svreview: slumber, s3e4

I honestly think that any time Clark gets to remove clothes, it's a Good Thing.

However, like all good things, there is balance, leavening, what have you, sugar and medicine, the existence of the color teal in cars, you get the idea. And by that, I mean, Lana.



It disturbed me I found Lana looking pretty. I *like* the not-so-perfectly-straight hair thing she has going on. Windy-ruffled.

We open on a lake, and there's Clark, gladly stripping for the camaras, all atwitter with exhibitionistic delight, and I really can't encourage this attitude enough, as one day, he will be wearing tights that will leave very little to the imagination.

Surprise surprise, Lana shows, and Paula Cole begins to sing in the background as Dawson--I mean, Clark--blushes with adolescent hormones as Lana proceeds to strip to her--I'm going ot say panties, but you know, considering she and her bra parted company, I have to wonder.

Adorably teeny corny dialogue insues, and Lana and Clark try to make out in the middle of Crater Lake, which you know? Nothing good ever comes of large bodies of water, and you'd think Clark would know that, but we'll cut him some slack. Screaming girl runs by wearing vaguely Flatliners-type sweater with hood.

Seconds later, Clark, unfortunately dressed in Farmboy Finest, appears, girl is sucked into ground, cue theme song.

Pretty much the entire episode was fun to watch and made no sense, but then again, I like my symbolism to be, well, symbolic. And make sense. Call me picky.

Clark gets a truck. Pete gets a line. Lex gets a clue. And every CLex girl on earth yelled "DUH!" as Lex said what we've been predicting since day one. Because I swear, i've read that dialogue somewhere.

But wait! No! It's all a dream!

Fine, fine, fine.

The new girl next door is a brand new type of kryptomutant, though luckily for all of us, the writers didnt' feel the need to really explain anything at all. There was drugs involved, and an Evil Uncle, and Lana In Danger, and some really bizarre and when I say this, think of the Luthor standard on the word bizarre--BIZARRE Lex and Lionel going on. And I'm so glad I'm not an analyzer looking for meaning, because I hvae a headache just remembering. But.

Lana:

Didn't annoy me. So right, I could have lived with her unfortunate death in the lake due to a cramp when Clark ran off to save Sweatshirt Girl, but again, Clark stripped, and like I said, balance in everything.

What I suppose is annoying me is the fact that no longer do we have to put up with Lana-storylines, so we could at least fastforward when we got tired of her--she's being integrated steadily into the sidekick mode at the expense of the rest of the characters. Removing Chloe's interest in kryptomutants--while logical with Lionel's threats--is annoying, and God alone knows what they're doing with Pete.

Without a lot of subtlety, the writers are stripping the significance of every character's place in Clark's life to give that position to Lana. The Sidekick (Pete) and Believer (Chloe) and Dream Girl all wrapped in one. What. The. Fuck. This isn't endearing her to me, by the way.

I'm kind of bitter. Anyway.

Clark looked cute. That's really all there is to say about this one.

Lex--I don't know what's going on with Lex at this point. He's pretty. And he really needs to go back to his old wardobe. Now. Drone does not become him at all.

Lionel's hair had a life of its own. It scares me a lot.

I have nothing to say about the entire Luthor family, because frankly, they are acting bizarre. If this is part of an arc, I can deal with that, but I'd like at least a little--I don't know--meat in each piece of the arc. Something to chew on properly. This was a marrowless bone of non-chewability.

Dreams:

I'm still working out what the writers were trying to do--I have this bad feeling that the original script for this made a lot more sense. I mean, it was a cool dream--Clark's fantasy truck (in blue, huh), fantasy girl, fantasy lake, with Sweatshirt Girl cueing the coming of bad things every time. Again, we're talking about balance--fantasy moment at the lake broken by Girl, then fantasy of truck and then Girl, after which it spirals into a nightmare of missed history test and Lex turning on him. I suppose I'm being hyper about this one--dreams aren't supposed to make sense, but I kept feeling like I was *just* missing something every time. Lex's entire speech with the sword and the non-human thing then turning on Clark, followed by Fangirl Fantasy Dialogue (I swear I read it somewhere), and so on and so forth.

