Tuesday, June 26, 2007

More opinions on TV

ok let's get Smallville out of the way. I really didn't watch it this season. The show's mediocrity has been grating on me since day 1. The sad thing was the amount of potential the show had. They should have put him in the costume years ago. After prodding from me mum I watched the season finale which saw some wild, drastic changes. The appear to have really killed Lana Lang. How do you know a TV death is real? You go onto imdb.com and see she has several new projects in the works. This doesn't seem to jive with current DC continuity which is still in flux post Infinite Crisis. However, they do something to fix the Chloe/Lois debacle which was quite bizarre. A little background. They needed an investigative reporter for Clark to rescue so they created Chloe Sullivan, a spunky blonde who secretly crushes on the enigmatic Clark Kent. years later, we're shown that she's in fact a cousin of the infamous Lois Lane. Continuity fanatics started brainstorming about how she fits into the mythology of Superman from the comics. Maybe Lois dies and Chloe takes her name! Maybe they were switched at birth! This is an inherent flaw in the hardcore comic reader. What we know of comics is gospel and to tell us something different makes steam come out of our ears. We have to make the puzzle piece fit. Eventually we're introduced to Lois, and Jimmy Olsen, and just about everyone else in Clarks adult life. Yet he doesn't wear the costume. *Sigh*. OK back to the episode. Lois is mortally injured sneaking around a Lexcorp facility when Chloe happens upon her. Chloe begins to cry and as her tear touches Lois, Chloe's essence pours into Lois, healing her in the process. Wha-zu-huh?! After a trip to wikipedia, my favorite vacation spot, I'm now equipped with the knowledge that Choe had been exposes to Kryptonite (meteor rocks) and has been displaying some sort of super powers throughout the season. So I guess Chloe's knack for a story has now been instilled in Lois and that's how we'll get the character of Lois Lane. A very odd trip. We're also given a version of Bizarro for CK near the final moments which was a cheap thrill for comic fans. Bottom line is I'm just not interested in the show at this point. Too many broken promises and let downs.

Veronica Mars was a real treat when it debuted. Solid writing, developed characters, and a season long mystery which had viewers in a tizzy. Who killed Veronica's best friend. But like Twin Peaks before it, the people still alive in the town are the true focus. Veronica's is a obsessive sleuth who disregards personal relationships and the local law in order to discover the truth. This isn't a common reaction for a teenage who believes she was subject to sexual abuse (possibly rape) and has been abandoned by her mother, but it's somewhat believable. Hey, if you believe Bruce Wayne was able to focus the pain of his parent murder into becoming a Olympic athlete and the worlds greatest detective, you can accept this. The show was being compared to Buffy, partly due to it's strong, pint size female leads. But also for it's quality in storytelling. As the show entered it's second season we were given a new mystery which wasn't as intuiging, but ultimately provided an amazing finale to a very solid season. This leads us to the third season which ended up being it's last. The show made the very treacherous jump of putting our characters out of high school and into college. The show was also moving to the new CW and the network demanded shorter mysteries for our character to solve. This was initially off putting but I eventually settled in to the season only to have the show taken away from me. Like many great shows b4 it, Veronica Mars was taken before it's time whilst mediocrity like Smallville remains. I plan on covering this odd phenomenon in future posts but for now lets say it's disappointing. There are talks of the show moving to comic book format which is fun, but never quite the same.

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