8.13 - Power - Discussion Thread (Spoilers)

[Syncos]

still sucked, no matter your opinion, or mine

I'm going to attempt to make sense of this. Because it's honestly hurting my brain. Are you saying that, the scene still sucked. It doesn't matter if Pat's opinion is that she liked it, or that your opinion is that you hated it? That it is terrible beyond opinion?

Because that's BS. You don't like the scene. I'm sure there's others who don't as well. Tough. It doesn't make the scene bad. There's plenty of people who liked it. Myself included.

If you meant something entirely different, maybe you should phrase your post better.

 

[redtail]

The tranistions were beautifully done, and in tv series directing, it is all aobut keeping the show constant, which for smallville, is always tough.

It is also about getting good performances out of your actors, and Allison did a wonderful job there. Kreuk seems to really like playing Lana darker, and more interesting, which she did get to do. She does ok when she doesn't have to play the standard Lana character.

Allison even got a decent performance out of Welling. He has been very decent in some of this seasons eps, Odyssey, Abyss, and Legion, and far better in this episode then he was in the Plastique and Committed eps when he was just phoning it in. It is better when Tom seems to feel comfortable and he does then give decent performances. It would be nice if he could do it more, but, well. Even by CW standards Welling is just ok, but the director of the ep, AM, did a good job getting him where he needed to be.

The script was putrid, but as with her acting, Allison took what she is given with this show, blech, and made it better, in this case much better.

The show is lucky to have such a talent. Too bad there wasn't more like her on the set.

 

[Superfreak]

I'm going to attempt to make sense of this. Because it's honestly hurting my brain. Are you saying that, the scene still sucked. It doesn't matter if Pat's opinion is that she liked it, or that your opinion is that you hated it? That it is terrible beyond opinion?

Because that's BS. You don't like the scene. I'm sure there's others who don't as well. Tough. It doesn't make the scene bad. There's plenty of people who liked it. Myself included.

If you meant something entirely different, maybe you should phrase your post better.

ok: it just plain sucked.

it was not a scene, this was a one time shot. A shot is not a scene.

it lacked budget, cinematography, a cameraman with a good eye, a computer effects jockey with a good eye, poor direction. There were far better ways to pull off this concept. It looked fake, no reason for them to be struting, especially with all their faces uncovered so everyone can see what they look like.


infact, it was the fakest looking shot in the entire series. Hell, that shot would have looked like crap 10 years ago on Lois and Clark.

 

[RakuMon]

The tranistions were beautifully done, and in tv series directing, it is all aobut keeping the show constant, which for smallville, is always tough.

It is also about getting good performances out of your actors, and Allison did a wonderful job there. Kreuk seems to really like playing Lana darker, and more interesting, which she did get to do. She does ok when she doesn't have to play the standard Lana character.

Allison even got a decent performance out of Welling. He has been very decent in some of this seasons eps, Odyssey, Abyss, and Legion, and far better in this episode then he was in the Plastique and Committed eps when he was just phoning it in. It is better when Tom seems to feel comfortable and he does then give decent performances. It would be nice if he could do it more, but, well. Even by CW standards Welling is just ok, but the director of the ep, AM, did a good job getting him where he needed to be.

The script was putrid, but as with her acting, Allison took what she is given with this show, blech, and made it better, in this case much better.

The show is lucky to have such a talent. Too bad there wasn't more like her on the set.

I'm sorry, did I stumble onto TWOP by mistake?

By the way, Clark's confrontation with Plastique in the Talon is one of Supermanliest moments in the show's history.

 

[triplet]

The tranistions were beautifully done, and in tv series directing, it is all aobut keeping the show constant, which for smallville, is always tough.

It is also about getting good performances out of your actors, and Allison did a wonderful job there. Kreuk seems to really like playing Lana darker, and more interesting, which she did get to do. She does ok when she doesn't have to play the standard Lana character.

Allison even got a decent performance out of Welling. He has been very decent in some of this seasons eps, Odyssey, Abyss, and Legion, and far better in this episode then he was in the Plastique and Committed eps when he was just phoning it in. It is better when Tom seems to feel comfortable and he does then give decent performances. It would be nice if he could do it more, but, well. Even by CW standards Welling is just ok, but the director of the ep, AM, did a good job getting him where he needed to be.

The script was putrid, but as with her acting, Allison took what she is given with this show, blech, and made it better, in this case much better.

