Smallville Through the Ages

With the series finale of Smallville appearing tonight, I figured I would shake off my writer’s block and run down the good, the bad, and the ugly of 10 seasons of this show. This is dedicated to Seamus, who is positively giddy about tonight and I know I’ll receive at least 3 texts from him about it.

Best Episode – "Absolute Justice" (season 9, episode 11)

Written by the genius that is Geoff Johns, this two hour epic seems less like a TV show and more like a movie. Not only do we get the Justice Society, we get the Helm of Nabu, Checkmate, and actually storyline for Tess, and probably one of the best throw-downs in all of Smallville that happens in Watchtower. If that wasn’t enough, John Jones gets his powers back. It’s just an all around great episode that makes you see what Smallville could have been.

Worst Episode – "Stiletto" (season 8, episode 19)

This is the episode that nearly made me stop watching Smallville after 8 seasons. It was like a teenage boy’s best idea on how to get Erica Durance to dress in black leather. Anyway, the lame storyline was the fact that Lois fought off some muggers with her heel and felt that she should become a superhero. If that wasn’t bad enough, we still got Davis Bloom crying in a basement.

Most Campy Episode – "Spell" (season 4, episode 8)

There was a lot of camp in season 4, especially with the fact that Lana was being possessed by a 17th century French witch with a surprising grasp of the English language. It goes over the top with this episode. While Lana gets possessed, she helps two of her witch friends inhabit the bodies of Lois and Chloe. Hilarity ensures. I’m laughing just thinking about this.

Best Season – Season 4

This was a tough call, but there were so many good things that happened in this season. We had the previously mentioned witch possession of Lana (brought to its absolute apex with the fight between Clark and the witch Lana inside a Chinese temple), the beginnings of the Fortress of Solitude, Chloe finally learning Clark’s secret, Jensen Ackles, Lucy Lane, Alicia Baker, Lifehouse playing the Smallville Prom, and most importantly, the introduction of Lois Lane.

Worst Season – Season 8

This is the season that nearly killed Smallville. Let’s look at the bad. You had Jimmy’s marriage to Chloe, Doomsday, the most anti-climatic fight scene between Clark and Doomsday, Jimmy’s death (not because he’s dead, but because the real Jimmy Olsen was some 10 year old punk), the return of Lana, and any and every moment of Super Lana. The only bright spot was the episode “Legion”, again, written by the genius that is Geoff Johns.

Best Season Finale – "Covenant" (season 3)

Season 3 ended on such a high note. Kara from Krypton appears and tries to get Clark to accept is destiny. Clark also testifies against Lionel Luthor and he gets sent to jail and Lana finally answers all our prayers and leaves town (she comes back at the beginning of season 4 dammit). It all comes to a head in the end, as we see Lionel getting his head shaved in prison, while Lex is poisoned, Chloe and her dad go into a FBI safe house that explodes after they enter, and Clark gets pulled into the inter-dimensional gateway in the Kawatche Caves by Jor-El.

Worst Season Finale – "Arctic" (season 7)

The crapfest that was Season 7 finally ends with Lex going to the Arctic to find out about the mysterious Traveler and I don’t remember much after that since I drank bleach to try and forget it.

Best Villain – Lionel Luthor

Lionel always had something going on. Even when he was good, you still wondered when he would do something truly evil. The man was unstoppable. Just an evil guy that did the things that needed to be done. The best was he never really apologized for it. It was sort of an “I am who I am” sort of feel about him. And if he did apologize, he didn’t really mean it.

Worst Villain – Doomsday

One, he was defeated pretty easily. Two, his alter-ego was seen crying in a shower naked. Thanks to this, I can’t watch the American version of Being Human. You really don’t need to know anything more.

So, ten seasons have passed. There have been highs and lows. Overall, it was a fun series to watch but it has reached the point where it needs to go. It has provided countless hours of entertainment to me and the legion of geeks out there. So, I know I’ll miss it, but I’m glad that it’s going (if that makes sense, at least any more sense than anything else I’ve written).