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seriousficWell, that was an astonishing instance of disappointing literally everyone, because I can't imagine anyone walking away satisfied with it. I suppose the Chlois shippers could be a little happy, since their ship came off the best, but other than that? MEGA FAIL.
What makes it worse is that this is the first season arc Smallville has done in a long time, maybe ever, that has been actually affecting. By creating a slow burn centered on the two best actors in the cast, the show managed to actually improve upon the rather lame Doomsday plot from the comics. Doomsday basically being a werewolf isn't that original an idea, but the twist with Chloe made it new and fun to watch (although they could've done less of the apocalyptic music everytime Davis did anything. He could've brought Chloe flowers and the soundtrack would be the same as him sacrificing a nun to Satan).
I think where they really failed was in not doing a bottle episode so they could have enough money for a big fight between Clark and Doomsday, which is after all the only point in having Doomsday around. Take Injustice, for instance. That episode was horrible, with annoying villains and an unbelievably stupid Clark, really only existing to say that Clark would prefer the possibility of his best friend being imprisoned and raped over her finding happiness with another man. The Injustice League thing was such a pointless plot point I don't even know why they brought it back up. It just ended up being two villains anyway, which we've seen, and isn't the point of the Injustice League that they can square off with the Justice League? They should've saved that for season 9 (sigh). Have Tess digging up Doomsday and saying she's found a way to control him. Something.
Now if Injustice had instead been an episode showing Chloe and Davis on the run, evading the Justice League, Tess Mercer, the cops, and actually having sex, then that would've made the season finale so much more tragic. Plus, there might be some slight suspense in a guy evading capture and trying not to turn into a giant monster?
Because Jimmy? Isn't a tragedy. He wasn't even part of the story. They lightswitched him into the lousy husband when they needed Chloe to make eyes at Davis, then lightswitched him into the perfect guy when they needed Chloe to reconcile with him. That just makes Chloe look like a... well, we have any number of not terribly polite words for what that makes Chloe. Suffice to say I preferred her with a spine.
So Jimmy dying is like at the end of Romeo & Juliet, Juliet falls to pieces over Paris's death and dismisses Romeo as some psycho. What? His name wasn't even in the title, why are you crying over him?
Chloe took back the drug addict who's stolen from her, called her a whore, and said that marrying her was the worst mistake of her life. While the metaphorical corpse of her relationship with Davis was still as warm as oven-fresh apple pie. NICE. You know, I think Clark dumping her to be all-Kryptonian, all-the-time might've been justified. After all, if someone symbolized the best in humanity to you and pulled that shit, would you want to hang around her? We're really only missing Clark giving her a stern look and saying "No cool, dude."
Oh, and Davis's homicidal rage? OOC, as OOC as a bad fanfic, but I APPROVE THIS MESSAGE. Although head-canon leans more toward him getting together with Tess and forming the Superman Revenge And Hot Sex Squad. Zod can join up too, and Lex and Gina while we're at it. They can make Youtube skits mocking Clark and Lana and send them around. And they can drive by Chloe's house in their limo and TP her house while she's making meat loaf for Jimmy.
TPTB tried to have an ethical dilemma in how to deal with Davis, with Ollie's league advocating murder and Clark wanting to go the merciful route of... imprisoning him forever in the Phantom Zone... yeah, thanks, real humanitarian of you, Clarky. Now the Supernatural finale managed to make both brothers come off as sympathetic in their conflict, but here both sides comes off just as jerky as the other. Ollie is kill-happy and dickish and not even willing to consider the possibility of a compromise, while Clark is judgmental and dickish. "You're no longer one of us"? IT'S NOT YOUR FUCKING TEAM, CLARK. Which makes it very satisfying when they then watch him get shot with a Kryptonite arrow because, basically, his dumb ass is hella strong and they might need him to lift some furniture later on. Good thing his power isn't being a sparkling conversationalist.
