Superman on Television

Smallville: Episode Reviews

Episode 18: "Drone"

A high schooler suddenly turned homicidal over powers just bequeathed to him or her from some source related to Kryptonite, heretofore before and after referred to as "meteor rocks". WOW! Big plot development.

Look! Over here: Clark and Chloe share a Lois and Clark moment, when they somehow make the completely logical (COUGH COUGH sarcasm COUGH COUGH) conclusion that a girl stung with bees a while back suddenly gave her the ability to, you guessed it, control bees.

And look here (oh lord, please tell me I'm not getting the "Keseys"): Yet another occasion of Clark revealing his powers rather blatantly, and in such a way that no law enforcement officer would be able to accommodate a case without completely exposing Clark and his secret. Are we supposed to just trust that these people who want to kill Clark will, soon thereafter, just not tell his secret? And a huge explosion? Cool looking, but where are the Feds? Clark is beyond exposed at this point. Listing his critical errors are getting boring.

I know. I know. It's just a show, right? Well, I'm criticizing it, and every week I have to point out that first paragraph, and some other thing which was horrible, and the only thing that's been staying consistently good is the Lex dynamic. The writers have changes, so a reader points out to me, on most every episode, and it show. The characterization and any continuity is falling off, and so is the show. I hope that the cliffhangers make up for the last three or four episodes. Some of the conceptions are great, but it's all about the execution here, and it seems to be falling off.

Let me make it known that I'd rather have this than no Smallville, any day of the week and twice on Sundays, three on Easter, four on Ramadan, eight on May 16 (when the new Star Wars comes out, you on planet Mars.). I just see the potential that the first few episodes offered, and the potential that the episodes without crazy teenagers (Hug, Hourglass, Jitters, Zero) instead of believable villains that are not found out by miraculous logic, offer to the future of this enterprise. Oh God. Enterprise. That's a whole other rant column on its own. Trekkie and Warsie, here. And a comic book geek. At least one's paying off this year. (I've got FAAAAAITHŠ insert cringe here, oh you in the know.)

So yes. I love this show. But I hated this episode. And last one smelt less of roses and more of braunschweiger. I mean, Clark getting mad at Chloe for being honest? CLARK KENT? Who flatulated that piece of monkey waste into the script?

Lex continues to be the saving grace of the series, acting in character and motivating to be the heroic villain. He is dead on and a joy to watch.

Thus I give this episode 2 of 5 instead of 1, because of Mr. Luthor.

One more thing. It's Lu-THOR, not Lu-THER! At least Otis in the original movies got it right. I have yet to hear even Lex himself say it right. Sigh. What a geek I be.

Interesting side notes...a reader points out to me that Daddy Luthor played a particularly dastardly devil figure in a previous short-lasted seriesŠ who would have thought the casting director would be so dead on? Well, me. I love Lionel in this series. Thanks to Nadia for pointing that out.

And thanks to Wendy for telling me about the writers. Keep writing! You guys are a big help!

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