Smallville

A very Christopher Reeve-like moment.

I finished watching the season finale of Smallville a few days ago. Looking back, I was pretty amazed that I actually managed to sit through all ten seasons of it (okay, I actually gave up by season 6, and it took me three more years to pick it up again). Many series have their own ups and downs, and Smallville undoubtedly had many more downs than ups, with a generous share of terrible moments. It was never short of lame conversations, lousy acting, and stupid plots, so it was somewhat of a miracle too that it survived ten seasons, while series like Heroes didn't make it past four. (Hell, Flashforward didn't even make it past Season 1.) Perhaps it's because I am a geek for superheroes that I managed to stick through it?

For those who have no idea what Smallville is about, it's basically about how Clark Kent grew up, learnt to control his superpowers, and finally became Superman (Smallville is where he grew up). While he learnt some of his powers quite early in this series - super strength and speed, impenetrable skin, x-ray vision, eye beams, super breath - it took a full ten seasons before he learnt how to fly, something which many people were looking forward to most of all. And because of some contractual issues, he only donned on his trademark red and blue tights on the series finale - and there was no complete view of him in the suit either (damn). Still, considering the producers' restrictions, this was handled pretty well. The finale was also full of references to the original Superman movies acted by Christopher Reeve, which most fans would be delighted with. Finally, it was a nice touch to use the original Superman theme song near the ending.

So it was with much relief that I finished the finale feeling satisfied. After investing so much time in it, I would be really pissed if the finale sucked like most of the series.