Now, the plot sequence of Davis killing himself would've made a much stronger finale. It would've taken balls to end a man-against-monster plot without a drag-out fight, but since they didn't have the budget to show a good fight (although they did a much better job in the episode with Kane, what was it, Titan? Which wasn't even a finale, damnit), why not? Or they could've spent some time examining the consequences of Davis being separated from Doomsday. You could still have had Doomy running around, ready for his showdown with Clark, but you could also show Chloe being at least a little tempted by the new status quo. They could even have had Davis killing himself after he was separated from Doomsday, unable to live with the guilt of what he'd done. Instead, they somehow managed the BND-feat of doing a storyline that pleases no one yet manages to offend everyone.
And Davis's literally last-minute lightswitching was all in the name of souring Clark on humanity, which could've easily been pulled off by the League's betrayal (because Davis being a "psychopath"? Clark's been dealing with psychos for eight seasons! He saw his best friend turn into an arch-villain! Has it really taken this long to sink in that HUMANITY ISN'T ALWAYS NICE?). And of course, he chooses to cut ties with humanity just as Chloe needs him the most. Because it wouldn't be Clark if he weren't dicking around Chloe. Truth, justice, and dicking around Chloe, that's what Superman stands for.
Oh, and another way in which the arc totally dropped the ball at the end was the late introduction of Kandor. It was one more thing weighting down the excellent work of Allison Mack and Sam Witwer with unnecessary plot-junk.
On a lighter note, Tess is still as lesbian as ever ("I liked you better in the French maid outfit" indeed), even though I don't know why they were wasting time in the finale with a catfight. Tess, you're a millionaire. I think you can afford a gun. Or, you know, hire some guys to rough up Lois.
Well, at least this means a greater demand for fanfics. Because people sure aren't going to get closure from canon.
What makes it worse is that this is the first season arc Smallville has done in a long time, maybe ever, that has been actually affecting. By creating a slow burn centered on the two best actors in the cast, the show managed to actually improve upon the rather lame Doomsday plot from the comics. Doomsday basically being a werewolf isn't that original an idea, but the twist with Chloe made it new and fun to watch (although they could've done less of the apocalyptic music everytime Davis did anything. He could've brought Chloe flowers and the soundtrack would be the same as him sacrificing a nun to Satan).
I think where they really failed was in not doing a bottle episode so they could have enough money for a big fight between Clark and Doomsday, which is after all the only point in having Doomsday around. Take Injustice, for instance. That episode was horrible, with annoying villains and an unbelievably stupid Clark, really only existing to say that Clark would prefer the possibility of his best friend being imprisoned and raped over her finding happiness with another man. The Injustice League thing was such a pointless plot point I don't even know why they brought it back up. It just ended up being two villains anyway, which we've seen, and isn't the point of the Injustice League that they can square off with the Justice League? They should've saved that for season 9 (sigh). Have Tess digging up Doomsday and saying she's found a way to control him. Something.
Now if Injustice had instead been an episode showing Chloe and Davis on the run, evading the Justice League, Tess Mercer, the cops, and actually having sex, then that would've made the season finale so much more tragic. Plus, there might be some slight suspense in a guy evading capture and trying not to turn into a giant monster?
Because Jimmy? Isn't a tragedy. He wasn't even part of the story. They lightswitched him into the lousy husband when they needed Chloe to make eyes at Davis, then lightswitched him into the perfect guy when they needed Chloe to reconcile with him. That just makes Chloe look like a... well, we have any number of not terribly polite words for what that makes Chloe. Suffice to say I preferred her with a spine.
So Jimmy dying is like at the end of Romeo & Juliet, Juliet falls to pieces over Paris's death and dismisses Romeo as some psycho. What? His name wasn't even in the title, why are you crying over him?
Chloe took back the drug addict who's stolen from her, called her a whore, and said that marrying her was the worst mistake of her life. While the metaphorical corpse of her relationship with Davis was still as warm as oven-fresh apple pie. NICE. You know, I think Clark dumping her to be all-Kryptonian, all-the-time might've been justified. After all, if someone symbolized the best in humanity to you and pulled that shit, would you want to hang around her? We're really only missing Clark giving her a stern look and saying "No cool, dude."
