Up until season 6 Lana was always berating Clark about him not being honest with her but why didn't she try to find out his secret by spying on him or hire someone to investigate Clark?
shareI think the reason that didn't happen because they were afraid having Lana know sooner would've killed the tension.
shareMore than anything, I think they were trying to keep it teen-centric so that they wouldn't have to rush Clark out of his youth and into the superhero for the world role. And I think it was pretty typical of teens in TV to be ignorant and narcissistic. Otherwise, Lana should've figured it out way before they were teens - they were neighbours their whole lives and she was always out riding by his farm. Heck, Chloe the mastermind wannabe investigative journalist didn't spy on Clark once, but with a little help, discovered his secret within ten seconds or less of viewing.
At least early on in the show, they tried to keep the ludicrously fantastical parts of the show grounded in the realism of "they're still teenagers, trying to figure it out" from that, again, self-absorbed perspective.
As said before I think they were afraid of killing the tension by having Lana know, a TV show format would demand that everyone be kept in the dark about the hero's identity and doing the same things for the entire run of the show.
shareYeah, I agree. But I also blame laziness - why were they afraid? If the other shows have learned anything from Smallville, it's literally that this was a bad idea. Everyone knows everyone's secret when it matters in all the recent superhero shows - and when they try to milk it, it comes off as so stupid.
But I still think a larger cause of this was their unwillingness to move away from Smallville and into true Superman territory. And being obsessed with your teen crush was, unfortunately, part of that.
Think Lois & Clark jumping the shark with the wedding was the cause of it. It's always best to go with the newer approach. I think having people know Clark's secret would've brought in better stronger dramatic possibilities and better reasons for him to put on the suit later on in life.
Being stuck in Smallville was a four season storyline that lasted seven seasons and obsessing over your teen crush was a three season storyline that also lasted seven seasons, same with the no flying. Did feel like after high school they didn't know what to do with the characters.
Yeah, the Lois and Clark wedding was fan-pandering - but no one was actually asking for that. My guess is that they mistook the loathing 99% of fans had for Lana as them being absolutely smitten with Lois and Clark; not the case, we just didn't like Clana.
I agree about what you're saying about being stuck. Their characters couldn't develop within the confines of the Smallville high school format and so they didn't much. And while I still enjoyed it, and love to revisit the show, as an audience member, it's hard not to feel trapped with them.
It's a hard to rewatch show made even more so with the whole Allison Mack thing.
A TV format would demand that everyone stay in the same place doing the same things, if your looking for a Superman origin story there's plenty of other options that didn't have to stagnate like Secret Origin, Earth One, Man and Superman, John Byrne MOS and Superman Year One.
I don't think a TV format necessitates that everyone stay in the same place doing the same thing. If you watch The Flash, which to my mind is the closest show to Smallville, you see how easy it is to change things up without losing the core of the show.
But hell yeah, the Allison Mack thing is beyond cringe. This person used to be a champion not only of well done female characters, but for actual men and women and kids watching the show. Now she's in prison for crimes against humanity. WTAF?
It's a crazy unfortunate sad situation that ruins her and her character's legacy, who can look at her as Chloe now and look past it? it's like trying to watch The Cosby Show now.
shareIt did feel like they didn't want Lana to know his secret and him realizing she's not the one for him until the very end of the show, little did they know it would go on for ten seasons, when Lana, Lex and the original writers left after season seven it took a different direction. If the show had lasted five seasons things might have ended differently.
shareI don't know that things would've been different, just because you can't predict when a show's going to end. But yes, I agree. They definitely wanted to keep Lana around, mainly to antagonize Clark about his "secrets" for the supposed tension, but not enough to actually get her character to do any investigation into why in a timely and sensible way.
shareI did read back in the day that the original writer would say SV would end badly, Clark doesn't get Lana, he and Lex are enemies.
shareThe more you think about how many secret rescues from Clark until people like Lana start pointing fingers, in season one a crooked cop and reporter were on to him.
