posted
I've never seen pictures so I couldn't judge.
FOTW was probably the weakest element to Smallville. Enough that the most panned episodes for each season is invariably a FOTW. "Whisper"- Nathan the high-pitch throat guy, "Iceman" or the Diet Girl (eating the dear- how uterly retarded), "Dichotic"- Jonathan Taylor Thomas splits in two. This has been talked about at length at kryptonsite which, I mentioned, regularly does interviews with the producers and writers and is probably how they keep a pulse.
The difficulty that Smallville (and X-files, for that matter) has is that there are two types of stories. 1) The Mytharch, such as we have seen last night, that deal with Clarks becoming Superman, his destiny, Lex's destiny, etc. 2) The lighter episodes that may advance the mytharch slightly, but are designed to be digested in 48 minutes (or however long it is). Some conflict and resolution.
I think the struggle is that if you make every episode a mytharch episode, two things happen. First, the show becomes even more soap-operatic than it already is. Thus, as the series progresses, it becomes harder and harder to pull in new viewers who don't know the back-story. (Of course, entire seasons on DVD helps with this, but still). Second, the series moves too quickly, the pace is too fast.
But trying for a "common" episode, with some relatively non-cosmic conflict and resolution is tough. The issues a teenager faces are difficult even with powers. But would the show sustain, week after week, a show about Clarks emotional difficulties. I think it might collapse under its own weight if it was just Dawson's Creek with powers.
Plus, we want to see him do things with those powers. Learning to be in a stable relationship or deal with an overbearing teacher or whatever is not going to call for alot of heat-vision or heavy lifting.
So how can you bring in the action? Bad cops. Or gangland types. But these are just high school students. How many students will be running into mobsters and syndicate members regularly, especially in a farm town? Hence the FoTW.
So it's a balancing act that, I think, can be done.
1/2 Mytharchs 1/4 WELL DONE, not gone in 48 minutes, realistic Villians (of whatever type) 1/4 Teenager problems
Posts: 1346 | Registered: Jun 1999
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quote: I think the struggle is that if you make every episode a mytharch episode, two things happen. First, the show becomes even more soap-operatic than it already is. Thus, as the series progresses, it becomes harder and harder to pull in new viewers who don't know the back-story. (Of course, entire seasons on DVD helps with this, but still). Second, the series moves too quickly, the pace is too fast.
This was the problem that Babylon 5 had. There was so much story to tell, that by the third season, every single episode was an arc-heavy episode. As a result, it was almost impossible to come in and get anything out of it.
Posts: 16551 | Registered: Feb 2003
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posted
(Geeky information overload to follow. To be honest, if you care about this stuff you probably already know it, so feel free to skip. Just tell me it was fascinating and I'll really, really believe you read it.)
The actual Superman comic book cannon chronology is sort of convoluted.
DC, you see, was in the habit of nearly reinventing their characters ever few years based on sales. It got to the point where they finally decided they had to own up to all of it, and find a version and stick to it.
So here's what they did--they created a series called "Crisis of the Infinite Earths." They said that all these different incarnations of all these superheros were really all on different earths in parrallel universes. They then created a villian who could cross these universes, and he started destroying all the alternate realities.
Also killed were a few major characters like Supergirl and the first Flash (Barry Allen, the guy on the TV show).
Prior to this, the character of Lex Luthor was a scientist. You may remember him with the big purple suit that looked like Leader 1's armor from the Go-Bots. The first Superman movie was kind of based on this Lex, but had hints of the Lex we know now. He was the "world's greatest scientist" and really evil.
This version of Superman and Lex Luthor had to weather the Fifties, a period of time when comics were told they could have no sex, violence, or any of the other staples comics were previously, and would later again be, built on.
This was the period that gave us the Batman adventures about saving dolphins and Flash stories about saving diamonds. It featured lots and lots of riddles (as was mocked on the Batman TV show).
During this phase, they created about a million super-spinoff characters. Superboy, Supergirl, Krypto, the super-dog, and yes, even Supergirl had a pet, Comet, the super-horse.
During this time, they also created, in the Superboy storyline, overlaps with a young red-haired Lex Luthor. While the relationship started out positive, various events between them (Lex and Superboy, not Lex and Clark) led to Lex both becoming evil and resenting Superboy.
For example, one day, they were palling around in a lab, mixing chemicals in the school lab, really buddy-buddy (again, this was Lex and Superboy, not Lex and Clark), when an accident caused and explosion that emmitted horrible toxic fumes.
Superboy saves Lex from the explosion, saves his life, basically, but Lex reveals himself to be shallow and evil when he freaks out when the fumes make his hair fall out.
However, after the Crisis series, they decided to redo the history, and create one set cannon.
They employed a guy named John Byrne to create the new incarnation of Superman. They eliminated the whole Superboy thing, the whole Supergirl thing, the dog, the whole bit. Superman was back to what he originally was--a guy who became Superman after he showed up in Metropolis.
Not the same was Lex. He was turned into the wealthy, greedy, corporate Tycoon he is on the Cartoon. He was a poor kid who grew up in a bad part of town, and, after getting beat up a lot, became street-wise. He was controlling groups of organized crime at a young age, ostensibly as a messanger for someone older. He had his parents murdered, but had it made to look like a car accident.
However, as I understand it (I haven't read a comic in a few years) the current incarnation of Superman is now getting flashbacks from the silver age. The dog has shown up again, as has the shrunken Kryptonian city Superman keeps in a bottle at the Fortress of Solitude.
So why do I go through all this? A couple reasons.
First, because some people seemed to have questions, and I thought I'd answer some.
Second, to say that since the Superman "cannon" has never really been all that set in stone to begin with, so mixing it up and messing with it for dramatic effect is actually being more true to the source material than trying to be true and faithful to every tiny little aspect of the history.
For the first few years, they were floundering about to explain his powers. Was Kryton a planet of Super-men? Did Kryptonian technology provide super-advanced diets? Try that for a few years, but then realize the guy's eating Earth food now. Did the super-gravity of Krypton make it's inhabitant's stronger?
In the first few years, Superman couldn't even fly, which is now his trademark power.
So it's okay. They can fudge things here and there. Let the Romans rename the Greek gods and revamp the temples. Then let them see what new and exciting tales we can spin to each other then.
Posts: 1894 | Registered: Aug 2000
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posted
Say what you will about Margo Kidder's cameo...but her line about loving Dr. Swan "in another life"(not exact, from memory) was pretty damn hilarious.
Posts: 8741 | Registered: Apr 2001
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posted
The writers of the show have done what the comic book writers have done for years: change the mythology for various reasons. Thus, the list of changes that were outlined above.
Boy, last weeks episode- Gone- what a load of crap. I love Lois and Clark's chemistry, but other than that, it stunk. I was really worried that the show had lost it.
Last night was great. Light. Fun. Seemed like a good season 1 episode, but the FOTW wasn't a psycho and was actually very sympathetic.
And Ohhh, how I love Lois. If only...
Only down side is, I hope they get to explaining all the mythos stuff that happened at the end of last season and beginning of this one before too long.
Posts: 1346 | Registered: Jun 1999
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posted
I don't know that beverly looks like Wonder Woman so much as emitting her Amazonian aura of power blended with femininity Seriously, I mainly think you look like that other lady. The one whose name escapes me at the moment.
Posts: 11017 | Registered: Apr 2003
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