hero's journey
So sorry to hear of skywardprodigal's passing. I didn't know her well, but we exchanged comments during more than one racefail, and she was an amazing and inspiring advocate. And I only realized belatedly that I've admired her since way before LJ.Inside the bathroom, Angel entered silence. When the sound of Cordelia's beating heart and focused breathing passed further away he turned to the mirror. The blank mirror. The mirror that reflected the bare wall behind him.
Gathering breath he leaned towards it and b r e a t h e d.
For a few seconds, a very few seconds, something on the glass remained.
*
It's the last season of Smallville, and I am watching. Friday night was the 200th (!) episode. It was damn good. A few times, it actually took my breath away.
SV never really grabbed me -- I blame the writing. I liked the hero stuff and the slashy stuff and the soapy het stuff, but it wasn't enough so I bailed early on. What I've seen of the subsequent seasons is pretty scattered, but I have caught up on all of S8 and S9. I think that's enough hours of SV that I can still appreciate the long, twisty journey the show has taken overall. And now it's almost at its end.
The 200th episode really brought that home for me. There are only four regular cast members now appearing in the credits, and Tom Welling is the only one who's been there from the beginning. The episode left me with a kind of bittersweet, lonely feeling: Clark flashes back to Lana and Chloe, when they were younger and still innocent (my gripe: where was Pete's flashback?). And they're just two of the many people who have, for all intents and purposes, exited his life. From a show about a superhero in the making with a full support network of family, friends and frenemies, it's now become a show about an imminent superhero and his lady.
I think Erica Durance makes Lois thoroughly endearing despite some whack writing choices and ridiculous costumes, which is no small feat for an actor. I constantly find myself enjoying the Clark/Lois moments, in spite of myself, and I really enjoyed them in this episode. And yet: it felt so lonely.
I know a lot of people would be perfectly happy for the show to keep paring down and focusing on Clark (and by extension Lois), but I think I would (will?) find that hard to watch. I miss the ensemble and the support network. I know a lot of people think Clark's development as a character has suffered over the years because of too much focus or credit given to that support network, but whether it actually has suffered more or benefited more, that has been the format of the show all along. Clark's alien heritage was always in tension with his human upbringing, and his journey was never totally solo. Now it feels like it really is. Every other original character's trajectory has veered away.
Eh, maybe the show really did shoot itself in the foot with that format -- I know what's coming with Clark, so there's no mystery. Which means I find myself more interested in Oliver and Tess's increasingly Clark-less story lines, despite the characters' resulting diminishing screen time, and that kind of makes the transition to the Lois and Clark Show, v2.0, hard to appreciate.
(Re: Tess, though, can you blame me? My god, that woman is glorious. We have a little saying in our household, whenever Tess appears onscreen: "Oh shit, get ready to get eye-fucked!" And I, uh, may or may not have started a little WIP labeled "HBIC.doc"....)
All of this is not meant to disparage the 200th episode. I really did love it, and felt it gave a lot of fan service on multiple levels. And I'm aware there are a lot of special guest stars planned for future episodes, so hopefully that will help ease things.
Gathering breath he leaned towards it and b r e a t h e d.
For a few seconds, a very few seconds, something on the glass remained.
*
It's the last season of Smallville, and I am watching. Friday night was the 200th (!) episode. It was damn good. A few times, it actually took my breath away.
SV never really grabbed me -- I blame the writing. I liked the hero stuff and the slashy stuff and the soapy het stuff, but it wasn't enough so I bailed early on. What I've seen of the subsequent seasons is pretty scattered, but I have caught up on all of S8 and S9. I think that's enough hours of SV that I can still appreciate the long, twisty journey the show has taken overall. And now it's almost at its end.
The 200th episode really brought that home for me. There are only four regular cast members now appearing in the credits, and Tom Welling is the only one who's been there from the beginning. The episode left me with a kind of bittersweet, lonely feeling: Clark flashes back to Lana and Chloe, when they were younger and still innocent (my gripe: where was Pete's flashback?). And they're just two of the many people who have, for all intents and purposes, exited his life. From a show about a superhero in the making with a full support network of family, friends and frenemies, it's now become a show about an imminent superhero and his lady.
I think Erica Durance makes Lois thoroughly endearing despite some whack writing choices and ridiculous costumes, which is no small feat for an actor. I constantly find myself enjoying the Clark/Lois moments, in spite of myself, and I really enjoyed them in this episode. And yet: it felt so lonely.
I know a lot of people would be perfectly happy for the show to keep paring down and focusing on Clark (and by extension Lois), but I think I would (will?) find that hard to watch. I miss the ensemble and the support network. I know a lot of people think Clark's development as a character has suffered over the years because of too much focus or credit given to that support network, but whether it actually has suffered more or benefited more, that has been the format of the show all along. Clark's alien heritage was always in tension with his human upbringing, and his journey was never totally solo. Now it feels like it really is. Every other original character's trajectory has veered away.
Eh, maybe the show really did shoot itself in the foot with that format -- I know what's coming with Clark, so there's no mystery. Which means I find myself more interested in Oliver and Tess's increasingly Clark-less story lines, despite the characters' resulting diminishing screen time, and that kind of makes the transition to the Lois and Clark Show, v2.0, hard to appreciate.
(Re: Tess, though, can you blame me? My god, that woman is glorious. We have a little saying in our household, whenever Tess appears onscreen: "Oh shit, get ready to get eye-fucked!" And I, uh, may or may not have started a little WIP labeled "HBIC.doc"....)
All of this is not meant to disparage the 200th episode. I really did love it, and felt it gave a lot of fan service on multiple levels. And I'm aware there are a lot of special guest stars planned for future episodes, so hopefully that will help ease things.