I’ve been surrounded by a sheet of ice for a week and a half, my right heel is throbbing, and I’m cranky, so I’m putting them all together and anyone who has problems, don’t read ’em.
Spoilers Follow:
SMALLVILLE: Brilliant. Absolutely bloody brilliant. First of all, ladies and gentlemen, Pete Ross is back in the house. About bloody time. I mean, okay, his first major appearance and he’s promptly someone’s hostage, but hey, at least Clark Kent’s pal has returned to action. And just in time for an episode that offers a simple, brilliant explanation as to the development of Clark’s superhearing (from sheer necessity, as it turns out…playing off the old concept that blind people develop accelerated hearing to compensate for the loss of their sight) and why Clark Kent should have to wear glasses (because he NEEDS them to SEE, a testimony to KISS–Keep it Simple, Stupid.) Part of me was hoping that Pete would look at the new specs and say teasingly, “Cunning disguise, Clark. For a moment there, I didn’t recognize you,” but I suppose that would have been a bit too “on the nose,” as it were. The tie-ins with continuity, the origin of Clark’s specs, the sense that we were seeing a couple of major developments related to the Superman (rather than “Smallville”) mythos, prevented this one from coming across as simply another Freak of the Week installment.
ANGEL: The ongoing theme of the season becomes more and more evident. The running, and increasingly hollow, justification for the Fang Gang taking over W&H was that they were going to change it “from the inside.” That’s their mantra. But apparently what’s actually happening is that it’s Angel himself who is changing from the inside…slowly being transformed from confident hero with a sense of destiny to a pile of uncertain Jell-O (granted, there’s always room for Jell-O, but even so…) I am hoping this is one of those dream episodes where you’ll want to see it again at the end of the season because (if they play their cards right) lots more stuff will make sense. Some nice touches included Spike dropping into the slot Angel filled all the way at the beginning of the series, right down to those twin stakes up his sleeve. It even appears that Lindsay was wearing Doyle’s old jacket. With all the double and triple crosses and wheels within wheels, the series continues to roll along and I’m rolling right along with it. And hey, next episode…not only Cordy, but ANDREW of all people.
TRU CALLING: Not the best of stories. The flashback to Tru in high school was interesting enough, except if I see Eliza Dushku in a high school, I kept looking in the background of the hallways to see if I could spot Xander, Willow or the others. So that’s a bit of a personal problem. As for the story itself, Kath and I pegged all the major beats (from the fact that Tru got to the pool too early to that the teacher was ripping off the popular girl’s novel and intended to drown her to cover his tracks.) So although it was diverting, it wasn’t the best. But as the show moves along, even TRU CALLING at its less-than-best is better than a lot out there.
CHARMED: What it felt like we had here was a one hour episode of “Bewitched.” I kept waiting for Phoebe to explain how her striptease act was actually a grand PR campaign to celebrate the company merger. Two of the three sisters continue to deal with relationship problems while Leo continues to hang around so much that I no longer have any concept why he and Piper just aren’t together. Chris was MIA, which bothered me surprisingly little. What does continue to surprise me is how accustomed to each other’s performances. An eyebrow raise, a head tilt, a smothered laugh…these are speaking volumes of show’s desiring to be respectful.
PAD
• 
Actually, Cordy doesn’t show up until the week after.
About Smallville: I liked the ep, but overal the season hasn’t captured me like last year. Anyway…Is Clark keepign the glasses? It didn’t look like it…
About Angel: Great episode in a great season!
It even appears that Lindsay was wearing Doyle’s old jacket.
I can’t wait to see Angel’s reaction to the “fact” that Spike’s running around saving people with the help of a man named Doyle who has visions.
I loved this episode, and it’s kind of a different angle on the same story dynamic from season 2: Is Angel effective when he fights fire with fire? Before he was using the bad guys’ methods to beat them before being shown it was destroying him. Now he’s using the bad guys’ weapon with even more disastrous results, because he’s not even aware/in denial that it’s affecting him.
I’ve been watching Seasons 3 and 4 on TNT (don’t ask me what the deal is with the schedule they’ve been running them on; without Tivo, I wouldn’t be able to make any form of sense of it), and I can say with absolute confidence that even if Angel is destroyed from within by this situation, it will all have been worth it to be rid of Connor.
ACTUALLY, Cordy will be shown right at the end of the next episode…
I agree with Peter. I think this “dream” episode will turn out to be quite “prophetic” by season’s end.
My big question is… Can you believe the WB is supposedly still up in the air about another year of “Angel”?
They scheduled the show behind “Smallville”… It’s done a great job keeping viewers tuned in– and with much greater demographic competition in the 9 p.m. hour (think “West Wing”, “Bachelor/Bachorlette”, etc. etc.)
