What the heck is the deal in Smallville?

[Uncle Yuan]

So the wife and I have been working our way through season 1 of Smallville.  It's a decent show, but there's a few odd little bits that are kind of getting to me.

1)Where the heck is Metropolis?  It's quite clear in the show that it is a quick trip from Smallville to Metropolis.  If Smallville is in Kansnas the only real city that could be Metropolis would be Kansas City.  The comics make it very clear though that Metropolis is the DC analog to NYC.

2)Smallville is how big?  The city sign that gets hit by a meteor in the opening segment says pop 25,001, but that would be 12 years ago.  In the first episode the current day sign read 45,001.  Not only is that a phenomenal population growth for 12 years, it's also a small city.  In a state like Kansas, Smallville would count as a major regional city.

3)What the heck kind of farmers are the Kents?  So far we have a truck farm with trips to sell at the farmer's market (organic produce, flowers), field crops (corn), and two completely dissimilar types of livestock (cows, goats) indicating a what is probably a dairy operation, although they could be for meat.  While all of this is certainly possible, it would be very, very unlikely.

All of which points to bad writing and a very "Los Angeles" view of rural life.

[yell0w_lantern]

I just looked up Metropolis the other day in one of my books and as of 1989 it was in Delaware.

[stumpy]

Yeah, I think it's pretty clear at this point that the TV series sets Smallville in Kansas. The question you pose is the relevant one: where is Metropolis. That's not as easy to determine, even in the comics. Though the depiction in comics is usually that Metropolis is on the east coast, there is reason to think Siegel and Shuster, who writing comics while growing up in Cleveland (though Shuster spent his first nine or ten years in Toronto) were intending Metropolis to be a large Midwest city on a lake, like Cleveland or maybe Chicago. I think that's the intent on the show as well. That could put Metropolis vaguely within driving distance of Smallville, though that's still sort of a stretch.

That's sort of the basic problem with the show's geography: the desire to have Metropolis be close enough to Smallville that it's convenient for storylines to have characters travel relatively easily between the two locales. I don't recall that being really much of a theme in the comics. Superboy/Superman could get from one place to another in short order, of course, but it wasn't as if Ma and Pa or other Smallville residents were regularly making the commute.

BTW, though we often hear that Metropolis serves as DC's metaphor for New York during the day and Gotham serves at night, that's only a metaphor. DC definitely has its own distinct New York City, which is (or at least has been) the base of operations for the JLA. I still think of the comic Metropolis as a city on the eastern seaboard.

I agree that 45,000 makes Smallville a pretty big town, by Kansas standards or even those of less rural states. Of course, Kansas has 10 cities that size or larger...

The Kent farm is very Hollywood.  Growing organic (:rolleyes:) vegetables for farmers' markets isn't really all that compatible with growing conventional corn (because of regulations on organics), though I guess it wouldn't be impossible to do both, or even that the corn is organic, too. It seems humorous to me that the Kents are farmers, which already has a pretty wholesome connotation, but that isn't quite enough for Hollywood. :lol:

[GogglesPizanno]

I gave up on smallville around season 3, cause it became clear things like "Where is Metropolis" were just the tip of the iceberg in terms of stupid annoyances.

BTW, though we often hear that Metropolis serves as DC's metaphor for New York during the day and Gotham serves at night

I always figured that Metropolis and Gotham were their own seperate cities, with Metropolis being a sister type of city to New York (only the more modern wanna be utopian version) and Gotham being a city like Chicago or Detroit (only in a greater state of disarray)

[zuludelta]

They shoot Smallville not far from where I live here in British Columbia (the actual "Smallville" parts, anyway). The set designers bought some prop pieces from the junk/salvage shop I used to work in. I've never actually sat through a whole episode of the show, though.

[Uncle Yuan]

I gave up on smallville around season 3, cause it became clear things like "Where is Metropolis" were just the tip of the iceberg in terms of stupid annoyances.

