Not sure what to think about this episode. Something seemed "off" for a lot of it. I can't tell if it was the writing, acting or direction, but a lot of it didn't sit well with me. The massive amounts of obvious ADR kind of implies that a lot of details were changed after the fact. Anyone know who wrote this one? The names didn't look familiar in the credits, so I guess they're new. Either way, I much prefer the veteran SV writers.
The things I
did like:
1. Clark's awkward flirting. It's nice to see hime try to move on, but it's also good to show he doesn't know what he's doing. Clark has never been the instigator in any relationship, so it made sense that he didn't really know how to flirt.
2. Ollie & Lois. All their scenes together were great. I loved Ollie's reaction to Lois' rudeness at the farm, and I also dug his cocky assuredness when Lois came to his apartment. Also, I'm glad they went back and changed Ollie's company back to Queen Industries. I hated "Arrow Industries" when I first saw the clip on cwtv.com.
3. Chloe & Lana's conversation. I really liked Lana finally realizing her flaws. I thought after their conversation Lana would start acting like a decent character again and stop being the insecure, passive agressive girlfriend w/out a clue.
4. The arrow and the soda can. Priceless!
5. Clark's loneliness. Very powerful scene, and nice call back to Pariah with the baseball. Clark really is alone. I don't see this as a regression because the "loneliness" Clark used to feel was very typical teenage angst because the girl he likes didn't like him back (coupled w/ the fact that dude is an alien). This time, though, Clark truly
is alone. He even says so in the scene w/ Martha. Jonathan, Jor-El, Lana (and to a lesser extent Chloe and Lois) are all out of his life.
What I didn't like:
1. I stated above that a lot of the ADR was noticable. I don't know why Smallville's overdubbing is so spotty. I understand the need to go back and re-record dialogue, but the trick is in making the changes unnoticable.
2. So far, it feels like Rosey's coasting this season. Is he getting tired of playing Lex? There's just something off about his acting this season. (Though I did like his scene with Clark. That was good.) He isn't bad, but he doesn't have the same energy this season. Maybe it's the Lana effect, and her storyline is dragging him down.
3. Speaking of Lana, I hated that she came back to the party to be with Lex. Now I don't give a crap about "Lexana," if done right, it could be a very intriguing storyline. But the confession Lana gives to Chloe in the prior scene implied that she was going to start getting a clue and stop being the deadweight girlfriend with trust issues. So what does she do? She dives headfirst into a relationship with Lex freakin' Luthor!
4. The FotW was weak. I stated way back in the beginning of this thread how best to make this villain of the week redeemable. Instead of killing her off, all they had to do was send her to Bell Reeve and identify her as "Pamela."
5. Finally, what's the point of a mask if people are going to recognize you so easily. Lex knew it was Ollie Queen right away.
Overall, it was a "meh" episode for me. Wasn't great, but wasn't too terrible, just... off. Compared to episode three of last season "Hidden," it pales in comparison. Next week's, though, promises to be the best DCU Superhero intro in the history of the show!
) discussions later about some core problems with LL in SV
