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astri13I pretty much stopped watching in Season 5 but out of curiosity, I did check out the Series Finale of
First off, ten years? Boy oh boy, who would have ever thought.
Even though I didn't really watch the show anymore, I did know roughly that it was basically Superman already. I mean, Clark and Lois were reporters in Metropolis - and dating, and Clark used his powers to save people. What about that is not Superman? Oh, I know, the freaking suit and flying which were the two things they were forbidden from using during course of the show.
So, it was clear the Series Finale would feature just that: the suit and flying. And it did, along with the Superman theme. That was okay, it was pretty much what I expected. We also got a couple of "blasts from the past" like Jonathan and Jimmy "I swear this time it's really him" Olsen. That was okay, too. It's the kind of tribute to people should get for watching ten years of a show IMO.
However, all in all, did I buy this as the heroic epic journey they have been trying to sell it as? Nope, not really. They basically lost me there sometime in Season 4ish already. And Jor-El's flashback montage made about as much sense as Jor-El in general: none. Seriously, that dude seemed to change his ideas on Clark's destiny and how it should come about at least weakly. Guess that makes him the perfect writer stand-in.
Now the one thing I was really interested in seeing: how they would resolve, or set-up as the case may be, Clark and Lex. The biggest failing of the show IMO which I imagined should have featured the epic friendship between them before it broke down and they became enemies. Unfortunately, that kinda happened back in Season 2 or so. Which was 8 freaking years ago. Granted, they surely didn't imagine they'd be running for ten years but even in basic plotting out, I would have build UP that friendship for at least a couple of years before gradually breaking it down.
And then what do they do, they give them one good scene together and then completely erase Lex' character. Seriously, no memories whatsoever. It's like the character didn't even need to be on the show for 7 Seasons. Stuff like that I find disappointing. And he is still supposed to be "evil" regardless? From what? He has no memories, no experiences that formed him. And don't come with that asisine "he was born evol" explanation. If I got treated like he was, I would have wiped out Smallville long before now. Impressive feat though, that he became President, especially in a non-election year.
I even thought the dialogue in their one scene was pretty clever in making clear that while Lex knew all about Clark now, he would never do the big reveal because he needed a secret super-hero for his "we have a destiny" together dream scenario of the future. That in some way they were finally on the same page. Instead it became: fuck that shit, Lex is now a blank slate
In my personal canon, Lex regained his memories and takes bloody revenege, muhahahaha.
So, Smallville, we had some (brief) fun times together. And to this day, you hold the record for funniest DVD audio commentary I ever heard in my entire life.
I might even watch the odd nostalgic episode of older Seasons here and there but all in all I thought you could have been so much more. Then again, I come away with this same sentiment from nearly 95 % of shows I'm watching, especially the long-running ones. So maybe it's not you, it's me. On second thought, nope, it's not. *g*
First off, ten years? Boy oh boy, who would have ever thought.
Even though I didn't really watch the show anymore, I did know roughly that it was basically Superman already. I mean, Clark and Lois were reporters in Metropolis - and dating, and Clark used his powers to save people. What about that is not Superman? Oh, I know, the freaking suit and flying which were the two things they were forbidden from using during course of the show.
So, it was clear the Series Finale would feature just that: the suit and flying. And it did, along with the Superman theme. That was okay, it was pretty much what I expected. We also got a couple of "blasts from the past" like Jonathan and Jimmy "I swear this time it's really him" Olsen. That was okay, too. It's the kind of tribute to people should get for watching ten years of a show IMO.
However, all in all, did I buy this as the heroic epic journey they have been trying to sell it as? Nope, not really. They basically lost me there sometime in Season 4ish already. And Jor-El's flashback montage made about as much sense as Jor-El in general: none. Seriously, that dude seemed to change his ideas on Clark's destiny and how it should come about at least weakly. Guess that makes him the perfect writer stand-in.
Now the one thing I was really interested in seeing: how they would resolve, or set-up as the case may be, Clark and Lex. The biggest failing of the show IMO which I imagined should have featured the epic friendship between them before it broke down and they became enemies. Unfortunately, that kinda happened back in Season 2 or so. Which was 8 freaking years ago. Granted, they surely didn't imagine they'd be running for ten years but even in basic plotting out, I would have build UP that friendship for at least a couple of years before gradually breaking it down.
And then what do they do, they give them one good scene together and then completely erase Lex' character. Seriously, no memories whatsoever. It's like the character didn't even need to be on the show for 7 Seasons. Stuff like that I find disappointing. And he is still supposed to be "evil" regardless? From what? He has no memories, no experiences that formed him. And don't come with that asisine "he was born evol" explanation. If I got treated like he was, I would have wiped out Smallville long before now. Impressive feat though, that he became President, especially in a non-election year.
I even thought the dialogue in their one scene was pretty clever in making clear that while Lex knew all about Clark now, he would never do the big reveal because he needed a secret super-hero for his "we have a destiny" together dream scenario of the future. That in some way they were finally on the same page. Instead it became: fuck that shit, Lex is now a blank slate
In my personal canon, Lex regained his memories and takes bloody revenege, muhahahaha.
So, Smallville, we had some (brief) fun times together. And to this day, you hold the record for funniest DVD audio commentary I ever heard in my entire life.
I might even watch the odd nostalgic episode of older Seasons here and there but all in all I thought you could have been so much more. Then again, I come away with this same sentiment from nearly 95 % of shows I'm watching, especially the long-running ones. So maybe it's not you, it's me. On second thought, nope, it's not. *g*
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(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-16 07:46 pm (UTC)They never managed to make Lex believably "evil" at ALL, not even back in S1/S2. Back then, they didn't even manage to make his actions "evil", even though they thought they were doing it; the result IMO was that Clark (by reacting to Lex the way he did) seemed hypocritical, judgemental and suspicious towards Lex alone - though nobody else - without reason, cruel, unforgiving and basically a right bastard.
Of course, they never meant to do anyrthing like this. They just never could write characterization that worked. What the series did have - the amazing chemistry between Clark and Lex, the fantastically nuanced and multi-layered, conflicted and struggling Lex, the magnificent bastard Lionel - that all came from the actors.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-16 07:56 pm (UTC)And taking away all his memories as a basic character destroying act? WTF? Besides, it's not like he can't research his past, look at photos, talk to people. So he could gather that he knew Clark, he could gather that they were friends for example, that weirdness surrounds Clark, the accident where they met and everything would start all over again. It's not exactly that big a leap to go Clark is Superman. People in the comics/movies/shows were always just too dumb to pick up on the clues.
Only for Lex there would be no emotional component in it this time since it erased all the stuff, bad AND good. If he'd had all his moments, he'd always be conflicted about Clark.
Stupid, stupid, stupid. And worthless storytelling IMO. Why tell a story in the first place if you basically erase it in the last chapter?
(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-16 10:07 pm (UTC)My guess would be because you've lost control of it long ago, and have no idea how to bring it to an end that ties things up properly...
I don't know if you've ever watched XF? Because the end of that series was the biggest flaming ball of "OMG WTF I actually had no clue what I was doing all along and constantly contradicted myslef with no underlying concept... and now it's going to come out that I was just making shit up randomly as I went along, because I have no way to bring things to a close. Maybe if I blow everything up spectacularly enough, nobody will notice...?"
This sounds like the same kind of thing on a slightly smaller scale.