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Smallville: Prey
This was the first episode this season that I was really unimpressed with.
There were a few things about it I loved
First and foremost, it was great to see Clark really stepping up to the hero role, and being committed to saving everyone. And I was unspoiled for the reappearance of J'onn J'onzz, and was really happy to see him again and excited that he took a job on the force mainly to help Clark. Yay! for Clark having smart allies. ETA: And I actually cheered when he
And in theory I like the idea of Chloe and Clark going in different directions in a way that pushes Clark to take more responsibility for doing his own research and in general turning into Clark Kent, reporter, not just Clark Kent, superhero. It was great watching Clark listening to the police band and in general researching on his own, since Lois was at a monster truck rally. (Hee!!)
But there were many, many things I didn't like about the episode
First of all, when the hell did Metropolis become Gotham? The crime rate seems a little extreme, and some of that stuff (like the teenagers mugging the little kid? In the middle of the night?) was pretty damn unbelievable.
Second, the conflict between Chloe and Clark seemed extremely manufactured to me. I can see Chloe being protective of her "kids"--though I am still finding this whole Chloe-rehabilitating-mutants storyline really uninteresting, like Chloe has just adopted Lana's role--but Chloe is perfectly aware that not all MA folks are perfectly stable, AND Clark has made a whole career of putting his faith in people's he's only just met, so the actually substance of their argument seemed unlikely to me. Though partly I just want Chloe to back to some sort of investigative job and stop trying to be Mother Theresa. Ok, her statistic about the 327 mutants she investigated--and the zero that she saved--was kind of moving, and in some ways I like how they're setting her up to be the anti-Tess (or setting Tess up to be the anti-Chloe, whatever), but....empathetic counselor Chloe BORES me.
And while the Chloe-Davis chemistry is fun to watch, I really actually don't understand why she instinctively trusts him. And obviously he's going to turn out to be a bad guy, so she's just getting set up for a fall.
And Clark's whole speech to Chloe about how he's not interested in singing kumbaya? Wow. I actually wanted to slap him. I liked his apology to her at the end, but I was pretty mad at the writers for making that necessary, because I can buy him getting obsessed with saving people, but his particular level of jerkiness to her seemed very OOC to me.
Things I am suspending judgment on for the moment
I kind of like Jimmy investigating the mystery hero--for one thing, I like any plotline that gives Jimmy something non-romantic to do, and besides which Jimmy has good investigative instincts. I just fear that he, too, is just getting set up to be shot down (like when he was investigating Lex Luthor), since we all know Clark's identity isn't going to be revealed. ETA Oops, I may have spoken too soon, since I missed the preview for next week's ep when I flipped over to watch Grey's, and didn't see it until I watched my recording of SPN.
The Davis mystery is interesting, but they better go somewhere with it soon or I will get very impatient.
I really missed Lois and Tess in this episode, dammit!
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I guess they have stuff planned to happen soon because this felt like a big old stepping stone to *something*.
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Makes no sense ...
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Lois at the Monster Truck rally lol... reading around forums, I found out its actually canon that Lois Lane likes going to those.. I thought that was awesome!
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I definitely agree he's looking good this season.
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I think one thing we have to remember is that this is a Metropolis without Superman even if Clark is starting to do his superhero thing. It would be unbelievable for a city that's supposed to be as big as Metropolis to not have a big crime rate. I'm sure it will go down when Superman has established himself, and then all Clark will really have to worry about is crimes committed by metas.
My only problems with the episode were the arguments between Clark and Chloe, but that was because they both had good points yet neither acknowledged until the end of the episode (and I even hand waved those away because both were on a mission and were single minded in accomplishing their goals)
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I also felt the scenarios at the beginning with Clark doing his good samaritan jobs could have been a little less contrived. What was that? A well clothed, well fed, healthy looking 8 yr old? Out on the streets of Metropolis at what time of night? Please. Could we be a little more subtle?
Likewise on the Jimmy front (Clark needs someone to be wondering about him clearly) and thank god for the MM turn up because honestly I was starting to wonder if Clark even bothered to look around any more before zipping into super mode.
I don't know that it was any one thing about this episode that made me go Meh, I think it was the overall combination of forced story lines and characterisation in a number of places that just didn't fit well.
At least there was Clark - looking incredibly good and also supermanly with his saves.
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Yeah. It didn't feel authentic at ALL. Maybe if they had spent a couple episodes showing Chloe bonding with those kids so she had more reason to have instinctive faith in them, and if they had shown Clark descending into obsession over the same period of time--but as it was, it just didn't seem in character. And WOW do I agree with you about the good samaritan jobs being contrived.
It was cool to see Clark being supermanly, though.
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Wanna bet? I work in law enforcement in a city with the highest crime rate in the U.S. and you'd be amazed the different types of crimes I get on my desk. Granted they don't happen in the same night, but this is Smallville and they only had 42 minutes to get to the point. But even the idea that at least three crimes (even a robbery and a mugging, even if it is of a child--which was mostly done for the amusement of the little kid throwing air punches) happening in the same night is not that much of a stretch. Not every crime gets reported or media attention. And, I may be wrong but correct me if I am, I think Clark went out with the intention of stopping the robbery and along the way stopped the mugging. While it may seem implausible that the little kid was out in the middle of the night, I have enough clients on my caseload that have been doing things they had no business doing when they were young (which is why they are still in the system now) to be able to imagine that the little kid was out int he middle of the night doing something he had no business doing.
I guess my point is that I've always lived in big cities and both of them were at one time or another the city with the highest crime rate, so some things that seem implausible just flew over my head because I'm used to it...and because its Smallville and they revel in over the top.
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But I'm pretty sure we're not going to end up agreeing on this, because the real issue is that I think it's part of the overall shoddy writing of the episode (which I think overall took a lot of bad character and plot shortcuts) and you liked the episode and didn't find it as implausible as I did.
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I, too, like Jimmy's role to be more in line with his canon role.
I hope there won't be too many more episodes with so few regular featured. Prey felt alterverse-y in the extreme.
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Natch they still think that Supermanly means judgmental black and white, so that's Clark-idiotic as usual.
But Chloe ought to reserve her judgment until she's (hello) researched the possible perp, ya know? It is very OOC for her.
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Real Life isn't necessarily good fiction. The Crime Rate in one evening was overboard enough to get me asking myself wtf, too. imo the handling of it was a bit ham-handed and too dark. I mean, you're not supposed to cause even some of the audience to wonder, gee, aren't there an awful lot of these crimes in a short time.
The 19 yr old bullies after a puny 6 yr old after dark was over the top (implausible) and was designed to goose-up the audience happiness that Clark is now acting as the savior of the night. Very cheesy. It's aimed at the 6 yr olds in the audience tsk because it could have been finessed into something more comforting rather than leaving a whiff of something disturbing.
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