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
• 
Harmony has never been known for consistency. I think her initial reaction to Spike is good, which is immediately followed by her remembering *why* she’s mad at him. I remember Spike using this to his advantage a few times in Buffy Season Four.
Alias–Cool episode. Some interesting stuff revealed in this episode. Hope Will returns sometime in this episode. I am missing the Syd’s friends angle to the show. Otherwise, really good show. Jack telling Sloane off and Sydney telling that one idiot off where the best parts!
Smallville-WOW what a episode. LOVED the teaser. That had to be the best Smallville teaser yet. It just grabs you and won’t let go! The rest of the episode was equally as great. Wow. I can’t wait to see what happens next!
Angel-Good episode. Spike has a lot of funny lines this week, we start to see a little of his role in the show, hints to what Buffy is doing, a cool villian, etc. I liked it!
West Wing-Didn’t watch it this week. Last weeks was ok. Mainly watched it to see if they got the daughter back or not. Very ant-climatic when they got her!
Enterprise-don’t see it till Sunday night here (don’t have Upn, a local nbc shows Enterprise)
So, anyway, Alias was really good, Smallville was great, and Angel was good.
Glad the new season is back!
DF2506
Thought they handled the duplicate thing on Alias last season; they knew the duplicate device had only been used twice, and then they blew it up real good. True, it’s something to keep in mind as possible, especially since there’s proof of concept, but until there’s some strong evidence that either somehow more were done with the appearance shifter or someone’s reimplemented it, it’s also not reasonable to make it a strong possible explanation of something.
Re: Gary Cole. OK, everyone who’s watched Office Space, who wants to see the VP tell Josh to turn in a TPS report? 🙂
Well Gary Cole did play Vice President, and then President Mike Brady in the tv movie The Brady Bunch in the White House, so he’s had practice in the job 🙂
David
PAD – you meant “Lana” right?
I’m really not all that concerned about this being the “real” Superman. Pete Ross is black, for one thing. I don’t see anyone too stressed out about that. Actually, I wish they’d use him a bit more, espescially as a romantic foil. It’s annoying to watch this I love you/ I hate you business over and over with the barest of reasons. Throw another character into the midst, or do SOMETHING different. Lex is the nicest person EVER! I want to be just like him. Does the actor who plays Lex play the flash on the JLA cartoon?
Spike – “Oh, I’m sorry. I…didn’t care.” beautiful delivery.
And they probably learned their lesson about intangibility with all the furor over Giles last year.
Randall
I thought this week’s West Wing was the best so far this season, the new writers are just starting to find their legs. Good point about the lights, though.
Rob
Peter –
Some other stuff the Necromancer was in:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0706838/
PAD–Speaking of TV, Kristian Ayre of Space Cases was on Jake 2.0 last night. I’m not sure who he was playing, though…the ep was about a ring of hackers, and there were a couple of guys who he might have played. (It’s actually a very good show, by the way. David Greenwalt, Angel’s creator, is the showrunner.)
Most Likely you saw the Necromancer as the Doctor in Seinfeld, telling George
1) Susan was dead due to some cheap adhesive glue
2) that he could walk after much rehabilitation.
kinda also reminds me of MAlachi Thorne though (Commodore Mendez)
I was watching part 2 of the West Wing pilot in syndication recently & I realized what I miss most about the show…I want pìššëd øff Jed Bartlett back!
If you recall, his personal doctor is killed and Jed wants to go off right then and there & “strike them down with God’s own fury”.
Four years later, Jed can’t make any decision without looking like his world is coming to an end. I want the Jed Bartlett who told the Dr. Laura-esque radio host “In this house when I stand up, everybody stands up!”
C’mon Jed…get ticked off, tell Abby to get over it, and kick some butt!!!
My take –
1. Enterprise – I continue to like the 3rd season of this show. They have stepped the action up, the stories are leading to a ultimate point but are still self-contained and well written, and Bakula’s Archer is finally getting comfortable with the character.
I thought last nights episode was excellent. It started strong and never slowed down. At one point it was like Night of the Living Vulcan.
