Smallville, Vampires in Hawaii?

Smallville: For the 2ooth episode, James Marsters will return to the show but not quite in the role he originally played. When before he was the recurring character of Milton Fine/Brainiac, he will now appear as Brainiac 5. As Brainiac 5 is of the Legion of Superheroes (first seen at the start of last season) and Marsters is obviously not a teen, this must be even further along the Legion's future.

For non-comic book fans, Brainiac 5 was a descendant of sorts from the Superman villain Brainiac. Only this time, he was a teen and a hero, serving with the Legion of Superheroes. Which set up an interesting time-travel wrinkle as it meant in the comics Superboy would meet Brainiac 5 before he ever heard of Brainiac. Supergirl, also a member of the Legion, would have known the villain first and recognizes the resemblance to the villain her cousin fought. The two would have a long history of time-crossed crushes.

Last week's episode with the re-appearance of Kara/Supergirl and the introduction of Glorious Godfrey was a lot of fun. Although, Godfrey was hardly glorious and flamboyant. The character should have been more along the lines of Kenneth Branagh as Professor Gilderoy Lockhart in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, only not as a buffoon but charmingly insidious.

We have more of the tiresome Clark's destiny to do this and not do this. Meanwhile, we see other heroes actually leading the way with Oliver going public with his identity and Kara performing superheroics in public. We need less talk about seeming pre-ordained destiny. We, as viewers, already know what Clark's destiny is, so we don't need literalizing it in the stories themselves. We're interested more in the obstacles and growth.

The end with seeing Kara in her "Linda Lee" look was a nice nod to the comics, but it manages to sabotage it as well. One, Laura Vandervoot was too made up in her disguise, too glamourous looking for a disguise that is supposed to be making her fit in. Two, Clark recognizes her right away, highlighting the ineffectiveness of such a disguise. Another nice nod was Lois trying to come up with a name for her and the first two were Supergirl and Powergirl. Powergirl is the identity of a Kara from an alternate history.

Erica Durance does a good job as Lois with what they give her. A pity it's someone that is too often a goofball and love-sick school girl instead of a competent and driven journalist. In this one episode, she violates journalist rules right and left. As they are looking back at the early seasons for the upcoming 200th episode, the writers and creators need to look at how Chloe Sullivan was written and portrayed. That passion for seeking and reporting the truth and fighting against cover-ups and corruption, that needs to be Lois Lane.

Hawaii Five-O: Finally caught these on the In-Demand channels as it normally airs opposite something else we watch. I don't remember much of the original series other than the opening theme and Jack Lord. So, I was surprised to see this is more along the lines of an action series than a cop drama set in Hawaii.

It's a fun show, with plenty of fast moving action. I've always liked Daniel Dae Kim as an actor and Grace Park is always a delight. More importantly, their characters as cousins, with Kim as the experienced but disgraced cop and Park as the fresh out of academy and surprisingly tough rookie are fun to follow and have a chemistry together that works well. Likewise, the bickering and chemistry between military intelligence McGarrett and experienced cop and father Dano Williams as played by actors Alex O'Loughlin and Scott Caan play well.

The only real groaners are the attempts at working in the classic "Book 'em, Dano" in every episode and how they gain the Hawaii Five-O name.

An interesting trivia, James Marsters (shown as Brainiac above) is the villain in the first episode and we see him fight against O'Loughlin's McGarrett and ultimately is set up to be possibly dead but open for a future return. Marsters' big claim to fame is his role as the initially villainous vampire Spike in the tv series Buffy, the Vampire Slayer and Angel. O'Loughlin played the heroic vampire Mick St. John in the tv series Moonlight. Maybe, we'll see other television vampires pop in.

No Ordinary Family: Still enjoying this look at a family trying to cope with powers. But, each episode tends to have a scene that bugs me. Last week it was Julie Benz running at superspeed in high heels. No wonder she tripped

This week, we get several that just throw me out of the show. Chiklis throws a man off the top of a top building and he lands on his back on top of a police car and not only does the guy survive, but he's up and walking with no problem within 24 hrs.

The the whole use of superspeed to break into a high security building, the sorta thing that works in a comic but not really when you have to portray it. And, at the end, her swapping the blood vials shows a little blurring on the security tape on just the vial swapped but not the fact that she was standing there. If it's because that particular vial was swapped, instead of a little blurring for a second, we'd just see it suddenly "jump" as its position was changed between frames.

The humor was also a bit over the top at places, with characters doing just stupid things. The stars of the week that salvaged it were the kids just trying to navigate the world of teenagers and generally acting like teenagers. The angst and humor there felt spot on and natural without being over-wrought.

Supernatural: We have the return of Misha Collins as the angel Castiel. He's not quite his charming self with the new responsibilities and restoration of powers though.

Doesn't look like Sam came back from his prison completely intact. If not for Cas not seeming to notice, I'd wonder if it was Sam at all and not a copy. In several places, it implies that Sam went to Hell like Dean did, but that wasn't really the case. We're not exactly sure what kind of place Sam went to. But, the future previews suggest an explanation is in the offering. And, when did Jared Padalecki get so buff?

Had a few problems with this episode, mainly that they seemed to forget their mission, to get the Staff of Moses, and the fact that other weapons from Heaven were stolen. They got one piece of the staff and freed one soul, but that was it after all the hoopla and build-up of how dangerous that multiple people had the pieces and other weapons were out there. I'm sure we'll see other weapons pop up, but it seemed off kilter that the reason they were there was all so conveniently forgotten at the end of the episode.

Interesting, at the Supernatural listing at IMDB, their car is listed as a character/actor.

