Smallville and the Man of Tomorrow

I’ve been watching Smallville again from the beginning.  It’s nice to watch because now my girlfriend has gotten into the show as well and she’s hooked.  We are trying to get her up to speed again, but it gives me the opportunity to watch the show from a fresh perspective. 

***** SPOILERS, well maybe, but just in case you haven’t seen the show, take care in continuing *****

Smallville starts off Clark’s freshman year, he’s fast and strong, but as for the rest of his powers, they are MIA, which is fine by me.  The whole premise of Smallville was how did Superman become the man he is.  What was his world like before his big move to Metropolis? 

I wasn’t sure how I felt about the show when I first started watching it, I mean, “Meteor Infected” supervillains each week, same formulaic show one after each other.  Then after I thought about it for a while, I realized it’s not a bad idea.  It kinda follows the comics, in a way, and it’s a new medium, a new story.  It happened with Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, each telling of the story was different because it has to be.  The story has to change to fit whatever device is being used to tell it.  I mean, how boring would it be to watch a movie directly translated from a book?

Wait, was I going to make a point here?  RIGHT!  Smallville, I said once before that the intro no longer fits the show.  It’s new moody broody take on the Man of Steel is a long ways away from the Light hearted jovial goings on of his youth.  Even visually, it’s just a dark show now.  Ok, points were made before, so why this entry?

It’s not really about What’s happening in the show, but what is NOT happening in the show that is bugging me.  This season, though I do like the episodes, bother me, as did last season.  I couldn’t quite put my finger on it until I realized Clark isn’t changing.  Nothing new is happening with him and he seems to be at a standstill.  Ok, so he left everyone and went to the Fortress for an episode or two, but he’s right back where he started, still not able to fly, still helping people in his ridiculously stupid black suit.  First the Blur, now this?  You guys have a problem with the blue tights?

I want to see Superman.  The show has been stuck in Smallville, stuck in the premise of the show from 10 years ago, the show has change, accept it, embrace it, move FORWARD.  Hell, change the name of the show even, do something radical to breathe new life into a dead and well beaten horse.  I liked the show cause as it was starting to be the same thing, they added something to it, now it seems all they are adding are more characters.  I don’t watch the show to see Hawkman or the Green Arrow, I watch the show because I am a fan of Superman.  I like the addition of other characters, but not to the expense of the reason I enjoy the show in the first place. 

From this point, can you even turn Clark into Superman?  Have you taken it so far away from the mythos of the character that there can be no return?  Stop toying with the Glasses and put them on already!  No one is going to suddenly see Clark in glasses and accept that he isn’t this guy without glasses they have been looking at all these years who now appears to have \super powers.

Smallville is over, I don’t want to see the show end, I want to see the show evolve.  Enough with the Blur, it’s time for Superman. 

More and more and more

I know I should be sitting here working on my outline, with a few breakthroughs I made last night, it should re-energize me to get the damn thing finished, but it’s hard damn work. I spent the evening with a couple good friends of mine playing the New Super Mario Brothers and laughing my ass off. That game is certainly prime for hilarity.

So this weekend was another media overload weekend. Unfortunately that does NOT include The Superman: Secret Origins comic. I didn’t realize it was coming out this last week, so I guess I’ll just have to wait until Monday.

So, like I was saying, media overload. I bought a couple games, a bunch of TV shows and movies on DVD, yeah I went shopping on Black Friday for myself. I even bought a new keyboard and Windows 7. SO MUCH STUFF! I need to calm things down a bit. Why is it I always sabotage myself with new crap when I have work to do?!

Ok, so instead of doing the responsible thing and working on the script tonight, I will watch another episode of either Supernatural or the new show I just bought, Farscape. Been looking for that for a while, finally found the entire series on DVD for cheaper than they used to have one season. As much as I want to watch the rest of Farscape, Supernatural is going to win out as it’s already in the DVD player.

Don't blink or it's going to be Christmas

So how did it come to be the closing days of November already? Seriously, I'm freaking out here as I have a TON of work to do and now it appears only about a month left to do it. Why a month? DEADLINES PEOPLE! I gave myself to the end of the year to finish the first draft of this first Superman script and I have to get it finished before Christmas as I'm going with my girlfriend to Montana to visit her family.

Ok, so here goes a new push, I have done my research, I have studied my comics and I have a LOT of material to digest. Life has been very complicated lately as happens for everyone, but does everyone have a keyboard that sticks? I'm not sure if I just type too fast for the keyboard or what, but several of the keys don't want to respond unless I push straight down, that makes typing rather difficult as I either have to type very hard, or make sure to have a very good spell check. Wait, did I just get sidetracked AGAIN?

