Too violent; my 7 year old will have to do without Smallville

[tmchale1970]

If your still reading this thread. Like others said, its not rated for 7 year olds. Its your choice to allow them to watch it.
Gore and violence is not unnecessary, it makes the show better IMO.
I've been watching Smallville since I was 8 and I've seen every episode, I don't think its too bad.

Dont get me wrong i love all the violence and gore but i just dont want expose my kids to that level yet,and belive me it`s a struggle because my kids like the show.

[natbug]

Smallville isn't geared for children and never has been in my opinion. There was violence right from the start. Meteors falling killing people. Clark was hung up as a scarecrow shirtless in his underware. A bug boy stalks Lana and kills his mother. The football coach goes up in flames. A teen girl eats a deer raw on the road. A teen boy freezes a naked girl in the bathroom. Lana goes soft core and strips in front of Clark. I think you get my point. It would be better if young viewers watched something else, imo.

ITA. My kids are 6 and 9. There are only a handfull of episodes I've let them watch and never without me. I've also put my footdown to any of the Batman, Spiderman, and Superman Returns movies. They're just too violent for younger kids. (It's been a while since I've seen the other Superman movies, so I need to watch them again before I decide if the kids can see them.) Ironman and the 1st Transformers were borderline, we saw those. Unfortunely, we all saw Transformers 2 - too much gratuitous _____ (fill in the blank.)

On a personal level, SF/Fantasy violence doesn't bother me too much, but I like the action with a sprinkling of romance/comic relief. Although, I never want to see Darkman again and absolutely loved V for Vendetta. However, I don't do horror films. I think they go overboard.

Yeah, I don't think SV is for the younger kids either. Come to think of it, I don't get TV so I'm not really up on what's out there, I think just about any show that starts at 8:00pm or later isn't geared towards younger kids. This is the time slot where parents tuck their little kids in bed and read them stories.

But, I can understand Galatians concern. After years of watching Barney, Dora, Diego, Clifford, and other videos with my kids, it's nice to watch something a little more grown up with them, and we do (curtisy of the plethora of DVDs available at the library.) However, SV is my passion; it's something I enjoy just for me. My husband doesn't even watch it.

[skugers]

Speaking for myself, I prefer to see disgustingly violent zombies than some cheap makeup zombie imitations. It may scarier but it's more believable and I like watching that. I'm relieved I didn't need to think of the SV zombies as some kind of stupid puppets.
I'm sorry for the ones who think the episode was too violent for children. In my opinion we already passed the point in which we could control what our kids can or cannot watch on tv or internet. Do your children play with waterguns? For example? Or wee soldiers? Or tanks, army helicopters or stuff like that? Guns, soldiers and other toy army stuff are, practically, violence symbols. The irony is we have no problem in buying them and let out kids play with that.
So I personally have no problem in letting my kid watch it. If you watch it together and try to explain what he's seeing and that what he's seeing is actually a show it's ok, IMO. I'd do that instead of prohibiting him to watch stuff which contains violence or sex scenes. The more they're not allowed to be in contact with stuff like this the more they'll try to break your rules.

[tonnmiister]

i do agree that the gore is excessive, but i just can't go back to the ENDLESS corny one-liners and puns, get a balance between comic relief and violence, violence not gore though

[Dizagaox]

yea i understand some parents dont like their younger kids watching adult/killing/gore and all that. But the show is rated TV 14 here in USA and this episode was meant to be dark. Not all episodes will be like this.

The show's rated 15 in the UK, which is the equivalent to a low-end TV-MA/R-rating. Season 8 has yet to be rated, so it's possible that could end up with an 18 rating (a high-end TV-MA/R).

I personally wouldn't let a child under the age of 13 watch Smallville. I'd let them watch the kids channels (Cartoon Network, Nick, Disney, etc.), some of the music channels (MTV Hits, The Box), and the big family-friendly shows (Primeval, Doctor Who, Ugly Betty, etc.).

[thehenry89]

I've never realy seen smallville as a kid show. Even the first season had alot of sex and violence in it. That being said I applaud the OP for restricting their childs access to what the feel is inappropriate imagery. I didn't really have a problem with it, but then again I"m not seven

----- Added 1 Minutes later -----

Speaking for myself, I prefer to see disgustingly violent zombies than some cheap makeup zombie imitations. It may scarier but it's more believable and I like watching that. I'm relieved I didn't need to think of the SV zombies as some kind of stupid puppets.
I'm sorry for the ones who think the episode was too violent for children. In my opinion we already passed the point in which we could control what our kids can or cannot watch on tv or internet. Do your children play with waterguns? For example? Or wee soldiers? Or tanks, army helicopters or stuff like that? Guns, soldiers and other toy army stuff are, practically, violence symbols. The irony is we have no problem in buying them and let out kids play with that.
.

