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Entry tags:
Ranting, Smallville, Thing 2, etc.
I have to say, Thing 1 and I sort of suck at this whole posting to livejournal thing, don't we? Plus, it seems like I can only remember this journal is here when I've got something to rant about these days. I need to find a more positive outlook. Post about the good things, occasionally. But not, <*cough*> today.
Today, I've been stirred out of my coma by last night's episode of Smallville.
I find that I miss Smallville. Namely, I miss the Smallville that I feel could have been. I've stuck most of this season out, because every five or six episodes, they'll brush up against something that will make me go "there! That, over there! that's what I want!" But those moments are getting rarer and rarer. They were much closer first season. Not perfect, and still crappy writing, but... whatever view of the universe the writers have, I clearly don't share it. It's so frustrating. It feels like it should be so much more. Instead, its just so... very, very bad.
I will forgive a certain amount of skirting the Laws of Real Life in a tv show, particularly if they can grip me with the acting, and the idea behind the story they're presenting. But this show keeps going out of its way to pretend that real life only sorta halfway applies, when they feel like it, sort of.
What was the latest thing to piss me off, but good? The legal issues in Precipice last night actually angered me so much that I simply stopped watching around the 15 or 20 minute mark. There was nothing they could do to gloss over the crap they had just thrown out onto the screen. I'll try to sort the issues out by rage-level.
A quick rehash -- Lana is in the Talon, closing up. Three drunk frat-boys are sitting around getting drunk out of a private flask. Helen is sitting around having her own issues. Blah blah. Lana tries to throw the frats out, and then starts the closing up process. Everyone leaves except for the frat boys, who start harassing her. Lana hits a panic button underneath the counter, right before the harassing becomes physical, and they throw her into a cart full of dishes, while implying that they're about to rape her.
At this point, it becomes clear that the panic button, in addition to calling the police, appears to be wired directly to Clark, since he shows up damn fast. There are some words tossed back and forth, and the three frat boys leave. Clark checks on Lana, then beats them out to the front side-walk. He warns them never to return, they level more threats, they swing at him, and he starts tossing them around. The last of the three, frat-leader, he tosses straight into the windshield of the now arriving police car. Wow, sucks to be Clark. He turns to flee, but Lana is standing in the way, having witnessed at least the end of that scene. So, the new female sheriff climbs out of the vehicle, and arrests Clark.
We come back from the commercial at the Kent Farm. Why the farm and not the police station? Too much money to build another set? With all the stuff that *should* be happening in the police station in this show? The sheriff is basically telling the Kent's how it's going to be, while they protest their son is innocent, and well-intentionedness, and whatever. She lays it out that its going to be a misdemeanor assault, with a probable fine of $1,500. Clark protests that they can't afford this (while my mind goes to the more important issue of his actually having a record, misdemeanor or otherwise) and she takes pity on him, or something, I couldn't tell, she had exactly one hideous style of grating-acting, and starts talking about community service, instead.
And apparently that's it. By the next morning, Clark's all set up with his forty hours of community service, and being hassled about it by Pete and Chloe, and I'm all, "BUH? EXCUSE ME?" The sheriff says it, and that makes it SO? Well, no. Even if he pleads to being guilty, he still has to stand up in front of a judge, and get that sentence handed down, from a judge. Not to mention, yes, I know lawyers are expensive, but why settle for this? Why leap straight to, "We have no choice but to suck it up and do what the sheriff tells us, that's our fate."? Sure, it looks bad, because tossing a guy into a sheriff's windshield is never a great way to get the law on your side in a court case, but Clark did in fact have a case for self defense here (defending another still counts as self-defense.) By not arguing the issue, he is getting an actual record. I'm unclear on his age at this point, since the show has never outright told us, but this is something you want to avoid if it's going to be with you the rest of your damn life. Not to mention, simply pleading guilty opens to you up to all sorts of other actions, as we see shortly, as the episode continues.
Because what comes next enrages me far, far more. Lana walks out of the Talon, upset, and tells Clark the sheriff has told her she has no case, since it's all just "hearsay." Small, but important, blood vessels in my left eye burst, at this point, and I become a quivering mass of rage. Excuse me? WHAT? THE? FUCK?