Only 2 complaints so far – the first few episodes of the season had Archer almost too bitter. Last night’s episode he finally started showing balance (which he needs) and the special effects are either the best I have ever seen or the cheesiest. The angle of the Enterprise entering the massive astroid field was amazing but the shuttle pod landing on one was as if they used up too much money before they filmed it.) The T’Pal half nude shots are bothering a lot of people this season, but I think it is an natural progression that Star Trek has taken – the original show pushed the envelope with those real short skirts…
2. Smallville – The first 2 shows have been good. The legend of Superman has always been fantasy and they are playing it well. I agree with most of PAD’s comments about the show – One thing I am real tired of: Get Clark and Lana together or keep them apart for good. I said to myself last night, if they don’t get together after this epidode – I will have a hard time with this whole season. When it fell back into the same ol same ol as the past 2 season with these characters, it almost felt like a good stopping point for the show. They need to trust each other more by using each others strengths. They only see their weaknesses.
3.Angel – Angel is continuing to be good, but it is still missing someting. Over the summer I rewatched the entire first season and realized what I had been missing. When Angel started out, it was small group with huge stories. A closeness came from the group because they were overcoming huge odds. As the seasons have progressed, the group has continued to grow and the stories have not. I am not saying they are not good, they just don’t have the impact that they used to. The fate of the entire world in the balance (most of last season) – is HUGE, but it has been played too many time to many times to be effective.
This season they seem to be getting back to the roots a bit – bringing in characters that are familiar (if not annoying – Harmony has always annoyed me, but I think I like her bitter more than lovey dovey. She does have a right to be pìššëd at Spike (as much of a right as a dead vampire has) because he just used her and she know this.
Adding James Marsters to the cast this year was really needed and welcomed. It will be fun to watch him and Angel spar it out. (“I had to get in a few shots, didn’t I?”) The story last night was really good with all the twists and turns. Spike’s character is wide open right now and it seemed like Spike was walking a fine line of good and evil and thought he could possibly take a couple of steps off in the wrong direction. I don’t think we will see Spike as a ghost for too long. He revealed last night that he was on a one way track to Hëll and if something wasn’t done he would be going sooner than he wished. Then they really he really shocked me – he showed weakness to Fred. Totally out of character for Spike (unless it was the slayer), but it was done beautifully and will add more depth to his character.
Well… there you have it. Long enough now to effectively make no one read this far. But it was a lot of fun to write. 🙂 It took me the time for Vaughn Armstrong’s //Enterprise Blues// to play twice (only 5 songs) to write this. Vaughn Armstrong is Admiral Forrest off //Enterprise// (and a host of other characters (mostly villians). His music is an ukulele and harmonica and was recorded in his living room. Very limited edition.
Anyone remember in the first season of Angel with the Ring of Amarra(Sp?) the one that turned vamps invulnerable?
Angel broke it because he said if he became a daytime person he would eventually stop seeing the people that really need their help in the night. The ones who really need him. Or something to that effect.
I think that’s exactly what’s happening at W & H. When was the last time you seen them actually helping a helpless person? I can’t remember. They are just fighting against their own clients, while all the people they helped before are without a champion.
Could this have been the senior partners big plan? To keep Angel occupied and take him out of the fight so to speak?
Good stuff and I’m diggin Spike.
Angel needs to go on a diet!
He’s getting a little puffy in the face, and add that to his new hair do, and his head looks too big for his body.
Geeze I’m starting to sound like a girl 🙂
Peter, that’s two weeks in a row you’ve stuck an apostrophe into a possessive its. You’ve been reading too many Internet postings.
Smallville: I agree that the intrigue in the House of Luthor is still the best part of the show. Michael R. is at his best when he allows Lex to drop his guard and reveal what he really wants over everything else: a family. Nice to see I was right that Jonathan would finally suck up his pride and let Lex help him. And you know Helen will be back. Enough of the Lana-Clark-Chloe triangle! And where was Pete? Still, the scene where Clark lets a little bit of “Kal” out when Morgan Edge shows up at the farm was great. Smallville continues to show that it works without the Green K Mutant of the Week plot. Was I the only one who jumped up and shouted “Go Lana, Go Lana!” and did a cabbage patch dance when she came to the Kent’s rescue?
