Slightly delayed this go-around; that’ll happen when you screw up vide recording several key shows. Fortunately webmaster Glenn Hauman has TiVo, so the day–once again–was saved, and not by the Powerpuff Girls. Spoilers follow…
ALIAS: While Vaughn recovers from Syd’s exercise in tough love (“We stab because we care”), Syd riotously bonds with Vaughn’s wife, a character so intriguing, so involving, that I’ve yet to remember what the hëll her name is (yeah, yeah, yeah, I’m sure at least twenty of you know it off the tops of your head; bite me) during a zippy car chase. Every time Syd goes out in the field with someone other than Carl Lumbly, I keep thinking how the worst decision they made was putting his character in charge of the branch. It was always so great watching him interacting with Syd on missions; now he mostly stands around and delivers exposition. The series remains involving, but the Covenant remains too vague a threat; a convenient catch-all Big Bad organization. At the very least, I wouldn’t mind seeing a human face attached to it. Or a body. Shots of a guy stroking a cat with the picture cropped at the neck and murmuring, “This Sydney Bristow bears closer watching.” *Something.*
SMALLVILLE: You expect series like “The Practice” or “Law and Order” to do one of those “ripped from the headlines” stories. But “Smallville” wins the 2004 “Criswell Predicts” award by airing an episode wherein solar flares make hash of Clark’s powers mere days after real-life solar flares screwed up everything from communications to MRIs (not to mention my power of super-ventriloquism. If in the past few days you thought you heard voices bìŧçhìņg about Bush, that was probably me.) Furthermore, only on “Smallville” can an episode feature a laugh line that hinges on a running gag from half a century ago and be confident that just about everyone watching the show is going to get it. Perry White arrives, looking a lot like “Lenny” from “Laverne and Shirley,” and receives the traditional Smallville greeting: His car gets smashed up. Later, when he runs afoul of the town’s “Fargo”-esque sheriff, he addresses her as “chief.” “Don’t call me chief,” she tells him sharply. Best in-joke reference since the John Williams score played over Chris Reeves’ dialogue. Perry’s arc played out beautifully and underscored that there’s many ways to save a person. Yes, Clark saves his life physically, but of equal importance is the way his pure heroism and goodness serves as an inspiration to a guy whose constant exposure to mankind’s dark underbelly has poisoned his soul. Very nicely done. Of course, it was obvious from the get-go that the episode lay the groundwork for Clark’s eventual hiring at the planet; who didn’t see Perry’s “If you ever get to Metropolis, look me up?” line coming? On the other hand, it beats the hëll out of hiring him because he’s the fastest typist he’s ever seen.
ANGEL: One of the best fourth season episodes of BtVS involved a despondent Willow inadvertently raising havoc with her friends as her will becomes reality (she tells Giles he “can’t see” her problems and he goes blind; she tells Xander he’s a demon magnet and, lo and behold, demons come after him from everywhere; Spike and Buffy become engaged which, after season 6, doesn’t quite have the shock value it did then.) The circumstances are very different this go-around as Lorne’s sleep deprivation results in his casual thoughts empathically projecting onto his friends, but the result is pretty much the same: Insanity ensues until the person starting it gets it sorted out. So there’s a certain inescapable been-there, done-that feeling to it. Actually, the Lorne-centric episodes seem to suffer from that (the last one, involving memory loss, evoked “Tabula Rasa.”) On the other hand, points for the behavior being even more insane than on BtVS. The high point had to be Gunn’s escalating chagrin over Lorne’s suggestion that he should “stake out his territory” compelling him to urinate on anything upon which he’s remotely interested in staking a claim (the punchline being his warning to Angel not to sit in his office chair.) The watchword for the season seems to be lighter episodes combined with Angel and the Fang Gang constantly being concerned over running a law firm where all the clients are evil. Here’s a thought: Get some clients who AREN’T evil. There has to be SOMEone in Los Angeles who isn’t evil. Then again, maybe not. Gotta say, it was one thing watching Wesley lose Fred to Gunn last season. But now he’s playing second fiddle to some techno guy? Wes…get off the pot, man. I know in real life, you got Ally Hannigan, but c’mon! Where’s your pride? You can handle them both. Next week: Mexican wrestlers? Oooookay.
