web analytics

JerseySmarts.com

DVD Review: Smallville, Season 3

Posted on by

Sweet, dude.

I enjoyed Smallville Season 3. The whole Clark in Metropolis to begin the season was sorta cool, especially since he was in a “Fuck the world, I’ll kill you” type of mode. I thought that Michael McKean’s guest appearance was a great twist to the show, especially when he starts digging into what makes Clark so damn weird.

Did you know that he’s married to Annette O’Toole (the woman who plays Clark’s mom)? Just some interesting trivia that I thought you may enjoy!

One of my favorite episodes was the one that takes place in the 1960’s where Lana and Clark’s families crossed paths once before. Interesting little mythology that they’re building there – that has potential for future storylines. Good creativity by the writers. Oh, and another good creative streak with the entire end of the season/Lionel’s trial. Excellent final episode.

Some good things came out of this season, such as the removal of Pete (the episode where he was a speed racer was pretty much when he started to be a useless character). I also enjoyed how – in true Smallville fashion – they ended the season by blowing up all of the previous storylines just enough so that they can almost start completely fresh in the next season. Sure, there may be some continuity problems with that, but the writers have pulled it off pretty well so far.

The season also had some really creepy moments…like when Clark’s blood was bringing people back to life. That was ridiculous. I mean, it was just weird. This isn’t really a bad thing, but I didn’t like that Dr. Swann was even contemplating talking with Lionel in the episode where they met up. That was just a bit of an awkward scene, I thought.

Overall I obviously recommend this season. As a new Smallville freak, I have to say that this season really did a lot to push aside some of the corny first and second season dialogue and storylines (anyone remember the coach who made things burn when he got mad?). And as I said earlier, the season ends with a cliffhanger that really makes you want to see the fourth season.

DVD Review: Smallville, Season 2

Posted on by

I enjoyed Smallville, Season 2 a bit better than I enjoyed the first season. I guess that’s to be expected since some of the questions from the first season are answered in the second season. I was a big fan of the introduction of Christopher Reeve into the series – nice touch acknowledging one of the previous and most well-known Superman actors in recent history. Hehehe – maybe they’ll have Dean Cain on a future season!

Sorry for that stupid diversion…

Season 1 ended with a very interesting twist, having the storm completely mess up then entire town. I will say that some of the stupid high school drama parts of the first season re-entered during the second season, but that’s also to be expected…especially when young adults is the primary audience of this series. I’m not sure how I feel about the introduction of “red meteor rocks” into the storyline, but I guess we’ll see how that goes. Seems like it might just be a waste of time in the long run – or it could act as one of the only things that turns Clark into a “bad guy” for a little while.

The episode where Lionel’s ex-mistress claims that Clark is her son was a little weird. I don’t know if I even like introducing that into the storyline. I’m sure the writers have it all figured out, though.

The part of season two that I hated the absolute worst was the death of Ryan – that’s ridiculous. There was no reason to have him die. Ooooo…an incurable brain tumor…oooooo, real original! What is this? A weekday soap opera? Weak storyline, really. Oh, but on the other hand – I did enjoy the final removal of Whitney. That guy was a punk and a crappy character. The kid seemed like a decent actor, but what a shit-tastic story he was given, huh?

I liked the ending of the season, with Clark going apeshit and moving to Metropolis. They could really have a good extension on that with the beginning of Season 3 – so we’ll see how they do with it.

Good job, Smallville writers!

DVD Review: Smallville, Season 1

Posted on by

A few people told me that this Smallville TV show was pretty good and that I should check it out if I ever had the chance. So, I did.

I purchased the Season 1 DVD Box Set and I’ve been watching it over the past weekend. Not a bad series. I give it two thumbs up. I do have some questions/issues with the show, though.

One of my roommates mentioned to me before I started watching the box set that a big problem with the series is that it has an underlying teenage love story that goes along with the “Superman as an awkward teenager” plot. He said that this distracts from the episodes sometimes and I would agree with that. There are a few times when you just want to smack Lana Lang (Superman’s love interest) for being a complete idiot and there are other times when you want to hit Superman for not getting with his hot friend Chloe. But I am able to overlook those underlying plots so it doesn’t detract from my overall enjoyment of the series (so far).

