Smallville: Noir

[norwich36]

Ok, I'd be completely and perfectly happy if all of Smallville was set in ...shoot, I can't really say outside a spoiler cut, can I?


I want them to have some sort of meteor mutant send the whole show back to the 1940s! For good! It was completely and totally awesome! I mean, we obviously have to resurrect Lex and stuff, but damn! This may become my most rewatched episode ever, because I really loved it. But I really love the look of noir stuff, so I may be biased.

And, um, that may be it for my analysis. I did not take notes, for the first time in about a year, because I am multitasking and I'm really supposed to be finishing a work project right now instead of writing a review. So my brief reactions:

JIMMY!!! I'm completely in love with you now that I know you have thing for noir movies. And I love how smart your dream/movie is, too. Even if you gave Chloe the only bad 1940s woman's hairdo.

CLARK!!! Holy GUH. Geez, I couldn't decide if I liked you better doing the classic klutzy Kent with glasses move, spilling coffee on Chloe, or as the smooth operator in the Talon (HOT) or as the philanderer in the wifebeater. Oh, actually, I CAN decide: the wifebeater wins!! HOLY GUH!!

LEX!!! In the tux, with the white scarf and handsome chapeau! Kissing Lois! Owning the Daily Planet! Casually slinging insults at Lionel!!

LANA!! Femme fatale is a really, really good look on you. Just saying. I'm not sure I completely believe the story you told Chloe in the real world, but I don't think I'm going to comment more on that plot until I rewatch.

LOIS! I loved you as a torch singer! I'm a little torn on the whole stealing evidence from a crime scene thing, though. But I'm glad you got to be reporterly in real life since you didn't get to in the 1940s.

Ok, more analysis may follow tomorrow night or Saturday morning after I rewatch and have more time. I'm also not going to have any time to collect reviews for eat_crow until tomorrow night at the earliest, so if you want to go ahead and link your own review there, that would be much appreciated.

Comments

[herohunter.livejournal.com]

IT ROCKED!!!!

[norwich36.livejournal.com]

It really, really did.

[isilweth.livejournal.com]

I haven't watched the episode, yet. I love your excitement, though! That's awesome to see two weeks in row. Smallville for the win!

[norwich36.livejournal.com]

Oh, I almost always love Smallville, but the last two episodes have seriously rocked.

[cinderella81.livejournal.com]

HOT DAMN!!! All the flashbacky stuff just owns me!!! Clark was just GUH!!! Dorky, smooth, and HAWT!!!

Here's my review: http://cinderella81.livejournal.com/142940.html

[norwich36.livejournal.com]

Thanks, sweetie, I just linked it.

And yes, Clark was just beyond amazingly beautiful in this episode. Your icon is very appropriate.

[ladydreamer.livejournal.com]

Lex is freaken indestructable. He's survived gunshot wounds before! He'll wake up somewhere intensely surprised to be alive and a little nonplussed to find that his golddigging wife has been taken care of for him.

I loved so much about this ep. Chloe's 40s patter was great, and Lois was gorgeous as the singer. Lex... awesomesauce. Clark as the bumbling reporter made me happy... then the EVOL CLANA!!! Good grief, there was a lot of homo-subtext in this ep. Even Lionel was advising the young men to stay away from dames.... He was like a chickenhawk behind the bar instructing the boys to stay with their own... I just had to mention that.

[norwich36.livejournal.com]

Yeah, or maybe it was all a plot he and Clark cooked up to see if Lana was really trying to kill him!

I thought everyone did a great job with the noir conventions and speech styles, and yeah, I agree, there was definitely tons and tons of homoerotic overtones--especially Jimmy and Clark in the bar. Your Lionel comment made me LOL.

[bittermint.livejournal.com]

Clark was "guhhh!" on a stick, but I have to admit, Lex was Teh Sexay in that fedora with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth!

What is it about 1940's suits that make men look so damn hot?? And I was so happy to see that Jimmy chose "The Big Sleep" as his inspiration -- I *heart* Bogie!

[norwich36.livejournal.com]

Not just the suits, but the hats, too--I love men in hats! And that lovely jaded cynicism of all the heroes in noir films, too.

I may have to make a mood icon set or something from this episode--everyone was just SO damn pretty.

[latxcvi.livejournal.com]

It was SO MUCH FUN. I have to watch it again before I can comment meaningfully on it, but I really, really, REALLY enjoyed it.