WEST WING: Awright…this is starting to be a bit more like it. The VP’s cherry picking of Will was the first thing in weeks that had me going, “Huh! Okay! That’s an interesting development.” Liked even more Toby’s initially dismissive attitude which become more urgent pleading when he realized Will was considering the offer. “You work for the President!” says Toby, to which Will–who apparently read the job chart–responds, “No, I work for a guy who works for a guy who works for the President.” Not only is some of the old crackle starting to work its way back into the dialogue, but I didn’t feel like I needed Green Lantern’s light to make out what was happening on screen…for the most part. Plus there’s some intriguingly ill winds blowing: Leo is starting to sound like a megalomaniacal control freak, and it’s coming across like actual character development rather than bad writing. I wonder if he’s drinking again, or on the verge of it? (Remember, his closest sounding board for alcoholism was Hoynes, who’s gone.) And I don’t see good things happening for the Bartlet marriage. My major concern had been–and still is–that the way the show’s writers were responding to the accusations of the show being “too liberal’ was to have all the main characters be helpless, confused, unfocused, weak, or just plain stupid. If I want to see Democrats like that, I can watch a Democratic presidential debate. But you can’t have characters as smart as these have been suddenly turn into dummies. I’m giving them time; they’re still in shakedown mode after Sorkin’s departure, obviously. That’s fine. I’m willing to hang for awhile, just so long as they don’t continue to insult the character’s intelligence…and, by extension, the viewers.
PAD
• 
ANGEL-…If it’s one thing the creators can do, it’s turn poo into something halfway decent.
But you can polish a turd all day and it’ll still be dookie.
Gotta read between some of the lines, I guess. We can’t really try to rationalize the memory wipe of Connor because we don’t know for sure the creative crew’s real reason behind it. I really don’t think they intended Connor to go over as badly as he did to this point…
But that’s last season.
There was a Big Bad in season 3, Holtz, probably one of the top three villians in the entire continuity.
Season 5…like I said, poo into something halfway something decent. Angel and Spike have no business being in the same show because you can’t have two Alphas. Having them both is good by theory and good for ratings, but in the long run it might be a bad idea.
Eve is 95% pointless. The other five percent that makes her useful is the fact that she’s hotter than Lilah. She comes off as kind of a šlûŧ, too.
Good show, though. Just saying there’s better ways they could go to get higher ratings and better stories.
Lorne rules. Bottom line.
“wouldn’t Perry White’s ankle have been broken (or leg dislocated) when he reached the end of his fall and the rope tightened (it was tied around his ankle), and his weight and Clark’s pulled on it?”
On TV shows, even normal mortals are remarkably resistant to pain and physical damage. On action shows like SMALLVILLE, people are always being thrown into (or even through) walls, and they just push themselves up and they’re fine. In real life, they’d have fractures or broken bones, blood everywhere, and sometimes even a broken neck. This also goes for people falling and being caught/grabbed — there’s almost never any whiplash or damage. (One of the rare exceptions to this in comics was the death of Gwen Stacy, where she was caught and *still* died.) It’s not a good answer, but it’s something of a standard on TV shows.
(BTW, didn’t they bring Gwen Stacy back a few years ago when the Spider-Man stories were all about clones? Is she now wandering around somewhere in the Marvel universe, or did they decide to quietly drop it?)
Re Gwen Stacy: Actually, the Gwen clone had been created some time earlier, and was brought back in the late ’80s (as a tie-in with “The Evolutionary War” crossover IIRC). (As a sort of “It’s been 15 years, about time we tied up this loose end” gesture, I guess.) They established at that point that some of the Jackal’s duplicates weren’t really clones, but regular people who’d had DNA and memory treatments to turn them into duplicates of other people. The Gwen-duplicate, realizing she wasn’t Gwen, wandered off and I don’t think she’s shown up again. (She shared an origin with the Spider-Clone, but I don’t think she turned up during the storyline itself–at least a brief search on Google didn’t turn up anything.)
I did like the part when he character acknowledged his role in the group wasn’t always as pivitol as the others, but that he still wanted to contribute.
