Balanced Equations

As of this past Thursday, both Smallville and Supernatural aired their Fall finales. While January seems a long way off, I know just how fast the holiday weeks will fly by. And with all the television I watch, especially on Thursday nights, I don't mind the break. It will free me up for other important tasks, such as catching up on movies and old television shows on DVD.

Smallville has been building all season to the reveal of Doomsday, a character infamous for once killing Superman in the comics continuity. I was skeptical over the Summer when I first heard of plans to introduce the character, especially when I heard he would be introduced as a regular mortal who eventually changes. The show has been building its own mythos over the past eight years, and has already deviated well beyond the source material. They've adapted some villains successfully, including Lex Luthor, Brainiac and even Bizarro. Other villains, most notably Mxyzptlk, have been unrecognizable. Superman's never been the kind of hero notable for his rogues gallery though, not like a Batman or a Spider-Man. He's always followed the archenemy archetype, with Lex Luthor serving as his opposite equal. Before leaving the show last season, Michael Rosenbaum filled that role successfully, and was one of the show's strengths amid ridiculous soap opera subplots and “freak of the week” Kryptonite-powered mutants.

There was a big void left with the departure of Lex. Justin Hartley returned to the role of Green Arrow as a full cast member, while Cassidy Freeman and Sam Witwer signed on as antagonists. Freeman plays Tess Mercer, an associate of Lex who takes over the Luthor business after he goes missing. It wasn't until her past with Green Arrow was revealed along with his nickname for her that I realized she was based in part on Mercy Graves, from animated continuity. Witwer meanwhile played seemingly good EMT Davis Bloome, and the season spent time developing his character while alluding to horrible things that happens when he experiences blackouts and memory loss. It seems that unbeknownst to him, he is actually the “son” of the villainous Kryptonian General Zod, a genetically engineered force of destruction raised as a human with no knowledge of his true origins. In the Fall finale, we finally get a glimpse of the creature in shadow, during a horrific wedding massacre shot on a hand-held camera in a technique reminiscent of Cloverfield. You see the basic outline as well as hints of gray skin, bone fragments, and glowing red eyes. It was a very effective presentation, far better than I would have expected, and that wasn't even the biggest revelation or cliffhanger of the episode. Finales and premieres are consistently excellent with that show, no matter how good or bad the rest of the season is. I can't wait for January.

Balance of good and evil is a common theme in comics. Contraries are a basic part of life itself. You can't have shadow without light, or have land without sea. Supernatural took a bold risk this season with the introduction of angels. For some reason, demons are easier to work into fictional television. People can accept vampires, werewolves, ghosts, and other monsters. Presenting their contraries tends to be trickier. If you follow the lore of any particular religion, you risk alienating those with different beliefs, and you're certain to alienate atheists. Even if a viewer shares in the beliefs presented by a show, there's a fine line where it could cross into blasphemy and offend the person. Even though such entertainment is fiction, monsters are safer. I could be wrong, but to my recollection Buffy went seven seasons without running into any actual angels(although she was involved with vampire named Angel). She did die at one point and eventually revealed that she thought she was in heaven before her friends cast a spell to drag her back to her old life, but that was the extent of that side of the equation.

Supernatural tells the story of two brothers who drive around the country vanquishing demons and other creatures, a mission passed on to them by their parents. They lost their mom to a demon at a young age, causing their grief-stricken father to become a hunter and train them as well. Over four seasons, that story has unfolded with some twists about their mother and why that demon visited them that fateful night. When one of the brothers was killed at the end of the second season, the other sold his soul to bring him back. The third season dealt with his final year on Earth before he had to honor that deal, and amazingly the season ended with him being dragged to Hell. Four months later, which we eventually learn was forty years for him, he finds himself alive again, unchanged save for some scars and a burned hand print on one shoulder. The real twist comes when we learn that an angel personally dragged him from the pits, to carry out a mission on Earth. A demon is setting about breaking seals that will eventually set Lucifer himself free, and armageddon is brewing.

It's heavy, apocalyptic stuff, risking offending viewers who don't share Judeo-Christian views of heaven and hell as well as those that do, but so far they've done a good job. There have been a few humorous stand-alone episodes to break the tension of the epic back story, and I have to admire the writers for taking a chance and exploring the other side. In a series that has demons walking the Earth, its only logical and inevitable that we'd eventually see angels. They take on human form in the series, seeming like enforcers or detectives, as their true form is too brilliant for mortals to behold. One character had her eyeballs boil right out of her skull after looking upon one of them. It's the type of stuff I've read in comics like Spawn or Preacher, or watched in films like The Prophecy. I like that they've gone in this direction, and can't wait to see how the rest of the season plays out in 2009.

Good and evil face off for two hours every Thursday night, and I wouldn't have it any other way.