Douche McCallister wrote:

I know they mentioned Gotham City in an episode, it would awesome to see Batman make a cameo. Michael is one of my favorite characters. I wonder if he wants to leave the show so he can pursue more homosexual cross-dressing parts in movies. Can't wait til I can Watch it all unfold.

WB has banned Smallville from using Batman, because of the "Batman Begins" franchise. They don't want to "confuse" audiences or something. Nor can they use "Wonder Woman". I think elements of what they wanted to do with Bruce were used with GA though.

As for Rosenbaum, all I have to say is, I'll probably *sob* pay money to see "Kickin' it Old Skool" The things I do for that man... Why can't he make movies like that guest appearance he did on "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia"? Oh well...

Douche McCallister wrote:

Well now that they are the CW does that make a difference?

No difference. The only difference is Smallville's their number one drama by a large margin and they won't give it up easily (number one show being Project Runway, I believe). Shame too, CW has other good shows, just no one watches them *cough*veronicamars*cough*.

It's still WB owned so they have all the say on what is used and not used on the show. Sometimes DC bugs me...

Cattivo wrote:

While the reason for the policy is all kinds of messed up, I'm glad Batman won't be on that show. The character has a good thing going with the new franchise, and doesn't need to be tarnished by a show on its last legs that's desperate for fresh story ideas and has already messed with one superhero's canon.

Tarnished is a strong word considering I can name plenty more comics where the Dark Knight's rep had been made folly.... Lest I even mention certain "films".

Most of all, let us not forget "Smallville" was supposed to be "Bruce Wayne" as was conceived by the brilliant Tim McCanlies. The Dark Knight has more to be thanked for the show than one would think.

And believe me, "Smallville" would go off the air before any "zombie seasons" would happen. The cast for one has their limits as do the producers who balance the show and other work they could be putting priority. I know I mentioned the CW high ratings, but my point was it continues to be a popular show because it does retain a quality.

But I have no idea why I continue to even try... I guess I remember the days when I used to diss "Buffy" and "Angel". And pre-2006 I was the same with "Smallville". I think I've mentioned before how I saw the pilot back in 2001 and hated it. Yet something must be said for the merit of a show that can hook someone who later randomly decided to watch the first season in preparation for the new movie a few years later. I'm not a fan who's been watching for years. Hell, I haven't been a fan for even one year!

And don't get me wrong, if "Smallville" sucked, I'd be the first to say it. I was saying it before we got half way through the season, so I'm 100% honest that the show did improve.

Know what? Know how many shows I've dissed, but come around loving? Quite a few, especially these last few years. I dissed "Alias" for being the female "24", but when I watched it I was surprised the first two seasons were better than any season of "24" I had seen. I bashed "Dark Angel" because the story was derivative, but overall it was a pretty kick ass series that I wouldn't have minded more of. I still hate "Scrubs", but after seeing more first season episodes, I can say that the show was much better in its early days; dare I say good?

"Firefly" was another show I never gave a chance when it was on. I didn't become a browncoat until I borrowed the series from my BIL in preparation for the movie. "Blade" was a series I was afraid would suck and suck hard, but I have to say I watched every week and was entertained about 90% of the time.

Enough with the cool shows, let's talk wimpy shows! "Everwood" is probably the best example of a show I stayed away from like a vampire to sunlight. Sure it had Treat Williams, who I've always liked, but I liked him in bad action movies. I couldn't possibly buy him as a 'father-knows-best' character. Especially from a show that was on the WB! (Note: I was very, very anti-WB up until the year it ended.) It looked like 7th Heaven and Dawson's Creek and, worse, a surprisingly large group of my friend's watched it. But I eventually found myself at my friend's house watching the pilot. Know what? It was pretty damn good. But I still didn't watch the show. Then the WB fell apart and canceled "7th Heaven"... but fuck! The series finale of "7th" had the highest ratings of any finale that season, so on it stayed. The cost: "Everwood". In a mad scramble the show's producers had to turn a season finale into a series finale with only an extra hour to do so. Maybe one reason I fell in love with "Everwood" was because it was such an underdog. No show deserves how the WB/UPN/CW treated it. It was bullshit in every sense of the word. So when curtain called, I watched the finale - making my track record with the show limited to the pilot and the series finale. But after that night, I remember vividly how much I wanted to watch the rest of the series. So here I am about a year later madly in love with the show I had once protested so highly against.

Somehow this post has turned into a story better suited for a blog, which I had just meant to be a list. Looks like I won't be mentioning the other sissy shows like "Felicity", "Brothers & Sisters", or the like.

At some point in this post the gloves came off. Cattivo, this wasn't directed at you. But whenever I read posts that sound like me from two years ago, I get a bit annoyed, if only because I realize how much of a bigot I was. Good fucking Lord, I once thought "Buffy" was a girls show for Christ's sake! If that's not idiocy, I don't know what is.

Oh Lord, excuse my slip of blasphemy.

So continue all dissing "Smallville", it's your right. Like it's my right to continue to dissing this season of "American Idol" having seen zippo episodes (for the record, I only watched AI's second and half of the third seasons). Speaking of which, fuck you Sanjay or whoever! I know you were voted off this week, but fuck you based on how much gossip I had to endure because of you!!!

Knyte wrote:

Tebor wrote: Speaking of which, fuck you Sanjay or whoever! I know you were voted off this week, but fuck you based on how much gossip I had to endure because of you!!! Sanjay was spreding rumors about you? I watched about half of the first season of Smallville when it originally aired, then gave up on it because it seemed like nothing more than "Kryptonite Mutant Of The Week." I just started watching the old episodes again on "ABC Family", and have to admit that show improved greatly towards it's sophmore season and on.

