Rants, Raves, and Reviews--Isis
Rants, Raves, and Reviews--Smallville "Isis"
My take on Season 10 Episode 5.
Ollie-O's, anyone?
Yeah, I know, Ollie. I'm not sure what's up with the Bump-It, either.
I still love both of you, though, so it's okay.
SPOILER WARNING
All right, this is probably going to be a shorter review than usual, if only because I can't seem to get myself quite in the mood to write it.
First and foremost: Green Arrow girls? Oh, good grief, Oliver. I was glad it was straightened out by the time the episode was over, and I was doubly glad when Tess called him on it, but Oliver's letting the fame go to his head felt...stupid, to me. I mean, yes, technically it makes sense. It's the stereotypical superhero thing to do. Everything's going good so all of a sudden the hero gets cocky. They pulled it in Spiderman 3 (which was an abomination of epic proportions, by the way). It's pretty much who Tony Stark (Iron Man) is. But, the thing is, Green Arrow is NOT either of those characters. He is NOT Iron Man. Thank God. I have love for Iron Man, of course, but there's a reason he's not among my favorites (The list, for anyone who's curious, is as follows: 1. Superman 2. Spiderman 3. Green Arrow 4. Gambit 5. tie between Flash and Green Lantern.) Anyway, on point: Oliver Queen is neither Tony Stark, nor is he Bruce Wayne. There's a lot of comparison amongst these three heroes because of their many similarities. They're all billionaires turned hero. They're all orphans. None of them has actual powers, just resources, gadgets, and arguably brains. Of course they all have distinctions that set them off as individuals in the comic book world, aside from their costumes, but that seems to be where Smallville is getting confused. We spent half of Season 9 watching Oliver brood like the Bat, and now this season I have the uncomfortable impression we've landed in Iron Man territory. The moment I watched Oliver announce at his little press conference, "I am Green Arrow," I was irrepressibly reminded of the final scene of the first Iron Man movie. This episode only enhanced that concern. The moment they started talking about dropping him out of the sky and then out come the Green Arrow girls, all I could think about was Iron Man 2. I'm incredibly relieved that the benefit got canceled and we never had to witness that because I was getting really scared there for a while.
I guess my problem comes in here: I can't picture Oliver getting caught up in all of this crap. Unlike Tony Stark, Oliver's playboy status is a facade. As in, not real, people. Yes, he's a typical man who happens to have the money to back his taste for women and booze, but that's Oliver in the gutter, when he's at his lowest. He's come a long way from that point, and I just don't understand why he's suddenly decided he's going to be a sell out. The initial decision to go public still doesn't make any sense to me. I love the man for being the ONLY ONE who seems to care that Chloe is gone, but I don't understand how the heck this is supposed to bring her home.
Now, granted, I may have too much faith in Oliver's reform, and some would argue that he is a bit of that naughty playboy on the magazine covers to some extent, so maybe the Ollie-O's aren't that far of a stretch, but I still wish I knew what the grand master plan was here, because his behavior has no rhyme or reason to me.
In spite of all these issues, I wonder if I could get a box of cereal with the Green Arrow's face on it. That would be cool.
Moving away from Oliver and his dancing girls, the actual main plot: hmmm...very reminiscent of Season 4 with Lana and her wicked witch of the west routine. Considering that was probably my least favorite season....yeah, I can't honestly call this one of my favorite episodes. I will, however, say that I enjoyed it. Erica did a great job as Lois/Isis. Her costume? That girl has one wild and crazy wardrobe, I gotta say. I do hate bubble hem lines though, so that ruined the dress for me, but still, she rocked it. The necklace was cool. The awesome Green Arrow shot to save the day was a great moment. And, of course, I was thrilled when Clark and Lois finally came clean. Wonderful moment. Way to go, you two romantically challenged little twerps. I love you both.
I was delighted to have Cat Grant back. Some of you complained that the writers' interpretation of her did not fit canon last time we saw her, so I thought you'd be interested to know I did a bit more background on her. For those of you who are wondering what happened to the femme fatale they've come to know and love, I've got news for you (and I hope it's not a spoiler, I honestly don't know): This is a pre-cleavage Cat. She didn't go all Jessica Rabbit on us until she lost her son. Since her boy's still alive, I'm pretty sure this is an acceptable characterization of Miss Grant.
Either way, I like her, no matter how much she annoys or disappoints some of you, so I hereby stick my tongue out at all of you. Cat can play on my team any day.
