The episode Hero, starring Pete Ross. Pete has his share of terrible episodes but this is a whole new playing field for Pete Ross “The Boss”.
How great can product placement get when it moves from subtly being placed in a drawer for different shots to having an entire episode written about the brand or product.
Stride Gum; Last Long and Gives you Super Powers! I think it has a ring to it. Try the green gum and see if you get elastic arms too.
Pete is not my favourite character and the episode does have merit for the scenes that don’t include the ludicrous product placement but in all I was just saddened but the display.
Episodes starts and there is Pete, Kara and Jimmy at a concert in the Stride Gum factory, not just a gum factory or a factory but the Stride Gum factory. Oh and the gum was left on a crack where somehow Kryptonite was there and it affected the gum and ONLY gave Pete super powers.
He grabs a the green package, holds it perfectly so the camera can see the brand and then opens it to grab a wrapped piece of green gum, that glows before he puts it in his mouth. Then just in the nick of time he saves Kara with his Elastic Man powers. (who by the way is a DC Hero).
The entire episode pushes the gum, Chloe stating it’s slogan and Pete constantly chewing it and having the package on his person and only when he is pushes down and looses the gum is he in trouble. The gum may be full of Kryptonite but it’s the Hero in this story.
How do you feel about Product Placement on this level? It isn’t just the gum in the desk drawer it the plot of an episode.
Season 1, the beginning of an amazing television show by DC Comics shows a love stuck teenager with an over achieving cheerleader. It’s a comic book soap opera and it’s a true success to be sure. Now I am watching Season 7 and I have just witnessed the most upsetting episode yet. This episode, Persona, stars Lana Lang, Clark Kent (Kal-El), Clark Kent (Phantom/Bizarro) and many other amazing cast like Brainiac and Dax-Ur.
Lately in the show it seems like there are really straining to find a place for Lana Lang, who I believe is more than ready to leave Smallville, Clark and the show. Lana left Clark for two men, both lied to her, one died, and the other she framed for her murder and then divorced him.
Now she is back with Clark, she finally knows his secret, they can’t have sex, they don’t look at each other with the eyes of happy lovers and they are not the couple everyone (or most people) were rooting for in the earlier seasons.
About mid-season Clark, yet again, angers Jor-El by not listening to him. He costs his cousin her powers and memory and put the world in danger so he is being punished at the Fortress and thanks to the writers of Smallville somehow Bizarro Superman has escaped the clutches of Martian Man Hunter and is free on Earth and in Smallville.
He shows up at the Kent farm and shows Lana the love and happiness she has been missing. They spend a month together while Kal-El is stuck in the fortress. Bizarro Superman not only loves Lana, but she truly loves him and tells him she has never been happier than this past month.
They can leave, go fly to Paris and have a truly happy life together. She can leave Smallville and the show, Clark can move on (if he’s ever released) and we can all have a happy ending. Lana and Clark fans can be happy cause she’s with a form of him, I can be happy cause she will finally leave the show and Clark can move on and stop being retarded and Lois and Clark fans can be excited that Lois will finally have a chance to get on Clark’s radar with Lana out of the picture.
So what goes wrong? Jor-El releases Kal-El and he decided that Bizarro must die. They find his weakness and even though Lana realizes and states that she has never been happier with anyone but Bizarro she kills him anyways.
Why did Lana kill him? She no longer loves Clark (Kal-El) and just spent a month with someone who looks like him, is just as strong as he is and isn’t as retarded as he is! Lana and Bizarro should have just gone away to Paris and flew around the world taking in the sights and being a cute, in love, couple and Clark could have moved on and gotten over his need to have Lana.
I understand he has loved her, or wanted her for year upon years but he no longer truly loves her. They don’t mesh well together anymore. They can’t have sex because of his powers, they don’t have fun, and they don’t look at each other like they are in love. They need to be done! This relationship is way past its expiry date. I will admit I hated his infatuation with Lana from the start but now it’s just pathetic. They are two very different people now then when they both loved each other and they need to move on.
Lana shouldn’t have killed Bizarro, they should have made some sort of deal, Bizarro doesn’t kill anyone, reveal his powers too anyone and he and Lana can live happily ever after anywhere but Kansas. I think this arrangement could have worked and Clark can move on and start developing feelings for Lois or any other girl that isn’t a raven-haired former witch.
And that was my Smallville rant for the day. On to watch the next episode.
