Post by buffysmglover on Oct 27, 2007 11:10:11 GMT -5
www.syfyportal.com/news424292.html
Review: 'Smallville' - Fierce
By ALAN STANLEY BLAIR
Source: SyFy Portal
Oct-13-2007
This review contains MAJOR SPOILERS for the episode "Fierce" in of "Smallville."
From Krypton to Kansas, will Clark Kent ever understand women? Better yet, will the producers ever understand their audience? There are times when "Smallville" can be a very smart, funny and fast moving series with some stellar performances from the entire cast. It can be surprisingly romantic, delightfully twisted and as hard-hitting as any big name drama.
Unfortunately, "Fierce" was not one of those episodes and instead delivered a very flat and ludicrously conceived plot of killer beauty queens searching for buried treasure.
Of course, it wouldn’t be a real episode of "Smallville" if that treasure wasn’t completely surrounded by Kryptonite infused meteor rocks from the first shower. The episode was so obviously geared up to putting the new eye-candy on display by parading her up and down instead of a story with substance to delve into the real nitty-gritty of who Kara (Laura Vandervoort) is and how Clark’s (Tom Welling) life is changing with her in it. Just remember, still to come is the contractual shower scene that every female member of the “Smallville” cast seems to have in order to introduce another bizarre and wacky story.
What Worked
It was nice to see Kara trying to fit into the day-to-day banalities of human life, even if that does mean wearing too many checkered shirts and carrying around random farm produce. Her character is new to the planet Earth and so everything is still very new to her, which will bring a very refreshing influence to the series. All of those old and routine events will suddenly become interesting as Kara experiences them for the first time.
Clark as an authority figure was an interesting touch, but he doesn’t quite have the same presence as Jonathon Schneider had in previous seasons. Even Annette O’Toole is sorely missed this season despite the poor scripts that were thrown her way towards the end of the sixth season.
What Didn’t Work
Returning to the Krypto-mutant game book is not a welcome move for “Smallville,” particularly using the overused control over the weather ploy. The ability to turn anything into ice is something the series has used before back in the first season -- it wasn’t fun to watch back then and it wasn’t fun to watch again. There is more than enough fodder from the existing mythology so the constant dependency on infecting social rejects into super-powered sociopaths only highlights how shallow the show runners imaginations really are.
The end result of the beauty pageant was shockingly predictable and the less said about the final fight the better. Clark Kent has taken on Kryptonians intent on world domination, phantoms, mobsters, eccentric billionaires and more super powered teenagers than you can count, yet three skin-deep beauty queens and a single piece of Kryptonite finally bested him. Whatever happened to the undefeatable man of steel from the comics?
And speaking of comics, Jimmy the “panda boy” is more than useless on the series. But it’s not Aaron Ashmore’s fault as he works well with what he has been given. Is there really a reason to try and squeeze him into the story if it’s not required? Although his announcement that it’s open season on the meteor infected may provide some interesting stories in the future now that Chloe is confirmed as one of them, it signals a return to the meteor-rock formula of the debut season.
Interspersed throughout this freak-of-the-week action was some of the most detracting music “Smallville” has come up with. And even worse, the script appears to be specifically written around the lyrics of the songs, further reducing any hopes of creating the kind of atmosphere the writers were trying hard to bring about. Lex (Michael Rosenbaum) and Kara’s final conversion is the worst of them all with dialogue only being spoken during the breaks of the song.
The direction that particular conversation could also have been far more ambitious than where the writers eventually landed -- imagine the future of the series if Kara actually took a chance to confide in Lex about her own heritage. We’d once again see Lex with a dark plan, Clark would again be in very real danger of being discovered by the world (something we haven’t really seen since the still absent Lionel Luthor turned over a new leaf) and most of all it would give Vandervoort some very morally dubious scripting to work with.
And why is it that every newcomer to the series needs to start working for the Talon?
Giving Credit Where Credit Is Due
"Fierce" was written by Holly Harold and directed by Whitney Ransick. It stars Tom Welling, Kristen Kreuk, Michael Rosenbaum, Allison Mack, Erica Durance and Laura Vandervoort.
