Smallville premiered on The WB on 16 October 2001 with a clever answer to one of television’s biggest superhero problems: how do you show Superman every week without a film-sized effects budget? The solution was simple. Keep Clark Kent grounded and postpone the flying.
The power of holding Superman back
Created by Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, the series followed a “no tights, no flights” rule. Instead of immediately presenting a fully formed superhero, it explored Clark Kent as a teenager played by Tom Welling. He had extraordinary abilities, but he also faced homework, family expectations, romantic confusion and a seemingly endless stream of classmates affected by kryptonite.
That approach made an almost invulnerable character feel unusually human. Clark could outrun a train, yet his most important challenges involved trust, responsibility and deciding how to use his gifts.
The show still delivered impressive spectacle for network television in 2001. Its memorable opening credits, set to Remy Zero’s “Save Me”, became part of its identity, while the weekly stories allowed the series to experiment with the boundaries of its premise.
Twenty-five years later, all 10 seasons are streaming on Hulu. The long run was uneven, but the central idea remains effective: Clark was becoming a hero well before he wore the Superman costume.
Clark Kent and Lex Luthor’s defining friendship
The series knew viewers already understood that Clark Kent and Lex Luthor would eventually become enemies. Its boldest dramatic choice was to make them friends first.
In the pilot, Lex, played by Michael Rosenbaum, crashes his Porsche into Clark before going over a bridge. Clark rescues him, creating a bond that becomes the show’s emotional centre. Their eventual breakdown is powerful precisely because the friendship feels sincere, and because the audience can still hope that the expected ending might somehow be avoided.
Rosenbaum’s Lex is not a one-note villain. He is charismatic, damaged and often sympathetic, while struggling to escape the influence of his father, Lionel, played by John Glover. Clark’s home life offers a sharp contrast. Jonathan and Martha Kent, played by John Schneider and Annette O’Toole, teach him that character matters more than power.
Season 3’s “Memoria” examines Lex’s traumatic childhood and shows why his future is not entirely predetermined. Clark also contributes to the friendship’s collapse. His need to protect his secret leads to repeated lies, and Lex’s growing suspicions gradually turn affection into mistrust. The tragedy develops through understandable feelings and increasingly poor choices rather than a sudden change of personality.
Even the show’s recurring meteor-infected villains served a larger purpose. The restriction on costumes and flight gave the writers room to establish who Clark was and why he would eventually be worthy of the symbol.
Superman history meets a new generation
Rewatching Smallville also reveals how many future performers passed through its cast. Amy Adams appeared in Season 1’s “Craving”, while Lizzy Caplan and Paul Wesley also had early roles. Jensen Ackles spent a season on the series before starring in Supernatural, and Alan Ritchson played Aquaman years before leading Reacher.
Justin Hartley made an especially strong impression as Oliver Queen, or Green Arrow. The character became increasingly important in the later seasons, giving Hartley a substantial superhero role before his work on This Is Us and Tracker.
The series also treated Superman’s screen history with real affection. Christopher Reeve appeared as Dr Virgil Swann in Season 2’s “Rosetta”, helping Clark investigate his Kryptonian origins. Having the actor associated with the cinematic Superman guide television’s young Clark was both meaningful and dramatically useful.
Margot Kidder, Reeve’s Lois Lane, later appeared as well. Terence Stamp, who played General Zod in Superman II, voiced Jor-El. Helen Slater, the film’s Supergirl, played Lara, Clark’s Kryptonian mother, while Dean Cain and Teri Hatcher, the leads of Lois & Clark, each guest-starred. O’Toole also had a connection to the character, having played Lana Lang in Superman III.
These appearances did more than reward dedicated fans. They connected a modern interpretation of Clark Kent with the Superman stories that had shaped earlier generations.
The blueprint for the modern superhero television boom
Smallville was ambitious, but its 10 seasons were not consistently strong. The parade of meteor-powered antagonists eventually became repetitive, while Clark and Lana’s prolonged romantic complications often lacked the chemistry needed to sustain them. Erica Durance’s arrival as Lois Lane brought welcome energy and made the earlier relationship drama feel even more drawn out.
The series also delayed Clark’s final transformation for so long that the later years could feel like deliberate postponement. A shorter run might have produced a tighter journey, particularly once viewers were ready to see him embrace his destiny.
Even when the storytelling faltered, the show’s world continued to expand. Green Arrow, Aquaman and other DC heroes joined Clark’s story, proving that audiences would follow a developing superhero mythology over many years, even without the familiar costume.
When Smallville ended in 2011, it had established a durable model for long-form superhero television. Arrow premiered the following year and eventually grew into a shared universe. It was not a direct continuation, although Tom Welling later returned as Clark Kent in the “Crisis on Infinite Earths” episode of Arrow and Batwoman. Still, the later superhero television boom is difficult to imagine without the groundwork laid by Clark, Lex and their friends.
The show’s most lasting insight was that Superman’s greatest strength is not flight or invulnerability. It is the humanity he develops through family, friendship and difficult choices.
That remains a compelling reason to revisit the series in Australia or anywhere else. Just expect Remy Zero’s chorus to stay in your head long after the episode ends.
Smallville is streaming on Hulu and Disney Plus.
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