Who could have guessed that the best new offering of the season would have come in the form of a pubescent Kryptonian? Smallville follows the coming of ages travails of an adolescent Clark Kent. Interesting idea, not only does Clark have to deal with the usual awkwardness of the teen years, but he also has to come to terms with the fact that he is from another planet. Talk about stress. Not only does he have to worry about impressing Lana Lang , the wholesome girl next door… or rather across the street, but he also must find a way to right the wrongs that a certain meteor shower brought with it some 13 years earlier. Wait, let me clarify. See while young Clark was on his way to Earth, he was part of an intergalactic meteor shower that touched down in Smallville. It seems that this meteor shower has caused a great deal of mutations to occur in the once quite hamlet of Kansas. Now that Clark knows he is from another planet, he feels responsible for the mutations and tragedies the meteor shower brought. Thus, the premise for Smallville is revealed.

  I must admit that when I heard WB was carrying this, I thought, “Oh great, another teen soap with super-powers.” I went into watching this with every intention of making fun of it, but I actually liked it. Not only has the Superman mythos been reinvented, it is pretty entertaining. Smallville is also supported by an excellent cast. Tom Welling is perfectly cast as the future superhero; he has both genuine care and concern mixed with the right amount of awkwardness to make the audience buy the fact that Lana would rather date the school jerk instead of him. John Schneider (yes, Bo Duke) and Annette O’Toole (who, ironically, played Lana Lang in Superman III) are a refreshing change of casting in the roles or Jonathan and Martha Kent. Up until this series, the Kents always resembled something out of the “American Gothic” painitng. Clark’s pals Lana and Lex (you got it Lex Luthor), are well cast as Kristin Kreuk and Michael Rosenbaum.

  Although, I look forward to more adventures in Smallville, I cannot help but think that this show has been created without an audience. I am not sure that the WB’s target audience will understand all of the Superman references, and I do not know that Fanboys will tune in to a teen soap weekly. I also hope that this show does not fall into the same traps as its predecessor, Lois and Clark, and try to appease the comic audience at the expense of quality television. Comic connoisseurs need to realize that the visual and illustrated worlds are two different mediums and must be treated as thus, thereby not always following the scripture of the comic.