2. We don't want to go to Season 2.
Speaker 3:I'm sorry, guys, Listen when I start binge watching, you guys know what happens. I can't. No, you're good.
Speaker 1:In Smallville. We do see other forms of meteor rock, other forms of kryptonite outside of green and even some that are outside of red as well. I think we get into black kryptonite and stuff like that later in other seasons. In the comics there is also pink Kryptonite, so in my head that scene is Got you. Love it, okay, thank you. She found her was trapped in some amorous form of Kryptonite. I like it. And that's what happened. I like it, okay. I accept it. Back to season one, sorry.
Speaker 2:No, you're good. I do want to say something that I really do, like that this show does and and you know it happens in the first season is that you know clark, he doesn't have all of his powers. You know we get a little bit of a tease with the flight and in this first season it happens throughout the series too. But you know we get that. But in this first season he discovered or he happens with, I guess, the growth of his body X-ray vision. You know this is where he gets his X-ray vision and it happens to. It coincides with a freak of the week, tina Greer, who can, who can morph into anybody. A freak of the week, tina greer, who can, who can morph into anybody. I, I thought that was like. I liked the introduction of her where, like lex just goes into a bank and robs it, but it's like, not lex so ridiculous and like that would be proof that would you know, cripple any politician today.
Speaker 1:Like there's no getting around that. Like there's there's no. Like what do you mean? Someone else did that that was you, you're on camera, but no, lex gets away with it.
Speaker 2:I like how the bank manager like obviously like knew that that was Lex, but still like wanted his signature. Like he's like oh, hey, mr Luther, but like wanted his signature, like physically you could see that that was Lex Luthor like physically, you could see that that was lex luther.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, really the x-ray. The only part of the x-ray that bothered me was when he does. He eventually does a magic trick for lana and he just like has her pick a card and then doesn't take any other steps other than just x-raying. Right, and I didn't know that x-rays could work this way. But he can x-ray through the card but see what's printed on the other side. I don't know how. It's very, it's very specific.
Speaker 1:That's more like an.
Speaker 3:MRI. I feel like than it is an x-ray, but sorry.
Speaker 2:I like that they show that it's different levels of like x-ray, where he could actually like see through, yeah, solid objects, but then he can actually see as if it's like an x-ray like through to the bones. He can like x-ray to like the muscle tissue and stuff. It's it's so insane, like the nerves. I.
Speaker 1:I really love that they like kind of explored his you know his abilities like to like a smaller, like detail yeah, there's that scene where he looks at pete and he sees through him, but he only sees like the cardiovascular system, the nerves and like the muscles. He doesn't see any of the bones, and I think that that's such a fascinating like.
Speaker 1:Yeah yeah, I agree level and there's layers to his x-ray vision. It's not strictly, you know, like just an x-ray. You know they call it x-ray vision. It's not strictly, you know, like just an X-ray. You know they call it X-ray because that's what we have in our nomenclature.
Speaker 2:But yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean essentially that's what it is Like. I mean he's able to like see through things and I really love that. Whenever he comes across a new power and you see it here, his parents, jonathan kent, they're like you know, let's figure this out. Like you know, let's work on it, and like he has so much like support on on, like how to figure out and use these abilities, he has such a really good support system let's talk about the kents.
Speaker 1:They're the best, it's probably the best depiction of the kents bar none you know, like if we're, if we're being honest about like all of the superhero media or superman media that we've ever had, I think the kents in this are just bar none. Perfect in terms of just like being there for clark, being the people that they need to be in the show, just pleasant to look at, pleasant seeming people. And I'm so happy re-watching the show, being a little older too while re-watching it, because I get to appreciate their performances a little bit more. I think, as a kid watching this show, you just see them as older people who want the best for the character. But as an adult, looking at these characters, you see that they're doing everything in their power to keep their kids safe, especially While also.
Speaker 3:Yeah, go ahead. Especially Martha, right, she's trying to help Clark because she did the same thing to Clark when she was a kid. Because the actress who plays Clark's mom actually played Lana Lang lang in the uh superman. I was like, I think, in superman yeah, she played and I'm like, just that to me was like I just love the casting and also I gotta give a shout out to dukes of hazard over there.
Speaker 3:Paw kent, he uh, just uh yes, yeah I, I like as an older human and I do like it's so great to cast somebody who was in the Superman movie Like what. I wonder how much money they had to be. Like listen, lady, we really need you to be in this, like maybe a lot, maybe not, maybe not all that much.
Speaker 1:I mean, she wasn't an actress, but was she still acting at that point? I don't know Like which? Was she really busy? I don't know.
Speaker 3:They were great.
Speaker 1:I don't know if her career ever really picked up after that. So I don't know. Yeah, I don't know if they really had to pull her leg or whatever. Pull her arm, I do. It's funny, man, like it's weird seeing jonathan and martha kent and just appreciating them in new lights. You know, like it's. It's also weird being an adult and being like wait a minute, clark's mom is kind of pretty. You know, like when I was a kid I was just like she's just an old lady.
