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flummeryAnd here I am, off on a long overdue rant about Smallville, which many of you, who I know are enjoying this season of Smallville, should absolutely not read.
So, there are very few characters I like left on Smallville, and tonight, they took out another. RIP, Chloe. I'm sure you're dead, your body a-mouldering unnoticed in a field somewhere, and this is just some ultra-bitch pod person who has taken your place.
I honestly do not understand why I am still watching this show. I stopped taping it this season, at least -- I just could not justify the tapes anymore. Thing 1 is still grimly taping away. She shouts things at me like "I have a three year investment in tapes here! What if all the writers are struck by lightning, and they bring in new, good ones! We were going to vid this show! We even have the SONG ALL PICKED OUT!" But we're not going to vid this show -- cause much as I love the song, and think it would have been perfect at one point in time, I can't conceive of rewatching the eps to search for clips. It's all I can do to get through the eps to begin with. (Thing 1 insists we could manage it, by turning off the sound, or just using Season 1. Thing 1 lives in a world of fairy tales and cotton candy.)
Tonight was a perfect example of the above. Look, I know Chloe is sort of rabid about the truth, and will go to great lengths to get a story, and I can see her doing just about anything, to help a loved one, like her father. But tonight she was just a self-involved, rotten, miserable little bitch, who could not differentiate between a news story, destroying someone's life, or just amusing herself for the hell of it. And all her apologies at the end really were just to Clark, for what she'd almost done to him -- I see no evidence she ever felt bad for what she did to anyone else, and my god, she should have.
The teacher? May have been a criminal, but Chloe's method of gathering the evidence was the same as coercion, and once she *realized* that fact, she should have kept it to herself. Instead, she gleefully went to town making people miserable. Sure, these people were lying, or being duplicitous in some cases -- but her little truth breath was no different than torture, or mind-rape. These people would never have willingly said any of those things out loud, given the choice, and Chloe knew that. By the time she outed the football jock, and grinned all over her face as she watched his life go down the toilet, I was physically ill. I wanted to slap her through the television.
When you're cheering for Lana in a scene, you know there's a problem. (Okay, when *I'm* cheering for Lana, there's a problem). Nothing she said was untrue. Chloe couldn't have proved more conclusively that she can't actually be trusted with a secret. Armed with the knowledge that she can *force her friends* to tell her things they don't want to, she does just that. Incredibly, appallingly, private thoughts she pries out of them, against their will. Knowing they want her to stop, she continues.
I don't know this Chloe. She's horrific. I'm sure people will gloss over it with the same idiotic explanations she presented at the end -- yadda yadda, you never tell me the truth, I was scared, I was UNDER the influence of KRYPTONITE. Except all she apologized for was going after Clark's parents. She hasn't begged Pete's forgiveness. She hasn't written a public apology to everyone she went after in that school. She made sure her friendship with Clark was secure, and got on with her life. I'm sure you can argue that there's possible stuff off scene -- but all we really have is what we've seen, and what we saw was that when given the power -- she abused it, and enjoyed it.
Every once decent character has pretty much been taken apart in much this way. Jonathan never used to be such an ignorant, idiotic, just plain stupid hick. Martha clearly was given a spinectomy against her will while in the hospital. Clark -- used to be smarter, honestly. I feel like his new, pod-parents are raising him poorly. *This* Clark isn't going to grow up to be a hero, in my mind, because everything they teach him is about fear. Don't trust anyone, don't help anyone, don't tell the truth. Base your opinion of Lex on his family, not what he has done himself. It's all about you, hide hide hide, no one else matters.
Honestly, the only one I can still see the remnants of the original character in is Lex. And, much as I love him, he's not enough to keep me watching a show which actively repulses me 95% of the time.
And damnit. It could have been *so good*.
So, there are very few characters I like left on Smallville, and tonight, they took out another. RIP, Chloe. I'm sure you're dead, your body a-mouldering unnoticed in a field somewhere, and this is just some ultra-bitch pod person who has taken your place.
