Smallville#801 "Odyssey" - Discuss/Grade <Spoilers>

Discussion in 'Science Fiction & Fantasy' started by nx1701g, Sep 17, 2008.

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Grade "Odyssey"

  1. SUPER

    10.2%
  2. Above Average

    55.1%
  3. Average

    26.5%
  4. Below Average

    6.1%
  5. BIZARRO

    2.0%
  1. Broccoli

    Broccoli Vice Admiral Admiral

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    It was very paint-by-numbers, but I gave it an "above average". It really seemed like they were resetting the playing field and I was personally amused at the jab at the show for the past few years with Clark hanging on to the past.

    Speaking of Stargate...did anyone get a Goa'uld vibe when the put that green stuff in Chloe and then later Green Arrow?

    I only speak the truth...
     
  2. TGTheodore

    TGTheodore Writer Admiral

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    Two from the machine?

    --Ted
     
  3. Dick Whitman

    Dick Whitman Commodore Commodore

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    Can I e-mail my posts to you in advance for to proof read for spelling errors?
    ;)
     
  4. Aragorn

    Aragorn Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Where's "Five-minute Smallville"? Those were actually funnier than the episodes.
     
  5. DarKush

    DarKush Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Nov 18, 2005
    Not a bad opener. This show might have a little life left in it after all. I have many of the same criticisms that I read from others:

    -How did Clark get a job as a reporter so quickly. We saw Chloe and Lois have to work, or it appeared that way to me, to get on at the Planet. I wish they had started him out at the mailroom or made him an intern.

    -Oliver's description of Tess being more devious than Luthor was a stretch. I think they are trying to establish her evilness a bit too strongly. What made Smallville's Lex so great as a villian was that you saw his good side, his vulnerability at war with his darker nature. I think they should've played Tess a little nicer and not as Darth Maul.

    But for the most part I liked it:

    -The return of the Justice League, though it would've been cool to have Cyborg and Flash back. At least they were mentioned which was almost as cool.

    -The Martian Manhunter's return was good. Hopefully he'll be back in a later ep.

    -Lois's hair. Love the darker look and the cut.

    I was disappointed in both S6 & S7. Hopefully this season will go out with a bang. Or at least with some pride.
     
  6. Broccoli

    Broccoli Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Isn't that generally the point...?

    ;)
     
  7. Aragorn

    Aragorn Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    But they were funny because they were true!
     
  8. DarthPipes

    DarthPipes Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Mar 3, 2006
    I'm a fan of those too.
     
  9. LaxScrutiny

    LaxScrutiny Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Jun 14, 2003
    OK, on reflection, still disappointed.

    Biggest disappointment is Tess Mercer. Smallville has always done great villians, not just Glover and Rosenbaum, but Marster, Joan Collins, even that reporter from season 1.

    I like the idea of "Tess Mercer", a cute nod to the movies and comics, but she's got nothing. They are supposed to show, not tell. Don't tell me she is wicked, evil and ruthless and manipulative, show me. Like you showed me with Lionel, with Lex, with Brainiac. So far she is just an asshole.

    By comparison, Lex's assistant last season, was at least cuter, we saw how cold blooded and ruthless she could be, and she had motivation, she was obviously all about Lex, she worshiped him. This is the kind of characterization that makes her interesting, we see it, it's not just told to us by some nameless flunky in the dialogue. Too bad Lex shot her, although that was a great scene.

    Going through the rest of the show, the whole scene in the Russian smuggler's camp was stupid. What did it have to do with the story? Nothing. How did it tie in with the past? Didn't. Tie in with the future? Apparently not. What was the point? Clark could have been stuck in a cave with a few supplies and it was too far to walk home. The only point should have been, at least, if it was fun and interesting. But really it wasn't, the staged fight with Ollie and Clark was flat, it could maybe have been fun but it wasn't.

    And how did Ollie find him? They were scanning computer images all over the globe for Clark's picture. Might have made sense if the Russian took a picture of Clark. If there was any way Ollie could possibly have found him. But there wasn't.

    Now, J'onn... Shows up at the last minute when Clark is arrowed. Why didn't he show up in Russia when powerless Clark is getting the shit kicked out of him? Did J'onn, through the power of plot, develope a mystical sense of knowing when Clark is dieing?

    J'onn knows enough about Clark's powers to know how to get them back when Clark loses them. How about J'onn tells Clark some of this information?

