(disclaimer: this blog post contains mild spoilers for the show "Smallville," the general Superman mythos, and early seasons of "How I Met Your Mother." please don't read ahead if you want to watch these shows with total surprise... or if you just don't want to hear me blabbering on about silly American television)
We finally finished watching the television series "Smallville." It took a few trials and errors to figure out the library system here, but we successfully borrowed seasons 7-10 from the Yarra Public Library (the local Melbourne Library system is a lot more convenient for us, but unfortunately rather flawed when it comes to their DVD stock).
For those of you in the dark: "Smallville" was an American television series based on the origins of Superman - an alien child sent to Earth from the destroyed planet Krypton, raised by humble farmers in the town of Smallville, Kansas, who later grows up to be an invincible superhero based in the fictional city of Metropolis.
"Smallville" has always been a meaningful series to me. Mostly because of the timing: the show began when I was in high school, making me roughly around the same age as the main characters, and the earlier seasons bring back a lot of laughable nostalgia (dial-up internet! fashionable "peasant" blouses! and of course, that one song by Lifehouse!). I watched it live on my grainy bedroom tv until I went off to college, then got too busy to keep up... then caught up with some DVDs a few years later, but only until season 7... and then last spring after the series had been over for 2 years, I convinced Ben to re-watch everything with me. Because Superman is awesome, and we always prefer watching shows after they've ended/been wrongfully cancelled/are about to become kickstarter-funded movies.
There is one exception, though: How I Met Your Mother, which is currently on its final season. This is also a nostalgic show for me, and one that Ben and I were able to quickly catch up on with Netflix (which we REALLY MISS in Australia, by the way) because we knew that this year - season 9 - would be the last, and full of surprises with a big payoff.
For those of you in the dark: "HIMYM" is about a father telling his adolescent children the story of how he met their mother. But instead of a simple "at a Super Bowl party!" or "we were classmates in college!" Ted begins the story almost ten years before he technically meets his future love, telling long-winded and often hilarious stories about his four best friends and their legen*dary adventures in New York. I am NOT a fan of most sitcoms. Except for this one. Because it's smart, witty, and has unexpected moments of poignancy that have brought tears streaming down our faces my face. And Ben and I will both be very sad when it ends, in just a few weeks.
In many ways, "Smallville" and "HIMYM" are a lot alike. In both shows, we already know what the general future holds for the central character. We know that Clark Kent is going to evolve into the iconic bumbling reporter/supernatural saviour of the DC comic book universe - which makes it all the more charming and ironic when we are introduced to high school freshman Clark, who doesn't know what he wants to do when he grows up: "just as long as it doesn't involve putting on a suit and doing a lot of flying." (in case you don't know, this is exactly what Superman does) We know that architect Ted Mosby has two future children, and eventually meets the love of his life - after dating half of Manhattan and a little of Jersey. And in both cases, we are drawn into love stories that we know do NOT work out in the end. Clark has his heart set on cheerleader-turned-barista Lana Lang, when we all know that he ultimately ends up with another woman bearing the same initials; and Ted spends the pilot episode describing his first romantic encounter with a seemingly perfect woman, whom he refers to at the end of the episode as "your Aunt Robin!" aka not The Mother. Season after season we are drawn into these temporary timelines, often rooting for these ill-fated relationships, when we clearly know that there are other things down the road. And when Lois Lane finally shows up in Smallville's season 4, she and Clark absolutely loathe each other (in a sibling rivalry way, very clever), and also his BFF is some bald dude named Lex Luthor - and you probably know how that one turns out (hint: they don't grow up to become old fishing buddies).
I don't know why, but this stuff really gets to me.
I love Love stories told in reverse, with splashes of foreshadowing and irony and maybe an "I told you so" or two. Isn't that how life usually goes? It's like that for me. "Smallville" and "HIMYM" have taught me to be cautiously grateful during moments of bliss and accomplishment, and quietly hopeful in times of horribleness and "are we there yet?" To savour the seemingly insignificant moments of the days, and realise that everything does add up, somehow and somewhere into the future.
Hindsight is such a strong character in our lives, and we're hardly aware of it. There are pages of our stories that haven't been written yet, trials we still need to go through, amazing moments right around the corner if we just hold on a bit longer. Often we're so wrapped up in our immediate goals that we forget that in many ways, it's the journey that's worth enjoying, and not just the destination.
CK
 |
| me and ben as clark + lois, part of our wedding reception centerpiece series |
*wait for it...
No comments:
Post a Comment