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Underground > Film, TV & Theatre >

Smallville Season 4

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20:31 / 19.07.04

Discuss the upcoming next season -- if anyone still cares

from Comics2Film:

>> SMALLVILLE

Executive producer Miles Millar spilled the beans to Kryptonsite about some Season 4 activities. "We're really excited for the season. We're really excited for the new cast members. Jensen's fantastic. We just saw the first
scene with Lois and Clark today. They had incredible chemistry. So, it seems like it's a really different season. We're looking forward to it. It's graduation, it's the last year in high school. We see a transformation with
Clark. Clark becomes from Clark the geek to a really popular kid; high school quarterback. So, for us, I guess the theme of this season is graduation."

Lois has been cast, her pic is in the Smallville Season 3 thread, I think.

Interesting that Smallville will have the kiddies graduating from high school this year.... I think they're contracted for 5 seasons and this is the 4th....

06:26 / 20.07.04

Ah, I'm waiting for the tra-- er, DVD collection.

ONLY NICE THINGS

09:05 / 20.07.04

I'd *like* to care - I loved Smallvlle more than anything for its big dumb stupidity, it's spectacular homoeroticism, the presence of Bo Duke, and lovely lovely Lex and Chloe, but it just seemed to die off after series one...

Does that mean lovely Chloe is kaput, replaced by this awful Lane rip-off? And Christine Kreuk has spent all sumer trying and failing to use her face to express any emotion at all?

15:22 / 20.07.04

Yeah, I really want to care but every time I see a Smallville episode it's like, well, it had some cool bits BUT long list of things I didn't like.

And I'm really not liking the introduction of Lois in Smallville. They wasted a lot of potential with Chole.

And since when has Tom Welling been a geek? It's almost as if Miles Millar doesn't even know his own show.

16:51 / 20.07.04

Never fear, Haus, Chloe will still be very much around...

17:38 / 20.07.04

She will? How do you know this? I thought they blew her ass up!

15:15 / 21.07.04

do you really want to be spoiled? (not that it's that big a deal, but thought I'd ask first)

16:06 / 21.07.04

Ummmm... The Flash saved her between frames? Don't tell me that the same actress is going to be playing Lois only with her hair dyed black! Just tell me!

16:47 / 21.07.04

All I know from various spoiler sites is that Chloe's death was faked (to really keep her off the radar of Lionel's hit men). Apparently she shows up mid-season with dark brown hair (truly given a new look and ID by the witness protection program). There are people on Smallville sites who have reported seeing the actress playing Chloe doing shoots in a brown wig, long before they cast the actress playing Lois (and Lois will have black hair anyway, so I don't think it could have been a confusion of the two).

It is good that they're going to keep away from Clark and Lana soap opera stuff for a good long while....

16:52 / 21.07.04

And Lois shows up in the first place because she doesn't believe her cousin Chloe is dead and wants to investigate. She meets Clark as he's doing the same thing.

19:17 / 13.08.04

Funny that Imp should mention the Flash above -- plans are for the Flash to show up in season 4. Yet it will be Bart Allen, and he will name-drop Wally West and Jay Garrick.

I hope season 4 is good...although I fear it won't be...

Jack The Bodiless

11:42 / 17.08.04

Of course it won't be. It was a shitty idea to start with.

ONLY NICE THINGS

13:11 / 17.08.04

Oh, come on, Jack.

Bo. Duke. Raises. A. Superman.

You are, to use the phrase that's a craze in the Comic Books forum, objectively wrong.

XXII:X:II = XXX

05:04 / 18.08.04

Wait. The Flash is going to be BART Allen? Not Barry? As in Impulse? Da fug?

I've decried the involvement of The Flash, simply because I think it's a wasted potential of a spinoff in having him be a kid. Pull a superpowered CSI-type show; Barry Allen WAS a forensic detective. Why is it left to me to think this shit up?

I lost interest in SMALLVILLE in a big way after the mid-season cliffhanger this past season; I just thought, "Shit, they've just blown their wad and there's no way they can top that." I've started watching the latter season eps, and while they're OK, so far I ain't impressed. I think it's a mistake to bring in Lois, and I definitely don't wish to lose Chloe; she's FAR hotter than Lana, by my standards, to say nothing of more interesting. Clark is a sucka.

/+,

17:39 / 13.09.04

Did you hear Clark is gonna fly this season? So much for no flights and tights.

19:03 / 13.09.04

Yeah, but I guess it's going to be, like, not REALLY Clark flying, but either a doppelganger or brainwashed version or some foolishness like that, so as to circumvent the rule.

Anyway, I really want to like this show because the pilot episode lo those few years ago showed a real promise to it, but the show is wildly uneven. One in four or five episodes is REALLY good, to the point where I'll sit up in my chair and say aloud to no one "That's really fucking cool." (Like the "Lex's childhood" episode.) But those other three to four episodes are just bland, mild, uninteresting episodic stuff, which you have to watch only to set up the good ones. If it wasn't for the occasional spark of inspiration and John Glover's awesomenity (and, yeah, Chloe too, I'll admit) I'd've given up on this show already.