    J'onn flies Clark to the sun and loses his powers. How do they get back? Clark can't fly....

    Powerless Clark insists that Ollie and he split up to find Chloe faster. Why? She's been missing for MONTHS, she isn't going to die in the next five minutes. At least Ollie has some sense. The only reason to split them up is so they can get taken out, there is no reason in the plot for them to split up. So they don't even try, they just make Clark an idiot.

    Black Canary looks like Ziggy Stardust. I'm going to get bored of looking at her pretty quick.

    Oh, yeah, Chloe, "We won't throw you in jail for 20 years if you work for us for a year..." Maybe you should have gotten that in writing? What's to stop them from just keeping you as their sex slave for the rest of your life? I would... How about, "I'll start working for you with full enthusiasm 5 minutes after my lawyer shows up with a binding contract, and my friends are informed of my new job."

    Thing is, previous seasons I might have suspended my disbelief for things like this, for the sake of a decent story. But the little nuances that kept my attention, which was Magnificent Bastard, Magnificent Bastard's little Bastard, Magnificent Kryptonian Ooze Monster Bastard, etc, were all gone. Without some decent evil, there is nothing to show off how good everyone else is, to paraphrase the Tao Te Ching.
     
  10. Admiral_Young

    Admiral_Young Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    I'm here late like I said but watched it Wednesday...and I enjoyed it. One thing Smallville does well is its season premires and this was no exception although I did vote above average since I was already down on the entire season. Loving me some Tess right now...we'll see how her story arc plays out for the rest of the season but she definately is giving me Miss Tessmacher vibes. I was waiting to see Clark in a beard but we didn't get to see that, was that photo from months back just a teaser pic? No mention of Lara being trapped in the Phantom Zone bothered me. I have a feeling that Lex (if Micheal does do a guest appearence before the series wraps) is going to return with his memory wiped or at least partial amesia making him forget everything he's learned over the last few years.

    I too didn't like J'onn appearing at the last second to save Clark but what else were they going to do since it appears that Chloe's powers have changed? I think though that I'm going to really like the Lois and Clark stuff at the Daily Planet...remember that Clark does have some schooling and that the Planet is without a Editor or Owner right now. I wonder if the writers are planning on addressing that at some point. Its time to bring back Perry White...overall I thought it was well done, with the exception of not mentioning Kara.
     
  11. Guy Gardener

    Guy Gardener Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    In the lap of squalor I assure you.
    There was something different about the anatomy and the feel of the entire program. I could tell that someone else was in charge, not that that wasn't a bad thing... Apart from the white slaving in what seemed like still soviet Russia, and Jimmy not having his testes removed for back peddling on a marriage proposal this one of the strongest episodes of Smallville I have seen in years.

    Still some glaring wholes.

    The Sarah Palin Joke was hilarious. Although I do wonder if Lex's brain hasn't been transferred into her body after all his limbs fell off from frostbite. that thing with the desk was "entitlement", which means she's either another missing sibling or she was almost a spouse. Didn't care for the actress, I was expecting a blonde and then I got a completely Denise Richards as a nuclear physicist in that Bond flick vibe whenever Cassidy spat vitriol and pranced. There's something strangely catlike about her eyes.

    I really like Lois's new hair. She's lost weight too. And she talks less like a sailor. nice to see her with a gun. i have no idea why Clark didn't enter that complex with a shotgun and nine pounds of c4, if he was going to be the slightest bit effective against Lex Corp security.

    Chloe with No make up was nice in setting the scene for being a prisoner, but what the hell was with the grey/silver nail polish? So her jailers admit some cosmetics but not others? Or was it an out ward manifestation of her MENTAT abilities? As soon as I saw that her brain all super charged, I figured that she was being courted by Brainiac V from the Legion of Superheroes who had to justify his physical attraction for Chloe in the future by retroactively renovating her mind some months before they met till she wasn't an embarrassment, the same way my cousin Walter puts make-up on monkeys before he...

    Welling. Worse Driver than Chakotay. Seriously, he deserved to be shot if that's how he plans his escape after a month in captivity. And what the fuck was all that buddy loyalty the league and Clark were sharing? That's bullshit! He was a conscientious objector who didn't give a shit about the larger picture because life on the farm was snug. Meanwhile it was Chloe who was Oliver's friend who worked with the League and should have been their primary focus as far as it went for looking for their MIA.

