22 episodes on 6 DVDs. Color/17 hrs/NR/widescreen.

Condition: New

Format: DVD

Anamorphic; Box set; Closed-captioned; Color; Dubbed; DVD; Subtitled; Widescreen; NTSC

Average Customer Review: ( 357 customer reviews )
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The plots in every episode keep getting better and better. The storyline is amazing and every actor is superb in their roles. The special effects are great, too. I really hope they bring "Smallville" to complete season DVDs because it really is one of the best shows out there right now. Even beats out "Alias", though "Alias" is a good show, too.

I highly recommend "Smallville".

Score:
100/100
A+

101 of 116 found the following review helpful:

Great Series! (but a shame about the theme song)Jul 29, 2002
By Matt Martinez
NOTE: This review was actually written about a Canadian DVD release of the first two episodes of the series which were edited into a feature-length movie.

I was mighty skeptical when I first heard about Smallville. Mainly, I was disappointed that Warner Bros. Television decided to go with this instead of the proposed Bruce Wayne series about his world travels before returning to Gotham to become Batman. Aside from that, it looked like (as one of my friends dubbed it) "Dawson's Krypton." To further complicate things, I discovered that Lex Luthor was to be one of the main characters. Basically, it seemed like it would never work. Boy, was I wrong.

I began watching the series in the summer, right after the season finale, when WB started rerunning episodes. I was immediately hooked. (I preordered the Canadian import DVD of the first two episodes right after it was announced.) What struck me immediately about the series was its attention to character development. While the series is mainly episodic, there are usually several subplots that continue from week to week that advances the characters' relationships to one another. The ongoing story of Clark and Lana is especially poignant and heartbreaking due to the fact those who are familiar with Superman lore understand that, even if the two of them get together, their romance won't last. (Thankfully, Tom Welling and Kristen Kreuk have wonderful chemistry and are fully capable actors.)

The main plots are the show's weakest points. I would imagine it's difficult to come up with a way for Clark Kent to be a superhero from week to week, thus they gave themselves an equivalent to Buffy's hellmouth, the kryptonite rocks. The villains can get fairly ridiculous, such as the bugboy in the second episode (included on the DVD). Fortunately, the writers understand how to turn this into a strength. Rather than focusing entirely on the villain, we get to see how the villain or the situation he/she/it causes affects the characters. (A good example comes later in the series when Clark's powers transfer to another boy and he gets to live a normal life for a short period of time.)

As to my iffiness about the inclusion of Luthor, once again, my initial reaction was completely off-base. The makers of the show have managed to make Lex Luthor the most interesting character in the series, thanks in no small part to the outstanding performance of Michael Rosenbaum. I've never seen the character given such depth in a non-comics medium and it is absolutely a breath of fresh air. Watching his transition from hero to anti-hero [to villain?] will be fascinating (providing it happens in the course of the series).

Of course this review wouldn't be complete without mentioning the terrific work of John Schneider and Annette O'Toole as Clark's adoptive parents. It is important to understand why Clark decides to use his powers to help those in need. The Kents are honest, hard-working people who have instilled Clark with a strong sense of right and wrong, and Schneider and O'Toole pull it off brilliantly.

As the title of my review suggests, I only have one major misgiving about the show, and that's the use of Remy Zero's "Save Me" as the theme song. I normally like watching the opening credits of shows, but since I don't care for the song, I usually fast forward through this one. It's a shame, since Mark Snow composed a great theme for it. (It can be found on the DVD's menu screen and during the end credits.)

I hope WBHV decides to start releasing entire seasons on DVD here in the U.S. soon. I'm certain this is a series that will get better over time. (The addition of Jeph Loeb to the writing staff points to this. To those unfamiliar with the name, check out his and Tim Sale's Superman For All Seasons.)

70 of 81 found the following review helpful:

Smallville is AWESOME. Can't wait for DVDMar 07, 2003
By A. Kwok
I normally watch television in spurts. I sit down when I have time, turn it on, and watch whatever is on. I have Never found a show that got me so addicted that I would actually HAVE to plan my week AROUND watching the new episodes. That is until Smallville!

After having watched almost the entire Season 1 (but having missed a few episodes), I am dieing for the DVD release of Smallville. The series is amazing, showing the early life of Clark Kent and his adolescent adventures as he makes his way to becoming superman. I especially love the romance (or lack of romance :) between him and Lana Lang (Kristin Kreuk). I think she is the most beautiful girl I have ever seen.

If you haven't watched smallville, you definately need to! I can sit here babbling on about how great it is for hours, but if you REALLY want to fully enjoy smallville, wait for this DVD release so you can start from the beginning! Everything makes a whole lot more sense that way.

