Monday, December 26, 2011

Smallville S01E03 Hothead

FotW: Coach Walt Arnold (Dan Lauria) looking for his 200th win is infected from meteor rocks in his sweat box. He finds out that 7 of his players are ineligible for the “big game” coming up by Principal Kwon and Coach wants him to deal with it after the season.

It was funny to see Pete (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0427389/>Sam Jones) look puny against all this bigger players. Clark saves Principal Kwon from a burning car started by Coach Arnold. There a in-joke there that I won’t spoil. This episode sees Clark join the football team and end up not playing a single game. The coach kills himself in a rather cartoony way. Lana quits cheerleading to become a barista. Lex and his father guest John Glover have a duel to decide the fate of 20% of the Luthorcorp Smallville Plant workforce.

It wasn’t that dynamic of an episode even though the Freak of the Week controlled fire. This episode showcases Chloe as the intrepid reporter that will inspire Lois to her height. He’s supposed to be 14 or 15 years old interfering and taking on adults. This is one of those Smallville episodes that plot really takes the imagination to a place far, far away. It’s the character interaction outside of the football stuff that holds this episode together.

In these early episodes every time John Glover comes on the screen he steals it. It’s these scene and his presences that he brings that didn’t surprise me when he was later promoted to a series regular. Lionel Luthor is a complicated character that brought so much to the story early on in developing Lex Luthor’s character foundation.

Smallville S01E02 Metamorphosis

FotW: Greg Arkin, nerdy bug collector is being sent to military school by his mother for secretly videotaping Lana (Kristin Kreuk). While driving too fast while going to release his bugs these meteor infected bug get loose in his car when he hits a pole driving too fast turning Greg into a “bug boy” who begins to move through the bug phase with his intention of making Lana his mate.

Last episode he saved Lex from drowning this time he saves Whitney from an accident and explosion caused by Greg, played a little clichéd by Chad Donella. The episode establishes that even when he has great power to affect his world Clark would rather keep it level than use that power to his advantage. This is something that in the future makes his world and saving people way more complicated that it should have been for the future Man of Steel.

It’s technically not on par with the previous episode. Many of the special effects in this episode are showing their age. I felt Greg’s death was too convenient of an end. Once again Clark is left in the shadow after saving the heroine. *Spoiler Alert* After returning the necklace Lana smile is just because her necklace is back or because she knows Clark returned it. *Spoiler Alert* She just seems too calm for the ordeal that she just went thru.

I think the nugget of this episode is that Lex and Lana previously met before he saw her in the stable. Their first encounter was memorial or more traumatic for Lana. Realizing who she was and now is intrigues Lex, you can tell from the way he looks at her at the farmer’s market and how he talks to her in the stable.

It surprises me how passive Clark has been in these first couple of episodes. I think it’s something to pay attention too: How Clark transitions from this passive hero to the active hero persona of Superman.

Sunday, December 25, 2011

Smallville S01E01 Pilot

This is episode original aired as a two hour premiere but for the DVD they broke it down into two individual episode so the first hours is consider only the pilot. This episode doesn’t illustrating the future of Smallville but it does a good job of introducing us to the characters of the Smallville word. The special effects still hold up even ten years later.

From this first moment you see Jonathan and Martha Kent you know that they are a wholesome parent. John Schneider and Annette O’Toole capture the Kent perfectly and their casting is perfectly evident. Annette O’Toole casting also marks a hallmark that will run through Smallville’s run…bringing beloved actor from previous incarnations of the Superman pathos.

The introduction of Tom Welling made me gasp an explicative the first time I saw him…his got to be the oldest look * freshman in the history of the * world. I have to admit it took me out of the illusion and had to convince myself to go with it. Beside Whitney (Eric Johnson) the rest of the younger cast did look significantly younger than Welling. It had me question Clark Kent physiology from the beginning.

The FotW was Jeremy Creek, the homecoming Scarecrow of 1989, he was strung up in a field where we were introduced to a nine year old Lex Luthor during the initial meteor shower that brought Kal-El, and honestly if you don’t know who that is just stop now because there is no hope for you, to Smallville. He awakens from a 12 year coma from an electrolyte imbalance to be electrically charge. He goes on a killing spree killing the jocks that strung him up. Yet Jeremy doesn’t stop there when he finds Clark as 2001 Scarecrow and decides that all the students should be punished or it will never stop.

What was done exceptionally well was the establishing of the characters in this episode. On this hour alone you get a strong sense that it’s the characters that will drive this journey. I think the highlight of this episode was Clark discovery of his alien heritage and the establishment of his initial relationship with Lex.

I would love to read what you think. Leave a comment below...

Friday, December 23, 2011

Smallville: A Fanboy’s Perspective Look back


Let me start by saying that Smallville is one of my favorite television shows. I watched it from the pilot and was hooked to the very end. Smallville was appointment television for me. I previously tried taking look back perspective before and I’m usually interrupted by friends who discover the show and want to “catch up.”  The friends have “caught up” and I’ve finally got all my seasons back and now it’s time to take a look back at Smallville. 

Smallville was appointment television for me. It was the catalyst to record on VHS to watch when I got home after working late; transitioning into DVR on Saturday morning. It was the show that let me know that Nielsen rating was an outdated model, that didn’t take into account large segments of populational data because they hadn’t figure out how to monetize the segment yet. (Long overdue thanks to Jackie for leading to the revelation.)

It last 10 (ten) years, yes some of those years were rocky, yet only a fan can say we loved every minute of it; becoming the Longest Consecutive Running Sci-Fi TV Show in US history. The first half of 2011-2012 television season is over and with nothing to watch but holiday bore I decided to look back at the show from the beginning. It is a show that defined my twenties, with older and more jaded eyes.

I’m going to start with episode one (1) and watch all two hundred and eighteen episodes(218).  Let’s see if I can complete the journey still be a fanboy. There are images from its ten (10) years that are vivid and then there are the episodes that we all want to forget. It will be interesting to see the things that were taken for granted, the things not notice, and seem implausibly dense to miss in hindsight. One clear example is Amy Adams now playing Lois Lane. If you don’t get the reference then you will if you follow me one this journey..

My goal is to at least watch and post two (2) episodes a week. All feedback is welcomed were it be by email or leaving comments, as long as it isn’t spam. And so for all those continuing let’s start this journey with Smallville, Episode 1: Pilot.

Thursday, April 14, 2011

"The World of Daytime Soap is gasping its last few breathe"

Today ABC announced that it was cancelling All My Children and One Life to Life from its daytime programming. All My Children is fading into oblivion in September of 2011 and being replaced by The Chew. One Life to Live is making its swan song in January of 2012 and being replaced with The Revolution.

Also in related news ABC also cancelled SoapNet. Its estimated that it will still are for another 18 months and then it will be replace with Disney Junior. This channel will be dedicated to programming aimed at children 2-7.

I personally think this signals the death of daytime television as we know. To replace overly dramatic soaps with overly opinionated unscripted shows is also a sign of the apocalypse too.



Check out the link for more information.


Saturday, April 09, 2011

"Lois' Rules of Reporting"

After watching seasons 1-8 back to back I have found these gems..."Lois' Rules of Reporting." These are all the rules that Clark had written down and Lois has told him. What do you think are some of the missing rules of reporting from Lois.
  1. Always know your source.
  2. Always make a good first impression (Don't screw up with the boss).
  3. Do whatever it takes to get the story.
  4. If something seems too weird to be true, it usually is.
  5. Never take deadlines too seriously.
  6. Triple check your facts.
  7. Put all the good stuff at the beginning.
  8. ...
  9. ...
  10. ...
  11. Always protect your source