Interesting week. Spoilers throughout.
ALIAS: Syd’s dad bends (okay, breaks) rules to protect his daughter. Very commendable. Very illegal. And you just *know* that he’s not going to be able to keep a lid on it forever. Why do I have the feeling that it’s going to be Sloane who is somehow going to blow the whistle on him? Or, worse, get wind of it and endeavor to blackmail Jack somehow. Meanwhile it was interesting watching Syd and Vaughn endeavoring to work as a team again with the heightened tension between them. But hey, maybe blowing stuff up is even better than sex. I am so along for the ride for this one.
SMALLVILLE: The Kryptonite bullet sequence was harrowing; it’s shocking to see Clark that vulnerable and his poor parents freaking out. Interesting that we’re now starting to see the beginnings of Lex’s megalomania, and where it’s coming from is *extremely* disturbing. Consider: Where it seems they’re saying is that Lex’s eventual sense of destiny, dominance, and power-sucking ego stems from the fact that Clark has saved him so many times. Clark is basically creating his own worst enemy simply by doing what comes naturally. In saving him, he’s dámņìņg him. How stupendously twisted is *that*?
ANGEL: The second episode nicely reinforces that Angel is the lead of the show as Spike pulls a fast fade while Doctor Flox, out of his Enterprise make-up, betrays a werewolf. Okay, kids, here’s a tip: NEVER betray a werewolf. It just always ends badly. It took some truly demented writing minds to come up with the notion of a gourmet club that eats supernatural beasts. It’s like that movie “The Freshman” by way of “Twin Peaks.” I sure didn’t see it coming, so hats off. As for Spike, it’s starting to look like the Casper act is only temporary. It’ll be interesting to see if the rumors about Spike winding up human (and the first male slayer!) turn out to be right in the end after all.
WEST WING: I missed the first few minutes thanks to a VCR snafu. But it’s pretty obvious that the show has completely lost its focus since Sorkin left. The characters are unrecognizable as themselves. Literally. I didn’t know who any of them were. In fact, it looked like a totally different set of actors. Even the White House didn’t look right. I guess the lighting has gotten just that bad. None of the characters sounded remotely right. And there was no intense political infighting or strategies. Instead the whole thing played like a crime show or something. Perhaps it wasn intended as a back-door pilot or something, but frankly, I just didn’t get it at all. Sorkin’s absence is sorely felt.
PAD
• 
If you’re of a certain age (old), then what happened with “The West Wing” this week has to have a certain nostalgia factor.
It brings me back to the days when you could open up a Marvel comic any week and find that the DDD had struck. (Bonus points for those who remember what that stands for…) The next thing you know, you were reading a reprint.
The funny thing is, it didn’t strike me as odd at the time. Now it would seem odder than a hardcover edition of “Marville” with a foreward by Harvey Pekar.
A couple of corrections:
Coupling actually lasted three
episodes. TV Guide claims that
it’s only being pulled for two
weeks and will then be back.
Not that anyone is likely to miss
it.
And CBS went spineless also and
ran reruns opposite the baseball
playoffs. At least that’s what
I’ve heard.
Btw, the British Coupling (of which the first season is available in the US on DVD, the second season is due out shortly [6-8 episode seasons the norm in Britain], and all three seasons are shown regularly on BBC America) is *much* superior to the US version. BBC America showed the first British episode the same night the first American episode aired, and despite having the same plot for the most part and probably 80% of the same dialogue, the British version was funny and enjoyable while the American version was flat and dull.
And I strongly recommend The End Of The Line, the last episode of Season 2, as an amazing bit of writing that pulls together numerous seemingly unrelated bits into a wonderful whole. There are also some hysterical comics related bits from time to time, he said avoiding spoilers.
Well, PAD, the werewolf diner would have been a surprise if Tivo hadn’t spoiled it for me in the synopsis. I agree with tomthedog; Tivo is my lifeblood. Sometimes they do stuff I don’t especially care for, though.
So, get a Tivo, but try not to read the synopses, I guess.
