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by TinnionA97
Having seen yesterday's episode of smallville(the worker bee/election episode) I'm still amazed at how much its ripping off buffy with regards to characters, plots and in general. The kryptonite weekly - well it hasn't been done on buffy but still. The only saving grace for me is that its ripping off buffy well, and is becoming interesting, especially as Lex practically admits to rigging his election. There should be some good character developmenjt here.

This weeks episode - ripping off homecoming in buffy in many respects
Last week episode - ripping off Earshot in buffy but it was less convincing. It surprised me that that boy didn't just keel over from hearing everyone's thoughts.

There are even little homages to buffy in what they say: "out of sight, out of mind".

These were just in the last couple of weeks episodes. I don't think it does itself any favours by trying to copy buffy as people have seen it before and not so long ago. I'm sure someone else can come up with other links to buffy - I mean I can think of more besides this. I wonder when we're going to get a praying mantis episode, or a hyena episode?

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Well don't knock the praying mantis idea!!! I'm sure with well over 50 years of back story to draw from there's a Praying Mantis in Clark's past somewhere

But yes I think the formula is very similar to that found in early Buffy. I also think current Smallville beats current Buffy.

I think the similarities between Smallville and Buffy come from the concepts behind the shows. Early buffy used monsters and demons as metaphors for the issues and problemd behind being a teenager e.g. Steroid abuse in the swim team episode and the Hyena episode was about peer pressure and bullying(sorry can't remember what the eps are called)

What Smallville does is use the effects of Kryptonite to create mutants for the same purpose For example the one with the 'chubby' girl who drinks veggie juice to get thin and ends up having to suck the fat out of humans to live (If that wasn't a HUGE warning about the dangers of eating disorders then i don't know what is)

So, its inevitable that there will be soem similarities between the two shows but i really don't think it goes as far as ripping Buffy off deliberately - It's just a case of limited imagination (Let's face it the 'hearing everybodies thoughts' thing was hardly an original concept when it appeared in Buffy was it?!?) and you are probably reading too much into the "out of sight, out of mind" quotes - It's a fairly popular saying.

Just want to say at this point that i love both shows and that Smallville has exceeded my expectations!

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by Sydney
you are probably reading too much into the "out of sight, out of mind" quotes - It's a fairly popular saying.

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Besides which, the Buffy ep is called 'Out of Mind, Out of Sight', and in the US I think it was just called 'Invisible Girl'.

Trying not to be too negative, but if it wasn't for Lex I doubt I'd be able to sit through an entire episode. I can't quite put my finger on why, but I find it spectacularly uncompelling TV. I will watch it, if it's on, but that's it..

I know, I know I'm just being picky because I like watching buffy so much, but the fact is it is seriously unoriginal. Like I said, its only saving grace is that it does it relatively well and so its kept me watching. The insect episodes just bug me so much though as what have there been, 3 or 4 of them? BTW, no pun intended.

If I could remember what happened in the episodes I could think of more examples but the fact is I can't. Oh, Oh the Episode where Clarks power's get transfered to that other guy. Whilst its been done before in the superman movies, dealing with having no powers (good/bad?) has been done before on buffy. I'll find a summary site and look for some more.

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by TinnionA97
Whilst its been done before in the superman movies, dealing with having no powers (good/bad?) has been done before on buffy. I'll find a summary site and look for some more.

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It's also currently going on in the current Wolverine story line in the comic. It was done a few years ago in the X-Men too and so on and so on. There's only supposed to be 7 stories out there anyway and all other stories can be traced back to those 7

"Whistler (Sentinel) - 21:05 May 01

I understand where you are coming from. And I do sometimes get misty eyed for the innocence of the early seasons (And I kinda see the same qualities of Season One Buffy in the first season of Smallville) but I also like that it's moved on."

Taken from my post in the "Do you even like Buffy anymore?" thread

Buffy has always had an original quality to it though, that was one of the reasons I liked it so much. I find it difficult to compare Smallville season 1 to Buffy season 1, becuase on the face of it they are very different. Smallville has better production values(oh the advantages of coming out on the back of Buffy) and a bigger core cast as well. Also, buffy was a lot funnier than smallville(still is) and consequently it worked on more levels. If you go to later seasons(Season 2, 3) then you begin to find similarities to Buffy. But Buffy did it first, and oftentimes better so it makes smallville a lot worse, because I have seen it done better. Doesn't mean I won't watch it, its just hard to watch again because there's nothing I want to see again. There's been about 2 episodes I may have watched again, thats very poor compared to Buffy, of which I think theres about 90 I could watch again, and again(including season 6). That's a 76.3% sucess rate for buffy, and 14% sucess rate for smallville. I know what I want to watch more often than not.