Why the wait? What’s the hold up?
I think that the slot behind “Smallville” was a “put up or shut up” position. Either “Angel” performed– or the WB could say, “We gave them the best, most fitting lead in we had and they squandered it.”
“Angel” has been everywhere on the WB schedule… including the lead out for “7th Heaven” on Mondays… And it is still being watched… Almost now more than ever.
Remember those good ol’ Mondays? I used to tune in to the last 3 minutes of “7th Heaven” just so I could watch the transition from smarmy histrionic primetime junk to Whedon’s cutting edge dramatic excellence. It was delightful!
My biggest “what if” scenario right now is… what if Lindsey & Eve are actually the good guys? Quite obviously, they’re trying to subvert Wolfram & Hart’s master plan, which is bound to be evil. While they may have their own evil plan afoot, it seems possible that they’re actually trying to do some good… while Lindsey relishes the opportunity to cause his old adversary (Angel) a bit of pain in the process.
> My biggest “what if” scenario right now is… what if Lindsey & Eve are actually the good guys?
That’s one of the reasons I find Angel so promising. The ambiguous position the group is in means that their opponents can be just as ambiguous–after all, the Angel of S1 would have attacked the gang of S5.
Of course, at this point, it’s just potential–I had hope at the beginning of Buffy S7, and look how that turned out.
> Leo continues to hang around so much that I no longer have any concept why he and Piper just aren’t together.
I find that perplexing as well. Essentially, they broke up because he wanted/needed to become an Elder, at which point he promptly continued acting as a Whitelighter. Even by this show’s standards of continuity, that’s pretty bad.
\\And hey, next episode…not only Cordy, but ANDREW of all people.
\\
Thereby continuing Mutant Enemy’s bizarre need to give Andrew screen time at the expense of characters that are not annoying and pointless.
I love Lindsey’s last lines to Angel when he originally left town.”To beat Wolfram and Heart, you’ve got to make them play your game, not let them make you play theirs.” And that’s exactly where he and Angel are differing right now. Angel’s trying to beat W&H at their own game, while Lindsey’s in Angel’s old spoiler role. And it looks like Lindsey believes Angel is the prophesied one, and he’s brought Spike back to get Angel away from W&H so he can fulfill his part of the prophecy for the good guys.
Re Angel…
I wonder if Lindsey actually has visions, or is simply lying about them or setting up the situations he mentions himself / with Eve’s help.
And if he actually IS having visions, did he “volunteer” for getting them, or did he just start getting them? And was it before or after he got the tattoos and the plan … whatever the plan actually is?
Re: Angel
This episode reminded me of that Superman annual where the man of steel is given a exotic plant (on his birthday) that attaches itself to his chest and causes him to hallucinate his perfect life. Batman and Wonder Woman (iirc) find him comatose & near death and pull the flower off him. He’s traumatized and furious — he’s basically be pulled from Heaven to find out someone tried to kill him. It turn out the gift flower was from Mongul and when the last son of Krypton finds him they fight briefly. In the most chilling (for me) moment in Superman’s career, he turns his heat vision on Mongul and tersely tells him to simply “Burn.”
I don’t know if Joss has read the story (I think it was called “For the Man Who Has Everything” by Alan Moore — correct me if I’m wrong), but it sure has some parallels… It seems as if Lindsay’s and Eve’s plan was to destroy Angel and repalce him with Spike. Time will tell.
Whenever that Supeman story comes up, I think of one of my favorite lines ever written by Alan Moore.
Jason Todd had just become Robin in the continuity of the day, and this was the first time he had met Wonder Woman, and he is clearly stunned by her. As WW and Supes walk towards the Fortress, Batman says quietly to Robin – “Think Clean Thoughts, Chum”.
A priceless line.
Brad
In the preview information released on this week’s Angel episode it is revealed that Andrew is a Watcher in training. It will be interesting to see Wesley’s take on a Watcher who will likely be even more of an inept spaz at the job then he was. And who’s running the Watcher’s Council? I would think that it would have to be Buffy or Giles for Andrew to be involved which makes sense because I think they both realize the Buffy never would have made it out of Season 1 alive without Giles (or even Xander for that matter).
Bet you have Plantar Fascitis in your right heel – I had it in my left heel last year, and it required the most painful injection in the history of my life. I almost fainted!
Anyhoo – it’s a seperation of the membrane that connects the muscular tissue to the heel, and it has to be aggresively treated with an injection and physical therapy. Stretching excercises such as standing on the balls of your feet and extending your heel up and down help a great deal, as does rolling a cylindrical object under the arch of the foot…
It was also great to see Spike playing the (for the first time) SELFLESS hero – complete with scoldings afterwards.
