• first episode*

• does superman even have a penis?

• Its quite clear to me that the Smallville writers desperately want this show to be about anything except Clark but they obviously can't just kill him or send him away. So they keep hoping the fans will latch onto some other character, Lana, Green Arrow, Supergirl, etc. I'm convinced that these were all attempts to spin off something they actually wanted to write and get Smallville canceled in the process.

• And the show had so much potential. Jesus!

• Huh... And here I thought that the CW was doing well enough to have a better budget than Doctor Who did for its monster make-up in the 70s/80s. Guess I know better now.

• Hey, Jared: Um, can't people disagree without resorting to name-calling. Really? If the "villains" coming out of the woodwork weren't nonsense like Silver Banshee, I'd agree with you. My point was, the dichotomy between Lex and Clark reinforced the personality and drama of both characters. Without it, the soul kinda seems to have drained from the show. Of course, the show should have ended about 3 seasons back anyway.

• What-The-Fuck?!

• Not impunging the quality of Buffy - although I think it was horribly overrated, marred by subpar acting from everyone but Anthony Stewart Head (there's a reason SMG hasn't had a role since) and horrible, cringe-worthy stunt work - but merely stating that it was a niche show on a niche network and never anything more. It's like people who kept thinking that BSG would be moved to NBC. It did good - not great - ratings for Sci-fi, but it would have died a quick death on network TV. Joss Whedon keeps trying for a quick buck from Fox rather than tailoring his shows for cable where they might have a chance of attracting a viable audience. Josh Schwartz may have made the same mistake with Chuck, but at least that's a good enough show that it has a fighting chance on network.

• Volcana and Livewire are both one-note villains, and Livewire's actively grating and so dated that Egg Fu looks at her and says that she's ten years past being interesting. The best thing about Volcana was Peri Gillipin's voice acting, and lord knows whatever starlet-of-the-week Smallville brought in would have killed the character dead. But other than that, they've done pyro-type villains before on the show and they SUCKED. Not that I don't think Smallville could even find a way to screw up legitimate top-tier villains like Joker or Ra's, because they certainly could. But when even Bruce Timm is talking about the lameness of Superman's Rogues Gallery - I had a quote from him in one of the reviews of the early Darkseid episodes - it's time to admit that there's nothing much there.

• Liquid Sky is on CW tonight? AWESOME! Didn't know CW was into bi-sexual heroin alien 80s chic. AWESOME AGAIN!

• What is this Smallville of which you speak? Never seen it, never will...

• looks okay to me.

• Yeah, without make-up. BURN!

• woah, woah, woah.....let's be careful about insulting Buffy. That show was just as good as Firefly and a million times better than Dollhouse. I can respect that Buffy may not be for everyone, but I won't respect a person who says they didn't like it and didn't actually give it a full chance. If you did and still didn't like it I don't begrudge you that, but Buffy was a great show that got better and better as it went along.

• i could get behind that, but i think my liver would die before we would be through with the first season.

• I respectfully disagree. Superman's villains are awesome, when Superman is a "Super" man and not a demi-god. Volcana, Livewire, Metallo, Maxima, and the Parasite were all great on the Superman: TAS (which is still the best blend of the Golden, Silver, Bronze, and Byrne era versions of Superman). Now, your point of budget is spot on though when it comes to the bigger threats like Doomsday, Brainiac, and Darkseid. Getting rid of Rutger Hauer's Morgan Edge was a big mistake though. Personally, I think the show jumped the shark though when Jor-El visited Smallville in the 50's though and met Lana's aunt. If he could leave Krypton then, why wouldn't he leave with his wife and son? It's the one flaw that writers ignore (especially when it comes to Mon-El), his parents couldn't leave Krypton because the technology for inter-galactic space travel wasn't there. Clark went into a prototype and was simply shot into space as a last ditch effort.

• One of those villains that you really can't cover with just makeup and a $50 wardrobe budget. Smallville is so bad that I'm considering making a drinking game for it. Only way it could possibly be watchable.

• Smallville needs to quit pussyfooting around and make Dr. Hamilton go evil already.

• I have no idea what a Smallville is any more.

• superman doesn't have to wear tights, or look like neo, to represent. if he wears his birthday suit, and maybe the cape just for style, he could pull it off. everyone would be too busy looking away or staring at his junk to figure out his true identity. besides, who could stop him?

• Well I just look at it as a positive-- we are just one step closer to the actual Lois meets the Veggie Tales and makes salad episode.

• "...And your telephone's been ringin', while you're dancin' in the rain..."

• Honestly I don't see it as being so bad as it's pretty close to the character and on a TV budget. (Though still a budget Supernatural can only dream of.) Yet what's stupid is that after all these years, NOW they bring out the true to the books costumes? Yet, as Rob points out, STILL not Superman costume?!

• LOL. Looks like Lindsay Lohan.

• Um... wasn't she in a Duran Duran video?