Oh, and Davis's homicidal rage? OOC, as OOC as a bad fanfic, but I APPROVE THIS MESSAGE. Although head-canon leans more toward him getting together with Tess and forming the Superman Revenge And Hot Sex Squad. Zod can join up too, and Lex and Gina while we're at it. They can make Youtube skits mocking Clark and Lana and send them around. And they can drive by Chloe's house in their limo and TP her house while she's making meat loaf for Jimmy.
TPTB tried to have an ethical dilemma in how to deal with Davis, with Ollie's league advocating murder and Clark wanting to go the merciful route of... imprisoning him forever in the Phantom Zone... yeah, thanks, real humanitarian of you, Clarky. Now the Supernatural finale managed to make both brothers come off as sympathetic in their conflict, but here both sides comes off just as jerky as the other. Ollie is kill-happy and dickish and not even willing to consider the possibility of a compromise, while Clark is judgmental and dickish. "You're no longer one of us"? IT'S NOT YOUR FUCKING TEAM, CLARK. Which makes it very satisfying when they then watch him get shot with a Kryptonite arrow because, basically, his dumb ass is hella strong and they might need him to lift some furniture later on. Good thing his power isn't being a sparkling conversationalist.
Now, the plot sequence of Davis killing himself would've made a much stronger finale. It would've taken balls to end a man-against-monster plot without a drag-out fight, but since they didn't have the budget to show a good fight (although they did a much better job in the episode with Kane, what was it, Titan? Which wasn't even a finale, damnit), why not? Or they could've spent some time examining the consequences of Davis being separated from Doomsday. You could still have had Doomy running around, ready for his showdown with Clark, but you could also show Chloe being at least a little tempted by the new status quo. They could even have had Davis killing himself after he was separated from Doomsday, unable to live with the guilt of what he'd done. Instead, they somehow managed the BND-feat of doing a storyline that pleases no one yet manages to offend everyone.
And Davis's literally last-minute lightswitching was all in the name of souring Clark on humanity, which could've easily been pulled off by the League's betrayal (because Davis being a "psychopath"? Clark's been dealing with psychos for eight seasons! He saw his best friend turn into an arch-villain! Has it really taken this long to sink in that HUMANITY ISN'T ALWAYS NICE?). And of course, he chooses to cut ties with humanity just as Chloe needs him the most. Because it wouldn't be Clark if he weren't dicking around Chloe. Truth, justice, and dicking around Chloe, that's what Superman stands for.
Oh, and another way in which the arc totally dropped the ball at the end was the late introduction of Kandor. It was one more thing weighting down the excellent work of Allison Mack and Sam Witwer with unnecessary plot-junk.
On a lighter note, Tess is still as lesbian as ever ("I liked you better in the French maid outfit" indeed), even though I don't know why they were wasting time in the finale with a catfight. Tess, you're a millionaire. I think you can afford a gun. Or, you know, hire some guys to rough up Lois.
Well, at least this means a greater demand for fanfics. Because people sure aren't going to get closure from canon.
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no subject
Date: 2009-05-15 04:09 pm (UTC)Or so we all thought. I actually believed for a moment that I'd missed the real epic battle because I was so busy typing ragefully about all the character lightswitching, but it seems not. They couldn't even get that right, thereby ensuring that all the fanboys who don't give a damn about things like believable relationships or consistent characterization would hate the episode as much as the rest of us did. Bravo!
In conclusion: GO TEAM ZOD!
no subject
Date: 2009-05-15 04:18 pm (UTC)Come to think of it, Maxima should be on Team Zod. Tess needs someone to flirt with and the femslashers need a reason to watch.
no subject
Date: 2009-05-15 11:31 pm (UTC)That whole story was awkwardly tacked on and confusing (well, to me, someone who is not that well versed in the comics--I needed to wiki that shit). What's with the Magic Zod Ball?
no subject
Date: 2009-05-17 03:02 pm (UTC)I think even Chloisers would hav major issues w/ this. As an ex-Chloiser I'm offended because they basically were saying how ridiculous it was to have canon character be presented as some one else in "Hex" but in this they make it ok to do that to Jimmy. Really?
Even if I put my Chlavis/Davis love behind it was just plain awful.