What I’m Watching: Smallville

Smallville: Season 9, Episode 10 “Disciple” (C)

Sorry, Oliver. You were a saving grace for this show when you first appeared in season six, but no longer. These standalone episodes which involve all of your random cult obsessions and people who want to kill you just aren’t cutting it. Even if the blond archer wasn’t involved, having someone threaten your life because you refuse to kill them is just preposterous. Trying to infuse too much logic into the pattern of a villain when there really doesn’t need to be any (disciple, lover, don’t care anymore) becomes even more grating when it takes up most of the episode. It’s especially despicable when the story of the series isn’t driven forward. Oliver has already rebounded from whatever was causing his rut, and Chloe has done her share of unrealistic meddling in everyone’s affairs. It doesn’t even relate to Clark’s two storylines, both of which are doing okay. The notion of Clark and Lois dating and being romantic with each other is nice, but it would be nice to see them a bit more. While Zod is still around, it’s probably good that he continue trying to get to know Clark and his earthly habits, but some of their conversations just don’t do the trick. Clark sounds much too casual when he walks into his house and says, “What are you doing here, Zod?” and their conversations are just about as engaging as that. This show is in danger of becoming like “Heroes” where it constantly needs to adhere to an already seen future and can’t go anywhere interesting because of that. This show was doing well for a bit, but I’m really not so sure anymore.