Tuesday, May 03, 2005

Smallville Glimpses What Could Have Been

A little while ago I wrote a rant searching for the reasons why Smallville sucks so bad. I mean, it has some good writers working on it, some talented directors shooting it, and has proven in the past that it can have truly great episodes when they try. For some reason, though, they choose to produce a melodramatic, cornball teen soap-opera that kills the essence of of what makes these characters interesting.

A couple of weeks ago, they had one of those cool episodes, though, and I thought it was worth mentioning. I was watching the episode, 'Onyx', which starts off really cheesy (Lex gets split in two with one Lex being good and one being evil) but manages to drag itself out from under its own weight to showcase some really great Superman moments.

Also some nice use of Chloe of late. I wish she'd just toss Lana in a dumpster one week and be Clark's exclusive girl Friday. Millar...Gough...You paying attention?

Anyway, back to the story.

Naturally, evil Lex manages to take over and we get a glimpse of the character that we know he will eventually come to be. If you get past the crappy scene he shares with Lana in the second act (I almost gave up around this point), you get to see Lex discover Clark's secret, get a kryptonite ring, violate Clark's sanctuary, offer Clark a position at his side to take over the world...and we get that moment that we, as viewers, ache for in this show; Lex standing across from Clark, his kryptonite ring slowing young Supes down but not putting him out and he hisses at Lex, "I'll never join you!" Classic drama, punchy dialogue and then Lex goes full-on bad-guy on the Kents and caps the scene off by saying, "You were right about me all along, Mr. Kent. I am the villain of the story."

I think I actually whooped after I heard that. It was good television.

Surprisingly it didn't end up sucking as everything was wrapping up either (usually a creative sinkhole for this show). Michael Rosenbaum did a really nice job of portraying a post-bifurcated Lex, and played up the duality and conflict the character would be feeling after everything he had been through. You also never know for sure how much he remembers about his time in splitsville, so you're left with that 'ooooo' feeling that you love to go out of a story on.

Still, somehow I just know the next episode is going to suck. I think it was a prom episode, or something.

Woo.

mike

No comments: