BELATED COWBOY PETE’S ROUND-UP, Part I–ANGEL, SMALLVILLE

Between barreling through the adaptation of the second issue of “Negima,” and the CBLDF gathering, I’ve been missing or fallen behind on television. I know, I know…where the hëll are my priorities. I’m still behind, but I’ll write up on what I’ve seen or at least remember seeing and will try to get current.

ANGEL: The Nazi episode was fun for a change of pace. I’m not entirely sure it squares with Spike’s first appearance, but let’s face it: It was Spike’s first appearance. Despite the pleasant fiction that the creators of TV adventure series have some grand, master plan at work to which they adhere with utter fealty, more often than not there’s a sizable degree of just winging it. I did feel sorry for poor Marster’s hair…first bleached, now blackened. I hope it doesn’t all fall out by the time he’s 40. Unfortunately, the episode just seemed to taper off, the climax wasn’t particularly original, and I hate seeing the resourceful Fang Gang reduced to a bunch of hostages.

Now the puppet episode, on the other hand…I’m ashamed to admit I thought it was (no pun intended) a stitch. Really, is it any more preposterous that Angel was changed into a puppet, considering we’ve seen Buffy turned invisible, transformed into a rat, Amy turned into a rat, Willow turned into Warren, plus there really *is* established continuity for someone being transformed into a puppet? (Remember Sid?) Everything from Spike’s pure delight at Angel’s predicament to Angel dropping his guard and almost getting the stuffing ripped out of him to the ultimate, priceless moment of Angel transforming into a vampire puppet…I thought it was great. Even more impressive to me was that they seemed to anticipate every single fan reaction. When the kids are lying there with huge grins evoking the notion that the Joker was behind it, bang, a comment is made to that effect. Even more savvy, there was rumbling before the episode even aired that this was a “Jumping the Shark” installment. Foreseeing that, there’s a line bìŧçhìņg about how lousy the last several seasons of “Happy Days” was, the show from which the (frankly by now overused) phrase originated.

I should also mention that Kathleen makes great muppet-esque puppets. So anyone who’s interested in hiring her to custom make a facsimile of the Angel puppet, drop me an e-mail and I’ll forward your request on to her. It won’t be cheap, but you’ll certainly be the hit of your next Buffy con.

SMALLVILLE–I have not yet seen last week’s, but I did see the week before. At long last, Pete Ross takes center stage, and even winds up bìŧçhìņg about how he has no life outside of Clark, which is pretty much what *I’ve* been bìŧçhìņg about. (And no, I’m not claiming cause and effect, obviously, just so no one thinks I’m egomaniacal to think my comments here impact on the TV series.)

Clark’s concern over Pete’s new hobby is understandable. Car racing? In Smallville? The town where a family out for a Sunday drive at thirty miles an hour have a 90% chance of winding up flipped over in a ditch somewhere? The vehicular accident center of North America, *that’s* where they’re drag racing? Good God, Pete’s lucky he didn’t flip his car before the end of the teaser.

However, neither Kath nor I was ecstatic about the ending, but for markedly different reasons. Kath felt that Pete was done a disservice. That he had shown character growth and independence, but it was tossed away in his final act speech to Clark in which he essentially grovels and wants things to go back to the way they were. I see what she was saying, but that didn’t bother me so much. I think Pete felt incredibly guilty, and not just because he’d ignored Clark’s advice early on, but because Clark had been driven to do some shady stuff in order to save Pete’s hash.

I, however, was far more bothered by Clark’s reaction. I understand that Clark is not yet the full hero that he will become. That there’s a learning curve. But he seemed to put the blame for the death of the bad guy squarely on himself and Pete–and mostly Pete–when the fact is that the bad guy’s fate could have been avoided any number of times by the bad guy himself. He brought it on himself, and although Clark’s mea culpa’s are understandable, Clark’s dismissal of Pete–I dunno–lessens him. Consider how Jonathan bent over backwards to absolve Clark of blame for his heart attack even though Clark really *was* the main reason for it. His father’s actions should have been a major lesson in compassion for Clark; instead he takes Pete, already suffering from guilt, and rubs his nose in it. For the first time, I really, really didn’t like Clark.

Now if that’s what they were going for, then they succeeded. Smallville is, after all, about character arcs and learning curves. And Clark forgiving Pete may have seemed the safe, predictable way to go. But I think there were ways it could have been handled that could have shown a rift between the two friends while not having Clark so thoroughly humiliate this friend who has been there for Clark so many times in the past…especially when Clark’s own father had just let him off the hook for a life-threatening medical condition due entirely to Clark’s three month long Red K jag.

PAD