IMO, there's being sexy and not minding nudity, and then there's being used as blatant T&A with little to no character development and going from "sexy Lois" to "really, really stupid and unethical/unprofessional Lois." I can see how someone wouldn't have a problem sexing something up, but would draw the line at it only being sex. Which is pretty much all Lois is used for, other than comic relief and awkward, shoehorned plots.

That, however, is a really good point.

I was wondering this as well! I was also wondering if Johnny Right-Hand (tm Omar) will get a real name.

Wait, huh? I just caught this part. How does that make any sense? I figured the collapsing FoS did something to him, but I didn't think it was Jor-El himself. I assumed the AI had been destroyed (at least for now). Lex! You failed me! If it is Jor-El... What's the reasoning here? At least with Kara it kind of made sense.

I doubt it. I figure she'll be a "special guest star" in the episodes she's in.

This is going to be so weird. The Smallville credits without Lex, Lana, or Lionel. We lost all our "L"s (except Lois.........). :(

ETA:
astrogea, I don't think we're allowed any spoilers in here, even with tags. I don't the first one needs it, anyway.

Nooo! The moment he gets a name we can start a countdown to his death.



What puzzles me is that if Jor-El stripped his powers as a last act before going kaboom how the heck will Clark have his powers back?
There must be some emergency Icedildo lying around on the farm for this to be fixed right?

I agree with your thoughts, Eurybia, but do you really think fans of Nois see her as above? I do, but I'm not a fan.

I don't think ED minds nudity but I do think using an actor's name interchangeably with their character is odd.

ED isn't as good as AM at pretending TBTP's shit is gold and I often detect a certain level of discomfort with the way her character is written in her interviews. I think ED hoped to have it both ways -- a sexy character who was also taken seriously, a Lois more reminiscent of Sydney Bristow than Kelly Bundy and based on her first few episodes I don't think such an expectation was unwarranted. Unfortunately thereafter the character quickly devolved.

It remains to be seen if the Kelly Bundy version of Lois Lane was all Goughlar or if the PS3 are on board for it too.

I have no idea. I think you're probably right on with the Ice Dildo theory. It's always some ice dildo.

But why would Jor-El do it? His last act is to depower his son? Who he wants to rule/save the world? Unless, of course, that was what the Gay Pink Disco Ball did- force the AI to depower Clark. Which actually makes sense.

None of this is going to be explained anyway. I don't know why we bother.

Good point, nzs. I personally can't see how she would not be considered professionally unethical, but I know that others (the producers included, perhaps) don't see it that way.

Having Chloe confront Lois seems to show the show runners at least know it's not something to condone. But this is the same group of people SDK had to convince Clark shouldn't kill Titan in Combat. And it's not as if SDK is the worlds greatest guardian of proper behavior as he tried to defend Clark macking on an engaged Lana as being a "very grey area." I think they know full well killing isn't any better for Supes' image than shagging the boss is for Lois'. They pretty much don't care. They want the characters stumble and fall, sometimes in huge almost unforgivable ways. I think the rationalization is that the journey is long and arduous but all that matters in the end is that the characters eventually get to where they're supposed to be.

I'm sure that it's gone in a very different way that she was expected then but I also remember many people saying then that she was AlGough's dream come true since KK kept refusing satisfying there dirty phantasm. She wasn't used to them then though...
I still think that if she was truly against this image of Nois, I'm sure she could pull a KK and refuse wearing certain clothes or letting them show her boobs that way. These kind of camera shot takes times and she's certainly aware when they put the camera above her like when she was working with Jimmy.

You're totally right about Chloe calling Lois out on that, jwm. It's one of those things that makes me realize that they do know, like you said. But, as with so many other things on this show, there was never any payoff, so I'd almost forgotten about it completely. If the characters get where they're supposed to be but never learn the right lessons, what's the point of this show even existing? If the characters acted like there was something to be forgiven for, I'd be a lot more likely to forgive them.

I speculate that both Kat and Johnny Right-Hand will be dead by the end of "Plastique", if not the end of "Odyssey."

I read the scene with Chloe calling Lois out on sleeping with the boss as one showing that Lois Lane is so awesome, she doesn't need to follow the rules since she's Lois Lane.

