Magnetic

DVD, Smallville S3 (Magnetic)

I keep expecting something special. Something that draws all the disparate pieces of broken 'Smallville' together. And I keep being thwarted. Because in my view, that's what the series has become: broken. Almost every episode so far this season has been a shadow of the kind of high-octane, deep friendship, accelerated but thoughtful stories of Seasons 1 and 2.

Exchange Lana for Chloe and it would have been 'Crush' from S1. Pete again(!) appears in about one scene. He's not important to the stories in general at all! The parents were not used well here, Lionel didn't even appear, and while you can chuckle knowingly at lines such as Martha and Clark's exchange about how he wishes her answers were 'yes or no' like the past; or Lana's easy acceptance of magnetic boy and comment that she would have been frightened before, that's about the extent of the fun to be had. And maybe, seeing another innocent locked up in the jail, in the proud tradition of Jonathan and Clark.

So they're showing things have changed. Yet they haven't really. Because the freaks-of-the-week still pop up, and that's fine, they're a piece of the series. But again, like 'Extinction' the action is mediocre, the situations are few and unimpressive. We're not shown things we haven't seen before, or that have improved on the early stories. Rather, this one seemed slow, drawn out, the characters sleepwalking, not for fault of the actors, but because they aren't given an exciting, full-bodied script, which makes you feel good, feel excited as you watch. You watch in mild interest as the lukewarm plots and arcs continue. Long gone are the days when Chloe, Clark and Pete sought out dangers together, or uncovered plots.

Lex, while he showed a sign of his former self, in his understanding of Lana's mistake, has gone slightly mad and has no more of the subtlety and sparkle in the eyes; Chloe says the same things, in a worried way each week; and Lana and Clark continue to wish they were a pair. Not even secretly anymore. Lana is frank about it. This episode was a soap. Even the fight at the end seemed half-hearted.

I can appreciate that writers are under a lot of pressure, and that it can be difficult to contine the early success of a series. And maybe my taste is too rigid, but you can't deny that the series has become watery. Other series' have managed to go from strength to strength. This feels like a seventh season, where most of the ideas have run out, and you're merely watching because you like to see the characters, rather than with the expectation of a good time. And they left it open for magnetic boy to return by putting him in a coma. Let's hope he doesn't.

Michael Rosenbaum seemed a bit coldy to me, so maybe his performance was affected by that? Can anyone give me hope that it gets better? That it's worth watching?

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