I Watched Amy Adams" Smallville Episode 23 Years Later And I"m Convinced It"s Superman"s Lowest Point

Summary

• The Smallville "Craving" episode fails to tackle body image issues effectively, and falls apart in today's context.
• Smallville's outdated fatphobic portrayal of Amy Adams' plus-sized character highlights a lack of body positivity.
• Changes in media portrayal of body types show progress, but also highlight past insensitivity.

I'm currently watching Smallville for the first time, and season 1, episode 7, "Craving," featuring Amy Adams as a guest star, nearly made me want to stop watching. The episode's main storyline follows Adams' Jodi Melville, an overweight and bullied classmate of Tom Welling's Clark Kent who starts a new diet using only vegetables grown from her father's greenhouse. However, since the vegetables are grown from soil laced with meteor rock, Jodi's hunger becomes insatiable, and she ends up eating the fat from animals and humans, turning her into the monster of the week.
To be clear, I don't believe the writers of this episode had any ill intentions. Nor do I think the actors involved - including Adams herself - are to blame for this low point in Smallville's Superman origin story. I think the reason "Craving" falls apart, and especially doesn't hold up 23 years later, has to do with the way the story is tackled and the changes in our public perception of body positivity. As a result, this episode of Smallville season 1 sticks out like a sore thumb amid episodes that are nostalgic, but not quite so glaringly out of step with the current culture.


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