Angel: Spike shows up and steals every scene. “I’m sorry, I didn’t care.” Maybe Whedon should forget about Angel and rename the show “Spike.” Best scene: The exchange between Angel and Spike about what’s “fair.” I’m glad I’m not the only one who was irked that Angel spent a century feeling sorry for himself while Spike “spent three weeks moping in a basement” and was fine. The exchanges between them perfect. One idea that needs to be explored: Angel always thinks of himself and Angelus as two different people while Spike doesn’t think that way about himself between having a soul and not having one.
West Wing and Enterprise: Didn’t watch either of them. I’ve given up on the whole Trek franchise (sorry PAD) and West Wing always make me feel like I’m back in high school civics class.
Peter, I liked the seperate threads for Smallville and Angel you had last season. Here is the problem. I usually watch Angel on Wednesday night, so I am ready for your spoilers and comments on Thursday. However, I can’t get to Smallville until Thursday or Friday (I love TIVO) so I like to wait to read the commments then. But with this format I need to avert my eyes when I get to the Smallville comments. Can we go back to the other way?
Den, I haven’t watched the S5 Angel episodes yet due to a family emergency that’s consuming a lot of my time, I noticed that about the whole “I’ve got a soul now, boy I was a horrible person!” time difference.
Back when he was human, Angelus was pretty much a waste of human body too the way they present him as a boozing, womanizing ášš, so why would having a soul make a differnce?
Yet William (Spike), while an astonishingly bad poet and over sensitive mama’s boy, gets over it so quickly…
Who’s souls did they get back anyway?
In the Whedon-verse, what happens to the soul when one is “vampified”? Where does it go?
Did Angelus get his original soul back when cursed by the Gypsies? What about after he lost it to Buffy? Who’s sould did he get then?
Spike fell in love with Buffy and was (granted, with the help of the chip) slowly making progress back to “The light side” and, depending on how you look at it, went to actively quest to get his soul back.
I’d think the ensouling would’ve made little difference to Angelus and that William the poet would’ve been the mopey one considering his human origins.
The joys of fiction and unanswerable questions… (no one really knows what happens now when someone dies, or if there even is a “soul” to leave the bosy…)
Does the actor who plays Lex play the flash on the JLA cartoon?
Yes.
Angel. Didn’t gel for me. Next week werewolf girl. Now that looks fun.
Alias. Syd in librarian glasses. Whoo hoo!
Travis
SMALLVILLE:
Peter, your comments about Kal-El/Clark made a great deal of sense to me. One problem I had with the current Superman is the notion that Clark is his “normal” identity. No, it can’t be. Because, as Clark, he’s living a constant lie. He can’t be as capable as he knows he is. He’s constantly looking over his shoulder in fear of revealing that he’s more than he really is. The best thing about “Smallville” is that it’s realized — in a way that nothing else really has, especially “Lois & Clark,” which borrowed the “Clark is who I am” idea — that a Clark Kent who has to live this way *would* always feel uncomfortable in his own skin. In other words, by hiding he’s a Superman, he would appear to be like the dorky guy in the blue suit we all know from the Silver Age.
Kal-El (and soon Superman) is Clark as he really is (not simply evil) but rather being himself — not hiding his strength and abilities, not trying to be “human” (other than having tremendous humanity, if that makes sense). He soon will learn to strike the balance between his adoptive parents and his biological parents. Right now, though, he’s doomed to misery by trying to live what he knows deep down is a lie.
The Superman “persona,” which we’ve seen glimpses of whenever Clark saves the day in secret, is not a mask. Neither is Clark, the sometimes goofy teen. Interestingly, it’s only by realizing he has to be “two people” that he will be at one with himself.
SMALLVILLE–Ah. The illusion of change. Not a terribly gripping resolution to all the ideas that had been raised in the lead up, and I think Welling’s caught a case of Boreanaz Syndrome: he’s a far more interesting actor when he’s playing the dark side of his character. Now that Clark’s returned (more or less) to corn-fed goodness, he’ll get less and less compelling again. And I still can’t get past the sillier romance aspects of the show: no teenagers act like this. (Funny quip from my wife on Clark’s beaming smile when Lex announces himself as “part of the family” at the end: “Yay! Maybe Lex can move in, and we can share a room, and stay up late all night and braid each other’s hair….oh…..”)