Secondly--what the *hell* was dreamworld supposed to *be*? It didn't affect the outside world at all except Clark getting extra zzz's, and yet it was made significant that she defeat her own head--her uncle *wasn't there*, so really, all dreamworld actually *was* was a place in her head made by drugs. What happened there *didn't* affect the outside world. Her defeat of the Uncle Monster inside wasn't a precursor to being able to defeat him outside--it was entirely independent and done by Clark.

So it was pretty, I get that, and there's a really *good* chance I missed something significant in the entire theme thing, but--I kept seeing how *good* this could have been. Say, if they'd linked up more of the story thematically--they really *could* have done something with Lex seeing a psychologist and Clark battling symbolism in his dreams, but it just felt--adrift. Like either really significant bits of the show were cut out or something, leaving us with tantalizing and unconnected stretches of the original concept--especially when Clark goes to see Lex in real time and they talk about the sword, and it turns out the dream was *wrong*, it wasn't anything close to what Clark had dreamed.

I never thought I'd miss the anvils. Never.

Wow, this was a sucky review. *sighs* I'm going to go get Brian blown now.

Comments

[valentinemichel.livejournal.com]

{hugs Jenn tightly}

I too could do without the Lana worship lust love. It's annoying beyond words, but, in spite of Clark's Phoenix dropkick of the former girl next door, apparently here to stay.

It makes me grumpy. But nekkid Clark distracted me.

::hangs head::

For this, I apologize.

I am sorry . . .

[on-to-us.livejournal.com]

. . . But Tom Welling has the most perfect bone structure on earth. It really comes through in your icon.

Then again, it could be the lipstick.

::have not watched Smallville since Whitney bought it, so I still live in my CLex fairyland. La, la!::

And hurrah for Brian getting blown! ::anticipates::


-E

[kernezelda]

It's kind of sad that even in ComaGirl's head, Lana and Clark are Meant To Be, and Lana must be saved from Cute!Uncle.

This isn't Smallville, it's Lanaville. I watched and enjoyed all the pretty, and made snarky comments, and will soon forgot it.

[goss.livejournal.com]

I'm going to go get Brian blown now.

yay!

[wrenlet.livejournal.com]

*points* I'm with you.

Do we get to watch, huh huh, can we? :D

[ex-niciasus652.livejournal.com]

I feel you. And poor Pete with only one single line of dialogue uttered in the entire episode.

[estoile.livejournal.com]

... and some really bizarre and when I say this, think of the Luthor standard on the word bizarre--BIZARRE Lex and Lionel going on.

Oh dear. I so want to see this episode now. Just to find out what constitutes bizarrer than Luthor-standard bizarre. Well, and to see Clark in a state of serious undress. I can ignore the excessive Lana-tude. Really I can. No, really.

But the PTB in New Zealand won't start showing the season until it's half over Up There. They never do. Unenlightened (and cheap) beings that they are.

Meanwhile, I have nice, spoilery analyses (thank you!) to keep me happy. And new-season pron. Mmmm, pron ...

[teenygozer.livejournal.com]

With regard to Sarah's fight against the not-Uncle in the dream being ineffective because he wasn't really *there*, I think the point was that she basically had to want to fight to live. She'd been finding it easier to do as the Large Red Dream Creature wanted, to stop fighting, to be a good girl and go into the deep, dark place where it was peaceful, or at least less scary than wherever the Large Red Dream Creature was. I agree, it wasn't at all clearly written, we could have used an anvil or two in that instance.

The Large Red Dream Creature was a sort of a sickly hybrid of the amazingly wonderful Large Red Dream Creature in Fisher King and the pretty damned scary Ghost of Xmas Future in Scrooged. I saw what they were going for. They didn't make it.

I'm thinkin' the dreams were in Clark's head, not in the girl's head... school, the lake, the Kent's barn; they were all places she'd never seen. Clark says, "How *do* you get into my dreams" to Sarah.

Good review, with some interesting points raised! Not sucky. But, y'know, lucky for Brian.

Huh?

[briefklammern.livejournal.com]

Because the season three is not showed here, I have a question. Who dreamed what about Lex. Clark has hot dreams about him? Arrgh, just my wish. Or maybe he had the same nightmare as me. Lex not male, but female. The whole world shocked.- (It was more disgusting as Lex and Clark looking like schoolgirls in uniforms and singing "All the things she said".

No, I don´t drugs, but I have the flu and fever. (explain a lot)