TV & Movie Portrayals of Mental Health Issues & MHProfessionals: Part One, Smallville

Actor Crush of the Day: Bruce Willis (Cause, in honor of this post, I decided to pick someone who has played a shrink a couple of times, plus, I actually am really drawn to him in that role . . . . )

Okay so now you know I'm wierd.

Wait, I think I've gone quite a few posts PASTS the wierd trainstop; this baby's got momentum, now!!

So, two purposes in this series; I can't find anything about myself acceptable right now, even what I like. But I'll try with postings and discussions of mental health in the moving media, both an intellectual discussion (If I Only Had a Brain is now going through my mind . . . see, even THAT movie refers to mental health, hee hee!) and also a discussion of our favorite movies, shows, characters, portrayals, etc.

First, a mini-rant about a show I like: Smallville. Granted, this show is NOT about mental health . . . but . . . actually, there's alot of seriously unhealthy people on this show.

First, Lana is quite the narcississt (sp?), although she seems to have grown up a BIT in this last season (in the two seasons previous, I just wanted to slap her and say, IT IS NOT ALL ABOUT YOU!.

And then there's the idealized relationship, at least fairly idealized, that Clark has with his adoptive parents. That was part of the premise of the show, though, that while he would have problems like any teen, in the end it'd all work out between they and he, and such. And I liked this facet of the show; it provided a safe, idealized family to fantasize about, to me. Plus, his adoptive dad is/was such a hottie!! Yum!

Ahem . . . okay, so, now on to the meteor freaks. Granted, this is a show about the adolescence and early adulthood of a superhero. Granted, it seems we're supposed to believe that for most of his life, Clark grew up in this area that, as the show wore on, seems to be LITTERED with more Kryptonite than you could shake a stick at, and except for a few sick spells out back in the woods, he never ran across any! Granted, they seem to want us to believe that this fictional substance was very mutagenic (teratogenic? what's the proper term . . .) to most people, or at least many, who were exposed to it either intensely, in the initial meteor shower, or over a long period of time.

The first season had so many of these freaks, that the show was in danger of becoming Freak of the Week. Which it often did. They toned this down
some in the second season, in favor of more Story. Which was great! I thought they went an interesting direction when the spiraling Kryptonese inside his babyhood spaceship was revealed to be a message from his biological father, saying something like he was destined to conquer the Earth. VERY much a surprising departure from the classical interpretation of Superman's origins. It has proven to add some very interesting things to the show, although can and has sometimes become an easy crutch with which to throw some non-Freak of the Week drama, conflict, and action into the show.

Still, as the seasons wore on (I discovered the show at the beginning of Season Four, mostly) I kind of looked for there to be one of these social outcasts, social outsiders in Smallville High, who turned out to be JUST a depressed, or bipolar, or whatnot person, who needed professional mental help, and that they weren't this "wierdo" because they were a meteor freak. And that Clark and pals would learn not to jump to conclusions so quickly (by the end of season 4, it seemed the amount of time they spent/needed to investigate a situation to figure out WHO was behind the wierdness going on, had DRASTICALLY gone down), and learn to actually consider the FEELINGS of other people.

Okay, you may say, HEY, this is based on a superhero, what do you expect? Well, with so many of the meteor freaks ending up in the local Arkham Asylum, in this case, Belle Reve, and with several versions (pretty much all negatively portrayed, with sometimes drastically terrible behaviors by) of psychiatrists shown throughout the last three seasons, one would hope they'd actually have a few "normal" mentally ill in there, somewhere, and "normal" and genuine and GOOD/moral, whatever, mental health professionals.

I KNOW that the show was not about mental health, but I've considered in the past, writing the show a letter requesting that they at least THINK briefly about the possibility that the constant parade of meteor freaks getting sent to the mental hospital, as well as the so far negative portrayal of psychiatrists, might be promulgating some negative stereotypes about mental illness(es), mental health professionals, facilities, services, and the issues involved.

Yes, it's JUST a show about a boy growing into a man, and an out of this world boy at that (and such a HOTTIE! at the risk of repeating myself . . .) but some people form their opinions based on such. Really, when there's been so much negative portrayal, it'd be nice for some positive, and realistic.

Realistic as in, Clark tries to intervene in a domestic abuse situation, and it blows up on him (I recall a classic/vintage Superman story involving this, and they revisited it in the comics in the 80's, with much more realism and the complications one might expect from this, such as the wife not leaving the abuser, and both of them ending up mad at him, or something.). I may not be remembering that more recent story very accurately, but generally that was the drift.

I believe that it would be VERY interesting, dramatically, and even action-wise, to see Clark have to confront how to deal with situations that are complicated by realistically portrayed mental illness. How about an episode where he saves a suicidal person, and finds out that there was someone he could have saved on the other side of town, and the suicidal person kills themselves a week later when he's off saving the world . . . . a realistic discussion and portrayal and having to figure out that it WAS NOT a waste to save that suicidal person the first time. This would present quite a few conflicts and dramas and stuff, I would think. I would HOPE that it would come to the conclusion I list, there, though.

I do recall one episode where Clark saved a teacher/coach? from the highschool, only to later have this saved person kill and try to kill some former cheerleaders, including Lana. He wondered if he wasn't supposed to save him, if it would have been better if he hadn't . . . .

I think the psychological development of Clark has been rather interesting to watch, but I think, much MORE interesting, has been the psychological development of Lex Luthor, whom I was surprised, upon discovering the series, to see that he was GOOD (well, mostly, at least early on, and as much as one COULD be having been raised by a horrific father). You could see from the beginning both of Lex's sides, but his progression along the path that will lead him to where we all know he's going, has been very interesting, and I can't help but cheer on his goodness, and sympathize with (some) of his badness, especially when you see that some of his darker actions are sometimes a direct result of what his father did to him. Even though I know cheering on his goodness is pointless (well, he's fictional anyway, but will also go bad, of course, that's a given), but I can't help it anyway.

I had an English teacher who told us that whomever changes the most, over the course of a piece of literature we were going to read, that we ought to consider the possibility that THAT person was the main character of the book. The book we then read was Ivanhoe, although we didn't really "read" it, we just watched the 4 hour movie of it. Thing is, Sam Neill's character, whom I forget the name of, went from bad, to good. Ivanhoe was the same, unchanging person throughout the entire book. Rather dull, in comparison.

That is kind of how it seems when considering Clark vs. Lex Luthor, in terms of who may be more interesting, psychologically for me.

Still, Clark pretty much has to make god-like life-or-death decisions frequently, and they aren't always clear cut, so there's alot of interest there. But Lex! . . . . He is DELICIOUSLY complex . . . . OOO that rhymes!! Plus, he's rather handsome; I can't imagine now that I'd like him as much WITH hair, as I do without. I've never seen him with it . . .

I plan on going into Lionel Luthor (Lex's dad, for those who don't know) and Lex more in the next part, and into Clark's and his adoptive parents' relationships with Jor-El in the next part of the series as well.

Mini-rant? It's turned into a novel . . . . but there's aLOT going on in this show!

Also, Lex's stay at Belle Reve, and the electroshock therapy he had there, to erase his memory (by order of his father) and all sorts of other psychological goodies (or baddies, in this case!)

Erm, I'm no psychological expert, in case it sounds like I'm coming off as one; I just find this sort of thing fascinating, and have thought about these things for a long time. Probably beaten them to death, but that's what I do best. TTFN! Hoo hoo hoo hoo!!