Static Zombie

Bait and Switch

So I was right, and I was wrong.

This week's Smallvillle was the worst kind of lazy, manipulative storytelling. The first iteration, where Lana gets killed, actually had some pathos. But from the moment Clark grabbed the deus ex machina crystal-- with the show's writers frantically waving their hands in the wings and imploring us to pay no attention to what's behind the curtain-- I cried foul. Jonathan's death was telegraphed early in the show, when he said Clark was a man now who didn't need his father's advice anymore. Right then I knew he was a goner. And that saddens me, because one of the things I really liked about the show was the father-son relationship and the great performance by John Schneider. He was Clark's moral center. Killing him off breaks the show from current Superman continuity, where both of Clark's parents are still alive, but not in a way that makes the series more interesting. So Lana's still in the dark about Clark's secret after all, and now we'll be treated to scenes of Lionel cozening up to the widowed Martha, Lex moving in on Lana, and Clark torn between the memory of his adoptive father and the siren call of his biological one. Do they really think viewers want to go there? I'd much rather have lost Annette O'Toole's Martha, whose hangdog Martha Kent sucks all the energy out of a scene.

If the show had ended after the first half hour it might have been more predictable, but a heck of a lot less disappointing.