Monday, 25 October 2010

Hidden

DVD, Smallville S5 (Hidden)

The meteor freaks plot gets another angle, this time an unaffected, but murderous lad decides Smallville town should be obliterated after his Dad became a mutant thanks to the most recent meteor strike. One of the worst meteor-inspired episodes they've done, which doesn't know whether it's a catalyst towards Clark getting his powers back, or about the Chloe connection, or Lana's new-found faith in Clark, while Lex continues to act obnoxiously, far from the sympathetic character he used to be. In truth it's all of these things, none of which work well enough. If one or two strands had been concentrated on then perhaps a more coherent and enjoyable story might have been fashioned from this lump of Kryptonite rock that is Season 5.

It begins with some inappropriate behaviour from Clark and Lana turned into a comic moment rather unsavourably I felt, and then we're into the story about the guy who wants to blow up Smallville because somehow that will prevent any more mutants from appearing. He just happens to be the tech guy who used to work on the Torch, but there's no connection to him whatsoever, whereas if he'd been a character we'd seen several times throughout the series his dastardly plot would have made more of an impact. Unhappily the story is curtailed by the old 'struggle for the gun and the baddie is accidentally killed', bypassing any guilt Chloe might feel at having killed someone. There seems to be a good deal more blood than we're used to, but maybe the series has moved to a slightly older demographic as the characters have aged?

One strand of the episode gives some air time to the arc that began in the first episode, of the mysterious black spaceship that we learn for definite has been snatched by Lex. This side of things is what we wanted to find out more on, and thankfully Lionel progresses too. In a great gag he becomes the body that Jor-el inhabits. Why does Jor-el need a body? Dunno, but it was a good scene, as was the moment Clark dies on the operating table. The less said about Lana's whining, the better - it's not true what she says about knowing Clark was the only one to make her happy as soon as she first saw him and is just sentimental rubbish, poured out over Clark's injured form. But the less said...

Clark gets his powers back, and admittedly that makes sense because that's what the series is about. Glover does a good impression of the clipped British (or Kryptonian) tones of Clark's dead Dad. But is he still in there somewhere? It's kind of a cop-out that Clark gets his powers back by dying (he's shot, blood oozes out and by the time he falls to the ground his shirt's dry!), and Jor-el witters on about there having to be a balance in nature so someone's 'life force' must be given up for him - surely such a balance would have to be immediate yet no one close to Clark dies in the episode. I can't believe Clark didn't tell his parents the truth about someone close to him destined to die - he's making the same mistake he's made so many times before! And it's no good telling Chloe that he made a terrible mistake giving up his powers in the first place, because he did it to save her life - wasn't that worth it?

Lana is standing staunchly by her boyfriend leading to bad blood between her and Lex (although they discuss the possibility of Clark not being normal quite frankly, which is rare), but you begin to see how things are likely to play out. How is Clark ever going to explain to Lana that he was resurrected and then got his clothes burnt through when the missile he was climbing up in space hurtled back to Earth? She's going to go off on one about him not telling her secrets and it'll be an end to it. Again. Either that or he's going to reveal his secret, but that seems unlikely. Regardless, the effects of Clark going into space and clawing up the missile were very good, but a bit wacky even for 'Smallville'. There's little rhyme or reason with the characters and Season 5 continues that bad writing, so that even exciting effects can't save it now.

**

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