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Smallville: Rabid

It's all about the zombies these days, isn't it? But it's not easy pulling off a convincing zombie attack. Supernatural did zombies last week, and a whole lot better. What if Smallville and Supernatural were still airing together? That could have been embarrassing.

Actually, this episode was embarrassing. I do realize that this is a comic book universe, but did it have to be so... comicbookish? When everyone in the cast gets infected with something, you know there's going to be a superperfect cure with no side effects; when everyone but the cast gets infected, the viewer doesn't care. You sort of have to pick a likable secondary character and kill them off in a scenario like this. I was hoping for Tess. But no. Then again, she's not likable.

Clark so needs a mask or something.

Emil got a lift from Clark. :) He took it in stride, so to speak. And Clark even came out as an alien to Emil. Meaning that everyone in the freaking cast knows what Clark is except freaking Lois. I do get a little jolt of pleasure every time I see Battlestar's Alessandro Juliani as Emil, but now I can tell they're probably going to make him evil. Drat. At least he can do evil really, really well, with acting complexity and everything.

Oliver stopped by to dissolve into a state of angst and call Clark Jesus eight or nine times, and then topped it off by burning his pretty green costume. I'm starting to think Oliver is just bitter that he doesn't have superpowers. I used to love Oliver; he was cool. He's losing me.

Don't let Lois fall asleep or it'll get her? Shall we stir in a little Nightmare on Elm Street in there, too? And then they hopped, skipped and jumped over creating and distributing a cure for the whole city from Clark's blood, too. Which made zero sense until the last few minutes, when Zod revealed that it was a diabolical Kryptonian virus while quoting Buddha. (Come on, say it! The son of Jor-El will be my slave! Oh, well. I didn't even get that.)

The previews hinted that this would be a Lois/Clark episode. It wasn't. I had a bet going with myself that it would be just another tease, and bingo. We even got Clark staring regretfully at a photo of Lana, which made me shriek, nooooooooooo! Talk about zombies. Sorry about that, Lana.

Lois called the Blur "Studly Do-Right," and she called Tess "Cruella." That lightened the episode for a few brief seconds. But for the most part, I really want this hour of my life back.
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Billie Doux had a love-hate relationship with Smallville, which is why some of her reviews are briefer than they should be.

5 comments:

  1. Smallville does zombie movies. The teaser was an obvious shout-out to 28 Days Later, with Clark waking up alone, finding the entire city deserted and getting attacked by an infected Lois. Not the most original episode the series has ever produced but certainly one of the most shamelessly enjoyable. To me that is. I can understand why you didn’t like it Billie. I was fully expecting to hate this episode so I’m surprised I enjoyed it as much as I did.

    Got to admit, I can’t stand Tess but seeing her fighting the zombies with a katana was pretty cool. The entertainment industry is seriously lacking a samurai/zombie subgenre to exploit. But why do they continue to have a glass desk in the Luther mansion? It’s always getting shattered every other week. Does Tess get a discount at Glass Desks “R” Us or something?

    Ollie has fallen hard and it doesn’t look like he’s going to get up anytime soon. Can’t say I’m sorry to see the old Green Arrow costume go up in smoke. Never did like it all that much. However, I’m starting to think that Justin Hartley must have a shirtless clause in his contact. All those topless scenes are getting a little gratuitous.

    Lois and Clark are in the rain, arms wrapped around each other, longing in their eyes and they still don’t kiss. Has neither of them seen the last act of a romantic movie? You’re supposed to kiss each other! Boy, are they are clueless. Loved the symbolism at the end with Clark literally closing the book on Lana. Fingers-crossed that it’s for good this time. You are right about her, Billie. She just won’t stay dead. She is dead, isn’t she? I stop watching last season when she came back. Please, tell me she’s dead.

    So Zod’s quest involves reading Buddha, huh. Wonder what he thinks of Nietzsche.

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  2. Mark, your comments on this week's Smallville were much better than my review. :) I'm just not their target audience with this kind of thing. Lex Luthor fighting his inner demons, yes. Tess with a Katana, no.

    I stopped counting my three Smallville "hits" a long time ago, but I swear there were at least two of each in this episode: breaking glass, car wrecks, and people getting thrown across rooms. It got discouraging counting them when they just went on and on and on.

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  3. First of all: Thank You, Billie, for the brief comments.
    Actually your comments were not that brief.

    I actually liked this episode. Every scene had some fine details (most notably: Clark getting Coffee and taking care of a fire, off-screen)
    Smallville's low budget was used in a very efficient way (fighting scenes).
    Turning the stand-alone zombie plot into a part of seasons story arc is imho a good way, to keep both kind of viewers happy.

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  4. Clark removed Lana's photo from his wallet, smiled and kept it inside his photo album. And then Lois came in. I think it was a symbolism for Clark finally closing the book on Lana Lang and moving on.
    A.M.

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