Well, a lot of that comes from the fact that his ability is a plot killer. He’s an outspoken precognitive with some telepath ability (or vice versa), which means that he can find out secrets and isn’t shy about revealing them. S’why he spent so much of the last season out of commission.
Moreover, his other ability — plenty of underworld contacts — is only useful if the gamema… er, scriptwriter is inclined to allow negotiation to be fruitful. Since one of the themes so far is “Compromise with evil compromises you“, that seems unlikely.
Oh… re: Swayze Spike. That’s probably so they can rerun this episode independently on Halloween some other time.
James Lynch writes:
**”wouldn’t Perry White’s ankle have been broken (or leg dislocated) when he reached the end of his fall and the rope tightened (it was tied around his ankle), and his weight and Clark’s pulled on it?”
On TV shows, even normal mortals are remarkably resistant to pain and physical damage.**
Cars, on the other hand, cannot go over cliffs or down steep embankments without blowing up.
As for the whole “this Clark cannot grow into Superman we all know because he will be recognized” issue, admittedly, the shows creators may have dug themselves into a hole by placing Smallville on the outskirts of Metropolis. Of course by all accounts the series will end once Clark officially becomes Superman and heads for Metropolis so maybe they didn’t concern themselves with that.
On the other hand, I think if Clark assumed the “glasses and suit” persona as Clark, it would be accepted if done well. There has always been some suspension of disbelief required regarding the Clark Kent “disguise” Christopher Reeve was the only one who was able to effectively convince people that a pair of glasses and change of hair style can work as a disguise. But that was because he took the character of Clark to the extreme by making him the “clumsy nerd”. George Reeves never quite pulled it off and Dean Caine sure as hëll didn’t yet they were still accepted.
In the same way we accept that Buffy dusted vampires and demons for 7 years and only on TWO occasions were the villains smart enough to use a gun (the second time nearly killing Buffy). Any vampire with a decent aim and a pistol could easily make mincemeat out of the Slayer before she could even have the stake in her hand. Yet they don’t and the fans never question it. I think in that same way, nobody would really question how someone would be fooled by a pair of glasses. Those closest to Clark being fooled would be more of a stretch (Lex in particular) but the average Joe in Metropolis probably wouldn’t make the connection.
Well, on Buffy the lack of guns is a genre thing. If all the bad guys used guns, it would be a completely different show.
That and most run-of-the-mill vampires don’t have guns because they don’t need them. They can pretty much kill humans indiscrimnatly and guns generally don’t work against other beasties, so their only use is in killing a Slayer. Most vamps don’t really expect to run into the Slayer, they’re being only one in all the world and all that.
Most of the villains on Buffy that expect to be fighting the Slayer don’t bother with guns either due to overconfidence, pride (a real demon doesn’t need to rely on such things) or a sense of tradition. Note that Spike was only prepared to use a gun against Buffy when he knew it was the only way he’d be able to kil her (since the chip made an actual fight impossible). The Master was a traditionalist. Angelus would have found it to lack poetery. The Mayor liked all the trappings of being an evil overlord. Adam did try to use a gun but it had no effect on uber-Buffy. Glory would have found the concept completely beneath her. Dark Willow was on a magical power-trip, why bother with the mundane. The First was incorporeal, so it couldn’t have used a gun even if it wanted to.:) Seriously though, being the First Evil and all, I’d put it in the traditionalist category.
Though a friend of mine theorized it to be a sort of unwritten agreement among both sides to prevent an arms race. Vampires start packing guns, the Watchers’ Council starts equipping its Slayers with Initiative-style equipment and vice versa.
But in the end, it really is just a genre thing.
First off, to Chris: PAD has mentioned a couple of times lately that he can’t comment AT ALL on ANYTHING Star Trek, because anything he says seems to get back to the PTB at Paramount (who are one of his employers, ultimately), and misinterpreted, and pain in the neck annoyance ensues, so, as he said, it just isn’t worth the trouble
Ahhh, that may partly explain why he wasn’t present for the ‘Verdict’ panels at this past DragonCon. I really wanted to hear PAD’s opinion on both ‘Enterprise” and the last movie (name escapes me).
