My relationship with Smallville is love, hate, then love again. I remember when this show premiered ten years ago. I was all over it but had begun to lose interest because the Lana Lang character wore on my patience. I also wanted an action show but a lot of times Smallville was more Dawson’s Creek than Superman. The final straw for me was the death of Johnathan Kent. I knew it was coming but it still infuriated me that a good character died so that Lana Lang would live. I think I threw a shoe at the TV and quit watching after that. I’d always keep my ear open for something that would bring me back to Smallville only to go back and have Lana marry Lex Luthor. That was the final straw. Because I stopped watching, I missed Lana’s exit, the conclusion of Milton Fine/Braniac, Lex’s death, Jimmy Olsen’s death, the entrance of Tess, Supergirl, the entrance of Zod and the Kryptonians and a whole lot of other seemingly exciting things. From what I hear, these things sound exciting on paper but was played out in such a dull and nonsensical manner that it may not be worth it to go back and watch these episodes. I may one day.

What brought me back into the Smallville fold was season nine’s TV movie Absolute Justice. That presentation was the Smallville that I’d always been looking for. There was action, costumes and awesome special effects. The brief addition of Pam Grier was also a hook. After that, I watched Smallville to the end. In the eleventh hour of the show it had become solid entertainment that I’d look forward to each week. I felt that the announcement of Smallville’s final season was premature. After they revamped the show, it felt like it had a season or two left in it.

The finale wasn’t as action packed as I would have liked. It also didn’t have enough of Kal-El in his suit flying around. We waited ten years to see Tom Welling fly and it just wasn’t enough. Final baddy show down was flat because I think the bad guy should have been an actual person and not a concept or infection. It is always good to bring Lionel Luthor back, especially as zombie infected by “the darkness”… or whatever. He emits a certain level of crazy that is hard to resist. At the other end, I was so ecstatic to see Johnathan Kent that I didn’t bother to question why he was featured so heavily in the finale. They could have possibly overused him. I really wanted to see Cyborg, Black Canary, Aquaman and the gang in the finale but that didn’t happen. Bringing back Lex was absolutely useless. He didn’t do anything and by the time he started to warm up his evil, Tess wiped goo on his face that gave him amnesia. The sentimental scenes between Clark and his parents were good. I really enjoyed the “through the door” scene with Lois and Clark. However, things like that and Jor-El’s long-winded speech at the end sucked the action out of what should have been an epic finale.

The funny thing is that with all of my critisisms, I still enjoyed the finale. Smallville joins the ranks of sci-fi shows that lasted more that ten seasons such as Doctor Who, Stargate, etc. I’d really like to see another Smallville TV movie in a couple of years. If not that, I’d like to see Tom Welling shirtless in something soon.

Smallville aired from 2001 – 2011 on WB/ CW Network.