I thought the pilot episode of Smallville was perfect. There are not many first episodes I would say that about but Smallville truly pulled it off. The showrunners did a fantastic job of keeping classic elements of the Superman origin story but also introducing changes that allowed the story to feel new and fresh in 2001 despite the Man of Steel at that point in time having been around for 63 years.
The opening was so dramatic with a meteor shower raining down in 1989 on the small town of Smallville, Kansas. It immediately changed the lives of Lana Lang, Lex Luthor and Jonathan and Martha Kent. Hidden in that meteor shower was a space craft that crashed in a cornfield, luckily the little boy that was inside was found by the Kents. Can you imagine if slimy Lionel Luthor had found him? That's too horrible to even think about but the show did give viewers a glimpse of that reality in an episode in the tenth and finale season.
From there the pilot flashed forward to the present (2001) with Clark doing a little internet research reading about the fastest teen on record. You can tell that Clark was trying to figure out why he was different when all he wanted to be was a normal teenager. It doesn't help that his parents won't let him try out for the football team. I can understand, they didn't want to take the risk that something bad could happen. However, if Clark was never allowed to do anything how would ever figure out what he could do.
The pilot showed Clark using his super speed to get to school after missing the school bus but minutes later tripping as soon as he got near Lana because of her necklace which was small piece of meteor (kryptonite). According to Clark's friend Chloe Sullivan, he couldn't get within five feet of Lana Lang without turning into a total freak show (as in tripping, falling or feeling sick). It also showed the beginning of the soon to be doomed friendship between Clark and Lex that started with Lex accidentally hitting Clark with his car. However, Lex was led to believe he didn't which of course had him suspicious about the entire ordeal leading him to constantly seek the truth.
The car accident had Clark's parents finally revealing the truth that he came from another planet and showed him the space ship. This really shocked him because he knew he was different being adopted but finding out he was from another planet was unbelievable. Adding to his worries was a former Smallville high school student Jeremy Creek who after waking up from a coma was attacking former Smallville high school football players. He had once been selected by the football team as the "scarecrow" which is usually a freshman male student that's tied up in the cornfield. And unfortunately for him, it was during the meteor shower that brought Clark to Earth. This would set the stage for the "Meteor Freak of the Week" which would have Clark figuring out some way of stopping whoever was abusing the powers they got from the being exposed to the meteors.
If that wasn't bad enough, Clark was picked to be the "scarecrow" after Lana's boyfriend Whitney Fordman (the football team's captain) was jealous after seeing Clark hanging out with Lana. Clark was tied up in the cornfield but there was no easy escape for him because Whitney had put Lana's necklace on him. The least likeliest person you could think of rescued Clark. At the time I couldn't believe that Lex was the one but if it wasn't for him untying Clark then the necklace would not have fallen off. Which allowed Clark to go after Jeremy who was preparing a big attack during the school dance.
After stopping Jeremy, I love that Clark had his revenge against Whitney and the other football players by stacking their trucks in the school's parking lot. Can you imagine walking out and seeing that. It's a pretty amazing practical joke.
I love the pilot because it introduced viewers to a young Clark Kent trying to navigate between being a "normal" teenager and using his growing powers and abilities to help people. Usually whenever there is something adapted about Superman, the focus was on him as an adult, so it was really cool that Smallville reimagined the Superman story with Clark as a teenager. I'm still in awe that Smallville ran for 10 years from 2001-2011 and is still considered the longest running Superhero TV series. It deserved that title and more because it was a good series that reimagined a classic hero and it all started with this amazing pilot.
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