Posts Tagged ‘ Smallville ’

On Fringe

In spite of my worries, the Fringe finale actually kind of rocked.

That said, I’m still a little confused with Peter never having existed. Why did Walter cross worlds and start the whole mess if not to save him? How did Olivia end up getting Walter out of the mental institution to help her way back when? Did Fauxlivia still have a baby? Who was it’s father? If Peter didn’t exist, how could the machine be turned on in the first place? And exactly who are the WatchersObservers that they apparently exist outside of regular time?

And, wait, if Walter created the machine in the future and sent it back into the past, why did he create it in the first place? How did it end up with parts in both worlds? And if he only created it so he could send it back so it could be used in a different manner than it was used the first time, didn’t he just create a massive paradox?

Oh, and good on Seth Gabel for getting promoted to series regular next year. No return for Kirk Acevedo to the regular cast, though – mainly because of the hat.

I’m not saying that the show’s perfect, and it has more dangling plotlines than Claremont’s X-Men, but still – pretty good.

On Smallville

Ten years? Damn.

I haven’t watched a full season of Smallville as it airs since…what, season four? Whichever one Jensen Ackles was crap in. I do, however, have a bunch of seasons on DVD that I’m very slowly watching (veeeery slowly), and I tried to watch this season but somehow dropped away. It’s an enjoyable show a lot of the time, but it’s not always – or even often – a very good show.

In any case, I’ll watch the finale tonight. And I’ll probably enjoy it.

Ten years. Wow.

(Oh, and if you haven’t been keeping up with Chris Sims’ and David Uzumeri’s Smallville Recaps over at Comics Alliance, you really should go and read them. It’s more fun than watching the show half the time.)

On Human Target

Damnation.

While not surprised at the cancellation of Human Target, I am saddened. The show was one of the few that I made a point of watching every week, and the chemistry between the three leads – Mark Valley, Chi McBride and Jackie Earl Haley – was great fun to watch. The addition of two female cast members – Indira Varma and Janet Montgomery – felt forced in the second season, I actually grew to like them both more than I thought I would (especially Montgomery’s Ames, who sparked off Haley’s Guerrero).

Ah well. If there’s any justice in the world, Valley will get another good action show, because that guy is good.

On Wonder Woman

Well, bugger.

I know a lot (a lot) of people derided the costume, but I wasn’t one of them. Well, I don’t think I was. It’s been a while.

Anyway, while I don’t think David E Kelley is anyone’s idea of a good showrunner for a superhero show, I was looking forward to Adrienne Palicki as Diana. Hopefully the pilot will get leakedreleased at some point so we can all see what might have been.

And laughed at the costume.

On Flashpoint

And finally, on a comic that actually came out this week that I actually read – not bad, although for a story that’s now 20% completed (not counting spin-offs, obviously) it certainly felt like 15% set-up and 85% exposition. I’m not sure anything actually happened in the issue.

Even so, I think I liked it more than when it was called House of M.

…and it is perhaps the most genius bit of casting I’ve seen in a long time.

Battlestar Galactica alum Michael Hogan will be playing Slade Wilson, the world’s most dangerous mercenary

That, my friend, is nigh genius!

Hat tip to Mizzelle!

I’m confused.

In season nine of Smallville, Cat Grant showed up as Clark’s blind date and went on to become the host of Good Morning Metropolis played by Emillie Ullerup.

In this week’s episode, a second Cat Grant is showing up in Metropolis as the Daily Planet’s newest reporter replacing Lois, played by Keri Lynn Pratt.

Why bother have two different characters named the same, even if that name is from the comics? I know they hinted at that with Jimmy Olsen’s younger brother, but really, are there that many Cat Grant fans waiting for her to show up and stick around for a while?

Not playing Cat Grant in Smallville (although the way things are going, she’ll show up as Cat II’s mother or something):

And, just because I still really love this panel:

It seems as though Clark is finally going to take flight in the season premiere of Smallville this Friday:

On the other hand, it does look kind of more like he’s leaping a tall building in a single bound as opposed to flying but hey, either way I think I’ll be watching Smallville this season.

