Doctor Who - The Rings of Akhaten - A Review

I can't help but feel a bit bad for The Rings of Akhaten. It's been getting a lot of flack on the internet, with many people throwing words like "dull" and "boring" around, and I think that's a little unfair. It had its faults, sure, but it was still a very enjoyable episode of Doctor Who. It was a kind of cross between The End of the World, Gridlock and The Beast Below - and since at least the first two of those three were good, that can only be a compliment.

One thing the episode should be praised for is its ambition. It gave us an alien world, dozens upon dozens of alien creatures (the Doctor Who equivalent of the Star Wars cantina scene), a soul-eating god-like sun, and a moped capable of racing through space. I admit, there were moments where it looked a little cheap; the scenes just after Clara and the Doctor step out of the TARDIS and into the marketplace, for example, looked a little like something you'd have found in the original series of Star Trek. But, of course, that's what has always been part of the charm of Doctor Who. The bubble wrap in The Ark in Space added to the charm of the story, didn't it? Well, same goes for this.

The Doctor and Clara visit the Rings of Akhaten in a visually stunning episode.

Before I launch into talking about the other features of this episode I loved, though, I feel the need to mention briefly something I didn't love. The Rings of Akhaten was, at its core, a distinctly atheist commentary on modern religion and, although I'm not religious myself, I didn't really feel comfortable with the way it was handled. This isn't the first time Doctor Who has dealt with religion - it was one of the central themes of Gridlock, to cite a recent example. However, The Rings of Akhaten didn't appear to handle it with the same kind of grace and respect that Gridlock did. The closest it came to any kind of delicacy was with the Doctor's line "Well, it's what they believe," which Matt Smith delivered with a beautiful warmth. Other than that, it reeked a little too heavily of atheist bias. This isn't my way of saying that Doctor Who shouldn't explore religion - or even that it shouldn't explore it with an atheist slant (because it's pulled that off before in episodes such as Gridlock and The Satan Pit) - I'm just saying that something that big, and something that divisive, should be handled less sloppily.

The only other real problem the episode had was a pacing issue. The plot hurtled towards its climax way too early which, overall, made the episode feel rushed and confused. I was about to suggest that it would have been better as a two-parter, but actually there wasn't enough material for that (which was perhaps the very reason why Neil Cross, who penned this episode, was so keen for the episode to peak so early - in the hope that the momentum of that peak would be able to carry the rest of the story), nor was the basic premise of the plot strong enough to warrant two episodes.

The malevolent, fake God of Akhaten. The Rings of  Akhaten reeks a bit too much of an atheist agenda.

But anyway, on to the positive things! Let's start with Clara. You might remember me saying last week that I hadn't warmed to her as much as I'd warmed to other companions. Well, thankfully this week's episode did a lot to rectify that, and that is in no small part due to the injection of some very RTD-like traits into the way she was written. Her interaction with Merry, the young, scared Queen of Years, was reminiscent of Rose's interaction with Raffalo in The End of the World in that it clearly establishes her capability to empathise with those around her. Empathy is something Amy was distinctly lacking, particularly in her first series, and so it's very pleasing to see that they haven't made the same mistake with Clara. Even putting aside the comparison to Amy, though, establishing Clara as an empathetic character was always going to make her very easy to like - and likeability is absolutely vital for the Doctor's companions. 

Another welcome feature of the episode the inclusion of a lot of Clara's backstory, which showed us how her parents met and got married, and revealed that Clara's mother died a premature death. Now, one could argue that knowing that Clara had to cope with the death of a loved one at a very young age means we're more likely to like her because we feel sorry for her, but I'd argue that whilst there is merit to that point it's perhaps too cynical an approach to take. What makes her likeable is the fact that, by virtue of knowing some of her background, we know Clara herself better; she becomes more human and as a result she becomes more relatable. It gives her a lot of depth, too, because it sheds light on why, as became apparent in The Bells of Saint John, the death of the mother of the children she had been looking after affected her so much. 

The quest to find out who Clara Oswald really is is the arc that links this half of the series together; however, whilst we don't yet know how she came to be a nanny in Victorian England or a crew member aboard the Alaska, I'm happy simply finding out about these little details of her life because they're what truly make her interesting.

Jenna-Louise Coleman gives an assured, likeable performance as Clara.

Another real highlight of this episode was Murray Gold's score, which continues to go from strength to strength. The music of The Rings of Akhaten was always going to have to be strong seeing as so much of the plot centres around the singing; indeed, a good 5-10 minutes of the episode features some kind of singing, which makes it very fortunate that Murray delivered such a corker of a song. His real forte, though, was the instrumental music. Every year Murray's music gets more and more epic and more and more cinematic, and this episode is unequivocal proof of that. The track that plays as the Doctor tells Clara "We don't walk away," was simply sublime. Carry on the good work, Mr Gold!

"We don't walk away." A beautiful scene scored by some beautiful Murray Gold music.

And, finally, we come to Matt Smith. I can put my hand on my heart and honestly say that words cannot do justice to how astonishing his performance was in this episode. One scene in particular will, I hope, come to be viewed as one of the defining moments for his Doctor, one of the iconic scenes revered for decades to come - his 'Have I that right?' moment. It's the scene where he stands alone in front of a raging god and gives this speech:

The Doctor: I hope you've got a big appetite because I've lived a long life and I've seen a few things. I walked away from the Last Great Time War. I marked the passing of the Time Lords. I saw the birth of the universe and I watched as time ran out, moment by moment, until nothing remained. No time. No space. Just me.  I've walked in universes where the laws of physics were devised by the mind of a madman. I've watched universes freeze and creations burn. I've seen things you wouldn't believe. I've lost things you'll never understand. And I know things. Secrets that must never be told. Knowledge that must never be spoken. Knowledge that will make parasite gods blaze. So come on then! Take it! Take it all, baby! Have it! You have it all!