West Wing: Ah. The fear of change. Show’s still a long, long way from finding some footing of its own, something that works away from the anxieties of influence of both Sorkin and Wells’ e.r. I’m still missing the narrative layers of old (especially with Bravo rerunning greats like the “Galileo” episode recently), and there’s yet to be anything offered in place of them to make this anything more than just a fairly decent hour of television. Will is still being wasted, which is really a shame. Good moments between Leo and the First Lady, even though I’m not happy with the more soap-opera aspects of that tension, it’s still good to put those two actors in a room together as much as you can. C.J.’s growing crisis of conscience could be very interesting, but I have to say I doubt anything will really be done with it under the new regime. And who knew Josh had foot fetish? 🙂
Angel: Ah, Change, Change, and More Change. This continues to be interesting in the extreme, if only to see how long they can keep it on the rails. I still maintain the cast has grown far too large to be workable, and this week’s episode really brings that home. Eve was missed, too–and too conveniently, since many of the questions they had about the Senior Partners’ wishes regarding Spike could have been directed to her. As with Harmony-as-comic-relief, they’re going to need to be very careful how they handle Casper–and I’m not sure it’s workable over the long term. (PAD’s absolutely right about the absurdity of watching Marsters have to hold that duster so tight. And just how does a ghost sit in chair with his feet propped up on a desk, anyway?) The plot was predictable as all hëll, but the characterizations seemed solid. I’ll be back for more until it gets really muddled–which I suspect it’s going to have to, but I’m willing to see what rabbits get pulled out of which hats.
Am I the only one who’s going to catch PAD referring to Lana as Lois? Wishful thinking, perhaps?
Did Angelus get his original soul back when cursed by the Gypsies? What about after he lost it to Buffy? Who’s soul did he get then?
Spike fell in love with Buffy and was (granted, with the help of the chip) slowly making progress back to “The light side” and, depending on how you look at it, went to actively quest to get his soul back.
I’d think the ensouling would’ve made little difference to Angelus and that William the poet would’ve been the mopey one considering his human origins.
You raise a really interesting point–maybe it was the fact that Angelus was just being his plain old rotten evil self when–Shazam!-he suddenly got the sucker punch of a guilty soul shoved into him while, in Spike’s case, there was a slow evolution from evil to..well, not exactly “good” but something at least moving in that general direction.
Or maybe there is something we don’t know about yet, some really horrible unspeakable act in Angelus’ past that makes all the dead babies and tortured toddlers seem like youthful indiscretions.
re SMALLVILLE–boy, after watching BUFFY take pretty much freakin forever to tell a story last season this show is quite the rollecoaster. I found myself worrying that they were moving too fast. I won’t complain if next week is a (temporary) return to the “kryptonite Mutant Du Jour” plot.
West Wing
The jury’s still out on this show. As they start moving out of last season’s “kidnapped Zoey” plot and moving onto new ground, I find myself less and less impressed. While I still like the characters, I wonder how differnet they’ll become post-Sorkin. And the (somewhat) abrupt kiss makes me worry about the ER-ization of the show (radical character shifts to accomodate plot — Luka’s a great guy, no wait, he’s a jerk. Carter suddenly a junkie! So on and so forth).
Wells just doesn’t seem to have Sorkin’s deft touch. Maybe he’s better at romance (though I have a hard time seeing it after last night’s little “shut up and show me your toes” scene), but I don’t think West Wing necessarily NEEDS romance. I don’t care if Josh and Donna ever get it on. And I REALLY don’t want to see a CJ/Toby thing going on — which it seems to me where they’re heading.
Just to chime in on a few things:
1. The Necromancer was on Seinfeld a number of times as a doctor. I remember him being in the episode where Jerry drops a Junior Mint into a patient on the operating table, and another time where he played a proctologist nicknamed the “Úš-man” who mixes up vanity license plates with Kramer.
2. I came to the conclusion some time ago that the writers and producers have decided to forego worrying about Clark’s future as Superman, and just writing whatever stories seem appropriate for a modern-day Superboy series. I don’t think it’s valid to evaluate the shows with Superman in mind.
