Smallville Review – “Lexmas”

Lex gets his turn to take a glimpse at Christmas
future.

Cast

Tom
Welling
as
Clark Kent

Kristen Kreuk as
Lana Lang

Michael
Rosenbaum
as Lex Luthor

John
Glover

as Lionel Luthor

Annette
O’Toole
as Martha Kent

John
Schneider
as Jonathan Kent

Erica Durance as
Lois Lane

Allison Mack as
Chloe Sullivan.

Written by Erica Durance.

Directed by Rick Rosenthal.

Original Airdate


Lexmas
originally aired on Thursday,
December 8, 2005.

Synopsis

Lex is mugged, and gets to live a day in a possible
future. Clark and
Chloe deliver Christmas gifts to the needy.

High Point

When the Luthors interact, the episode is hard to
beat. In this case,
the final conversation with them is great.

Low Point

The “it’s the real one” twist that gets used so, so
much.

The Review

This was original in the context of “new for
this series.”
The early portion was quite unoriginal when compared
to The Family
Man
, or a number of other series. However, the
ending they did
is definitely unusual for this type of story. I give
it 4 out of 6.

The effects were minimal, with a nice homage
to the first
film. Still, they were well done. I give it 5 out of
6.

The story was fairly well formed. It was
starting out down a
very familiar path, but took at sharp left turn at a
well chosen
moment. Some moments were still overly sappy and
pretty typical of
seasonal special episodes, but the final moments were
different enough
to keep things interesting. I give it 4 out of 6.

The acting from Michael Rosenbaum was great,
and carried the
episode along easily. The whole cast did a good job,
but they were
secondary characters in this story. I give it 6 out
of 6.

The emotional response for the first 45
minutes was pretty
low. I felt sure I knew where this was going. In
that respect, the
final act was a pleasant surprise. I give it 5 out of
6.

The production was done to the usual
standards. The dream
sequence was lit more brightly that it really needed
to be, but that
did help seperate the dream from the reality at a
glance. I give it 5
out of 6.

Overall, it’s pretty good for a seasonal
episode (which are
usually pretty sappy and forced.) I give it 4 out of
6.

In total,
Lexmas
receives
33
out of 42.

10 replies on “Smallville Review – “Lexmas””

  1. Hmmm
    I think you’re right about the episode making a strong comeback towards the end, but the Santa bit was just hard to watch.

    • Re: Hmmm
      Yeah, that Santa bit was a too-healthy helping of cheese, but hey…

      Finally, Lex cements in his own mind why he wants money and power. He’s been fighting this question throughout the entire series, and he finally has an answer. It’s a logical, sensible answer, lending credability to his character. The catalyst for him arriving at this conclusion after so much time may not be quite so sensible, but considering this is a show about an alien who looks human and has amazing powers, I’ll buy it.

      • Re: Hmmm

        The catalyst for him arriving at this conclusion after so much time may not be quite so sensible, but considering this is a show about an alien who looks human and has amazing powers, I’ll buy it.

        Oh, I’ll run with it – I’ve been re-watching the first season DVDs with a friend of mine, and there are subtle nods to how Lex feels about Lana even as far back as then. We’ve always known he was going to go ‘evil’, but knowing it’s in order to prevent the death of the woman he cares about? That sort of changes things – a lesser of two evils approach in his mind.

        • Re: Hmmm
          That’s the logical and sensible part. I meant the “peek at the future presented by his dead mother after being shot” part as the not so sensible. :)

          • Re: Hmmm

            That’s the logical and sensible part. I meant the “peek at the future presented by his dead mother after being shot” part as the not so sensible. :)

            I really think this was all constructed by Lex’s own subconscious, with his mother used as a representative. The fantasy is basically everything Lex has ever dreamt about coming true, and then he remembers the cost. I liked the whole thing (even if it was pretty heavy-handed) because it basically summed up both sides of his inner conflict and played them off each other to catalyze a decision: he can never be happy without the power to protect that happiness. So before he can be happy he must build up his power, at any cost. Like I said, it felt very heavy-handed, but because it fit so well with his background I felt it worked in the end.

    • Re: Hmmm

      I think you’re right about the episode making a strong comeback towards the end, but the Santa bit was just hard to watch.

      Ok, my wife and I seem to have noticed something that was not mentioned. It made "the Santa bit" a lot easier to watch. I’ll enclose it in spoiler text just to be sure not to give something away:


      Am I wrong, or wasn’t Santa being played by Terrance Stamp? Perhaps Santa was Zod (or Jor-El) testing Clark to see if Humanity really was worth saving.

      It made it a relevant, and would explain some things…

      • Re: Hmmm

        Zod

        Zod is still trapped in the spinny square prison of eternal flatness, as shown by Braini-Spike shortly before his crystaline demise.

        • Re: Hmmm

          Zod

          Zod is still trapped in the spinny square prison of eternal flatness, as shown by Braini-Spike shortly before his crystaline demise.

          I’m thinking we have not seen the last of Braini. No Way.

          • Re: Hmmm

            Zod

            Zod is still trapped in the spinny square prison of eternal flatness, as shown by Braini-Spike shortly before his crystaline demise.

            I’m thinking we have not seen the last of Braini. No Way.

            Always backup your AIs people! : )

  2. What didn’t work
    I agree this was an excellent episode, for a seasonal episode. Here’s what
    didn’t work, IMHO:

    Santa Clause. Maybe, just maybe, if the last we saw of him was after he left
    Clark, because at that point you could still convince yourself maybe he was a
    crazy old guy who _thought_ he was Santa.

    I thought Lex was holding the reins at LuthorCorp these days, how would
    Lionel shut him out?

    Jonathan Kent’s hair.

    Chloe Kent’s hair.

    Lex’s mom doesn’t make a very good ghost of Christmas future. She
    could have shown Lex any of the other 6 or 7 Christmases and it looks like he
    would have chosen that life without question (which is what she would want).
    OTOH maybe it was Lex’s subconcious after all in which case the fear of not
    having the power cropping up at the end makes perfect sense.

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