The show is lucky to have such a talent. Too bad there wasn't more like her on the set.

Allison is not exactly God's gift to TV, she's very good, but she's not perfect and neither is Tom or anyone else.

The story was poorly concieved and she probably did okay, considering, but Allison did make some newbie mistakes. The final scene did seem awkward to me, like she'd had an idea in her head about how she wanted the scene to unfold, but it didn't really play well...

I hated the bathroom scene where Lana cut off her hair. It went on too long and the straight razor was too much.

I'm not sure what transitions you're referring to that were so good... Which transitions? I'm curious...

I didn't notice any signficant aural or visual bridges between scenes, so I'm not sure what you might be talking about...

ok: it just plain sucked.

it was not a scene, this was a one time shot. A shot is not a scene.

it lacked budget, cinematography, a cameraman with a good eye, a computer effects jockey with a good eye, poor direction. There were far better ways to pull off this concept. It looked fake, no reason for them to be struting, especially with all their faces uncovered so everyone can see what they look like.


infact, it was the fakest looking shot in the entire series. Hell, that shot would have looked like crap 10 years ago on Lois and Clark.

The scene was over the top, but it is an iconic moment.

I liked it a lot.

 

[AgentPat]

ok: it just plain sucked.

And I disagree with your opinion, for the reasons I gave. You're talking about budget, realism and effects and it wasn't about those things at all. What made it so iconic was the image: five heroes in "Right Stuff" mode with Clark at the center, "Justice League" style. It didn't have to be realistic in setting or movement (strutting away from a huge explosion with no masks, looking at the camera) for it to accomplish its real goal: creating a moment. That scene/shot - whatever you want to call it - was all about creating emotion and exhilaration for the viewer. Your mileage of course, may vary.

I'm sorry, did I stumble onto TWOP by mistake?

Gosh, I was wondering the same thing myself.

Allison is not exactly God's gift to TV, she's very good, but she's not perfect and neither is Tom or anyone else.

Agreed!

I hated the bathroom scene where Lana cut off her hair. It went on too long and the straight razor was too much.

That scene was just plain dumb. No matter how much the writers wanted to instill some kind of metamorphosis for the character, having her chop off her hair with a straight razor was ridiculous. The icy tub bath and the homage to Kung Fu sans forearm scars made it completely inane, even for SV standards. Seriously, what the hell were they thinking?

I'm not sure what transitions you're referring to that were so good... Which transitions? I'm curious...

I didn't notice any significant aural or visual bridges between scenes, so I'm not sure what you might be talking about...

I believe the poster is referring to the flashback transitions - camera pans off of present day and dissolves to the scene being recollected. It was okay, but perhaps overdone in quantity. One or two is nice, but they all flashbacked the same way, and that shows a lack of imagination. Same goes for the low tracking shots. Nice, but too many of 'em, and noticeably so. Sorry Allison.

 

[triplet]

That scene was just plain dumb. No matter how much the writers wanted to instill some kind of metamorphosis for the character, having her chop off her hair with a straight razor was ridiculous. The icy tub bath and the homage to Kung Fu sans forearm scars made it completely inane, even for SV standards. Seriously, what the hell were they thinking?

Yeah, I guess I can kinda see why they did it the way they did it, but the whole sequence of scenes was over the top.

I believe the poster is referring to the flashback transitions - camera pans off of present day and dissolves to the scene being recollected. It was okay, but perhaps overdone in quantity. One or two is nice, but they all flashbacked the same way, and that shows a lack of imagination. Same goes for the low tracking shots. Nice, but too many of 'em, and noticeably so. Sorry Allison.

Oh, gotcha.

Well, the tracking shots were overdone and the dissolves are sorta blah...

There was nothing clever with that.

In TV, unlike feature films, (or at least the few SV scripts I've seen) the camera movements are sometimes put into the script, so it might be that the movements were scripted, but I think allison was being too clever while playing with her new toys.

Tom and Michael both had similar problems directing the first time, as did Todd Slavkin.

Over use of camera movement and using contrived camera setups are pretty common noob mistakes...

 

[The Incredible Hulk]

correct me if I'm wrong, but as far as TV goes wouldn't the transitions between scenes and cutaways, fades, etc. be determined by whomever did the editing of the episode? On a big feature film I could see the director having the hands on input on that but for a serialized TV show? especially given that the director is also in the cast? I wouldn't think so, at most I would think an editor would pitch the ideas to her or show her a rough cut and get her "approval." Allison or Tom and Mike when they did it, wouldn't have had time to sit down and splice reels, fade film, etc.

