Smallville 11/10 Spoilers

[Umbran]

But some of their best shows in the past few years have proven they don't need to kyrptonite powered, and sometimes they don't need super powers at all.

They don't need super powered beings in each and every episode, no. But they need to be present in the show, and they have to be reasonably frequent.

Now, maybe some fillers are necessary in course of a season.

I'd say they certainly are. Genre shows these days frequently run into the problem of "accessiblity". If the plotline becomes too dense, or moves forward too quickly, the show develops twin problems - loss of ability to gain new viewers, and loss of audience that cannot watch religiously. Filler is required to keep the show moving at an acceptible pace.

In addition, the filler episodes play other parts in this series - interaction with the DC Universe (with things like the Flash episode), and advancement of Clark's abilities.

The episodes this year haven't featured "some of what they want every once in a while." Except for two episodes ago, it's been every week.

I'm not sitting down with an episode guide or anything, but it has been my impression that this has always been the case for Smallville - the beginning of the season has much more filler, as they slowly introduce new plot points and developments that they intend to have come to a head and take up more screen time later in the season.

Doesn't mean that the way they've been doing it isn't lazy, or of very poor quality, as I think it's been.

I make no apologies for the quality, only for the presence of the topic. I agree that the witches episode was poorly written. But they cannot all be gems. And if that's true, I'd prefer that the poorly written ones be mostly filler, so that the non-filler episodes remain well-written.

You may be right that most people don't respond well to good writing - but I don't respond well to a show about Superman where the coolest thing they can think of in order to get viewer's attention is a coven of seventeeth century witches...

Who said that it was the coolest thing they could think of? By definition, only one of the 20 some-odd episodes this season will have the coolest stuff. All the rest will have less-than coolest stuff.

All in all, it isn't just about whether we are compatible with the target audience. Television is competetive - something like half of all new shows fail to make it into their second season. Genre shows have even worse track records. In order to survive, the show needs to have fairly broad appeal, rather than appeal only to the most discerning viewers.

If, in order to keep an otherwise solid show on the air I need to put up with an occasional episode that has Tom Welling's shirt off or a provocatively dressed leading lady, I'm willing to put up with it.