Al Gough Can Kiss My...

For quite some time now Smallville has been "my show." It's the show I've seen since day one, never having missed an episode. It's the show that I always looked forward to seeing every week and that always had really cool touches (like cameos by Christopher Reeve and Margot Kidder). It's the show that has a great cast. I love Clark, Chloe, Lois, Lex. It's not just the younger cast members that are great, though. Lionel is great and so are Clark's parents, in particular Jonathan Kent played by the original Duke of Hazzard, John Schneider. Well, last week's episode (I'm going to spoil it, so stop reading if you care) was a tremendous disappointment for me. True the show had been leading up to the "someone close to you will die Clark," but when the show ends and it's Mr. Kent they're lowering into the grave, I couldn't help but feel cheated and betrayed.

Smallville's writer Al Gough said that "...The show needed to take a risk. It was a hard decision and it took months before making the final move. But the show must go on and it's a necessity for where the show is heading." Well, I say that's a load of crap. Taking risks is fine, but you don't get rid of the characters that people love - the characters that keep people tuning in week after week. The other thing that bothers me is the show now has made a significant enough departure from the comic book storyline, that there is no way to see it as being the real Superman story (up till this point it worked...not perfectly, but well enough to turn a blind eye to the inconsistencies). The crystal part of this episode really stretched the storyline continuity, but now there is no turning back because anyone who follows Superman knows that the Kents live well into Clark's post-Smallville life. My parents have told me they are finished with Smallville and I can understand that completely. For me, though, I've invested so much into Smallville, that I will have to keep watching. It just royally sucks that every time I watch an episode from now on I'm going to say, "It should have you Lana. It should have been you ya ho!!"