As to the shows: I also found it amusing that the Smallville episode aired on the same day as the flare, although I wonder if it was intentional. Chloe’s ‘wall of weird’ was back up, but didn’t she get rid of it the episode before? I still watch the show mostly to see the fall of Lex Luthor, however.
Angel is getting better and better, and its about time Lorne got his own episode. I’m going to have to do some checking, however. I don’t remember Fred and Gunn ever breaking up, although it seems as though they are no longer a couple this season.
Kalshane:
Sure the “Big Bad” of each season may not have felt the need to use a gun because they were so powerful but what about all the lackeys and “lower” demons that Buffy routinely killed on her patrols? Surely the vamps living (or “un-living”) in Sunnydale would at least protect themselves better since they know that is where the Slayer resides. For that matter, why would the vampires even stay in Sunnydale knowing it is the home of the Slayer? Sure there is the whole “attracted to the Hellmouth” thing but the lower lackey vamps seem to dimwitted to be drawn to any type of power. The first think a vampire with any sense would do upon rising in Sunnydale is either get a gun and kevlar for protection or get the hëll out of town.
I think you are right in that it is a genre thing. But that was actually my point with the Clark Kent/Superman identity. That fans of Superman will find a way to explain why Clark is not recognized even though there it would seen very unlikely in the “real world”
MarvelFan:
Chloe’s taking down the Wall Of Weird happened during Clark’s “dream sequence” (I guess that was another subtle clue that it was a dream).
RE: Tom Wopat on the CBS Anniverssary Special
If they ever do the proposed “Bruce Wayne, Lex’s prep-school acquaintance” episode, Tom Wopat MUST appear as Thomas Wayne in a flashback.
I’d actually weep. For about a second and a half. Then I’d stroke it to Lawrence Welk reruns.
“I don’t remember Fred and Gunn ever breaking up, although it seems as though they are no longer a couple this season.”
They broke up shortly after they killed Fred’s professor who originally sent her to Pylea.
“The first think a vampire with any sense would do upon rising in Sunnydale is either get a gun and kevlar for protection or get the hëll out of town.”
Yeah, but then you get the arms race scenario as each side tries to out-do the other. That and I guarantee most of those “dim-witted” vamps think they can take the Slayer if they do run into her.
I’ve said before that I miss Cordelia (and this last episode underscored it even more for me. Harmony just doesn’t have the intelligent, hyper-astute affectionate wit that made Cordelia the heart of the show for the past four seasons) but seeing Eve and Angel made me really miss Lilah.
First of all, Lilah is hotter than Eve, and also, she and Angel have so much history and hatred that onscreen the sexual tension just sizzles between them. I think Angel/Lilah sex would have packed a bigger punch than what happened, especially since Lilah’s also dead (is it necrophilia if no one’s alive?) and had a thing going on with Wes – who probably doesn’t remember anything.
Which leads me to Wes, poor man. He doesn’t even remember getting rejected the first time around, obviously. Also, how is it that Gunn and Fred have NO interaction? I mean…they used to DATE. I don’t think the number of characters is really a problem, because they had a similar number on Buffy in Season Five. Instead, they need to deal with character interactions more, which is why they brought in Spike, who was a perfect opportunity to force Angel to open up some, because, really, who knows him better than Spike? They’re missing a great chance to give Angel a therapist who’s not afraid to piss him off or be changed by the encounter (unlike Lorne).
And when’s Spike gonna sing for Lorne?
It’s long been my conclusion that, on average, soulless vampires have the tactical sense of a newt.
Ignore general weaponry. After a few seasons of Buffy, it’s clear that any Sunnydale vampire who wanted to know would know where Buffy lived. So:
1) Gather up 50 or so vamps, demons, etc.
2) Spend a nice day in the sewers near Casa Summers playing kitten poker.
3) As soon as the sun sets (bonus points if you wait for a rainy day so you can get out of the sewers shortly before actual sunset), go above ground and surround Casa Summers.
4) Ignite the various explosives, firebombs, etc. that you’d planted around the house and grounds the previous night while Buffy was known to be across town in a cemetary (several vamps with walkie-talkies shadowing her).
5) Anyone makes it out of the inferno, open fire with the Uzis, flamethrowers, etc. you’re packing.