And the thing is, it isn't the speech that makes that scene what it is - it's Matt's performance. In his early days in the show, there were times where he made certain acting choices which I didn't think really worked. But in this scene it becomes evident just how much he has matured as an actor since then. That speech, on paper, is actually pretty arrogant. How easy would it have been to deliver it in an authoritative, powerful way? That's what most actors would have done. But Matt opted instead for vulnerability. He shouts it but his voice shakes. His delivery is so passionate that a tear rolls down his cheek. His performance gives life and meaning to that speech and transforms it into something transcendental. It's not only one of the finest displays of acting Doctor Who has ever seen, but one of the finest displays of acting I've ever seen. Full stop.

Matt Smith's greatest performance, and his Doctor's finest hour.

If that's the kind of scene we can get in an average episode of Doctor Who these days, I can't even begin to imagine what kind of treats we're in for in the 50th anniversary special.

 

 

Merlin - The Disir - A Review

So about a month ago I started university and as a result simply haven't had the time to update this blog, even though I have been watching a lot of TV (probably a lot more than I should considering how much reading I have to do). But we can't be having any of that, so let's talk a bit about Merlin.

Series 5 so far has been a bit hit and miss. We had two bad (and, worse, boring) episodes in the form of the opening two parter, Arthur's Bane, and then we had an improvement in the form of the following two, The Death Song of Uther Pendragon and Another's Sorrow. Tonight's episode, The Disir, thankfully tipped this series' scales in the right direction.

The first four series (well, three and a half) were very much the precursor to Arthur's reign as King of Camelot. All the major events that happened - the placing of Excalibur in the lake, then in the stone, etc - built up to the moment where Arthur stepped into the role he was born to fulfill. However, the fact that he now is king has meant that this series has been forced to mould itself into a different shape and adopt a new overarching theme. Now the issue that presses most strongly upon each episode - even more so than it did before - is that of magic. It no longer feels as if the question is if Merlin's secret will be revealed, it is more a question of when. And nowhere was that more tangible than in tonight's episode.

The highlight of The Disir came in a real monumental, landmark scene for Merlin. Background information: three soothsayers give Arthur a choice - either accept the Old Religion, or continue repressing it and bring about the end of Camelot as a result. Faced with such an impossible choice, Arthur struggles to decide what course of action to take. And what follows are two absolutely incredible character-defining moments that come in a simple exchange of words.

Arthur: Perhaps my father was wrong. Perhaps the Old Ways aren't as evil as we thought. So what should we do? Accept magic or let Mordred die?

Merlin: There can be no place for magic in Camelot.

Those small pieces of dialogue say more about those two characters than previous whole series have. The fact that Arthur doubts his father's convictions about magic shows just how different he is from his him. We already know that he is a more lenient and just king, but the fact that he's willing to entirely reconsider values that he has grown up with and are at his very core for Camelot's safety demonstrates a wisdom, an openness and even a kind of altruism on Arthur's part. To me, it even highlights that despite Merlin's ongoing concerns that Arthur may not become the great king he is destined to be, actually he's already more of that king than he's given credit for. And as for Merlin's line... Well, the magic (haha) of the scene isn't so much Merlin's dismissal of the Old Ways, it's more Colin Morgan's acting in the moments before he does. It's a stunning performance. Don't forget, Arthur's suggestion of giving magic a chance is exactly what Merlin has hoped to hear for years; in fact it's pretty much the only thing his character has ever wanted. And as he hears it, in Colin's performance you see the hope and the relief that maybe, just maybe, the painful silence he's been forced to keep for so long may have been worth it. He has tears in his eyes and for a while he can't even look at Arthur. And then he says "There can be no place for magic in Camelot." If he'd said that straightaway that line would have been meaningless. But to see how much it meant to Merlin to hear Arthur's words, and for him to then stoically dismiss them anyway - that, in a nutshell, encapsulates the altruism that lies at the very heart of his character. There are no swordfights in that scene; there are no incantations, there are no dragons and there are no dangers. There are just two men talking, and it's one of the finest scenes Merlin has ever done.

"What would you do in my place?" Bradley James's Arthur contemplates accepting magic.

Colin Morgan's Merlin tells him he cannot.

Having already lauded Colin Morgan's performance in that scene, I can't not mention it in the final scene of the episodes, where Merlin deals with the fact that the counsel he has given Arthur has led to Mordred's life being saved, thus seemingly confirming the king's impending fated death. It's a very well-shot scene. In Merlin's eyes you see all the hope from the earlier scene gone, replaced instead by the unmitigated horror at the mistake he has made. But it's the directorial aspect of the scene that was most impressive, in particular the effectiveness of the way it was framed. I jut love how it shows the concerned Merlin watching over Arthur from a distance. Just as the dialogue from the earlier scene was indicative of the characters of Merlin and Arthur, likewise this scene - simply by the way it was framed - managed to encapsulate the relationship between the two. Job well done, Ashley Way. Job well done.

A concerned Merlin watches over the King.

