Somebody Else's Nimrod

My wishlist for the upcoming SV season:

Clark: Has to do *all* Martha's chores for the entire season for running away and making her sad just when she needed him the most. A sensible and nuanced contemplation of his emotional responsibilities to those around him is desperately needed in the light, not merely of "Exodus," but of the entire last year. We already know that Superman is going to end up placing his responsibilities as a superhero over his responsibilities to his human ties in many ways. That's a difficult choice, and in many ways an unattractive one; he needs to be shown making it, not just stumbling into it, with the implicit message that his behavior must be fine just because he's Superman.

Also, that someone, for the love of God, introduce him to the idea that he needs to figure out tactics for using his powers in effective ways.

I would put something about Lana here, but the whole subject is still too painful for me, even after a summer off from her.

Lex: Just looking at the promo pics fulfilled a good half of my wishes for him. However, I would like to see the steel really start to enter his spine. He went soft to an almost fanfic-like degree last year; he needs to come back an avenging angel, demanding a reckoning. LexCorp needs more attention as well.

Chloe: Let her develop motivations for her evil spree beyond her envy of Lana/jealousy of Clark, ones which persist once she's back on the side of the angels. Please. Please. Let it lead to excellent clothing and hairstyle choices. And let it all end up with her allied with Lex.

Pete: If the poor guy must have only one line per episode (and, let's face it, the "acting" he's displayed to date suggests that there's good reason for that), let it not be a pimping one.

Martha: Gets her spine back, chews out Jon for his totally inappropriate treatment of Clark over the accident. Enough said? Enough said.

Lionel: Three words: lather, rinse, repeat.

Helen: My dream scenario is that she turn out not to be involved in the crash, but be unable to persuade a merciless Lex of this, and thus fall innocent victim to his vengeance, a fact to be revealed gloatingly to Lex by the true culprit later. I'll settle for any explanation for her behavior that makes her out to be, you know, not completely crazy.

For the show itself: (1) That the people who resent it simply for being what it signalled it would be all along...move on. There's absolutely nothing wrong with preferring to watch shows that are strictly about the Moody Love of Two Dreamy Boys, but we all knew from the very beginning that SV couldn't be that show in the long run. Therefore, complaining that it's not is about as meaningful as complaining that it's not a sitcom about a yarn store by day, whorehouse by night, or that the problem with a Clark/Chloe story is that it should be a Chloe/Lex. It sounds like The OC right now is meeting people's Moody Love, etc., needs in spades; there's no reason we can't all be happy here.

(2) That it be good enough that the people who resent it for its occasional wallows in wretchedness be mollified. It's not going to be great TV every week. No show ever has been. However, there's no excuse for episodes as bad as Skinwalker and Dichotic, especially not back-to-back. Anyone who gave up on the show based on that particular pair of episodes, or because of despair over the ludicrously egregious mishandling of Lana, had ample justification. Let's not have a perpetuation of the mistakes, especially in character continuity. Cheese can be fun. Wincing never is.

Posted by Sarah T. at October 1, 2003 01:44 AM | TrackBack