A review of a different color. While Fiziko is out for the next week or so, I’m reviewing Smallville. While we’re at it, let’s throw caution to the wind and see what my wife thinks of her very first exposure to the show.
Cast
Tom Welling as
Clark Kent
Kristen Kreuk as
Lana Lang
Michael
Rosenbaum as Lex Luthor
John Glover
as Lionel Luthor
Sam Jones III as
Pete Ross
Allison Mack as
Chloe Sullivan
Annette
O’Toole as Martha Kent
John
Schneider as Jonathan Kent
Story by Todd
Slavkin and Darren
Swimmer.
Teleplay by Brian Wayne
Peterson and Kelly Sounders.
Directed by James
Marshall.
Original Airdate
Accelerate
originally aired on Tuesday,
May 6, 2003.
Synopsis
First, I’d like to give you the premise of this review. I got married just over a month ago to a wonderful woman. One of
the wonderful things about her is that she not only tolerates my love of sci-fi and fantasy, but she’s picked up a healthy
dose of it herself. I would still, however, consider a casual fan. As such, I thought it might be interesting to get her
perspective on this show at the same time as mine. So we’ll get two reviews, two scores tonight. I hope you enjoy. (This isn’t
going to be something we do often, but I thought it might be fun).
The episode: Lana Lang’s seeing ghosts. Clark sets out to exorcise them somehow – or prove they don’t exist.
High Point
Sabrina’s: “OH MY GOD! BO DUKE! I HAVE TO WATCH THIS SHOW EVERY WEEK NOW!” (apparently Clark’s father is played by the same guy who
played Bo Duke on the Duke’s of Hazzard [yep. the high point occurred in the opening credits])
Chris’s: I’m torn between the scene in the rain where Clark moves at super speed and the scene with Lana in the barn…that one
sort of revisited some things Sabrina and I have gone through…but not in a bad way.
Low Point
Sabrina’s: I didn’t like the ending. The father losing his daughter didn’t sit well.
Chris’s: The too-obvious (and too fast) x-files-esque removal of the lab. Just seemed unnecessary to bring the police into it.
The Review
Sabrina: I didn’t think there really was much originality to it. The ghosts in the theater and cloning bit. Been there, done that
Chris: Actually, I was initially going to give this a higher score for originality, but Sabrina’s got a really good point. On the other h
bit of a new direction (from what I understand) for the show. Just to be different, I’ll give originality a 4 out of 6.
Sabrina: The effects were decent, and relatively well used. I’ll give effects a 4 out of 6.
Chris: I was impressed with the effects. They’re significantly above the level of effects I’ve seen on TV before (WAY above what I’m
used to on Charmed). Since I’m new to the show I can’t say I’ve seen them often. I’ll give effects a 5 out of 6.
Sabrina: It was a good plot. I liked the overall story, it didn’t jump too often, but flowed well. The way they handled continuing
story threads doesn’t hurt a new viewer much. Story gets a 5 out of 6.
Chris: I agree on both counts – I especially liked how nearly every other scene was an “oh REALLY” scene for about the first half
of the show. I was really interested in just WHAT they were getting into here. On the other hand, the last half of the ep. really
dragged in places. I got tired of the “Lana is crazy” type scenes once they’d established that no, she wasn’t. I also felt that the
“story arc” threads didn’t really detract from the overall show (for a new viewer) but rather helped to place this in a non-episodic
world. (There are a lot of shows that I wonder “just what do they do while they’re waiting for these major events to occur”, and
the writing on this show does a lot to explain exactly that.) I give the story a 5 out of 6 as well.
Sabrina: John Schneider’s (Jonathan Kent) still got it. Makes me a happy camper. John Glover plays evil well. In terms of the Father to
interaction, the elder Luther’s mannerisms definately give light to Lex’s future “divinity” into the corporate world of evil within Metrop
Acting gets a 5 out of 6.
Chris: While I don’t hold a special place in my heart for Bo Duke, I do think he’s a good actor. John Glover, however, is one of
the people that will keep me watching this show. He epitomizes evil. Some of the supporting cast was a little weak – Lana especially
had a few problems – but on the whole they were quite good. Better than your average sci-fi tv show. I’ll give acting a 5 out of
Sabrina: The only emotional response for me throughout the show was Lana’s & Clark’s scene in the barn when she tells him how she feels
about her being afraid that he won’t find her perfect. Personal experiences within the past few months just shed more light on me from
this scene and I think conveyed more clearly how I feel in certain aspects of my relationship with my husband! Thanks Smallville!!
Emotional Response 6 out of 6
Chris: I was wrapped up in the early part of the show very intensely, and I was very interested in what the characters were going
to do to handle it. And then it all fell apart. Mostly this was a flow problem, but it really lost me emotionally. And then the now
famous (in this review) barn scene. Yah. Got me by the throat. Can’t quite get over that flow issue though. emotional response
gets a 5 out of 6.
