Season 4 Was Disappointing

[docsupes]

Is anyone curious as to what happened to Clark during the 3 months he was sucked into the cave with Jor-El at the end of the 3rd season? I was expecting us to get some idea of what exactly happened...what he went through. I was convinced that Clark was holding back and was reluctant to tell his parents what he had gone through at the end of the season 4 premiere, since he said he only remembered "a little." I thought well the writers are definitely going to slowly let us know what happened...and that it would be an intricate story. But no mention at all. Leading me to believe, so what was the point of Clark getting sucked into the cave and "reborn" in the first place? If it was just to get him to turn into Kal-el and retrieve the stones...does it really take a 3 month absence to do that? Season 4 was by far the worst season to date.

I was waiting for something bigger to develop from the whole Lana/witch storyline, but nothing. It was essentially pointless as they killed off Jane Seymour who had all of 10 lines the entire season. I understand that Jensen Ackles wanted to leave for his own tv show, but all of a sudden Lana goes from being in love ready to sleep with Jason, to not mentioning him once and falling back in love with Clark. And why exactly did these feelings for Clark resurface? One trip to China where she was posessed half the time?

The writers said they wanted to get away from the complexity and the darkness that season 3 had (which was the most brilliant season), yet they really out-dumbed themselves with more vapid freaks...and have gotten so lazy that they don't even bother to explain how these guys first get their "powers." We all know it's from Kryptonite exposure, but it's just like the 3rd and 4th Batman movies. Season 4 of Smallville = Batman & Robin.

Sorry this message is long and is full of complaints - I'm usually a pretty optimistic person...I guess I'm just looking for people who share my disappointment with the lack of real development and childish storylines that have plagued the past 20-something episodes.

[mysecretidentity]

My best explaination for the whole season is that they needed a way to get clark the crystal. They were, however, faced with several challenges to do this. 1.) Clark gets the crystal from the ship after his father dies. -- NO SHIP...Clark destroyed it...oops...i thought they'd have had martha and johnathan take it out before and Martha'd give it to him after johnathan died.
2.) Johnathan didn't die -- which we could forsee from them making him and martha so much younger.

the witch was a bit lame...could have found a better way...a more comic book way...but it worked out...and we got through it...no more **** ass Jason and unfortunately no more Jane Seymour (how could you not love the wit battles between her and Lionel)

but now we get back to supermanesqe villains...but don't expect your good old smallville from seasons one and two to be back...i saw glimpses of it (Lucy--with normal "mysteries" with lana being replaced by lois...and good ole Lex and Clark working together)
but i think some of the people on here are right...we are gonna see the void really show up this year...i think by the end we will have lex hating him

[efilflah]

I don't think this Season was the complete disaster that a lot of people seem to make it out to be. I am a fan of ongoing story Arcs, whether they be two episodes wide or span the whole season, I just like there to be a purpose to what I see the characters going through on a weekly basis. Seasons 2 and 3 had a few subtle Arcs but this season certainly focused on a season wide story Arc and that (in my opinion) was nice to see.

I agree with your point about Clark's 3 months being sort of brushed to one side and not explained, it doesn't really surprise me though, because I thought season 3's finale was probably the weakest of them all, and parts of the resolution seemed quite cop-out-ish to me.

There were quite a few evident filler episodes this season, and some inconsistencies, but I can't say that I am very disappointed, I really enjoy the show even if it goes in a direction that I wouldn't have favoured, sometimes you have to take the good with the bad, the concept is fascinating to me and it usually provides more good episodes than bad ones, so I really can't complain.

With Clark embracing his destiny and Lex finally succombing to his, I think next season will definitely make up for things, I just hope people don't just switch off before seeing where it goes.

[cayayofm]

I agree with you, with the ongoing seasonal stroryarc. I like the characters to have a porpuse, that we know where they are going. However while I aprreciate the effort to pull off a 22 episode arc I have to say that it was done very bad. THere where not development with the stones. A lot of unaswered questions a a lot of bad characterization. Storylines opened for no reason. Overall very dissapointing season.


Crusade
Transference
Blank

I enjoyed more episodes, but this were the great ones only.

[k-son]

Yeah, I agre with your choices of the only good episodes. Sad when the finale was such a disappointment. In past years it was always one of the best epsiodes.

[Kryppy]

I loved Crusade, Gone, Devoted, Run, Transference, Jinx, Scare, Unsafe, Pariah, Recruit, Krypto, Lucy, Onyx, Spirit, Blank, and Commencement. I didn't like Spell, Bound, Sacred, and Forever. But overall I think season 4 was the best yet.

[cayayofm]

I like to grade the episodes by:
Gold episodes - great episodes, with no flaws, not apparent plot holes or not important.
Silver episodes - overall good episodes but with a few flaws or apparent plot holes.
Bronze episodes - Overall bad episodes but with a few moments that save them from total failure.
Bad episodes- Totally sucked

My grade for the season:

GOLD
crusade
transference
blank

SILVER
run
jinx
scare
pariah
recruit
krypto
sacred
onyx
spell
commencement

BRONZE
gone
facade
devoted
spell
bound
unsafe
lucy
forever

BAD
ageless

In general Ageless was the truly bad episode but the bronze ones were weak. Overall the biggest dissapoiment was with the strory arc, no with the episodes. The problem was the bad executed strory arc.

Season 1 2 and 3 have more bad episodes than season 4 but overall they were better executed.

[LuckyKrypto]

I'll have to say, I missed quite a bit of this season, so it's probably not for me to say yet. But the episodes I did see were good, they just didn't remind me of the show I got hooked on. I thought the ending was great and am totally looking forward to next season!:D
I also liked the addition of Lois to the show. And I liked what they did with Chloe. I was a bit lost with the whole Lana thing though......see I missed too much this season!!

[Aloof]

Ageless was okay, I didn't see anything wrong with it.

[DarkJustice]

I actually liked the way that one brought Lana and clark closer together with the kid, and clark was feeling like the kid was similar to him being found in a crater. To bad the kid had to die. I also liked the end when the kid blew up and clark slowly walked back to lana all burnt and clothes torn up, nice dramatic scene.