Another thing that I have a problem with is the believability of the setting. Let me explain. First, isn’t it sorta weird that all of these odd things are taking place in one small town in the middle of nowhere? Yeah, I get the whole “meteor landing twelve years ago causing everyone in town to be messed up” sub-plot and I get how Clark thinks that it’s all his fault and he feels the need to apologize to everyone, but come on. I mean after you have all of these weird kids coming out of that high school, wouldn’t someone in the federal government get wise to it?

Then again, I haven’t seen the entire collection of episodes out there yet so who knows?

The other “believability” problem that I have is a two-part criticism. First, I played high school football in a primarily white-bred, upper class school that wasn’t too far in the middle of nowhere, but wasn’t in the middle of the city, either. So to see all of these typical “jocks” who hate anything that is not-jock is just false. People aren’t really like that in high school these days and if they are like that, then it’s certainly not the entire football team like it is in Smallville! However, this is a TV show, so I can deal with it!

The second part of this particular problem is the characteristics of the kids that make up Smallville High School. No fat kids? At all? In the entire school? Are you serious?

How does a football team not have big, fat, bulky linemen? Come on – this is a farm town! What’s worse about this point is that not only do they not have “big” people in their high school or football team, but they have all jacked up guys and hot girls in the school! Even the episode that dealt with the fat girl who became not fat…she was hot when she was fat! And I find it funny that every guy in Smallville High School has a six-pack and a ridiculously defined torso…and that goes for everyone from Superman to his nerdy friend! Believable? Ha! I think not…

But those are petty criticisms. I really like the show and I think I’ll be purchasing the other box sets that are out (in due time). I’m looking for some of your critiques on the show – be sure to pass them along! Oh, I put a button on the bottom of the righthand sidebar that links to the official Smallville website in case anyone wanted to check it out!

Black Friday 2005 Review

Posted on by

There was a lot of good and bad things that happened yesterday – let’s review!

The worst part of the day were the lines at Circuit City. Someone at Circuit City has got to get their act together and NOT have a bunch of unprepared kids running all five registers in the place. First off, you don’t have enough registers for the crowds – fix that. Second, you’ve got a bunch of kids that are more concerned about their appearance than telling Mr. and Mrs. Asshole in line that the $100 box set of their favorite musician is NOT on sale for $9.99! It’s Black Friday – get your act together Circuit City.

That’s my only criticism of Circuit City. On the flip side, they had some tremendous sales! Good job on being able to lure the customers in to the store with promotions! You gotta respect a company that knows how to put together a good Black Friday marketing scheme. I applaud Circuit City for their DVD prices – but someone really has to get a completely new checkout system over at that place…

Best Buy was alright – much better checkout situation. Nothing like the 45 minute line that my Mother and I waited on at Circuit City. The sales at Best Buy were alright – nothing crazy.

Same goes for Wal-Mart. The lines were alright, nothing too terrible. The best part of the Wal-Mart promotions that I saw was at the third Wal-Mart that I went to (you have to shop around at these places!) – they were selling box sets for $20. I was going to get the box set of Smallville because I heard it was a great series. Anyone have any thoughts on that? They actually have seasons one and two for $20 each…

I didn’t go into any actual in-door malls today because in my view, they can’t compete with the discount stores like Wal-Mart, Circuit City, and Target. Ah – Target! I went in there today and was completely unimpressed. It reminded me a lot of Black Friday 2004 in Wal-Mart – lots of hope and nothing to show for it.

All in all, I got 16 DVDs for under $100. Some of these movies are pretty good (Kingdom of Heaven, I Robot, Robots, Anchorman, Arrested Development Season Two) and some are pretty funny just to own (Masters of the Universe starring Dolph Lundgren, Jeff Foxworthy: Totally Committed). I was hoping to get more movies today, but I guess that sixteen is a good start.

Of course now that I’ve shopped for myself, I should probably make some time to go Christmas shopping for the family and friends…there better be good sales coming up in the next few weeks!

Oh, and what was the deal with Kohl’s today? I went in there and the line was literally wrapped around the entire store! That’s ridiculous! I don’t know how long some of those people were waiting in line, but there was no WAY that I would have waited there! I’m one of those big “Cyber Monday” folks…in other words I see a ton of people in line at Kohl’s on Black Friday, I say screw it – I’ll buy whatever I was looking for online when they offer free shipping (which is usually this Monday).

I hope that you all enjoyed your Thanksgiving and Black Fridays! Starting Saturday morning it’s back to the hum drum of plowing away at papers for Rutgers, beating myself up at the gym, and trying to find time to plan out my volunteer-based events. Fun!