BTW, though we often hear that Metropolis serves as DC's metaphor for New York during the day and Gotham serves at night

I always figured that Metropolis and Gotham were their own seperate cities, with Metropolis being a sister type of city to New York (only the more modern wanna be utopian version) and Gotham being a city like Chicago or Detroit (only in a greater state of disarray)

While guessing DC cities has always been a rather frustrating game, I've always figured Gotham for a grittier, more blue-collar eastern city, like Boston or Philadelphia.  Although in the days when Batman and Superman existed in their own separate universes a strong argument for Gotham = NYC could be made, too.

[Alaric]

"Gotham" has been a nickname for New York City since long before Batman- the earliest known reference comes from Washington Irving in 1807.

[yell0w_lantern]

From what I remember, Superman was originally set in Toronto but was eventually changed to the fictional Metropolis.

[stumpy]

Shuster based the skyline and other aspects of Metropolis on Toronto and early comics had Clark working for the Daily Star (based on the Toronto Daily Star), but I don't think the Superman was ever supposed to actually be based in Toronto.

[Uncle Yuan]

1)Where the heck is Metropolis?  It's quite clear in the show that it is a quick trip from Smallville to Metropolis.  If Smallville is in Kansnas the only real city that could be Metropolis would be Kansas City.  The comics make it very clear though that Metropolis is the DC analog to NYC.

Aaaaand it gets worse.  The last episode we watched had Clark and Lana sitting on a windmill looking at the metropolis skyline, effectively making Smallville a suburb.   Phhhhhhhhhhhbt.

[Panther_Gunn]

1)Where the heck is Metropolis?  It's quite clear in the show that it is a quick trip from Smallville to Metropolis.  If Smallville is in Kansnas the only real city that could be Metropolis would be Kansas City.  The comics make it very clear though that Metropolis is the DC analog to NYC.

Aaaaand it gets worse.  The last episode we watched had Clark and Lana sitting on a windmill looking at the metropolis skyline, effectively making Smallville a suburb.   Phhhhhhhhhhhbt.

One word:  Elseworlds.  It's the only thing that keeps me from going postal on them.  Barely.  <_<

[catwhowalksbyhimself]

Actually, if they'd been consistent about that, it would be fine, but in the earlier season they were much, much further apart.  Like needing helicopters to get there, and Lex acting like moving there would be far, far away from Smallville, and that he couldn't be in both places at once.

But somehow, as the series moved on, the two seemed to get closer and closer together.

[Conduit]

Man, I remember all the discussions about that we had on this forum years ago.  In different episodes, Metropolis is a few dozen miles from Smallville, less than 10 miles from Smallville, or so close that we should see the skyline in every other outside shot.  The show isn't very good with continuinity, and it just gets worse in the later seasons.

[Sevenforce]

Man, I had so much to say about the topic title...

Then realised it was about continuity errors discussed before. Oh well. Good thing too, I woulda had RSI by the end of it  :D

[GogglesPizanno]

Aaaaand it gets worse.  The last episode we watched had Clark and Lana sitting on a windmill looking at the metropolis skyline, effectively making Smallville a suburb.   Phhhhhhhhhhhbt.

If you are already that annoyed just over the metropolis thing... you got a loooooong painful road ahead of you.

[Talavar]

And Smallville's first season was its best season, sad to say.  So much promise wasted.

[thalaw2]

3)What the heck kind of farmers are the Kents?  So far we have a truck farm with trips to sell at the farmer's market (organic produce, flowers), field crops (corn), and two completely dissimilar types of livestock (cows, goats) indicating a what is probably a dairy operation, although they could be for meat.  While all of this is certainly possible, it would be very, very unlikely.

All of which points to bad writing and a very "Los Angeles" view of rural life.

Now we know why the Kent farm was always on the verge of closing down...Pa didn't know the first thing about farming.   :P :P

And hey.....there is rural life in Los Angeles!!!   Happy Cows come from California you know!  Yeesh!!! :D

[herodad1]

yeah, the show must be from an alternate reality.but...so is the dc universe.