a Recapette, if you will
Oct. 17th, 2002 12:07 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
aruanSince our good man Omar reigns as king of the witty reviews, this is but a mere slice of the hilarity that he is sure to delight us humble readers with in the swiftly coming days.
But in the meantime, it's time to party.
Which is precisely what the good folk over at writing, directing, production, and every other departmental entity involved in the making of Smallville have been doing since this whole shenanigan of a season began!
Damn does it feel good to be bad.
It's like they said, "Yeah, all this drama, not our style. Let's tie up that pesky cliffhanger with some thrown-together bit involving pink trailers and get on with our fun!" Which apparently means "Let's throw a little bit of Lex into everyone and see the show turn from wholesome flangst to an actual drama where this group of people who've suddenly sprouted a backbone won't just accept the normal run of things anymore." In other words, turn them into *real* teenagers. Heck, real *people,* not this ridiculous silent angstmonkey business. I like this. I like the new 'I'm not going to simply look the other way' attitude of our denizens. I like Lana asking questions. I like Chloe taking her revenge one zinger at a time and growing out of her teenie obsession with Clark. I like that Pete has remained a supportive friend, but one that realizes the ramifications of Clark's abilities and holds him accountable for them. I like that Lex was shown a thing or two about assertiveness by Clark (did we ever foresee the day?)
Which, come to think of it, is pretty much one of the only things we didn't foresee. I mean, if this wasn't the definitive proof we needed to show that yes, in fact, the writers *did* spend their summers reading fic and have decided to incorporate our brightest shining moments, they'd have to actually have Lex and Clark make out in the barn next episode.
They're playing to us. And yes, that was to, not with. It was beautiful. I could shed tears of sheer, unadulterateable joy right on cue with a mere flash of memory at the fact that any of this episode actually.happened. But it did. Proof's right there, in my VCR, with the little WB logo in the corner and the living color and just. *le happy sigh*
Onto the review!
New Girl Jessie. Thank you! Hotness that is Clark finally getting recognized! At least the boys of Sunnydale hit on Buffy. Yeesh. About damn time.
Cooool Red K CGI. The nifty little eyebrow quirk, complete with orgasm face and that thing he did with those amazing lips. Hot dayum. If it looks like heroin, feels like heroin, but apparently, it's a stick-up-the-ass-ectomy *and* shot of testosterone all in one! Why is it that anything involving confidence boosting and the expression of sexual impulses has to be the direct result of some thinly-veiled drug metaphor plot device? Oh, that's right. It's a Coalition for Quality Television nominee about the life of an American Icon on an American network. Where's a good British invasion when you need it?
What, Lana? What? A girl finally opens her eyes and intends to actually do something about the fact that Clark is hot with a capital Sexy and you're gonna get upset that he actually acknowledges her and shows interest so you can't string him along until it's plumb convenient for you and now you want him? Uh, reality check, table one? Thanks a bunch.
Clark!Snark with the fashion digs! I *heart* that boy's (spoken) mind. His mouth (have we mentioned his mouth? Because it seems the rest of the world has also opened their eyes and decided to showcase it for all it's worth tonight, much to my deepest appreciation) was made for a higher purpose than platitudes, and it's called snarking with a smile. Cute bit with the phone number, too.
Two seconds! My default amount of time, fyi. Anything at all can be accomplished within its breadth. Just don't ask me why I'm always late.
"I think our not-so-normal son might be going through some classic teenage rebellion." Great line. Mama Kent gets the good parenting points.
That scar really is luscious.
The Magnificent Bastard? Still on his game.
Clark wants to go driving! Clark wants to dance! I am officially making room next to Lex for his fine tastes.
The bit with Chloe's birthmark? Still funny as all get-out. And on that note, have we called this The Show That Refused To Be Straight? Not any amount of lewd hitting on girls, not all the liplocking with Lana, not all the ass-ogling of Chloe could shed Clark in the "light" of heterosexuality.
Martha: "This is silk!"
Jules: "Don't worry Mama Kent, it may well not be his!"
So wait, let me just get this right: in a fit of self-indulgent rebellion, Clark goes shopping and maxes out a credit card. Yes? Wow. A less manly take on the hissyfit I've never seen.
Now, have we as a fandom been doing so well in our imaginations that the quarry of plot and character ideas has been mined into inevitable redundancy? Come on. Something to the tune of 1600 stories all-told. We're not that good. We just aren't.
"Say the word and I'll save you the return trip." I'm a sucker for the effective one-liners.