The episode, admittedly, didn't do much to address one of my biggest concerns about this series so far, which is about what has happened to Gwen since becoming queen. Although she clearly still cares a great deal about Arthur, when it comes to everybody else in Camelot she now simply comes across as cold, uncaring and distant. I'll concede that this series hasn't had much time to focus on her yet (though this should be no excuse) so I'm hoping that next week's episode, which looks rather Gwen and Morgana centric, will resolve this problem. But that's for another blog post. As for this one, I'll simply finish by reaffirming what I've already said: The Disir was a bloody good bit of telly. Definitely one of Merlin's better episodes, and it did a great job of setting things up nicely for the episodes that will follow.

Thoughts/comments about this episode (or even this series) of Merlin? Let me know in the comments!

Doctor Who - The Angels Take Manhattan - A Review

The finale of the first part of Doctor Who’s seventh series just finished and I think I’m in a bit of a state of shock. It was an episode written by a writer I don’t particularly like, bidding farewell to a companion I don’t particularly like. By all accounts, I was prepared not to like The Angels Take Manhattan. And yet for forty five minutes I sat in front of my TV, laughing one minute and almost close to tears the next. It was absolutely fantastic.

The Doctor and Amy in Times Square, in Doctor Who's breathtaking Series 7 finale.

The Angels Take Manhattan being Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill’s last episode, it’s both unsurprising and fitting that Amy and Rory were the highlight of it. What made Amy in particular so great in this episode was that she was portrayed in the way that she should have been portrayed all along: with emotion. It’s as though, in her final hour on the show, Steven Moffat finally got her right. For a long time I never really felt she deserved Rory (his assertion in Asylum of the Daleks that he loved her more than she loved him hit the nail bang on the head, I thought), but in this episode she proved that she did, and she also proved that she is no longer the cold, emotionless being she started out as. The scene on the roof of Winter Quay perfectly illustrates that point. I thought that all the emotion in that scene would stem from whether or not Amy would be able to bring herself to push Rory to his death; and, in fairness, that in itself would have been an incredibly moving scene. What I didn’t see coming, however, was Amy climbing up to jump with him. That moment was her admission that she wouldn’t be able to live without him, and it’s moments like that that showcase Doctor Who at its best.

Echoes of that scene atop Winter Quay were definitely present in Amy and Rory’s final scene in the graveyard, too. In it, Rory makes the mistake of going to look at his own grave, and then ends up being zapped back in time by a rogue survivor Angel. That final scene works wonderfully well because not only do you have that heartbreaking admission from Amy that a Life Without Rory is a Life Not Worth Living, but you also have a kind of wonderful, neat symmetry that brings Amy’s journey full circle. The motif of Amy’s Choice – choosing between Rory and the Doctor – is one that has been brewing for three series now; in last week’s blog I talked about how rewarding it was for Amy to have chosen Rory, but at the same time I really got the feeling that that choice would have repercussions for her, and that it would definitely play some sort of role in her departure. And I guess I was right. In those moments where Amy stares at the Angel that took husband, she is confronted by the choice she has been faced with all along for the final time – except this time it’s much, much more extreme. Whereas before she could bring Rory along during her life with the Doctor, and could have the Doctor drop in from time to time during her life with Rory, this time she has no choice but to choose one over the other. And the fact that she chooses Rory in an instant, without even blinking (haha), without even a guarantee that she’ll be able to find him if the Angel takes her, proves how much she loves him, and shows the side to Amy that was missing all along.

"Raggedy Man, goodbye." Amy bids farewell to the Doctor.

Making that scene even more heartbreaking than it already is, though, is the Doctor and River’s presence (brought to life by the always-fabulous Matt Smith and Alex Kingston). As Amy prepares to let the Angel take her, she calls out to River and says,

“Melody… You look after him. And you be a good girl and you look after him.”

I don’t even know how I held it together at that point! Because there we see Amy talking to River as a mother would talk to her daughter, and we’re reminded of how dangerous travelling with the Doctor can be; it is, after all, because of him that Amy never got the chance to be a proper mother to her child. And so, in that line, we see one of the only moments in her life where she really gets to be River’s mother – and then we realise that it’s the moment she says goodbye to her. Furthermore, it’s very interesting (and, of course, sad) to look at what the Doctor says, and in particular this line:

“You are creating a fixed time. I will never be able to see you again.”

Hmm. “I will never be able to see you again.” When you think about it, it’s a bit of a selfish thing to say. He doesn’t want her to stay for her own sake, he wants her to stay for his. But of course, we don’t think any less of him for that. On the contrary, we can’t help but feel for him there. It’s a very real thing to say, and it makes perfect sense after his admission in The Power of Three about how much she means to him. In fact, what makes the scene so incredibly sad is not just Amy’s goodbye, but seeing what the goodbye is doing to the Doctor. We see him cry and even break down, and we see him plead with her and beg her not to go.

“Amy, please, just come back into the TARDIS. Come on, Pond, please.”

If you have a heart, that scene is tough to watch. And to top it all off, there’s a great big orchestral rendition of an evolved Amy’s Theme, too, representing how as a character she has grown and moved on. At risk of repeating myself, it’s simply heartbreaking – there’s no other word for it.

The Doctor and River make a sad scene even sadder.

