Scene Stealer

Friday was the Series Finale of Smallville, the ten year old series that followed a young Clark Kent on his way to becoming Superman. While the show has definitely had staying power, the last season has been pretty weak, so we planned to mock it as much as watch it. Michael Rosenbaum hasn’t appeared as Lex Luthor in the series since Season 7 and it was startling how dramatically the show changed with and without him. The Gnome and I just finished Season Four, which is when Lex has started to go “evil” before anybody has noticed. I’m not looking forward to when he leaves the show. I’m expecting that those seasons will be harder to watch than what we’ve worked through so far.

The major TV networks are starting to announce their Fall lineups and it’s been interesting to see what is and is not getting picked up. V has been cancelled joining Stargate Universe as the big scifi shows ending now. Neither Wonder Woman nor Locke & Key, based on the IDW urban magic series, were picked up, and Chuck has been renewed, but for its final season. Spinoff Online is melodramatically wondering if networks have given up on geeks. I think that is an extreme way to look at it, but I think it’s more impressive now that we have so many of these “geek shows” to lament the loss of. I feel this is less an indication that networks don’t care about nerds and geeks, and more proof that networks are willing to experiment with less mainstream properties. Not everything they’re going to attempt is going to stick. If the subject matter appealed to everybody, then it wouldn’t have gotten labelled “geek” to begin with.