Smallville: It's About Time!

Somebody save me!  After ten long seasons, Smallville is coming to an end, and I'm left asking this question: "What took you guys so long?"

This show started off great.  I looked forward to each episode and I watched faithfully for about three or four seasons.  Then something happened.  It jumped the shark.  The writing got sloppy.  The music became weird, distracting, and out of place.  Story lines were begun and never resolved.  And Lana did all her witching stuff.

Then something else happened.  They nuked the fridge.  And let me tell you--I've never seen a TV show jump the shark and then live long enough to nuke the fridge.  They brought in a whole slew of heroes (the future Justice League).  They brought in time travelers.  They killed off Lex (anticlimactic), his father (stupidly unsatisfying), Clark's dad (actually well done), Jimmy Olson (I think he died), Pete Ross (whoever he was).

Then the impossible happened.  They nuked the shark and jumped the fridge at the same time!  They decided to try out the Battlestar Galactica approach the season that Zod came back and turned the sun red.  The new format did not work!  Meanwhile, my favorite shows were being canceled, such as Firefly, Jericho, Pushing Daisies, and recently Flash Forward.  WHY???!!!!

I just had to stop watching Smallville.

Things that really got on my nerves about this show:

•  Clark has access to all his powers except for flying.  Doesn't that seem a little arbitrary to you?  And yet, how many times did we see Clark "almost" fly?  We saw him do it when he was asleep.  When he was possessed by his evil twin, he flew.  We saw him jump really high (it wasn't flying--really it wasn't!).  I think we saw him coasting once.  Considering how every single visitor from his planet could fly, I can only assume that something's wrong with Clark (or his writers).
• Clark doesn't really want to be a hero.  The Justice League goes on without him!  Oliver Queen has tried countless times to talk him into accepting his destiny.  And how does Clark respond?  "Oh, I don't know.  I don't want anyone to discover my secret!"  Give me a break!  He's been years out of high school.  Someone hand the man some testosterone!
• Oliver Queen goes bad at least one too many times.  (Or at least three too many times.)  He's been an alcoholic, a "I don't want to live up to my own destiny" loser, and a "I hate you Clark" kind of guy.  It gets old!
• Clark Kent has really young premarital sex.  I know it's the CW, and everything has to be all Gossip Girls, but Clark Kent?  He's supposed to be true blue, liberty, American wave, etc. -- an example of virtuous living. 

When I heard that this was Smallville's last season, I decided to catch the last few episodes.  It appears that Clark somehow saved the world from the red sun, though I'm not sure how the whole world seems to have forgotten what happened.  Evidently there's a new character called Darkseid (from the comics I take it).  Clark still can't fly.  Oliver Queen still has that stupid friction with Clark, and it looks like he's about to go bad again with whatever that dark seed is.  They've introduced a parallel universe, which has allowed the writers to bring back Papa Luthor and Papa Kent, but not Lex.  I've seen the description of tonight's episode (which I haven't seen yet), which states that Jor-el is going to bestow powers on Lois for a day.  I'm guessing Clark and Lois are going to have sex.  (Or perhaps Clark has learned how to do that with humans without hurting them.  It is the CW, after all.)

The finale is next Friday.  Will I watch it live?  Still deciding.  They're going to bring back Lex, and I hope it isn't too lame.  Maybe Clark will finally put on his suit and fly.  Please, writers--at least give us that!