IGN Review of Toxic

[Kalista]

http://tv.ign.com/articles/915/915929p1.html


There was plenty of potential for "Toxic" to be a really eye-opening look into Oliver Queen's past and his evolution into the Green Arrow. Unfortunately, the Smallville team used a great origin story as an excuse to link Tess Mercer's past with Oliver's and to fill the episode with pointless melodrama that led nowhere. It's a narrow vision of a classic story in the DC Universe and, worst of all, it's boring.


This episode was rather boring. *sigh*

[chlo-el]

I agree the ep could have been a lot better. They could have done better w/ the Island flashbacks. And w/Ollie.

[Timester]

I don't get it. We have 2/3 of the K-Site saying (rightly) that there wasn't enough of Clark and IGN is complaining because there wasn't enough of Ollie? What?

[Theshadow129x]

Ollie should have been the main focus with this being an episode due to it being based off of his origins, yet they didnt exploit it the way they could have. it was used to show a connection to tess mercer which is what i think hurt the episode. Ign was right on this one. it was okay but could have been better.

[curiosity]

I think they were right when they said the efforts to save Ollie weren't compelling. They didn't give Clark an interesting story, or investigation. I think they focused too much on what could have been a brief flashback. I liked Tess. And of course I agree with, not enough Clark.

[Minela]

I disagree with ING. Yes, the Ollie stuff was shafted, but this is Smallville. It's not the Green Arrow show. I think if it would have been more about Ollie, people would have cried "Greenarrowville!" all over again. I think it was important to tie in Ollie's story with the Smallville story, i.e. Tess. Because it gives Ollie an excuse to be on the show.

[Imzadia]

I don't get it. We have 2/3 of the K-Site saying (rightly) that there wasn't enough of Clark and IGN is complaining because there wasn't enough of Ollie? What?

:rotfl: You beat me to it, 'Timester'. :rotfl: I wanted to comment on the Same situation that I KNEW was coming. :rolleyes: Exactly! What? :confused: ALL the cliches that fit this neverending, repeated Attitude toward this semi-beloved series are sadly Predictable. :\ It reminds me of a song I think the Rolling Stones made, (not sure ?) called, "You Can't Always Get What You Want", Plus--"6 On One Side, Half a Dozen on the Other", "Being Between A Rock and A Hard Place", But... "One Hand Can't Wash The Other", etc., etc., etc. :rotfl: It's all a matter of perspective, IMO, but still Ridiculous!

[Dom20]

I saw no problems at all with the screen times. It was well paced episode for all the characters in my opinion. Ollie needed the majority of the screen time since the episode centered around him. But I have to agree with some of the things IGN said. The Ollie scenes were kind of disappointing. Which is shocking since Justin Hartley is a joy to watch on screen. The small training sequence was the only enjoyable part. The writers could have done a better job. Cassidy and Justin showed great chemistry despite of it though.

[RedKRules]

http://tv.ign.com/articles/915/915929p1.html




This episode was rather boring. *sigh*

I agree with it completely !! :rolleyes: it felt like a filler episode!

[Smallville6]

Gosh, no matter what Smallville does, someone always has something to complain about!
Not enough Ollie? Are you kidding me?

[Dom20]

Gosh, no matter what Smallville does, someone always has something to complain about!
Not enough Ollie? Are you kidding me?

Actually the complaint wasn't that there wasn't enough Ollie. There complaint was that the scenes with Ollie weren't very interesting. Which I agree with.

[Alicia Chipy]

I don't mind an occassional episode focusing on Ollie or any of the other leads as long as its Clark's journey first and foremost.
Would like to see a bit of background story to get to knowTess and Davis better too.

[Liquid-Prince]

IGN sucks for reviewing shows. Tis episode was great and who's to say they are done with Ollie's story?

[Sue Denim]

I agree that the show was boring. Everyone felt off, I suppose if I were unspoiled, I might of liked it more? eh, I'm not sure about that. I went in with pretty low expectations, so that helped.

[stenochick]

I think a lot of people would have preferred an episode that was nothing but Green Arrow origin, as opposed to him being on the island and learning archery for 30 seconds and then the rest is he and Tess escaping from the kidnappers. That part felt a little contrived. Overall, I enjoyed the episode, but I definitely see where the IGN interview is coming from.

[Nerial]

I have to agree that the Ollie origins just weren't that interesting to me. But, then again, although I like Ollie and Justin Hartley, I'm watching this for Clark/Superman.

It was really a no-win situation. They could have gambled and given the entire episode to Ollie, which would have annoyed avid Clark fans. Instead, they shortened his 2 years on an island to bits scattered all over the show and gave Clark a simple investigation which didn't count for much in the end.