But ths season looks like it's showing promise. Lana's away or her role is diminished. Clark has to start doing more superhero-y things. The Flash, even if he is some kid. And the special DCU guest they have pegged for episode #7 is a head-scratcher, but potentially gold.

Jack The Bodiless

11:41 / 14.09.04

Bo. Duke. Raises. A. Superman.

Dude, if that'd been the idea to begin with, I'd been more sold than Johnny Rotten. No, the idea to begin with was Young Superman In The 21st Century In The Style Of Buffy's First Season. Yucky yuck yuck.

19:48 / 14.09.04

>> Yeah, but I guess it's going to be, like, not REALLY Clark flying, but either a doppelganger or brainwashed version or some foolishness like that, so as to circumvent the rule.

The scene is going to be in the Phantom Zone or whatever weird dimension place in the caves where Jor-El sent Clark to reclaim or learn more about his Kryptonian heritage, and it's going to be something like the SUPERMAN III scene with Evil Supes vs. good Clark. This might be Kryptonian Kal-El (a la the Eradicator-brainwashed Supes from the Superman comics) vs. Human Clark, and only the Kryptonian Kal-El will fly. Either that, or Clark will go around being brainwashed Kryptonian Kal-El for a while and he'll only fly when in full-on "I am Kryptonian and humans are useless fools" mode. This is based on various interviews and things I've read on the shows, lots o' spoilers.

Can we say it? They're gonna do a Mxptlyk character!

19:50 / 14.09.04

>> One in four or five episodes is REALLY good, to the point where I'll sit up in my chair and say aloud to no one "That's really fucking cool."

I agree completely. I've often said this about the show. Every once in a while, sometimes for a brief sustained stretch, they come up with some really cool spins on the Supes mythology and on the characters they're created for the show, managing to be innovative & intelligent. SOMETIMES.

01:57 / 15.09.04

Yeah, I think the reason I have problems with the show is because I'm not the target audience. I can only presume the targets are teens who wouldn't ordinarily watch/read Superman. And if they can lure in the comic fans with the occasional twist on history or comic nugget, that's just an added bonus. That's why they keep the Lana/Clark "romance" going, because I guess the younger crowd's rooting for them while everyone over 17's thinking "What do you two even see in one another?" If I were writing this show, it would be wacky crap every week and mermaid romances and 5-D beings and Clark visited by a Legion of Superheroes from the future and thinking "They're all wearing costumes, which is really weird but, hey, that might be a good look for me...". Which is why the WB would never hire me.

It also can't have that fun spontaneous feeling like, say, Buffy had because the characters have a strict set of guidelines they have to adhere to, as their futures are somewhat predestined. So there's no "Oh my god, Pete's been killed and his brain's put in a twelve-story high robot of death!" Although they get points for making Jor-El seem to be a villain.

As for the Mxyzptlk thing...replacing an imp with a "sexy foreign exchange student" (or whatever the interview I read said he would be) is an odd move, but probably for the best on prime-time television. I can live with that.

02:12 / 15.09.04

No, but c'mon, wouldn't this be a fun episode?:

CLARK KENT: So why do you all wear...costumes? And have goofy codenames?
COSMIC BOY: In tribute to you. You adopt a costume and alter ego in the future.
CK: Really? Then where do I get the idea from?
CB: From us, having come back in time to tell you about it.
CK: So, you get the idea from me, who gets the idea from you, who gets the idea from me?
CB: It is difficult to render into three-dimensional language, but that's essentially correct.
CK: God, I could really use a hit of red kryptonite right now.

Okay, maybe not that last line, but it'd get a laugh.

16:47 / 15.09.04

Nice one Octave!

20:12 / 20.09.04

I'm gonna miss this Wed. night (and the premiere is in 2 days!) -- conflicts with my acting class! Hope someone watches it and reports their thoughts....

02:26 / 23.09.04

I saw it. It was pretty cool. I loved the flying! I actually liked Lois. At first I thought she might get annoying but either the actress got into character or I got used to her.

Okay, so what happened. Basically Lois (on her way to Smallville to investigate Chloe's death) finds Clark lying, naked in a burning cornfield (Think the arival of the Terminator mixed with the Savage Dragon's origin.) He's got no memory of who he is or where he's been but we know that he's been gone for 3 months.

Meanwhile, in France we meet Lana's new boyfriend. We find out they met when he ran her over with his scooter and that they've been in loooove for 3 months.

Lex is in Egypt looking for Kryptonian artifacts. He unearths a statue of Thoth (no lie) with some alien writing on the back of it (just like in the cave in Smallville) he then gets on a plane and takes the statue with him.

Lois has taken Clark to the hospital and there he meets his mom. Jonathan has been in a coma for, yep, 3 months and the doctors want to pull the plug. Ma Kent flips out on the doctors and they leave him hooked up.

Clark doesn't remember his mother. He tells her he's waiting for a sign of some sort, and she takes him home promising to show him the sign. She doesn't. All she shows him are family photos.