But it’s not all doom and gloom – in fact, for most of the episode I was smiling like a goon. River Song has been my favourite minor character pretty much since Silence in the Library, so obviously I was delighted at having her back. Steven Moffat noted in an interview before the episode went out that this was not an episode about her, it was merely an episode that featured her. And frankly, as much as I love River, that’s the way it should stay. The price you pay for having a character with such a complex timeline is having storylines that are overly complicated; unfortunately last year, where the series arc basically revolved around her, the stories got bogged down in timey-wimey complications and it just wasn’t very good at all. River works best as a recurring guest; that’s what she was in The Angels Take Manhattan, and that’s why her appearance was so good. As always, her interactions with the Doctor were pure gold. As much as I loved the Doctor slicking his hair and checking his breath was okay before seeing her, the moment that really got me “aww”ing was the one where he gave up some of his regenerative energy just to heal her broken wrist. I’ve got to admit, the shallow Doctor/River fangirl part of me died a little bit at that. (And then she slapped him! How fantastic!) I’m just glad that her final scene hinted strongly at her return in future episodes, though. Of all the characters he writes, Moffat writes River best - she’s just a joy to watch.

The grief of a Time Lord.

Overall, the episode had a lot going for it. The use of the Melody Malone book to frame the whole thing was particularly effective, and tied in nicely to the theme of spoilers and not peeking ahead that is synonymous with River’s character. (The fact that Rory got zapped by the Angel at the end is perhaps the strongest proof that you shouldn’t peek ahead – after all, if he hadn’t looked at his own grave (even though he didn’t know it was his own grave) he wouldn’t have been zapped in the first place. So there you go!) And of course, having New York as a backdrop gave the episode a real epic feel. Filming in Central Park gave it an ambiance that a soggy park in Cardiff would never have been able to give, and, as ever, Times Square never fails to look visually stunning. My only complaint is that there weren’t quite enough shots of New York to whet my appetite; as stunning as Times Square is, it will never be done justice if its total screen time amounts to just a few seconds. But even that is just a minor complaint. The only other real gripe I have is that the Weeping Angels have still never quite been used as effectively as they were in Blink, although I suppose cheapening them slightly is worth having the Statue of Liberty as an angel. Yeah, I can live with that.

Central Park gives The Angels Take Manhattan that unmistakeable New York feel.

It’s almost hard to believe that there’ll be no more Doctor Who now until Christmas. Five episodes is not enough, and I really, really disagree with this whole idea of splitting the series into two – it just doesn’t work. That being said, though, because Series 7 was much stronger than Series 6, it just about got away with it. I still wouldn’t call myself a Moffat fan by any stretch of the word, but I’ve got to admit that he knocked the ball out of the park tonight. If every episode in this era of the show could be as strong as The Angels Take Manhattan, I’d be a very, very happy Doctor Who fan indeed.

But the real question is, what did you think of the episode? Let me know!

A Scandal in Belgravia

I wasn’t a very good blogger last year. The amount of times I told myself I would make a conscious effort to blog more (I even went on record on here a few of those times) clearly had no effect on the amount of blogging I actually did. I finished watching Smallville (ie. Clark Kent finally became bloody SUPERMAN!) and picked up on House where I last left off - and I didn’t even so much as think about logging into Blogspot. The Christmas episode of Downton Abbey aired and I didn’t even go near the computer!! Shameful.

But last night, at 8:10pm, on your TV and mine, something remarkable happened. Having enjoyed the first series of the BBC’s updated version of the Sherlock Holmes myth, which first hit our screens in 2010 under the watchful eyes of Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss, I was naturally excited about the prospect of a new episode to watch, especially since it had been 18 months since audiences saw Sherlock finally come face to face with the positively psychopathic Jim Moriarty by a swimming pool, with only a worried-looking Watson, a bunch of snipers, a bomb and a gun for company. However, there was no way in hell I could have anticipated just how bloody fantastic this new episode, A Scandal in Belgravia (based on the original Arthur Conan Doyle’s A Scandal in Bohemia), would be.

Now, let me make something clear right now. I am no fan of Moffat. I enjoyed his episode of Sherlock last year, but the buck stops there. I’m no fan of Coupling. I try not to think about Jekyll. And I will never forgive him for what he’s done to Doctor Who. But what he did when he wrote A Scandal in Belgravia… well, I can honestly only describe it to you as pure perfection. From the opening moments to the final, exhilarating few seconds, I was hooked. And the only – and I mean only – piece of television that I can think of that betters last night’s Sherlock is the finale of Season 2 of The West Wing, Aaron Sorkin’s Two Cathedrals. Nothing on TV will ever better that episode, let me tell you that now – so for me to say that Moffat’s Sherlock episode came perilously close to doing so last night… that is saying a hell of a lot.

It’s difficult for me to highlight just what was so excellent about Scandal because if I were to do so you’d end up reading a transcript of the episode, and as entertaining as I’m sure reading it would be, that’s not what I’m here to do. But there were just so many moments that I’m struggling to know where to begin. Perhaps, then, I should start at the beginning, which saw the knife-cutting tension of the final moments of the last series broken (or, quite possibly, exacerbated) by the ringing of Moriarty’s phone, which just so happens to have the Bee Gees as its ringtone. Or maybe I should talk about the way Sherlock sits in Buckingham Palace stark naked, covered only by a flimsy sheet. But then I’d also want to talk about how chilling it was to hear Sherlock describe to the annoying American exactly what injuries he’d have, and detailing how he would get them, before he even got them.

