posted
Lana getting a supersuit, great premise. Still they managed to make me wish I could somehow get that hour of my life back.
Posts: 3134 | Registered: Mar 2005
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So I guess I'll have to take back what I've said...maybe. Because it sure felt like we were back to the same old CLana, only this time she's his equal and thus they can be equally lame. I mean, I did like the way the story was told and I didn't actually hate Lana. But it seemed like real character regression...unless they are building to a place where she can leave and he can finally move on.
The only hopeful thing I can really say is that she won't be staying around and that's based on 2 things. She's a special guest star, not a regular. And the previews for next week indicate some kind of sacrifice to save Clark (tho will they have the stones to pull it off? Somehow I doubt it. And it seems a rather anti-climactic legacy for Lana to leave when the Legion-chick went out of her way to say that Lana had a destiny apart from Clark since, oh I don't know, dying to save Clark is Clark-related.) She will be leaving though.
But still, left a bad taste in my mouth.
Posts: 1346 | Registered: Jun 1999
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posted
Super-Lana? Give me a break. It just totally deforms the whole story into an utter monstrosity.
She would not have Clark's sensitivity to Kryptonite. But she may be sensitive to bright sunlight. Just watch, that "alien DNA" they "clothed" her with will wind up turning her into an alien.
If they are determined to turn somebody on the show into a supergirl, it should be Cloe Sullivan. I like her better. And she's already had practice, after being possessed by that "Doom" AI, or whatever it was.
Posts: 3742 | Registered: Dec 2001
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It would seem to be poignant drama, to have Lana acquire her own super powers so she can finally be with Clark--then discovers her nanite "suit" absorbs kryptonite, so in effect she turns into virtual kryptonite, making it impossible for Clark to get close to her. The one time he forced himself to kiss her, he almost died. But somehow it seems hokey. Sure, they needed some new reason why Lana has to make way for Lois in Clark's life, but turning Lana into virtual kryptonite is really reaching.
And Kal-el the retarded Kryptonian still cannot fly. He doesn't even seem to try. All he needs to do is keep trying to jump higher, until finally he stays up. But no, he's content to be the "red-blue blur."
I wonder if Green Arrow fans appreciate the way they trashed his character, having him cross the line and kill Lex Luthor.
Posts: 3742 | Registered: Dec 2001
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But more to the point, with 2 episodes they have single handedly undone all the progress Clark made, have ignored all the other characters or regressed them, have made Lois forever second choice (for who can doubt that if Lana had not been turned into human kryptonite, Clark would have chosen her over and over and over again), all in the glorification of Lana Lang.
Everything I said about this show finally improving and moving forward? Forget it.
I'm done. Clark is a whiney brat who, when it suits the writers, will go to try to kill Lex for keeping him and Lana apart when he couldn't even kill Lionel when he thought he was responsible for his father's death. He is a tool of the writers whenever the fetishization of Lana Lang and her brand of 'girl power' strikes them.
The show really should have been called Lanaville.
I don't think I'll be watching anymore. Amazing what only 2 episodes can do. Because, in the end, they show that this is going no where, even with a 10 episode momentum in a good direction. Nothing changes, no one is as important as Lana. The retarded Kryptonian, the big dumb alien, Clark-one half of a powerfully codependent psychologically unhealthy relationship- will never be Superman, no matter what theatrics, icons, music, tights, flights, or any other lame after-the-fact rating ploy attempts at TELLING us he is Superman because he is not Superman.
Posts: 1346 | Registered: Jun 1999
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Yeah, it was awful. I went back and forth between cringing and rolling my eyes. I kept hoping the writers would figure out that Clark had to choose to leave Lana. By doing it this way, they have made Lana the love of his life and Lois, if and when they develop that romance, will be the second choice.
Posts: 2392 | Registered: Sep 2005
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posted
Good point, Christine--the writers needed to have Clark choose to leave Lana. Best of all would be for him to simply "outgrow" her. Now, even if Lana were to die, Lois would still be Clark's second choice. And hey, the Superman mythos is about Lois and Clark, not the childhood infatuation of Lana and Clark.
I still watch the show though, mainly for one reason: I just can't wait to see how they figure out some way people can look at Clark Kent, and Superman, with Clark wearing no more disguise than glasses and a business suit, and not recognize that they are the same person. They don't even have Clark wearing glasses yet!
Maybe they'll borrow a trick from the old radio show, The Shadow, and give him the power to cloud people's minds.
Posts: 3742 | Registered: Dec 2001
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Ron, that's basically why I'm watching the show. Well, that and every so often I think they're making significant improvements (like the first part of this season) and then they disappoint me. Plus, I really like the Superman story and I liked the Smallville story for so long...at least the first 3 seasons were great, IMO.
I'm even willing to have them take liberties with the Superman story. They certainly have, and that's fine. But I was not willing to let them ruin the love between Lois and Clark. This is so disappointing.
Posts: 2392 | Registered: Sep 2005
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posted
Honestly, I loved the show. And even in the lamest periods of the show, every now and then, there'd be a glimmer of awesome.
It's just...well, last year ended fairly well (and finally Lana was leaving), but after 8 years, season finales usually have little reprecussion, aside from a casual throw-away reference. Season 6, I think, was the only one and that was because Clark was busy taking care of escaped Zoners. So as cool as the end of last season was (and I liked the retconning device of Veritas and its tying in with the Swanns, Luthors, Teagues and Queens) I was getting to the point where I was tired of getting my hopes up and them being dashed to the ground.
