The boy in blue is back.
Cast
Tom
Welling as
Clark Kent
Kristen Kreuk as
Lana Lang
Michael
Rosenbaum as Lex Luthor
John
Glover
as Lionel Luthor
Annette
O’Toole as Martha Kent
John
Schneider as Jonathan Kent
Jensen Ackles as
Jason Teague
Allison Mack as
Chloe Sullivan.
Written by Holly Herald.
Directed by David Carlson.
Original Airdate
Facade
originally aired on Wednesday,
October 6, 2004.
Synopsis
A self-conscious high school girl has some
modifications done.
High Point
The epilogue. We’ve got a natural growth into
characters we know, as
well as some great character interaction.
Low Point
Acknowledging the risks he was taking, to me, just
screams out at what
a stupid idea it was to take that particular job.
Also, maybe things
are different in Kansas, but out here, schools don’t
have dedicated
coaches, they have teachers who coach to fulfill
extracurricular
requirements. That seemed like a remarkably forced
way to get him
close to the stories and characters. There had to be
an alternative,
preferably moving away from the entire football jock
thing that Lana
would be fit to move away from if she’s really trying
to grow beyond
what she was when we first met her.
The “polite to cough” speech was almost chosen as the
high point just
because of the way it plays off of these problems.
The Review
How original is this? We’ve got the new
character dynamics,
mixed in with a healthy portion of Craving
from back in the
first season. I give it 4 out of 6, because it feels
new despite the
shared premise.
The effects were limited, but convincing
enough. (Most
didn’t need to look real to more than one person,
after all.) I give
it 5 out of 6.
The story isn’t quite the same cheap
goofiness that the ads
prepared me for. There were some problems though.
(Discontinuing
treatments of a process promised to require only one
visit? What kind
of threat is that?) I give it 4 out of 6.
The acting was mostly good. Tom Welling is
his old self
again, while the guest star (Brianna Lynn Brown, who
was well chosen
for the look of the part) had an erratic performance,
with some
natural and some forced scenes. (Compare her
lockerside conversation
with Clark to her interaction with her mother at
work, for example.)
I give it 4 out of 6.
The emotional response wasn’t too bad. I
was more concerned
about what Lex will do with his knowledge about Jason
than any other
part of the episode. The strongest responses came
from a few isolated
moments rather than the main plot. I give it 4 out
of 6.
The production was of the usual quality. I
give it 5 out of 6.
Overall, it’s a decent episode, but not a
great one. It’s
more interesting for what it sets up than for what it
does this week.
I give it 4 out of 6.
In total,
Facade
receives
30
out of 42.
“out here…”
I can’t speak for Kansas, but in most of the U.S., schools hire coaches to coach. Often, bandleaders are hired as well. Some of these people are teachers, but coaching is an actual job.
And with a few exceptions (such as, I believe, Alberta), most Canadian teachers don’t coach to fulful an extracurricular requirement; they coach voluntarily, same as the guys who coach most kid sport leagues.
Re: “out here…”
Yes, in Alberta, teachers are required to fulfill some
sort of extracurricular requirement. Coaching is one of
their options to fill that requirement. This may simply
be because the provincial government keeps cutting the
education budgets, and they can’t afford dedicated
non-teachers. They can’t afford all the teachers they
need. (To be fair, they put more money back in the system
this year, as it’s an election year, while conveniently
forgetting to remind us that it’s only enough to hire back
half the teachers that lost their jobs three years ago.)
Re: “out here…”
If you’re a sadistic bastard?
In fond memory of my cruel coaches…yeah, I’m bitter ;-)
Re: “out here…”
In Lawrence, KS at Lawrence High School in the late 80s while I was there the coaches were also teachers. Some of the classes they tought weren’t the most challenging of courses, but they did teach. Several of our coaches at the time actually taught high level algebra/trig & calculus. They weren’t all dummies. Not sure how it is now.
Re: “out here…”
This is a very regionalized thing in America. There are some municipalities that value their football team, basketball team or band to hire coaches and there are others where it is either a teacher or parent who does the job.
Here in Portland (Oregon), for example, coaching teams has usually been done by teachers who are, in theory, coaches second (some actually, surprisingly, are even teachers first in fact as well). This is probably the reason that a good many high school state championships are owned most years by smaller communities – like Smallville…I suspect that this happens more in bigger cities for the simple reason that they have a larger student population on which to spend limited funds.
Re: “out here…”
Yes, my original post really should’ve read many U.S. schools, rather than “most.”