Alias—So far the season has been good, not great. But I know this is all just set-up for what will definitly be a GREAT season. I was just on the edge on my seat though with Jack. I think Jack’s storyline was the most interesting. You just wondered if he was going to be able to stop that picture or if he’d get caught. He stopped it but like PAD said, he won’t be able to keep a lid on it forever…
Smallville–Good episode. The first two were great, this was good. I think though that the part with Clark getting shot was really powerful! What a sequence. Though I hope next episode Clark really does tell Lana. I mean come on: suspense is good, but it can only go on for so long. I think letting her in on the secret could be very interesting.
Angel-Really good episode. This show is also still setting the season up for what is going to be a great season! I think next weeks may be the best episode of the season yet. Looks really spooky!
I’ve stopped watching West Wing. I got Alias, Angel, Smallville, CSI, Without A Trace, Cold Case, The Handler, Taken, Joan of Arcadia, and 24 when it comes back! Thats enough shows….for now!
DF2506
Ah…the Dreaded Deadline Doom…I remember it well.
Ed
Is the guy on “Angel” playing Fred’s underling, Knox, the same actor who was in last season’s finale? At that time, the actor was the one who played the talkative vampire in “Conversations with Dead People,” but I can’t figure out if it’s the same guy now or not. He doesn’t look quite the same to me.
WEST WING—
My local ABC station has the syndication rights for this NBC show. The most recent episode had Martin Sheen (as Pres. Bartlett) making a long speech to a roomful of his friends, co-workers, and relatives. It was about three minutes long and was filmed as one take.
I doubt that this years writers could even write a three minute speech. The directing has been horrid, too.
NBC pulled the new episodes because they would have lost the entire New York and Boston viewership. If it had been a different pair of teams playing, say Detroit and Cleveland, they wouldn’t have suffered any noticeable retings loss.
“Is the guy on “Angel” playing Fred’s underling, Knox, the same actor who was . . .the talkative vampire in “Conversations with Dead People”
Yep. Great ep. Almost made up for “Him”. Personally, I’m still hoping that Knox’s charming demeanor hides something nasty and strange. He seems to have the acting chops for it.
Back to Coupling…
The British version *is* superior to the American one for two reasons. First, the British version has a more relaxed, casual acting style that makes it seem like friends hanging out than actors reading lines.
Second, THE AMERICAN VERSION COPIES IT ALMOST WORD FOR WORD!!! I don’t know if the American version was going to make original stories eventually, but the U.S. one copied the plots and virtually all of the dialogue from the British episodes! The result is like watching a stand-up comedian whose whole routine has been ripped off from a better comic: Some lines may make you laugh, but it’s better to hear it from the source.
(BTW, for those New York folks, I found out that the British “Coupling” is on WLIW, channel 21, Fridays at 10:30. Great show to watch on a date!)
And to digress further, is anyone else bugged by seeing the remake of THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE plugged as “based on a true story”? Leatherface’s human mask was loosely based on serial killer Ed Gein, who did keep and wear parts of his victims. But that’s *it*. Gein didn’t take out four kids in a van, he didn’t operate from Texas, he didn’t kill people with a chainsaw, and he didn’t work with his family.
I swear, if STAR WARS: A NEW HOPE came out today, there’d be some ads describing it as “based on a true story.” Makes me sad…
So, thanks to this week’s Smallville, it’s official: More superheroes now have healing factors than super-strength. I know Clark rebounds quickly from kryptonite once it’s removed from his immediate “personal space” but his wound closing and healing instantly seemed to be a new one on me.
Off topic somewhat, who was the first comic book character stated to have a healing factor? Was there anyone character that was stated or shown to have one before Wolverine’s first appearance? Manhunter maybe?
Hmmm… when was Wolvie showing up?
Manhunter was mid to late seventies… the original did not have a healing factor. Just a guy in a silly suit hunting people.
Paul Smith made him look better in the Golden Age, but Simonson/Goodwin’s costume was a definite improvement.
So manhunter showed up in detective comics #437 (The Reintroduction) October-November 1973. Wolverine Showed up in the Incredible Hulk #181, November 1974. So Manhunter had a year on Wolvie, but, I’m not even sure that Wolvie was said to have a healing factor at that point in time.