Overall, it wasn't a bad episode, but there are definitely better ones. Including some Ollie/Clark ones like "Arrow," "Hydro," and of course, "Justice." Ollie really works best when he's interacting with Clark, IMO.

I did like Ollie finding out Lionel killed his parents. Since the writers completely botched Ollie discovering Clark is an alien bit in the premiere, I really want Ollie to investigate Veritas. I think that has promise.

[Theshadow129x]

IGN sucks for reviewing shows. Tis episode was great and who's to say they are done with Ollie's story?


just because they dont agree with you doesnt mean they suck it just means theres a difference between your opinions and i thought they were spot on.

[ginnyfan]

I think a lot of people would have preferred an episode that was nothing but Green Arrow origin, as opposed to him being on the island and learning archery for 30 seconds and then the rest is he and Tess escaping from the kidnappers. That part felt a little contrived. Overall, I enjoyed the episode, but I definitely see where the IGN interview is coming from.

I agree. I enjoyed the episode but it was total filler. The minute Oliver said, "I've been poisoned, I have 12 hours to live." I laughed out loud, my expectations went down to zero and I said, "Filler." But from the POV that you are going to see how Oliver became the Green Arrow or how Oliver survived his "Island" the episode left much to be desired.

[Dor el]

Yeah, if they were gonna do a Green Arrow origin epi, would have been nice to have seen more originating. But then, they did set up an origin epi for Tess. How did she go from poor little marine biologist to nefarious butt kicking Lex lackey. Guess she's not a lackey anymore now that she is running the whole company. Is she a trophy taken from Ollie by Lex? Is this yet another layer to the animosity between Olllie and Lex? I think this was a bit more than just a filler epi...that is if TPTB follow up and complete the stories they started with Tess, Ollie, Davis. To me, Clark seemed more like a device for saving Ollie than the main character. Reducing Clark to a plot device hurts me; it hurts me bad.

[HeartChakraBabe]

I'm afraid I agree with a lot of what was said in that review. :(

[Liquid-Prince]

just because they dont agree with you doesnt mean they suck it just means theres a difference between your opinions and i thought they were spot on.


No I mean objectively, they suck. They make mistakes reviewing BD discs and shows all the time. So much so, that I only read their interviews and watch there reviews for fun. They really hold no weight. For example if you came and said that the show sucked, I would take you comment into consideration and examine it far more seriously then I would theirs.

[RedKRules]

I'm afraid I agree with a lot of what was said in that review. :(

me too ... pretty sad isn´t it?? :(

[Theshadow129x]

No I mean objectively, they suck. They make mistakes reviewing BD discs and shows all the time. So much so, that I only read their interviews and watch there reviews for fun. They really hold no weight. For example if you came and said that the show sucked, I would take you comment into consideration and examine it far more seriously then I would theirs.

thats fair. but at least they give reasons why certain episodes arent good and why they score them pretty low. some people just say it was a bad episode and leave it at that. they had sound arguments as to why it wasnt so good. i think it sucked that they slowed down ollies origin just to bring tess into the origin because we arent ever going to get the full story behind her because her story revolves around Lex and they cant do a flashback about her and Lex because he isnt around so the factt aht they are tying her to GA just to give her a background sucks to me.

[faz]

Well in all honesty, they didn't really have to do a GA origin story, they did that a few years ago with the online animated crap. Granted, it would have been way cooler to see it on the show, but it isn't something they needed to do. It seems like the idea here was to build up a backstory for Tess and Oliver, since Tess is the one who has no backstory yet whatsoever. I'm sure we'll get some more insight into that soon - there were clearly a lot of things in that Oliver/Tess scene that went unsaid. It seemed like kind of a lame segway to me, but I wouldn't rate it down because there wasn't enough GA. It's rare that we get a GA-centric episode with Clark in it for more than a few minutes (even though he is, you know, the main character).

[kryptonian13]

i think it was a good episode but could have been better.i just feel like no matter what happens in smallville someone always has something bad to say about it.so....that's what i think.

[alejandrita439]

i agree with you kryptonian13 :)
i was a good episode, better than others


but it could have been better :(

[HeartChakraBabe]

me too ... pretty sad isn´t it?? :(


Indeed. :( I'd hoped for better.

Love your avatar, btw. Michael is the best. :cool:

[RedKRules]

Thanks, I love it too ...... yeah he is!!!

[Firebunny]

Although I don't have that much interest in Oliver's backstory, I don't have a problem with the occasional episode focusing on someone other than Clark (as long as it's occasional).

But I have to agree with IGN here. The episode was boring. It may not have been as bad as some of the episodes in the past, but it was dull.