Smallville
1 March 2004 21:50![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mandragorahurts. Just watched Asylum.
Oh Clark, you blew it. You should have told Lex what the missing part of his memory was. Oh, not your secret, maybe, but what Lionel did and why. I can understand why you didn't but, that was probably it. The beginning of the rift.
As for Lex... *wibble* He's doomed because of his sociopathic father. It seems apparent that Lionel is incapable of caring for anyone other than himself. What love he has for Lex is as an adjunct of Lionel, not for Lex in his own right. Poor Lex, he tries so hard to do the right thing and never succeeds. He's not evil but is tragic in the extreme.
However, riveting and painful and good though the episode was, I couldn't help thinking throughout all of the asylum scenes that the production staff clearly have no idea what a mental hospital is actually like, let alone one for the criminally insane. I have visited such places and they're nothing like that and the patients don't behave as they were portrayed in the episode. I know, I know, Smallville, right. Which usually bears no resemblance to reality but the asylum scenes (sans Lex) were sufficiently laughable to distract from the drama. And that was a real pity in an otherwise excellent episode.
Even the Lana bits worked for me, although I thought Martha overplayed her hand somewhat in the 'let's cheer Clark up' campaign.
Oh Clark, you blew it. You should have told Lex what the missing part of his memory was. Oh, not your secret, maybe, but what Lionel did and why. I can understand why you didn't but, that was probably it. The beginning of the rift.
As for Lex... *wibble* He's doomed because of his sociopathic father. It seems apparent that Lionel is incapable of caring for anyone other than himself. What love he has for Lex is as an adjunct of Lionel, not for Lex in his own right. Poor Lex, he tries so hard to do the right thing and never succeeds. He's not evil but is tragic in the extreme.
However, riveting and painful and good though the episode was, I couldn't help thinking throughout all of the asylum scenes that the production staff clearly have no idea what a mental hospital is actually like, let alone one for the criminally insane. I have visited such places and they're nothing like that and the patients don't behave as they were portrayed in the episode. I know, I know, Smallville, right. Which usually bears no resemblance to reality but the asylum scenes (sans Lex) were sufficiently laughable to distract from the drama. And that was a real pity in an otherwise excellent episode.
Even the Lana bits worked for me, although I thought Martha overplayed her hand somewhat in the 'let's cheer Clark up' campaign.
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no subject
Date: 1 March 2004 15:44 (UTC)I watch this, and I watch Lionel put Lex through electro-shock to erase his memory, and part of me thinks, if Lionel really was as bad as they want us to think he would have just killed Lex. It's screwy, but by being that unwilling to kill Lex, to me it shows that Lionel does love his son. Albeit in a sociopathic sort of way.
And then I see Jonathan. Fine, upstanding, moral Jonathan Kent. And all I'm seeing is a hypocritical, prejudiced moron who emotionally manipulates those around him.
Lionel is what he is. Almost like the snake in the garden, charming and seductive, but cross him, or don't do what he wants, and he's deadly.
Jonathan is like a bad apple, all nice and wholesome on the outside, but rotten on the inside.
Maybe part of it is that Jonathan is meant to be raising Superman. This is the guy who fights for truth, justice and lost kittens. At the moment, I'm seeing Clark becoming Superman not because of the values Jonathan instills, but in spite of them.
I can't help but think that with Lionel it's a 'take care of yourself, son, and the gods help those who mess with you', and with Jonathan it's a 'take care of the world, son, because you know you can do a better job'.
Maybe I just have a major case of Luthor-lust, and it's blinding me to everything but teh prettah *grin* I know I'm biased towards Lionel, so I'm going to automatically try to defend against what he does, and jump on Jonathan for the slightest thing.
And is this even making sense, or am I just rambling now? *grin*