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obligatory "Visage" post
Jan. 15th, 2003 11:44 pmIn which Jack succumbs to peer pressure once again.
If you're looking for a thoughtful analysis of "Visage," ...look elsewhere. The only halfway intelligent thing I have to say about the episode is here. There's plenty of fine analyses on my friends page and at![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
eat_crow.
Now then. Almost completely at random:
I've rotated in Lionel icon number... um... I think this was #4 or 5. I forget. Anyway, it's appropriate. See my one intelligent comment linked above.
Most of what was good about "Visage" -- the precious little that was good about it -- was visual. The opening shot of the last Lex/Helen scene, for example: Lex's half-lit reflection superimposed over the tableau of Helen speaking to the other doctor. (The ep was so bad overall that I'm embarassed to be using the word "tableau" in relation to it.) The visual contrast of Lex's black coat to Helen's white one was nice, too, though the stilted way they walked off down the corridor made me cringe.
Elsewhere in that scene, "I began to build a wall around my heart" has to be the worst line of SV dialogue ever -- which, as you know if you've ever seen the show, is saying a lot. Even my beloved Glover couldn't have made that sound good. (Okay, he probably could. But he sounds good saying anything, in fairness to Michael.) Hopefully it will remain the worst line of SV dialogue, though the writers seem determined to keep pushing their standards lower and lower.
On the other hand, Helen's "Nobel prize for stupidity" quip was a great line, and hands down the wittiest thing anyone said that hour outside of commercial breaks.
The lone Clark-and-Lex scene was all kinds of fun. I've been wanting to see the two of them play a nice friendly game (yes, Koi dearest, that was a shout-out) for months, and it was well worth the wait. I especially liked the little detail of Lex knocking the cue ball into a pocket -- and Clark fishing it out without giving Lex any guff about it, verbal or otherwise. I also absolutely loved Lex in that blood-red shirt. Yes, I like him in purple, but I like him in blood better. Er. I mean, he can wear red more often, too. Yeah.
Clark, or rather Tom Welling, won every wet t-shirt contest ever with that opening scene. Mmmmm, abs.
The way Jonathan and Clark touch continues to be creepily inappropriate to a degree surpassed only by the way Lionel touches Lex. Scoff if you like, but then go and check your tapes. Look at the end of their last scene, where the camera's shooting through the farmhouse window. If there's a screencap of that, I'm making Kentcest icons again.
Jonathan's "patriotic" paeans to Whitney for joining the Marine Corps, at a time when the US's military objectives abroad are more suspect than they've been since the reunification of Vietnam, was in character, but badly needed someone -- anyone -- to provide an alternate viewpoint. And his insistence that Clark put Whitney's feelings above his own (as if Whitney would really have been let down by, or noticed, Clark not being there), after the history they've had... well, I'll be surprised if I was the only one who told my television, "If you love Whitney so much, Jonathan, then you go suck his dick!"
Whitney isn't dead. He's not.
Eric Johnson did a fantastic job playing Tina in all her psychotic glory. (Allison did, too, and Tom and even Kristin did well enough with it that I was impressed, if only because it was a higher level of acting than I expect from them.) He also looked really sexy with that blood-spatter makeup on his face. Stupid Smallville keeps giving me new fetishes...
Speaking of sexy, Clark was right -- Chloe, or rather Allison Mack, does indeed have a birthmark on her cheek. Did you spot it?
And more sexy... Pete's front still does nothing for me, but that boy has one yummy ass. Hopefully he didn't die of a brain haemorrhage over the weekend, since we saw no indication that anyone but Tina knew she'd left him unconscious in the school hallway.
Everyone else has complained about this, of course, but it does bear repeating that having the one openly gay character ever to appear on Smallville (sorry, Lex, obvious isn't the same as open) be a mentally unbalanced murderer sucks all kinds of ass.
All things considered, though, as bad as "Visage" was, "Skinwalker" was still worse.
Next week, ( if the promo trailer is anything to go by (spoiler speculation)... ) 70s Porn Star Buddha would say "Karma's a bitch, though she does give fantantric head," but he's not around tonight.