I have to hand it to Smallville - and Superman shows in general – they know how to wink at the past.

In Lois and Clark (a show which gets a bad rep; I enjoyed the earlier seasons immensely), Lois Lane (Teri Hatcher)’s mother was played by Noel Neill, who played Lois Lane in the 1940s and 1950sPhyllis Coates, who played Lois Lane in the 1950s George Reeves Adventures of Superman series before being replaced by Noel Neill, who had played Lois before her in the Kirk Alyn serial (not that that’s convoluted!).

Smallville - which has featured the 1970s/1980s movie Lois and Clark (the late Christopher Reeve and Margot Kidder) in prior seasons – will feature current Lois (Erica Durance)’s mother in some video tapes she finds.

Playing her?

Teri Hatcher.

Fricking genius.

Via

It seems like Geoff Johns has been busy since he took over the post of CCO – and the first fruits of his labor look to be the live action Blue Beetle clip he’s showing at SDCC and talking about on The Source.

I like the Blue Beetle a lot, and I’m glad that he’s getting some exposure because he’s one legacy character that I think could stick around long term as he’s actually easily separable from the character that he’s replaced -only the name is the same.

He’s also a character that could easily lend himself to a TV show – teenager, high school, not too many DC ties, recurring villains, aliens – and introducing him in Smallville may actually be a pretty good way to go (not that this has been mentioned, I’m just spitballing here) in a back-door pilot style. Plus, you know, Paco and Brenda are awesome.

But – and I know these are just tests – the shots that Johns has released of the Blue Beetle special effects look kind of cheap (although they do make an excellent gif).

And yes, I’m fully aware these are just screenshots from a test, as I said, and yes, I know that if a show was ever greenlit it would hopefully get a bigger budget.

Even so, somehow the outfit looks awfully familiar….

According to THR and, oh, everywhere, the future Captain America is amongst these actors; and since they are all apparently on a 30 day holding contract pending casting, it sounds pretty real:

Mike Vogel

Age: 30
Height: 5′ 10″
Pros: Pretty, in Cloverfield, in She’s Out of My League which looks pretty funny, turned down role of Angel in X-Men 3.
Cons: Pretty, in Cloverfield, short (well, same as me).

Michael Cassidy

Age: 26
Height” 6′
Pros: Was in Smallville and The O.C.. Tall.
Cons: Was crap in Smallville and The O.C.. Not blonde. A bit young.

Patrick Flueger

Age: 26
Height: 6′
Pros:Virtual unknown with no baggage in spite of being in The 4400, blonde, right height range.
Cons: Virtual unknown, a bit young, looks like a smug arse in this picture.

Scott Porter

Age: 30
Height: 6′
Pros: Awesome in Friday Night Lights (which is also awesome), was front runner for Superman in that botched JLA movie, looks the part, can sing and dance a bit.
Cons: Was front runner for Superman in that botched JLA movie.

Wilson Bethel

Age: 26
Height: 6′.
Pros: Virtual unknown, was in Generation Kill which is apparently pretty good, right height range.
Cons: Virtual unknown, bit skinny, scary eyebrows.

Chace Crawford

Age: 24
Height: 6′
Pros: Pretty, is in Gossip Girl, which isn’t exactly a pro, but worked for Blake Lively on the superhero front and was all I could think of.
Cons: Pretty, too young, is in Gossip Girl, is Chace Crawford.

John Krasinski

Age: 30
Height: 6’3″
Pros: Plenty tall, could bulk up, can act, has fanbase.
Cons: Has huge amounts of preconceptions and baggage, may be too comedic a draw, will break internet in half and lead to even more ‘Steve Carrell as Red Skull, Rainn Wilson as Baron Von Strucker’ jokes than we’ve had in the past day.

Apparently in the running but with scheduling conflicts:

Garrett Hedlund

Age: 25
Height: 6′ 1.5″
Pros: Plenty tall, virtual unknown with no baggage, is in Tron Legacy.
Cons: Looks a bit weedy, virtual unknown, bad hair.