With that understood, I thought she was oodles of fun in this episode, poor confused girl. She certainly was in the wrong place at the wrong time. I do wonder how this is going to effect her in the future though. She doesn't seem likely to let go of the idea that Lois displayed some rather unusual abilities, whether or not she stabbed Lo in the hand with a pen.
I have to admit, though, my two favorite moments in this episode came at Cat's expense: First, Tess laughing hysterically in Cat's face, which was epic AND hilarious, and Second, the Green Arrow shoving Cat in a crypt to protect her. Hilarious AND epic. heheh, well hilarious, anyway.
Speaking of Tess (I know, great segue, right?), I was so excited to finally see what was happening with mini-Lex. Him growing up so fast? Creep-tastic, especially considering her relationship with Rosey's Lex. But in spite of knowing that, I loved her as the mommy-type, and it was a magical moment for me when Cat [partially] mistakenly pegged her as mini-Lex's mom. FYI: I love Peter Pan and Wendy. It's a magical book and all those who have not read it should immediately do so.
On topic, Freeman was really just lovely showing her mothering side, and it was good to see the dramatic reform Tess has been going through. I approve. And mini-Lex, however inherently creepy he may be, is just endearing as a puppy-dog. Too cute.
This also leads me too: Tess as Watchtower. Eye twitch. Eye twitch. Eye twitch.
I am so not comfortable with this. I don't know if it's loyalty to Chloe or lack of trust for Tess or what, but I don't like it. I'm highly displeased. I firmly believe that Clark and Lois need as many blatant vacancies in there lives as possible as constant reminders of their missing friend and cousin.
I don't know. It wasn't horrible, but...I just don't like it. I have no other explanation for it. I just don't like it.
Aside from that, I would like to say that I actually missed one character even more than Chloe in this episode: Hawkman. I would dearly have liked to have seen him in this, especially considering that he was so involved in the initial setup for the Isis plot. Because of that, I was kind of anticipating him being present, and it was a bit of a let-down not to see him and his awesome Indiana Jones get-up.
But still, Lois and Clark were finally honest with each other, and Oliver has his own breakfast cereal, so I'd say this episode was at least partially made of win. Still, I look for better things this week, and I hope Harvest doesn't let me down.
_________________________________
On a side note, did anyone else catch Supernatural and its completely epic slap in the face to Twilight? I caught on within ten seconds of the episode, and I was laughing the entire way through.
My take on Season 10 Episode 5.
Ollie-O's, anyone?
Yeah, I know, Ollie. I'm not sure what's up with the Bump-It, either.
I still love both of you, though, so it's okay.
SPOILER WARNING
All right, this is probably going to be a shorter review than usual, if only because I can't seem to get myself quite in the mood to write it.
First and foremost: Green Arrow girls? Oh, good grief, Oliver. I was glad it was straightened out by the time the episode was over, and I was doubly glad when Tess called him on it, but Oliver's letting the fame go to his head felt...stupid, to me. I mean, yes, technically it makes sense. It's the stereotypical superhero thing to do. Everything's going good so all of a sudden the hero gets cocky. They pulled it in Spiderman 3 (which was an abomination of epic proportions, by the way). It's pretty much who Tony Stark (Iron Man) is. But, the thing is, Green Arrow is NOT either of those characters. He is NOT Iron Man. Thank God. I have love for Iron Man, of course, but there's a reason he's not among my favorites (The list, for anyone who's curious, is as follows: 1. Superman 2. Spiderman 3. Green Arrow 4. Gambit 5. tie between Flash and Green Lantern.) Anyway, on point: Oliver Queen is neither Tony Stark, nor is he Bruce Wayne. There's a lot of comparison amongst these three heroes because of their many similarities. They're all billionaires turned hero. They're all orphans. None of them has actual powers, just resources, gadgets, and arguably brains. Of course they all have distinctions that set them off as individuals in the comic book world, aside from their costumes, but that seems to be where Smallville is getting confused. We spent half of Season 9 watching Oliver brood like the Bat, and now this season I have the uncomfortable impression we've landed in Iron Man territory. The moment I watched Oliver announce at his little press conference, "I am Green Arrow," I was irrepressibly reminded of the final scene of the first Iron Man movie. This episode only enhanced that concern. The moment they started talking about dropping him out of the sky and then out come the Green Arrow girls, all I could think about was Iron Man 2. I'm incredibly relieved that the benefit got canceled and we never had to witness that because I was getting really scared there for a while.