Been awhile since I read that issue.
Interesting concept.
So far, Manhunter (Paul Kirk) is in the lead.
Travis
James Lynch – Well, truth is stranger than fiction.
Actually, by using the words “based on,” a screenwriter or director is free to take whatever liberties he wants with the material. Look at USA’s “The Dead Zone.” It’s “based on characters created by Steven King,” even though the events in the book (“The Dead Zone,” for those of you who didn’t do the assignment) preclude the possibility of the events in the show taking place. Of course, it’s not a bad show (the Osama bin Laden episode was laughable, though) and SK endorses it, plus we get to see Anthony Michael Hall actually acting, which is a treat in itself.
In the opposite direction, here’s an example of a director taking the actual true story into consideration: Erin Brockovich.
If you watch the DVD’s deleted scenes, there’s one that upon watching, I was convinced should never have been cut. Erin is taking her kids somewhere and stops to get some more samples from a contaminated area, and is reading a report that says the badness gets in through the skin. Then she turns around and sees her kids playing in the contaminated dirt, and immediately ushers them back into the car and takes them to a gas station to wash their hands off. It was a very well-done scene and, for dramatic purposes, should never have been cut. Watching it again, though, with the director’s commentary, I found out why it ended up on the cutting room floor — it never happened. Steven Soderberg cut the scene because the real-life Erin told him that it didn’t happen.
As for Star Wars being based on a true story, that’s unlikely. Akira Kurosawa’s Hidden Fortress might have been, but Star Wars was based almost directly on that. Of course, you were being facetious and probably didn’t need me to tell you that.
Superman’s been shown to heal rapidly upon occasion in the past couple years (if not consistently)…What about Spider-Man? While he doesn’t exactly have a healing factor, he heals more quickly than normal, and been around longer than Wolverine.
“Actually, by using the words “based on,” a screenwriter or director is free to take whatever liberties he wants with the material.”
Too true. Unfortunately, the direction with TCSMNew is far too off from the truth. They took a serial killer who sometimes wore parts of his victims, and used those two SOLO parts to claim the whole TCSM is based on a true story. The IMDB mentions that Gein was also an inspiration for PSYCHO and THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS — neither of which claim to be based on a true story. (If they did, that would make TCSM, PSYCHO, and SILENCE based on THE SAME true story. What a story that would be!)
As for my STAR WARS comparison, it’s to say that by extending it, *anything* can be based on a true story. There have been plenty of rebels that fought against and overcame oppressive governments. If you say that’s the basis for A NEW HOPE, than STAR WARS is indeed “based on a true story.”
Unless, like most advertising executives, you care about truth and accuracy.
A couple of corrections:
Coupling actually lasted three
episodes. TV Guide claims that
it’s only being pulled for two
weeks and will then be back.
Not that anyone is likely to miss
it.
And CBS went spineless also and
ran reruns opposite the baseball
playoffs. At least that’s what
I’ve heard.
In response:
You heard wrong. L.A. got a brand new “Survivor” and “CSI” this past Thursday opposite Game 7 of the Yankees/Red Sox baseball playoff. I don’t know if “Without a Trace”‘ was new because I don’t watch that show.
So, in fact, I was correct and CBS was not spineless… and ran original programming opposite the Fox Baseball playoffs.
Second: you may very well be right that “Coupling” ran three episodes (rather than 2) but I would not know… as I only watched EIGHT MINUTES of the first episode… when I was driven off by the poor writing, the even poorer acting and direction and the unbearable SUPER HYPED UP artificial laugh track.
The producers desperately ordered that almost every two line exchange had to be punctuated with a hearty set of laughs. I immediately figured out that my life was far too short to sit and watch something that desperately bad…
… And this is coming from a guy who would watch RENA SOFER read a newspaper while shaving her armpits (after all, I started watching “Just Shoot Me” only after she joined the cast– just before it was canceled.)
And yes, I know that “Coupling” is coming back… But you can bet the farm that it will not last much longer.
