(no subject)

[solitary_summer]

Could Smallville be just a little worse? Not a rhetorical question, I'm merely looking for an excuse to stop watching.


Even my embarrassing fangirlship (fangirlitude? fangirlism?) for Lex / Michael Rosenbaum makes it increasingly hard to sit through the crappy acting of pretty much everyone else, the slapdash scripts, platitude filled dialogue, Clark/Lana romance, Lana angst, &c., &c.

Lex, though. Sad, because it was clear from the beginning that his character would be de-constructed, that this would never be more than a prequel, an explanation for why things turned out as they did; any effort ultimately bound to fail, because canon sayeth so.

Rather well done, though.

A little time ago I wondered aloud whether love could really save you, and Lex, despite his jaded cynicism in other matters, is still convinced it can, in the most literal sense of all. Homoerotic subtext or no, during S1 he sets up Clark as his second chance, his conscience, an ideal to live up to, which of course is likely, if not bound, to fail under the most ideal of circumstances, even if the person in question isn't a teenaged alien with superpowers and a reflexive liar. And as we look on, the idol gets demolished little by little, as Clark lies to him again and again. I think the turning point would have been the blatant hypocrisy of Clark & family gladly accepting that Lex shot Nixon, and being even gladder that it was Lex who did it, yet still remaining on their moral high horse. He gets snappier after that, treating Clark more like an equal.

And tries again with Helen, setting her on the pedestal, trying to be good for her. The scene in Visage, when he begs her to help him not to become like his father is pure heartbreak, as is the terrible mixture of hope and honesty when he admits that he broke into her office. And if after the initial rejection she appears to forgive him, it's only to betray him.

*sigh*


And really, what is it with the Smallville writers and their oedipal issues. In the S1 finale, Lex, while not actually killing his father is on the verge of letting him die, and ever since has tried to kill him in every way but the physical, doing his best to erase Lionel's presence and influence from his life. S2 finale, Clark destroys what remains of his (equally ethically challenged and domineering) biological father, and gets rejected by his adoptive father. This show would have made Dr. Freud very happy indeed...