Smallville 1.09 - Rogue

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I'm surprised none of my readers have pointed out a (seeming) error so far. A podcast is an audio recording, so how can it be viewed? All I can say is that it's Michael Rosenbaum's choice to entitle his series the Talkville Podcast. I believe that audio-only versions of the YouTube videos are available on platforms such as Spotify, but honestly, if there's a video version online why would anyone want an audio version?

"Rogue" is the ninth episode of the first season, and it was the first episode shown in 2002, after a five week Christmas break. It's the first episode in which Clark Kent doesn't have to face an opponent empowered by the meteor rocks. That means there's no freak-of-the-week, but there's still a villain-of-the-week. Sam Phelan is a crooked cop who witnesses Clark using his powers to stop a runaway bus. He attempts to blackmail Clark to help him retrieve files by the police Internal Affairs concerning his conduct.

This is also the first episode in which we see Lex Luthor's former girlfriend Victoria Hardwick, played by Kelly Brook. In 2002 Kelly was very well known in Britain, though hardly known internationally. She began her career as a fashion model when she was 16, but she soon became a glamour model, posing nude for the Daily Star newspaper. At the age of 19 she became a co-presenter of a breakfast television show, making her a household name. She wanted to break into acting and had already appeared in a few minor roles before joining the cast of "Smallville". In 2005 she was voted the world's sexiest woman in a poll by the readers of the magazine FHM.

Victoria is the daughter of a rich British industrialist, someone evidently even more powerful than Lionel Luthor. She's come to America to talk Lex into teaming up with her to take control of their fathers' companies. Lex is surprisingly reluctant to take her up on her offer, despite off-camera action beneath the sheets. When it comes to business, Lex likes to act alone. Apart from this, he has no way of knowing whether Victoria will turn against him in the future.

Sam Phelan might not have any super powers, but he's a formidable adversary for Clark. When Clark refuses to help him, he frames Clark's father for murder. He places a dead body in the barn and a gun in Jonathan Kent's truck. Clark has no choice but to assist Sam in robbing jewels from the Metropolis Museum. At the last moment Clark throws the bag of jewels to the police with Sam's fingerprints all over them, and he runs away at super speed. Sam dies in a police shoot out, which means Clark's secret is safe again.

Or is it? Lex Luthor examines the security camera footage and sees that someone is running in a blur. Could it be Clark? The running figure isn't clear enough to be identified, but Lex is already sure that it's Clark.

By the way, this is the first time we see the local coffee shop, the Smallville Beanery, from the outside.

The Talkville podcasts are getting better from week to week. I think the reason is that Tom Welling is loosening up and talking more freely. Michael Rosenbaum has always spoken confidently, because he's had past experience of other podcasts. Michael has to defend himself against accusations of shitting on "Smallville". I know what the fan means. Michael is always pointing out mistakes and weaknesses in individual episodes, and his rose'n'bomb ratings are always lower than the fan would expect. Tom turns the accusations into a joke:

"Michael has no idea what Smallville is when he watches it. He's never seen the episodes, nor did he read the scenes he wasn't in. And this is not the genre that Michael prefers. so he's gonna be a little on edge".

Although meant as a joke, it's half-true. Making the series was a hard job, so why should Michael have read the scenes he didn't appear in? Did Tom? I doubt it. Tom, as the series' main character, can watch the show from a detached position today, after not seeing the episodes for years. It's possible that he never watched many of the completed episodes. He says that he enjoys Smallville much more today than he did at the time. 20 years ago it was work, but watching it today is pleasure. I hope he can persuade his wife to watch all 217 episodes with him. That will give her insight into her husband's former life. And his children as well, when they're old enough to appreciate it. He can give them their own personal box sets as future birthday presents.

This is the Blu-ray box that I have on my shelf. Less than 65 Euros as a French import. I pull out a disc every week to watch the latest episode. Normally I try to avoid buying television series on disc, because they take up so much space, but "Smallville" means a lot to me. This is one of the gems in my Blu-ray collection.

Here's a small error in the episode that Tom and Michael failed to point out. There's a newspaper report about the bus crash outside the Metropol Museum. (Click on the photo to enlarge it). If you look carefully you'll see that the text which begins with "The grand opening of Luthor Hall" is repeated in the second column. That's sloppy. It could have been avoided with less than 10 minutes work lengthening the article. Didn't they expect anyone like me would hit the Blu-ray pause button to read the newspaper article? Okay, okay, Blu-ray discs hadn't been invented in 2002, but it's still no excuse.

Lana Lang has a brief stint as the editor of the Torch. She wouldn't have made a mistake like that.

In the podcast Michael Rosenbaum calls on the listeners/viewers to write reviews of the podcasts. That's something I gladly do, although I admit that I prefer to review the episodes rather than the podcasts themselves. I like to point out details that the podcasts omit. How many other reviews of the Talkville podcasts are there? I need to look for them online. I advertise my reviews on the Talkville Facebook page, which is probably why my Smallville posts get so many hits, but nobody has left comments on my reviews so far. Please do so. As I often say, "One comment is worth a hundred hits".

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