Witness the ratings:
“Will & Grace”: 14.5 Million Households
“ER”: 17.5 Million Households
“Coupling” (the show seen in between the two mentioned above) 10.2 Million Households.
That means “Coupling” loses over 4 million households from “Will & Grace” and then 7.5 million households switch back to NBC to watch “ER” after “Coupling is over!
And, for the record– the ratings quoted above are approximate averages. Please refrain from posting they are not exactly accurate or don’t jibe with whatever internet TV Ratings service you suscribe to or normally haunt.
Your cooperation would be much appreciated in this matter. 🙂
Okay, so who watches Smallville/
Angel and tapes Enterprise/Jake 2.0 and vice versa?
When this week’s episode of Smallville opened, I had to groan. Not another girl in a darkened swimming pool at night, where the director does a couple of 360s to establish she’s all alone, but suddenly, inexplicably, the villain or monster appears next to her! To my surprise though, the writers actually used that very same mind-set and put their villain at the bottom of the pool. Impressive. I was less impressed with the overall episode though. While there were lots of nods to the continuity-minded (included Lex’s computer recreation of his accident on the bridge), things seem to have settled down awfully quickly for Clark, his family and his friends. This guy blew everybody off and went on a months-long crime spree in Metropolis, but other than a few passing references to that period, everybody seems to be happy to let sleeping dogs lie. It feels a bit too reset button-ish to me. But I like the idea that people are thinking maybe Clark is different because of the meteor shower, rather than because he arrived in the middle of it.
I’m enjoying Angel an awful lot, largely because of the razor-sharp dialogue, particularly in the last two episodes. Some of the dialogue is so good in fact, that I’m prepared to give the writers a pass on the fact that their villains seem to get mopped up off-camera in the final act. I’m also glad to see a werewolf back in the Buffy/Angel-verse again. There was a bit of a werewolf embargo for a while because the producers weren’t happy with what they were getting from the makeup FX guys (in fairness, try to create a full werewolf suit in about a week for no money), but they seem to have largely overcome that problem. And I like the idea of a female werewolf that can be brought back from time to time. Nice to see Fred with something to do for a chance.
Enterprise continues to disappoint. I notice that Peter never ventures an opinion on this show, but I suspect it’s because you’ve got to know what side your bread is buttered on when part of your income is derived from the Star Trek universe. Still, I’d be interested to know how he felt.
At any rate, if the producers of Enterprise are going to use the device of a running storyline, they should probably do a quick recap at the beginning of the ep just to help out new viewers. What’s up with all those weird gravity anomolies? Oh yeah, that started three episodes ago, but you missed it. As Mia Wallace once said, ‘Catch-up!’
So far, ‘Exile’ (the Enterprise episode, not Smallville) is the worst of the season. Did Hoshi bring all those changes of clothes with her on short notice to this alien planet, or were they left behind by the previous ‘companions?’ Dunno, never explained. How do you retrieve a shuttle that’s drifting away from a larger mass by disabling its thruster? Wouldn’t it just keep floating away? Dunno, never explained. I could keep going, but you get the idea.
But just to show that everything is relative, I suggest watching an episode or two of the current Andromeda. By comparison, Enterprise looks like the SF equivalent of War and Peace.
Any opinions from anyone on Tarzan? Carnivale? Jeremiah? Just curious.
Enterprise continues to disappoint. I notice that Peter never ventures an opinion on this show, but I suspect it’s because you’ve got to know what side your bread is buttered on when part of your income is derived from the Star Trek universe. Still, I’d be interested to know how he felt.
PAD can speak for himself, but he comments on Smallville at the same time that he still does work for DC, so that may not be the issue.
On Smallville — I notice Martha called the bullet “kryptonite”. Has that word been uttered yet on the show, presumably during the big Jor-El/Chris Reeve revelation episodes? I don’t remember that it was.
