September 29, 2006
Kneel Before Todd!!
I havent blogged in a while, and there really is so much to write. I could write about my ten days of travel throughout Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Michigan. I could write about Covenant's Campus Preview Weekend which I am currently immersed in. I could write about about my spiritual ponderings while on the road and reading St. Augustine's "City of God" in my spare time. All of these things would make great blog topics.
But I have decided that I dont want to blog about any of these things just now, because, frankly, I want to blog about Smallville!
I just watched the Season Six premiere of Smallville last night, and I was blown away! This is, simply put, the best show on TV. I frankly dont care what Lost, 24, or Sopranos fans have to say about this. Smallville has gotten so good in my opinion that I will not cease to declare its merits in the face of all naysayers.
Now granted, its a taste thing. You have to like the strange mix of sci-fi, soap opera, detective mysteries, and "The Waltons" to really get into this show. But for geeks of my persuasion, this truly is the most obsession-worthy show I know of.
I wouldnt even know where to begin to catch you up on the plot if you havent seen the show. Let it be sufficient to say that this show has done a great job of reinterpreting the classic Superman mythology while staying true to its most essential elements. It has probably done more to deepen the characters of the Superman universe than any other incarnation of Superman I know of. With Smallville, you get the most profound and morally complex Lex Luthor ever known to comics, TV, or movies. You get the most emotionally identifiable and fleshed out Clark Kent. You certainly get the most psychologically affected Lana Lang, even if she is profoundly screwed up. You get what might be the most faithful incarnation of Lois we have seen on screen. And you get to see a lot of wonderfully layered and meaningful involvement in Clark's life from his parents, Jonathon and Martha Kent.
Add to all of this the characters that Smallville has itself introduced to the Superman mythos. Chloe Sullivan is FREAKING AMAZING! I love Chloe. She is one of the best Superman characters ever, she is played by my favorite actress on TV (Allison Mack), and she is, with the exception of Lex and Clark, the most well written character on the show. Her weekly moments with Clark would alone make me watch every episode. I dig her big time.
And Lionel Luther, another Smallville original, has been wonderfully evil in the past, and yet he continues to be morally ambiguous to the audience. The jury is still out on him whether he is truly evil or whether he has the "Darth Vader" good inside of him. But Lionel is also one of my favorite characters. I love the way he is played by John Glover. I really cant get enough of the guy.
So yeah, Smallville is pretty much awesome and it has a lot to do with how absolutely great the characters are on this show, and how wonderful the actors and actresses are who play them. Plus, the show has INCREDIBLE cinematography and visual effects for a TV show. I really think Smallville visuals are the best on television. For a note of comparison, I watched the big NBC premiere of the new superhero drama called "Heroes" this week. The visual quality was nowhere near that of Smallville. "Heroes" had a flying sequence at the end of the episode that looked like absolute crap compared to Smallville.
Last night's episode, entitled "Zod," was phenomenal. We got to see Clark wander around and fight baddies in the Phantom Zone, Chloe meet Jimmy Olsen, Martha talk to Jor-El for the first time in the Fortress of Solitude, Lana show some emotional fortitude for once against the abuses of Zod, and we got to see an all out flight-fight between Clark and Zod (who was possessing the bod of Lex). We got to see Zod say "Kneel Before Zod" and we got to see another very, very famous homage to Superman II. It was basically a Superman fanboy's dream of an episode. I could not of been happier! The look of the episode which included the Phantom Zone, an apocalyptic Metropolis, the Fortress of Solitude, and the Clark/Zod fight scene was all just so great! It looked at times like a feature film.
OK, well Ive pretty much geeked out enough about that. I just had to get that out of system. My brain has been a bit fried lately from all my traveling so I had to ramble about something trivial like that for a while. But the moral of ths story is, watch Smallville! It rocks.
Posted by todd at September 29, 2006 07:29 PM