UK Thoughts

[TMLS]

My god, that was bad.

Knew it was going to be a problem when I spotted "Special Guest Star Batista" in the credits. Now, I'm a big WWE fan but he can't act for toffee in a ring so there was little chance of him working here. Thank goodness they dumped him in the "b" plot.

Lex's disappearance is something we've seen in other shows a hundred times before, Star Trek Next Gen did it best. It's not a bad thing to recycle stories when you do it well, sadly in my opnion this wasn't the case.

As to who saved Clark, that was the one redeeming feature of the show. Was it another Kryptonian? Eyes were glowing white, not red so I don't think so. Saw the last episode of the season when it aired, don't remember anyone in that it could be though. Actually something I've not been spoiled on!

Jimmy's Ham Radio was a bit Deus Ex.

Overall then, I'd rate it as "A bit ****".

And I don't mean "four stars"

(I refuse to mention the proposal - eesh. But did anyone think the room with all the flowers in looked a bit funeral parlour-ish?)

[newbaggy]

Oh dear, it wasn't very good was it! If there is one thing I hate about shows with ongoing story arcs, it is this: every so often you get an episode that only appears to exist for the sake of two or three scenes that advance the story arcs. "Static" was a classic example. There is about two minutes worth of screentime that covers:

1) Clark finding out that not all Zoners are Phantoms
2) There is a mystery figure with powers greater than his own
3) Lionel revealing that he has moved 33.1 to a secret location
4) Lex proposing to Lana.

Unfortunately, that left 38 minutes to fill (not including commercials)! A further complication is that this appears to have been Smallville's equivalent of one of Doctor Who's "Doctor-lite" episodes. Presumably, Tom Welling was needed elsewhere, so we get him running off to Seattle, whilst Allison Mack holds the fort. Fine, except that she was lumbered with a really lousy plot, and Lana and Jimmy don't provide good enough support for a Chloe-led story. Really, this episode cried out for a Chlo-Lo team up, but obviously (a) Erica Durance is only available for 13 episodes, and (b) with Lois at the Inquisitor, it wouldn't make sense.

Finally, Jimmy the Infuriator! Yes , he is going to infuriate if the writers are going to give him the ability to create Doctor Who-style gadgets out of whatever electronic equipment he has available. A Jimmy who was a radio ham and knows a bit about electronics, I can accept. A Jimmy who can locate and recover people from an alternate "frequency" is stretching things a bit too far!

[Pesk]

The lexana plot wasn't as bad as some s6 eps have been, maybe because it was the focus of the episode rather than being a subplot giving lex & lana something to do while the rest of the charatcers get on with the main story. As TMLS said that disappearance plot has been done before, but that doesn't make it a bad thing that they used it again. And they finally brought back 33.1 from Jynx! Though I would have loved to see inside the lab itself, when those doors opened and we saw the empty room I was as disappointed as that meteor freak guy (whose name I don't remember).

There were lots of good things going on in this ep, lana becoming more evil, chloe getting close to jimmy (as a non-chlarker I loved it when she told jimmy she was happy to have him there rather than clark), Lionel being more of a bad guy again("you're not in high school anymore, miss sullivan!" Woo!), factor in a total lack of clana and the good definately outweighs the bad.

The bad of course being jimmy suddenly taking control and saving lex and lana. Maybe its me, but that whole scene seemed kinda wrong; jimmy & chloe must have hauled this huge amount of equpiment from metropolis to smallville and into lex's mansion undetected by lex's security, then after saving the two LL's the scene just cuts away, so we never find out how lex would have explained how that guy suddenly got a knife in his chest. And sicne when did jimmy go to so much trouble for lex anyway, they only met once before, and they didn't exactly become best friends.

Then there's the clark plot. It started out great, clark had to face an enemy stronger than any he'd faced before, who could rip people's spines out, and clark didn't have chloe or anyone elses' help this time. But it turned out to be a big anti-climax, just as the battle gets started some new guy enters and kills the alien in an instant and leaves. Pah. If there's good guys out there who are stronger that clark, I don't want to know! I wanna see clark become superman, when is he ever going to do that when there are other guys out there fighting evil already? Clark might as well have stayed home and watched tv.

Oh yeah and bring back lois please.

[Torgo]

A mixed bag this week I felt. The Lex/Lana stuff felt forced and was acted in a way that was totally unconvincing (admitedly, Kristen was having to act to nobody at times). They really need to try and anchor Lana's character a little. Although her constant flip-flopping is understandable, it's getting very tiresome.

I actually liked the fact that, just this once, Clark wasn't involved in the A-story. Though it's telling that the situation was resolved just as easily without any superpowers. I can accept Jimmy's resolution as long as we don't see this kind of thing very often.

Highlight was a couple of great Lionel scenes, as is so often the case. I also like the reinforcement of Clark's isolation. There were some good ideas here, but it didn't really come together as a satisfying whole.

[Lex Dance]

If I'm watching an episode of Smallville that I feel is not up to scratch, I compare it to Ageless. That for me was the lowest point of the series and I watched it in a state of shock. Now Wither came close and Static wasn't far off. The funny thing is I actually enjoyed this one!
Unlike Ageless, it isn't the story that I take issue with, or some of the ridiculous scenarios as summed up by Pesk ( ). What really let the episode down was a hackneyed script and poor characterisation on the part of Lana. Ironically a lot of people seem to think "evil" Lana is poor characterisation but I've been enjoying it throughout the start of S6 and the end of S5. To be honest it's not the "evilness" I've enjoyed but the dysfunctional relationship she has with Lex (as summed up in the last shot of Rage). So why have her character revert to type? There is absolutely no way she loves Lex! As for being the only man she felt she could trust?! On the other hand, Lex does love Lana and this came across beautifully - especially when he found out about the baby. Still, at least she was up for a bit of meteor freak torture by the end of the episode!
TMLS, I think the flowers were meant to look funereal - that's the impression I got from the music and the final stab before the credits. I think that whole scene was done well and it reminded me of when Lex showed Helen his secret room with all his research on Clark.
I liked the superhero scene when Batista bought it - very cool! But you're right Pesk, I don't think it's such a clever idea having Clark witness heroes acting with powers greater than his. It goes against what he has been learning from his encounters with Green Arrow et al.
And it was good to see Lionel reverting to his old ways. There have been ever-increasing signs of this since Jor-el left him, but I'm still not sure what he's up to. No two ways about it: Lionel and Lex will always go some way to redeeming an episode!
Oh, and the return of 33.1! Get in! Ever since Jinx I have held out hope that the writers would keep this idea alive. I hope this somehow ties in with Lex's lost memories by the end of the series.

[Lex Dance]

Hmmmmm, not much to say about this episode then. I guess it speaks for itself!