SMALLVILLE: When I saw the underwater stalker, I thought “Man, Aquaman’s sunk to a new low.” 🙂
I agree with Joe Nazzaro about ENTERPRISE. The previous series always had a sense of wonder, of exploration. (Even VOYAGER, when they were trying to get home, had the crew making contact and new discoveries.) In an attempt to boost ratings, they’ve turned ENTERPRISE into “24” in space. There’s no more exploration, or establishing ties with new aliens — it’s a race against time! They have to stop the bad guys before they strike Earth with warning again! (Makes me wonder if they’re creating their own future 9/11 situation as well, with the Xindi as the Taliban and much of Florida as the World Trade Center.) And if you thought adding Jeri Ryan to VOYAGER was an obvious attempt to boost ratings with sex, you ain’t seen nothing until ENTERPRISE season 3! T’Pal’s new uniform clearly doesn’t have a bra, and the semi-naked relaxation exercised with Tripp come close to softcore pørņ. (“There is nothing sexual about this, it is strictly to help you sleep. Now let me put your mouth around your…”) Even a pervert like me has to say “That’s just too much.”
Plus, this show’s veered WAY off from the ostensible purpose of showing the formative events that would lead to the creation of the Federation. And if you thought the Temporal Cold War and first Borg encounter were lapses in continuity, none of the other shows mentioned this Earth-threatening species before!
I miss Jean-Luc.
My cable system doesn’t carry the WB, so I don’t see those programs.
I do have HBO and have been enjoying both Carnivale and The Sopranos.
I don’t know the genesis of Carnivale, but it seems very much like a Joe Landsdale story.
Regarding Enterprise, I have to agree with James Lynch’s comments about the ‘soft pørņ.’ While I have no problem with sex, implied or otherwise, I really resent being pandered to, and that’s what this whole insomnia story thread feels like. One can picture the pre-season story conferences where the producers are sitting around in a room, talking about what they can do to boost viewing figures (although I rather doubt the subject of bringing in new, good writers ever entered into them). Okay, how can we show more semi-nude shots of T’Pol? I know, we create this storyline where she teaches acupressure and has to take her top off…
While I don’t have a problem with the new direction, i.e. tracking down the Xindi, it doesn’t make sense to throw out the baby with the bath water so to speak. Having spent two seasons painting the Suliban as arch villains, how can you dispose of them so quickly? If there’s time travel involved, surely they already know about the Xindi and what’s going to happen, so the two storylines could dovetail at some point.
I guess the thing the really bothers me is that the show looks cheap. Why shell out for a bunch of cool-looking aliens when we can just have one instead? Let’s go for a more claustrophobic tone, so we can save money on sets, alien planets, lots of extras and so on.
And don’t get me started on characterization, or lack thereof. Does poor Anthony Montgomery get to do anything on this show? Do the main characters even hang out together? Do they like each other? After more than two seasons, I still don’t know. The movie night idea, while a bit naff, was at least a step in the right direction. I miss the Next Gen poker games, where at least you got to see what the command staff would do when not on duty. I know the original Enterprise is supposed to be a smaller ship than the Enterprise-D, but c’mon, let’s see a little bit of it.
Apologies for the rant, but I just watched ‘Exile’ again to put my finger on some of the things that were bothering me, so I guess they’re still very fresh in my mind.
Regarding the current ads about “Texas Chainsaw” being based on a true story, while the Ed Gein case is the most Americana influence, there was the Sawney Beane family in Scotland, an incestuous cannibal family which preyed on unwary travelers. Whether Tobe Hooper was aware of this story when he developed TCM is uncertain (although the family’s name in the original TCM was “Sawyer”–not far removed from “Sawney”). Hooper does claim his inspiration for the chainsaw came after he saw some chainsaws in the hardware section of a crowded store.
As for the case of Psycho, I know that film was a fair adaptation of the Bloch novel, but I was under the impression that Bloch used the Gein case as the basis for his novel.
My review on Smallville (since I don’t watch the other shows…well Angel was good first season and Alias too hard to keep up with)
-I actually liked it better than last week’s….think the writers giving a tongue in cheek humor to the viewers since so many people bìŧçhëd about the first season becoming too redundant with the Kryptonite freak of the week and this week’s episode dealt with a Punisher wannabe (well sorta…he dressed all Army-like since his dad, whom he admired, was in the Army) hunting down all these Kryptonite infected freaks……(i.e. this boy who has gills, Clark since he caught a bullet from hitting Lex)
-Classic scene was when Clark and Lana were talking about the kid shooting the freaks (oh and he saved Lana’s life from gill boy) and she said “Life would be much simpler if the meteor shower never happened.” Clark’s reaction to that was FÙÇKÍNG PRICELESS!