Other shows shows: After watching two episodes of The Event, I bailed. I wasn't a big fan of Lie to Me but at least it gives something else to watch. Plus another channel has started showing this season's Bones as a second run which is great as it is on opposite other shows I like plus being on a channel that doesn't have their shows on In Demand for later viewing. $#*! My Dad Says continues to be surprisingly enjoyable and not the one-note show it so could easily have been. I wonder about the return of Tim Bagley's character and establishing him as house-keeper though. The actor and character are a riot but it's a sign of a show still trying to find itself when it adds new characters to the status quo. Hopefully, he'll be kept to a minimum and not wear out his welcome. Law & Order: UK is a worthy addition to the franchise and had more of the feel and pacing of the original than the first episode of Law & Order: Los Angeles did. Realized one of the problems I have with really getting into and keeping track of the characters in SGU Stargate Universe is that they don't use each others' names very often and add to it that there is an omnipresent brown-ness and dimness to the sets, costumes and lighting, and a whole lot of secondary and tertiary characters who are often there in scenes episode to episode but not used much. Look at other shows, you'll notice that there is usually a steady use of calling people by name, reinforcing the characters' identities throughout a show as well as references to a tag that describes the role of the character. They need to work more on truly differentiating the various characters, making each memorably stand out.

A Whole Lot of Resurrections Going On.

Friday night seemed to be "bring characters back from the dead" night. Starting off with the final season opener of Smallville, Jon Schneider reprises his role as the previously dead Jonathan "Pa" Kent to appear in a vision to Clark. After the moral beat down by his dead biological father Jor-El who warns Clark against pride and that he will be the biggest danger to humanity, Pa Kent offers a balancing and more positive point of view, inspiring Clark to follow his heart and always try to be a better man than his Kryptonian father thinks he'll be. Last season we got to see Jor-El in the flesh more or less, played by Julian Sands. However, the voice of Jor-El at the fortress is still done by Terrance Stamp, the actor that played Zod in the movie Superman II. Even Clark's survival is played off as him coming back from the dead since he was stabbed rather brutally by Zod in the season finale. Luckily, Lois was on hand to remove from his chest and he got better (which means that Lois now secretly knows Clark's secrets). Lex comes back from the dead in the guise of several clones, many of whom get killed off. Likewise, Tess who seemed to be on her deathbed last season gets a miracle cure.

Somehow I missed that the government agent that was working for Checkmate and Amanda Waller was Rick Flagg, a long-time character at DC. This one is a little more ruthless than his comic counterpart and was in charge of kidnapping Green Arrow. He mercilessly tortures and beats the hero and then somehow Chloe manages to have herself exchanged for Arrow? Of Chloe, she uses Dr. Fate's helmet as an information download into her brain. Checkmate may have more than they are bargaining for.

There is a brief appearance of the Superman costume and the episode sets up as themes for the show that Clark is going to have to step out of the shadows and into the light, thus give up wearing the black and become a more colorful hero. How they will reconcile that with the fact that there's a whole lot of people that know what Clark Kent looks like without glasses is anybody's guess.

The only serious drawbacks were that there was a lot of build up of Lex Luthor's return which was resolved very quickly and the incessant talk of Clark's destiny. It's gotten to the point that even Clark talks about it which does make pride seem to be a big hurdle for him in the future. Especially with him some day taking the name "Superman". Still, the whole destiny bit gets old and pretentious and sets up Superman on that boring pedestal and being unrelatable. Whereas, a big part of what makes the Smallville series work is how much it and Tom Welling humanize the character and ground him. And, with all the talk about it being his destiny and all, it subtracts Clark's actual achievements and the aspects that he becomes this inspiration and great hero through his own inherent beliefs and actions as opposed to being goaded into it.

Supernatural follows up with a resurrection or two of its own. We knew that Sam was coming back, it was shown in the final scene of the season finale. A bigger surprise is the return of their mother's father Samuel who is also a hunter as played by Mitch Pileggi. Neither seem to have any information about why they were brought back but here's betting that Samuel knows more than he's telling.

A year has passed since the finale and the show does a wonderful job juxtaposing Dean's new life vs his old one. His outrage at finding out that Sam (and Samuel) have been back for a year and hunting without contacting him AND that Bobby knew as well is convincing as are their reasons for doing so after all they have experienced. It betrays a certain naivete in thinking that after all Sam & Dean had done not to expect someone would come looking for payback, which a group of djinns do. The djinn angle doesn't play out as well as the rest. They aren't a very convincing threat other than their poisonous touch. After mentioning them as infiltrating the town, having it just as a waitress seen in the first few minutes seemed a letdown. It's also unclear as to whether Dean's neighbors were killed or not. We know Dean's antidotes to the poison are destroyed but Sam shows up moments later with an antidote for Dean. We don't see exactly whether the neighbors are dead by that point or not though nor fallout concerning them.

A lot of negative opinions on the re-introduction of Samuel and the Campbell cousins, another family of hunters. I think people are accepting things a bit too much at face value though. I think we'll see either a more insidious plot behind Sam and Samuel's resurrections and the Campbells will be a part of it or just how different that Sam and Dean are from other hunters and how they need each other as they bring out the best in each as human beings. Kudos for not going for the obvious and easy solution to Family Man Dean. He doesn't leave them nor does the show just kill them off for angst and motivation sake. He chooses to stay and for complicated and complex reasons. Partly because after all that he's been through he does want the simpler life but he feels the responsibility to Sam and family and to all of the innocents that don't know the evils that exist around him. But, he cannot escape his sense of responsibility to his new family, Lisa and Ben either. He's trapped, because of him, they are targets. His staying makes them even more of a target, but his leaving would leave them vulnerable and not completely remove them as targets from those who would seek to strike at Dean.

I'm excited to see where this will be going and how it will play out. Often, just when I think I know how the show will go, it swerves and surprises me. I expect a fun ride.