I guess my problem comes in here: I can't picture Oliver getting caught up in all of this crap. Unlike Tony Stark, Oliver's playboy status is a facade. As in, not real, people. Yes, he's a typical man who happens to have the money to back his taste for women and booze, but that's Oliver in the gutter, when he's at his lowest. He's come a long way from that point, and I just don't understand why he's suddenly decided he's going to be a sell out. The initial decision to go public still doesn't make any sense to me. I love the man for being the ONLY ONE who seems to care that Chloe is gone, but I don't understand how the heck this is supposed to bring her home.
Now, granted, I may have too much faith in Oliver's reform, and some would argue that he is a bit of that naughty playboy on the magazine covers to some extent, so maybe the Ollie-O's aren't that far of a stretch, but I still wish I knew what the grand master plan was here, because his behavior has no rhyme or reason to me.
In spite of all these issues, I wonder if I could get a box of cereal with the Green Arrow's face on it. That would be cool.
Moving away from Oliver and his dancing girls, the actual main plot: hmmm...very reminiscent of Season 4 with Lana and her wicked witch of the west routine. Considering that was probably my least favorite season....yeah, I can't honestly call this one of my favorite episodes. I will, however, say that I enjoyed it. Erica did a great job as Lois/Isis. Her costume? That girl has one wild and crazy wardrobe, I gotta say. I do hate bubble hem lines though, so that ruined the dress for me, but still, she rocked it. The necklace was cool. The awesome Green Arrow shot to save the day was a great moment. And, of course, I was thrilled when Clark and Lois finally came clean. Wonderful moment. Way to go, you two romantically challenged little twerps. I love you both.
I was delighted to have Cat Grant back. Some of you complained that the writers' interpretation of her did not fit canon last time we saw her, so I thought you'd be interested to know I did a bit more background on her. For those of you who are wondering what happened to the femme fatale they've come to know and love, I've got news for you (and I hope it's not a spoiler, I honestly don't know): This is a pre-cleavage Cat. She didn't go all Jessica Rabbit on us until she lost her son. Since her boy's still alive, I'm pretty sure this is an acceptable characterization of Miss Grant.
Either way, I like her, no matter how much she annoys or disappoints some of you, so I hereby stick my tongue out at all of you. Cat can play on my team any day.
With that understood, I thought she was oodles of fun in this episode, poor confused girl. She certainly was in the wrong place at the wrong time. I do wonder how this is going to effect her in the future though. She doesn't seem likely to let go of the idea that Lois displayed some rather unusual abilities, whether or not she stabbed Lo in the hand with a pen.
I have to admit, though, my two favorite moments in this episode came at Cat's expense: First, Tess laughing hysterically in Cat's face, which was epic AND hilarious, and Second, the Green Arrow shoving Cat in a crypt to protect her. Hilarious AND epic. heheh, well hilarious, anyway.
Speaking of Tess (I know, great segue, right?), I was so excited to finally see what was happening with mini-Lex. Him growing up so fast? Creep-tastic, especially considering her relationship with Rosey's Lex. But in spite of knowing that, I loved her as the mommy-type, and it was a magical moment for me when Cat [partially] mistakenly pegged her as mini-Lex's mom. FYI: I love Peter Pan and Wendy. It's a magical book and all those who have not read it should immediately do so.
On topic, Freeman was really just lovely showing her mothering side, and it was good to see the dramatic reform Tess has been going through. I approve. And mini-Lex, however inherently creepy he may be, is just endearing as a puppy-dog. Too cute.
This also leads me too: Tess as Watchtower. Eye twitch. Eye twitch. Eye twitch.
I am so not comfortable with this. I don't know if it's loyalty to Chloe or lack of trust for Tess or what, but I don't like it. I'm highly displeased. I firmly believe that Clark and Lois need as many blatant vacancies in there lives as possible as constant reminders of their missing friend and cousin.
I don't know. It wasn't horrible, but...I just don't like it. I have no other explanation for it. I just don't like it.
Aside from that, I would like to say that I actually missed one character even more than Chloe in this episode: Hawkman. I would dearly have liked to have seen him in this, especially considering that he was so involved in the initial setup for the Isis plot. Because of that, I was kind of anticipating him being present, and it was a bit of a let-down not to see him and his awesome Indiana Jones get-up.
But still, Lois and Clark were finally honest with each other, and Oliver has his own breakfast cereal, so I'd say this episode was at least partially made of win. Still, I look for better things this week, and I hope Harvest doesn't let me down.
Click to view_________________________________
On a side note, did anyone else catch Supernatural and its completely epic slap in the face to Twilight? I caught on within ten seconds of the episode, and I was laughing the entire way through.