On the plane, Lex breaks the statue by mistake and some gem falls out. Clark hears it from his home and flies up into the air to get it. He robs Lex in mid air and Lex doesn't know it's him (he actually thinks his father hired someone to steal the gem away from him in midflight.)

While all this is going on Lana is doing a rubbing of an old grave when she finds a weird symbol that downloads... something into her. She's changed from the info/energy blast but we don't know what the hell it is.

I'm loosing steam here.... anyone else want to finish. If not I'll finish tomorrow.

ONLY NICE THINGS

10:55 / 23.09.04

(Think the arival of the Terminator mixed with the Savage Dragon's origin.)

No.

I was much amused by the adverts - Lois very small in the corner, huge shot of Tom Welling, shirt open, leaning forward. The legend was something like "You knew it had to come..." the "it" presumably being the realisation that Clark is far too gay for Lois' arrival to have any meaningful impact whatsoever.

11:45 / 23.09.04

What do you mean no? What’s inaccurate about my comparisons?

Regrettable Juvenilia

12:39 / 23.09.04

I suspect he meant "no, I refuse to think of such a thing".

14:01 / 23.09.04

>> Lex is in Egypt looking for Kryptonian artifacts. He unearths a statue of Thoth (no lie)

Gotta love that Thoth! That's pretty awesome.

So what else happened? Any good cliffhanger ending? Any hint that Chloe's really alive yet?

Does Lex actually see Clark flying?

20:10 / 23.09.04

No, Lex saw "something" but he can't tell it's Clark and blames the whole thing on his pops.

After the Lana gets flashed by the rubbing she's doing at Notre Dame (I think) she wakes up all confused with some new alien tattoo. The weird connection is that she gets flashed at the same moment that Clark places the Krypton artifact recovered from Lex's jet into some carved out section of the cave. There looks to be two more missing pieces from the hollowed out section. Pa Kent wakes up at this exact moment too.

Next Martha shows up at the cave and hands Kal-El some black kryptonite (or something like that, she gets it from an assistant to Dr. Swann played by Margo Kidder). Clark then wrestles his way out of a split-body brawl and he's back - Kal-El is gone.

After Pa Kent wakes up and Clark is back it's all pretty much group hugs and the power of faith and family. Clark cannot remember how he flew, but remembers that it rocked.

The last scene has Clark meeting up with Lois at Chloe's grave. After they exchange some banter, Lois starts to walk away, but Clark x-rays the ground to see Chloe's coffin empty. He exclaims that Chloe's not dead - the ep ends.

21:37 / 23.09.04

Could Clark's birth mother have downloaded into Lana? I mean, there was this weird scene change right when Margo Kidder says, "the only thing that can beat a father something or other is a mother's love." And they've focused on Jor-EL long enough. I'd like to learn a bit more about Lara.

14:32 / 24.09.04

Good point, Imp.

I mean, hey, if Jor-El can be a dead-but-ghostly- spirit-with-incredible-power- to-still-affect-the-physical-world, -give-people-powers-and-crazy-shit-like-that, why not Lara?

And since the venerable Terence Stamp is voicing Jor-El, who's left from the Superman movies that they can get to voice Lara? They've already done Reeve, Kidder, Annette O'Toole -- who's left? The actress who played Ursula, for crying out loud?

Maybe Kim Delaney from animated Superman??

16:58 / 24.09.04

maybe Miss Teschmacher...

21:04 / 24.09.04

from Comics Continuum -- I heard about this, doing a Mr. Myxptlk episode with a twist - many have commented that the Smallville producers are returning to the Silver Age, with Lois, a Flash character appearing, more colors of Kryptonite, and more...

The pic accompanying the article below shows a goofy looking kid (almost like bohemian surfer dude) who definitely looks very Eastern European.

-------

Trent Ford has been cast as Mikhail Mxzptlk in an upcoming episode of The WB's Smallville, The Continuum has learned.

In a recent interview with The Continuum, Smallville executive producer Al Gough provided the show's spin on the character.

"He will not be the imp in the purple hat," Gough said. "But there is a character who is sort of an Eastern European exchange student who is sort of a jinx."

According to Gough, the character will appear in the season's seventh episode.

Ford, 25, has appeared in such films as How to Deal and Gosford Park. He also appeared in several episodes of The West Wing.

15:26 / 30.09.04

Caught the second half of last night's ep -- I like the way they're playing Lois: spunky, brash, cuts through BS, resourceful, sense of humor, etc. I like the fact that in this ep alone, Lois and Lana saved people when we expected it to be Clark. Some decent stuff here, although there's the usual over-the-top weirdness and soap opera-y silliness.

15:54 / 01.10.04

saw this on the Aint It Cool News talkback on the Presidential debate and it really made me laugh...

>> The real loser here is......

Smallville.....Kryp/Tuck. Seriously somebody cancel this shitfest!

When I saw this 'coming next week' bit and it actually said "Kryp/Tuck" I was like, Who came up with this shit???

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