The scene with Bo? Ugly, ugly, ow. "You're not my father. You never were." The throwing? Now we know Red K is the antimoral compass.
Clark offers truth and in a move stunningly reminiscent of one suspicious bald millionaire playboy Lana asks for a play-by-play of the incident on the night of the Spring Formal. Though that kiss - I don't know if Lex could've resisted going with it either. The boy's got instincts.
"I don't care if you are a slasher or not, Lex was checking out Clark from the feet up. Total double take. A looong one. Entire cities were built in the time it took Lex to make it to Clark's face.
-jenn
This scene. Yow. Oh, Lex. Of course you took one long eyefuck and still managed to note the brand and cost of Clark's outfit. You're nothing if not meticulous, even as the flaming clothes whore. But who can blame you? Clark decides to show up in the middle of the afternoon in the outfit you've been dying to drape him in since you met, with those looks and smiles all well within seven kinds of your Lexian personal space, well aware of the effect that he has on you - he knows how to get what he wants, too. Ain't it a bitch?
The smile so clinched it. *giggle* I won't fault you in the morning.
On a more serious note? But now we have Clark blatantly manipulating Lex, and of course he has no idea that Clark was under any influence but his own faculties. This bodes unwell for our favorite trust issue-laden bad boy. Clark's supposed to be the exception, not the one that proves the rule.
That sleeveless number? Straight men in *South Florida* do not go out in them. I couldn't even begin to fathom where he found it, much less, ... Oh. Oooooh. Wow. Why Lex's closet didn't occur to me before boggles the mind. It would explain the plum-colored shirt a few scenes later, too...
Kinky, Clarkbar. Threesomes with the town nun and the sketch new girl? Never accuse this boy of setting his sights too low.
"Best night of my life"? There were back rooms and eager cowboys somewhere between those lines, and damn it, I want to see them.
The Scene In Lex's Office:
Clark drapes himself all over that fortunate chair-esque bit of furniture.
"Truth is there's nothing left for me in Smallville."
Cue Lex's look of pointed hurt. And then that choked-up negative halfhearted inquiry about Lana. And then:
"So you just packed your stuff and you’re off."
Sounding a bit disdainful, though that's probably directed more inwardly than resentment at Clark.
Tom Welling also gets mad acting props for this scene - his mojo was working at every turn. He's a hunky bit of Hedevil.
"You have no idea what I'm capable of."
"Really. Why don’t you fill me in."
Ooh. And wow. And also, Michael Rosenbaum's amazing.
Sidebar: Was there even a penthouse in canon before tonight's episode?
"Clark Kent and Lex Luthor. I like the sound of that."
And that lascivious look he gives Lex's retreating back. Cue jenn's ingenious bit of scene-sealing coda. And on that note, wherever she is tonight, jenn should, and with all rights, be dancing the dance of the justified as we speak. Serious shades of things that could easily segue into the Clark of A Handful of Dust during this scene.
Can we not make any progress in the relationship between Lex and Jonathan? Honestly people, something to indicate that we've moved past presumptive hostility and into the realm where "you're my son's best friend and killed a man for him, much less saved my life in the process" gets incorporated? Hm?
Clark playing pool. "Salt of the earth." Now, I know there's nothing new under the sun, but the sandbox just ain't this small. Lionel *did* look and sound an awful lot like he was somehow strangely proud of Clark. It's a scene that'll launch a thousand ficcers - however, if only Te steps up with a new take on See This, I'll be a happy camper.
Seriously though, if they don't start billing credit where it's due, a lot of ficcers are going to have cause for action. That bit with the bullets - a nod wouldn't be enough for borrowing![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
thamiris' lovely idea.
Now if they could only work on setting up our best fic scenarios a little less contrived way.
The scene in Jessie's house was almost uglier than his exchange with Bo. First the Marshall and the pool table, now stringing him up and threatening torture? God help us all indeed.
Hate, hate, hated seeing Jonathan having to be scared of Clark. But he *did* have every right to be, which just made it that much worse.
Standing up to Lionel was classy and justified. Also, terribly brave. This isn't just a father, this is Lionel Luthor. Which can actually make things easier or harder, depending.
Directness from Clark? Never thought we'd dream the day.
Lex looks so sorry that he wasn't there to do anything it would've taken to prevent Clark and Lionel ever so much as being in the same wing of the manor. There are scary storms abrewin'.
The order of people to whom Clark felt the overpowering urge to reveal his secret: LEX, LanaJessie.
That's all.