I just noticed that Craig called him Regan in the photo gallery for Odyssey. His name's never been said on the show, and he's listed everywhere else as "Lex's Bodyguard".

Is his character's name really Regan, Craig?

So KK avoided a bit of objectification by refusing to be used as eye candy. How does that improve the character of Lana? Despite KK's best efforts Lana was still a whiny two-faced back stabber. She couldn't stop Lana from sexing it up with Clark's greatest enemies and IMO her sex scenes were still at least as sexually explicit as Lois'. The only thing Crimson has on Wither or Fracture is a lack of body doubles. I seriously doubt ED refusing to do boob shots would have translated into Lois getting a start at a more respectable paper or kept her from screwing the boss.

You mean learning she needed to better hide her office affairs wasn't the right lesson? ;) But seriously GroisGate doesn't make any sense to me. They hide their relationship, once discovered they hide it some more, then when Lex buys the paper suddenly Lois wants them to "come out" only to reveal that all along Grant was nothing more than Lois' rebound guy? WTF?

If I squint real hard I can rationalize that TPTB's point in the case of GroisGate was that Lois was hurting so much from the Oliver breakup that the only thing that mattered was trying to stop that pain. Love on this show causes people to lose their freaking minds. In some cases they lose their entire personality. Lois' reputation and career had to play second fiddle to the completely mind-numbing pain of being dumped by Oliver.

They didn't call him than in season seven? Don't know why but the name seems familiar.

Well that at least has another basis like she taking the redKlipstick on Crimson she wanted to fall in love with another man to get over Ollie, wich is idiotic to begin with since what if she fell for a man that didn't wanted her either? Is she so sure of herself that even a gay guy will want her or something? What if it was a married guy would she broke a home in order for her to feel better?

I'm just wondering shouldn't there be a trailer by now?

I'm starting to conclude that SV and SPN got cancelled, and the network just forgot to tell the producers.

oh Jesus, I'm not ready for this season. I'm still processing St. Loinel, Kar/Brainiac, and the twenty-sided die. Trailers? I might die of confusion.

It's the only explanation. We've ALWAYS had a trailer before three weeks before the premiere. Shit, we used to get them months before the premiere. So tonight, instead of airing one, they squeezed in the trifecta; a brand new shiny 90210 trailer, a Gossip Girl audio ad, and a One Tree Hill ("Hello? Hello? Hello? Pick one. Pick one. Pick one.") trailer. They even had to cut off the last few seconds of the Smallville end credits so they could air Supernatural on time. WHAT THE FUCK?

Also, I am so fucking sick and tired of that OTH trailer.

Hee. I grumbled about the 90210 trailer that ran after the show, and said hopefully, "Maybe a Smallville trailer over the credits."

"Ha," answered my daughter. "Hello? Hello? Hello?"

Sure enough, she was right and I was wrong. Which she would tell you is the natural order of things.

Bwah! I don't know how old your daughter is, but isn't it sad that even the children have come to expect these levels of stupidity and redundancy from The CW?

ETA:
Title for #8-08 posted at K-Site.

She's thirteen. And she loves OTH, but even she's sick of that ad past endurance.

Bah, Scry, you beat me. I just posted that title to my running post and was going to post it here too. Interesting. Whose bloodline are we talking about? Without additional spoilers, I guess it's impossible to tell.

Bloodline, eh?

Considering how all the adults on the show are gone, I'm wondering who this could refer to.

I remember hearing that Kara might return in 8-8 or 8-9 so dealing with Kryptonian heritage + how El blood opens the PZ might be her. Though, sending her with Legion (8-9) would make more sense. I'd rather her go with Legion than MM taking her to some sort of convalescent home on the moon.

Tess might find out about who she is (based on speculation that she's fake!baby/clone of Gina/clone of Lillian).

Oliver might find out Lionel killed his parents.

Chloe might realize that she's a pure "Lane." (Just kidding. She has to make dinner for Jimmy.)

Wedding episode possibly?

I was going to wait for Craig to put these up on K-Site, but I really can't wait! :D

More stills from Odyssey have been released, this time featuring the Justice League, and thirteen new stills from Plastique featuring Clark, Lois, Chloe, and Davis. You can see them at DTS.