If you're looking for a thoughtful analysis of "Visage," ...look elsewhere. The only halfway intelligent thing I have to say about the episode is here. There's plenty of fine analyses on my friends page and at
eat_crow.Now then. Almost completely at random:
I've rotated in Lionel icon number... um... I think this was #4 or 5. I forget. Anyway, it's appropriate. See my one intelligent comment linked above.
Most of what was good about "Visage" -- the precious little that was good about it -- was visual. The opening shot of the last Lex/Helen scene, for example: Lex's half-lit reflection superimposed over the tableau of Helen speaking to the other doctor. (The ep was so bad overall that I'm embarassed to be using the word "tableau" in relation to it.) The visual contrast of Lex's black coat to Helen's white one was nice, too, though the stilted way they walked off down the corridor made me cringe.
Elsewhere in that scene, "I began to build a wall around my heart" has to be the worst line of SV dialogue ever -- which, as you know if you've ever seen the show, is saying a lot. Even my beloved Glover couldn't have made that sound good. (Okay, he probably could. But he sounds good saying anything, in fairness to Michael.) Hopefully it will remain the worst line of SV dialogue, though the writers seem determined to keep pushing their standards lower and lower.
On the other hand, Helen's "Nobel prize for stupidity" quip was a great line, and hands down the wittiest thing anyone said that hour outside of commercial breaks.
The lone Clark-and-Lex scene was all kinds of fun. I've been wanting to see the two of them play a nice friendly game (yes, Koi dearest, that was a shout-out) for months, and it was well worth the wait. I especially liked the little detail of Lex knocking the cue ball into a pocket -- and Clark fishing it out without giving Lex any guff about it, verbal or otherwise. I also absolutely loved Lex in that blood-red shirt. Yes, I like him in purple, but I like him in blood better. Er. I mean, he can wear red more often, too. Yeah.
Clark, or rather Tom Welling, won every wet t-shirt contest ever with that opening scene. Mmmmm, abs.
The way Jonathan and Clark touch continues to be creepily inappropriate to a degree surpassed only by the way Lionel touches Lex. Scoff if you like, but then go and check your tapes. Look at the end of their last scene, where the camera's shooting through the farmhouse window. If there's a screencap of that, I'm making Kentcest icons again.
Jonathan's "patriotic" paeans to Whitney for joining the Marine Corps, at a time when the US's military objectives abroad are more suspect than they've been since the reunification of Vietnam, was in character, but badly needed someone -- anyone -- to provide an alternate viewpoint. And his insistence that Clark put Whitney's feelings above his own (as if Whitney would really have been let down by, or noticed, Clark not being there), after the history they've had... well, I'll be surprised if I was the only one who told my television, "If you love Whitney so much, Jonathan, then you go suck his dick!"
Whitney isn't dead. He's not.
Eric Johnson did a fantastic job playing Tina in all her psychotic glory. (Allison did, too, and Tom and even Kristin did well enough with it that I was impressed, if only because it was a higher level of acting than I expect from them.) He also looked really sexy with that blood-spatter makeup on his face. Stupid Smallville keeps giving me new fetishes...
Speaking of sexy, Clark was right -- Chloe, or rather Allison Mack, does indeed have a birthmark on her cheek. Did you spot it?
And more sexy... Pete's front still does nothing for me, but that boy has one yummy ass. Hopefully he didn't die of a brain haemorrhage over the weekend, since we saw no indication that anyone but Tina knew she'd left him unconscious in the school hallway.
Everyone else has complained about this, of course, but it does bear repeating that having the one openly gay character ever to appear on Smallville (sorry, Lex, obvious isn't the same as open) be a mentally unbalanced murderer sucks all kinds of ass.
All things considered, though, as bad as "Visage" was, "Skinwalker" was still worse.
Next week, ( if the promo trailer is anything to go by (spoiler speculation)... ) 70s Porn Star Buddha would say "Karma's a bitch, though she does give fantantric head," but he's not around tonight.
