Back to basics

The Buffy season opener was what you’d expect; a mysterious bumper which will obviously become of utmost importance five episodes in; checking back in with characters (English location shots ahoy!) , and setting up a new status quo (the new school). A solid beginning, and the scenes with Spike were…intriguing, to say the least.

Smallville was business as usual; poor special effects in the starting tornado sequences, more Lana simpering, and Lex is still the most sympathetic character in the show (with the possible exception of Chloe). Nice to see that Token Black Pete Ross got about three scenes this week, which must be something of a record. There were a few good bits, mainly whenever Lex or Chloe were on screen, but it looks like we're in for more "Love me, Lana!" whining from Clark.

Tomorrow: President Bartlett returns.

Well, it's good to know that somebody is thinking about the bigger picture. Admittedly, Al Gore doesn't have that much sway over anybody these days, but you wouldn't have known it from watching the CSPAN feed of his speech. He looked more animated than he ever did during the entire 2000 campaign. He pointed out some very scary features of what Bush intends to put to Congress, the main one being that it would essentially allowing the President to wage war whenever they have a whim. Meanwhile, back at home, Mr. Tony Blair published his long-awaited dossier spelling out the threat Saddam Hussein poses to the 'free' world (As an aside, why do we call him 'Saddam'? We don't call Tony Blair 'Tony'). It didn't really tell us anything we didn't already know already, but at least he was fairly guarded about the possiblity of regime change, preferring to insist upon Iraq's compliance with UN resolutions. I think the rest of the world would prefer it if America talked that way, instead of hinting that the Allies are going to come in and raze Baghdad to the ground...