1. I prefer the first season in a lot of ways to the ~technically better~ second season. The FotW episodes were generally stronger in season 2, but I felt like the show lost its heart in that season. The Lex and Helen relationship was dire for starters in how poorly developed it was, it was supposed be be a major relationship for Lex that ended in a proposal and marriage and yet, even with the terrible actress, I felt that in comparison more thought went into his season 1 relationship with Victoria when they both playing one another and fighting to get the upper hand. I was never sure how I was supposed to feel about Helen, and if I was supposed to buy Lex as sincere with the 'the wall around my heart' speech. The Henry Small introduction was also a pointless detour that never really went anywhere, the Clana relationship started feeling forced as to why they weren't together (as opposed to season 1 introducing a legit obstacle with Whitney), and Chloe's character was very one-note that year
2. I was a big fan of Lexana, I thought that there was potential there for a really interesting team-up when Lex first tells Lana about Level 33.1 and she agrees with him that protecting themselves from the meteor infected is a good idea. I would have preferred if season 6 had separated Lex and Lana by having Lana then suffer from conflicted loyalty after finding out about Clark, and Lex feeling betrayed when she tells Clark about his secret projects, instead of simply having her pregnant and torn as to which man she wants to be with. There were so many more interesting routes to take that triangle :(
3. Lois Lane only worked for me in her early introduction in season 4, and then from season 8 onwards once she was actually at the DP and feeling a little more revelant. If it were up to me then I would have written her out after Devoted and let her find her path off-screen at college, and waited for season 8 for Clark to see her again when he joins the DP. They did use her better in early season 6 with Oliver I will admit, but most of the comic relief with Lois in seasons 4, 5, 6, and 7 was just painful to me, and they clearly had no idea how to write her path into journalism in a way that made sense
4. I wasn't a fan of Clark and Lois, I thought that the show was trying way too hard with other characters like Jimmy hammering it into our heads that Lois and Clark sound/look good together, and the writers got lazy with actually developing their attraction and relationship organically
5. I really disliked the pairing of Jimmy/Chloe and the way that Jimmy would take out his insecurities on Chloe and make everything her fault, the low point was when he tried to stop Chloe from even answering the lie detector on whether or not Jimmy was the one that she loved. That was a healthy relationship right there! It baffled me how a lot of the fandom seemed to just view them as sweet and cutesy and want that relationship to continue for Jimmy's sake, all while complaining about how terribly Chloe supposedly treated him by being friends with Clark and having to keep secrets from Jimmy
(I was going to talk about the Clex friendship and how that should have been handled, but I suspect that my opinions there aren't so unpopular :P )
Completely agree with you on no.2 - it would have been totally understandable for Lana not to be apalled about Lex and his fotw experiments. The woman spent seasons running away from those guys to the extent that in reality you'd be in a looney bin. Then the conflict, in a sort of Vader/Luke imitation, after her finding out Clark was also a freak so to speak would have been a much better reason for her to have been torn and ultimately pick mr goody two shoes...rather than "actually I've decided this week that I'm not actually in love with you Lex and I don't want a baby with you. Sorry 'bout that, laters!!" like wtf? Naughty lazy writers *angry face*
On the Lois front I always would have liked Clark to have kept his glasses after the episode where he gets glasses...er...title escapes me.....Anyway and then bring Lois in after that so she wouldn't recognise him later and all that (because I'm a sucker for traditional Lois and Clark) but like you said in hindsight she should only have been a character that popped up now and again maybe. And the hitting over the head with the destiny thing did wear a bit thin shall we say.
Right, there were so many more interesting places they could have taken it! Having Lana just change her mind about Lex in Hydro and ask Clark to take her back (when she already knew that she was pregnant), or wanting to leave Lex at the altar and run away with Clark, made her character look so fickle and there was just no need for it. There were so many more interesting conflicts they could have gone with instead, like Lana drawing away from Lex's darkness after seeing how far he was taking his experimentation. They did hit on that a little bit in the episode Freak when Lana looks wary during her final hug with Lex, but they had to keep going back to it really being about how much more she loved Clark, which just really cheapened the whole thing. Promise was impressive in how terrible it managed to make all three characters look though, which was presumedly not what they were going for!
And Lois wasn't as bad when she was working alongside Clark at the DP, I thought that they had a pretty fun dynamic in early season 8 especially, but her character was so all over the place before then that it was really hard for me to adjust to the show suddenly treating her as a serious reporter now, so I wish that they had skipped most of the episodes between Devoted and Plastique that her character appeared in quite honestly
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2. I was a big fan of Lexana, I thought that there was potential there for a really interesting team-up when Lex first tells Lana about Level 33.1 and she agrees with him that protecting themselves from the meteor infected is a good idea. I would have preferred if season 6 had separated Lex and Lana by having Lana then suffer from conflicted loyalty after finding out about Clark, and Lex feeling betrayed when she tells Clark about his secret projects, instead of simply having her pregnant and torn as to which man she wants to be with. There were so many more interesting routes to take that triangle :(
3. Lois Lane only worked for me in her early introduction in season 4, and then from season 8 onwards once she was actually at the DP and feeling a little more revelant. If it were up to me then I would have written her out after Devoted and let her find her path off-screen at college, and waited for season 8 for Clark to see her again when he joins the DP. They did use her better in early season 6 with Oliver I will admit, but most of the comic relief with Lois in seasons 4, 5, 6, and 7 was just painful to me, and they clearly had no idea how to write her path into journalism in a way that made sense
4. I wasn't a fan of Clark and Lois, I thought that the show was trying way too hard with other characters like Jimmy hammering it into our heads that Lois and Clark sound/look good together, and the writers got lazy with actually developing their attraction and relationship organically
5. I really disliked the pairing of Jimmy/Chloe and the way that Jimmy would take out his insecurities on Chloe and make everything her fault, the low point was when he tried to stop Chloe from even answering the lie detector on whether or not Jimmy was the one that she loved. That was a healthy relationship right there! It baffled me how a lot of the fandom seemed to just view them as sweet and cutesy and want that relationship to continue for Jimmy's sake, all while complaining about how terribly Chloe supposedly treated him by being friends with Clark and having to keep secrets from Jimmy
(I was going to talk about the Clex friendship and how that should have been handled, but I suspect that my opinions there aren't so unpopular :P )
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Naughty lazy writers *angry face*
On the Lois front I always would have liked Clark to have kept his glasses after the episode where he gets glasses...er...title escapes me.....Anyway and then bring Lois in after that so she wouldn't recognise him later and all that (because I'm a sucker for traditional Lois and Clark) but like you said in hindsight she should only have been a character that popped up now and again maybe. And the hitting over the head with the destiny thing did wear a bit thin shall we say.
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And Lois wasn't as bad when she was working alongside Clark at the DP, I thought that they had a pretty fun dynamic in early season 8 especially, but her character was so all over the place before then that it was really hard for me to adjust to the show suddenly treating her as a serious reporter now, so I wish that they had skipped most of the episodes between Devoted and Plastique that her character appeared in quite honestly
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Yeah a Clark Kent who's willing to run away with someone's pregnant fiance - nice one there writers.
*kisses Smallville like Michael Corleone kisses Fredo* "You broke my heart. You broke my heart".