ETA:

My God, Erica looks AMAZING. Seriously, I'm stunned. Her hair, her make-up... man. Ugh, love her hair color. And across-the-desk shot! BAH! I can't contain my excitement.

Man, so does Allison. They're both stunning.

They're now up at K-Site!

They both look really good in those Plastique stills.

But, even as a heterosexual man I have to say, it's taken 8 seasons to have Clark in dress shirts and nice pants for non-special occasions? That's just wrong.

Wow. I'm pretty much resigned to the fact that Chloe's off doing non-journalistic shit these days (although in the still from "Plastique" she does have her reporter face on) and determined not to let that kill my enjoyment of S8, but looking at that still of Clois sitting across from one another at the Planet...man. Wasn't there an identical shot of Chlark in reversed positions from an older ep? You really do have to chuckle at how blatantly they shoved Chloe's ass aside.

ED does look good. AM, IMO, looks great.

There was, though I forget the episode. And when seeing that photo, I thought in a really depressed, defeated, dejected tone "Chloe should be sitting there."

Does SW always have that weird pursed lip thing going on?

I thought the same thing. I was kind of weirded out by it at first, but that combined with his pale complexion make him oddly sexy. :)

Also, how did I not comment on Tom? More gorgeous than ever, and dressed better too! Though, I was hoping for suits.

Clark is in a lot of gray and blue... I take some consolation. But they pissed me off by putting him in a red shirt with Lois.

Ha ha ha *collapses in laughter*. They're so blatantly just dropping EDLois into Chloe's place on the show that they're deliberately reusing shots to drive the point home. "Look, Clark's across from a female reporter! Doesn't really matter which! All female characters are interchangeable in our book! Chloe was the hotshot reporter-- but now it's EDLois! Maybe next week it'll be Lana! Who the heck knows??!"

Hee. I really have hit that wall where all I can do is laugh at the impossible silliness of it all.

Well, just stab me in the heart won't you PS3?

That shot at the DP just breaks my heart. I knew they'd do it, but did it have to look so similar to the previous Chlark one? Geez..

Out with the old Chloe, in with the new! :/....with similar shots to boot!

On a happier note: Clark, Lois and Chloe all look great. I hope they let AM grow her hair out some more too.

Edit: I'm looking at the headline on Lois' desk: Wasn't there a similar looking shot for Chloe once where the screen had something just as "unexciting"?...it was increases in taxes maybe...something like that. I thought she did one on the public transportation system too.

What made me laugh is Nois' story: "City transit may be threatened - Bus fares to be increased". Maybe Lex is behind the fare increases! ;) Poor Nois, no Grant to send her all over the world in search of a story.

Tom looks great but it's hard for me to get excited about it. You can see that Clark has Chloe's desk and Chloe's orginal s5 obit beat - he better be in college and trying to undermine Tess as that's about the only way I'll give him a break after the objections he, himself raised in Arctic. I love Clark, but they have a chance to finally make me not here and so they better not.

But on the whole it's eyerolling. See Chloe meeting the wrong alien? See Clark working with the other cousin? It would be funny if it were actually amusing, but it's not so... it's not.


Yes, Super Clark and Reporter Chloe working as a Team, which was kind of a throw back to their desk arrangements at the Torch in season three. Been there, done that before with the two actors who they keep coming back to (remember they tried to push ED off on TW in such thrillers as "Krypto" and "Lucy" and promptly went back to AM by the end of that season too)



Yes, there was one in Action and in Noir. Another case of "Chloe's been there, done that, and it was actually entertaining then."

Two sets of promo shots and I have to admit that subconsciously I think I'm still looking for Michael Rosenbaum, John Glover, and Kristin Kreuk. I miss Lex.

Except the new is older looking.

Chlark shot was in Phantom, the one across from each other. And the news article Lois has up on her screen is Chloe's BORING (according to some people) article from Action.

It was from Phantom, IIRC. Like so many things we have heard about season eight, I liked it more the first time I saw it on Smallville.

