watchtower de jour

[retro_eidas]

I have a flight to catch in about 3 hours and I'll most likely be gone from LJ for about two weeks, so it's extremely sad one of my last posts before vaca begins is going to be about "Smallville", but...

Watching that utterly fail S8 finale, it was bugging me for some time what it reminded me of. I sauntered over to Ksite and read some of the various posts on how French director Jeannot Szwarc was probably borrowing some visual cues from Cocteau's "La belle et la bête" when he directed "Bride". Despite SV's general mediocrity and laughably bad writing, I can't say with conviction is necessarily untrue. Obviously, SV is never going to touch Cocteau's boot heel, but hell, maybe they could have been lifting ideas from him. Considering what they seemed to be trying for at least part of the time with the Chloe/Davis storyline, I'd also suspect it's probably truer than not. Of course, right up until the, although not entirely surprising, violent end to that storyline in the (unfortunately, also not entirely surprising as I'm apparently a glutton for bad tv) total mediocre finale.

I suppose it was the Cocteau talk that did it, but I finally realized the way S8 ended, specifically regarding the Davis/Chloe/Clark(Jimmy) arc, reminded me a lot of Buñuel's "Belle de jour". Obviously, it's "Smallville" so it's more like the high school play rendition of BdJ. However, like "Bride" was probably lifting ideas/imagery off Cocteau, I could buy the finale - perhaps earlier in the Davis/Chloe/Clark triangle - was at least partially inspired by BdJ (again, through the crappy SV filter of mediocrity. Awww, look at SV, trying to wear the big man's clothes). I can see Chloe as Severine/Belle, Clark and/or Jimmy as Pierre and Davis as Marcel. Hell, even Oliver can fit pretty easily in the Husson role. If you've seen the movie, I'd say they fit into those roles fairly well without me having to explain it. Which I probably won't get away with, but my mind is already half on vacation, so I'll probably get into more detail later if anyone cares to discuss my batshit further.

Maybe I'm just overthinking it all (equating SV to Buñuel or Cocteau in any way?? NO! Not overthinking at all! [/sarcasm]) and I'm full of it. I welcome any of the SV/Chlavis fans on my flist to tell me so.

Comments

[paraxdisepink.livejournal.com]

I have not seen these films, so I don't know what kind of inspiration SV may have drawn from them, but I have to seperate what SW did with the character (which was excellent) and the way TPTB *wrote* the character, which started out good enough for SV standards, but got sloppy after swhile. Even if these films were the source of their inspiration, I still feel the ending was tacky and innapropriate in terms of going in that direction at all. His ending should have had to do with his being Doomsday - that's where they failed IMO - the ending didn't tie in with his struggle or deliver in any other way but tacked-on lip serve the promise that he would kill Clark. It's like the story veered off the path at some point and stopped being about a guy turning into Doomsday against his will. No, he was a serial killer, he was a this he was a that. He was a fatal attraction psycho, he was the beast (as in beauty and the, not Dooms) at some point they just stopped telling the story they should have been telling - the one in "Prey," "Bloodline," and "Eternal." It's frustrating because it was an interesting story and they had a good actor willing to sink his teeth into it. They even totally forgot about the whole Brainiac interference and *why* he kidnapped her in "Bride." How can his feelings be artificial one minute and an obsession the next? Make up your bloody minds, show!

I have no doubt SV thought they were brilliant lifting from these famous films, but damn it I wanted the story they promised me. It was innappropriate IMO, to tell *that* story with a char who's supposed to be Doomsday and who's set up by the show as this force of necessary destruction that kills Clark and turns him into Superman.

[eido.livejournal.com]

I still feel the ending was tacky and innapropriate in terms of going in that direction at all.

Oh, undoubtedly. I concur, even if I'm remotely correct (which I doubt), it doesn't change the slapdash, tacked-on execution of "Doomsday".

I wanted the story they promised me.

I really don't think they knew what they had going with the Davis arc and SW playing him. SW cranked out a complex, nuanced performance every week. Like Dexter Morgan every week on SV of all places.... all for the writers to make Davis little more than some lame bunnyboiler straight of "Passions" or whatever. I suppose I should have known that though since SV tends to drop the ball on good or potentially good storylines. How many times have they been privileged with decent/awesome actors who infuse their characters with more dimension than perhaps they deserve... only to crap all over them for the altar of something no where near as complex (Davis sacrificed to make "Henry" a hero... not only ruins Davis' arc but also a pathetic retcon of the Jimmy Olsen story). So damn weak. Again, not that I wasn't already aware of it from previous seasons, but damn, these idiots just don't know what a decent follow through was to save their lives.