Smallville has endured its peaks and valleys, sometimes within a single episode.
This season is no different, as interesting storylines involving Lana Lang and Cousin Kara rub shoulders with such garbish as the “Weather Girls” and a general inclination to sh!t all over the likable Chloe Sullivan.
Thursday’s episode, however, was a cut above Smallville’s usual fare, mostly due to the presence of Hollywood’s original Supergirl - Helen Slater.
Filmed through a radiant soft focus that undoubtedly reflected the nostalgic warmth old-timers like yours truly feel toward the actress, Slater’s appearance was undeniably the high point of yet another episode where Laura Vandervoort’s Kara - a traumatized young woman who lost everything and everyone she knew and loved - is treated like an embarrassment at best and a menace at worst by Clark and his solipsistic crew.
In fact, Clark’s treatment of Kara throughout this season is alarmingly similar to the “Superman is a dick” meme. The scene where the future Superman “comforted” his distraught cousin was more than a little reminiscent of this infamous panel …
It’s nice to see that creators’ treatment of Supergirl has progressed so far in the past 40 years …
Well, the show’s crapulous writing doesn’t help matters any. Honestly Smallville doesn’t even pass muster as fan fiction quite literally whole scripts are assembled like “Mad Libs” from lexicons of Superman lore & vocabulary.
“Berserk” would be the kindest description of the results.
And the acting is pretty mediocre as well, the adults all seems game and Allison Mack is peppy but Welling-Kreuk have to be one of the most misbegotten pairings in TV history.
What is worse, the show has lasted seven years with this nonsense so there is no incentive toward’s excellence.
Me? I sort of like Ms. Vandervoort, I doubt she can rise above the writing, however it was nice to see her and Helen Slater passing the torch…filled me with all sorts of bittersweet “might-have-been” type thoughts.
Otherwise I just watch the show and shake my head, I have no doubt the producers will kill off Kara at the end of the season or some other wretched thing. So enjoy the ride while it lasts.