I’m enjoying Angel, but I have found it interesting that the buzz has cooled as the ratings have increased; isn’t it the second-highest rated show on the WB now after Smallville. You’d think more people would be excited about it. Maybe the change in story telling, no over-arching Big Bad story lines any more have dulled the “most see what’s going to happen next” aspect of the show. I would hate to think that Buffy coming to an end has dampened the spirits of hardcore Whedon-verse people and take Angel (and by extension, Joss and the production team he has assembled) for granted.
Of course, if the silence is because of an abrupt lack of Charisma Carpenter, I could understand. I think something came up more than the actress having a baby; a shame because if there was ever a character in the Whedon-verse that showed dramatic and logical growth, it was Cordelia Chase.
Now, concerning the right heel pain: If the pain is at its most intense first thing in the morning, i.e. you have kept your weight off of it for a considerable amount of time, and it can be described as being “focused” then it probably is plantar fascitis. Another bit of self-diagnosis (remembering what they are worth), but one that needs assistance is to sit or lie down and have someone squeeze your heel with equal pressure from both sides. If you feel pain in the region that hurts when you walk, you probably have plantar fascitis. Or your a red neck, since the rythmn to the punchline seems to be the same.
I was a medic in the Army and we saw plenty of cases; I had the problem myself. This is probably not going to go away by itself; as the pain continues you will increasingly favor your heel, putting strain on other parts of your body and, ironically, worsening your heel because it isn’t being execised/stretched. That is way, as bad as the pain might be, it is still much less than the initial step on it in the morning: without moving there has been a fluid build up and the region has stiffened.
Another easy stretch is to step forward with your left leg and bend your left knee. Keeping you right leg behind you and straight, bring your right heel down to the ground; there should be a stretch in your Achilles tendon.
If you start by going to your general practioner, he will probably give you an injection and stretching exercises and then give you the name of a podiatrist. I suggest skipping the middle man and going straight to the podiatrist. You’ll still get the injection and the exercises, but you may also need to be fitted with arch supports. Let me tell, those are what made all the difference. Also, you may want to look at your shoes. If you wear the same ones every day, and they don’t have firm support to begin with, like tennis shoes, you should consider buying a new pair. Soft-sole shoes, if the same pair is worn on a semi-daily basis, should be replaced every six months or so (not that anyone but the most ardent athlete does that).
And to allay any fears about the injection, one will/can be given, but it really depends on the level of pain, how long you’ve been functioning at that level of pain, and how screwed up your gait/posture is because of the pain. The injection is of a novacaine-like drug (I can’t remember the name) that kills the pain and will allow you to walk without problems for a while. The exact location of the pain in your heel is critical for the doctor, for the injection has to be given at a ninety degree angle to the pain point. And I’ll be honest, I really don’t remember the injection being the painful.
And just to make life interesting, in one of those staggeringly DUMB scheduling moves, UPN will be moving Enterprise to the 9PM Wed spot.
Hmm. Lets take a show fighting for an audience and put it up against another show watched by a large portion of that same audience.
Of course, this means I now will have to watch West Wing, TiVO angel and dig out the living room VCR if I want to catch trek.
BAH.
Regarding my case of Plantar Fascitis last year, my general practitioner was no help, so I went straight to the podiatrist – I wasn’t given a numbing agent in my injection – I was given a steroidal injection, and the pain was so intense I almost fainted! The doctor warned me before he stabbed me in the center of my pain, “It’s going to hurt like a sunuvabitch,” and boy was he right. I was practically hobbled from that shot, but it did the trick after a week or so – and, of course I had physical therapy, slept in a leg/ankle boot, and did the prescribed exercises…you can find descriptions of them on the ‘net…
I WISH I’d been given a numbing agent like Novacain! EeeeYowtch!
SMALLVILLE:
According to the comics, at some point Clark will regain his vision (and vision powers), but wear the glasses to maintain the disguise.
Meanwhile, about all he’s lacking at this point seems to be flight and telescopic vision. Maybe the last one will be because of his eyes trying to heal themselves?
ANGEL:
While taking over Wolfram and Hart may not have been the smartest of career moves, Angel and Company are definitely being set up for something. Of course what and by whom remain to be seen.
But the more episodic nature of this season is due more to the WB’s request than anything else.
BTW: Just what do you do with two vampires with souls???
TRU CALLING:
Does anyone else out here think that Davies the coroner is hoping for more than just a hero/sidekick relationship with Tru?