Smallville:<<>
Lex moving over the Dark Side in a major way is not the “illusion of change.” It’s actual change. Last year, he confessed that what kept him from killing a man was his love for Helen — now that’s gone and I doubt he’ll be falling for anyone very soon.
<< and I think Welling’s caught a case of Boreanaz Syndrome: he’s a far more interesting actor when he’s playing the dark side of his character. >>
This is one of the big popular Internet Myths. On *Buffy*, yes, Angel was more interesting as Angelus because he could be a badass threat to Buffy. He was the Big Bad, after all. As Angel, he was just the “boyfriend,” which made him exceptionally dull. Spike fell into the same problem once he stopped being an outright bad guy on “Buffy.”
However, on “Angel,” Boreanaz has shown tremendous range and really made Angel a likeable and interesting character (almost more than Buffy herself). In fact, when Angelus returned last year, you could see the difference — Angelus is very been there, done that cliched bad guy.
You’re probably right about no teenagers acting like the characters on Smallville. It’s a shame that the show began as a Buffy clone because what they should have done was set the show in Smallville University or something like that (the characters could remain essentially the same and things would make a lot more sense — a “minor” running a business and a high school reporter going to crime scenes is ridiculous).
Noticed on that link to IMDb that the Necromancer played a villain on The Tick. This episode of Angel was co-written by Ben Edlund. I suspect he remembered the actor and got him the job. Which was a good call.
Liking Angel so far, and optimistic. Liking Smallville but with many qualms, and thinking that Clark’s actionb in Metropolis just can’t be ignored.
I would like to apologize for my grammer and spellling in my post above. I copied and pasted it into my personal blog and was appalled by all the mistakes I had made. I did that early this morning and should have run it through a spell and grammer checker.
Well, they left it pretty open-ended with a heavy suggestion that Rutger Hauer’s character is dead…and even if he’s not, it’s a no brainer he’ll be dead by the eventual end of the series. So any notions that he’ll be able to recognize Superman in the future are irrelevent. Every week somebody new learns Clark’s secret, and just about every week that person dies. It’s neat and tidy but understandable I guess.
What I hope is that they follow through with the whole death by pitchfork thing. I mean, it was hardly her fault and all in self defense…but Lana killed a guy. They’d better not sweep that under the rug.
Noticed on that link to IMDb that the Necromancer played a villain on The Tick. This episode of Angel was co-written by Ben Edlund. I suspect he remembered the actor and got him the job. Which was a good call
And let’s not forget that Angel stopped the butler with a Spoooooon!
David
Smallville: Plot points in question
1) Last time I checked, there aren’t any “ports” in Kansas — I guess you could say this was the Missouri River, but it sure didn’t look like it (I live in Missouri BTW).
2) Kent possessions would have survived the explosion & besides the truck could be traced – it was a rental, after all. Speaking of which, how are the Kents gonna explain that the truck is gone??
3) Lana killed a guy! No police report? And no remorse shown?!?!?
I really love this show, but this episode just had too many plot holes & bad continuity. I hope they get back on track soon. The Sooper-Pa / RedClark fight was great tho’.
Angel, on the other hand, had great plot w/ a nice twist & excellent acknowledgement of past episodes. Bravo.
Smallville: Plot points in question
1) Last time I checked, there aren’t any “ports” in Kansas — I guess you could say this was the Missouri River, but it sure didn’t look like it (I live in Missouri BTW).>>
I have major problems with Metropolis being in Kansas anyway. How many businessmen of Lionel Luthor’s stature are based in Kansas?
2) Kent possessions would have survived the explosion & besides the truck could be traced – it was a rental, after all. Speaking of which, how are the Kents gonna explain that the truck is gone??>>
They were robbed. It’s even possible that Luthor had a clean up team ensure that no inconvenient questions would be asked about this.
3) Lana killed a guy! No police report? And no remorse shown?!?!?>>
Remorse was shown in her reaction to it when it happened. We can assume a police report took place. And who knows what the long term effects of this will be?
Alias: There are two or three things that really, really, bother me about the new direction.
First, it’s the new Sloane.
COME ON, PEOPLE!!!
A pardon?!!?!?
