Comments | jlvsclrk: Eternal rewatch

jlvsclrk

Eternal rewatch

Aug 22, 2009 00:10

Normally Smallville improves for me on rewatch, but Eternal? Nope, it seemed worse this time. Especially since I've been watching some S3 episodes lately and there's NO WAY ON EARTH that Lionel knew that much about Clark and Kryptonians way back when. But also, the whole drama just felt incredibly forced, and there were more WTF lines in this than ( Read more... )

Comments 15

jeannev August 22 2009, 04:23:50 UTC

I rewatched that episode when I did the screentime totals, and I've rewatched certain scenes since then, but not the whole thing. I pretty much hated that episode the first go around, for many reasons. But first and foremost was due to the massive retcons involved. Also, I still can't figure out what the hell the point was in having little Lex and little Davis play together. Ah, why? It was so random, and unnecessary.

I just feel much of the Davis storyline was a mess. Eternal is a prime example of that.

jlvsclrk August 22 2009, 15:31:26 UTC

I don't tape the show so I only rewatch when its rebroadcast, or once I get the DVDs. I have a feeling this will go down as one of the episodes I basically never rewatch - its just too irritating.

firebunny August 22 2009, 04:24:10 UTC

I didn't rewatch it, but my feelings about it the first time I saw it were that the performances kept it from being one of the worst episodes of the season. The acting was really strong, but the script was complete crap with all the retconning and exposition. 4/5 of the episode is exposition.

jlvsclrk August 22 2009, 15:35:11 UTC

That was my feeling too, but this time the acting seemed more forced - they were just trying so hard to make it work! And the whole Davis-woobie characterization seems so utterly inconsistent with Doomsday, but the latter strikes me as more truthful in this respect. Definitely not PS's finest hour.

eeyore1017 August 22 2009, 05:11:34 UTC

I can't even bring myself to re-watch Eternal. I might have re-watched it right after it aired the first time, but when I thought about watching it tonight, I just couldn't do it. :-(

jlvsclrk August 22 2009, 15:36:28 UTC

Hmm, I THOUGHT I could rewatch it but it was really intensely painful. I think its because I'd had nearly 4 months to internally process just how dumb all the retcons were!

tariel22 August 22 2009, 07:26:12 UTC

I recorded it and then FF through it to see if they would show the new trailer, which of course you know they didn't. I stopped to watch a few favorite scenes, mostly between Clark and Tess, and Clark and Chloe. And I did watch it at least five times when it first came on, as I do all episodes while I'm in the process of writing my review.

Eternal was a big boatload of WTF, but I contend that one can choose to see all the retconning as false. Revisionist history by Lionel in his journal, erroneous speculation by Tess, and suspect recovered memories (we all know how those are often born out of suggestion) from Davis. And Sageeth is Lex! Always was, always will be.

A lot of the episode was just plain ridiculous, but at the same time I was blown away by the performances of the four main actors, especially Tom. In fact, I was so torn over the episode I ended up writing two separate reviews of it! The "bad" one got three times as many comments as the "good" one. :)

jlvsclrk August 22 2009, 15:41:53 UTC

I remember your dual reviews! You listed 40 some things that didn't make any sense in one if I recall correctly! I think in retrospect, those errors stood out even more glaringly, while I gave less credit for the acting.

I like the idea that the retcons are just false. Lionel keeping a journal doesn't make any sense at all given the man's secrecy, but maybe in his reformed days he turned to creating this myth of how he and the Traveler were intimately connected from the earliest days. I can't even begin to believe he would have left it for Lex, much less Tess, to discover.

phoenixnz August 22 2009, 08:50:40 UTC

I've got a copy of the episode but personally, I'm not keen to see it again. There is a glaring continuity error in the episode which annoyed me. That of the lead box. Did they forget about Memoria?

jlvsclrk August 22 2009, 15:46:21 UTC

There are probably dozens of continuity errors, but yes, the one with the lead box bugs me particularly since Memoria is a great episode and the provenance of that box is clearly established in it.

I don't know if you've seen it, but here's Tariel22's summary of the WTF moments from Eternal http://tariel22.livejournal.com/111849.html