watervole | Smallville

I'm currently rewatching the first season of Smallville.

One of the reasons I like Smallville, is the characters of Jonathan and Martha Kent.

It's extremely rare on TV to see a happily married middle-aged couple. Not only are they happily married, they're not just wallpaper, there are important characters. We see their marriage portrayed as strong, caring, loving, and that relationship being part of the bedrock that makes Clark what he is.

The writers never make the mistake (or at least not in any episode I've seen) of trying to make drama by weakening that relationship. The Kents don't have affairs, they don't have big blowup arguments, they don't do any of the things that married couples in TV dramas so frequently suffer from.

They don't even have the film star good looks of most of the cast. They are normal people, and normality in Smallville is a quality greatly to be desired, when half the population appear to have powers derived from kryptonite.

It's that very normality, the happy stable relationship between two ordinary people that allows Clark to grow up with the morals and sense of public duty that will eventually characterise Superman.

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The characters of Jonathan and Martha Kent in Smallville like those in Lois and Clark: the New Adventures of Superman (which I actually prefer, at least for those two characters, because of their wonderful sense of humour) are based on the comic revamp of the characters by John Byrne. Before then, Jonathan and Martha were only seen in Superboy as they had died by the time Clark took up the cape - a convention dating back to the invention of the character. DC had already wiped out the (mainly 50s and 60s) Superboy's existence - with Clark only coming into his powers in his late teens, but the Kents were still very dead until Byrne brought them back and resolved the romance between Lois and Clark by having them marry. (Though DC has now reversed this by comic book logic.)

I like Jonathan and Martha in 'Lois and Clark' as well.

I want to rewatch that too.

I hadn't known they were dead in the comics, but it doesn't surprise me.

The very very first Superman strip had this line "The passing of his foster parents greatly grieved Clark Kent" of a picture of gravestones.

I did enjoy watching that series, at least in the early series.

However Jonathan Kent will always be Bo Duke to me. Yeeehaw!

I haven't seen Smallville myself, but my favourite version of the Superman universe is "Lois & Clark". One of the things I like about it is that it focuses on Clark Kent as Clark Kent; it isn't that Clark Kent is the secret identity of Superman, but that Superman is the secret identity of Clark Kent. As a consequence, this also enables one to see more of Jonathan and Martha Kent than one normally would in a Superman story where Clark is grown up and no longer living at home, because this version shows that Clark still has a close loving relationship with his foster-parents, and they get screen-time, rather than being forgotten. I love this version of Jonathan and Martha; they are awesome characters in their own right. Jonathan is what one would expect, a strong, steady, traditional farmer. Martha, however, is unusual (and a hoot) in that she's Jonathan's opposite: non-traditional, always learning new things, and an environmentalist. But it's also very clear that they love each other, and that it's been a strong and stable relationship for many many years. I love 'em.

I actually think Martha Kent is stunning in an age-appropriate way, without being fake-looking.

Someone you might (or might not) know from alt.fa.pratchett once started a thread on Facebook about Hillary Clinton's looks being eroded by the use and abuse of political power. He absolutely would NOT let it drop because he hates the Clintons. I argued all day because I'm equally stubborn and hate it just as much when women's looks are brought in to political arguments as much as he hates the Clintons. But my point there is HC looks very good for a woman of 65.

Annette O'Toole is now 61, and would have been in her mid-fifties for much of Smallville's run.

I agree Annette O'Toole looked great. What I'm trying to say is that she looked alive and happy, rather than made up to look glamorous. (whereas Lana Lang looks great, but also looks 'film star')

Certainly, I meant to contribute rather than nitpick.

Personally, I'd rather people would discuss Ms Clinton's politics instead of concentrating on her looks, but that said, she does indeed look great for 65. Her husband's successor, on the other hand, was a morally void, gormless buffoon and never appeared anything but.

The twist being that Ms O'Toole was a film star, and one of her roles was Lana Lang.

LOL

I wonder if that was one of the reasons why they cast her?

I vaguely recall an interview where she said the casting team weren't aware of her previous link to the character. That said, it's become a kind of tradition in the various Superman movies and tv series:

Noel Neill (Lois in the 1940s show) played Lois' mother Ella in the 1978 movie (uncredited, but she and Lois are the mom and child on the train the young Clark runs past), and had a cameo in the 2006 reboot.

Phyllis Coates (Lois in the 1951 movie) turned up as Lois' mom Ellen in a 1994 episode of The New Adventures of Superman. 'Her' Superman, Kirk Alyn, played a general in the 1978 movie.

Dean Cain, the 1990s Kal-El, played a villain in Smallville, whilst 'his' Lois, Teri Hatcher, played Ella Lane.

As well as Ms O'Toole, Smallville also featured Terence Stamp (Zod) as the voice of Jor-El, Chrstopher Reeve (Kal-El) as a mysterious scientist and Margot Kidder (Lois) as his assistant.

Pretty sure that's all of them...

Edited 2013-06-22 19:44 (UTC)

Actually, further checks remind me Cynthia Ettinger was originally cast as Martha, but her scenes were reshot before the pilot aired.

Smallville was very good in the early days but I think it became a bit stale in the later series. I ended up not watching it right to the end, which is unusual given how much I was into it in the first couple of seasons.

It metamorphosed into a soap opera with occasional superheroics.

I think I've only ever seen the early stuff. I'm borrowing a friends DVDs and working from the start.

At this point, Lex is nicely ambiguous. I'm not sure how long they can keep that up for. (don't tell me)

Wouldn't dream of it. Like Buffy, Smallville had its ups 'n' downs, but I stuck with it till the end. Unlike, say, Lost and Heroes.

I gave up on 'Lost' after about ten episodes when I realised they had no actual idea where they were going and were just messing the viewers about with weird for the sake of weird.

I made it all the way through Smallville. I loved the Kents.

I did get wound up at how often Lex would be surprised by someone just turning up in his office, though. Is there no security in the Luther mansion?

Smallville

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