Really?!?!
Please tell me he was given political assylum by China, North Korea or even Switzerland. Tell me he has a Villa in Argentina; is hiding in Colombia or has a close personal friendship with Fidel Castro!!! BUT A PARDON!!! COME ON!!!
And to add more insult to injury, the powers that be bought the idea that the Ramboldi artifact was a giant Peace Sign (that’s basically what Sloane said).
Weren’t pieces of it used to spontaneously combust Mexican Church goers or give Vaughn a virus or two? …I forget.
Anyways, my other pet peeve is that Carl Lumby’s Dixon went from unhinged to cool, calm and collected.
The mourning of his wife’s death appears to be over.
Nice.
Plus, he’s a CIA Director now.
Wait, wasn’t he a field agent from a terrorist organization?
Wow! I take it a lot CIA Government Journey Men hit the retirement age during Sydney’s two year absence. Either that, or he did something ultra heroic, like … I don’t know… maybe saving President Bartlett daughter’s life? For his sake, I hope it’s the latter. Otherwise, I imagine he’s about to get his share of Affirmative Action jokes from the water cooler guys. Or maybe he’s aware of it.
I can see it now…
Vaughn: “Dixon, I would like my old job back!”
Dixon: “I’m sorry Vaughn, but we are looking for a half Hispanic half African American Woman who’s a single mother and could possibly be gay.”
Vaughn: “I understand… but… as the only black man in the CIA, they would have to continue promoting you! You could be Secretary of State by next week!”
Dixon: “Good point Vaughn! Welcome back!”
Anyways, I was going to mention something about the new bad guys (what are they called? The Council?) really working for Sloane, but really… who doesn’t see that one coming?
Smallville:
Or as Fry from Futurama said: The Status Quo reasserts itself.
Lex’s Ex: We all knew she was somehow involved in the plane crash, but she was never written as particularly duplicitous. So technically, this was out of the blue. Besides, why would she want to sell Supes’ blood for chump change when she was planning on inheriting Lex’s fortune all along. Greed is truly a wonderful thing! (For writers!) But hey, I’m fine with it. I loved the episode; but if this were a comic book, somebody’s e-mail would be going up in flames just about… NOW!
Jonathan: I like him. I would’ve loved for him to use Green K or –gasp—introduce Golden Kryptonite to the world. But alas, a super powered fight with Pa Kent must’ve been deemed a better ratings grabber.
Lana: You can’t be called “Superman’s girlfriend from when he was a boy”, and just go out on one date! You know what you should do… You should call Clark a Virgin! Oh yeah! That should get things going!
Lionel, Lionel, Lionel: You put video cameras in your private Jets but not in your ultra-secret vault? Well, I guess if the contractors knew, it wouldn’t be a secret now, would it? But seriously. One week you act like you know Clark is an alien, meant on ruling us; and next week you have no clue as to the origins of a simple blood sample. You are going make the Kents think they can fool the world with a pair of glasses!
Speaking of which, ever since Clark started getting his @$$ chewed and/or arrested by cops, I’ve been wanting for him to put them on. You see, as a reporter, there’s nothing wrong with you being seen on the scene of every little crime, death or explosion in Smallville. As a kid, well that’s a different thing. But hey. If you start wearing glasses, people will think you are a nerd… and start blaming Chloe for change! It works! Trust me! My cousin once took on a couple of football players and then told the Judge, “look at me… then look at them! You’d think I would start something!”
Clark: Well, considering the fact that he blew up the farm, lost his brother and then went on rampage, I can’t blame him for listening to his father and not trying anything during the hostage situation. On the other hand, showing Edge that you are vulnerable to Green Kryptonite was very, very stupid. It made for good drama. But it was stupid.
Batman would’ve given Edge an empty box, and then watch Lionel gun him down. What Clark should do is practice using his heat vision, so that he can disarm with one power and outrun a speeding bullet with the other.
West Wing:
It would be nice to know how the anonymous caller knew were Zoe was. Otherwise, I’ll have to stick with my Dixon theory.
William Devane rocks, but so does Gary Cole.
