TV: Potpourri

Smallville returns after a long hiatus, and hits us with one of the oldest sci-fi cliches in the book: the evil twin. But, much like the equally-cliched mind-swapping story earlier this season (that's swapping, as in the one with Clark & Lionel, not possession, as in the lame Lana/witch ones), it was still pretty entertaining, primarily due to the acting. You can tell Michael Rosenbaum is having a lot more fun playing Lex as straight-up evil, rather than his typical earnest-but-squirrelly. And the bad Lionel is back! Ah, it was only a matter of time. Good stuff.

I tell you what I'm sick of, though: everybody who keeps getting knocked unconscious just before Clark demonstrates his powers. Happened to both Chloe (even though she actually knows about his powers) and good-twin Lex this episode. Jesus, they should all be permanently brain damaged from all that blacking out. Despite what you may have seen on Gilligan's Island, it does not take a tap on the head with a coconut to render someone unconscious. It takes serious cranial trauma. (Back me up on this, Scott!) Which every character on the show seems to suffer on a monthly, if not weekly, basis. If I lived in Smallville, I'd wear a frickin' helmet, 24/7.

Oh, by the way -- possible spoiler -- I see that IMDb.com lists Jensen Ackles, "Jason Teague" on the show, as being a castmember for "2004-2005". Do they know something we don't know? I mean, I assumed, or at least hoped, he wouldn't be back next year, but IMDb seems to be stating it as a certainty. Interesting.

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Damnation if 24 isn't great this season. I got burned out with it in season two, and totally tuned out season three, but this year has been non-stop thrilling, with no Kim Bauer (the dumbest character in the history of television) to gum up the works. (Although Audrey is working on my last nerve.)

And these past two weeks have been amazing. They blew up Air Force One! Damn! I did not expect that plan to succeed. (And it wouldn't have, if only Jack Bauer had been on the plane -- he would've tortured that missile into submission!) Perhaps I should have, because, as Fred Hembeck noted (April 11th entry), the fact that we finally spent some character-developing time with the President was a dead giveaway: "in hour 16, he FINALLY gets a little personal time with a heretofore unseen and unmentioned son--and if I'd had ANY doubts up to that point, that little touchy-feely moment absolutely sealed his fate." Of course, the next episode revealed that the President survived the attack, just barely, but he'll most likely be out of the picture for the rest of the season.

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So, is that guy in the red hood on last week's Joan of Arcadia supposed to be the devil? Or a servant of the devil, as Joan is a servant of god? I mean, they played "Sympathy for the Devil" not once, but twice during the episode. That's subtle. But, if he's the bad guy, why did he save Adam?

This show had a very weak first half of the season, but it's gotten mostly back on track -- just in time for the season finale this week -- although I'm not wild about the Adam being a two-timing dick storyline. So Adam sleeps with another girl, and then everyone -- Joan included -- decides that Joan was partly to blame, because she wasn't there enough for him? I mean, she was only doing the bidding of the supreme being, but whatever. Anyway: I don't think so, Adam. If there's a problem, you either work it out or break it off, you don't use it as justification for cheating. Nice moral lesson you're imparting to the young viewers, there: if your man screws around on you, it's your fault.

Also, Joan's mother is supposed to feel bad because she didn't forgive the guy who raped her before he died? That's crap. Actually, the more I think about it, the angrier I'm getting at this show. Maybe it isn't getting better. Grr! I'm fickle!