If you line them up next to each other, you can see Chlark are more casual, seated closer together (just one desk, not two). It looks cosier to me. It's a simpler looking shot. It has less distracting crap like the lamps crossed between Lois and Clark, lacks the piles of books and everything.

http://www.devotedfansnetwork.com/gallery/...=3538&pos=7

http://www.devotedfansnetwork.com/gallery/...&fullsize=1

Woo! These are fantastic. The Justice League? Kick ass.

And Erica's hair suits her much better than the half blonde look they made her sport.

Is that Aquaman suit... tighter than it used to be? Not that I'm complaining!

Alaina is a beautiful woman, the hair is great, but the new spray on mask? No. It looks even worse than before. Like she stopped by a kids party before reporting for duty.

Chlark did it first and did it better.

And wow. The article is from "Action". Same headline. Nois really is following in Chloe's footsteps.

Ah, but you see...now the article isn't "Boring". It will be called ICONIC! Lois Lane working her way up to the top like a real, honest reporter! Clearly, when Chloe had these same stories, she was struggling....a no good reporter who would never be as good as Lois Lane because she couldn't get anything better-therefore she'd always write about obits, taxes and the public transportation system! Lost in the bowels of the basement because better reports would top her. Because heck, what good reporter starts out writing about public transport and obits anyway?

Does anyone know? :/

Chlark did everything first and better it seems like with those photos. Not happy, but we'll get our day!

But still prettier, IMO.

Heh, it was funny when Chloe had it, too. :\

Chloe and Lois aren't the only people to have that exact story on their screens. It's showed up on other people's computers around the basement. It's like the Teague article they keep pasting on all the hard copy stories.

Odd. I thought it was just Clark as he always was and Chloe doing something that didn't involve journalism in any way. At least now the female reporter's name is Lois Lane, the Clark Kent actually works at the Planet, and all of it actually involves a story. YMMV. :)

You mean THRJ wasn't meant as a giant anvil towards his future cape - especially as it was introduced in Chris Reeves' first scene on the show, thus having the current Clark Kent meeting the former Superman?

Well blow me down.



I think that's the tagline of the season; "Forget that you've seen it before with Tom and Allison, and forget about how much Krypto sucked, and also forget Michael Rosenbaum was ever on this show, but it's absolutely the same, totally!"



Well the only thing I will say is it looks like Clark is working on obits on the bottom rung so he at least has places to go and a lot of lessons to learn. They can't all sleep with their bosses and immediately get sent out to LA and concerts, y'know.

Even so, I want Clark in school and the show to acknowledge what it did to the DP; like I said earlier, I can't cheer on the office skank, and if Clark's just going along with the tabloid rag version of the DP then I won't be able to cheer on the uneducated farmboy either -- no matter how much I want to like him. He outlined half the problems with him joining up three months ago, and glossing over all of those (including the unmentioned educational problems) doesn't somehow make it better, make those issues disappear, or make the whole thing something I can celebrate now.

Which makes me sick as the whole "Clark falling inlove with journalism" was something I'd really enjoyed for the seasons 1-5; I loved that. I figured 6 and 7 while he was investigating and learning the hero side was great but I wanted see him arc back into it. As a Clark fan, I'm rather pissed and let down.

This should be a great moment -- it's not. It's no where even close. The DP is no longer some grand old lady, it's not something respectable, it's not anything like the paper it had been.

And thus Clark getting a job there is no accomplishment at all.



It really should be "new" shouldn't it? Though I do have to say the botox is working for her in these shots.

Not to be picky, but the first time he wore the red jacket, blue shirt combo was in the second season episode Nocturne...

On the shallow end of the pool, this cast seriously brings the pretty. Like whoa. TW, AM, SW, and ED are all seriously good looking in those pictures from "Plastique."

I'm not venturing out of the shallow end. I'm going to stay there, because the second I venture into deeper waters I'm going to start screaming things like, "No college!" and "Slept with her boss!" and "Lightswitch!" and "Working at a corrupt newspaper!" But hey, ICONIC! it is, right?

Pretty yes, but did the makeup artist take some sort of nude makeup course over the break?

All the women have the same 'natural' look, with smoky eyes. Or maybe the budget just can't afford lipstick now?

Except for on Lois. But she's ICONIC!