I was upset about the President rolling over the issue after the nasty Goodman letter. What happened to his backbone? If the Democrats want a Vice-P ASAP ‘cause they are afraid of the President keeling over and surrendering the Presidency yet again to another Republican, so much so that they’ll accept anybody, then fine. Say it. Show it. As it stands, I did not get why even the Democrats wouldn’t confirm Devane.
As for Josh, apparently the guy has a foot fetish. My theory is that he was seduced by his girlfriend’s sexy naked feet.
There you go PAD. Hope that answered your question.
Take care, Cowboy!
So I guess nobodies biting (no pun intended) on my “Spike is The First Evil” theory from last week? I figured that would be all over the internet by now. Oh well, back to the drawing board.
One idea that needs to be explored: Angel always thinks of himself and Angelus as two different people while Spike doesn’t think that way about himself between having a soul and not having one.
I think they alluded to the reason. Spike chose his fate… his demon self desired to be ensouled. He just had to come to grips with the horrible things he’s done in the past, and was able to embrace the “positive” changes to his personality. Angel, on the other hand, had to do that *and* fight his caged demonic self, who wanted nothing to do with the soul business, and is constantly trying to reassert control.
So, Spike would have it easier. That evil little voice in his head is a whole lot quieter.
A tidbit I hear is that ANGEL’s gotten a commitment for a full 22 episodes, thanks to its retention of the SMALLVILLE audience….
So I guess nobodies biting (no pun intended) on my “Spike is The First Evil” theory from last week? I figured that would be all over the internet by now. Oh well, back to the drawing board.
I was dubious, but withholding judgment until I saw the episode. Now that I have, it’s clear the flashback was supposed to connect Spike as we see him in “Angel” with the genuine article. Nah. It’s not the first. It’s him.
PAD
Okay, it bugged me far too much about Lana killing a guy and the police not being involved – especially since Smallville last season had that horribly interesting new Chief.
And Lex is played by Michael Rosenbaum. Just a point of order.
Smallville overall felt a bit – off. Nothing specific, just an overall weak episode. Except for the final scene, and wondering how many bodies are going to be left by the Luthor & Luthor screwing each other over competition.
As for Spike and his coat – I think the hugging served a purpose beyond him brushing against things. Here’s a guy who died in a pretty gruesome fashion, which he remembers, and now finds himself in a new place and in a pretty freaky situation. I think it’s perfectly natural for him to be really, really withdrawn – as much as Spike can be. hëll, he’s radiating heat; maybe he’s cold (psychologically speaking).
One poiint I really liked about Angel this week: the whole crew finding out that his relationship to the Slayer and Spike is a lot more complex and dark than they thought.
And can we all just applaud James Marsters in that last scene with Fred? I’m not sure if he’s playing her (I really think he was sincere), but that was some nice Marsters work.
‘Angel’ – First off, the guy who played the Necromancer is also one of Frank Barone’s lodge cronies on ‘Everybody Loves Raymond.’ But more importantly, I absolutely loved this episode! The banter between Angel and Spike was terrific, and I like how the writers aren’t giving everything away right away: there’s a real sense that we’re building to something, and I’m we don’t know exactly what it is just yet. Harmony continues to be fun, too — much like Cordelia when she was still full of her Sunnydale persona. I like that Gunn has more to do, and Wesley, Fred, and Lorne are being used well, too. Seems them ‘Angel’ folks have mastered the ensemble cast.
‘Alias’ – Awesome! I like how we’re recovering the past two years with Sydney, and I’m enjoying the soap opera with Syd, Vaughn, and Mrs. Vaughn. Good stuff! I can’t wait for Lena Olin to show up again.
‘Smallville’ – Busy episode! But good! Lots of good interraction here: Lex and Helen; Lex and Lionel; Lionel and Edge; Edge and Clark; Clark and Lana; Lana and Chloe. Just lots of good acting in their scenes, and I loved the final scene with Lex wanting to be accepted into the Kent family. To me, this show is not so much about Superman or Superboy or Superdog; it’s about family and I like how they deal with it.
Smallville was pretty nifty this week, but there were just way too many plot bunnies for it to be taken seriously. Don’t get me wrong, the fight between Clark and Jonathan was awesome, but no one heard all that concrete falling? Yet again, Lionel puts cameras in his planes but not in his buildings? Where was security? Where did Lana get the horse from anyway, i thought when her aunt left, she sold the farm… i mean stables are expensive.