Benedict Cumberbatch simply OWNS as Sherlock Holmes, whilst Lara Pulver dazzles as Irene Adler

However, as wonderful as those little elements are, the ultimate highlight must surely be what was essentially at the very core of the whole episode - the relationship between Sherlock Holmes and Irene Hadler. For his whole life, Sherlock has been the cleverest person (and then some) in whichever room he’s arrogantly stridden into. But with Irene Hadler, he might just have met his match. And as interesting as Moffat’s decision to make his interpretation of the character a seductive dominatrix, a woman who elects not to stride arrogantly into a room but calmly glide into it naked, was, what was truly compelling was the way in which the entire episode was essentially an intellectual way of depicting two predators circling each other and trying to size each other up (though Sherlock did appear to have the upper hand on that front). Sherlock and Irene are so incredibly similar that they could be either friends, enemies or lovers – and, quite deliberately, there are elements of all three of those possibilities dispersed throughout the episode, and that makes for truly exhilarating viewing.

A big congratulations also has to go out to the show’s composer, David G Arnold. Composers  - especially on TV shows – don’t get nearly enough recognition, and often when they do receive it its only because somebody wants to complain about their music being too loud/interfering/whatever. I hope that nobody will be saying that about the score of Scandal because it was absolutely superb. There were some (well, a lot) of moments in the episode that were outstanding of their own accord, but when coupled with that tremendous, tremendous score – which struck me as rather evocative of Hans Zimmer’s score for The Da Vinci Code – they just became something else entirely. I’m thinking specifically of the scene where Irene finally figures out what Sherlock knew all along about how the accomplished sportsmen died, but, more specifically, the scene in which Sherlock reveals to Irene how he could tell from both her pupils and her pulse that all the words she’d ever said to him were more than just words.

Which leads me on to one last thing I wanted to talk about it. I like it when TV shows are clever. I like it when they make you think. Shows like The West Wing and Doctor Who are like that. And so’s Sherlock. But I especially loved Scandal because it wasn’t just clever in that traditional sense; it was clever because it was constantly able to fool the audience. When Sherlock typed in the codes 1895 and 221B into the phone, it can be presumed that if the codes weren’t at least the codes that the audience was thinking of, they were certainly the codes that they were sure would  be the correct ones (although I suppose the fact that there were remaining attempts was a big of a giveaway), only to find that they were not. That, I suppose, just made the eventual reveal of what the code actually was all the more satisfying. And as for the code itself…  well, I’m fairly sure that I AM SHERLOCKED is going to be remembered for years to come in Sherlock mythology. The ultimate moment of deception, though (at least for me), came at the end. I honestly thought that, having ‘died’ once, Irene’s death at the hands of the terrorist cell would almost certainly be unavoidable. This was cemented as she resigned herself to her fate, was approached by a swordsmen, and the screen faded to black. But to hear that text alert, and for the picture to race back to the screen, and to see Irene look up and straight into the eyes of Sherlock Holmes… that was the biggest surprise of them all – and what a surprise it was. Absolutely breath-taking, there’s no other word for it.

Legendary.

To be entirely truthful with you, I’m a little concerned about the rest of 2012. I mean, yes, it looks to be a good year in terms of television: there’s another series of Downton Abbey for starters, what I presume is the final episode of Absolutely Fabulous, and hey, there’s even another two episodes of Sherlock! But seriously, when you consider that A Scandal in Belgravia was a masterpiece in every sense of the word, will anything on television in 2012 – the rest of the decade, in fact – actually top it?

I think not.

I am a failure.

I am a failure.

I’m worried that the beginnings of every blog entry I’ll ever write on here are all going to start out in the same way: with me talking about how at the end of my last blog I planned on doing X, and now, some time later, I find myself having failed spectacularly to do X.

At least, that’s certainly how today’s entry is going to begin. I dearly hope that the beginning of everything I write won’t start sounding like a broken record, but even if it does… well I’m sure that you, the wonderful people of the internet, will forgive me!

So, the last entry ended with the revelation that my review of Season 2 of Smallville was on its way. As it turns out, it wasn’t. In fact, it turns out that I got so addicted to watching Smallville that I just couldn’t find the time to blog – I just wanted to spend as much time as possible watching Smallville. And plus I had scripts to write, and I had to do work experience (where I saw Lenny Henry and Liam Gallagher!), and that took up a lot of my time, too. Anyway, so addicted to Smallville did I become that I hurtled through the seasons so quickly that I barely had the time to take everything in, let alone blog about them! And it was that Clark Kent-esque Super Speed journey through the show which led me to the troubling position I’m in now: I’ve just finished Season 9, and I'm now faced with the daunting task of having to wait until THE END OF OCTOBER until I can even begin to watch Season 10.Stupid DVD release date being pushed back and what have you. :(

Why do I do things like that to myself?! If I’d paced myself slightly I might have been able to make those nine seasons last until the tenth one was released on DVD. In fact, forget “might have” been able to – I would have been able to. If the show itself lasted for ten years, I’m sure I could have made it last a few more weeks! But no. To reiterate, that’s how addicted to it I was. What can I say, I’m a Superman junkie, and Smallville was just the next stop on the big ol’ Superman road.

Now, it would be kind of silly to try and talk about each season individually since a) it’s been so long since I watched the early stuff, and b) I watched the episodes in such quick succession that many of them have sort of all gone into a kind of blur. Haha, see what I did there? Oh, the hilarity. But yes, I really don’t think that would be a good idea.

What would be a better idea, though, I think, would be to do something else. What I want to do is perhaps do a blog entry about each of the main characters. Now, I’m a student, and my best subject has always always always been English Literature, and one of the things I love most about English Lit is exploring character. Any exam I do, I’m almost guaranteed to have chosen to write an essay about the characters within a novel. It’s what I do best and it’s what I enjoy. So I figured that might be the best approach to take on here, too. This way, I can have fun discussing the characters, and it also gives me the opportunity to talk about important events that happen in each season.

