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Smallville
Episode 1.08: "Jitters"
Air Date: December 11, 2001
Written by: Cherie Bennett & Jeff Gottesfeld
Directed by: Michael Watkins & Greg Beeman
Guest Stars: John Glover (Lionel Luthor), Tony Todd (Earl Jenkins)
I must be experiencing missing time, because even though my clock said "Jitters" was an hour long it felt more like 20 minutes. Still, they covered quite a bit in that 20 minutes. In an interview, Smallville producer Alfred Gough said that the show is about the "exciting and fun things we can do with Kryptonite." I say that's crap. This show, like most teen oriented dramas, is about relationships. Like it or not, I don't tune in for the Kryptonite powered villains. I tune in because I want to see these characters interact.
Take "Jitters" for example. In it we get Whitney and Lana, Lex and his father, Clark and his parents, Clark and Lana, even a bit of Chloe and her father. I couldn't care less that Kryptonite made tonight's guest freak a jittery, paranoid nutcase, or that he decided to take out his aggressions on Luthorcorp. Fortunately, this week's dose of Smallville was satisfying if a bit weak.
The guest freak I mentioned is a former farmhand and friend of the Kent family made uber-epileptic by an experimental Kryptonite laced fertilizer that Luthorcorp developed when he was a janitor at the Smallville plant. All of this took place on the mysterious "Level 3," a place even Lex says is fictitious. Earl Jenkins -- that's the Freak o' the Week's country music enhanced name -- tries to enlist the help of his old pal Jonathan Kent. Jonathan, and his lovely wife Martha, are celebrating their anniversary in Metropolis. Which according to Alfred Gough is a mere "three hour drive [from Smallville]." Great. Metropolis, the City of Tomorrow, is now firmly planted in the Midwest. Uh huh. Moving along.
In typical 24-year-old-playing-a-teenager fashion, Clark throws a party that quickly gets out of hand. Lana attends without telling Whitney. Wackiness ensues. Too bad it's not Kryptonite-powered wackiness, because that's the best kind.
I'm still trying to decide whether or not I liked this episode. I mean, I laughed at the funny bits, but that was about it. There was very little meat here, and I'm not a vegetarian, so no meat = me still hungry. Let me sum it up for you. Clark doesn't get his ass kicked. He saves the day, and yet another Kryptofreak is hospitalized. That makes it what? Two out of eight? Not a horrible average I suppose.
I guess the one thing that really bugs me is the close proximity of Metropolis to Smallville. I don't mind most of the minor changes they've made, but Metropolis in the Midwest doesn't make any damned sense to me at all. I know they want to play with the city, and as a result they need it to be close. I'll tell you I hate that. I like the actors they got to play Pete and Lana. I like Chloe Sullivan. I just hate that Metropolis is now in Kansas. I guess it's a small price to pay. I give "Jitters":
Episode Rating: 7 out of 10
Steven "drenball" Dougherty has seen the future of Smallville, and he is worried.
What do you think? Talk about it on the Forums
