on Smallville

[xparrot]

Just watched 7x13, "Hero," posted this mini-rant on bagheera_san's post and thought why not repeat it here, share the love. Or intense pain, in this case.

The only reason I watch Smallville is for the sexy men. And to get context for watching music vids. Okay, the two reasons I watch Smallville are for the boys, the vids, and because I enjoy the catharsis of a good rant now and again. --Okay, the three reasons--never mind!

My point is, Smallville is a fascinating show for me. Usually I watch shows for plot, concept, writing, f/x, etc, but I fan on shows for the characters. Except this is impossible with SV, because every character on the show is detestable, except for Lex - who has the excuse that he's supposed to be evil/insane and has finally started embracing it, so more power to him (even if he did let Jimmy overhear everything. THE HELL? If this were JLU, letting Jimmy eavesdrop would've been a delightfully Machiavellian scheme; no such luck here, sigh) - and Kara, who has amnesia. I would be rooting for her and Lex to get it on, except it's in the stars (apparently on the Luthor's crest?) that it will end as an exact retread of Lana, that she will turn on Lex for no particular reason and run back to the lying liars who lie to her. (...Okay, I was rooting for them to get it on anyway. Right now I think the show should consist of people coming into Lex's various offices and having sex with him. It would much deeper and more sensical than what we watch now.)

I will always love how the "good guys" know that meteor mutation causes lapses in judgment and Must Be Stopped, but Lex is still Wrongy McEvil for trying to stop them. It never gets old!

Really, I have to hand it to Smallville, I've never watched a show that's so consistently able to inspire emotional reaction in me. Right now it's mostly shock and awe that it's still on the air. People watch this? Really? I mean, other than masochistic fangirls?

On the other hand, it makes the sweetly incompetent writing of SGA look like Shakespeare.

Comments

[greenlady2.livejournal.com]

I watched SV when the show first started. There was something wrong about the show, I thought. It had pretty good special effects, and the acting wasn't too bad, but there was something wrong with the characters. I finally put my finger on it. The only character I cared about was the supposed villain -- Lex Luthor. This made no sense to me, because I've never been one to take the side of the villain over that of the hero.

But Lex's story gripped me. Here he was, fighting his father's power and influence, struggling to do the right thing, while everyone around him put barriers in his way. All the other characters were so petty. Their struggles were as nothing, compared to his. He was supposed to be the villain, but I loved him, and soon hated, or at least disliked, everyone else. I had to stop watching the show, because it was so painful for me.

I've been reading some of the reviews of the last few episodes. It amused me to see Clark described as finally becoming Superman, because -- get this -- he doesn't yell at Lex after mind-raping him. He just calmly tells him he, Lex, knows what's right, all the while continuing to lie to him. That's all it takes to be a hero these days? Calmly lying to someone you just assaulted?

Someone else describes the scene at the end of 'Hero', where Clark walks, calmly and heroically, in slow motion, to bury Kara's bracelet in the barn. Then he looks all sad at the evil of humanity. Yeah, he's really becoming Superman at last.

Geez, you know, I can do all that. Well, except for the mind-raping part. And I don't have a barn or a magic bracelet to bury in it. But I can look calm and judgemental and walk in slow motion. I guess I'm a Superhero. What shall I call myself? Wonder Woman's been taken. I'm too old to be Supergirl.

Superwoman?

[littlehollyleaf.livejournal.com]

It amused me to see Clark described as finally becoming Superman, because -- get this -- he doesn't yell at Lex after mind-raping him. He just calmly tells him he, Lex, knows what's right, all the while continuing to lie to him

I read that one! And it confused the hell out of me! The writer said it all with such confidence, I honestly thought I'd missed a major plot-point somewhere along the line for a while, and wrote a long rambling post trying to re-assess everything I'd seen of Clark and Lex's relationship and Clark's development. Only to conclude, thank god, I wasn't crazy and my understanding of the show (as much as it can be understood) really was valid after all and Clark really can be called a Dumbass (and worse) legitimately.