And yet, this season, for 10 or 12 episodes showed so much...promise. What might have been. Even the filler freak of the week eps played a role in fleshing out the main story (Like Lois and Clark being shocked by that nutjob who didn't believe in committment and we saw that she had started to care about him.) And I thought, maybe, maybe with the new EPs, we have a new direction. They know where they are going. They know why it had been failing. And they knew Lana's place in the story (and it's not the heart). I even didn't mind seeing her come back (for a guest spot). She was incidental now, a bringing of closure to that terrible relationship. And so, after 7 years, I was willing to hope, to believe that finally, we'd see some realy character and story development.
And...and yet, in 2 episodes they undid all that and showed that nothing had changed. Things would continue on as usual.
One problem is that the writers are terrified of living with their story decisions, so they use the reset button far too often. And then, when they finally do go through with it, it's been hinted at and done so many times (temporarily- like Lex or Lana finding out Clark's secret) that its rather anti-climactic when it finally does happen.
But the bigger other problem, the one that goes to the core, is that they have inflated Lana to be the center of the show and now, SHE is the one that made Clark into Superman.
There was a time, especially seasons 1-3, when it was clear that what made Clark Superman was his parents, in particular Jonathan. Those were the days, remember? And the Smallville mythos of setting up Kryptonians as being soulless or callous who sent Clark to rule (as shown by the Jor-El AI and ultimately exemplefied in Kal-El in Season 3 and 4), only showed how powerful the human influence- the compassion, the kindness, the self-sacrifice was. Clark becomes Superman because of his dad. His Dad was already Superman.
But the writers/producers continual obsession with Lana- the desire to make love-triangles, to make her into whatever she needed to be- artist, business tycoon (in High School, no less), a witch, a female Luthor- all by just telling us she was this or that way (since when could Lana draw, after all? And whatever happened to it? What business classes did she take that made her capable of running the Talon while still going to school, where's the character creation?). And then overshadowing all that, the need to make her journey as important and world-shattering as his (brought to its ultimate expression by Legion-girl a few eps ago who said she had a great destiny completely untied to Clark's). This is what undid the show and created all the Lana haters, though in all honesty, I liked the CLana all the way up to season 3. But, as Christine said, he would outgrow her. She would be his past, not pined for and lost and 'if he'd had his 'druthers', but he would have left Smallville, moved on, got over her and found new love and life.
Instead, she has been the anchor for him as a character, holding him back, dragging him backwards (the writer's fault- when they want to show Lana's saintly perfection, it is Lana who convinces Clark not to kill Lex, despite Clark's entire putative history up to that point, including not Killing Lex, the vessell of Zod, not killing Lionel tho he believed he killed Jonathan.) She has been an drag on the show, deforming all other characters (like Chloe, newly married with a husband seriously jacked by Doomsday, would stay in Metropolis in order to interact with Lana and tell Clark that Lana's not the liability he thought she was), all the other plots (where is Doomsday? What happened to Clark's finally embracing [for the billionth time] his destiny and being a savior? What happened to Lois and their budding romance? I don't care that it was too soon. I liked how it was being done and where it was going.) All in service to some character whose abilities, whose importance, whose affect has been so grossly warped and distored, all in service to...
to what? Why? Honestly, I have no idea. It has become so much of a joke that I had stopped thinking of why. I mean Kristin Kriek is attractive (and none of this is her fault- she didn't write this crap), though so are other girls- particularly Erica Durance (Lois). So what is it? Why?
The entire Superman mythos been deformed so that, at its heart: Superman and Lex are enemies, and Clark has embraced his destiny and learned how to be the hero, all because of Lana Lang (who will now be her own version of Superman).
And that is why I am disgusted.
Posts: 1346 | Registered: Jun 1999
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posted
I gave up on the show in season 5 and so this season I had to catch back up. I went back to the beginning (ah, the good old days) and rewatched most episodes (read the plot summaries of a few inconsequential ones) and I realized that if you took LANA out of the story, it's good! In fact, part of the reason I decided to go ahead and watch season 8 was that she wasn't supposed to be in it. Granted, it's hard to separate Lana from the show for all the reasons IanO pointed out -- she became central to it -- but if you try really hard...
Lana should have left the show after season 3. I even thought she would, since she left town for France. When they did that I thought it was perfect. Then the teasers for the premiere of season 4 had an amusing encounter with Lois which I also thought would be nice, though I thought Lois should not have become a regular guest at that point. He needed to meet Lois when he was ready for her. They have now tried to balance Lois and Lana together for 5 years!
I had a few other glimmers of hope that they would do the right thing. When Lana and Lex got together I thought that was a great way to drive the last wedge between Lex and Clark (an aspect of the show that I still enjoy...Lex can't be dead yet). Then Lana got all Luthory and I thought that would be a great way to drive her and Clark apart.
And here again in season 8 I thought they were brining her back for one last chance to show Clark what she'd become -- a power hungry Luthorette with serious hero envy. I thought that would drive him away.
So many missed opportunities!
Posts: 2392 | Registered: Sep 2005
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posted
I made a friend (who is a Twilight fan) semi-mad by referring to the Twilight couple (Edward and whats-her-name) as "Clark and Lana".
Do you suppose we get stories like this because people WANT to be entertained by unhealthy, obsessive relationships? Or maybe because that's the sort of relationship that the writers know?
Posts: 324 | Registered: Mar 2008
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