Season two of Smallville continues the trend of the wild, weird,
and abnormal in the popular television show about a teen-age superhero.
Bringing in new characters and giving a facelift to old favorites, it's
even more gripping this time around with cameo appearances by
Christopher Reeve, Zachery Ty Bryan, Jonathan Taylor Thomas, and a whole
host of new powers for our hero to employ. It clears up a few mysteries
about the Kent family but opens up a whole other can of worms in the
lives of our heroes.
When a massive tornado hits the town of Smallville on the eve of the
prom, farm boy Clark Kent (Tom Welling) must come to the rescue of his
friends. Clark is an extra-terrestrial with amazing gifts: X-ray vision,
abnormal strength, and speed. His only weakness is an allergy to
kryptonite, a green-tinted meteor rock that accompanied his spaceship to
earth twelve years earlier, rendering Smallville curiously prone to the
paranormal. The current love of his life Lana Lang (Kristen Kreuk) is
trapped inside a truck swept up in the funnel. He's left Chloe (Allison
Mack) alone at the prom, and his father has just chased a nosy reporter
intending to blow the whistle on the Kent Family Secret out into the
ranging storm. His best friend Lex Luther (Michael Rosenbaum) has just
had a violent argument with his father when the ceiling of the mansion
collapses, burying both under a mountain of debris. Making the difficult
choice to pull the tyrant from the rubble, Lex must face the emotional
consequences when the accident costs Lionel (John Glover) his sight and
Lex immediately becomes cochairman of Luther Corp.
Life in the small town is severely impacted. It hasn't been this bad since the
meteor shower that left three year old Clark in a local cornfield, robbed Lex of
his hair and asthma, and peppered the surrounding ground with space rocks that
bring out the worst in local inhabitants. The Kents are facing financial
difficulties and refuse to accept the assistance of Lex, who wants nothing more
than to be welcomed into their lives but must deal with the greedy legacy his
father has left behind. Possessed with a good heart but bad temper, Lex
discovers there are good and bad women in his life, his schemes to outsmart his
father often go amiss, and that sometimes you just have to pay parking tickets.
Lana must deal with her aunt's decision to date again, unearths a secret from
her deceased mother's past, and encounters a ghost, while Chloe dates a few
psychopaths, continues to update her Wall of Weird, signs an unspoken contract
with Luther Corp., and Pete unearths Clark's secret. Meanwhile Jonathan and
Martha Kent (John Schneider, Annette O'Toole) endure marriage problems when she
undertakes a job with Lionel Luther, and local cave paintings reveal Clark's
destiny.
Strength in this succession of episodes overrides earlier weakness.
Where the first season failed was its often predictable format, in which
we're given a "monster of the week" for Clark to defeat. His life has
grown more complicated and there's less of the "dash off and save the
girl" involved this time than emotional hurtles. The deaths of people
the characters know and love, the fear of losing someone in combat,
Lex's rocky relationship with his dad, even a few instances when Clark
becomes his own worst enemy. There is an element of "soap opera"
involved but for the most part the series is built on a solid foundation
of good writing and imagination. You get the feeling it's a super hero
story, which it is, but that knowledge never seems to bother you. You
cannot wait to pop in the next disk and find out what happens next. I
really loved this season. There's only a couple of shaky installments,
and we have the pleasure of observing characters fight against their
inner natures, a human instinct that desires to overcome weakness and
instead endangers their lives.
Violence and thematic elements play a role
throughout, with Clark going up against tough bad
guys and often winding up thrown through windows,
storm cellar doors, and brick walls. Everyone is put
in peril at some point, either from psychotic
gunmen, shape-shifting individuals, or rabid
animals. A wolf attacks and mauls people in one
episode; bystanders are shot and killed in another.
A shape-shifter takes a baseball bat to a military
officer and beats him to death (implied). Characters
are inserted with hypodermic needles and threatened
with torture. Lex interferes in police business when
his girlfriend is beaten to a pulp and takes after
her assailant with a revolver, intending to frame it
for self-defense. Mild language pops up, along with
covert sensuality. A lot of the clothes female
characters wear are low-cut, and there are mild
implications of immorality (Lana's aunt moves with
her boyfriend to Metropolis; whether or not they
live together is unknown). When Clark undergoes a
bad streak under the influence of red kryptonite, he
mentions checking out girls' bodies with his X-ray
vision.
After an animal is wounded, it transforms into a
nude woman (details are obscured and Clark covers
her up with a coat; Skinwalkers). His
clothing is completely burned off, leaving us with a
partial nude shot from behind (flames obscure his
backside;
Witness). A girl wears see-through tops over
colored bras. In Heat, Clark learns during a
sex-ed class with a scantily clad new teacher that
thinking about sex leads him to incinerate things.
This woman has a sensuous power over men. She can
coerce her husband into anything she wants with a
smoldering kiss. She tries to use the same tactics
on Clark in the loft (her seduction fails), and
manages to convince his father that he should commit
murder. (It's implied he sees her topless after she
climbs out of the pool.) Under the influence of an
alien drug and red kryptonite, Chloe and Clark make
out on the couch and go so far as to remove his
shirt (Rush). Lex strikes up a relationship
with a woman later and invites her to move in with
him, which she does. They eventually are married. In
Visage, a shape-shifter returns from the first
season and continues her fascination with Lana. She
takes a man's form and attempts to persuade Lana
into a romantic relationship; it's uncertain whether
it's just obsession or has mild lesbian overtones.
The morals are not as solid as they could be, but
the show is mostly family-appropriate and is a lot
of fun to peruse on a gloomy weekend. There are some
fine plot twists, numerous cliffhangers, and
episodes where you'll be left gasping for breath.
Best of all, Clark finally gets Lana into his life,
but very well may lose her again. It's good stuff
all across the board.
