So we waited a whole season for this, huh?
At the end of last year, I wrote an article detailing what was wrong with Smallville and how to fix it. Well, the seventh sea-son premiere has just finished, and after viewing it, I have to ask: Why doesn't anyone listen to me?
A quick recap of the end of season 6, for the two people who didn't watch: Lana(Kristen Kreuk) finally told her hus-band Lex(Michael Rosenbaum) she was leaving him, and of course he wasn't too happy about it. He exhibited some of the darker aspects of the comic book Luthor fans have loved these past decades by daring to slap Lana and offering her a none-too-subtle threat. Later on, it seemed Lex's threat had come to pass when a car Lana got into blew up--the blast being witnessed by none other than Lionel Luthor(John Glover), who admitted as much to Clark(Tom Welling) when the Kid from Krypton was about to squeeze the life out of him. Clark was stopped at the last second by J'ohn J'onzz, a.k.a. The Martian Manhunter(Phil Morris), who told Clark he had bigger fish to fry, such as heading off after the last deadly wraith from the Phantom Zone, which was possessing human hosts and burning through their bodies in search of a perm-anent home. Clark headed off to the Reeve dam, where Lex was running for his life from said wraith. Also at the dam, Lois(Erica Durance) was critically stabbed by a security guard, and Chloe's(Allison Mack) kryptonite-based power was finally revealed when she healed Lois, bringing her back to life seemingly at the expense of her own. Lex managed to flee the dam, only to be caught outside by police who arrested him for his wife's murder. Meanwhile, the wraith managed to steal some of Clark's genetic structure and formed into an imperfect--yet far more powerful--duplicate of him: Bizarro(also played by Welling).
Months of waiting go by, during which buzz about the show builds(as always). Finally tonight, the seaon 7 premiere, "Bizarro" airs...and sadly, it wasn't worth the wait.
First of all, the season finale recap at the top of the episode was spliced together in a hodge-podge, out of sequence manner which left me confused--and I saw the last episode! There is a brief battle between Clark and Bizarro, with Clark momentarily coming out on top...and then for whatever reason, abruptly reaching the conclusion that just because he knocked Bizarro over the horizon, the threat must be over and he starts searching through the remains of the dam for Lionel. Talk about "out of sight, out of mind"! Clark happens upon Lois and the seemingly lifeless body of Chloe, and the trio rushes to the hospital. Keep in mind there is no mention of just how far away from town the dam is, or how the three of them manage to get back to Smallville, since the fight between Clark and his doppleganger destroyed the only bridge! There was one semi-cool scene of Clark rushing to save a boy and his unconscious father from a flash-flood caused by the dam's destruction, but the effect where Clark uses his heat vision to evaporate the water into steam was shockingly sub-par. For a season opener, the effects were very uneven throughout.
Meanwhile, all the cops that arrived to arrest Lex have fled in terror at the dam's destruction, leaving Lex alone in the back of a squadcar, which is swept underwater! Unable to escape and with water pouring into the car, Lex sees what he believes to be a vision of an angelic woman underwater. She pulls him out and then soars off into the sky. Later on at his office building, an assistant is trying to make arrangements for Lex to escape before the cops arrive, but Lex believes he was saved by heavenly forces not to flee from his crimes, but to finally face them. This was one of the few scenes which played well in the episode, thanks primarily to the skills of Michael Rosenbaum, who has managed to carry the Luthor legacy solidly on his shoulders from day one.
In the meantime, Bizarro--who has all of Clark's memories as well as powers--has stolen kryptonite from the Kent farm and uses it to recharge himself. Borrowing a page not from four-color Bizarro lore but rather from Ultraman--a parallel universe evil version of Superman in the comics--this Bizarro gets a power charge from green kryptonite, which as we all know is bad for Clark. Lois and Clark are at Smallville hospi-tal, but Lois leaves to find Lex and question him. Clark stays put, and receives word that Chloe has died. This was another scene which almost had promise, when it seemed Welling was about to give a cry of grief rivaling that of Chris Reeves' Man of Steel when Lois died in Superman: The Movie. However, before Clark can let loose, he hears Chloe wake up scream-ing in one of the hospital morgue's coolers, having come back to life! Toward the end of last season, it became fairly common knowledge that Allison Mack's Chloe was going to die in the finale. Once news leaked, there was just no point for executive producers Alfred Gough and Miles Millar to deny it. So when it happened, I was not surprised, but a little disappointed because I had finally come to like Chloe over the years. But this new twist--Chloe uses her powers and it "kills" her temporarily--is such an amazing cop-out on what was a promising plotline is just unconscionable! Smallville used to take risks, but here in the seventh--and supposedly last--season, apparently the risk taking has come to an end. Why not do a spin on a spin; have Chloe indeed wake up in the chiller, but then expend her oxygen and suffocate while screaming her lungs out? That would have been a torturous bit of irony...but instead we have producers going back on their storytelling ideals.
