Icarus Screentime Minutes, and Deep Thoughts

[jeannev]

Wow, time has flown, hasn’t it? (no pun intended). Half of Smallville’s last season is in the can, and its only 11 more episodes to go.

And I’m OK with that. I'm sort of ready for it to end, actually

Since we’ll be on hiatus for several weeks, I figure we’ll have time to entertain ourselves, and give our impressions of the season so far, overall. I’

Comments

[tasabian]

And AC and Mera should’ve been there
TAKE THAT BACK!

Alaina Huffman looks AMAZING!
Beautiful in person too but much tinier than I expected.

I think the aspect of this episode that bothered me the most was Clark pulling out the \S/ crystal. Um, what? So, where the hell has that thing been? Didn’t it get destroyed back in Phantom?
That's what I thought. Very deux ex machina.

Michael Hogan is probably a very good actor. I don’t watch BSG, so I wouldn’t know. As this big, bad villian, he just doesn’t do a thing for me. I don’t find him menacing, or intimidating at all.
I enjoyed his first appearance but he was dull as paint here.

As I said before, lots of good performances in this one from pretty much everyone. Tom? Not so much. It breaks my heart to say that.
Clark was written so generically, that maybe Tom just "gave up" and ploughed through his meager lines as best he could manage? I've noticed before that Sparling has no affinity for Clark. Weirdly, she does have a handle on Oliver. Agree that Oliver/Carter have a nice rapport.

[jeannev]

Now, now, I'm not suggesting that AC and Mera have any lines aside from maybe, "Congratulations!" But after hitting us over the head with the parallels, and somehow thinking that we needed Mera to endorse Clois, you'd think they could make the engagement party.

Oh, I certainly think the writing for Clark is probably a factor in Tom's very off week.

I know I can say what I want in my own journal, and I've never quite understood why anyone gets so bent about what I have to say. But honestly, I'm just not up to it right now, or maybe anymore.

[tasabian]

But after hitting us over the head with the parallels, and somehow thinking that we needed Mera to endorse Clois, you'd think they could make the engagement party.
Hawkman used his dying breath for this week's endorsement instead!

I'm not suggesting that AC and Mera have any lines
Much better, for all concerned!

[awehla]

I don't get why the writers don't just say look I can't be arsed writing Clark you like him you write his parts.

Lisa
x

[jeannev]

OMG, the rocks in the street? That was freaking hilarious. Because God knows that you're likely to find these big horking rocks in any city street. How silly was that?

I have to be honest, I thought the trailer for whats to come was a major snooze, and hardly had any Clark in it. And I just rolled my eyes at what he said in the trailer, because, Again? Really?

Looking over the 11 eps we've had so far, I'm underwhelmed. Really, really underwhelmed.

[tasabian]

The conveniently placed rocks were fantastic!

[wingster55]

"Michael Hogan is probably a very good actor."

He is :P.

I felt there was a little less Clark but wasn't significant. I am one of the people who enjoy the team scenes..working with other heroes is a major aspect of his future life so seeing it is ok with me.

Proposal scene..felt off somehow.
Needed more Tess imo.

Did the police/whoever they were going after anyone resemble a particular group? (Think Germany 40's). I heard someone mention it somewhere.

For the final season they sure are juggling numerous balls huh? Lex, Darkness/seid with the VRA and the engagement. I worry for the payoff.

[jeannev]

Well, as much as I love Tess, I can't say I'd want to see more Tess when Clark was underused in this episode. I have to have my priorities. ;)

I'm sort of suprised that the VRA agents weren't speaking in German accents, and goose-stepping through the episode.

I think they have too many balls in the air, honestly. Especially when I really and truly do believe that their #1 priority is Clois, above all the other balls. I'm not sure really talented writers would be able to handle it all. And I would never refer to the SV writing squad as really talented.

[awehla]

Aww your icon above reminds me of the good old days of season three.