The funny thing is I didn't know that it was filmed in my home city Vancouver until after getting addicted to it. That just made me want to watch it even more!

28 of 31 found the following review helpful:

"Superboy" comics were never half as good as "Smallville"Oct 28, 2003
By Lawrance M. Bernabo
Maybe it is that Superman is truly indestructible or that the Man of Steel, who was picked this year as one of the Top 10 American pop culture icons, is so respected that not even Hollywood would dare tug on his cape, because "Smallville" is another successful small screen version of the strange visitor from another planet. Of course, the great irony is that this time around there is no cape to tug on because this television series is about Clark Kent, years before he put on the suit with the big red "S," when he was still in high school, his powers were just starting to kick in, and the girl in his life with the double L name was Lana Lang.

Keep in mind that when Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel created the Man of Steel in 1939 there was no Superboy until 1949, when he began part of the futuristic Legion of Super-Heroes. All we knew about the early days is that just before the doomed planet Krypton exploded to fragments, a scientist placed his infant son within an experimental rocket ship, launching it toward earth. When the vessel reached our planet, the child was found by an elderly couple, the Kents. They adopted the super tyke and with love and guidance shaped the boy's future. As he grew older Clark Kent learned to hurdle skyscrapers, leap an eighth of a mile, raise tremendous weights, run faster than a streamline train, and that nothing less than a bursting shell could penetrate his skin. When his foster parents passed away, Clark decided he must turn his titanic strength into channels that would benefit mankind.

The key part of "Smallville" is that creators Alfred Gough and Miles Millar go back to the simple beginning, with young Clark (Tom Welling) growing up on the Kent farm with Martha (Annette O'Toole) and Jonathan (John Schneider). From the "Superboy" comic books the series borrows the characters of girl next-door Lana Lang (Kristin Kreuk) and best buddy Pete Ross (Sam Jones III). But in addition to covering the basics, Gough and Millar come up with a key triad of additions to the original Smallville mythos.

First, they add young Lex Luthor (Michael Rosenbaum) to the mix, knowing that he and Superman are fated to be (im)mortal enemies, but that for the present he and Clark are friends (after Clark saves Lex's life in a car accident that should have killed them both). The key thing is that they truly are friends and that "Smallville" is as much about how Lex would become a super villain as it is about how Clark would become a super hero. Throw into the mix Daddy Dearest in the form of Lionel Luthor (John Glover), and Lex would have already pulled all of his hair out if it were not for what happened that fateful day in Smallville.

Second, is the brilliant reconceptualization of Superman's arrival on earth where the small spacecraft shows up in the middle of a shower of glowing green meteors that are all that remains of the planet Krypton. As much as the little boy in that spaceship, those meteors change Smallville forever, turning a little girl into an orphans and a young boy bald, and the small Kansas town into the self proclaimed meteor capital of the world. More importantly, those little green rocks will have continue to have an impact as they cause a series of mutations with which young Clark will have to contend. This also accounts for the great in-joke that Clark always becomes a bumbling idiot around Lana because she wears a locket made of kryptonite.

Third, there is the multi-purpose character of Chloe Sullivan (Allison Mack). The driving force of the Smallville High School student newspaper her "Wall of the Weird" documents all the strange things that have happened around Smallville since the meteor shower, making her the show's resident mistress of exposition. But she is also the tragic figure who longs for Clark the way he casts puppy dog glances at Lana, creating a nice example of teenage love triangle pathos.

Overall, Miller and Gough had created an extremely solid premise for their series, which creates multi-dynamics for all of the plotlines. The first season (2001) is book ended by some great special effects, with the devastating arrival of the meteors in the pilot and the three twisters becoming one in the thrilling cliffhanger finale. My only serious complaint is that Schneider's Jonathan Kent has too much of an angry edge, which takes away from his font of parental wisdom. Martha really needs to mellow him out so that he cuts Clark some slack. I understand that Jonathan is motivated by fears and concerns about his son, but I always liked the gentle influence personified by Glenn Ford in the first Christopher Reeve "Superman" film. Turning adolescent traumas into mutant monsters of the week is a hit and miss proposition, but that was true of the first season of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" as well, and look at how well that series turned out.

Yes, we can also throw into the mix that Clark and Lana are played by a couple of cute young actors. Welling is not too serious as the kid who is going to grow up to be the hero who stands for truth, justice, and the American way, and I was going to say Kruek was the WB's new Katie Holmes except after her soft-core Lana scene in the school swimming pool goes way beyond the world's biggest collection of midriff revealing tops. But the bottom line here is that either the Clark-Lana or the Clark-Lex would be enough to make this a good show and "Smallville" has both of them and a lot more, including the brilliant metaphor of the scarecrow immortalized in the DVD collection's cover shot.

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