How is Clark such an inarticulate dork when he's Clark and suddenly Mr. Suave (doesn't he look smart? Well, not conventionally, anyway, but *yes*) when you get a little controlled substance in him? Seventy-Two Hours suddenly has canonical backing as well.
What amazes me is the amount of dramatic tension that suffused this romp. The dialogue may not be crackerjack, but the plotting and the conflicts set up are brilliant. Now if we only dared hope for follow-through on it. These people obviously did not play baseball at any point in their lives.
Interesting roleplaying on Clark's part in this episode. Consorting to run away together? Clark and the way he looks at Lex like a thousand exposition paragraphs we've read of the inside of the latter's own mind. Methinks there's going to be a serious reassessment of Clark in this fandom.
Fromgrrleloquence:
"God, Lex, I want-"
"Just take it."
This isn't a pebble they dropped in the pond of fandom. At this point, the source has pretty much been rerouted, the conventional turns flipped on their ears, and I have a feeling very little can be taken for granted about either one of them from here on in.
In other news:
Dominos makes a mean Deluxe pizza.
Mark Paul Gossellar has second billing on NYPD Blue and no one has thought to squeal? Phonetically? His voice is still Zack from Saved By The Bell (making me wonder just how old was he while that series aired) but the cropped crown hair (strangely reminiscent, yes) is new and looks quite becoming. The extra weight Kevin Arnold's dad has put on? Not so much.
Florida wildlife scares me, yo. I've been warned about bobcats in the forested patches ever since childhood, most every body of water from canals to backyard swimming pools are suspect to contain alligators, we are host to the world's most poisonous snake, and tonight, I saw both a freakishly large ant (it could've eaten my pinky, I swear) and a freakishly large cockroach (let's put it this way - I initially mistook it for a lizard).
I've got midterms this Thursday and Friday. Serious tests for serious classes involving gravely serious amounts of work. And yet.
But in the meantime, it's time to party.
Which is precisely what the good folk over at writing, directing, production, and every other departmental entity involved in the making of Smallville have been doing since this whole shenanigan of a season began!
Damn does it feel good to be bad.
It's like they said, "Yeah, all this drama, not our style. Let's tie up that pesky cliffhanger with some thrown-together bit involving pink trailers and get on with our fun!" Which apparently means "Let's throw a little bit of Lex into everyone and see the show turn from wholesome flangst to an actual drama where this group of people who've suddenly sprouted a backbone won't just accept the normal run of things anymore." In other words, turn them into *real* teenagers. Heck, real *people,* not this ridiculous silent angstmonkey business. I like this. I like the new 'I'm not going to simply look the other way' attitude of our denizens. I like Lana asking questions. I like Chloe taking her revenge one zinger at a time and growing out of her teenie obsession with Clark. I like that Pete has remained a supportive friend, but one that realizes the ramifications of Clark's abilities and holds him accountable for them. I like that Lex was shown a thing or two about assertiveness by Clark (did we ever foresee the day?)
Which, come to think of it, is pretty much one of the only things we didn't foresee. I mean, if this wasn't the definitive proof we needed to show that yes, in fact, the writers *did* spend their summers reading fic and have decided to incorporate our brightest shining moments, they'd have to actually have Lex and Clark make out in the barn next episode.
They're playing to us. And yes, that was to, not with. It was beautiful. I could shed tears of sheer, unadulterateable joy right on cue with a mere flash of memory at the fact that any of this episode actually.happened. But it did. Proof's right there, in my VCR, with the little WB logo in the corner and the living color and just. *le happy sigh*
Onto the review!
New Girl Jessie. Thank you! Hotness that is Clark finally getting recognized! At least the boys of Sunnydale hit on Buffy. Yeesh. About damn time.
Cooool Red K CGI. The nifty little eyebrow quirk, complete with orgasm face and that thing he did with those amazing lips. Hot dayum. If it looks like heroin, feels like heroin, but apparently, it's a stick-up-the-ass-ectomy *and* shot of testosterone all in one! Why is it that anything involving confidence boosting and the expression of sexual impulses has to be the direct result of some thinly-veiled drug metaphor plot device? Oh, that's right. It's a Coalition for Quality Television nominee about the life of an American Icon on an American network. Where's a good British invasion when you need it?
What, Lana? What? A girl finally opens her eyes and intends to actually do something about the fact that Clark is hot with a capital Sexy and you're gonna get upset that he actually acknowledges her and shows interest so you can't string him along until it's plumb convenient for you and now you want him? Uh, reality check, table one? Thanks a bunch.