Speaker 3:It's funny age is weird, but I thought they were great. I mean in and I that you know the season ends pretty well. It's very bingeable also.
Speaker 3:Yeah it really I found myself I think we talked about taping, you know watching it last week and I want to say, like I, we got off and I started, you know, right away and I think by the end of the next day I had been through like seven or eight episodes, like it was really not healthy. But it's summer and it's great, but it's really bingeable. It also makes some of the cliffhangers a little bit more palatable and I do like that they stop doing like the Lex breaking into the bank thing, you know, like there are some things that happen that you're like this can't be right. They can't do this every episode. Sometimes they raise the stakes like so high right, like the fact that it's 10 seasons, like that hurricane man did I mean not hurricane, I'm sorry tornado right, like that did some crazy right, like damage. And it's also a product of the times because like everyone's phone would be beeping right, like I would just have that emergency yeah, we're kind of getting towards the end.
Speaker 2:One person that that we we've kind of talked about but like not talked too much about is pete. You know, like we, we that's that's uh clark's like you know, one of his like closest friends. That's like's Clark's, like you know, one of his closest friends. That's like his, it's his best friend, somebody that he can really like confide in, who also, like he doesn't tell about his powers until like later on in a different season.
Speaker 1:But, yeah, he's also somebody that he's withheld you know this huge secret from, especially throughout this like first season I really like pete just as a character and I I do see why the actor left the show later on. I don't think he makes it past season two or three or whatever, but I wish he had more to do and I think that they make some strides at like fixing that in season two. But I do appreciate that. This is a childhood friend of clark's but there's a weird thing that happens where he becomes very, perhaps unhealthily, close to lex luther in this first season. As a freshman in high school he's good friends with a 24-year-old adult. It's kind of weird. It's not the weirdest thing that's ever happened, but it's up there in the weird scale of Smallville, probably just under Freak of the Week, weird, but anyway.
Speaker 1:There's a point in the season where Clark actually says that Lex is his best friend and previously he always said that Pete was his best friend and my wife actually was like what about Pete? And it's true, pete just gets kind of pushed aside for a good portion of this show and there's a couple episodes where Pete gets to shine a little bit, but it's always Pete being the person that really either gets himself into trouble or needs to be saved. That's kind of a shame to me because I think Lana gets a lot more character development, chloe gets a lot more character development, even Whitney gets a lot more character development than Pete does, so I think that that's not fair.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean I guess we didn't talk about him a lot because of that right. Everybody else seems to have a lot more to their character, and then I mean he does. There is a point where you almost feel like you know the reason that they're not hanging out as much, or the reason that he is calling Lex's best friend is that Pete's a little sick of his garbage.
Speaker 3:You know, know, like there is like one scene there I can't. They're in the hallway or something. He's just like yeah, well, you know you can't. That's just clark. You can't rely on him. Not those words. But something.
Speaker 1:He says something along those lines yeah, and it's, it's true, because clark, while being a good person, while being there for his friends when they absolutely need him, he isn't really there when they want him to be and he's not there when, when he wants to be, you know.
Speaker 1:And so in that respect he's not a good friend visually, like he from an outsider's point of view looking into their friendship this guy's not a good friend. He's never there for you, except when he actually is there for you and you just don't see it, you, you know, it's one of those weird Clarkisms where I think another thing we got to talk about is the music choice, because so much of the choices in like songs that they gave the show helped flesh out the emotional state of the characters or like the loneliness that Clark was feeling. I think the first episodes starts with a song by Lifehouse and they reintroduce that song at the end of the season and it's about basically going the distance but being alone at the same time. And it's a really poignant thing for Clark in this time period where he can't get what he wants because he's an awkward teenager and all that.
Speaker 2:But yeah, it's interesting yeah, man, and the music. Like when you listen to the music you're like, ah yes, the 2000s yeah, oh man, I love it, I love it.
Speaker 1:I do. My dad always called it cw music, because it was the music that you'd only hear on like cw and like. But anyway, it's, it's, it's. It works for something like this what are you talking about, man?
Speaker 3:I definitely listened to papa roach outside of smallville okay, okay, all right, all right, all right it wasn't my last resort man, all right, I listened to it first look man, I definitely heard dido a lot at publics okay oh, what else do they have? Oh God, sum 41. I heard on one episode. I was like yes, they had Sum 41.
Speaker 2:At one point there was All-American Rejects. They had some solid tunes in that show Massive attack.
Speaker 1:I heard in the background of a scene yeah, no, they got some stuff in there, guys. Final thoughts season one Love it, hate it. Let's start with Rich. I Thoughts season one Love it, hate it, let's start with Rich, I'm going to watch the entire damn series.
Speaker 3:I tend to dislike characters. I think this is a good thing, right, like I do the same thing with Greek Gatsby kind of I'd have to pretend every year that I don't hate the characters and then, once I start analyzing their motives and stuff, I don't like them. That aside, the villain of Lana Lang, aside the Thanos of this universe, I would heartily recommend it. If you like comic book stuff, this is a great show. If you have a significant other who's not really into comic book stuff because of the kind of teenage angst drama, this reels in two audiences. I think this is a perfect couple show, sure.
