Once again with “Alias,” “Smallville,” “Angel” and “West Wing.”
ALIAS–Syd and the rest of us settle in to the missing two years of her life. This show is at its best when allegiances are a constantly shifting landscape…probably because it mirrors real life in that regard (how many times have we been allies with countries and supplied them with weapons and aid only to consider them enemies in later years?) The utter mess that was her diatribe toward her ex the previous episode was smoothed over (She was angry with him because he didn’t wait for her to come back from the dead? What the hëll?! What is she, Buffy the Vampire Slayer?) I am puzzled, though, considering her best friend was duplicated, that no one floated the theory that the Syd on the tape was likewise a duplicate. Odd omission.
SMALLVILLE–A lot of work to return the status to relative quo. Increasingly, the scenes and storylines with Lex are not only what drive the show, but are more interesting. However, they seem to be introducing a fascinating notion when Clark admitted to Lois that “Kal” really was him (in response to her “you weren’t yourself” comment.) Basically they’ve set up the duality of the Kent/Superman split but given it a psychological edge, as opposed to Clark Kent simply being a disguise. It seems to me what they’re saying is that Kal-El is his personified desire to use his powers openly and aggressively. In later years, he will actually channel this “persona,” if you will, into a positive and altruistic direction. At the moment, though, because he’s afraid of them and the potential they represent, the fear leads to–wait for it–the dark side. Which I think is kinda cool. However, with this episode we skid even *further* away from the idea that Clark’s future leads to Superman as we know it since Morgan Edge now knows there’s a super-powered guy named Clark Kent. Which means in the future, the moment Morgan Edge reads the Daily Planet and sees Clark’s byline on a story about Superman, that’s the ballgame. Unless Edge is wormfood by that point. Interesting, though, that Clark completely caved in the face of Edge’s threat to his parents. I’m sorry, you bet your ášš he could have moved fast enough to save both of them. So who steps up to the plate? Lana Lang?!? Whoa.
ANGEL–Cast your mind back to the episode where Buffy and her pals have dreams and are haunted by the original slayer. Remember Spike on the swing? Remember what he says? “Giles is training me to be a watcher.” Well, that’s pretty much come true, hasn’t it. Spike is now a watcher in a literal sense: He stands around and watches, serving as a Greek chorus and conscience for Angel. They’re treading a fine line; it’s going to require a deft touch to remain interesting rather than tiresome, and watching poor James Marsters have to keep his coat tight around him so it doesn’t accidentally brush against anything, ruining the immaterial conceit, is almost painful. But, boy howdy, W&H is going to take some serious hits in billing hours considering their CEO is mowing down all their clients. It’s a good thing they’ve been letting people go. I liked the Necromancer (dámņ, that actor looked familiar, *what* have I seen him in?) and the twists and turns as one wondered where Spike’s allegiance lay. Weird continuity glitch, though: Harmony went from “Blondie bear?!?” to pìššëd to see him awfully fast.
THE WEST WING–When they were forced to cut the budget on this series, did it require them to remove half the lights or something? What in HÊLL goes on here? There was a scene with Toby and some woman and it took me thirty seconds to realize the woman was C.J. Crank the lighting up, for the luvva God, I can’t SEE anything. We deal with the last vestiges of the Zoey kidnapping, which is nice because it’ll finally give the show an opportunity to display it’s post-Sorkin direction. The energy remains muted, as if they’re still coming to terms with the fact that Sorkin’s gone. And I’m not sure where the Josh kiss business came from. Then again, Sorkin could never tell a romance plot on the series worth a dámņ (by his own admission) so maybe it’s just that I’m not used to seeing such activities. Still, really…I keep waiting for him to realize Donna’s the perfect woman for him. Scene I most wish they’d done: Charlie punching that little snot Jean-what’s-his-name in the face. William Devane *would* have been perfect for the VP. He played JFK, didn’t he? So there you go. On the other hand, Gary Cole’s been a demonic sheriff and a starship captain, so I suppose he’s qualified as well. The scene with him giving terms to Bartlet was priceless. Essentially the show’s still finding its way. Better find it fast, though.
PAD
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Enjoy SMALLVILLE, but perhaps we should all chip in and buy Lionel another dámņ record. More opera? Or how about some B-52s? You think he’d like the B-52s?
I realize that the “Smallville” universe isn’t the DC Universe, or anything like it. In the DC Universe there were enough weird events and superhero predecessors, so there wasn’t a big surprise when Superman appeared.
But in the Smallville Universe, from what we’ve seen, there have been no previous real-world superheroes. Kryptonite made the only metahumans we’ve seen. Is it really unlikely that no one else has observed this? Chloe can’t be the only conspiracy nut around. Certainly the Feds should take an interest by now, noting all the odd circumstances surrounding this little nothing Kansas town.
(These thoughts occur as I’m reading the “Supreme Power” comic, written by Joe Straczynski, in which the existence of the Marvel hero Hyperion – their copy of Supes – is revealed by a journalist with dogged determination and a good eye for details.)
I liked this past week’s Smallville episode (that teaser scene in beginning kicked butt!) Although I’m still confused about why Lionel would hire Morgan Edge who in turn would hire Clark to steal something from the Luthorcorp vault….I mean Lionel had it already..right? *scratching my head*
Lionel didn’t hire Edge to steal it. Edge had Clark steal it for his own reasons. Lionel figured out that Edge was behind it, and told Edge to return it, or else. (The ‘or else’ apparently having to do with an old murder committed by Edge that Lionel had evidence on)
Clark had never delivered it to Edge, since Pa caught up to him, so Edge had to track him down.
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh ok…makes sense now…I must’ve spaced out during that scene where they’re drinking some sorta orange juice..lol…thanks for clearing it up!
I thought Angel made pretty clear the reason why he suffered for a hundred years and Spike spent three weeks in a basement: Angelus didn’t want a soul, Spike did.
As far as “personal” souls go — I’ve ultimately come to the conclusion that in the Whedonverse, an individual can have a soul, making it his soul, but souls are not themselves individual. One of the first episodes of ANGEL is about the only time there’s been sort of quantifying of what a Whedonverse soul actually is: Angel said of someone else that he has a soul, and that means he has the impulse to do good.
So, putting it together, Spike wanted the impulse to do good, which means he both knew he lacked it and knew what that much of what he’d done is because he lacked it, and so had a fairly easy time forgiving himself for having done those things.
Whereas Angelus did not want the impulse to do good, did not care that he lacked it, and so did have the easy “out” of blaming all of his past evils on the fact that he lacked it. Angel believes that he is responsible for all of his actions, regardless of whether he had a soul or not; Spike believes all of his evil actions were due to his not having a soul, and so he is blameless.
Or, I could be completely wrong.