Smallville: The Official Companion Season 1

Rating:
Summary: All Things Great And Small(ville)
Review: The television series Smallville kind of took me by surprise. When I first heard about the show, I was a bit skeptical that its premise, Superman as a teen would er...fly. I was afraid that mixing the well known mythology with soapy 90210-like plots would turn out to be a big mtstake. After seeing the pilot and the first few episodes, I was glad to be proven wrong...

As official series companions go, the season one book for Smallville, is pretty good. Author Paul Simpson was given complete access to the cast and crew during the show's earliest days for unique insights. Viewers of the program will get to know the ins and outs woring on a typical episode. Each of the 21 "adventures" of year one is given its due. Tiles, guest stars, production credits, synopsis and trivia bits--It's all here. The main characters of season one are profiled--actor to part as well. The book has a Febuary 2004 foreword by show developers/executive producers Alfred Gough and Miles Millar. As nice as the book is though, I think it would have been better if also included season 2 as well. It would have made more sense, in my opinion, but season 2 will instead gets its own volume soon. That said, Simpson is well suited to chronicle the series.

The book has 176 pages, including 16 worth of full color publicity cast photos and dozens of black & white episode pictures too. I wish there had been a few more candid behind the scenes set stills. Oh well maybe next time.

Recommended for loyal viewers and anyone wanting to jump in and catch up.