When Smallville first came out, I was disinterested. I did not really give it the time a day until my brother gave my the recommendation that it was a pretty good show. At first I was more than skeptical, but on that advice, I thought I would give it a try. I put my pretenses aside and began to watch with a bit of enthusiasm, eager to see how Clark Kent would be portrayed as a teenager.

I soon found that this show had irreconcilable differences with the Superman storyline we have all come to know and love. The main being that Clark and Lex Luthor became best friends early on in the show. Yes, this alone would have Superman’s  creator Jerry Siegel doing barrel rolls in his grave. But even with this major flub, the show became very interesting in a way that is kind of hard to explain. Each week delivered a fresh new story that contributed to Clark’s coming of age. The whole meteor rock twist delivered some interesting stories that kept me glued to the TV set.

But, as is the case with this series, they ran the good thing they had going for them into the ground. I found that the repetitive story lines and an unsettled romance would soon lead me to hate the show in many ways. After making it halfway though the eight season, I’m calling it quits, and I hope the production staff at the CW will do the same. Here are the all so obvious reasons why.

The Rehashing of the Clark-Lana Love Story

This plot line has long been the thorn in the side for this show. It also has seem to have been the main storyline of over two-thirds of the show in my opinion. Love gained, love lost, love can’t be obtained, love leaves, love marries your mortal enemy…  WTF? I mean, how many times can you tell the same story over, and over, and over, and over again. Bottom line is, Clark and Lana like each other, but can never be together, we know this. Leave it alone. This is Smallville, not desperate housewives.

Clark is a Wimp

I know that this is supposed to be a story of Clark finding himself and becoming Superman. But come on… really. After eight seasons, why the heck is Clark still such a wimp. Of course Clark/Superman is supposed to have a heart of gold but come on, after all the things he has gone through over the past eight seasons, there is no reason for him to continue to act so wimpy. This dude weighs his feeling more than most teenage girls. He is just as wimpy and naive as he was when the first show aired.

Clark Still Cannot Fly

I mean… really?

No Clear End In Sight

I cannot stand any series that has not clear vision or has a, “We will make it up as we go along” attitude. There is something to be said about a series that has a ending in site and does not just “Milk The Cow”, so to speak. To me ABC’s “Lost” faces this same situation. In Smallville’s case, they have botched up the storyline so much from the classic Superman, that there in no way that they can really save it.

Should they have not ended it when Michael Rosenbaum said he was leaving? When Kristin Kreuk said she was leaving to do a movie? No, they just continued obscurity. By now it’s clear that the writers don’t have a vision, but rather a wealth of DC universe information that they just try to throw in the storyline to drag this thing longer and longer. This show should have ended when Clark graduated for high school. Oh, and is Clark still in college? Seems they just threw that in there to introduce Brainac.

Superman Is Dead

Smallville, while having some high and many lows, has effectively left a distinctively bad taste in my mouth that will not easily be washed away. For every cool thing that was done with the series, there have been five bad things done. This could have been a great thing if only handled properly. How would I have handled it? I think Warner Brothers and the writers of Smallville could have looked at the bigger picture. What if they have only made the show a four/five season stint in which Clark really becomes mature? They could have put writers in there that could really have make this something special. A show in which his powers and characters grow on many levels. A show in which all the cheezyness and rehashed love story telling is left out. As show in which he truly becomes a man. A show in which he learns to fly. They could have easily transitioned the franchise in to a huge box office smash. Instead of the lack-luster movie we had a few years back, they could have had one in which Smallville’s Clark Kent truly becomes a super hero. Just a thought.

But… where there is no vision, or limited vision in this case…