During my March trip to LA, as my mother and I were in the deeply engrossed in a cheesy Lifetime original movie, the television screen suddenly went fuzzy. We sat staring at nothingness for a while, hoping that when the glitch was fixed, we wouldn't have missed too much. After ten minutes of awkwardly staring ahead in anticipation, it finally occured to us that perhaps, this was no glitch. We decided to give it a couple of hours. Then we decided to wait till the morning. And finally when it was clear our cable was not going to come back on its own, we called in the master, my father. And even he, the ultimate handyman, was unable to bring back our cable. Please note that I use the word "our" losely because... well... for the last ten years, yes ten - we moved into this house in 1998 - The Franklin Family had been gladly reaping the benefits of the cable that had come complimentary with the purchase of our home.
I know what you're thinking, and I'm not proud, but damnit I'm not ashamed either. Truth be told, my parents are so old fashioned and cheap that had we not gotten cable through these means, we would never have gotten it at all and my brother and I would have remained "those kids" in school. You know the kids... they're Amish. We didn't get three way calling or call waiting till the late 90's. My friends would call me and say, "hey, I tried to call earlier, but your phone was off the hook." Yeah... off the hook... that's it.
Thinking all of these years of cable had spoiled my parents, I was expecting the situation to be rectified upon my return in May. Sadly, it was not and though I tried, I mean really tried to enjoy all free TV had to offer, it really couldn't measure up and so I turned to our movie collection. I watched everything on the shelf, "Muppets Take Manhattan", "House Party", and a few others not worth mentioning. I took one last look at my parents' sad collection and then as if it was calling me, my eyes were drawn back to the boxset I'd been avoiding, "Smallville" - The complete first season, 23 episodes. I really thought my days of WB sitcoms had ended with Dawson's Creek. At least I was hoping they had.
God, has it really come to this, I thought. It had. I popped in the first disc... Game Over.
Smallville is nothing short of genius. Some of the facts are skewed, characters meeting before they really met, serious discrepancies in age (ie. the age difference between Clark and Lex), that type of thing, but as I watch the story play out, this "prequel" to Superman the Movies, I am transported back to the family room of our old house, where my brother and I would watch Superman I, II and IV on VHS... Back when we believed that Christopher Reeves was, and would always be, the only Superman.
I am now coming to the end of Season II where Superman's true identity is starting to unfold. Each episode of Smallville leaves me with chills. I suppose because I am armed with the knowledge of how it all plays out in the end, the foreshadowing is both thrilling and saddening at the same time. The bond between Lex Luthor and Clark Kent appears impenetrable and with each passing episode I keep hoping they remain friends. I know... silly...
Spoke to my brother today on the phone. As he's seen every episode, he was able to let me in on things to come. Told me that by season seven Lex and Clark will finally sever ties and become mortal enemies.
"Really," I asked shocked/sad.
"What do you mean 'really'? Don't you know the story of Superman??" he asked. "Not like I'm giving away a surprise ending."
This was very true. As much as I want to see Lex and Clark join forces and rule the world together, I knew that in the end, they were just going to travel back in time to the 80's where Lex will spend sequel after sequel, trying to rid the earth "once and for all" of Superman, who in case you couldn't tell without the glasses, was actually his old friend Clark Kent.
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How often do you talk to you brother? It seems sort of often, which makes me jealous. I was running on the track yesterday, punking out after mile 1.5 as usual, and thought to myself "I wish Evan was here. He would push me to go further." Then I literally imagined Evan visiting me in Germany, and he was running right there next to me on the track. He got me to do 2 miles AND 25 push ups. I haven't done push ups since I last saw him, but I remembered that he told me I was supposed to do 25 push ups per day.
I would also like to add....you two REALLLLYYY are siblings. I mean...it's eery. Nothing alike and yet everything alike all in one. If I have to hear about Smallville from BOTH of you I might shoot myself. Or finally watch the damn series....Want to send it over???!!!!! Please!?
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