Lana VS Adama – The Hygiene Files

I could fill a whole post with all the things that were wrong with Smallville this week.  I honestly think it was one of the worst ones we’ve seen in a long time.  This is coming from someone who really liked ‘Sneeze’.  There is no hope.  On top of some of Tom’s worst acting ever, a total excess of Lana and that really stupid scene where they had no clues so Clark pulled something out of his ass, it was like watching the writers come up with the ideas as they went.  It should be noted that this episode was written by two of the new Exec Producers on the show and was directed by Mrs Chloe Suliva-Olsen herself, Allison Mack.   I commend Allison on a job well done.  There were a lot of sort of unstable shots and one where we saw her step up onto her applebox but these were outnumbered by some really cool shots.  Lana on fire?  Window blood spatter?  Iconic planet ending?  All very memorable.  Sadly, there’s not much she could have done about the writing.

Early on in the episode, before I broke out the choco almond coffee crunch ice cream to deal, I was going to talk about Lana’s ultra dramatic hair cutting scene.  Many fans know, shortly after she left Smallville Kristen Kreuk cut her hair.  There was slight uproar but personally I couldn’t care less about her wanting to get a bad haircut.  To each their own.  But I couldn’t help but roll my eyes when they gave her an entire scene dedicated to lopping it off.  Don’t worry about that totally not dead security guard with a gun you left in the back of the van.  It’s more important that you do a nice even job… because? Now nobody will recognize you?

Simple tasks like cutting off one’s hair can have a lot of meaning but in true Smallville style they have to hit us over the head with it.  Lana cuts off her hair, becomes a new, stronger person and cuts ties with her old identity.  Right got it.  Then the show has to make sure you really got it.  Here’s something obvious, lets reitterate it so we can be sure everyone caught that.  We saw this again when Clark stated the glaringly obvious.  I’m sorry, I love Superman but if he’s this stupid, I’m not sure I want him in charge of saving the world.

Some people can pull off the simple but symbolic tasks for an entire scene.  Bill Adama for example.  I will happily watch that man shave and brush his teeth, ticking away the precious seconds I have left to find out everything I need to know about Galactica and it’s crew because he does it with conviction.  It’s believable.  I believe that Adama really wants his teeth clean and that he’s making plans while he does it.  It’s always about something more and never about beating your audience over the head.

Adama has me counting the seconds in hopes of catching everything I can while Lana has me counting them wondering how much longer it’s going to be till she leaves and what my chances are that they’ll kill her.  Maybe she should have started with something simpler, like washing her face.

-DoubleBitch

~ by doublebitch on January 29, 2009.