-Lionel such a badass and John Glover doing a GREAT job of portraying it…hard to believe someone so deceiving like that once played a weak, AIDS infected patient on An Early Frost (yes I know its acting but still).
-OH MY FÙÇKÍNG GOD what a sequence that was of Clark getting shot by a kryptonite bullet! His parents freaked and I hated to see Clark in a vulnerable position…:(
-A little sick of the Clark and Lana angsty scenes and he should’ve just flat out tell her the truth…she even said she won’t get freaked out by it!
-Heh one thing I noticed when Lex almost got assasinated by Punisher boy (well he thought Lex was a freak since Lex was on a database of meteor freaks…which Chloe made) the security men for Luthorcorp looked like Secret Service men..lol which of course is foreshadowing since Lex Luthor (in the current Action Comics) is President…I don’t know someone I noticed)
RE: Enterprise. Lemme put it to you this way. Some years back I wrote in “But I Digress” that people criticized the presence of humor in my original series Trek comics, and that I felt this criticism missed the fact that a lot of STTOS was tremendously funny, by design. The Kirk/Spock/McCoy interplay, the one liners, and many situations were laugh-out-loud funny. And that more recent Trek,such as STTNG, was far more serious in tone and style and, therefore, fans had forgotten how funny STTOS could be.
And this got retranslated and repeated to Paramount as “Peter David says he can write Star Trek better than Gene Roddenberry.”
And I got *tons* of grief over it.
I’ll take the rap for stuff I say, but stuff I don’t say? No. And when it comes to Trek commentary, on that occasion and on others, my statements tend to get twisted, distorted or misread and then relayed to the Powers That Be, whereupon hilarity ensues. At this point in my life, it’s grief I simply don’t need. So I just don’t comment, good or ill, when it comes to Trek. Just ain’t worth it.
PAD
Minor point of correction re: Texas Chainsaw Massacre ads
The ads actually say “Inspired by a true story” not “Based on a true story.” This gives them infinite amount of play, whereas with “based on” I think there’s a bit more expectation to be closer to the source than something like this is.
Smallville first-Loved it. Thought the Clark shooting was brilliant. My only complaint remains that poor Chloe seems in constant fear or sadness….especially when Allison Mack has (imo) the best smile in tv.
Angel- This show is great, the dialogue is sharp, the characters are all well defined….so what’s wrong? Can we please get rid of Spike? They’ve managed to use him to ruin Buffy the last two seasons, why do it to Angel? I much preferred the early episodes. Particularly the fact that they no longer have someone to get the visions…And a male slayer? God I hope not….
Enterprise- I have to watch the rerun this Sunday because I love Hoshi. She’s much prettier than T’Pol. The show isn’t all bad, it has moments of goodness but it does need some focus.
West Wing-I’m not gonna watch the new season but I have found myself watching the reruns locally,now that it’s in syndication.
I wanted to mention that the other new shows I’m loving are Joan of Arcadia,Navy NCIS(which is just fun crap really)and Karen Sisco(which is probably my favorite new show). I have watched Tarzan but the only thing that kept my interest is Jane who reminds me lots of Laura Linney.
Michael Norton
Anybody else notice that Gill-Boy was trying to strangle Lana underwater. I repeat… he was STRANGLING her UNDERWATER!
>>Clark is basically creating his own worst enemy simply by doing what comes naturally. In saving him, he’s dámņìņg him. How stupendously twisted is *that*?<<
Mr. David is remarkably perceptive, he said, knowing what the future holds on SMALLVILLE. Poor Lex will be traveling down a very dark road, and soon… his journey sort of revs up in PERRY, an episode I wrote that introduces the Perry White character (played by Michael McKean of Spinal Tap and Mighty Wind) to the Smallville universe. We introduce another new character in the episode who will amplify on Lex’s issues following his problems on that deserted island…
Someone asked if we’d used the word “kryptonite” on the show before “Extinction”, and the answer is yes, but only Clark, his parents and Pete (and Chris Reeve’s character Dr. Swan, I guess) know about Krypton. Everybody else still calls the green (and red) stuff meteor rock.