The energy level of Smallville's writing team seems to be ebbing. Tonight's episode spent far too much time on Clark's concern for Chloe's psyche after coming back from the dead, as well as his own incessant and annoying whining about how he's wasted so much time trying to deny his destiny. As I mentioned in my earlier Smallville article, Clark needs to find his inner Superman if he's ever to assume the mantle of Earth's greatest hero. He's taken baby steps thus far, but we need to see him go all the way. It was a nice touch seeing actual fear in Clark's eyes when he had to face off against a mega-charged Bizarro who had just fed on all the kryptonite in Lex's lab, indicating that Clark was willing to rise to the challenge even though he faced certain death...but there needs to be more growth potential for the character, and so far the writers aren't hitting their mark on this point.
Also, as far as supporting cast goes, Phil Morris should be replaced as the Martian Manhunter. I liked him at first in the role, but now I realize it's because he didn't initially have a lot to say or do. The more he's given to do, it becomes increas-ingly apparent that Morris delivers his lines more woodenly than Pinocchio. And as for the introduction of Kara(Laura Vandervoort) as Clark's Kryptonian cousin...there was so much damn buildup to it, that the momentary reveal at the end, where Kara launches into the sky from the top of the Smallville water tower and then flies directly at the camera, came off as more of a cheap tease to get viewers to watch the next episode. Vandervoort is cute, but she doesn't look like Supergirl! If the producers had to insist on bringing the character in(one of my pet peeves), they should have just stayed with Adrianne Palicki from season 3's "Covenant" who played a faux Kara, and looks more like her!
It takes forever for Clark to finally track down Bizarro...who in the meantime attempts to make a pact with Lex and briefly molests Lois. Once again, Lex displays a glaring lack of brilli-ance by not realizing there must be something super special about Clark, if the wraith opted to clone his body and it's im-bued with super-powers! The final realization by Clark on how to beat Bizarro--that sunlight is actually harmful to him(????)
--and the amazingly brief fight between the two, is actually a big snoozefest! This fight doesn't hold a candle to the big brawl between Clark and an escaped murderer from the Phantom Zone in last year's "Combat"...and after such a brutal smackdown(which was obviously a nod to the "Death of Superman" battle between Supes and Doomsday in the comics) we as fans have come to expect more, not less, when Clark faces off against super-powered opponents.
As lame as tonight's episode was, there is unfortunately no clear indication that things will get better anytime soon. Next week is Kara's real introduction, in which we discover her father Zor-El--Jor-El's brother--is evil! Next up is the episode "Fierce", in which we are back to the kryptonite powered "freak of the week" deal which nearly killed everyone's hopes for the show back in season 1, as Kara joins a beauty contest where three k.p. contestants hope to use her to help them steal a treasure map{groan}. To make matters worse, the show will soon receive a visit from the infamous Dean Cain of Lois & Clark fame--the most reviled Superman ever, aside from Brandon Routh(although to be fair, Routh's "acting abili-ties" make Cain look like Sir Anthony Hopkins).
In all fairness, Smallville's new season could just be start-ing off slow...real slow. Sometimes in television, the best sea-sons start off with a limping gait, but quickly stabilize and pick up speed. If this is the show's last year, I'd like to be able to shed a tear of fondness when it's over, rather than a forlorn sigh.
We can only wait and hope.
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TV KRYPTONITE
Inaugural return of teen Superman crashes and burns
The poster for the Smallville season 7 premiere. Months of giddy anticipation, shot to hell in just about an hour.
Phil Morris and Tom Welling in last season's ender, "Phantom". This show definitely needs a new Martian Manhunter.
Laura Vandervoort joins the cast as Kara Zor-El, otherwise known as Supergirl. You won't find a more unnecessary addition to any cast anywhere.
Thought Chloe was dead, did ya? Psyche! Executive producers Gough & Millar copped out big time on this one.
In last season's "Combat", Clark faced off against the WWE's Kane. The writing team must have shot their load, because tonight's Bizarro fight is nowhere near as good.
The first appearance of Kara underwater, in what Lex believes is a heavenly vision. Heaven knows, the Smallville writers need to get their act together, quick!