What's weird about it is that Lana was the victim most of the time, so the fact she wasn't suspicious way before now makes no sense. It seems like he spent his entire childhood saving that girl.
shareEven in MOS people saw him using his powers to save a school bus and an oil rig, in a flashback in Superman & Lois young Clark wore a ski mask and black clothes to stop a robbery.
With his secret rescues nobody did everything about it, it's like everything a celebrity does we find out about it.
It always brings me back to that scene on the train in Spider-Man 2 (the Tobey Maguire one). They knew his identity but they protected it, and it was made clear why. In Superman, it's not clear at all. And he apparently lives in a time of phones. Yet we never see Chloe scrub an accidental cameo shot once off of the internet.
shareThink the only reason why no one accidentally saw cameo shot on the Internet because the writers feared having friends find out too early would kill the tension and the format of the show demands that everyone be oblivious to Clark's secret for seven seasons.
shareYeah, the whole protect the secret from everyone schtick, which got old, stifled the show and made no logical sense. It would've been better and made more sense if someone had known and helped Clark, even from afar - would've been a good mystery and reveal for later seasons.
shareThe whole nobody can know the hero's secret or the girlfriend can't never know kind of gotten time worn by the time of Smallville, by season ten and later Superman & Lois they stuck with Lois knowing Clark is Superman because it was the newer approach.
It was kind of hard to have Lana Lang as the main love interest for seven seasons when everyone knows he ends up with Lois which is a commonplace in pop culture, which made her stay for seven seasons pointless and delaying the inevitable was pointless especially since it's like a prequel where you are like just get on with it already, if the show goes on for more than five seasons you have to change it up especially if it's a prequel otherwise people are gonna think "Oh I've seen all this".
As a whole, Lana's character was a mess because of that.
They couldn't decide between making her her own character, or the constant victim forever needing Clark's help and attention, or the antagonistic love interest that hurts Clark over and over, making him more sympathetic, but making her unlikeable in comparison - and all because we knew she was temporary, but the writers couldn't decide for how long. The thing is, it would've worked better if they had just made her aware of his secret because it would've strained the relationship and been a more understandable reason for them to break up eventually.
Not knowing just made her look self-centred and dumber than she was because they were neighbours. If anyone was gonna figure it out, it would've been her first.
Other reason she stayed on too long because Kristin Kreuk was contracted for seven seasons, if she stays on for seven seasons after high school she would have to know Clark's secret and not be his love interest just best friends/sidekick but they had to drag the whole won't they, will they? and secret keeping through the dirt, it wasn't fun anymore.
Superman & Lois did a better job of their past and present relationship https://moviechat.org/tt0279600/Smallville/60d89ba7d94f7037d8a638ea/Superman-and-Lois-Tells-Clark-and-Lanas-Story-Better-Than-Smallville
Her daughter Sarah and his son Jordan in that show have a similar relationship but doesn't have the prequel baggage of I know what's gonna happen.
Agree. I think where they failed with Lana and Clark, centering their whole relationship around "will she ever find out the secret", they succeeded by not making that the centre of Lois and Clark's relationship, but something much more solid.
shareThink as you would progress through three, four or five seasons you would have to change the status quo otherwise the audience will think "been there done that".
shareWell for most of that time, she was a teen. Her resources were limited.
shareThe more you think about how many secret rescues from Clark until people like Lana start pointing fingers, in season one a crooked cop and reporter were on to him.
By that logic, Lex or Tess could have installed some cameras and microphones on the farm to find out Clark's secret. I've always wondered why they didn't do that in the first place.
shareYeah, If you think about how times Clark can secretly rescue everyone until people start pointing fingers, in season one there was a crooked cop and a reporter on to him.
I think the reason why Lex or whoever didn't install hidden cameras or spy on Clark because the format of the show demands everyone stay in the dark about his secret for the entire show's run.