My nomination for Post of the Month.

I watched the first three seasons of this show on DVD, and I spent the entire time thinking that any time now, this thing is going to turn the corner and become really good. There was a stretch near the end of S2 when I thought it was just about over that hump. But then S3 started up right back at the beginning and never really went anywhere. I finally gave up after S3 and don't plan to ever watch another episode of this show.

Sounds like I made the correct decision, as I seem to be reading in this thread that it's still the Same Ol' Stuff two seasons later.

I gave up on the show a few years ago. It became clear to me that the producers' "No Flights, No Tights" rule pretty much limited them to how far the Clark Kent character would be able to develop.

I found a couple of reasons to keep watching.

the odd episode here and then gets you excited, shows great promise, then they degenerate into the old crappy FOW/Lana and Clark lovefest crap dynamic

It's time to turn Lex evil and let the games begin !

its been getting worse and worse every year

It seemed the intent at the beiginning of the series was to show how different upbringings can affect the outcomes of two differerent lives. Clark would become good and Lex would become evil. I was especially interested in Lex. I thought we were going to see his corruption, understand why he eventually becomes evil, and perhaps even be able to sypathize with him. This was set up well with Lionel Luthor and his unorthodox parenting techniques. But the witers quickly dropped this ball and made Lex, as I said before, randomly evil with no motivation behind his actions. Recently he seems to be pretty much bad all the time, which at least is a change, Clark hasn't developed in any noticable way at all. I'm gonna keep watching, but this show can't last forever. Sooner or later that guy will have to put on a cape and fly around.

Rather than come in here and just drop a "no", I was fully prepared to go through the season eps so far and point out what I liked and what I didn't like. Then I came to my senses and realized it wouldn't be worth it.

So, i'd have to say "no, it's not". For every one GOOD thing (Spike), there've been TEN bad things (Lana, that sorority vampire ep, Lana, that episode where Lois was wearing that bikini in the pic above, Lana, that "wannabe Huntress" episode, Lana, etc, etc..).

This is disappointing to hear. I'm currently on season 3 and just finished "Asylum" the other night. BRILLIANT episode. Where Lionel has Lex commited and has electroshock theraphy administered to him. Made me feel for the character and see how such treatment could make him turn evil. But instead all is forgotten and we are back at square one the next episode. I'll be watching every episode, but from the looks of this thread, I won't have my hopes set to high.

Actually, while this season has had many disappointing episodes, it's still not as annoying as that witchcraft arc - for me, that was the bottom, and they had nowhere to go but up. I guess I've lowered my expectations now, so while only a few episodes have actually been totally satisfying, I continue to watch each weak.

I stopped watching after Reckoning and according to the ratings, many people did too. Ratings have gone down every single episode after Reckoning. It's a shame this show hasn't moved on, but instead it's just the same ol recycled storylines. I guess things were going so well that they thought they could get by with mediocre writing. Don't mind me, I'm just a bitter Clana fan.

The one episode that everyone claims was a Saw rip-off was pretty forgettable except for the last few minutes. They might really finish this season off with something good but I know next year we'll have more threads like this and we'll be even more bitter and angry.

I don't think I'm going to watch next season when it first airs. I'd rather buy the seasons on DVD and watch them all one right after another. This waiting from week to week is tough when the show isn't all that great. I'd rather see the whole season in 1 day and that way it would trick me into thinking the show is really moving forward. Then I'd have to wait an entire year to repeat the process. *sigh*

That's exactly the point where I completely gave up on the show. I finished out the S3 DVD set out of a sense of duty since it was in my house. But it was at that point, where things really seemed to get moving but then the writers hit the rewind button yet again, where I said ENOUGH!!!!

The action in this show has gone down as well. It's been a long time since Clark had a nice fight with some one or had an extensive super power sequence.

I'm guessing you mean Clark shot his "Super" wad. Storywise I can't think of anything really memorable that's happened this season. Even on the 100th episode it was a big cheat.

I'm beginning to think the writers have certain limitations storywise that can't go against the movie. That's the only reason I can think that the stories are just plain unoriginal.

well Zod is coming.....

Like last season, I gave up watching the "airing" epsiodes about midway through the season (right about the begining of the year).

Mainly it's because I know I'm just going to buy the DVD set when it comes out anyway - so it'll give me more of a reason to actually do so then, and, the rest of it'll all be something I haven't seen yet.

That's my suggestion to you, too. If you haven't actually watched any of this season yet, just wait until the DVD set comes out and either buy or rent it then. It's certainly nothing you have to be seeing right now.

You are right, it started out great, but then died half way through.