Smallville 9×14 – “Persuasion”
February 20th, 2010
Once again, we have a Smallville gimmick episode. Clark gets (insert random power) that makes everyone on the cast act funny for an episode. This time, Clark gets the power of persuasion from a fairy with kryptonite dust – and that’s actually the plot. It makes Chloe over-protective and Lois over-domestic. There’s actually some good stuff in there, but you have to wade through a lot to get to it.
LOST 6×4 – “The Substitute”
February 18th, 2010
Going back to his first episode in season one, Locke-centric episodes have always made me sad. From his problems with his father to his issues with Helen (not to mention his injury), Locke’s story always had a way of making me feel sorry for the old man. But the addition of the “flash-sideways” gives a glimpse into the life of a John Locke who doesn’t seem as unhappy. And with a couple changes, he actually has a bit of hope.
HYGOTS No. 70
February 13th, 2010
One of the truly interesting things about being around for this era of comic books, either its first hundred years or during a really interesting fad, is that you get to see just how the iconic characters are handled. Everyone knows what ended up happening to such fictional figures as King Arthur and Robin Hood, how they ended up standing the test of time and formed certain standard tales around themselves. Greek myth is filled with that sort of thing, too, with the most famous example, ‘The Iliad’ and its sequel ‘The Odyssey’ either based, like Arthur, in historic fact, or filled with an cast of characters forever frozen in a sequence that’s helped serve as the basis of modern storytelling. It makes you wonder just what might happen to superheroes like Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, and Captain America. Batman seems to have the leg up on his contemporaries, if you don’t mind my saying.
Heroes 4×18 “Brave New World” review
February 9th, 2010
The following contains spoilers through the episode “Brave New World,” originally broadcast 2/8/10.
Last week ‘Smallville’ aired the two hour episode “Absolute Justice,” which featured Clark Kent and his budding superhero friends meeting the previous generation Justice Society of America, a team that had systematically been hounded, imprisoned, and institutionalized into retirement, so that no one even knew who or what they were. The comic book and film ‘Watchmen’ likewise featured heroes who’d been forced out of the spotlight for no other reason than the world deciding they didn’t need them anymore. For four years, ‘Heroes’ has featured a set a characters who have been denied a semblance of this existence, partly because that’s the way creator Tim Kring wanted it, and partly because, the way he designed it, those characters could never imagine it being any different. Time after time, it seemed that hiding was the best and only way to maintain an idea of a normal life.
HYGOTS No. 69
February 5th, 2010
Here’s another subject I haven’t gotten around to yet (if you’ll indulge me, this isn’t the first time I’ve done a column, but it is the first time I’ve apparently found it exceedingly easy to come up with new topics on a regular, weekly basis), and that’s been my interest in the Arthurian legend. From ‘Excalibur’ (which hasn’t really been my cup of tea, but I still hope to revisit it with more enthusiasm) to ‘Merlin’ (the mini-series) to ‘Merlin’ (the TV series) to ‘The Last Legion’ (involving a prehistory of both Merlin and Excalibur) to ‘First Knight‘ to ‘King Arthur,’ I seem to have stumbled into quite a number of filmed projects over the years covering the fabled ruler of Camelot (oh! didn’t mention ‘Monty Python and the Holy Grail’ in that line-up!), which I’ve read about my whole life, whether on my own or experienced Sir Gawain and his experience with the Green Knight in school (either in the classroom or as part of a one-act play competition). It’s hard to be part of the Western and/or English tradition and escape it, really.
Fringe 2×15 “Jacksonville” review
February 5th, 2010
The following contains spoilers through the episode “Jacksonville,” originally broadcast 2/4/10.
It appears that we’re headed back into strictly arc-driven territory, something this season has been reluctant to do, even though last year ended on so many notes that would have suggested its inevitability. This was the “winter finale,” the last episode until April, at which point there will be eight episodes, leading to 5/20/10, which happens to be numbers Walter mentions this episode as important for reasons he can’t remember…
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