At the same time, though, I know what I’m like. I say now that I’m going to write about the various characters, but whether or not I do – or at least the matter of how many I write about – remains to be seen. But I’m going to try my damned best. Because I’m determined to update this blog more than I updated my old one. And I really do want to write about these things. And this is a really good way of helping to bridge the gap between my viewing of Season 9 and my viewing of Season 10.

Now, I’m not ruling out the possibility of talking about episodes, because there are definitely certain episodes – or at least moments within certain episodes – that I would like to talk about. But I think I should get over the first hurdle before I do anything else.

So, faithful viewer, I’m going to do my damned best to write about as many characters as I can. Writing is good for me, and I’m happy when I do it, so I know that it’ll be a thing worth doing. So all I can say, I guess, is stay tuned! I hope to have my first character blog up and ready soon. I’m not going to do every person who’s ever appeared in a title sequence, though; for example, I’m not going to talk about (the impossibly annoying) Pete, and I’m not going to talk about Jason or even Kara. I might not even talk about Oliver. But rest assured, I will talk about Chloe. And Lex. And Lana. And Lois. And, of course, Clark.

And I’m also going to try and review some other things, too. This isn’t a “Julia Reviews Smallville” blog, after all, it’s a “Julia Reviews TV” blog. So I might try and slip in a review of Outnumbered or Doctor Who or something. We’ll see how it goes. As always, though, school does take priority in my life, so if need be this blog will be put on hold in favour of school work. This term is supposed to be a very busy one for me, but I will try and set aside as much time for this as possible.

Happy reading!

Julia

xx

Smallville Season 1

Well, as I promised earlier, faithful viewers, it's time for me to post my thoughts on the first season of Smallville. Before I start I just want to say that I don't think the rest of my reviews will be like this, in the sense that I'm not going to wait until I finish a season and then post my thoughts on the season as a whole. No, instead I'll probably watch episodes as I normally do, and if I think one is spectacularly good or spectacularly bad, I'll post my thoughts on that individual episode. I suppose there's always the possibility of me doing an end-of-season review on top of all that, but let's not get ahead of ourselves. Anyway, the only reason why I'm doing an end-of-season review as my first post rather than commenting on a specific episode is because I actually finished watching Season 1 of Saturday, and I think that if I'm going to write about individual episodes my thoughts should be fresh rather than a couple of days old. That being said, however, I'm going to be focusing on three scenes episodes that were the highlight of the season for me.

 

Oh, and before I start I'd better make it very clear that this post contains SPOILERS.

I'll be honest with you, when I finished watching the first two episodes of Smallville I was pretty disappointed. The pilot was okay, I guess, but I think that if I'd been one of the executives who had the power to give it either the green or the red light, I'd have been a bit hesitant to comission it. I probably would have in the end, but that wouldn't have been because of the quality of the first episode, it'd have been because I'm a Superman fangirl at heart and I would have lived in the hope that it would fulfil some potential, because whilst the first episode is pretty lacklustre, it undoubtedly contains a lot of potential, if anything else in the form of Tom Welling, Michael Rosenbaum and Kristin Kreuk alone. If I'd done that, though, and then sat down to watch episode two, Metamorphosis, I'd have put my head in my hands and started to lament about the massive mistake I'd made. What an awful episode. I didn't find it particularly exciting or engaging (well, tell a lie, I liked the bit where Clark was flying in his dreams, and the bit where he woke up to find himself floating above the bed), and even though the episode was leading up to the big crescendo in the form of the confrontation between the weird bug boy and Clark at the end, a) it was over before it started, and b) it wasn't all that impressive anyway.

So, summarily, I wasn't impressed and was beginning to wonder if I'd wasted my money buying the whole boxset. But then, thankfully, the quality stepped up a notch. Hothead was undoubtedly a step in the right direction and by the time I finished watching episode four, X-Ray, in which Clark struggles to come to terms with a newly-developed power of his, I was hooked, and thankfully the rest of the season managed to maintain that kind of quality, and even raised the bar at times.

Now, there are three scenes in particular which stand out as being the best of the season for me.  The first of them occurs about half-way through the episode which, in my opinion, is by far the best episode of the season. I'll happily admit that I love me a good prophecy, and Hourglass was full to the brim with prophecies! In it, Clark befriends an old woman who has the ability to see the future, and let's just say that that ability, coupled with the audience's knowledge of what Clark will one day become, makes for a damn fine episode. Naturally, my favourite scene in this episode was the scene that occurs around the half-way mark, where Clark and Cassandra are talking about his destiny.

Cassandra: We both know you're not like other people.

Clark: Sure, I am.

Cassandra: No, Clark, I've seen you...before we ever met. More than once, I've touched people, and I've seen such pain and despair and -- but then you were there, and the pain was gone. I think that's your destiny, Clark -- to help people, to save them from fear and darkness.

Clark: How?

Cassandra: That's for you to figure out. You can fear the future, or you can embrace it. The choice is yours. 