It was gossip about "American Idol" and how much Sanjaya (or whoever) rocked or sucked. Now copy and paste that conversion to be every day for the past six weeks. Yeah, that irritating. I don't think it would've bothered me as much had it not become headline news on CNN.

As for the "monster of the week" deal, you're talking to one of the biggest X-Files fans ever. I'm used to the monster of the week vs. mythology episode storytelling. I had posted a link that some old web-i-zine had mentioned that kind of television format.

But here's the thing, most shows are going to start with that basic structure. Even "Lost" in it's premiere season had "stand alone" episodes. Mythology and serial storytelling develop as a series matures. "Smallville" is a great example of that. The first season had little of the larger story in it, because it might have had only one season. This is best exemplified in the season finale where the cliffhanger is simply Lana Lang being carried up into a tornado. Since then, every cliffhanger has had some foot in the larger mythology of Superman. And, sure enough, the first season was a hit, so you see a BIG change in structure the second season. Clark finds out about Krypton, Jor-El becomes a major character, even the caves which later paid off in a big way were introduced.

The show became very serialized, especially after the fourth season, which really began to flirt more with five act structure and all that fun stuff. It really is quite incredible. And for anyone with any interest at all in television, it is worth checking out how "Smallville" has managed to stay a lasting series. Trust me, it goes beyond Tom Welling's pectorals.

This should actually be done with every series that, I'll say, lasts longer than four to five years. Almost always there's a need for a growth in storytelling (the only exception I see in my head is M.A.S.H. which I wasn't the biggest fan of, so I can't say for certain). Check out E.R. now against the George Clooney seasons. Then again, what happened to that show is that it got away from character stories and focused more on the "case of the week". When the main characters left, they managed to keep the hospital franchise element, but character stories became much more diet sized. There are season arcs, but there isn't nearly the built in development that had been intended and can be seen on a show like St. Elsewhere.

Man, Knyte, you somehow got me really excited about television. It's such a great medium, but I'll save these thoughts for a group that actually knows what I'm talking about *

*I can see an angry reply popping up already by one of you who's a real hardcore St. Elsewhere fan. In advance, I am not insulting anyone's television intelligence. These are simply my thoughts of the medium. I'm sure a great number of you already know what I'm talking about. So sorry if I offended and thank you for letting me cover my ass.


EDIT:

Tishwitch wrote:

I'd also like to know how SANJAYA got rumours spread??? He was a horrible singer... but what the F?

Alright, seriously, I said "how much gossip I had to endure because of you". Granted it wasn't the best constructed sentence, but notice the lack of subject. It did not limit itself to gossip about me. A better argument would have been if I meant gossip about the Golden Girls or something equally random, because I gave no inclination toward what the gossip was about. But I still feel it can surmised that I was referring to water cooler BS about Sanjana (or whoever).

Tishwitch wrote:

Tebor wrote: Check out E.R. now against the George Clooney seasons. Then again, what happened to that show is that it got away from character stories and focused more on the "case of the week". When the main characters left, they managed to keep the hospital franchise element, but character stories became much more diet sized. There are season arcs, but there isn't nearly the built in development that had been intended and can be seen on a show like St. Elsewhere. You must not have watched it recently. I find that for a few seasons, after Mark died, they kinda too away from character development. But, the last maybe 3 seasons, they've been doing the same as they've always done. There's a whole lotta storyline with Abby & Kovach (with the Forest Whitaker stalking thing), Neela & Ray (with their sexual tension, Gallant dying, etc.), and Dr. Pratt (legal problems and gay brother). Even Kerry Weaver got a huge character boost the last few seasons, with coming out, being in long-term relationships, "having" a baby, and now that's she's had the surgery, she can walk normally too! That's not even all of them! Samantha had a big story too with the whole ex-husband going bat-crazy and her son with issues too! I strongly disagree that ER character stories dropped... if anything, there's a whole lot more now then maybe 4 years ago! [/rant]

The following post is pretty much stream of conscious. You've been warned.

The last I watched ER it was because of forces higher than myself (i.e. I wanna say two seasons ago). Nonetheless, I'll state (and by state, I mean bitch off topically) that sexual tension is never a worthwhile arc, e.g. X-files, The Office. It's just something for the fans, but all it does is stall story. Now, I haven't seen enough of this season to say what I think of Neela & Ray, but my overall feelings toward "sexual tension" on TV remains. And I swear it's true for all shows.

Back to ER plots, all of those I just read sound way too derivative of every other medical show and I cannot for the life of me understand why all these shows need to borrow the exact same arcs from each other. Then again, the medical genre is dependent on the actual medical work, which I understand lends itself to repetition.

Let's break off for a moment and talk about medical shows, because there's House, which I think has the worse long term arcs aside from House himself. But I watch and enjoy House whenever Fox airs it in a timeslot of some other canceled show. Why have I watched it so many times? It certainly isn't story. It's because of two things: House the man makes me laugh and two, I like to see what crazy deus ex the writers whip out. So, I'd like to revise my previous statement if I implied that ER of late was bad because it didn't have quality stories- well maybe partially. But medical shows are not dependent on stories now that I think about it. But I will argue the great ones are. Of course, define great? ER's been on the air sense '94 Anyway, the ER I liked and watched back on TNT reruns interested me, but the new ER I saw getting broadcast did not. The ER I see advertised on NBC definitely doesn't interest me, because it appeared to be the case of my original rant. So if ER holds merit, rock on for them cause they'll be back for another year or two depending how much more the ratings slip. But I swear somewhere the show turned into a spinoff of itself and that's why I mentioned it.

All that is to say: You're right, I haven't watched recently.