• Ok, I take your point, but I counter that if the show was tanking even before he left, it should have just fucking ended. Seriously, why is this show still on? The only original characters left are Clark and Chloe, and all she does is exposition. I miss Pete.

• I'm like 80% sure some version of Livewire was in one of the first seasons. There was someone with electrical powers at least.

• I can say without any regret that I never followed this show and never desired to. The reason is made obvious by the above picture. I agree that this is a rejected costume for a power ranger villian (a show I watched religouslŸ when I was 7-11)

• Why is this still going while the Paul Dini-scripted live action Batman TV show we've all been waiting for is not? (I may have made that up but dammit, it'd be better than this)

• HAHAHAAAA!! It TOTALLY looks like her!

• WTF? She looks like something from Power Rangers. Alas, just another reason I don't watch Smallville.

• Easy answer - those shows are on real networks. Same reason Buffy survived while Firefly and Dollhouse got slaughtered.

• I agree. Lex was getting old. Every other fricken episode was angst over some new secret lab or shady dealing Lex had. Michael Rosenbaum is a good actor. Arguably the best from that show, but still....the crap they wrote for him was getting worse than the hack writers of Smallville introducing a new type of kryptonite or better yet, just using the red kryptonite AGAIN and AGAIN UNNECESSARILY! Or better yet they were figuring out how to write a character's death and then BRING THEM BACK.

• The catch, of course, is that SUPERMAN'S VILLAINS SUCK, especially when restricted by a TV budget. That's the reason Superman TAS used Darkseid so much. But you can't do Darkseid on a TV budget. They've already proven they can't do Doomsday on a TV budget. They're trying Zod now, but Zod doesn't make sense when he's just fighting Clark and not Superman. Getting rid of Lex was as dumb a move as getting rid of him on Lois and Clark - that show started spiralling downhill when John Shea left (although it was actually still decent for a couple of years, the level of quality was just so much higher with Lex around). Sure, it's stupid that the smartest man in the world won't be able to figure out that Clark is Superman when he's had roughly ten million hints, and Michael Rosenbaum obviously was far too talented for the show, but they don't have to worry about that if they're never actually going to show Superman.

• Smallville sucks beyond all reason. How shows like this survive this long and yet shows like Pushing Daisies and Chuck struggle to get by is beyond me.

• me + Pj Perez: You morons. They'd had Lex Luthor as a bad guy on the show for SEVEN YEARS. He was so played out, despite the skill of the actor portraying him. No doubt he'll be back at some point - they've already alluded to that a few times in the last season or so. But in the meantime it clears the playing field for other big Superman villains.

• I have to agree with "me." I mean, killing off Lex Luthor in the middle of your "making of Superman" series? Um, pardon me? I watch this on DVD only, so I won't see any of this season until it's over, but I'm kind of dreading it.

• I've been watching this show more or less faithfully since it began. I stopped recently, after the enchanted comic book or whatever the fuck that was. I should have stopped after Lex Luthor "died". The only way I'll come back is if they bring back Lex Luthor, even if it is alternate reality/different actor Luthor. Superman is nothing without his main villian. This is so obvious it shouldn't have to be explained.

• Just tell me those stone drunk bastard comic guys who created that crappy Silver Banshee back in the 80's don't make a cent from that being on Snoreville and I'm happy. I think the only reason she lingers on and on is cause she's a female Superman villain and there's very few Superman villains with boobies for comic artists to draw. What was the name of the blue electrical chick in the animated show? Livewire? Guess she'd be too silly for Snoreville.

• yet again Smallville, you never fail to disappoint me in your efforts to fail. keep up the good work.

• she looks like the smallville producers have just decided to do what ever they want with the show. throwing the core out the window and that includes a reject from a troll film which is what that photo has silver banshee looking like.

• Stupid ass show! Grrr

• Is... Is that the rotten toothed bitch from Troll 2?

• Just when I was finally going to start following the show in anticipation of something good coming from the introduction of Amanda Waller. Oh well, time to go back to safely ignoring it again.

• I really think they decided to try and make it a genre-show, at some point. Even early on, when it was actually sort of good, it kind of was. It was, at the very least, as much so as it was a teen drama. Now that the characters are older, and the setting has changed, the genre-show aspect is all they really have left. They are really scraping at the barrel, now, since the show is about the making of Superman. If they gave him the tights, thats the end. So until the studio finally decides to right out end it... we get that.

• Y'know, they should just change the name of the show but keep the actors. So they can ditch the no tights no flights shtick.

• She reminds me of a Lady Gaga test outfit... and thus is a perfect expression For Our Time.

• From the Book of Nerd, chapter 2010, verse 3: ...and lo, in those days the air was filled with monstrous superhero TV shows; though they failed in all ways, a core audience remained; and though they begged to die, cancellation eluded them.

• Nothing surprises my about Smallville anymore.

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