Gah!!! How amazing is that! It brings it all down to the message that all good stories feature at some point (be it Harry Potter, Doctor Who, etc.): you always have a choice. It's our choices who define who we are, and that is especially the case with Clark. Honestly, I can't tell you how much I love that episode. And the bit at the end, where just before she dies Cassandra sees what Lex can/will become... that's just amazing. I actually found it pretty scary. But I was pleased that I was scared. I'll get on to this later but I always felt that Gene Hackman's overly comical Lex Luthor was a weakpoint in the original Superman films. Admittedly, Kevin Spacey hit the nail on the head in his performance as Lex in Superman Returns, but, let's face it, it was a far from great film and so it was a case of too little too late. So seeing that scary vision into the future was extremely liberating because it finally felt as if the potential for a truly evil, despotic arch-nemesis of Superman was being done justice on screen. In that respect, Smallville's already doing a lot better than the original films. But, as I said, I'll say more on Michael Rosenbaum's portrayal of Lex Luthor later. The only other coherent(ish) thing I can say about that episode and that scene is: wow. Oh, and I loved the fact that for Lex's scenes in the Oval Office they filmed on the set of The West Wing. It's two of my favourite TV shows rolled into one - what more could I possibly ask for?!

Now, the second of the scenes which stood out for me came in an episode which I'd say was certainly in the top 5 episodes of the season. The episode I'm talking about is called Stray and it's in this episode that Clark finds a friend - well, more of a little brother than anything - with whom he can really relate, primarily because, like Clark, this kid has a power that he has to hide from the rest of the world. Now, I'll be honest with you, the kind of stories that I enjoy the most are the stories that are about characters, as opposed to stories which seem to have characters merely to serve the plot (which is why I think Russell T Davies's Doctor Who is ten million times better than Steven Moffat's awful attempt at it, but that's a whole different story), and that's largely why Stray stood out for me. It was, despite all the stuff about the evil step-parents, essentially a story about two lonely young kids finding someone in whom they can confide, and who can make them a little less lonely, and I think that's just beautiful.

Now, on to the scene I was talking about in the first place, which happens right at the end of the episode. Let me tell you this, I'm a real sucka for music being used to enhance emotions (I don't get why people complain that music hinders enjoyment - it doesn't! It's marvellous!), and even though in an ideal world John Williams would write the music for every decent TV show out there, I'm happy to settle for pop music to be used in his stead. And let me tell you, the music they chose for the final scene of Stray was just PERFECT!! Why, I hear you ask? Well, faithful viewer, it's because the song they used was Five for Fighting's Superman. I've loved that song for absolutely ages now, but to hear it in a show about Superman himself (albeit before he was Superman) just blew my mind. It's quite a sad song, actually, which makes it all the more fitting for Smallville, because whilst I wouldn't classify Smallville as a 'sad' show per se, it does show all the insecurities Clark has about his powers, and demonstrates how having all these powers and the ability to save lives doesn't make life easy. In fact if anything it merely complicates it. So that's what the show's about. But it's also what the song's about. And that's why the two go together so perfectly.

And so we come on to the third and final scene that I want to talk about. And the scene I picked is one that literally felt like poetry in motion. At the end of Crush, after being dreadfully ill for the majority of the series, Whitney's dad finally succumbs to his illness and passes away. The final scene depicts Whitney's family and friends standing and mourning in the rain at the funeral service, and it's all extremely heartfelt and emotional. But what gets me - nay, what really kills me - is the look that Clark and Lana share at the end.

Now, I admit, before watching Smallville I knew next to nothing about all the stuff that happened while Clark was growing up. I'd only heard of Lana Lang cos I had a quick look at the Smallville Wikipedia page before I bought the boxset, and the only other exposure I'd had to life in Smallville was that 30 minutes or so in the first Superman film (I know it also features in the third film but I don't think I've seen that one all the way through). Therefore when I found out that Lana was Clark's love interest in these pre-Superman years (and bear in mind this was before I started watching the show), I thought I wouldn't like her very much at all. I mean, I may not be the biggest fan of Margot Kidder's portrayal of Lois in the films, but Superman and Lois just go together. There's no other competition. Romeo and Juliet, Elizabeth Bennet and Mr Darcy, Superman and Lois - some things are just meant to be. So basically I started watching the show with a degree of trepidation. But do you know what? That wasn't necessary at all because I absolutely love Lana. Sure, I guess you could argue that she's a bit too sweet, but I'm not of that opinion. I think she's written with exactly the right amount of warmth and kindness, and Kristin Kreuk plays her wonderfully. Obviously Lois hasn't even been introduced to the show yet, but I guess because of my exposure to the films in my heart I'm a Clark/Lois fan, so with that in my mind I'm actually rather surprised at how much I buy into the Clark/Lana relationship (although I think part of it stems from the fact that I don't like the idea of Clark/Chloe at all!). Some of the moments they share together in the series are genuinely beautiful, and the scene at the end of Crush captures everything that's wonderful about them. Like I said earlier, the Clark/Lana relationship will never be the relationship that everyone remembers or associaties with the Superman franchise for obvious reasons, but despite that, that scene manages to establish with astonishing clarity just how special those two are to each other, and how even though we as the audience know they're never going to end up together (in the long run, at least), you can't detract from the relationship they have. Just... the look that they give each other - it says so much! 

Again, the music is another thing that makes the scene so perfect. Time After Time is undoubtedly a good song, but I was never a fan of it because the original by Cyndi Lauper always seemed a bit too fast and upbeat in comparison to the tone of the lyrics, and the John Barrowman cover... well, the less said about it the better. I'd never heard the Eva Cassidy version before (I know, I know - shame on me!) and hearing it for the first time whilst watching that scene... it blew me away, it really did. She has such a beautiful voice, and there's a sort of sadness to the song (which is only exacerbated by the sadness that comes with the knowledge of Eva Cassidy's untimely death) which goes with the scene so well.  And, above anything else, the lyrics are perfect, too.

If you're lost you can look and you will find me,
Time after time.
If you fall I will catch you, I will be waiting,

Time after time. 

