Smallville: All-Justin, All The TimeJustin Hartley is hot, but I just don't find his Oliver Queen a compelling enough character to go through two concurrent episodes of his "personal hell." I don't find this new General Zod compelling either, nor the entire Kryptonian storyline. I don't want to watch an entire episode of Tess Mercer getting progressively more facial bruises.
To me, the "rock" of that show is simply Clark Kent himself. He is the only person I still find interesting in that show, who I feel is believably growing and evolving as a character. But I think the key to shows like "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" is that there is a strong supporting cast to back the main character up. The main character shouldn't have the burden of being the "rock." You know, maybe Willow or Xander was the "rock" on BTVS. But who is the "rock" of Smallville? Chloe? Good God. Talk about a character whose only perceived value at this point is being prophesied to die.
But this is all about a series which is probably on its last season anyhow. I just want the "permission" to stop watching it. I always feel this "duty" to watch it because it is a superhero TV show, but really I could be catching up on the episodes of "Community" I missed on Hulu or something.
A superhero TV show should never be boring.
Olliver Queen on Smallville is becoming like the doctor on Star Trek Voyager. Whenever the writers didn't have a good idea they would write a boring episode about the doctor. I hated episodes about the doctor and I like Robert Picardo a lot more than I like Justin Hartley. but i also love Smallville and have been watching it from the start and they probably won't get to the Justice Society episode until after Christmas. Is ABC still showing flashforward reruns at the same time on Friday?
ReplyDeleteI feel like I hung in there way, way longer than was reasonable, and I called it quits a long time ago. Every once in a while I still tune in to check: How we doing this week? Still unwatchable garbage? Cool. The show started out mediocre--Smallville has never been good--but with a lot of promise. Tom Welling looks the part, like, perfectly. The Kents were well cast. Lex too. And the Lex & Clark as pals was a nice angle. Not great, but you could see how this show might have legs.
ReplyDeleteBut now that's all gone, and it's just a boring show with no real reason for existing. I used to be really hopeful for Smallville, but now it just makes me angry.
They lost me years ago, but the final straw was killing off Jimmy, who was the only character who actually grew over the last two years.
ReplyDeleteThat, and Oliver Queen is _boring_. The comic book GA has his problems, but he ain't boring.
I, too, am wanting to stop watching this dreadful show but they tease with things like the LSH last season and now the JSA characters appearing. Michael Shanks as Hawkman! Think we're going to see wings and a helmet? I doubt it. A brown leather duster and a little hawk emblem pin, maybe!
ReplyDeleteI quit watching two seasons ago. You have my permission to stop. :)
ReplyDeleteI broke up with SMALLVILLE during its seventh season with occassional check-ins since.
ReplyDeleteIt was consistently very entertaining during the High School years. I think that it had a rockier than usual transition to College Years for a variety of reasons (i.e. the show being set in Smallville, the Lana romance being unresolved), but the highs were still more frequent than the lows.
Sadly, the undoing of the show was the arrival of the rest of the DCU. The casting and the various re-imaginings were too inconsistent. For every Aquaman or Zatanna that worked, there were two that didn't.
Still, it was such an awesome show for the first 3-4 seasons that I sat through a lot of bad episodes to see the occasional ghost of the show that I loved.
Hope that helps.
Ollie's stories tend to be more tense, mature and heroic which I prefer. Episode after Episode of romantic comedy between lois and clark isn't what I want and that has been a problem this season. Chloe has taken too long to die. She should have died at the end of season 3
ReplyDeleteI gave up on the show with all the constant tug of war over making him Superman and keeping him Clark Kent. It was a lot more cumbersome and pointless than it needed to be. For every step forward, oops! gotta take a step back. I was glad when they finally got rid of Lana (she was becoming a whiney biatch) but they shoulda kept the parents and Lex.
ReplyDeleteI think my favorite Superman show in terms of supporting characters is still Lois & Clark. Having recently re-watched every episode on DVD, that first season especially was truly a treat. A show more about the Daily Planet than Superman.
Smallville creators, take note for the next life.
@Wolverine:
ReplyDeleteI gave up on the show with all the constant tug of war over making him Superman and keeping him Clark Kent. It was a lot more cumbersome and pointless than it needed to be. For every step forward, oops! gotta take a step back.
I really never understood this objection. SMALLVILLE was conceived as a bildungsroman combined with a teen soap opera. Once he becomes Superman, the story is over. It is a bit like complaining that the Skipper never gets off GILLIGAN'S ISLAND.
I just figured out that I knew Tess Mercer before she became Tess Mercer.
ReplyDeleteAlso...
Superhero shows should never be boring, huh?
GOOD THING HEROES IS TECHNICALLY NOT ABOUT SUPERHEROES.
Bada ching.
Gilligan's Island was only on for three seasons.
ReplyDeleteI loved Smallville for a good six years, then once they did "Justice" it set the stage I thought for Clark to truly begin an evolution into Superman. Instead I got a couple dozen more episodes of Clana, when Lois was already there... Then Pete chewed kryptonite gum and I was checked out.
ReplyDeleteI did come back for the Legion episode, and heard Saturn Girl basically tell Lana to get lost- then next week? Who do you think were throwing Emo stares at each other?
I considered coming back again, but Michael Rosenbaum left, and he was the best thing that show had going for it.
Season six should have ended with Clark revelaing his powers to Lana as an explanation why they could never be together, then he flies (FLIES!) off to stop the Zod possessed Lex. I'd still be on board with a show that did that.
@Dean
ReplyDeleteI'm not saying they shoulda made him Superman like in season 2, but the natural progression wasn't there. It was like they'd move him towards it, then do a complete about-face the next episode. The build-up should be just that: build-up. MAYBE have a couple steps taken back here and there in uncertainty, but not like they've done.
@ Wolverine:
ReplyDeleteHindsight being 20/20, it seems clear that they should have laid out a clear progression over, say 8 seasons. It would have been nice to get clear benchmarks along the way. For example, combine the end of the Lana relationship with the arrival of the glasses.
Also, it seems like there should have been a big cast roll-over between Seasons 4 and 5. Usher out the High School faces and usher in some new College faces. It also seems like it would have been a good idea to follow the beats of the Donner-Reeves films more closely. For example, hold the introduction of Lois off until Lana is out of the picture.
However, that is stuff that only clear in retrospect. Millar and Gough did an amazing job updating the Superman myth into the 21st century. I would never have had the nerve to use Kryptonite the way Stan Lee used "radiation", but it worked great for a long, long time. Tom Welling and Erica Durance have the best Lois and Clark chemistry that I have ever seen.
My point is that on the whole, the show did way more right than it did wrong.
Admittedly I've only seen a few recent episodes, and only because I've been getting up extra early in the morning and it's either watch Smallville or Relic Hunter, so I might not be the best judge of the show. But the tone, from the very beginning, struck me as being embarrassed to have superheroes in it at all, that they would much rather see themselves as an action-drama show featuring people with extraordinary powers (like those actors who insist their latest work isn't horror, but "supernatural thrillers" and whatnot).
ReplyDeleteI could be totally wrong,of course. Don't hate me. :-)