It's still a blatant reusage of that same shot, isn't it? A copy is *still* just a copy, no matter how "shiny" you make it.

What seriously ticks me off is that in order to shove this Lois down our throats, they just have to use the special Chlark moment(s) and reheat them for this new "awesome" Clois partnership - why? Can't they, for *once* try to come up with something new and different? It doesn't only disregard the 7 years of Chlark relationship we had (and apparently lost forever) - it also doesn't help to make EDLois the Iconic Lois Lane. All it makes her is The New Chloe - and well, IMHO, Chloe's shoes are hard to fill.

If you try to sell me THIS girl as the real Lois - well, it would be nice if they put some effort into it - not just blatantly tried to copy the same formula they used for Chloe (after mostly screwing up the development so far). It just won't work, and as you can see, it'll only make year-long fans reject her more.

What makes it worse to me is how bad Chloe is [expected to be] this season. If Chloe was doing something awesome or noteworthy, Lois taking her place might not be so obvious or, at the very least, be less of a blow. By turning Chloe so passive and weak and defined by her relationship with Jimmy, it just makes the entire season so far seem like an entirely dour experience.

This show reuses shots all of the time. This is nothing new. I guess that's what happens when you make a tv show for 8 seasons.



Agreed. It's classic laziness on the part of TPTB. Rather than creating new titles and articles, they just reuse the old ones from past seasons.

Except that Nois and Chloe aren't just any random people in the basement and PS3 aren't stupid. Okay, well, half of that sentence is accurate. That's intentional.


Reuse generic shots? Sure. Reuse crappy adverts for free coffee on the Talon marquee? I can get on board. Reuse extremely epic, and organically iconic shots of Clark and the REAL reporter of the series, the one whose desk that Nois has been sandwiched into so fast that Chloe's perfume is still lingering on the cheap fabric of the chair? Yeah, that's not even slightly fine. That's just absurd, and it's an insult to Nois fans, IMO. She's a mere replica, a cheap copy of the original. She's Kitschy!Chloe and that's about it. YMMV.

I guess that's where we disagree. IMO, the Chlark shot wasn't iconic. For starters, that wasn't even Clark's desk and he wasn't a reporter working at the DP, which is the case in the Clois shot. Chloe wasn't even working on a story and instead teaching Clark how to hack. Also, nameplates were shown for both Lois and Clark in that shot as well, while they were not shown in the Chlark shot. Plus, and I haven't seen the scene just yet so I can't be sure of this, but there is a chance that Clark and Lois will be working on a story in that scene from the episode, which would add to how iconic it actually is, IMO. I don't think that filming two people working across from each other at a desk in the DP automatically makes something iconic. I feel that a closer look at the scene is needed in order to determine that, which then separates what is a truly iconic shot from something that is a cheap knockoff of what it should've looked like. But of course, YMMV.



I would agree that it was an insult if Clark wasn't working at the DP and no nameplates were shown, but given that the "original" didn't portray these elements, I don't find that to be an insult. YMMV.

I agree with this. The prop people obviously made up one story that gets put on all the screens over and over again, and they either forget, or don't care, that the fans are compulsive enough to compare screenshots and notice this stuff. I don't think the story on her screen is meant to suggest anything, except that the prop people don't feel like making up other stories. Could be with the budget cuts there are fewer people in the prop department, too.



This, I disagree with. Blocking is very intentional. When you can compare two screencaps and see that they're almost identical, then yes, I believe it's purposeful. It's a deliberate callback to that Chlark scene-- whether to piss all over Chlarkers, or to make it clear that Clois is only a shadow of Chlark, I don't know. I'm inclined to believe the former, but I'm going through one of my cynical phases right now:-).



And yet they're virtually identical but for the nameplates. I don't agree that adding the nameplates suddenly makes an uniconic shot iconic, but to each her own.

How about CopycatChloe or boobsinglefemaleNois?

YMMV, but I think that the nameplates are very important because it establishes that both characters are employed at the DP, which Clois are in the future. If the blocking was the only thing that mattered, then any two people could sit in those seats and it would be iconic, no matter who they are. It could be a janitor sitting in one of those seats and it wouldn't matter. I don't agree with that.