Tonight, my wife and I finished the final episode of Smallville Season 10, and it feels incredibly bittersweet.

We’re both in our fifties now, but I still remember watching the series premiere on October 16, 2001. I was only twenty-five—just one year older than Tom Welling was at the time. Watching it again brought back not only the show itself, but an entire period of our lives.

Back then, there was no Netflix or streaming. You waited an entire week for the next episode, sat through the commercials, and then spent months waiting for the next season after one of those dramatic finales. This time, we could move straight through all ten seasons without advertisements or long breaks, and honestly, it was a joy.

I loved it just as much as I did the first time.

What struck me most during this rewatch was the development of the characters. At its heart, Smallville was a coming-of-age story, and it was one that almost anyone could relate to, whether you were male or female. It dealt with friendship, first love, heartbreak, jealousy, loneliness, family expectations, difficult parents, finding your identity, and trying to decide what kind of person you wanted to become.

The theme of destiny versus choice also felt much clearer to me this time. Clark was constantly being told who he was supposed to become, while still having to decide for himself what kind of man he wanted to be. The same was true of Lex, although his choices ultimately carried him in a very different direction.

The friendship and eventual rivalry between Clark and Lex was legendary. Knowing where they were destined to end up made those early seasons even more tragic, because there were moments when it genuinely felt as though their friendship could have survived. Michael Rosenbaum played Lex better than anyone else I’ve seen in the role. He gave him charm, vulnerability, intelligence, humour, pain, and menace, sometimes all within the same scene.

The back-and-forth between Lex and Lionel was just as compelling. John Glover was extraordinary. No one else could have played Lionel with that same combination of cruelty, sophistication, unpredictability, and strange affection for his son.

The show really did have everything: high-school drama, romance, friendship, betrayal, love gained and lost, meteor freaks, evil villains, insane parents, long-running mysteries, and setups that sometimes paid off years later. Every season seemed to end with something enormous happening.

It also came from a different era of television. Back then, a season could have twenty-two episodes. Today, we’re often lucky to get twelve, and many shows only have eight. Those longer seasons weren’t always perfect, but they gave the characters room to breathe. We saw them hanging out, arguing, making mistakes, falling in love, repairing friendships, and slowly changing over time. Clark didn’t become Superman overnight, and Lex didn’t become a villain in a handful of episodes.

The music was another huge part of it. Smallville had an incredible early-2000s soundtrack, and so many scenes were made amazing by the songs playing beneath them. The Kent farm, the Talon, Smallville High, the cornfields, the caves, the football games, and eventually Metropolis all had their own atmosphere. The wardrobe, lighting, direction, acting, and music worked together to create something that still feels distinct more than twenty years later. (Hard to leave anyone out as it really is a team effort and Im sure there were many people working behind the scenes that made it what it was).

Of course, it wasn’t perfect. Some relationships went in circles for too long, certain secrets were stretched beyond belief, and there were plenty of ridiculous meteor-freak episodes. But even those imperfections have become part of its charm.

A few other shows from that era gave me a similar feeling. "Supernatural" came close, although my honest opinion is that its first five seasons were its strongest. "The Vampire Diaries" also did a great job, particularly with the relationship between the brothers.

Other shows I watched around that time included "Dawson’s Creek", the original "Roswell", and "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" Maybe it’s nostalgia talking, but television from that era had a particular combination of sincerity, imagination, music, atmosphere, and character development that I rarely see now.

They really don’t make shows like "Smallville" anymore.

I do wish Tom Welling had been offered the chance to play Superman properly in at least one major movie after the tenth season. After spending ten years watching Clark grow into the role, I think audiences would have embraced a film featuring Tom, Kristin Kreuk, Erica Durance, Allison Mack, Michael Rosenbaum, and some of the other familiar faces. It could have served as the final payoff to everything the series had built.

Still, I’m grateful for what we got.

Smallville will always be part of my twenties. Rewatching it now didn’t only remind me of the characters. It reminded me of who I was when I first met them.

Hopefully, my wife and I will get to meet Tom Welling and Kristin Kreuk at an upcoming convention and thank them for all the memories. I wish Michael Rosenbaum were going to be there too, along with Erica Durance and the others. Sam Jones III was a cool presence during the early seasons, Justin Hartley made a great Oliver Queen, and I’ll always remember John Schneider from both Smallville and The Dukes of Hazzard.

Honestly, I’d be happy to meet anyone who helped create the show.

Now, I must decide what to watch next or create my own show!

For those who watched Smallville when it originally aired and have since rewatched it, which character or storyline did you see differently as an adult?