Jensen Ackles

Age: 31
Height:6’1″
Pros: Pretty, right height, can act, was in Smallville and, of course, is Dean Goddamn Winchester and really that should be enough.
Cons: If by ‘scheduling’ issues they mean, ‘is shooting Supernatural season six’ then that’s a pretty big problem. Otherwise, not a one.

Of the listed contenders, I know who I’d prefer (Ackles or, failing that, Porter) but is this a real list, or is it just a smokescreen to cover for someone inexplicably not on the latest list, but was mentioned earlier:

Ryan McPartlin

Age: 34
Height: 6’3″
Pros: Is Awesome in Chuck, literally.
Cons: May be too Awesome.

Geoff Johns’ next episode of Smallville will introduce the JSA and casting has been announced for three key members.

Stargate‘s Michael Shanks will play Hawkman who “will have wings. And a big mace. Oh. And he and Green Arrow don’t get along. At all”, according to Johns.

Brent Stait, another Stargate alum will be Dr Fate.

And, in a shocking change of pace for Smallville, the adorably dorky Stargirl will be played by not-dorky-at-all-but-really-very-attractive Britt Irvin.

Sanctuary‘s Emilie Ullerup has apparently been cast as Cat Grant in the upcoming season of Smallville.

She’s pretty.

The role appears to be for one episode only at the moment, so hopefully this version of the future Daily Planet gossip columnist can avoid the pitfalls her comic equivalent fell into; ie, poor choice in men, a murdered son, and huge breast implants.

Ullerup’s not the first to play Cat Grant – Tracy Scoggins played her in the first season of Lois and Clark, before being dropped by the network when they decided to concentrate more on the superhero aspect of the show and less on the romantic aspect of it.

There’s a pretty interesting brief history of the show here, including what happened when Disney bought ABC and decided they didn’t like it.

Not that that’s relevant or anything…

Dead Like Me‘s Callum Blue has been cast as General Zod in  Smallville.

Don’t worry, I’m not going to do an in-depth posting on last night’s Smallville finale like I did with Fringe and Lost (here, here and here), mainly because I’m nowhere near qualified to.

I haven’t watched any of this season apart from the first episode, I only saw two of the previous season and I’m currently playing catch up on DVD on season six. I have to say though, I like the dynamic of Tom Welling and Erica Durance playing reporters in the Daily Planet.

But last night’s ep was a whole lot of fun. Granted, it suffered the usual Smallville faults of throwing too much into the mix, having fights be over too quickly, and generally suffering from a lack of decent editing, but it was still fun, with some unexpected (to me) events.

The Clark-Doomsday throwdown I knew about from all the ads I’d seen this year, so no surprise there – although it was far too brief.

Lois being zapped into the 30th Century should be fun next season while it lasts – presumably Saturn Girl will just wipe her memory and drop her off when all’s said and done. Also I guess Lois’ scenes confirm that my crush on Erica Durance is still alive and well. Sigh.

But killing Jimmy Olsen? I didn’t see that coming! And just after he learned Clark’s secret to boot (something that I thought should have happened years ago in the comics). Still, at least they left the way open for Jimmy II, cub reporter in the 19th season, with Jimmy’s younger brother getting his camera and wearing a bowtie.

And I guess from the end that Zod – the real Zod – is back in town, and without residing in a baldy surrogate body this time?

Cool. Maybe I’ll try and catch up on the past three years by the time Smallville returns for its’ ninth season – after all, they can’t leave Clark out of the tights forever, can they?

I’m sure I’ve seen that ‘Clark Kent is dead’ stuff somewhere before though…

Hey, they kept the outfit!

I’m sure that’s nothing to do with the fact that she looks good in it.

Hey, where is Paul Dini’s Zatanna book anyway?

Via

!ffo-nips llems I .ellivllamS no annataZ sa tsac neeb sah nawS adnireS

Ok, enough of that.

Anyway, after a quick perusal of Ms Swan’s, er, resume, I’m willing to put money behind a Zatanna spin-off series where the scantily-clad magician is forced to disguise herself in various scantily clad ways in order to…do…something…every single week.

