Smallville

Is it just me, or is Smallville really, really getting good again? It was so lackluster for so long (it was somewhat trying getting through the Season 5 DVDs over the past couple weeks), but the whole Green Arrow/Justice League buildup is getting good. The whole Lana going bad thing is getting good. Lex being even more duplicitous is getting good. The Chloe/Jimmy arc I don't much care for, but only for reasons of jealousy (damn that Aaron Ashmore!).

Mind you, it still baffles me as to why Aaron Ashmore was cast as Jimmy when his twin brother was a villain in an earlier episode. Can casting in the Vancouver area be getting that desperate already? We've already got (at least) two crossover actors between Battlestar Galactica and Smallville (one far more minor than t' other). At least, that's just in season 5! There are no doubt others I've either not noticed or about which I've already forgotten. Not to mention the plethora of other series produced in the area, all dipping in pretty much the same casting pool.

The season 6 opener bothered me a lot, considering the 5th season was spent building and building and building on the Zod story line, and then we get a crappy Russell T. Davies, wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am deus ex machina end in a hurry. It was such a let down. However, some of the things introduced in that same episode (Raya, the phantom zone, etc.) will at least come back into play heavily in this season, and if done correctly can be very interesting plot points. At least, let's hope it's done right.

Love and Monsters

I've got such a love/hate relationship with Smallville it's not even funny. More often than not I find myself dreading to watch the show, generally tossing it to the bottom of the pile when I have to decide what to watch for stuff I've downloaded. Still, there are times when that dread is wiped away and I've been very glad to have seen a certain episode. Those times are rare, but continually renew any faith I have in the show.

This week was one of those nuggets, with the viewers/fans finally able to see the burgeoning Justice Leage of America in action. Not all the players are in place yet (Wonder Woman, Batman, etc.) but we do have Green Arrow, Cyborg, Aquaman and The Flash so far (of note, one can easily see that Gough & Millar are again breaking DC canon by having the JLA started by these members). All had of course been featured separately in the past couple years, but this is the first time we get to see them in action as a group.

I honestly have no idea if there was a tacit notion early on in the minds of the show runners to have the series finish with JLA overtones, and I seriously doubt it, but it's nice to finally have the show seem to have purpose. So many episodes, especially early on, felt like throwaways with the Freak of the Week (FotW as kryptonsite.com would call them in years past); later on, they felt wasteful with all the soap opera elements at play. Sometimes, as I noted a couple months back, the waste is on a larger scale... I still feel the build-up in season 5 regarding Brainiac and Zod was a waste given how briskly the notions were discarded in the season 6 opener.

Given it's been nearly 3 months since the last of these 'nuggets' (counting, of course, the holiday season hiatus), it makes me sad to realize this may be the last good episode for a while. I fully anticipate the show going back to the drudgery until sweeps... meaning 3-4 poor episodes may yet come before anything good again airs. I do hope to be proven wrong, though.

EDIT: It seems I'm not the only one with the opinion of this week's episode ("Justice"). fiziko (I don't know him personally, but he too is from Edmonton) over at bureau42 has posted his remarks on the episode. Edited 22.01.2007

More secrets

Tonight's Smallville was one of those rare enjoyable episodes. Most of it was pretty lax but the pseudo-confrontation of Clark by Lana about his powers and the is-she-or-isn't-she situation with Chloe were both done pretty darn well. High point: the exchange between Chloe and Clark leading up to the heat-vision use. Low point: more secrets between Lana and Lex; things were going so well earlier in the season with Lana turning bad and Lex sharing dirt and secrets with her. What happened to that? As well, Lex breaking the fourth wall at the very end didn't sit well with me.

Overall, well done writers. It was mostly filler, but the good bits were very good.

Well...

Okay, yesterday's Smallville (which I finally got around to watching today) wasn't horrible. Certainly not as bad as I expected, but far from fantastic. We finally got to see Martian Manhunter in action (properly, anyway) although I kept wanting him to act more like Jackie Chiles. Acting was pretty darn good, especially the paranoia from Chloe (schwing!) and the anger from Lex. Tom Welling was his usual mediocre-at-best, but he fared acceptably. I give it a thumbs barely up (bureau42.com wasn't as nice as me this week, though) and I still hold out hope for good episodes this month.