I honestly do not understand why I am still watching this show. I stopped taping it this season, at least -- I just could not justify the tapes anymore. Thing 1 is still grimly taping away. She shouts things at me like "I have a three year investment in tapes here! What if all the writers are struck by lightning, and they bring in new, good ones! We were going to vid this show! We even have the SONG ALL PICKED OUT!" But we're not going to vid this show -- cause much as I love the song, and think it would have been perfect at one point in time, I can't conceive of rewatching the eps to search for clips. It's all I can do to get through the eps to begin with. (Thing 1 insists we could manage it, by turning off the sound, or just using Season 1. Thing 1 lives in a world of fairy tales and cotton candy.)
Tonight was a perfect example of the above. Look, I know Chloe is sort of rabid about the truth, and will go to great lengths to get a story, and I can see her doing just about anything, to help a loved one, like her father. But tonight she was just a self-involved, rotten, miserable little bitch, who could not differentiate between a news story, destroying someone's life, or just amusing herself for the hell of it. And all her apologies at the end really were just to Clark, for what she'd almost done to him -- I see no evidence she ever felt bad for what she did to anyone else, and my god, she should have.
The teacher? May have been a criminal, but Chloe's method of gathering the evidence was the same as coercion, and once she *realized* that fact, she should have kept it to herself. Instead, she gleefully went to town making people miserable. Sure, these people were lying, or being duplicitous in some cases -- but her little truth breath was no different than torture, or mind-rape. These people would never have willingly said any of those things out loud, given the choice, and Chloe knew that. By the time she outed the football jock, and grinned all over her face as she watched his life go down the toilet, I was physically ill. I wanted to slap her through the television.
When you're cheering for Lana in a scene, you know there's a problem. (Okay, when *I'm* cheering for Lana, there's a problem). Nothing she said was untrue. Chloe couldn't have proved more conclusively that she can't actually be trusted with a secret. Armed with the knowledge that she can *force her friends* to tell her things they don't want to, she does just that. Incredibly, appallingly, private thoughts she pries out of them, against their will. Knowing they want her to stop, she continues.
I don't know this Chloe. She's horrific. I'm sure people will gloss over it with the same idiotic explanations she presented at the end -- yadda yadda, you never tell me the truth, I was scared, I was UNDER the influence of KRYPTONITE. Except all she apologized for was going after Clark's parents. She hasn't begged Pete's forgiveness. She hasn't written a public apology to everyone she went after in that school. She made sure her friendship with Clark was secure, and got on with her life. I'm sure you can argue that there's possible stuff off scene -- but all we really have is what we've seen, and what we saw was that when given the power -- she abused it, and enjoyed it.
Every once decent character has pretty much been taken apart in much this way. Jonathan never used to be such an ignorant, idiotic, just plain stupid hick. Martha clearly was given a spinectomy against her will while in the hospital. Clark -- used to be smarter, honestly. I feel like his new, pod-parents are raising him poorly. *This* Clark isn't going to grow up to be a hero, in my mind, because everything they teach him is about fear. Don't trust anyone, don't help anyone, don't tell the truth. Base your opinion of Lex on his family, not what he has done himself. It's all about you, hide hide hide, no one else matters.
Honestly, the only one I can still see the remnants of the original character in is Lex. And, much as I love him, he's not enough to keep me watching a show which actively repulses me 95% of the time.
And damnit. It could have been *so good*.
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no subject
Date: 2004-04-21 10:20 pm (UTC)who's who
Date: 2004-04-21 10:36 pm (UTC)But the easier rule of thumb is, if someone's posting? It's Seah. I'm not so much with the LJ thing... (I'm posting this under slight duress, which pretty much only worked because she made this nifty anime icon for me and this will probably be the only chance I'll have to use it. *g*)
FWIW, though, I'm right there with her on this season, so in theory, you're disagreeing with us both!
Re: who's who
Date: 2004-04-21 10:50 pm (UTC)ahem.
Really, not so good at the LJ stuff...
no subject
Date: 2004-04-22 09:01 am (UTC)