The three buffoons refused to leave the premises. They harassed her, they assaulted her, and then they battered her. They threatened actual rape. This isn't hearsay It didn't happen to a friend of a friend, who is telling her this shocking story, it happend to Lana. She can testify to it, herself, in court. And this is exactly what should happen. The boys should be charged, each side should tell their case, and a jury should decide who it believes. They may decide they don't believe Lana, but there's absolutely no way that what she testifies to can be classified as hearsay, and therefore inadmissible to begin with.
So what the sheriff is saying is "You can't prove anything if its your word against his." Or maybe, in another scenario, "Sure, you claim he raped you, but have you got anything to prove it with? a witness? a video tape?" It's not this sheriff's place to decide the case can't be won, because there is, absolutely, a hell of a case here. They should be charged with assault, battery, and possibly attempted rape. The level of impropriety by the sheriff here can't just be called incompetence. She's actively engaging in behavior she should cost her her job. Last I checked, she was the sheriff, and it's the damn DAs job to decide whether or not to go forward with a case (And if they decide not to, I want a reason that doesn't involve the word "hearsay"). If Lana claims she was attacked, they should have been arrested for assault and battery.
Meanwhile, back at the Kent farm, they're discovering they're being sued for wrongful injury. And why the hell not? Clark appears to have admitted he was at fault. What's to stop them? If you wanted to have a legal leg to stand on, maybe you should have argued the issue out a little in an actual court of law. Because it's going to be a whole lot harder to win that lawsuit with that actual plea on your record.
At this point, Clark started whining, and I turned the show off. But not before, unfortunately, being subjected to a preview of Lana kick-boxing. Ah, I get it. The law can't help you. Just give up and go to vigilante justice, goddamnit. You shouldn't expect anyone in law enforcement to protect your whiny little ass. If you can't physically take your opponent, maybe you just deserve to be assaulted.
If I'm wrong about where the episode was going, I apologize. But not much. I've been looking around for a reason all day to go back and finish watching, and haven't found one yet. Particularly since, this episode, of all the eps this season, has done the most to endanger my continued watching of this show. And for some reason, I keep hoping, against hope, that they'll somehow end up back in that universe that I want to watch.
Today, I've been stirred out of my coma by last night's episode of Smallville.
I find that I miss Smallville. Namely, I miss the Smallville that I feel could have been. I've stuck most of this season out, because every five or six episodes, they'll brush up against something that will make me go "there! That, over there! that's what I want!" But those moments are getting rarer and rarer. They were much closer first season. Not perfect, and still crappy writing, but... whatever view of the universe the writers have, I clearly don't share it. It's so frustrating. It feels like it should be so much more. Instead, its just so... very, very bad.
I will forgive a certain amount of skirting the Laws of Real Life in a tv show, particularly if they can grip me with the acting, and the idea behind the story they're presenting. But this show keeps going out of its way to pretend that real life only sorta halfway applies, when they feel like it, sort of.
What was the latest thing to piss me off, but good? The legal issues in Precipice last night actually angered me so much that I simply stopped watching around the 15 or 20 minute mark. There was nothing they could do to gloss over the crap they had just thrown out onto the screen. I'll try to sort the issues out by rage-level.
A quick rehash -- Lana is in the Talon, closing up. Three drunk frat-boys are sitting around getting drunk out of a private flask. Helen is sitting around having her own issues. Blah blah. Lana tries to throw the frats out, and then starts the closing up process. Everyone leaves except for the frat boys, who start harassing her. Lana hits a panic button underneath the counter, right before the harassing becomes physical, and they throw her into a cart full of dishes, while implying that they're about to rape her.
At this point, it becomes clear that the panic button, in addition to calling the police, appears to be wired directly to Clark, since he shows up damn fast. There are some words tossed back and forth, and the three frat boys leave. Clark checks on Lana, then beats them out to the front side-walk. He warns them never to return, they level more threats, they swing at him, and he starts tossing them around. The last of the three, frat-leader, he tosses straight into the windshield of the now arriving police car. Wow, sucks to be Clark. He turns to flee, but Lana is standing in the way, having witnessed at least the end of that scene. So, the new female sheriff climbs out of the vehicle, and arrests Clark.