Sure fire hit, I tell ya!

EDIT: Jill at The Nerdy Bird has managed to find some Zatanna-esque shots of Ms Swan over at her blog.

I may be stating the obvious here – especially in light of previous Smallville castings – but Saturn Girl is cute…

I actually kind of like the Smallville take on the Legion’s uniforms here as well – Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl’s symbols, and Cosmic Boy’s disc/dot thingies.

And is this the Persuader?

Looks good…too bad I’ll probably only get round to watching it in a couple of years!

Via Kryptonsite

I tend to watch Smallville sporadically when it’s on air, but by the season on DVD (seasons 1-6 are just $15 right here!) – and that means I haven’t caught any of Sam Witwer’s Doomsday character yet….

…but it looks like I may be watching this week’s episode when he shows up in all his bony glory:

Newsarama reports that Canadian Alexz Johnson is Imra Ardeen – Saturn Girl – on the upcoming Legion of Superheroes-starring episode of Smallville.

Aside from shake my head at some people’s inability to spell names, all I can do is hum Margot Kidder’s ‘Can You Read My Mind’ from Superman The Movie.

No reason other than it amuses me. I look forward to Erica Durance asking her that very question…

It often played out that the Kents ended up in harm’s way – such as when Conduit decided to kill Clark Kent (not Superman), when Darkseid comes a-calling at the farm, or when Imperiex attacks. In fact the latter had Jonathan missing and amnesiac for a short time. Jonathan’s near-death following Superman’s death had his spirit serve as an anchor for his son in a dodgy story that I never quite got a handle on before Big Blue came back to life.

But this is fiction and it usually works better to take people away that mean something to a character. The only thing is that I can’t help but feel that this is a little bit of a missed opportunity. We haven’t seen that much of Jonathan recently, short of a visit here and there and his death might have had more impact if he’d been more prominent recently.

Ah well, so long Jonathan.

From Variety:

“Smallville” exec producers Kelly Souders and Brian Peterson, as well as “Supernatural” exec producer McG, are behind “The Graysons,” which has landed a put pilot commitment at the netlet.

Just as “Smallville” focused on Clark Kent in the years before he became Superman, “The Graysons” will follow the world of Dick “DJ” Grayson before he takes on the iconic Robin identity and aligns himself with Batman.

Michael Rosenbaum has confirmed that he’s leaving Smallville, something that’s been heavily rumored for a while.

This means that the show is probably going to take a huge dip in quality as, let’s face it, Rosenbaum was the best thing about it (and I like the show). No more Lex machine for the ladies…

More worryingly the network is adding two new villains. First up…

“In season eight, Clark will face his ultimate challenge with the appearance of the legendary, unstoppable destroyer Doomsday, who appears on
Smallville for the first time. As comic-book fans know, Doomsday is notorious for being the only character in the DC Comics universe to have killed Superman.”

Well I for one can hardly wait to see this guy -

- as produced by the show that gave us this Aquaman:

Sigh.

Even more worryingly…

The network added: “Doomsday won’t be Clark’s only nemesis in the upcoming season. The executive producers are tight-lipped about a new female villain they will be introducing, but they can say she will be familiar to many fans and will set her sights on Clark in ways Lex never could. Intelligent, brilliantly manipulative and dangerously sinister, our gorgeous new villain has one more weapon in her arsenal: Her mutual attraction with Clark may prove to be as deadly as kryptonite for him.”

Hmm. She’ll be ‘familiar to many fans’? There’ll be a ‘mutual attraction’?

Who could it be?

Could it be Mercy?

A villainified-Lori Lemaris?

Livewire?

Or could it be someone from outside the normal Superman characters?

Indeed you are, Lex…indeed you are.

I haven’t watched much of Smallville this season, with it being added to shows that I get on DVD, but from what I hear Lex finally takes that last step into becoming an out and out bad guy in this episode, and an original cast member buys the farm once and for all.

Given the trailer above, its not too difficult to guess who that is…