“Smallville” airs Thursday at 9p.m. ET on The CW
Review: 'Smallville' - Fierce
By ALAN STANLEY BLAIR
Source: SyFy Portal
Oct-13-2007
This review contains MAJOR SPOILERS for the episode "Fierce" in of "Smallville."
From Krypton to Kansas, will Clark Kent ever understand women? Better yet, will the producers ever understand their audience? There are times when "Smallville" can be a very smart, funny and fast moving series with some stellar performances from the entire cast. It can be surprisingly romantic, delightfully twisted and as hard-hitting as any big name drama.
Unfortunately, "Fierce" was not one of those episodes and instead delivered a very flat and ludicrously conceived plot of killer beauty queens searching for buried treasure.
Of course, it wouldn’t be a real episode of "Smallville" if that treasure wasn’t completely surrounded by Kryptonite infused meteor rocks from the first shower. The episode was so obviously geared up to putting the new eye-candy on display by parading her up and down instead of a story with substance to delve into the real nitty-gritty of who Kara (Laura Vandervoort) is and how Clark’s (Tom Welling) life is changing with her in it. Just remember, still to come is the contractual shower scene that every female member of the “Smallville” cast seems to have in order to introduce another bizarre and wacky story.
What Worked
It was nice to see Kara trying to fit into the day-to-day banalities of human life, even if that does mean wearing too many checkered shirts and carrying around random farm produce. Her character is new to the planet Earth and so everything is still very new to her, which will bring a very refreshing influence to the series. All of those old and routine events will suddenly become interesting as Kara experiences them for the first time.
Clark as an authority figure was an interesting touch, but he doesn’t quite have the same presence as Jonathon Schneider had in previous seasons. Even Annette O’Toole is sorely missed this season despite the poor scripts that were thrown her way towards the end of the sixth season.
What Didn’t Work
Returning to the Krypto-mutant game book is not a welcome move for “Smallville,” particularly using the overused control over the weather ploy. The ability to turn anything into ice is something the series has used before back in the first season -- it wasn’t fun to watch back then and it wasn’t fun to watch again. There is more than enough fodder from the existing mythology so the constant dependency on infecting social rejects into super-powered sociopaths only highlights how shallow the show runners imaginations really are.
The end result of the beauty pageant was shockingly predictable and the less said about the final fight the better. Clark Kent has taken on Kryptonians intent on world domination, phantoms, mobsters, eccentric billionaires and more super powered teenagers than you can count, yet three skin-deep beauty queens and a single piece of Kryptonite finally bested him. Whatever happened to the undefeatable man of steel from the comics?
And speaking of comics, Jimmy the “panda boy” is more than useless on the series. But it’s not Aaron Ashmore’s fault as he works well with what he has been given. Is there really a reason to try and squeeze him into the story if it’s not required? Although his announcement that it’s open season on the meteor infected may provide some interesting stories in the future now that Chloe is confirmed as one of them, it signals a return to the meteor-rock formula of the debut season.
Interspersed throughout this freak-of-the-week action was some of the most detracting music “Smallville” has come up with. And even worse, the script appears to be specifically written around the lyrics of the songs, further reducing any hopes of creating the kind of atmosphere the writers were trying hard to bring about. Lex (Michael Rosenbaum) and Kara’s final conversion is the worst of them all with dialogue only being spoken during the breaks of the song.
The direction that particular conversation could also have been far more ambitious than where the writers eventually landed -- imagine the future of the series if Kara actually took a chance to confide in Lex about her own heritage. We’d once again see Lex with a dark plan, Clark would again be in very real danger of being discovered by the world (something we haven’t really seen since the still absent Lionel Luthor turned over a new leaf) and most of all it would give Vandervoort some very morally dubious scripting to work with.
And why is it that every newcomer to the series needs to start working for the Talon?
Giving Credit Where Credit Is Due
"Fierce" was written by Holly Harold and directed by Whitney Ransick. It stars Tom Welling, Kristen Kreuk, Michael Rosenbaum, Allison Mack, Erica Durance and Laura Vandervoort.
“Smallville” airs Thursday at 9p.m. ET on The CW