Anyhow, I enjoyed the comments on the show… next up is “Slumber”, a kind of spooky effort, then “Perry”, then “Relic”, another change-up… glad you all found the show after the move to Wednesday!
Mark Verheiden
Co-Exec Producer, Smallville
Regarding Enterprise:
I happen to be enjoying this season, though I have to agree on the obvious “sexing-it-up”. (Also agree on Hoshi’s attire…my boyfriends comment? “Uh oh we’re in trouble now, look at the “f— me dress she’s got on”
And, is it me or is T’Pol’s bøøbš smaller? Her old uniform had them all up in your face now they’re just unrestrained…deh, perhaps you guys think that’s sexier, anyway. Wait a minute, why am I discussing how they look rather then their space exploits? Ya think the powers that be planned that…hmmmm?
Still I do tune in, cause I’m hooked. And I think the FX are great, especially the new aliens, brings to mind Star wars.
Hey they gotta go that way considering they had to go back before all those gitchy gizmos Kirk and the clan had. Can’t make the phasers and computers any bigger then they were then!!!
Still I think it would be cool if Hoshi had an Uhura thingie sticking out of her ear at some point? And aren’t they missing an obvious “sexing-up” point by not having her seat elevated behind the Captain’s chair so she can cross her legs, wear an ultra-mini skirt, and show off her gams too? And you guys think “sexing-it-up” is a new ploy….
Thanks PAD for letting us know why no comments on “Enterprise” I was wondering about that myself!
Wondering if there’ll be any flirting between Perry and Martha, given that the two actors are husband and wife. 🙂
Mark, if you’re able to, could I ask you to comment on Helen’s character? The whole black widow all along bit seemed to come out of thin air, given what’d been established about her last season, and didn’t seem to jibe with all her previous actions and history with Lex.
And as a complete side note, I really enjoyed your The American comics back in the 80s.
Any possibility, PAD, of your separating your analysis of the shows into separate entries on your web site?
Here in Australia I’m a couple of weeks behind Smallville and probably at least six months behind the others (once they start airing). I used to religiously save your comments on Buffy/Angel earlier in the year (while carefully placing the ‘save file’ window on top of your comments and squinting so I couldn’t read any spoilers!) and finally perused them a couple of months ago as the seasons screened here.
I’d like to be able to view the Smallville comments of you and your visitors now while keeping those for Alias & Smallville for next year. With all the shows lumped together I can’t do that (without reading the spoilers for the episodes I haven’t seen).
Given that most of your blog audience are Americans it would probably be too much of a pain to separate the shows, but I figured it wouldn’t hurt to ask …
Brad
Speaking of The American comics that Mark Verheiden wrote, can anyone give me a brief synopsis as to what it is about? Been trying to look for it at the comic store I frequent to, etc. I’m interested in reading it so… 🙂
Smallville: I loved this episode. As others have said, Lex’s path to darkness is great to watch, Lionel is an amazingly evil SOB, the scene where Clark was shot had me on the edge of my seat (Clark isn’t used to pain, so dealing with it must be so much harder for him), and I’m tired of Clark not telling Lana.
The other thing I thought of while watching “Smallville” was, is Clark circumcised? I mean, he can’t possibly be, just like Lex must not have *any* hair. (Sorry. Women have slightly different priorities when watching this show. 🙂 )
To Karen Williams:
Is Lex hairless? I don’t know, but he was topless through most of the Season 3 opener, so that should give you an idea of whether or not he’s fully bald. (Clearly his head will remain bald, though it was a nice touch that in the first episode, Lex was shown as a redhead before the meteor shower. In John Byrne’s Superman mini-series, we see that Lex was a redhead who went bald naturally.)
Smallville – getting good again after that train wreck of a premier. Good to see Pete again, he’s like Clark’s sidekick — Superboy-Lad :^) While it’s cool that the WB wraps up / expands storylines on their website, they need to do so on the show IMHO.
