(S06E12) Or as I like to call it, "The Martian Manhunter Show!" All Martians, all the time. Either that, or "One Flew Over the Clark Kent's Nest," except we didn't get a Nurse Ratchett, unfortunately. You can tell right from the beginning that this is all taking place in Clark's mind, so it has the ring of "ripoff" to me. Basically, it's like holodeck episode of Star Trek: TNG. Although some good things came out of those (Dixon Hill, Moriarty, Minuet) so I'm not going to declare full shenanigans ... maybe only halfsies.
Someone needs to YouTube together all of the scenes of Clark working on farm equipment and make it a commercial for Clark's Tractor Repair. We must have seen him work on that thing a million times, but I don't remember him ever turning over any soil in the north forty. What gives, Smallville? The writers need to think about dropping the whole Kent Farm charade and just have them live on the land. Martha's a senator, which must pay fairly decent wages, right?
Did the feedback-like sound throughout the episode set anyone else's teeth on edge? We get it producers, something weird is happening. Just please don't drive it home with a background noise that is worse than fingernails on a chalkboard. It's enough to make you go ... well, mental. Thank god J'onn J'onzz is on the scene. Everyone's favorite telepathic Martian could really make a killing as a therapist. Dr. Melfi has nothing on him, plus he brings some much needed non-whiteness to Smallville since Pete Ross got relegated to the "remember him?" file.
Down the the nitty gritty of this episode. I actually enjoyed it, because you get to see the actors showing off their chops and stretching their abilities in order to portray wildly different versions of their characters. There's some real emotion going on here, and that's been missing from Smallville off and on this season. From Lex as Professor Xavier Jr., to Chloe's bang, bang scene, everyone gets to really push the bounds of the roles they've been in for years now. Plus the episode had a great color scheme to it that was really dark and disturbing. As much of a mindscrew as the episode was, it was really refreshing in a sort of shake up the etch-a-sketch and do-over kind of way.
Just one small thing I had a problem with (besides Clark swallowing things a bit too easily): apparently the leap to Clark slipping on glasses later in life to throw everyone off the Superman trail won't be too hard for people to buy, because he can just slap on a baseball cap and trained orderlies believe that he's the janitor. Super-Janitor just doesn't have the same ring to it, though. We've already got The Toxic Avenger cleaning things up in that department. Okay, I swear that'll be an end to the bad puns. For now. In the meantime, any idea where we can get some of that "Jorel" antibacterial soap? That Usual Suspects scene, while cheesy, was pretty darn cool.
Quotes of the show:
- Chloe: "Since your superspeed's out of gas, take my Yaris." OUCH for product placement extremeis.
- Lex: "Open your eyes you crazy son of a bitch!"
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
1-26-2007 @ 12:52AM
amazo said...
i think this was more of a throwback to the old superman comic book where superman gets inhabited by an alien (starfish like) and you get to see supes think that he's in another world where krypton never exploded. i forget the name of it. I know both the wb cartoons of Superman and Justice League and Batman Beyond have done variations of it. It's one of the more popular ones.
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1-26-2007 @ 1:40AM
Rodney said...
Uh, I think you mean "showing their chops" not "busting their chops." The former means to show one's skill; the latter means to give someone a hard time.
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1-26-2007 @ 2:18AM
cathie said...
I loved the Martian Manhunter! Points I will second, the actors got to show off more skills, the Yaris line was LAME, I totally miss Pete Ross!! This episode made me pretty happy, I'm a bit weary about next weeks, the Lana and Clark thing is just so over the top I'm annoyed with it still going and going...get on with it...sheez.
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1-26-2007 @ 2:59AM
Dan said...
Amazo, I know which story you mean. It was called "The Man who has Everything" and was written by the genius that is Alan Moore.
Haven't got around to watching this yet but after last weeks,this weeks and the potential of next weeks it does look like Smallville is getting back on form. 'Bout time.
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1-26-2007 @ 3:06AM
crow said...
The comic that amazo refers to is Alan Moore's "For the Man who has Everything". Justice League Unlimited did an awesome adaptation of it.
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1-26-2007 @ 3:08AM
crow said...
D'oh! Dan beat me to it.