Clark!Snark with the fashion digs! I *heart* that boy's (spoken) mind. His mouth (have we mentioned his mouth? Because it seems the rest of the world has also opened their eyes and decided to showcase it for all it's worth tonight, much to my deepest appreciation) was made for a higher purpose than platitudes, and it's called snarking with a smile. Cute bit with the phone number, too.
Two seconds! My default amount of time, fyi. Anything at all can be accomplished within its breadth. Just don't ask me why I'm always late.
"I think our not-so-normal son might be going through some classic teenage rebellion." Great line. Mama Kent gets the good parenting points.
That scar really is luscious.
The Magnificent Bastard? Still on his game.
Clark wants to go driving! Clark wants to dance! I am officially making room next to Lex for his fine tastes.
The bit with Chloe's birthmark? Still funny as all get-out. And on that note, have we called this The Show That Refused To Be Straight? Not any amount of lewd hitting on girls, not all the liplocking with Lana, not all the ass-ogling of Chloe could shed Clark in the "light" of heterosexuality.
Martha: "This is silk!"
Jules: "Don't worry Mama Kent, it may well not be his!"
So wait, let me just get this right: in a fit of self-indulgent rebellion, Clark goes shopping and maxes out a credit card. Yes? Wow. A less manly take on the hissyfit I've never seen.
Now, have we as a fandom been doing so well in our imaginations that the quarry of plot and character ideas has been mined into inevitable redundancy? Come on. Something to the tune of 1600 stories all-told. We're not that good. We just aren't.
"Say the word and I'll save you the return trip." I'm a sucker for the effective one-liners.
The scene with Bo? Ugly, ugly, ow. "You're not my father. You never were." The throwing? Now we know Red K is the antimoral compass.
Clark offers truth and in a move stunningly reminiscent of one suspicious bald millionaire playboy Lana asks for a play-by-play of the incident on the night of the Spring Formal. Though that kiss - I don't know if Lex could've resisted going with it either. The boy's got instincts.
"I don't care if you are a slasher or not, Lex was checking out Clark from the feet up. Total double take. A looong one. Entire cities were built in the time it took Lex to make it to Clark's face.
-jenn
This scene. Yow. Oh, Lex. Of course you took one long eyefuck and still managed to note the brand and cost of Clark's outfit. You're nothing if not meticulous, even as the flaming clothes whore. But who can blame you? Clark decides to show up in the middle of the afternoon in the outfit you've been dying to drape him in since you met, with those looks and smiles all well within seven kinds of your Lexian personal space, well aware of the effect that he has on you - he knows how to get what he wants, too. Ain't it a bitch?
The smile so clinched it. *giggle* I won't fault you in the morning.
On a more serious note? But now we have Clark blatantly manipulating Lex, and of course he has no idea that Clark was under any influence but his own faculties. This bodes unwell for our favorite trust issue-laden bad boy. Clark's supposed to be the exception, not the one that proves the rule.
That sleeveless number? Straight men in *South Florida* do not go out in them. I couldn't even begin to fathom where he found it, much less, ... Oh. Oooooh. Wow. Why Lex's closet didn't occur to me before boggles the mind. It would explain the plum-colored shirt a few scenes later, too...
Kinky, Clarkbar. Threesomes with the town nun and the sketch new girl? Never accuse this boy of setting his sights too low.
"Best night of my life"? There were back rooms and eager cowboys somewhere between those lines, and damn it, I want to see them.
The Scene In Lex's Office:
Clark drapes himself all over that fortunate chair-esque bit of furniture.
"Truth is there's nothing left for me in Smallville."
Cue Lex's look of pointed hurt. And then that choked-up negative halfhearted inquiry about Lana. And then:
"So you just packed your stuff and you’re off."
Sounding a bit disdainful, though that's probably directed more inwardly than resentment at Clark.
Tom Welling also gets mad acting props for this scene - his mojo was working at every turn. He's a hunky bit of Hedevil.
"You have no idea what I'm capable of."
"Really. Why don’t you fill me in."
Ooh. And wow. And also, Michael Rosenbaum's amazing.
Sidebar: Was there even a penthouse in canon before tonight's episode?
"Clark Kent and Lex Luthor. I like the sound of that."
And that lascivious look he gives Lex's retreating back. Cue jenn's ingenious bit of scene-sealing coda. And on that note, wherever she is tonight, jenn should, and with all rights, be dancing the dance of the justified as we speak. Serious shades of things that could easily segue into the Clark of A Handful of Dust during this scene.
