Smallville Season 4 thread (1 Viewer)

[Bill Williams]

To add my thoughts on the whole Smallville "fullscreen versus widescreen" discussion, it was late 2002 or early 2003 that the WB reran the season one finale and season two premiere as a complete two-hour event, and the trailer announced that it was going to be shown "for the first time in widescreen format". Until this past Wednesday night's season premiere, that's been the only time I've seen any "Smallville" episodes broadcast on the WB in widescreen. All of the other episodes I've seen have been in fullscreen... until this past Wednesday night.

As for Clark flying again, Patrick, you're right. This was a one-time deal, since technically it wasn't Clark who was flying but Kal-El. And with the end of the episode, there went with it the end of Clark/Kal-El flying until he becomes Superman. That's how Gough and Millar have set it up. But it was still cool nonetheless.

 

[Gary Seven]

Compared to 43, 27 is young. I hardly meant it as an insult, but fact. Plus your confusion at what series he referred to cements that fact.

I found it amusing. Sorry. Similar to when I talked to youngsters in the 80s who thought that the Beatles were Paul McCartney's original back up band.

 

[Jonathan Carter]

Ugh, there was no confusion (my previous posts show we had already taken the original Star Trek into account, I was looking at the franchise though) and please don't compare me to the uninfomed "youngsters" who don't know what they are talking about. These are probably the same types of kids who think Modest Mouse is a new band just because they have a video on MTV.

Besides, don't be so hard on yourself 43 isn't that old. Just kidding...Sorry if I sounded like I was snapping at you, I just hate it when the age card is played.

 

[ToddS]

Has anyone recorded this episode and if so is there any way that I can get a copy?

 

[Moe Maishlish]

Not sure if you can compare Smallville & Star Trek. Although they're both television shows, they transcend the medium & are more about the overall myth & legends that they represent than their respective TV series'.

Smallville is Superman, and Star Trek is... well, the Star Trek Universe (and all characters, species, vessles, etc. associated with it). In that vein, you can't compare either... apples to oranges really. One is a character, the other is a mass of information.

Of course, if you want to talk mass-POPULARITY, my personal vote goes to Smallville/Superman. Superman is perhaps the most recognizable pop icon in history, surpassing even Mickey Mouse & Bugs Bunny in world-wide recognition. Star Trek, although popular, couldn't come close.

As for the premiere, I finally got a chance to see it yesterday and was impressed with the first half, but a little disappointed with the second. Right after Clark's done flying, it kind of reached its peak and started to falter a bit.

I'm happy to see familiar faces (Kidder), and recognize familiar names (Lois), but I REALLY don't see the point of keeping Lana around anymore. I'm sick sick sick of her character, and I would have been happy if she just left for Paris, and be done with her. If the writers want to bring her back to visit once or twice, fine... but let's not extend the kryptonian mythology to this pathetic character, or her new (yawn) love-interest. We have a new, spunky, and relatively attractive female character to invest ourselves with (Lois). Let's leave Lana alone in Paris with her baguettes & fois-gras.

As for the Chloe angle, count me in as someone who thinks that they should have actually killed her off. I liked her character, but it served it's purpose and killing her off would have given the show a bit of an edge (a la 24), and would have lent some emotional depth to season 4. Keeping her alive is a very hollow plotline, and makes Smallville feel like more of a daytime soap-opera. It's a sad & predictable plot contrivance that's been used too often.

Speaking of sad & predictable... Black Kryptonite?!? Oh c'mon guys... which orifice did you pull that nugget of literary inventiveness out of? Could you have fallen back on a less contrived resolution to the conflict & dichotomy between Clark & Kal-El? What's next? Pink Kryptonite? Mauve Kryptonite? Teal Kryptonite? Kryptonite that gives Clark a bad case of indigestion & diarrhea? Let's leave Kryptonite out of the rest of season 3, unless it's green... ok? Thanks...

Moe.

 

[Matt Stone]

Black Kryptonite was total deus ex machina, but I'm sure they will discover more about it during the rest of the season. That doesn't necessarily make it any better, but I doubt it's just going to be a throw-away plot tool.