And to Jeff Linder:
The upcoming (mis)match of Angel versus West Wing versus Star Trek: Enterprise has not been the only ratings war pairings so far this season.
We started out with Law and Order: Special Victims Unit versus NYPD Blue, when it started airing: Tru Calling versus the first hour of WWE Smackdown, JAG versus Boston Public, and The District won against its original opponent LA Dragnet and is now against Monk reruns from USA.
But in the end, the only one who truly loses in these battles is the viewers.
While because of my congestive heart failure I’m not personally in that situation any more, when you work nights and only own 1 VCR, which one do you tape?
What I especially like about this season of Angel is that the characters’ being lost feels like it’s being done on purpose – unlike, say, Buffy’s sixth season.
Re: Whisper(SMV)
Not bad.
Kind of a return to the Meteor Freak of the Week shtick, but I liked the fact that even though we could presume that the Reset Button would be used by the end of the episode with Clark’s blindness, the story forced me to focus instead on Clark’s feelings of helplessness, and the position it placed him in with respect to his ongoing story relationships with Lex and Chloe, which was the episode’s real strength. Trouble inadvertently occurs once again as a result of Clark using his powers, resulting in Lex thinking Chloe and her father are gossipy leaks, Chloe losing her Daily Planet column, and her dad getting fired. It also provided a catalyst for the development one of his few remaining as-yet undeveloped powers, his super hearing, which up until now I hadn’t even noticed.
Between a main character using super hearing to compensate for blindness, and a villain with a “sonic scream,” you’d think this was a Marvel Comics-based series instead of a DC-based one. 🙂
Clark shopping around for his mom’s birthday present got me thinking: Where does he get money from? He has no job except for The Torch. Does his dad, who mentions in this episode can barely make ends meet, give him an allowance?
Interesting that Pete shows up heavily in an episode largely because Clark now needs a guide to keep him from bumping into stuff.
Isn’t it convenient that out of all the people in the school, when Clark’s super hearing first kicks in, the conversation he just happens to focus in on is between Chloe and Lionel?
So the judge handling Masterson’s case just so happens to be the mother of the best friend of someone injured at the crime scene? Pretty convenient, but has the Kansas Bar has never heard of “conflict of interest”?
When Masterson’s Meteor Freak accomplice kidnaps Pete, his disables him with his “sonic scream,” and drags Pete into his truck, but Pete seems to willingly climb into it.
Clark with glasses. Cute touch.
ANGEL – I absolutely loved the scolding Spike gave the “stupid cow” after he saved her. How many of us have screamed at dumb bimbos in horror flicks for walking dark alleys for no apparent good reason?
As far as the character of Cordelia Chase, I’m glad Charisma is coming back for the 100th episode, but I’m even happier that it’s only for one episode. I’ll never understand why the same fans that complained about Dawn and Connor, never see how Charisma’s character quickly became unbelievably dull after she became a “higher-being”. Joss was right…her character has been played out.
Speaking of Dawn and Connor, I think it would be great if Dawn stopped by Wolfram & Hart with Connor as her new boyfriend. I always thought those two kids should get together.
In the preview information released on this week’s Angel episode it is revealed that Andrew is a Watcher in training.
Grrrrrr. Why do Wheton and Co. kill off the likable characters (Tara, Jenny Calender, etc) and keep throwing the annoying ones in our faces?
And isn’t Andrew a MURDERER? Or did I miss something in that last season of Buffy? He should be in prison, not the Watchers Counsil.
I am seriously hoping he won’t become a regular character on Angel (not sure if the writers would have enough Star Wars references for that anyway).
Hey, I have an Angel question. Has “Lindsay” actually been referred to as Lindsay? Seems last week’s TV Guide referred to him as “sean”.
Brandon – here’s a partial list of MURDERERS on Buffy:
Anya – scores of innocents when a vengeance demon
Willow – Warren
Buffy – Several Knights of Byzantium
Giles – Ben/Glory
Faith – Mayor’s assistant
and yes, Andrew killed Jonathan.
So . . . if we put every person who murdered someone on Buffy in prison, per your request, we’d be left with a total two main characters to guest star. Hope you really like Dawn and Xander.
Well I knew Faith was a killer which was, I thought, why she was cooling her heels in prison.
I missed the Several Knights of Byzantium ep so I didn’t know that.
Ben/Glory was a god/demon/whatever which would I guess let Giles off the hook since there seems to be a “okay to kill demons, just not humans” clause in the Buffyverse that allows Buffy to dust all the nasties.
It also seems to be to let “former-evil” creatures like Angel and Anya off the hook because they were.. well, demons.
I guess I am just horrified at the thought of Andrew being a Watcher or even worse, a regular character!