 

[Webhead2006]

its probably a little of both at times.

 

[triplet]

correct me if I'm wrong, but as far as TV goes wouldn't the transitions between scenes and cutaways, fades, etc. be determined by whomever did the editing of the episode? On a big feature film I could see the director having the hands on input on that but for a serialized TV show? especially given that the director is also in the cast? I wouldn't think so, at most I would think an editor would pitch the ideas to her or show her a rough cut and get her "approval." Allison or Tom and Mike when they did it, wouldn't have had time to sit down and splice reels, fade film, etc.

Well, after this convo yesterday I looked at the episode again just to see the transitions.

I think in this case some might have been scripted, but usually it's probably a combination of what the director wants, what the DP shoots and how the editor or Special F/X guys can help things out...

I think the first wipe they did, which looked it was done in camera with the camera moving right and there probably some help from Entity to make it look so smooth, as the scene switched from the apartment to Tess's recollection of Lana's video recording was good.

As they moved through the episode, the technique sorta lost its appeal as they repeated that same sort of move again and again. Almost every other switch to a flashback was initiated through something similar.

It was overdone.

 

[triplet]

I finished the review, which is pretty good for me. I did it in like four days, since I didn't finish Bulletproof until Monday.



I gave it a 1.5, if you're curious, but look for it later on KryptonSite....

 

[Webhead2006]

wow cant wait to read it soon trip, is this the lowest you ever gave an episode?

 

[triplet]

wow cant wait to read it soon trip, is this the lowest you ever gave an episode?

Yep, never gave a lower one. I think Lucy might have gotten lower, but that isn't up anywhere...

 

[SV Fan]

Yep, never gave a lower one. I think Lucy might have gotten lower, but that isn't up anywhere...

Why do people hate Lucy :P

I know I am a Lois fan so I am biased but I liked that episode. For one thing we don't see Clark be a whiney depressed idiot at all that episode so that has to be a bonus and the storyline not ridiculously stupid(see Ageless)

 

[triplet]

Why do people hate Lucy :P

I know I am a Lois fan so I am biased but I liked that episode. For one thing we don't see Clark be a whiney depressed idiot at all that episode so that has to be a bonus and the storyline not ridiculously stupid(see Ageless)

Oh, where do I start?

I loathed it, probably more than almost any other episode.

It wasn't that I didn't like Lucy, I did, but the situation was contrived (badly so) and they poorly used poor Peter Wingfield...

The thing is with twist endings you gotta be able to go back and view it and the twist shouldn't invalidate what happened before in the episode.

The twist in this case made the opening chase inexplicable.

Why was the bad guy 'chasing' Lucy? They were in it together and there were no apparent witnesses...

Stupid.

 

[Webhead2006]

yea the lucy character was cool to see but the episode i agree way back then was pretty bad. Though it would be great if we did see lucy again before the series ended.

 

[SV Fan]

The twist in this case made the opening chase inexplicable.

yeah the beginning definantly made 0 sense, but with Smallville you just learn to ignore many things that don't make sense. Am I going to hate the Season 3 premier for instance, because Johnathon was to stupid just to grab a piece of green K instead of running to Jor-El or accept it for what it was? One could make the arguement that Lucy made the deal with the bad guys(offscreen) after they caught her in that first scene as well.

If you ignore that first scene though, I thought the rest of the episode was good. We don't see Clark depressed at all that episode and instead he is proactive and thinking on his feet. He doesn't have to think twice about doing what he should do and overall he looks good in the episode(how I would expect a young hero to act). Clark's character is happy and angst free during the entire run of the episode. I also thought the final scene between Lois and Clark was great in establishing there relationship(as well as the earlier scene in the barn) and the episode also gave great depth to the Lois character.

So to make an issue out of one terribly written scene at the beginning which you can easily fast forward through on the DVD by hitting 1 button is what I would view as not seeing the forest for the trees.

 

[triplet]

yeah the beginning definantly made 0 sense, but with Smallville you just learn to ignore many things that don't make sense.

Am i going to hate the Season 3 premier for instance, because Johnathon was to stupid just to grab a piece of green K instead of running to Jor-El or accept it for what it was?

