Watching The CW

Congratulations to Tyra who beat out the competition of Ryan Seacrest and Simon Cowell, amongst others, to win Choice TV Personality at Teen Choice 2007.

It has been a good week all round for ANTM with TVGuide.com reporting that Eva Marcille Pigford (winner of cycle three) will be guest staring on Smallville in a suitably titled episode - Fierce. I know that I almost never mention One Tree Hill but more guest stars have been added to the forthcoming season, and you can read about it here at Ausiello (because I have never heard of them).

The CW, Tyra Banks, Teen Choice 2007, Smallville, America’s Next Top Model, ANTM, Eva Marcille Pigford, One Tree Hill, TVGuide.com

Kristin E!Online breaks the news that Mrs. Alexander Luther will be returning to Smallville and her return will involve cloning. What do we think about that? Are we happy that Lana will be returning in one form or another after last season’s finale?

The CW, Watch with Kristin, E!Online, Smallville, Lana Luther

Digging back into even more Superman heritage it is reported on TVGuide that Helen Slater will play Clark’s bio-mother. Yes, the former Supergirl will now be Supermom. I wonder if she has any tips for Laura Vandervoort?

Gossip Girls is now going to debut on September 19th moving up a week to grab our attention before the premier of Bionic Woman.

Check out SciFi to see how excited Eric Kripke is about the forthcoming season of Supernatural. (He even teases us with an anti-Christmas urban legend - how cute would Dean be in a Santa hat?).

The CW, Smallville, Helen Slater, TVGuide, Gossip Girl, Supernatural, Eric Kripke, SciFi

The powers-that-be at Smallville are going for a hat trick of supermen: Tom Welling, Christopher Reeves and now Dean Cain. SpoilerFix reports that Cain will be guest staring as a possible baddie - Dr. Curtis Knox. The good (or dodgy) doctor has an obsession with meteors and can cure those affected.

Uber TV geek Ausiello has his live press tour diary over at TVGuide.com and you can read all about his thoughts on the new CW season ahead.

The CW, Smallville, Tom Welling, Christopher Reeves, Dean Cain, TVGuide, Ausiello

I am marking off the days on my calendar till the fall 2007 season kicks off, in the meantime there is a repeat of America’s Next Top Model Cycle 7 (I think) and the odd spoiler about my favorite shows…

Check out Watch with Kristin on EOnline for scoops about a mysterious blond stranger saving Lex and the other hunter chick to be joining the Winchester brothers.

BTW, I totally agree with kg’s comments about how the Supernatural chicks must not upset the balance between Dean and Sam. I think Lauren Cohan should be an interesting addition to the team (but maybe I am biased as she went to school in Britain).

The CW, Supernatural, America’s Next Top Model, Smallville, Lauren Cohan

It looks as if spoiler season is kicking in as SciFi reports that a cousin for Clark has been cast, and we can look forward to Canadian actress Laura Vandervoort as Kara (aka Supergirl). Over at SpoilerFix it looks as if Dean and Sam will be joined by a husband and wife hunting team, and rumors of two female series regulars going by the monikers Ruby and Bela. But, more importantly Supernatural will be doing something creative with the seven deadly sins and give who their spin on vampires, werewolves and genies it will be something to look forward to.

The CW, SciFi.com, Smallville, Supergirl, Laura Vandervoort, SpoilerFix, Supernatural

No new Supernatural last night but I did have two episodes of Smallville on my DVR. Static from last week and then last nights repeat of Hydro. Except when I was watching Hydro I didn’t at first realize that it was a repeat until the Green Arrow popped up and Lana was all confused by whether or not to marry Lex. This was because I was totally distracted by having Tori Spelling back on prime time as a gossip columnist. Of the two Static was the most fun because is combined the strengths of CW: fantasy drama plus the Pussycat Dolls PLUS Friday Night Smack Down.

I kid you not - I think they are on to a winner!

A Krypto fight club has sprung up where meteor affected people go to knock each other about and it is streamed live all over the world. It turns out that Titan from the Phantom Zone (a “Zoner” if you will) is headlining and Clark (and Lois) head off to stop this, or in Lois case dress like Janet Jackson (she was undercover, doh!) and flirt with the female security guard. Both Clark and Titan are spoiling for a fight. Titan is a warrior (with Kryptonic prison tats) whilst Clark has had that mean and hungry look ever since the wedding.

Clark us is christened ‘The Man of Steel’ at the fight club and has to fight Lois! Ever the gentleman he refuses to fight her, but does shoot death rays from his eyes to blow out the webcam and some how alerts Titan to his presence. A nasty fight ensues. Titan has a sneaky, pointy weapon up his sleeve but in the end good triumphs and Clark kills Titan in accidental self-defense.

Back in Lutherland, Lana loses the baby and Lex is covering up the paperwork trail from the hospital but burning all the medical records. What is up there? I have a feeling that when Lana finds out she is going to be even more of a threat to Lex than Clark.