Speaker 1:Okay, and I can attest to that because my wife has, like I mentioned earlier in the show. She has not watched the show previously, but you know she's into those early 2000s just teen drama shows gilmore girls, the oc stuff like that. So this hits that niche where you have the teenage drama, you have the that early 2000s writing style that you don't really get, plus the episode count and the expected amount of episodes per seasons that you would normally get in early 2000s shows and like cable tv shows that you don't really get these days, plus the fact that it's a superhero drama, like you said, rich, it brings in two worlds and my wife loves it, dude. She's like she wants me to finish this so that I can go back and watch another episode downstairs. She wants me actually to tell you both that she was debating coming onto the podcast just to complain about one of the freaks of the week.
Speaker 2:Specifically Dude. We've been waiting, waiting.
Speaker 1:We've asked her a million times. Look, it's the summertime, where is she? I, I know, I know, I know. So she wanted to complain like the worst villain of all was the guy who, like, fell into the cold leg, the murderer, and the murderer who you know per her.
Speaker 1:She says that why did he just like come back to life and started depriving the town of all its baddies? I mean, and and she's like all he did was like go back to school and start targeting the hottest people and she was depriving a whole school of their ecosystem. Oh wait, wait, wait.
Speaker 3:The frozen guy. Right, you mean the frozen guy? Yes, oh yes, sorry, there was two people who fell.
Speaker 2:I'm like yes.
Speaker 1:No, yeah, no the cold.
Speaker 3:It was the episode Cold. Yes, that was rather ridiculous. I, I just I do love the idea that, like if he had been like somebody who wasn't as cool and it wasn't single, like he wouldn't have been able to get anybody right, but he had his little black book of numbers so he was good, you know. And I love how he forgot about chloe's. But then looks at his hand and despite the fact that this man has gone some sort of chemical change, like on a genetic, on a cellular level, right, his body absorbs heat in a completely different fashion than it ever did before, but the number is still on his hands.
Speaker 1:I was actually like the moment he fell into the lake after she put the numbers on his hand, I was like, oh man, he probably lost those numbers because you know water. But nope, no, he's good. He's good, anthony, let's, let's bring it over to you. What are your thoughts on the first season?
Speaker 2:man, you know the first season. It is a nostalgic, you know ride man, I remember binge watching that first season with you at my grandma's house, man, and remember I had gotten season, my dad had gotten it for me, the box I actually had I have up to season five, I think, like I own on DVD. And yeah, man, I dude, I remember those days and so like watching that kind of brought me back. It's really like such a nostalgic trip, just watching that show. You know the time time, you know we were kids at the time and you know it was just like one of those things that we could always talk about every week whenever a new episode came out yeah, I'm excited to dive even further into this show.
Speaker 1:Like I said, I'm a couple episodes into season two at this point and even just those couple episodes, you can just tell there's a quality increase in the writers room and there's something about like they've figured out their formula and they're just like, okay, this is what we're gonna do, and I'm excited to get back into that because this show gets so good. It really and it already was good in the first season it's just kind of you have to suspend a lot of disbelief because of the amount of people, specifically teenagers, angsty teenagers, who are transformed by some media rock hey guys, hey guys.
Speaker 3:So he's an old guy, so he used to kill people when he was younger, when he was, you know, it was back in the 50s. So how does it? How do people in the 50s kill people? It's got to be a garrot, right, it's got to be a garrot like.
Speaker 1:I love that he just carries around a garrot like like an old-timey mafia villain. No, no, no, no, those are piano strings. Come on now.
Speaker 2:I would say actually I think that transformation was definitely a desire. That one was one, that was one of the ones that was a desire. And then the catalyst I guess that made it happen was him being electrocuted in water that had meteor rocks. But the physicality of that doesn't make sense as far as him getting younger. The other ones you can explain, because dude fell into a cold lake, dude was in a hot sauna. The other one was attacked by bugs that were irradiated by you know like that stuff made sense, but I don't know. I guess electricity, water and meteor rocks equal younger self.
Speaker 1:I one of these days, guys one of these days I am going to go through this show and I'm going to compile a list of all of the cases of people getting some sort of kryptonite poisoning or boons that they receive power-wise, and I'm going to figure out, I'm going to boil down exactly what it is that's happening to these individuals, because there's got to be something. It's like some magic system that I haven't cracked yet. Anthony, you came pretty close. We're going to figure it out. Guys, thank you so much for listening to us here for our 129th episode of Project Geekology.
Speaker 1:129 episodes is a far cry from the over 200 episodes of Smallville, but we were able to cover, at least in a roundabout way, the first 21 of those. So thank you so much for listening to us here for our latest episode. Please be sure to check back soon for our next episode. If you want to check out any of our socials, be sure to click down into the show notes and you know, go, go, go, find out what we're what we're covering next. Guys, thanks, have a good one somebody save me.
