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He is seen in the likeness above in a rare, 19th century woodcut. This
image was rumoured to have been
commissioned after a bout of unpleasantness
in the White Chapel district of London. Do enjoy your stay and peruse our many, varied offerings, much of which cannot be found elsewhere!
:: Smallville season 2 ::
by William the Bloody
This season brings even more excitement and questions into the life of Clark Kent, the boy from another world! Clark discovers a series of underground caves with pictographs, the likes of which have been searched for by a local native American tribe and worshipped as prophecies. These pictures, which have been clearly on the cave for more than a century, mysteriously match the markings on Clark's space ship. Will Clark be able to decipher their meaning to learn more about himself before LuthorCorp (which owns the property) figures out Clark's outer space origins?
The Good: The writers have finally figured out more PLOT threads and LESS freak of the week stories. The FOW are still there, but few and far between, and in most cases, done right. Especially, when they bring in ones from the past season! Hurrah for episode-to-episode continuity AND season-to-season continuity! Good job! Lana seems to either have had acting coaching over summer hiatus or the writers have finally bumped her out of her rut, or both because she's less of an annoyance this season. They also "trimmed the fat" by getting rid of the second tier more useless characters of Whitney, the reporter after Clark's secret, and the scientist looking into the meteor rocks. Most of which is done in a good fell swoop in the first few episodes. Three cheers for the introduction or RED Kryptonite!! Yippee!! John Glover's triumphant addition to the opening titles makes him an even more prominent presence this time around and he's one of my biggest reasons for even watching. Oh and are you ready for THIS? Are you? I'll spell it out for you: C-h-r-i-s-t-o-p-he-r-R-e-e-v-e!!!!!!! He has a wonderful part as a communications scientist researching a certain alien message from space which occurred at the same time as the Smallville meteor shower. Aaaaaaand "General Zod" as the voice of Jor-El!!! The episodes which deal with Krypton also have a lovely bit of scoring done by Mark Snow which feature Superman the Movie music cues!! Bravo!
The Bad: This time 'round they seem to have jammed Chloe into the emotional rut (formerly occupied by Lana) that she just can't seem to overcome. Which is too bad, since I love the character and the actress. There seemed to be a bit of Buffy the Vampire Slayer mirroring in certain key moments, which was too much for me to ignore. Example: a scene where Clark gets deathly ill, Chloe goes to visit him while he's unconscious and spills her guts about her feelings for him, and as he wakes, he mumbles "Lana," thus crushing her. This is remarkably JUST LIKE a scene in the Buffy season 2 finale where Willow is unconscious and might die, and Xander expresses his closeness to her, only to have her mumble for her new boyfriend Oz. There were also some odd, but hilarious continuity issues. There's a part when somebody is complaining about how the Luthor's are ruining Smallville and that's why he had to kill somebody. To which Clark replies "Well, the Luthors never killed anybody." HAHAHAHA!! Clark witnesses both Lex and Lionel Luthor kill people earlier in the season! You don't usually forget seeing your best friend or his father pull the trigger on somebody. Also, it's getting a bit distressing just how many times somebody witnesses Clark's inhuman abilities only to die immediately after in that same episode. You'd think something like that would raise more than a few questions.
Overall, a marked improvement over the first season, but still slightly flawed. The introduction of a season long plot is just what the doctor ordered. Finally discovering the name of Clark's home planet and introducing Superman the Movie vets make this season definitely drool-worthy. A lack of creativity and emotional progression on behalf of the writers does bog it down a notch.
B+