Because that just sums up their relationship. Clark'll always be there for her. And when you think about it, those few lines sum up exactly what Superman is all about, which just adds to the power and beauty of the scene. And that third picture, the wide shot of Clark with the angel in the background, speaks volumes, doesn't it? I'm going to go down an almost unbearably cheesey route here, but that's what Clark/Superman is to people - an angel. And he certainly is to Lana. Just beautiful in every single way.

And that, faithful viewer, is the end of my rave about my favourite three scenes of Season 1! I did say that I was going to talk a little bit about Lex, though, and that's what I'm going to do now. 

Michael Rosenbaum, eh? Let me just say this. WHAT. A. PERFECT. PIECE. OF. CASTING.

 

 

As I mentioned above, before I'd only ever viewed Lex Luthor as a comic creation who I never really took seriously, and I certainly never viewed him as a significant threat to Superman. At least in Superman II he was sidelined as the main villain thanks to Terence Stamp's somewhat more threatening General Zod. Kevin Spacey was a damn scary Luthor at times, but as fantastic an actor as he is he didn't quite do enough to make up for the Hackman Luthor. So when I sat down to watch Smallville I wasn't expecting much of Lex the character. In fact, when I first saw Michael Rosenbaum as Lex I was horrified! His head wasn't the right shape! But how stupid I was, because in the space of one season he's cemented his place as the definitive Lex Luthor in my mind. Yes, in one season he undid all those years of my childhood where I associated Gene Hackman with Lex - and I'm so glad he did. Because, swear to God, he's bloody brilliant in that role. He's exactly the right mixture of charming, cunning, intelligent, sinister and, at times, a little bit scary. His performance has actually redeemed the character of Lex Luthor for me. Gone are the days where I think of him as a bit of wimp; now I think of him as a genuine threat. Then again, I think another reason why I think that is because in Smallville Lex has a lot of influence over Clark, which makes Clark more vulnerable, whereas in the films you never really get the impression that Lex has anything on Superman, apart from in the first film where he pulled out that Kryptonite necklace. So, all I can say is: Michael Rosenbaum, I bow down to you! I'm presuming that over the next nine seasons we're going to see Lex descend more and more into the role of enemy rather than friend, and I think that if Michael Rosenbaum keeps up this performance, I'm going to be in for a real treat.

It feels like this entry is coming to a natural close now, but I feel I just can't end this post without saying something about the fantastic, beautiful and talented Tom Welling. He's the perfect choice for Clark Kent. He's the right build, seems to have a perfect understanding of what is needed to play Clark and, above, anything else, he just feels right for the role, and that's not always the case with leading actors so I don't think that's something that should go unappreciated. He's just so loveable as Clark, and you really do understand what he's going through when you watch him on screen. He's not Chrisopher Reeve, but unlike Brandon Routh in Superman Returns, he was never supposed to be. This isn't Superman, this is Smallville, and therefore Tom Welling is quite rightly putting his own stamp on the character. For me (and countless others), Christopher Reeve will always always always be Superman, and to some extent will always be the definitive bumbling adult Clark Kent. But at the same time, Tom Welling is now the definitive young Clark Kent. Now, admittedly there isn't exactly a lot of competition, but the point still stands: before, when someone would say "Clark Kent" to me I'd automatically think of Christopher Reeve. But now if someone says that name, two faces appear in my mind, the adult one and the teenage one - Christopher Reeve and Tom Welling. I think the real test will come in the later years of the show, where Clark won't be a teenager anymore but the Clark Kent more similar to the one I'm familiar with from the films; the Clark who works in the Daily Planet and who knows people like Lois and Jimmy. But that's still a long way off for me, and in the mean time I'm just going to sit back and enjoy Tom Welling's wonderful performance.

And I think there's only one more thing I wanted to say. In fact, I was talking about this online just the other day. What makes Smallville different from most other shows is that you actually already know all the major plot points. You know Jonathan Kent is going to die at some stage. You know Clark and Lana will never walk off happily into the sunset (permanently at least) because Clark (or at least Superman) is ultimately destined for Lois. You know Clark isn't going to be stuck in Smallville all his life. You know who he's eventually going to be. In fact, I've actually already seen the final scene of the show (I stumbled across it on YouTube before I decided to start watching the show)! But do you know what? That doesn't matter at all. Because Smallville is about how Superman became Superman. It has the ability to explore the kind of stuff that the films simply didn't have time to. It explores what it means to be Superman. And I love that kind of stuff. And that's what makes the show so great.

And that, faithful viewer, is where I'm going to wrap things up for now. I really enjoyed writing that, and I hope you enjoyed reading it. I can't express how excited I am to watch Season 2, but it still hasn't arrived in the post, even though it was sent out ages ago. I'm incredibly annoyed about that. Coping without Smallville over the past few days has been so tough! I suppose I could always watch it online, but I guess I'm weird in that I don't really approve of watching stuff online. Well, I think approve is the wrong word, but you know what I mean. I don't watch stuff online in the same way that I always pay for my music. Besides, when possible I prefer to watch things on the telly, and you can only really do that with a DVD, so that's another reason why watching online isn't preferable. Needless to say, however, hopefully Season 2 will turn up soon. If it doesn't, I'll cry, haha! In fact, knowing my luck Season 3 will come in the post tomorrow but Season 2 won't turn up until the week where I have to start doing work experience. Typical, eh?

Anyway, regardless of whenever it turns up, I'm looking forward to both watching Season 2 and writing about it.

Best wishes!

Julia
xx