    O. By the way "wow". Aquaman took some classes and learnt how to act. It is the same guy? because words were coming out of his mouth and it didn't seem like he had a reading age of 7. Good for him. Although I still would have wanted more Bart, even after what he did to Veronica Mars.
     
  12. Trekker4747

    Trekker4747 Boldly going... Premium Member

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    Well, to be fair, it wasn't a "Sarah Palin joke" considering that the episode was written and produced months before anyone even knew who Palin was.

    ;)

    A quadruple amputee holding wirh his mouth a board with a rusty nail in it could be effective against Lex Corp security.
     
  13. Agent Richard07

    Agent Richard07 Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Jun 20, 2001
    - SUPER, 'cuz it was entertaining.

    - Clark disappears for the summer, comes back and things are back to normal. What did you people expect, something new after 7 years?

    - Okay, there were a few changes and I liked them, mainly Clark working at the Planet now.

    - Speaking of which, I really want to see Perry White. And no Trekker, [highlight]NO recasting[/highlight]. I want to see Michael McKean drop by.

    - As I was watching, it hit me... I know what Smallville's Superman costume should look like. It's something that would fit right in with the other Justice League costumes. It kinda looks like the Eradicator's costume from when he was Superman. It would even hide Clark's identity about as well as Ollie's suit hides his.
     
  14. Samurai8472

    Samurai8472 Admiral Admiral

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    It would probably look like superboy. Clarks so fond of his jacket that I could see a leather jacket like cape.

    but wearing the Reeve suit as Kevin would probably say on the Office would be "AWESOME"

    NO ROUTH SUIT!
     
  15. Trekker4747

    Trekker4747 Boldly going... Premium Member

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    I'd prefer McKean back too (I like him as an actor. Not an "ideal" Perry White in my mind but he did a good job) but if it comes down to either having Perry White under a different actor or no Perry White at all...

    I'm sorry, I'd rather go for the former. I'm usually no fan of recasting myself, but for me it's a bigger problem when done with a regular (or even semi-regular) cast member when the actor has "made a name" for the part. But considering White has made one apperance I think we'd be fine if it has to come down to a recast.
     
  16. Aragorn

    Aragorn Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    But Michael McKean doesn't look like a 20-something GQ cover model with rock hard abs!!!

    Which, by the way, is also the description on the Smallville casting sheet for the President of the United States, a four-star general in the U.S. Army and a three-time Nobel Prize winner.
     
  17. Agent Richard07

    Agent Richard07 Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
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    This episode was actually the first time I decided that the traditional suit wouldn't fit in with Smallvillle, mainly because of what the other Justice League members are wearing. The new Superboy? I dunno. I still think he needs a cape. For those of you who don't know what the Eradicator costume looked like, here it is...

    [​IMG]

    For me, the Perry we saw wasn't a bit part like one of the freaks-of-the-week that was recast. He's a big enough character and McKean was so memorable that I can't accept a recasting.
     
  18. DarthPipes

    DarthPipes Vice Admiral Admiral

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    That would be weird if McKean was a regular on the show that his wife is no longer a regular on.
     
  19. MeanJoePhaser

    MeanJoePhaser Admiral

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    Don't mention "Chloe" and "sex slave" together; you'll excite too many people here. :devil:
     
  20. The show is so much better when it just says 'screw it' and really embraces it's inner "Superman". it's when "Smallville" rears its head that the show just gets stupid and contrived. Case in the point, the way Clark got to the Daily Planet... makes no sense. That's the "Smallville" in it. But once you realize, hey, it's clark and lois working across from each other at the daily planet, and it's not just them doing it once "foreshadowing" it's really happening, it almost feels magical. I recently caught the episode Apocalypse from the previous season... when I saw Clark, interacting with bowtie Jimmy, and honest to god reporter Lois... putting on the glasses, I was like, holy shit, I can actually see a REAL Superman show with this cast.

    But it was a mirage, because the "Smallville" in the show always comes back. the show gives you tantalizing glimpses of greatness before yanking it away, and laughing at you with its contrived stupidity.

    About two seasons ago they should have just jumped forward and launched "Metropolis" starring Welling, Durance, Rosenbaum, and that Ashmore kid as Jimmy, with McKean as Perry.