As for the Chloe death situation. I agree that it would have been nice to see them kill her off. That being said, I'm not going to judge the storyline before I see it play out. I did really like the shot with Clark x-raying the grave.

 

[Dan Rudolph]

You Smallville fans are a veangeful lot, aren't you?

 

[Garrett Adams]

A possible explanation is the term itself. I think wide-screen is ofter used to describe the term letterbox. Most shows that produce HD (16:9) versions also produce standard 4:3 SD format for the analog version. More recently some shows have switched to letterboxing their SD feed to the ratio of the HD version.

 

[RaymondSteiner]

I have the chance to see the recording today, and this is a really impressive episode. Anyway i liked all the premieres, the fault with season 3 (i think, in my opinion) is that it starts with great energy, and after just two or three episodes, they have resolved all the cliffhanger of last season finale.

Anyway, it has get some pretty good reviews on the site, on the net, and the net is known for being very hard to please.. . A byte from buffy surely helps!!

 

[JustinCleveland]

Dude, that's against forum rules to answer (on the forum...). Read between the lines.

 

[Patrick Sun]

If someone can help out ToddS, please do so offline. Thanks.

 

[ToddS]

Sorry I didn't know there was a problem with copying tv shows. It will not happen again.

 

[Angel Pagan]

Todd, you've got a PM.

 

[Shane S.]

And can we please keep that to a minimum as well. The 1001 uses for green kryptonite really got out of control.

Oh and since we're talking about kryptonite am I the only one who though of Denise Richards when black kryptonite was mentioned.

 

[JustinCleveland]

No no no, that's black mans' kryptonite. Close, but no cigar.

Wow, I'm watching Undercover Brother before Smallville tonight. What a great movie.

 

[Andres Munoz]

I was giggling like a little girl when Kal-El started flying. Very cool looking effects. The Matrix got it perfectly done and you just could not make it look better. It was smart of Smallville to copy it.

Lois is hot as hell. Great job in casting that part.

Great to see Margot Kidder again. I haven't seen any mention of this line but you guys must have caught it. Annette O'Toole asks Kidder if she has a romantic relationship with Dr. Swan (Christopher Reeve) and Kidder answers something like "in another lifetime". Definately a nod to their relationship in the movies. That was awsome!

Couple of questions though. My satellite signal was fading in and out and I missed a couple of things...

1. What's the deal with Lex being sick and looking for a cure? He was poisoned last season. How did he survive and how does it affect him now?

2. I saw Lana drawing something in what looked like a temple and then a blinding light hit her. Next thing I know she has a tatoo in a very sexy place and she's acting all weird. What happened there?

 

[Evan M]

I think we are going to be revealed more on this in future episodes... that's pretty much all we know, too. There are several theories bouncing around, but nothing concrete... just a lot of speculation. But, she was making a chalking (paper on top, rub with chalk to get the image) of a sculpture in the floor of some temple. It was a picture of some ancient warrior chick or some such. And the sculpture looked like it had the woman holding a crystal or something. They explained who it was supposed to be, but I forget.

 

[Rick Guynn]

I don't remember who they said it was supposed to be, either. But the tatoo on Lana is the same symbol that was on the 'shield' the carving was carrying. The shield had the same shape as the Superman 'S' crest.

RG

 

[Moe Maishlish]

This is basically an attempt on behalf of the writers to salvage the pathetic Lana character by integrating her into Clark's Kryptonian "destiny", and to make her more interesting than the whiny damsel in distress that she's become over the past 3 seasons.

I'm not impressed, nor am I particularly interested in this thread of the storyline. It's a revision of the Superman legend that's got me cringing to a certain degree. I hope they don't take it too far and create some irreperable damage.

I'd rather the writing staff focus on Clark, Ma & Pa, Lois, and Lex (and Lionel to whatever degree). Leave Lana in Paris for a while... I don't really give a flying (no pun intended) $#@^! about her character. They got rid of Pete... why couldn't they do the same for her?

Moe.

 

[Andres Munoz]

Thanks for the answers guys.