Can we not make any progress in the relationship between Lex and Jonathan? Honestly people, something to indicate that we've moved past presumptive hostility and into the realm where "you're my son's best friend and killed a man for him, much less saved my life in the process" gets incorporated? Hm?
Clark playing pool. "Salt of the earth." Now, I know there's nothing new under the sun, but the sandbox just ain't this small. Lionel *did* look and sound an awful lot like he was somehow strangely proud of Clark. It's a scene that'll launch a thousand ficcers - however, if only Te steps up with a new take on See This, I'll be a happy camper.
Seriously though, if they don't start billing credit where it's due, a lot of ficcers are going to have cause for action. That bit with the bullets - a nod wouldn't be enough for borrowing
thamiris' lovely idea.Now if they could only work on setting up our best fic scenarios a little less contrived way.
The scene in Jessie's house was almost uglier than his exchange with Bo. First the Marshall and the pool table, now stringing him up and threatening torture? God help us all indeed.
Hate, hate, hated seeing Jonathan having to be scared of Clark. But he *did* have every right to be, which just made it that much worse.
Standing up to Lionel was classy and justified. Also, terribly brave. This isn't just a father, this is Lionel Luthor. Which can actually make things easier or harder, depending.
Directness from Clark? Never thought we'd dream the day.
Lex looks so sorry that he wasn't there to do anything it would've taken to prevent Clark and Lionel ever so much as being in the same wing of the manor. There are scary storms abrewin'.
The order of people to whom Clark felt the overpowering urge to reveal his secret: LEX, LanaJessie.
That's all.
How is Clark such an inarticulate dork when he's Clark and suddenly Mr. Suave (doesn't he look smart? Well, not conventionally, anyway, but *yes*) when you get a little controlled substance in him? Seventy-Two Hours suddenly has canonical backing as well.
What amazes me is the amount of dramatic tension that suffused this romp. The dialogue may not be crackerjack, but the plotting and the conflicts set up are brilliant. Now if we only dared hope for follow-through on it. These people obviously did not play baseball at any point in their lives.
Interesting roleplaying on Clark's part in this episode. Consorting to run away together? Clark and the way he looks at Lex like a thousand exposition paragraphs we've read of the inside of the latter's own mind. Methinks there's going to be a serious reassessment of Clark in this fandom.
From
grrleloquence:"God, Lex, I want-"
"Just take it."
This isn't a pebble they dropped in the pond of fandom. At this point, the source has pretty much been rerouted, the conventional turns flipped on their ears, and I have a feeling very little can be taken for granted about either one of them from here on in.
In other news:
Dominos makes a mean Deluxe pizza.
Mark Paul Gossellar has second billing on NYPD Blue and no one has thought to squeal? Phonetically? His voice is still Zack from Saved By The Bell (making me wonder just how old was he while that series aired) but the cropped crown hair (strangely reminiscent, yes) is new and looks quite becoming. The extra weight Kevin Arnold's dad has put on? Not so much.
Florida wildlife scares me, yo. I've been warned about bobcats in the forested patches ever since childhood, most every body of water from canals to backyard swimming pools are suspect to contain alligators, we are host to the world's most poisonous snake, and tonight, I saw both a freakishly large ant (it could've eaten my pinky, I swear) and a freakishly large cockroach (let's put it this way - I initially mistook it for a lizard).
I've got midterms this Thursday and Friday. Serious tests for serious classes involving gravely serious amounts of work. And yet.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: October 18th, 2002 08:48 am (UTC)Lex mentioned to the bouncer in Zero that he had an apartment in Metropolis, I don't think it was a penthouse until this episode though...
no subject
Date: October 18th, 2002 09:50 am (UTC)See? See!
*sings*
The writers of Smallville thinkin' up a plot
Why make our own when there's such a glut?
Of pretty boys blushing and millionaires who strut
We like these people's ideas - let's get in a rut
*mercifully ends singing*
FABulous icon, btw. :)
no subject
Date: October 18th, 2002 10:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: October 19th, 2002 02:32 am (UTC)And to think, six months ago, that last line wouldn't have made me giggle. :)
no subject
Date: October 19th, 2002 02:38 am (UTC)For the record: I never ever doubted he looked anything but hot in prison orange. Beth's Absinthe gave me the taste for it, but even before that. My best friend looked at me funny for a couple of days afterward. Needless to say, the Teen Choice Awards proved amusing.
::off to get her ass to sleep already, yeesh::