We come back from the commercial at the Kent Farm. Why the farm and not the police station? Too much money to build another set? With all the stuff that *should* be happening in the police station in this show? The sheriff is basically telling the Kent's how it's going to be, while they protest their son is innocent, and well-intentionedness, and whatever. She lays it out that its going to be a misdemeanor assault, with a probable fine of $1,500. Clark protests that they can't afford this (while my mind goes to the more important issue of his actually having a record, misdemeanor or otherwise) and she takes pity on him, or something, I couldn't tell, she had exactly one hideous style of grating-acting, and starts talking about community service, instead.
And apparently that's it. By the next morning, Clark's all set up with his forty hours of community service, and being hassled about it by Pete and Chloe, and I'm all, "BUH? EXCUSE ME?" The sheriff says it, and that makes it SO? Well, no. Even if he pleads to being guilty, he still has to stand up in front of a judge, and get that sentence handed down, from a judge. Not to mention, yes, I know lawyers are expensive, but why settle for this? Why leap straight to, "We have no choice but to suck it up and do what the sheriff tells us, that's our fate."? Sure, it looks bad, because tossing a guy into a sheriff's windshield is never a great way to get the law on your side in a court case, but Clark did in fact have a case for self defense here (defending another still counts as self-defense.) By not arguing the issue, he is getting an actual record. I'm unclear on his age at this point, since the show has never outright told us, but this is something you want to avoid if it's going to be with you the rest of your damn life. Not to mention, simply pleading guilty opens to you up to all sorts of other actions, as we see shortly, as the episode continues.
Because what comes next enrages me far, far more. Lana walks out of the Talon, upset, and tells Clark the sheriff has told her she has no case, since it's all just "hearsay." Small, but important, blood vessels in my left eye burst, at this point, and I become a quivering mass of rage. Excuse me? WHAT? THE? FUCK?
The three buffoons refused to leave the premises. They harassed her, they assaulted her, and then they battered her. They threatened actual rape. This isn't hearsay It didn't happen to a friend of a friend, who is telling her this shocking story, it happend to Lana. She can testify to it, herself, in court. And this is exactly what should happen. The boys should be charged, each side should tell their case, and a jury should decide who it believes. They may decide they don't believe Lana, but there's absolutely no way that what she testifies to can be classified as hearsay, and therefore inadmissible to begin with.
So what the sheriff is saying is "You can't prove anything if its your word against his." Or maybe, in another scenario, "Sure, you claim he raped you, but have you got anything to prove it with? a witness? a video tape?" It's not this sheriff's place to decide the case can't be won, because there is, absolutely, a hell of a case here. They should be charged with assault, battery, and possibly attempted rape. The level of impropriety by the sheriff here can't just be called incompetence. She's actively engaging in behavior she should cost her her job. Last I checked, she was the sheriff, and it's the damn DAs job to decide whether or not to go forward with a case (And if they decide not to, I want a reason that doesn't involve the word "hearsay"). If Lana claims she was attacked, they should have been arrested for assault and battery.
Meanwhile, back at the Kent farm, they're discovering they're being sued for wrongful injury. And why the hell not? Clark appears to have admitted he was at fault. What's to stop them? If you wanted to have a legal leg to stand on, maybe you should have argued the issue out a little in an actual court of law. Because it's going to be a whole lot harder to win that lawsuit with that actual plea on your record.
At this point, Clark started whining, and I turned the show off. But not before, unfortunately, being subjected to a preview of Lana kick-boxing. Ah, I get it. The law can't help you. Just give up and go to vigilante justice, goddamnit. You shouldn't expect anyone in law enforcement to protect your whiny little ass. If you can't physically take your opponent, maybe you just deserve to be assaulted.
If I'm wrong about where the episode was going, I apologize. But not much. I've been looking around for a reason all day to go back and finish watching, and haven't found one yet. Particularly since, this episode, of all the eps this season, has done the most to endanger my continued watching of this show. And for some reason, I keep hoping, against hope, that they'll somehow end up back in that universe that I want to watch.