Smallville: Homecoming — A Slice of SciFi TV Review

Reviewed by: Michael Hickerson (Slice of SciFi Editor)

Smallville: Homecoming
Airdate: Friday, October 15 on the CW

Slice of SciFi Rating: 2.0 out of 5.0

Last Friday, the CW’s long-running series Smallville hit a major milestone, airing its 200th episode. At the encouragement of a Slice of SciFi reader, I tuned in for the episode, curious to see what the series still had to offer after 200 hours of watching Clark Kent slowly evolve into the Man of Steel.

First up, let me say that I was a regular watcher of Smallville for the first seven or so years. My enthusiasm for the show really waned once Michael Rosenbaum headed for greener pastures and the show seemed to endlessly repeat itself when it came to the whole on-again, off-again nature of the Clark and Lana relationship. But I’ve seen enough episodes off and on and read enough on-line to have a fairly good idea of what’s happening in the long-term story and character arcs.

And watching “Homecoming,” I was reminded again of just how frustrating a series Smallville can be at times.

Clark and Lois return to Smallville for their fifth high school reunion. While there, Brainaic shows up to show Clark scenes from his past, present and future and how Clark can deal with “the growing darkness” inside of him. On first glance, any time you bring in James Marsters, you’ve got a chance for a solid and entertaining episode of any show. Marsters is a solid actor who elevates the craft of all those around him.

However, that wasn’t necessarily the case this time. This version of Brainaic is from the future and isn’t the evil version saw for several seasons on the show. And given that his function on the show is to serve as the Clarence the Angel character to Clark’s George Bailey in the story, I can’t help but feel that this appearance was a bit wasted.

As for the story itself, we see flashes back and forth in time of the journey Clark is on. We have callbacks to the first episode and to the death of Clark’s father. We also see forward into the future to a time when Clark has embraced his super-side, including working at the Daily Planet and romantically involved with Lois. The future glimpses are the best part of the show as we what the show could and maybe should have been years ago, finally dropping all of Clark’s self doubt and fully embracing more of the iconic mythology of Superman. The future flashes even provide an homage to the Richard Donner film as a nice touch and a flourish.

Where the show stumbles is in its current storylines and its attempt to look back. The flashbacks feel like a missed opportunity. Even though we get clips featuring Lana and Chloe little mention is made of Pete, who was the first to know Clark’s big secret. Also, the storyline works too hard to have a super-freak from the early days come back, possibly to threaten the Young-Adult of Steel, only for the writers to find the most obvious twist on the story to give Clark a boost.

And for a show that’s past the angst of Clark and Lana, it seems to have mis-stepped into the angst of Clark and Lois. The story spends a lot of time focused on how they should or shouldn’t be together and the fact that Lois is clearly on to Clark’s secret. Both are willing to dance around the issue and while there is a moment when things seem to move forward in the closing moments, I can’t help but wonder what complication may come up next week to keep them apart. Honestly, I saw many of the same beats better played on Lois and Clark (a show I’m much fonder of, especially it’s first season) in the early 90’s.

The one intriguing present storyline was Olive Queen’s public admission that he’s Green Arrow and some of the fall-out from it. Several times I keep thinking that the series would be better off to focus on this storyline and character more and to play down the never ending angst and guilt Clark goes through seemingly every time I tune in.

In the end, as a series Smallville seems to be coasting on fumes. The episode wasn’t quite as frustrating as the 100th episode (which was one giant reset button and left me howling in frustration), but at least the first half of episode 100 felt pivotal, epic and everything a huge episode like this should be. As Smallville heads towards its conclusion later this season, I may tune back in to see how things all come up. But, for now, it won’t be making into my weekly “must watch” rotation of shows.

If you missed the episode and want to see it, it will go live on the CW’s site Smallville site later this week.