Smallville / Season one Buffy
Sep. 7th, 2002 12:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
butterflyYou know, Smallville's biggest failing in the beginning was the need to have a villain.
There doesn't have to be a bad guy in every episode. Is Tempest the only SV episode without a 'bad guy' in it?
Hmm. In the pilot, it's Whitney. Then you get Bug Boy, Coach Firestarter, Shapeshifta' Girl, Cold Jock, Old/Young (and that episode could have done with just the Cassandra element, I think), Scary Mouth Girl, Jitterman (who was a good one, seeing as he wasn't really bad.), Dirty Cop, Invisible Brother, Handshake, Leech doesn't really have one unless you count either Eric or his dad, Kryptojocks, Dead Guy, Funky Plant(leading to Jonathan and Pete), Evil Stepdad, Ash Dude, Bee Girl, Telepathic Chloe Lover, Pyscho Cop, and then for the finale either the twisters or Lex's dad.
Of the 'bad guys', 18 are throw-aways. That's 9/12ths.
To compare with Buffy's first season(because, yes, favorite show), you have Luke in both Welcome and Harvest, Catherine in Witch, Mantis Lady, Fake Annointed, Xander and the Hyena Pack, Darla, Malcom, Demon, Coach, Marci, The Master.
Of those, 7 are throw-aways. 7/12ths. Even with that, they've been mentioned later on. (I will, of course, allow five seasons to pass before I critize SV for not doing that.)
But more importantly, the focus in these episodes was on how it affects the characters. Buffy, Xander, Willow, Giles, Cordelia, even Angel (a bit) all learn and grow from everything that happens to them. In Smallville, people learn sometimes. And death is taken much more lightly on SV. In the second episode of Buffy, Xander stakes his friend. And that has affected his character greatly (vamp hate). Willow gains some measure of confidence and starts to learn that if she's useful, no one cares if she cuts corners and does illegal things. Buffy gets her reason to slay back. Giles loosens up and really starts to care for his unconventional Slayer. Cordelia shows her soft side. A bit. Angel actually almost does something that isn't annoying.
We saw the funeral in Crush. Which, while pretty, was kinda sucky direction-wise. Yes, focus on Lana and Clark at her boyfriend's dad's funeral. That's tasteful. But all of the times that Clark's contributed to someone's death, that doesn't seem to touch him. And yeah, it took Buffy five seasons to go mental over it, but she was affected by it before. I mean, if they want to imply that he doesn't feel anything about people who have broken the rules and hurt people, that's fine and dandy, as long as they intend to imply that. And I'm not seeing that. And Pete gets so shorted on the screentime. I mean, I thought Buffy's treatment of Xander in season four was bad, but dude, nothing compared to the Pete-abuse. "I know that I've never mentioned any hate of Lex before, so let me say something about it the episode before I try to shoot him."
Still, overall, I way love the show. Kristin drags them down, acting-wise, but pretty much everyone else is good. Of course, my favorite thing about Buffy is that all of the actors are great. Except Riley. But Riley happened fourth and fifth season, so that's different than having a sucky person right from the get-go. Even Angel was interesting. Annoying, but a bit interesting. Most of the time, Lana can't even annoy me.
And I'll forgive quite a bit for hot guys staring at other hot guys.
There doesn't have to be a bad guy in every episode. Is Tempest the only SV episode without a 'bad guy' in it?
Hmm. In the pilot, it's Whitney. Then you get Bug Boy, Coach Firestarter, Shapeshifta' Girl, Cold Jock, Old/Young (and that episode could have done with just the Cassandra element, I think), Scary Mouth Girl, Jitterman (who was a good one, seeing as he wasn't really bad.), Dirty Cop, Invisible Brother, Handshake, Leech doesn't really have one unless you count either Eric or his dad, Kryptojocks, Dead Guy, Funky Plant(leading to Jonathan and Pete), Evil Stepdad, Ash Dude, Bee Girl, Telepathic Chloe Lover, Pyscho Cop, and then for the finale either the twisters or Lex's dad.
Of the 'bad guys', 18 are throw-aways. That's 9/12ths.
To compare with Buffy's first season(because, yes, favorite show), you have Luke in both Welcome and Harvest, Catherine in Witch, Mantis Lady, Fake Annointed, Xander and the Hyena Pack, Darla, Malcom, Demon, Coach, Marci, The Master.
Of those, 7 are throw-aways. 7/12ths. Even with that, they've been mentioned later on. (I will, of course, allow five seasons to pass before I critize SV for not doing that.)
But more importantly, the focus in these episodes was on how it affects the characters. Buffy, Xander, Willow, Giles, Cordelia, even Angel (a bit) all learn and grow from everything that happens to them. In Smallville, people learn sometimes. And death is taken much more lightly on SV. In the second episode of Buffy, Xander stakes his friend. And that has affected his character greatly (vamp hate). Willow gains some measure of confidence and starts to learn that if she's useful, no one cares if she cuts corners and does illegal things. Buffy gets her reason to slay back. Giles loosens up and really starts to care for his unconventional Slayer. Cordelia shows her soft side. A bit. Angel actually almost does something that isn't annoying.
We saw the funeral in Crush. Which, while pretty, was kinda sucky direction-wise. Yes, focus on Lana and Clark at her boyfriend's dad's funeral. That's tasteful. But all of the times that Clark's contributed to someone's death, that doesn't seem to touch him. And yeah, it took Buffy five seasons to go mental over it, but she was affected by it before. I mean, if they want to imply that he doesn't feel anything about people who have broken the rules and hurt people, that's fine and dandy, as long as they intend to imply that. And I'm not seeing that. And Pete gets so shorted on the screentime. I mean, I thought Buffy's treatment of Xander in season four was bad, but dude, nothing compared to the Pete-abuse. "I know that I've never mentioned any hate of Lex before, so let me say something about it the episode before I try to shoot him."
Still, overall, I way love the show. Kristin drags them down, acting-wise, but pretty much everyone else is good. Of course, my favorite thing about Buffy is that all of the actors are great. Except Riley. But Riley happened fourth and fifth season, so that's different than having a sucky person right from the get-go. Even Angel was interesting. Annoying, but a bit interesting. Most of the time, Lana can't even annoy me.
And I'll forgive quite a bit for hot guys staring at other hot guys.
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Date: 2002-09-08 12:54 am (UTC)Personally, one of my biggest quibbles with SV is that it doesn't have the funny. What hooked me on Buffy, way back, was how funny it was, even when the characters are in the most brutal circumstances. Smallville doesn't have much funny, and when it does, it's sealed and secluded in "funny" scenes, it doesn't leak into the tense ones.
Also, the Kents suck, in that Dawson-Leery's-parents way.
Re:
Date: 2002-09-08 09:55 am (UTC)And the Kents are... odd. Hypocritical, because they insist on honesty from everyone else. Well, Pa Kent does.