In this week’s chucklehead-enraging installment of Smallvillains, Bryan Q. Miller returns for a story of the Mirror Universe, featuring a sociopathic incestuous Clark, a scenery-chewing Lionel Luthor, and people getting smacked so hard they fly across the room without suffering any permanent damage!
It doesn’t quite reach the heights of the Zatanna episode, but it’s surprisingly well constructed for something that clearly shows the constraints of a TV budget!
Chris,
Since you haven’t seen the series except for this season, you missed what I thought was an interesting role reversal.
When the series started, Lex started off as fairly decent while Lionel was the total bastard (I think it was revealed that he murdered his parents and used the insurance to start Luthercorp, and, after being temporarily blind for a while, hid his recovery to emotionally manipulate Lex and spend more time with Martha Kent (who was working for him for some reason I can’t remember)). As the seasons rolled on, Lex became increasingly evil while Lionel became increasingly, well, less evil (still a secretive, manipulative bastard, but usually while trying to do the right thing), finally culminating with Lex killing Lionel. In case you’re wondering, the transformation of Lionel began, if I remember rightly, after he was possessed by Jor-El (which tells you how awful Lionel was before — being possessed by Jor-El made him a better person)
As I said, it was interesting to watch, and Glover was a constant joy. Quite frankly, the series hasn’t been the same since he left.
Yeah, Glover really showed what the show’s been missing.
This was an actual, legitimate, good bit of television. I know Smallville occasionally puts these out, but it’s always stunning when it happens.