So, why did I not see it until today? Well, my friend Jean-Paul was in town for a few days so I caught up with him and others to go for dinner and catch a movie. The others bailed so it was just he and I off to see Pan's Labyrinth (his choice). While he quite enjoyed it, I... I don't know what to think. My first impression was I didn't like it, but I didn't hate it. The story was iffy, the characterizations were flawed and some of the plot points were completely, well, pointless. For a new movie it's rated extremely highly on the IMDB, and I can definitely say I disagree with the rating it's received thus far. I'd have to give it somewhere in the range of a 5 or 6... decent, watchable, but nothing I'd care to see again or even really think about once I've left the theatre. The upshot is I got a stack of movie passes for Christmas so at least it didn't cost me anything to see the show.

Dad and Willi are off to Mexico this coming week, and I really ought to get over there and get this PCMCIA wireless card installed in his ThinkPad since he wants to take it with him... I wonder if he got his passport yet. I know as of last weekend it hadn't yet arrived and with all the kerfuffle these days at the passport office, it's quite possible he's not yet received it.

White 'n Nerdy

Courtesy Warren, there's a nice article on the success and staying power of "Weird Al" Yankovic, who has very much been a favourite of mine since I was a child. I can vividly remember borrowing LP after LP of his stuff from the public library, borrowing cassettes from friends, buying albums, and so on. I used to laugh my ass off at his material when I was younger, especially at a group outing (for Narbo's birthday one year) to UHF when it hit theatres back in 1989. That was one of the first movies I remember nearly memorizing, and I still quote it to death these days.

A number of weeks ago I was listening to the commentaries for season 8 of The Simpsons, amongst which was the Mr. Sparkle episode. Gedde Watanabe played a very minor role in that episode (he was the english-speaking person at the Mr. Sparkle factory who spoke with Homer on the telephone). The writers on the commentary expressed great joy at being able to work with him as he also played The Donger (Long Duk Dong) in John Hughes' Sixteen Candles in the mid-80's. While I clearly remember that role, and love it, I'll always remember him as Kuni no matter what other work of his I see. Even now I can't get the red snapper scene out of my mind.

So today I went to crib with the retired members of my uncle's union and in no time flat got my butt kicked by geriatric after geriatric. I'm not a fan of losing in the least, and even though the tournament is meant to be fun, I still get irked if I don't finish in the money. I can accept it (albeit reluctantly) if I at least break even for wins (4 wins out of the 8 games), but today my partner and I could only muster 3 wins. After coming in first overall last time (to the tune of over $50 profit, yay), one gets accustomed to doing well. Still, realistically, one should not expect to get paid given there are 26 teams playing and only 4 places paid. I got very few decent hands (about as many as I got nothing, which I suppose is good as that meant I got nothing very little) and that certainly doesn't help, but although I said nothing at the time, I was a little bothered by my partner playing rather poorly in a lot of spots (not paying attention to the count and playing cards that were inappropriate, leading into far too many runs and other silly situations such as playing a 3 after a 9 was led, etc.). We're none of us perfect, and frankly I made a big blunder by missing 4 points for a run in the first game (which at least we won so that wasn't a huge deal), but still, one should really focus on what you're doing. After all, if it was all for fun, why would we keep score?

After that, I came home with a headache and had to lay down for a while before I went over to Rob's place to help him move some furniture around. A few days ago I'd promised his girlfriend I'd lend a hand as she's not able to move things being 8 months pregnant, so I was over there for a few hours moving things around. It was mostly unpleasant as I'm far too out of shape to be doing much heavy lifting and shifting of couches and desks and dressers and such, but the sucky part was the bickering and fighting going on between Rob and Gail. Oh well, things happen I suppose. Still, we got things as complete as possible given there are pending events yet to happen (the buying of new couches, for instance). So, no more of that sort of thing needs to be done for now.

At least the day is over now and I can relax and hopefully watch Smallville from earlier tonight. It would have been a nicer day if Ottawa had won their game against the Avs, but at least the Cards beat the Mets in the NLCS (I find it hard to root for New York-based teams for any sport). The NHL season is still very young, but it's highly disappointing to see the Sens sitting in next-to-last in the Northeast Division. I hope they pull their socks up on Saturday against the Devils. Hell, the Oilers are running a close second to Minnesota in their division, and they'd probably be faring better if the Wild weren't one of only two teams with a (still) perfect record.

Oh well. There's still lots of time for the Sens to pick up the slack and do some damage. I just hope the loss of Chara and Havlat isn't too large for them to be a contender. That being said, I still think it was a dumb move for the Sens to let Chara go to a division rival as that could damage them more than if he had gone to say a Western Conference team (like Havlat did), but it is what it is.