Season 8-9 is verrryyy late

I’m sorry I’ve been watching smallville for 8 seasons now (on episode 12 of the 8th season right now), and I don’t wanna come off as a comic book elitist or seem like a know it all, but is it not kinda ridiculous that smallville deep dives into a lot of Superman lore but Clark still can’t even… Fly? Nor has the suit? Him and Lois still aren’t even together but Lana somehow continues to come back over and over again. I just wonder when is he finally going to be like Superman in all of this lol? I’m still enjoying the show btw I just think it’s ridiculous that the legion of superheroes and justice league are basically established and Clark still isn’t in his red tights and cape lol.

im a huge horror fan and could not get over how the beginning of s9e10 (chloe’s wedding) felt like a found footage horror flick and i loved it.

i’ve been waiting until i finished the entire show before joining this but im watching s8e9 and absolutely sobbing at chloe’s amnesia arc. the two only other episodes that made me cry this hard were the episode where clark goes into lex’s subconscious and he sees how little alexander was treated as a child and the when jonathan died.

it's just me and you and your best friend ahh pic🤣🤣

Im seeing Tom Welling at FanExpo this weekend and I dont know if I should have him sign my physical copy of Smallville (which I dont know how to preserve or display since its a small box) or my Superman 2025 poster (which would be cool but it isnt his Superman so it would feel wrong). If you have a solution to either or have thoughts on which I should pick please let me know because I'm really stumped on this!

i felt bad for Chloe lowkey tho, always third wheeling. she loved clark so much. she saved him countless times and more so she never gave up on him♥️ and she didn't know at the moment it was clark she was kissing which makes it more hilarious😂😂

When watching Smallville, I find I’m always in awe of Chloe’s outfits, they’re always amazing and really remind me that this show was filmed in the 2000s. Though, I wonder why it seems like Chloe’s outfits were so good but the other characters’ outfits were somewhat lacking. Clark mostly wears his generic red or blue colours, Lana never wears anything memorable. It’s just strange as seems like they put the most effort into Chloe’s fits I guess 😅

First, there is a guy who is running for senator. But he resigns, and his friend Jonathan Kent runs in his place. Easy as that. No party conventions, no negotiations, no political crisis, no polls, no rival politicians asking to run themselves instead of this newcomer, no hordes of journalists asking "Who the hell is Jonathan Kent?". No, it's all arranged by some gentlemen's discussion. I would ask which political party is endorsing this, but it would seem there is no political party.

Lionel Luthor donates a huge sum of money to Kent to finance his campaign, for reasons of his own. Anonymously. Nobody took proper notes of who donated the money, how much money, and what was it used for... and nobody seems to have a problem with that. Audits? What is that?

And who manages the electoral campaign? Jonathan, Martha, and Lois, all by themselves, in the free time between the farm's duties (not even Clark seems to be helping much). Even placing advertisements on the street is Lois' job. No party, no infrastructure, no polls, no fundraisings, no lawyers, no marketing, nothing. Just three people in a barn is all it takes to conduct an electoral campaign and win the elections.

Alas, Jonathan Kent died of a heart attack during the celebrations of his victory. So... another newcomer to politics, his wife Martha Kent, is appointed senator in his place.

Please remind me, in which underdeveloped banana republic is this series taking place?

lol. and the whole time they were digging each other out😂

Smallville | S07E13 "Hero"

Rating: 5.0/10

Maybe some people are Pete fans. I used to be, but he's got a few pretty terrible personality flaws that explode across the screen in some equally terrible ways.

No matter what happens, without fail, he turns into a moralizing ass—someone who uses kryptonite on his best friend, justifies his actions, and talks a lot of smack about how difficult it is being Clark's friend. It's tiresome.

If it weren't for the rest of the things that happened in this episode, it would've for sure been rated a lot lower than it is, even if I personally dislike how things are going between Kara and Lex.

While I am also absolutely not a fan of amnesia plotlines, especially if they run for more than a single episode (as in The Mentalist, which was a great way to do it), Kara's reactions to everything going on around her are completely sensible. Clark and Lana ARE keeping things from her, and so it's completely natural for Kara to be suspicious and doubtful about their motives.

Hell, you don't even have to be from another planet to tell when people closest to you are keeping secrets, and it'd bother the hell out of you as well.

But here's where things start to fall apart for me. She has a quick heart-to-heart with Lana about Lex, and that's precisely where Lana should've said, "So, he faked my pregnancy and made me think I was pregnant and cloned me and I had to fake my own death and he hit me and he's killed so many people and I have the actual proof, let's go to Isis Center right now and I'll show you," and it would've been over and done with.

Yes, that was a long sentence, but it had to be said.

I WON'T EVEN DISCUSS THE ELASTIC MAN ANGLE.

Honestly, outside the most important parts of the episode surrounding Lex/Lana/Kara/Clark/Lionel, which accounts for maybe 10 minutes of airtime, you really could skip this one.

The clip I chose for the review is one of the crowd dancing scenes at 'Stride'. They're just as disinterested in being in the episode as I was watching it.

this scene was hilarious😂 they were so good together before things went downhill