1x05 A Little Piece of Home

[7.6/10] This was a nice way to introduce kryptonite to the series. It’s probably best that the show not get too far without introducing Superman’s major weakness, otherwise it starts to feel silly to think that any regular human or even supervillain could be a challenge. Having the rock come from a Luthor museum, and be tangled up in conscientiously objecting Lexcorp employees helps connect Supes and Lex in a natural way over the issue, which helps.

There’s also some good action sequences here. I appreciated Superman’s mid-air combat with Lex’s jet pack-wearing goons. The show found creative ways for him to stymie all three of them. I also enjoyed the main goon (was that Lock-Up?) going too far and ruining the whole gig because he wanted to take out Superman himself.

Similarly, the fight with the gigantic robotic dinosaur was a good one. While it’s a little silly to have Lex controlling the thing from his office, the actual action was good. There’s a (likely intentional) Jurassic Park to the whole thing, and the way the dino moves, puts our heroes in peril, and crumbles apart when necessary gives the thing a real menace. I also like how many setups and payoffs are involved in that fight, from Lois’s paper basketball skills, to the tour guide explaining the lead artifacts in the museum, the green radiation idea.

Granted, there’s not much to this one storywise. Supes is weakened by kryptonite. Lex tries to use it to neutralize him. Supes overcomes it. If you already know about kryptonite from cultural osmosis, it’s a little predictable. Still, it does the job of introducing the substance (we even get a nice tease at the end), and it’s the first appearance of Mercy, who gets to do some cool stuff. So it all works.

Overall, this is a good episode bolstered by some particularly good action sequences.