Slayer: “Andrew, is there anything in your books about this demon I just killed?”
Andrew: “Likely a Cardassian who was seduced by the dark side of the Force!”
Actually Xander has blood on his hands too. He summoned the demon Sweet in the musical episode. So his kind of responsible for all those people combusting.
When it comes to Clark’s missing super-powers, I’m waiting eagerly for the episode his super-ventriloquism and super-shout turn up.
(On a more serious note, we haven’t seen his super-breath yet, have we? Or has it just slipped my mind?)
Peter:
Tru Calling–absolutely generic mystery story. Not a single surprise in the plot or any interesting characters. The average episode of “Murder She Wrote” had more nuance. This was a Doug Petrie script? He’s gone down three steps in my estimation…
My Smallville thoughts lifted from my LJ:
-Interesting episode and no main focus on the FOTW. Couple of problems with this episode which I didn’t get…well actually one. Ok there was one part where Clark and Pete go to school to get Clark’s books…if he’s blind how would he read em, but then again someone could read it to him. Ok thats one but the second one somewhat bothered me. Ok well the second one was when Clark hopped onto the truck of one of the robbers to where Pete is AND he got off just BEFORE the truck stopped. Which begs the question, how the hëll does he know when the truck will stop? Hmm…maybe he could hear the brakes being used???? Hëll if I know
-Strong Chloe and Lionel subplot…well Clark was involved too since he “overheared” a phone conversation between Chloe and Lionel talking about him. Yes the gloves come off and the cats shall fight..well more like Clark confronting Chloe and basically yelling at her.
-No Adam (Lana’s physical therapist “buddy”) which surprised me, although think tonight he’ll be used heavily tonight.
-Oh and nice usage of glasses..when Clark regained his vision somewhat his parents fit him with classes…can we say foreshadowing? Heh.
Good points, Deuce, but why stop with the Buffy characters?
Angel (after getting his soul): killed/drank “thieves and scoundrels,” let the diner guy die so he could have a snack, fed the W&H lawyers to Darla/Dru, and tried to murder Wes. (Okay, he feels really bad about it. But still.)
Fred/Gunn: murdered Fred’s professor.
Wes: kept a woman in a cage in his closet, which isn’t murder but hey, torture.
There are no pure-as-driven-snow characters on Joss’s shows.
Well, about Buffy “murdering” the Knights of Byzantium…..that wasn’t murder. Murder is the unjustful killing of another human being. Since the Knights were attacking Buffy and her friends, there was a legitimate danger to their lives. Buffy was merely defending against the Knights. Self-defensive killing is not murder.
Also, about Angel…
Has anyone noticed that Spike’s leather coat seems different from the one he wore on Buffy? The flap on his right side seems bigger than the flap on his left side…this would indicate that this is a woman’s coat. This makes sense, since he got the coat off of a woman (Wood’s mother). But if this is a woman’s coat and it is the same one Spike’s always worn, then it would mean that the creators planned the “Spike got his coat from a slayer” storyline way in advance.
RE: Delete(SMV) (tonight’s episode—Hey, I’m jumping the gun! Sue me!)
The episode was okay, but the ending was nicely done. A nice way to reveal Lex’s new mission by tying it into the science of the episode.
Re: Lois Lane: Looks like Peter David was right!
The fight in Act 2 where Lana tried to kill Chloe was NICELY choreographed! Well done!
Hmm…is Adam a good guy or a bad guy….hmmm….
So Martha Kent’s email is CNH320@instamail.com? Hmm….funny how that username is just like the license plate number on the General Lee…
I thought the acting on the part of Martin Cummins, who plays Dr. Gardner (and who played Ames White in Dark Angel) in the closing scene was poor.
Why did the kryptonite stop glowing when it rolled away after Chloe knocked out Jonathan with that hay? I don’t recall it ever doing that before. (Then again, I always wondered what king of energy that stuff must be putting out to be generating its own internal light, and what should be by extension, heat.
We see Spike take the coat from Nicky Wood in the Buffy season 5 episode, “Fool For Love”
One thing no one has touched on; Angel was sick. Vampires don’t get sick. Why didn’t Fred immediately take him down to the lab and run some tests? I don’t buy that his friends just sent him to bed…
Speaking of Dawn:
http://www.impawards.com/2004/eurotrip.html
Time to feel old and creepy. That’s our little Dawnie.
And if I’m not mistaken, they’ve airbrushed her to make her appear bigger. I see a distinct line a bit north of her neckline.
Have u pay mr mudassir he did not repley to me so far.
vcp is not avelaible but vcr is ready in just 4000rp