Even I am not insecure enough to call Clark's burial of the bracelet 'heroic' though. WTF? Why doesn't he just GIVE it to Kara? And tell her the truth? The way I see it he is deliberately keeping vital information about her self and her identity from her. I'm no doctor of course, but shouldn't you tell someone with amnesia everything to help jog their memory? He's not being heroic, he's being an IDIOT and potentially HARMING her by not saying anything! It's Lex and Belle Reve all over again, only this time there's no Lionel threatening death should the lost memories be retreived.

Woes...

And I'll call you Superwoman! You'd make an awesome one :D

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

So being sanctimoniously smug, and thinking you're smarter than everyone else and have the right to make all their decisions for them, is the key to heroism? (great news for Rodney McKay! Except for his whole story, he's been learning just the opposite, and is coming out increasingly heroic for it. See, this is why SGA is more satisfying to watch XP)

I can only assume SV's writers are hoping that we're so tangled up in the web of lies every char spins that we'll just start accepting them as a matter of course, and if the music sounds heroic why then the person it's playing to must be, too!

[greenlady2.livejournal.com]

"And I'll call you Superwoman! You'd make an awesome one :D"

Thanks. I'll keep that in mind tomorrow at work. I'll just keep humming to myself, 'I'm a Superwoman!' :-)))

Can the show be understood? That's what I keep hoping. I try and try to analyze it, and get nowhere.

I suppose one could say that it isn't worth analyzing because it's so bad. But no. I don't think that's true. I think it is important to try and figure out why something doesn't work.

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

I didn't watch any of the show until after I'd started reading Clex, so I came into it biased. And then I didn't really watch the whole thing until last year, and seeing it all at once...is hard on SV, because it highlights how non-existent the continuity is, both character and plot.

But, yes. I often like villains myself, but I don't always sympathize with them. But with Lex...it's so hard to even see him as a villain; he's suffered so much, and he tries so hard. And the way people turn on him, repeatedly and unreasonably...if they made Clark et al more sympathetic, then maybe we'd be siding with Clark. But a hero who spends most of his time moping that he doesn't get the girl, who saves people mostly when it's convenient for him - the "good guys" have so few qualities that let us root for them, that Lex's perseverance is more compelling than any of them.

Someone else describes the scene at the end of 'Hero', where Clark walks, calmly and heroically, in slow motion, to bury Kara's bracelet in the barn. Then he looks all sad at the evil of humanity. Yeah, he's really becoming Superman at last.

Oh good grief! I haven't been reading ep reviews and this is probably good, as it would be detrimental for my blood pressure. gnine and I were screaming at the screen at that scene. WHY, CLARK? WHY?! I don't understand why he's lying to Kara, except for the specific plot point of driving her to Lex (just so she can turn on Lex later, naturally.) This show has started equating lying with heroism - no, wait, it's done that all along. But it still freaks me out. It's not just that the chars are trapped in Sitcom World, wherein they never learn their lesson about lying because it allows for new wacky hijinks every week. But we viewers are actually expected to see lying as heroic? Um. No.

(I can't see Clark as a Superman anyway if he keeps casually killing people. Okay, fine, maiming them for life. The way he tosses Lex's muscle in this last ep - and the guy wasn't even a meteor freak, far as I could tell - that'd kill a person easy.)

Oh, yeah, that's the Smallville rage! It's all coming back to me!

Superwoman?

You'll have my vote!

[greenlady2.livejournal.com]

Thanks. That's two people who think I'm Superwoman. I'm well on my way to Superherohood. :-)))

I wouldn't recommend reading ep reviews. It's not good for one's blood pressure at all, as I can attest. And the resulting mental confusion is also rather troubling.

Clark has probably killed and/or maimed far more people than has Lex, by now. Maybe all that blood in Cassandra's vision wasn't Lex's fault, but Clark's? :-)))

Lex has done bad things. That doesn't make him a villain, or evil. Clark has done good things. That doesn't make him a hero.

It takes consistency and purpose to make a villain or a hero, I think.