Ignore that first scene, I thought the rest of the episode was good. We don't see Clark depressed at all that episode and instead he is proactive and thinking on his feet. He doesn't have to think twice about doing what he should do and overall he looks good in the episode. I also thought the final scne between Lois and CLark was great in establishing there relationship.

Even if you don't factor in the tease, I still didn't like the episode.

It was just a poorly written script almost all the way 'round...

 

[SV Fan]

Even if you don't factor in the tease, I still didn't like the episode.

It was just a poorly written script almost all the way 'round...

I guess I just prefer an angst free episode where the hero seems happy for the most part and does heroic things. To each there own.

I am not going to say the Lucy gets kidnapped storyline was the greatest plot ever on the show, but there have been many worse storylines between all the freaks of the week Clark had to save and other kryptonite related incidents(Crisis or Velocity come to mind). To me Clark's general demeanor throughout the episode and his interaction with Lois, showing he can actually have 1 relationship in his life that doesn't involve him feeling like a freak(ie "i need to know your secret") was refreshing considering all the storylines we got up to this point of the series(which only were going to get worse in the coming seasons)

 

[Webhead2006]

yea there is times the show doesnt make alot of sense like lana witch/vampire/super-krypto/etc.... But that doesnt kill the show fully because out of over 160 or so episodes their is tons of great episodes and good plots that make up for the faults.

 

[SV Fan]

yea there is times the show doesnt make alot of sense like lana witch/vampire/super-krypto/etc.... But that doesnt kill the show fully because out of over 160 or so episodes their is tons of great episodes and good plots that make up for the faults.

I found the earlier years to be better written, and around Season 5, I thought there was a lot of great stuff mixed with alot of not so good stuff(many episodes would have both great and crap mixed together).

 

[Webhead2006]

yea seasons 1-3, 6, and first half of season 8 so far have been my favs, were as season 4 only had some redeeming aspects, season 5 had its share of good and bad, and season 7 was ok but things got all messed up with the wga strike.

 

[SV Fan]

yea seasons 1-3, 6, and first half of season 8 so far have been my favs, were as season 4 only had some redeeming aspects, season 5 had its share of good and bad, and season 7 was ok but things got all messed up with the wga strike.

4,8,2,6,3,1,5,7 here

It should be noted the lack of Clana in Seasons 4 + 8 to me were huge bonuses, gone was whiney depressed Clark. Season 6 is hard to rate, I found it had alot of the best stuff(Justice, Phantoms) on the show ever mixed with alot of the worst stuff(mainly Clexana) ever as well

 

[Webhead2006]

yea thats seems to be a running theme between seasons some have some great archs/episodes and then they muck it up along the way some times. It is weird now to go back and watch the early seasons now with how much the show has changed since pete left, chloe/lana/lex knowing about clark, and the deaths of johathn and lionel and martha leaving the show.

 

[SV Fan]

yea thats seems to be a running theme between seasons some have some great archs/episodes and then they muck it up along the way some times. It is weird now to go back and watch the early seasons now with how much the show has changed since pete left, chloe/lana/lex knowing about clark, and the deaths of johathn and lionel and martha leaving the show.

I re-watched every episode up till Artic right after Bride. I personally enjoy episodes with little angst/drama and alot of action, which is why the 2 seasons(4+8) I mentioned top my list(even with the brutal Lana is a witch storyarc, it kept her away from Clark). Season 2 was great in the sense it had alot of good stuff about Clark's past. Those three seasons stand above all the rest.

Seasons 6,3,1 and 5 are interchangable, all had good and bad points.

I think the funniest thing I found was I used to think Subterrean was the worst episode ever, but after rewatching it I thought well it boring as all hell but there many worst angsty episodes(I still would make it borderline bottom 10), at least Clark doesn't look like an idiot in it.

I thought Season 7 was terrible.

This whole Lana is a superhero arc, I think would fit greatly into the end of Season 6 or early Season 7(much better then the stuff they had her doing then), but it just seems so out of place this season. We finally see Clark moving on with his life, then boom back to the same of angsty crap. it's hard to rate how good or bad Power was because if this episode was done Season 7 I would be more forgiving(I personally don't hate Wrath like alot of Lana haters seemed to, wierd thing about Lana in Season 7 i thought Lana on her own was good, but Clana sucked). If the producers knew this was the storyarc they were doing with Lana as well, they should have tried to get it over with as soon as possible then move on with the rest of the season.