Sabrina: No hidden mikes coming out of the walls or grip boys wanting to make special apperances in Lana’s bedroom!! Kudos to the
production team on a job well done!!! Production 6 out of 6
Chris: Okay. I’m impressed. Sci-fi normally doesn’t have production this good, so I’m happy. Nothing to make me stand up and
say “WOW! THAT WAS AMAZING PRODUCTION!” (I’ll know it when I see it, okay?) so production gets a 5 out of 6.
Sabrina: This was a well written, well acted, well thoughtout show!! Having this been my first episode, I would have to say it was a
good experience. This was probably one of the best plot lines I’ve seen in a sci-fi based series in a long time…I give props to the
writers of this show!!! You receive my golden pen award for this :) Overall 5 out of 6
Chris: I was impressed. While not something that’ll drag me back to the screen, I wouldn’t avoid it. And if I were home, flipping
through the channels, I’d likely pick this to watch at 9. Probably the best tv on a Tuesday night (Though tonight I would have rather
been watching the X-men movie on FX). Overall, I give this episode a 4 out of 6.
In total,
Accelerate
receives
34 out of 42 from Sabrina,
and
33 out of 42 from Chris (Hitch).
Slow-mo rain, super fast Clark
That SFX shot just blew me away! It was really well done, the water
droplets looked like water droplets, the whole thing was really well done.
Cudos!
Cemetary Scene
I as well was impressed by the water droplets – though it borrows heavily from The Matrix I much prefer that to the last time we observed things from Clark’s speeded-up viewpoint (the time he ran to Edge City to get the doctor for Ryan) where everything seemed to be simply blurred. I did think that Pete was yet again underused – I was hoping for him to run up to Clark following the droplet scene, and they could have had him (Pete) find the locket, rather than Clark.
I must say that I was slightly let down by the barn scene between Lana and Clark – I was hoping for a kiss, but then again, I suppose I’m a romantic under this sarcastic exterior. I am however happy that they have continued to keep Chloe somewhat mad at Clark – the whole weekly switches in Lana’s mood towards him near the start of the season was very irritating.
On a John Glover note, for those of you in Canada who get Space, they have begun repeating Brimstone – a show Fox created back in the late 90’s (and cancelled the same year, it’s much like Firefly in that respect as it too had promise), which stars John Glover as the Devil himself.
Re: Cemetary Scene
Brimstone was my first intro to John Glover, though I didn’t realize it was Yet Another Great Show Killed By Fox. Sigh. But John Glover was the high point of that show too.
Story Flow
This episode seemed poorly scripted and edited. The girl stabbing her father seemed out of place. Should have scripted it so the girl killed the rabbits. The cops not finding the lab seemed stupid (what was the point?). Lana’s reaction to the little girl seemed overacted. The ending was really stupid. Unless the father is going to show up in a future episode to take revenge. It seemed confused between spooky ghost or Luthor conspiracy.
I won’t even mention the “I got the cave back” scene. Nor will I mention the fact that a certain miss nosy reporter hasn’t done the obvoius invistigation into that wierd new Smallville sheriff.
Re: Story Flow
That wouldn’t make any sense. The stabbing of her father established that she’s got zero conscience. Of course, there are other problems, such as she’s spent her entire life in a glass case, how has she managed to develop the language skills of a ten year old? And how is it that chromosomal damage would create this type of conscience-less-ness. Anyway.
I agree on both of those points…
I don’t know, the ending made sense to me. Yet another illustration of “Luthors are evil”. Though I thought the elder luthor was going to terminate the little girl for being defective. As for the “I got the cave back” scene, I took it as Lex getting his father in an uncomfortable position and his father changing the subject to something that would piss off Lex. As for the new Sherriff, I’ve never seen them before. Anyway. Still, all in all a better than average show.
Re: Story Flow
Stabbing daddy was in character with the “no morals”, but I did expect her to do something mean to the rabbit Lex Sr. gave her. My main feeling after the show was “So this is SuperGirl?” I also thought, especially the beginning, was very tense and suspenseful — it would have made a good halloween episode.
Nice episode
Yeah, the water droplets were just outstanding, and the realism of how things were while sped up was great.
My only real complaint is something that I think hitch touched on, and that’s the fact that after they figured out the girl wasn’t a ghost, Lana still was acting like she’d seen a ghost when the girl showed up in the Kent living room. I mean, I know it’s freaky to see the girl who died hanging out on the couch, but they do live in Smallville, and that coupled with knowing the truth about her should have chilled Lana way out, I thought.
Oh, and to hitch, my wife (of just under three years) and I also both had some experiences to think about during the barn scene. Kinda funny.