That's a good point.

[rkx]

lol... If you find this too violent you should prolly take a look at most saturday morning cartoons...

[actaeon]

It's a shame but with all of the needless gore and excessive violence the past three weeks and last season as well I guess I'm going to have to stop passing down my life long passion for Superman to my 7 year old daughter. There is virtually nothing other than the Clark/Lois scenes that I can really show her.

I'm not sure those Clark/Lois scenes are particularly suited to a 7 year old.

I'm going to take issue that the gore was "needless" or the violence "excessive". This was a horror-genre episode about zombies, and the threat was supposed to seem real. Now they could've made it a comedy episode, but that wasn't what this one was. I frankly wouldn't know how to make an episode about a killer virus that's suitable for a 7 year old child.

I thought the makeup and the fight/struggle scenes were visually stunning and very effective. It had to be convincing, and it was. They could've turned down the intensity and made it a joke; then it would've been a suitable episode for children. Problem is, it would then have been unsuitable for adults.

What was the rating on this episode? All these shows have parental-guidance ratings. Not all televison is suitable for young children; some of it is for us adults. I don't watch Saturday morning cartoons and then complain that they're silly.

I absolutely love the show but this show is looking almost like Supernatural.
where's the comic relief?

Comic relief? Half a dozen of Lois' lines. "Do you smell smoke" being my particular favorite! (BTW, I'm sure a lot of young children don't get the jokes. Nor would they know what a Ducati is. And they certainly shouldn't get the Resident Evil reference.)

As for "Rabid" looking like Supernatural... my sentiment exactly, and I see that as high praise indeed!

[a313131]

So let me get this straight, you let your 7 year old daughter watch a TV-14 show but when TV-14 material is on you dont let her watch. Now im not saying your a bad parent but my daughter isnt even allowed to watch anything PG rated and shes 10 years old.

[Raina]

You're right about the show being too graphic for a 7 yr old; the zombies were very disturbing but I loved it. Seven year olds have their own shows. Besides, after Clark & Alicia's honeymoon scene 4 years ago, I doubt many kids were watching.

[Blue K]

Seriously the beheading was not even that bad. They didnt show anything really they just implied it. I mean has your kids seen revenge of the sith? Anakin takes off dookus head in the beginning of the movie and actually shows the head rolling. That was star wars mainly a kids movie.

Smallvile has turned darker in the last couple years. So it was ok to see lex getting blown up in the truck and what about davis killing all those peopel and then taking a shower to wash the blood off. That wasnt violent? I like the gore approach they are taking the show since superman isnt all duckys and bunnys really.

[mr lane]

It's a shame but with all of the needless gore and excessive violence the past three weeks and last season as well I guess I'm going to have to stop passing down my life long passion for Superman to my 7 year old daughter. There is virtually nothing other than the Clark/Lois scenes that I can really show her. Our whole society is becoming obsessed with darkness and evil and violence. I don't expect Leave it to Beaver and I understand that without bad guys there is no need for good guys but there's more and more bad and less and less good. The gore last year from multiple episodes of Doomsday murders and the murder of Jimmy and Davis and the accompanying gore and now we get Metallo full of blood and laying in deep pools of blood and showing as much gore and evil as can be shown. Tonight we get a woman in her skimpy panties, and a pathetic story line of evil gone wild and cured by spraying blood out of a plane and Zod decapitating one of his minion. It's becoming over the top. I do have a DVR and just re-watched it and it took about ten to fifteen minutes to watch the few scenes that are worth watching. I love what they are doing with Clark and Lois but the obsession with gore and violence is unnecessary imho.

this is obviously a personal issue, i don't think SV has even close to so much gore or violence to keep my brothers or son from watching it

but then again my mom had us watching the exorcists at like 12 years old and i turned out ok lol

and I LOVED zombie movies when i was younger, scary horror films were actually a pass time with my family and i do the same with my son

so again its just a personal opinion

[Charles Griffyn]

Smallville always gets a 15 in the UK when its released on DVD, meaning it has to be shown post watershed on TV unless its edited (i think Season 3 only got a 12 actually, but the rest where all 15 for "violence and gory images" season 6 had "violence and Psychological horro" which i thought was a great reason to get a 15). Smallville has never been aimed at children, its always aimed for the teen market. It just happens to be the new producers are a bit more comfortable with the blood letting than Al and Miles where.

[monkeyto]

i watch smallville for the first time at 10 but it was in season 2...

[LilMo]

I was gonna add that SV is 15 in the UK, which is close to American M rating.
Btw, have you seen SV which is on like 6 in the morning on E4? its season 8, its REALLY Edited, one example is when Lana had to pull up that really hot piece of metal with her wrists, that was taken out