Oh, make sure Buffy is in the house by having a pizza delievered or something.
Tom,
Interesting scenario with the bazillion vampires that kill Buffy. I’d only suggest a couple of changes.
1) Having Vampires shadow the Slayer is risky business. I’d con some newbies into making an attack on her during her regular patrols and have one of them call in the attack before he got involved and inevitablly dusted. That way you can know that she’s away from her house and Buffy would likely just think that she ran into another of those endless packs of vampires. If she noticed them following her, she might be inclined to capture one and ask questions.
2) If you assume that you have the skilled personnel to wire the house with explosives, why not just wire the car. Have some vamp hide and the sewers and torch them when Buffy takes Dawn to school. Better yet, blow it when she’s going out at night. That way your gang can rush the car if she gets out somehow.
3) If you really want to go with torching the house, just break into the army base that Xander stole the rocket launcher from at night, steal some flame-throwers and burn the house down. Less to go wrong. Once again you con newbie vamps into operating the equipment in case there’s a tragic flamer accident. Better yet, get some cute girlie vampires to pick up some soldiers, make them vampires, and have them operate the stuff. If you hide the bodies until they rise, then they’re just AWOL instead of dead of suspicious neck trama. You then kill anything that gets out of the house…unless Willow turns the inferno into a rain of butterflies.
4) I’m not sure that are really that many vampires in Sunnydale at any one time. If they are they seem too antisocial to coorindate on these types of schemes…or too dumb.
Oh, and the dumb Faceless Minion level vampires probably don’t realize that they stay in Sunnydale because of the Hellmouth. I’m sure that they rationalize their reasons for staying without realizing that dark and unnatural forces have drawn them there.
Oh, dear. I’ve gone and blathered on again. To keep belatedly on topic, I was amused with the whole Angel episode, but was shocked that Lorne would let W&H remove his sleep. It made that mirror scene make so much sense before we got to see Lorne-Hulk. It had phychotic episode written all over it.
One can also ask who the immortals from Highlander still fought with swords in the 20th century instead of with uzis and a chainsaw (although, a few of them did “cheat”).
I think it just comes down to the fact that vamps are stalkers by nature. They really get off on sneaking up on a victim, ambushing them, and physically overpowering them before feeding on them. Killing someone at a distance with a gun just doesn’t give them the same thrill and thus they disdain the use of firearms and explosives.
Re Gwen Stacy: Actually, the Gwen clone had been created some time earlier, and was brought back in the late ’80s (as a tie-in with “The Evolutionary War” crossover IIRC). (As a sort of “It’s been 15 years, about time we tied up this loose end” gesture, I guess.) They established at that point that some of the Jackal’s duplicates weren’t really clones, but regular people who’d had DNA and memory treatments to turn them into duplicates of other people. The Gwen-duplicate, realizing she wasn’t Gwen, wandered off and I don’t think she’s shown up again. (She shared an origin with the Spider-Clone, but I don’t think she turned up during the storyline itself–at least a brief search on Google didn’t turn up anything.)
She was brought back duing the Spider-clone story, which re-retconned that she was a clone after all. That makes sense, since transforming people on a genetic level is more difficult that cloning them.
it makes it hard for me to accept he ever becomes our CK with the glasses and wimpy demeanor.
First of all, “mild-mannered’ is as sure as hëll not the same as “wimpy”. Just for the sake of the english language people should not be dissuaded of the notion that being mild-mannered isn’t being weak.
Besides that, there are times when Smallville Clark seems wimpy enough to me. Sure, he can juggle pick-up trucks, but when he can’t have his way with getting a big TV…. whine whine whine. (I’m being a touch unfair; that was last season or so. On the other hand, when things turned tragic last season, Clark did try to solve his problems by getting drunk, aka getting a red Kryptonite surge, and running away from his problems).
ALIAS
Jack Bristow the Dark Knight Returns.
When he matter of factly explained that to the guy bleeding to death that he’s the only one who can get him to a hospital in time so he had better start talking
who else thought of Frank Miller’s DKR?
If it ever becomes a movie he would
make a great choice for
Bruce Wayne/Batman.