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1-26-2007 @ 3:16AM
tv junkie said...
thank you for pointing out that way too obvious and cheeeezy product placement line. every single show on tv has people driving Toyotas nowadays, and i'm sick of it! sure, it sort of make sense that people in 24 drive Yaris since they're in LA afterall...but Smallville? Come on!
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1-26-2007 @ 3:40AM
Kevin said...
Thanks to everyone who pointed out my misuse of bustin' chops. It's been corrected now, whew. Thankfully, no one managed to catch the fact that I referenced "A Clockwork Orange" instead of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest." This has since been corrected, carry on please.
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1-26-2007 @ 8:02AM
Sean Juan said...
Your complaint is something I've been saying for a year now and it keeps getting more and more impossible to think that Lex and Lois aren't going to know he's Superman. At first they took great care to the fact that this guy was going to grow up to be Superman but now the writers are throwing caution to the wind knowing that they'll have Jor-El just mindwipe everyone or something.
http://melanism.com/2006/02/smallvilles-elephant-in-room.html
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1-26-2007 @ 8:16AM
Bill said...
Not everyone on tv drives toyotas, Hiro drives a Nissan Versa.
But nothing on Smallville has ever been as bad as the acuvue one in the episode with the batman-like girl who wore glasses around the office but contacts for crimefighting. Chloe had a line like "Acuvue to the rescue!"
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1-26-2007 @ 8:32AM
Felice Domneys said...
Well, this episode remains of a season six episode of Buffy called "Normal Again" and a Charmed episode called "Brain Drain"
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1-26-2007 @ 9:27AM
Arkangyl said...
I agree with Felice (comment #11).
When I first heard the description of this episode, I thought the same exact thing; a complete rip-off of the Season Six Buffy episode called "Normal Again". It was almost the same exact episode, except in Smallville we got to stay in the new "revised" world, as opposed to the Buffy episode where we only got flashes.
Regardless, it was done differently enough that I think it stands on its' own.
And by the way, Kevin (Kelley), that "feedback-like sound throughout the episode" was not there just to tell us "something weird is happening".
As established at the end of the episode, that distorted sound was Clark's dog Shelby barking in th barn. Hence, why he figured out he was still in the barn at the end of the episode. He also mentions that Shelby saved his life too.
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1-26-2007 @ 10:18AM
Jimmy said...
This was a really good episode. For the first time in a very, very long time we actually saw some acting on this show. Heck, even Lana was enjoyable to watch. If this episode showed anything it's that Allison Mack is not only undervalued on this show, but underrated as an actress. She is by far the emotional center of this series. Short of Clark, her death would be the worst thing to happen. By the way, that background music was indeed totally annoying.
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1-26-2007 @ 11:49AM
Robert said...
Yeah I was thinking the same thing about Lana as well. I wasn't sitting there thinking, "Boy, I'd really like to punch her in the face." Instead I was thinking, "Hey, I remember when I used to really like her on this show"
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1-26-2007 @ 12:05PM
Vince said...
I thought this episode was much better than recent ones. It was an old story line I enjoyed on Buffy too.
Like the new format for posting. Looks like somebodies listening!
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1-26-2007 @ 12:07PM
Vince said...
BTW, What happened to the star ratings?
Couldn't work that feature?
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1-26-2007 @ 1:15PM
Dan said...
I agree with Jimmys comment about Chloe. That character has been a saving grace in some of this shows darkest moments. I even read somewhere that DC were considering making her part of the DCU. That'd be awesome.
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1-26-2007 @ 4:59PM
minicooper driver said...
I liked this episode despite its a Buffy rip-off. The acting was a step up, especially Lex without legs and Chloe turning out to be crazy. Lana was actually bearable too. The only bad thing was that damn whistle of the vents whenever they were in the mental house.
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1-26-2007 @ 7:47PM
amy said...
I used to love Lana, wish they would write her better.
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1-27-2007 @ 3:42AM
johns said...
Even when it's been done before, I liked this subject an episode.
I agree with what you guys are saying about Allison. She's not only pretty but a really good actress as well. I think the writers did a good job with all the characters, except with Lana. She was too fake in this 'alternate world'.
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