Overall one of the stronger episodes I’ve seen, Clark in black leather helped but what is up with Clark’s base of operations being the barn? He needs a Bat Cave or something!

The CW, Smallville, Superman, Clark Kent, Lana Lang, Lex Luther, Lois and Clark, Krypto fightclub

This was quite a neat episode even though I had hoped it would be more Lex rich. I think the plot device of experiencing the morning of the wedding from the point of view of Clark, Lex and Lana worked well enough to set things up for the rest of the season. It wasn’t as clunky as I’d thought, and the flitting back and forth suitably unraveled the days events in the Smallville universe.

It is not often that manslaughter, three counts of blackmail and a dozen stare downs are needed to facilitate a wedding. But hey, this was a Luther family wedding after all.

Clark’s PoV was a little too sitting around moping and throwing things out of windows to sad music. But, he did get to wear something other than his standard red-blue color combo. His dream was all very Shakespearian. At least he finally managed to muster up a last minute declaration of love and everything might turn out okay because at this point Lana isn’t going to marry Lex. Enter stage left the villain…

Things do not look good for our young lovers and we are projected back to the future to start the day over. Lex is dreaming about a mutant baby or is he just projecting his true self - discuss. He foolishly tells his father that he would do anything to make sure that Lana will marry him. Then minutes before the wedding he meets the creepy blackmailing doctor in the crypt under the church, beats him up and then accidentally (but without remorse) kills the doc. After he has finished washing the blood from his hands Chloe appears with the news that Lana is missing….

Finally, we start the day with Lana. Her dream is that it is Clark who saved her from a torondo and I am assuming that his really happened because of the news clipping and that it was a repressed memory. The whole Chloe getting locked in the cellar incident bugged me but it did have a purpose - Lana did it to discover the truth about Clark. Pat on the back for the soon to be trophy wife, she is not has green as she is cabbage looking and might be a thorn in Lex’s side. Of course the villain was Lionel, who blackmails her into marrying his son.

To sum up poor little Lana is forced to marry Lex to keep her true love alive and can’t breath a word of it. You don’t need to be a genius to know that this will not end well.

(I didn’t get a chance to watch Supernatural last night, so to keep you going check out the TV Guide interview with Jared Padalecki.)

The CW, Smallville, Lex-Lana-Clark love triangle, TV Guide, Jared Padalecki, Supernatural

As promised, I am trying to have less of a Winchester driven view of the CW (but it is so hard when Supernatural is so darn good) and thanks to our cable going out over the weekend I was able to catch up with the Smallville repeats currently housed in my DVR. So for fun, instead of my recapping, I am going to list strengths and weaknesses.

Plus
- Theme song (’Save Me’ by Remy Zero)
- Anyone whose surname is ‘Luther’
- Stays true to its comic roots with the stylistic composition of each shot & the coloring
- That Clark, at times, is a typical earth teenager (for instance, he manages to trash the fortress of knowledge and does not settle down to do his chores)
- The fact that I feel sorry for Lex in the whole Lexana relationship (why should TomKat and Branglina have all the fun with the combined names)

Minus
- Clark’s color restrictive wardrobe
- Little Jimmy O
- His birth family comes with way too much intergalactic baggage
- I worry about who tends to the corn now that Martha is flying high at whatever day job she does that forces her to wear such ill fitting suits

The CW, Smallville, Supernatural, Clark Kent, Lex Luther, Save Me, Remy Zero

Smallville: Justice League

No clue what was going on but everyone appears to have graduated and are “working” at the Daily Planet. Chloe is still investigating strange goings on with Luther Corp and their alleged experiments on people with special abilities, and there is an oh so mysterious project called 33.1. Which I am assuming is going to be computer related as it end in a point one. Chloe is also a girl genius who knows everything and can track and hack at a moments notice. This is probably very handy for Clark and one of the reasons he keeps her around.

There appears to a group of nice vigilantes (they wear brightly colored hoodies as apposed to sludge green ones which would be menacing) lead by an upgraded version of Robin Hood. They spend their time breaking into Luther Corp’s labs and gathering as much information as they can about 33.1. Clark helped them for a bit but then decided that he’s the type of guy who prefers to have sole possession of the remote control and they go their separate ways.

Supernatural: Playthings

I know I’ve seen this one before but I needed something to counter balance the angst ridden Smallville (could Clark try to save the world and have fun at the same time like Dean does).

It’s the episode set in the spooky Connecticut inn with all the creepy dolls and hoodoo magic. Is it the granny in the attic or the invisible friend of the little girl? It is fun to watch again because the boys get mistaken for a couple out antiquing, Dean forces Sam into pretending he collects dolls, and Sam gets drunk and calls Dean bossy and short.

Smallville, CW, Supernatural