All this teenybopper drama is actually starting to make me miss the mutant of the week episodes… we need to change the story up a little, get chloe a guy that isn’t a monster or something… 🙂
Lana’s been keeping the horse at the Luthor estate.
Why, yes, I know far too much about Smallville. Why do you ask?
Come to think of it, have they ever specifically said that Smallville, in this show’s universe, is in Kansas?
And Lex is played by Michael Rosenbaum. Just a point of order.
That would be a point of information, actually. A point of order would be seeking a clarification of how a meeting should be run according to Roberts Rules of Order.
PAD
have major problems with Metropolis being in Kansas anyway. How many businessmen of Lionel Luthor’s stature are based in Kansas?
Marion Ewing Kauffman?
In the standard DC universe, isn’t Metropolis in Delaware and Gothan in New Jersey or something like that?
The whole bit with Devane not becoming vice president was completely bizarre. I mean, we all knew his run for the role was doomed the minute everyone in the room said he was a slam dunk, but still, this has to be the most drama-free loss this team has ever suffered.
Everybody: “We want Berryhill! And we’ll fight to keep him.”
Doofus Speaker Guy: “Nah, we don’t like him.”
Everybody: “Okay. He’s gone.”
Doofus Speaker Guy: “Here, look at this list of people you don’t take remotely seriously. Would you mind knuckling under to us before the episode is over? If you could see your way clear to doing it in the most bland and boring manner possible, that would be nice also.”
Everybody: “Okay.”
??????
>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<
I wonder why they didn’t use Morgan’s dad Vinnie Edge instead? Rutger’s age would seem more appropriate for the senior edge.
I have major problems with Metropolis being in Kansas anyway. How many businessmen of Lionel Luthor’s stature are based in Kansas
There’s the Koch brothers in Wichita. Koch Industries is the second-largest privately owned corporation in the United States.
**2) Kent possessions would have survived the explosion & besides the truck could be traced – it was a rental, after all. Speaking of which, how are the Kents gonna explain that the truck is gone??>>
They were robbed. It’s even possible that Luthor had a clean up team ensure that no inconvenient questions would be asked about this.
3) Lana killed a guy! No police report? And no remorse shown?!?!?>>
Remorse was shown in her reaction to it when it happened. We can assume a police report took place. And who knows what the long term effects of this will be?**
“Okay, officers, here’s the story. We called you out here because we were tied up and held hostage by this criminal who this teenage girl pushed through a pitch fork. You’re going to be able to identify this guy pretty easily because he works for a guy who last episode identified himself, unfortunately, as something like ‘the man who controls all the crime in this city.’ Which is almost as bad as those Stan Lee villains who would band together and call themselves something like the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants or the Masters of Evil…but I digress…
“To back that up, you’ll find the truck that was stolen from our farm was blown up at a dock in Metropolis where *another* body of a guy – this one even harder to identify because of the tatoo on his neck – who worked for Morgan Edge. This guy will have been killed in a gun battle but what’s a few dead crooks, right?
“What’s the connection between a small town farm family and a big city crime lord? Well, we’re kinda hoping you wouldn’t ask. And while you’re at it, could you disregard the amazing coincidence that our son, who we had filed a missing persons report about, just turned up a few days before all this happened? Thanks.”
ALIAS– 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?)
She wasn’t angry because he didn’t wait for her to come back from the dead because she’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
She was angry that he didn’t wait for her to come back from the dead because she’s Elektra…
Syd’s pìššëd because of what didn’t happen to Vaughn. She was expecting him to change. After all, Mourning Becomes Elektra.
*wince*
Ouch. Joke-related injury.
Peter,
You like when shows continuity from previous seasons, and I just saw one. I was watching a syndicated West Wing from the first season. Zoey had gone to a bar with the gang (to set up that she liked Charley) and there was an innocent. When she returned to the White House, President Bartlett lectured Zoey about his fear of her being drugged and kidnapped from a bathroom in a bar and being used by terrorists to be exchanged for prisoners (however he says she is taken to Uganda).