Smallville, Death of a Show

So the latest Smallville episode “Hero” aired last night (Thursday, March 13, 2008) and all I can say about this is.. WTF?

Ads for the episode leading up to Thursday hyped it as some kind of big reveal or a life-changing event for the show’s characters. To quote Lex in the ad “Whatever Clark is hiding has something to do with these symbols.” This directly alludes to Lex learning about who Clark really is, the big inevitability of the story. This would change the world of Smallville.

So what happened?

Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

The big event was Pete Ross returning to the show, getting super powers, thinking he’s a hero then losing them and leaving the show again, all in one episode. Oh, did I forget to mention how the ENTIRE episode is a 45 minute Stride gum commercial or repeated plugs for some lame band called “One Republic”?

Conversations between Lex and Kara then Kara and Lana then Clark hiding Kara’s bracelet in the floor cements the fact that this entire show is built around deceit, lies and keeping secrets. Smallville has gone from a decent, low budget take on the early years of Clark Kent struggling to accept his destiny to a primetime, 20-somethings soap opera. What the hell happened to the story?

It seems this show went downhill after two events occurred. 1: Clark’s father, Jonathan died. 2: Comic guy Jeff Loeb left the show to go work on some other awesome superhero show called, Heroes.

Sure, I could accept that maybe Smallville is struggling financially but it’s just gotten the green light for a 8th season. I’m happy to see at least one lame character getting the ax,.. Lana. She and Lex will be relegated to occassional guest appearances in the 8th season.

Good, I’m glad to see them both go. Lana’s character sucks. Her (and practically the entire rest of the cast’s) dialogue is a joke. In one breath she will accuse Clark (or anyone else in proximity) of betraying her or lying or looking the wrong way then later in the episode, beg forgiveness for ever doubting them, only to unload this diatribe on someone else in the next episode when she, once again, gets her ass in a wringer and needs help.

Lex is beyond the point of ridiculous. His character is a joke because he has no direction. What’s Clark’s big secret? Who cares? He’s a billionaire living in a po dunk town obsessing over some farm boy. This is the writers’ payback for a three month strike? Fire the whole writing staff and beg Loeb to return and clean up this trainwreck of a show.

If the next new episode is as poorly written and corporately sponsored as Thursday’s “Hero” my only interest in watching this show will be to see how long it takes to get cancelled.

Hey CW.. hire some good writers for Smallville or can it. Get a good show like “Supernatural” back on the air and kick your new upstart show “Reaper” into Smallville’s timeslot.