Angel – Where is the energy on this show? — everybody seems stressed out & tired – now that’s reasonable considering the weight on their shoulders , but in previous seasons, no matter how bad things seemed, the Fang Gang still had drive… that seems sorely lacking so far this season.
Tarzan – PAD, you need to watch this show. I think you’d like it. It’s very comicbooky (new word?) I’d love to hear your take on this show.
And Mark V., If you read this – I want the Legion! Pretty please with a cherry on top?
Lex has eyebrows and eyelashes, so he isn’t completely hairless. Make of that what you will. 🙂 (And making him red-haired wasn’t a Byrne innovation; the Earth-2 version had red hair. I don’t remember if the Earth-1 Lex had red hair before losing it, but I think he may have.)
Angel: As a Spike fan, I was wondering when he had gotten so irritating. Were the Angel writers just not paying attention to what was going on on Buffy? Season seven saw a lot of the more subdued and slightly sef-flagellating Spike, and suddenly he pops up in LA being an even more self-absorbent brat than he was in season four, which was both pre-soul and pre-Buffylove? I think there’s too much effort going into making Angel seem the longsuffering hero, which is hard when Spike obviously has the higher moral ground. But kudos to Marsters for aptly protraying Spike’s desperation and fear of what might be coming next for him.
However, that last scene in Angel’s new apartment just underscored Cordelia’s absence, and I’m very irritated that Angel seems to be completely unconcerned with the girl in the coma who just HAPPENS to be his best friend for four years.
Smallville: Lex hasn’t had chest hair, but we haven’t seen the rest of him (legs, armpits — what did you think I meant?) and probably won’t, so I guess I’ll just have to leave it in the realm of speculation.
ANGEL:
They were going someplace interesting with Spike during the first episodes of Season 7. He was a subtly different character from the Spike we knew and I was excited about the acting challenge facing Marsters.
Then, with “Get It Done,” Spike reverted to form (that dámņ leather jacket, which is rather abhorrent for him to wear anyway). I fear it’s the pressure to make him the popular character the ladies love.
Smallville:
It was a throwaway line, I think, as no one seems to have caught it (or if they did, they didn’t comment on it above) so I’ll mention it now.
Chloe said that Van had come in and set up the database/mainframe for the majority of the school’s computers.
Later on, Lionel revealed that he had donated the computers to the school.
Two and two makes four and sometimes five: Lionel and Van had some sort of connection (however slight). It makes no sense now that Lionel should want to continue that possible relationship, considering he now has the entire database locked to everyone but himself.
Yet, I have a feeling we’ll be seeing Van at some point in the future. Maybe a certain bald-headed millionaire will pay him a visit and get a little info on his pal, Clark.
Sorry this is late, but what series of West Wing are you generally talking about – not “this weeks” episode?
In the UK the Inauguration Day part 1 from Series 4 has just aired.
Have I got the rest of series 4 to enjoy before the Sorkinless scripts?
Am I the only one who is noticing the parallels between Fade from DC’s BLOOD SYNDICATE and Spike’s current predicament?
It’s probably just me, but I just thought of it the other day.
Call me crazy but I’m gonna go out on a limb and say that it IS just you and you ARE the only one that noticed.
Call ME crazy, but am I the only one who thinks Alyson Hannigan should’ve gone over to Angel rather than James Marsters? I mean, come on, how could they have ruined such a perfect, noble death like that? I couldn’t have come up with a better end to Spike than to have him die good, as a hero, to save the world, to use his soul that he ASKED FOR (which makes him better than Angel, so nyeah) to finally and irrevecobly redeem himself.
Go out on top, remember, kids?
*sigh* This is the first bad decision I’ve ever seen Joss & co. make. I hope they figure out what to do with Spike. Soon. Please.
It’s not impossible for Clark to be circumsized. Remember he was not born on Earth. Clark is invincible here on earth, but can surely be cut by the materials available on his own planet. So while unlikely, if the custom on Krypton was circumcision it could easily have been done before he left krypton.