Lisa
x

[svfan01]

"I worry for the payoff

[anonymous]

If the proposal was Clark's big moment, it sure wasn't a good one. When they announced that Genevieve Sparling would write this episode, I had a feeling it was not going to be a good mid-seasoner and I was right after viewing it. They picked the wrong person to write the mid-seasoner like Icarus. This is also an example of what happens when you have too many characters in a 42-minute episode

[jeannev]

I think when I rewatched the episode, I realized how Lois-centric it was. But then again, it was also Carter-centric in a way too. Bottom line though, it was NOT Clark-centric. I'm fairly convinced that the more heroes they get to play with, the less interested they are in playing with Clark. And Clark was ALL about Lois in this episode. Even in what should be a big "hero" moment, when Clark, Carter and Oliver all find themselves in Slade's office, Clark turns the conversation to Lois. Which seemed like an odd choice to me.

I think Clark's biggest heroic moment in this episode probably came when he got Tess and Emil away from the gestapo. But there again, all he had to say was "Where's Lois?"

I'm guessing that Emil and Tess weren't at the funeral because they needed characters that were free of whatever the aftereffects of that will be. But whatever, they should've been there.

A weak ending to the first half of the season that started strong, got muddled in the middle, and ended weak. I'll be honest. I don't think its

[anonymous]

If Clark was all about Lois, then how is his relationship with her any different than his relationship with Lana?

Icarus pretty much sums up the problems in the first half of the season and they're putting too much emphasis on Clois than anything else.

Icarus was more about Lois and Hawkman than it was about Clark. Like I said, it refers to Hawkman making the final sacrifice to save Lois. I've also said this before that I don't want Lois or any one person to be the reason Clark becomes Superman or he'd be doing it for the wrong reasons.

The stronger episodes were Lazarus, Shield, Homecoming, Ambush, Abandoned, and Luthor. The rest were weak.

Vantheman77

[svfan01]

"If Clark was all about Lois, then how is his relationship with her any different than his relationship with Lana?"

Well for starters we don't get scenes where Lois passive aggressively pesters Clark about his secret, then storms out of the loft(or wherever the scene takes place) all while Clark has this big sad expression on his face and music is playing in the background. That was the basic Clark/Lana scene from parts of S2, S3-S6

I think we can both agree that Clark is not as depressed/mopey when the story involves Lois over Lana and the odd time it happens it's usually resolved within an episode or 2 and not the same issue for 4 seasons.

I can live with a lil angst in a relationship but Clana was non stop angst basically and I don't believe you can say the same about Clois, and that is the difference.

[twdiva]

I have no desire to re-watch anything from this episode. I was bored and asking myself "Where is Clark?" during at least two stretches...even when he was actually in the scene. All that standing around made him seem invisible. *shakes head* And the cliffhanger couldn't have been any more anti-climactic.

Proposal...meh, I'm not big on the mush stuff. But the lead up to it had some weirdly stiff/monotone dialogue coming from TW. Otherwise, I actually thought he was fine in Icarus but just kind of there. Nothing bad but nothing special, either. Kind of like Harvest in fact (except I thought the rescue scene WAS bad), where his character was also underwritten.

I would have liked seeing more of the VRA plot playing out onscreen instead of getting useless episodes like Harvest, etc. It just seemed to have ratched up out of nowhere in this episode.

[jeannev]

I don't see me rewatching this ep either. In fact, I hardly rewatch any of this season. I've watched certain scenes from Homecoming and Luthor over again. And I've rewatched Ambush in its entirety. But besides that? Nah, just not compelled to rewatch. I think that says a lot about where I am with the show at the current time. Which is not a great place.

I don't know if I'm aging myself here, but the cliffhanger reminded me of the old nighttime soap drama, Dynasty, and all the characters lying around, shot up, after a wedding was attacked. So, I was giggling.

I also would've liked to see more of the VRA plot on screen. Heck, I would like to see more of Clark being The Blur on screen. Does he even patrol anymore? Rescue anyone? When was the last time we got a random save? Clark feels sort of detached from that whole part of his life lately. I guess in Offscreensville, he's a rescuing machine. On screen? Well, not so much :/