Smallville

[watervole]

 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.

Comments

[kerravonsen]

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.