Ok, so where was I? Right, FINISH MY OUTLINE! I can get a script written in the span of a week if push came to shove, but I would really rather have at least a couple. So that puts me at 5 weeks to finish my outline, go over the edits for the outline and write the script. Normally I get about half way through a script and realize where my plot holes are, what just outright isn't going to work and I can go back to the outline, make the changes, completely break the entire story and spend the next year ignoring the whole project because I just don't want to think about the details that I missed the first dozen times around.

Ugh, that's what this project is all about. It's not necessarily about having a perfect script the first time around, but a script. Something I can look at and say, yeah, that's pretty damn good, needs a bit of work, but it's complete. You can't have a final draft if you don't have a first draft.

Smallville to Superman

This was the episode I was looking for. Tonight's episode of Smallville got back to the root of what Smallville needed to be. I have been watching the show over from the beginning and it has changed a lot over the years. I wasn't sure how I felt about the recent turn, all the heavy handed, dark and gloomy drama infested season this one started off as.

***** SPOILERS *****

There are moments in the series that just give you shivers, the first time I heard the Superman theme mixed into the show, the episode where Dr. Swann, played by the late great Christopher Reeve (which I think was from the same episode), the first time Lois Lane appears, When the Justice League came together to stop Lex's 33.1 experiments, Seeing Clark's cape flying to infinity when Jordan touched him, the creation of the Fortress of Solitude... there are a lot of them, I have to admit. What are your favorite moments of Smallville?

So with those, tonights episode was one of them for me. The entire episode revolving around Lois on the verge of Learning Clark's secret, seeing "the Blur" step up and be the symbol of hope and stepping into the role of the symbol of hope and the push for others to take on the quest. And the best part of it all, the glasses. It's been a long time coming and I really hope he starts wearing them all the time.

I'm finally glad for this season, I am very much looking forward to seeing a shift from Smallville to Superman.

Halloween 2009

I love Halloween.  It's my favorite Holiday of the year, though I'm also a big fan of Christmas, but that's another show.  So it was a huge push to get the costume finished, but I did and I think it came out extremely well.  I had a minor hickup with my beard though.  As I went to trim up the beard my vaccum powered beard trimmer, I realized it was not working.  So I take the guide comb off and clean it out.  Back to trim it up and...I forgot to put the guide comb back on.  So out goes this nice wide strip out of my perfectly produced thick beard I had going.  It took some creative editing, but I was able to clean up the beard so it didn't look too bad, but still not the full beard I wanted to have.

The real tough part was creating a lightsaber for the costume.  There are  a lot of them out there that are really cool looking, but also really expensive.    I don't have that much money, so it's time to make one.  I spent 2 weeks looking for parts at every store I could think of, Lowes, Home Depot, Ace, True Value, Walmart, anywhere you would think to find hardware.  I didn't find much, so I eventually found the Habitat for Humanity Restore.  Searching through the place was very rewarding as I found most of the parts I needed. Combine that with some creative discoveries at my dads house, use of a grinder, spray paint and pliers, I made myself a lightsaber. 

So all that was left was the costume itself.  Can't really walk around with nothing but a lightsaber, I think I'd get arrested and I know my friend (who was having his wedding rehearsal on Halloween as a costume party) would definatly not appriciate it.  Thanks to my awesome mother who helped modify and sew up the costume itself.  I think it came out rather good.  So here it is, my costume from Halloween this year, Obi Wan Kenobi. 

So last but certainly not least, my friend, who I have mentioned as being the person I collaborate with on all my stories, got married this weekend.  I have known the guy for 25 years and never thought he'd get married.  I'm not a big fan of weddings, I have always found them uncomfortable and overproduced, but I have to say, I had a blast.  His wedding was beautiful and simple.  He asked me (On Saturday I might add) to be his best man for his wedding on Sunday.  I didn't have much time to prep my speech, but I think it came out alright.  Truth of the matter, I think he waited so long to ask me to be his best man because he didn't want me in charge of his bachelor party, LOL.  I don't drink, I'm not interested in strip clubs, I have no business being a best man.  I was honored to be asked though.  There are 5 of us who have been hanging out since high school, but we've all known each other since elementary school.  I couldn't ask for better friends. 

Now that I'm down a month and a half, it's time to get a real push on Superman.  Hopefully all the excitement of everything else going on will calm down now.