One of my all-time fav shows, I'm finally rewatching (I believe a decade on from finishing the series - crazy), in conjunction with the new Podcast, Talk Ville - hosted by the Lex and Clark of this show, Michael Rosenbaum and Tom Welling. That means potentially 4-5 years of weekly re-watching Smallville.
I'm now getting to the see show with their knowledge and nearly with new eyes - as it's been so long since I've watched this. Obviously the special effects and just the visual quality of the recording are dated, but that's 20 years ago (I know... I keep saying it).
The first half of this episode really hinders Tom as he has to play this timid dweeb but in the 2nd half, he gets to open up and be more natural. Michael Rosenbaum is an excellent Lex and he just gets better and better as the show goes over. Its interesting watching Allison Mack on TV again, after all that's come out since. John Glover and Annette O'Toole are fantastic as the older stars, while John Schneider always looks like he's smiling and it's bugging me.
Some of the dialogue is hokey as it desperately tries fit in the ties to a larger Superman story. Some lines like "nothing will stand in the way of our friendship" (after knowing the guy for a few days) are bad, but made tolerable by Rosenbaum's acting. The way Ross and Sullivan come to suspect the "freak of the week" is extremely forced and rushed, this is a Clark centric pilot that in hindsight probably should have been 1 hour (or at least 5 more minutes). Even the tension between Whitney and Clark feels rushed .
Overall, this is a god pilot from a show that would only get better and better. After the end of the first episode - I wanted to pick up immediately with Episode 2, but that's for another week.
