Smallville Series Finale & Loving Television
I watch a lot of TV shows. Probably more than I should. I grow attached to the characters, relationships and worlds, and it always breaks my heart whenever I miss an episode, whether it's a half hour comedy or a CW series or a cable show. The content or origin doesn't matter because my heart is in it just as much. It's the reason why I love television in the first place - because I care so much about the fate of the characters I come to know and love.
Amongst those, there are a handful of TV shows that have a special place in my heart. Some, I identify with on a personal level. Some ring with emotional truth. Some, I am fascinated with from a story point of a view. Some get to me because of the way they are written and acted.
And then, there some shows that have become a part of me because I grew up with them. I was barely a teenager when I first started watching them, and they helped get through the tough transitional years of adolescence. These shows brought me comfort when I felt like nothing would ever make any sense, they gave me a pretense of a life when I thought I would never have one, and they showed me the possibilities of what life could be. Granted, they are fiction, and most of them are unrealistic in their portrayal of adolescence, parenting, life, and the world in general. But even in the craziest of story-lines, there was always a ring of emotional truth that my own life could not provide me.
It took me a while to find my own happiness in the real world. Now that I have it, I never want to let it go again. But I would have never gotten to where I am today without these shows pulling me up along the way and giving me faith even in the darkest of moments. This is something very few people understand. But I would not be the person I am without my shows.
And so, watching the series finale of Smallville made my heart tighten in my chest. It brought me to tears. It made me swell with joy. It made smile.
I knew I would be sad to see the show go and to know that no new episodes would ever grace our screens. But nothing prepared me for the hurt I felt as the last frames faded to black and I realized that a part of me was disappearing along with the show. It was a bittersweet goodbye. The two-hour finale was perfect in every single way, and I couldn't be more thankful to the writers for giving us that beautiful, powerful ending.
Perhaps what I loved the most about the episode was the theme that it explored and how closely it related to what I have been going through personally. It made me love and miss this show all the more.
The finale was about remembering where you are from and where you grew up, and how you reconcile that with the adult you become. It's about remembering the person who were when you were young and never forgetting that you don't have to leave that part of yourself behind. We are all responsible for our own destiny, very much like Clark finally chose his as Superman. But we also have a responsibility to ourselves to have the courage of embracing our past and present to create a better future.
So, even if it's a just a thought and these words will never reach them, I would like to thank the Smallville creators, writers, and everyone who has ever worked on this show, for a beautiful ten-year ride with Clark Kent and everyone who entered his life.