[norwich36.livejournal.com]

After rewatching this, I've decided I'm not going to be able to really analyze this ep until we see what comes later, because I honestly can't disentangle what's just supposed to be Jimmy's projections onto the different characters and what is actual foreshadowing. But it was fun to rewatch! literaryll has a great post (http://literaryll.livejournal.com/43401.html) on lots of the subtle ways the set design and cinematography used noir tropes, which just made me appreciate those parts of it more.

[latxcvi.livejournal.com]

because I honestly can't disentangle what's just supposed to be Jimmy's projections onto the different characters and what is actual foreshadowing

That's the problem I have with it, too. On one hand, I enjoyed the Rosencrantz & Gildenstern Are Dead-esque aspects of the dream sequence (i.e., seeing things from the POV of a secondary character), because it's often interesting to get a fresh perspective on things. OTOH, I'm just not sure how seriously I'm supposed to take Jimmy's projections when one considers that of all the people in the dream, the only person he honestly knows is Chloe. He doesn't particularly hang out with Clark or Lana and, like I told huzzlewhat, his understanding of who Lex is as a person probably is primarily limited to thinking him a shady businessman.

And honestly, as iconic and wonderful as dream!Clark was, it actually doesn't make a lot of sense to me that Jimmy would view Clark that way. If Jimmy had known Clark since S1 and had seen the ways in which Clark has grown as a person since that time, the whole dorkalicious-by-day/crime-fighting-by-night persona would work as his subconscious mind's extrapolation of one possible take on Clark. But it doesn't make a lot of sense based on what we've been shown of how Jimmy reacts to and assesses Clark in the waking world. Jimmy's never thought Clark was a dork who just hadn't gotten in touch with his inner Greek god and he actually doesn't have Chloe's hero-worship of Clark. So there's a disconnect for me in how dream!Clark is portrayed. It's one of those times when I'm very aware of the meta-textual winking going on: "Look! See? Dork by day, crime-fighter by night!" And yeah, I know that that's Clark's destiny, but Jimmy doesn't -- and he's got no reason to, either, not based on what he knows of and thinks of Clark in the here and now.

[ferdalump.livejournal.com]

YAY!!

A Lexis kiss.

Clark in the wife beater and bumbling with glasses.

Lois lounge singer in a dress made of awesome AND being reportery! *squee*

40's Film Noir :)

I am a happy camper today. It was not perfect, but comparitively to the a lot of episodes this season Noir was squee worthy. :)

YAY!

[norwich36.livejournal.com]

Yes, the eye candy in this ep was awesome! And it was nice that Lois got to be the smart reporter in the present, since she wasn't in the dream sequence.

[duskwillow.livejournal.com]

I want them to have some sort of meteor mutant send the whole show back to the 1940s! For good! It was completely and totally awesome!
Yes please!! I love this suggestion!

The episode was amazing! ♥

[norwich36.livejournal.com]

Wasn't it? *Bounces up and down with happiness*

[mahaliem.livejournal.com]

This was such an enjoyable episode. As for deciding which Clark was best, I think I'd like bumbling reporter!Clark by day and wifebeater! by night.

Although Clark was by far the prettiest, I thought Lex looked very, very good in black and white.

[norwich36.livejournal.com]

Ah, you have chosen wisely to get the best of both Clarks!! But I agree with you, Lex also looked fabulous--very suave and sophisticated. And I love the era when men wore hats, especially fedoras.

[bop-radar.livejournal.com]

I'm completely with you on all those responses.

the whole stealing evidence from a crime scene thing, though
I thought this was fine, because a) it seemed very noir-ish reporter, appropriate for the episode, b) classic reporter Lois always did bend the rules way more than Clark Kent--a bone of contention between them, so I liked that Lois has got the sneaky going on. Not saying it's admirable, just appropriate. ;-)

[norwich36.livejournal.com]

You know, I'm kind of dumb, because before reading your review it didn't occur to me just how much the noir-ish stuff was part of the present day, too. (Lois flirting up the cop is another example of that--not that she wouldn't do it in the present, but that combined with the purse dropping now strikes me as very noirish in the using the feminine wiles to get ahead in a man's world type of angle.) It really is a pity we didn't get to see Lois as a 40s reporter, though, because that would haver really rocked.

Using a very NON-40s Lois icon, just because.

[bop-radar.livejournal.com]

that combined with the purse dropping now strikes me as very noirish in the using the feminine wiles to get ahead in a man's world type of angle
Yeah, totally! I really liked the way the noir bled into the present day--the way Chloe toppled and fell all those multiple storeys was gold and there was all sorts of gorgeous detail in the office Chloe and Jimmy apprehended the political reporter in.

I will never stop loving that icon! :-)