After 10 seasons of defeating a seemingly never-ending parade of evildoers, it should come as no surprise that Friday’s SMALLVILLE series finale had Clark Kent finally meeting his match. That said, what should come as a surprise was that he failed to overcome the most menacing, the most terrifying and the most powerful villain of them all: The Warner Bros. legal department (Who, in keeping with our somewhat super theme, we will be referring to from here on in as the “Over-Billers!” Terrifying, right?) Or at least that’s what we spent the better part of two hours thinking as we jumped back on board the bandwagon to celebrate the series finale of SMALLVILLE.
But before we get into the negative, let us first offer up a heartfelt congratulations to both the talent in front (Erica Durance FTW!) and behind the camera. Ten years is not only a remarkable feat, it’s a virtually unheard of run for any network television series. And despite our one minor quibble (Okay two, seriously CW, was the shameless Microsoft Windows Product placement really necessary?), the two part swan song appropriately titled “Finale” was a solid sendoff for the venerable series punctuated by the phenomenal use of John WIlliams iconic Superman theme that never fails to give us chills, the welcome return of Michael Rosenbaum’s Lex Luthor (Every villain is only as great as his here, indeed) and the incredible (read: super-doesn’t-begin-to-describe-it) chemistry between Lois (Erica Durance) and Clark (Tom Welling)
Unfortunately, what had the potential to be a truly special finale ended up being somewhat less so as a result of one teensy little detail, which is where those nefarious “Over-Billers” come in.
Simply put, after 218 episodes of waiting, fans were robbed of seeing the “full” Superman in all his spandex glory. And while many may argue that the cash-strapped CW network simply couldn’t afford to outfit Tom Welling in a super suit befitting Superman (Try saying that three times over!), this somewhat conspiracy-prone TV Addict can’t help but wonder if this was a conscious decision on behalf of producing partner Warner Bros. to not inject the public with an iconic image of America’s favorite hero mere months before they begin to commit hundreds of millions of dollars to the Henry Cavill big-screen reboot. Adding credence to our theory was the even more disappointing fact that after being forced to endure a decade of insipid and silly nicknames of the “red-blue blue” variety, not even one of the innocent bystanders could be bothered to shout out the obligatory “It’s a bird… It’s a Plane… It’s, well you know who,” as Clark Kent saved both Air Force One and the world, from imminent doom.
Suffice it to say, both Tom Welling and the fans deserved better. 
