Clark Kent, Lana Lang, Lex Luthor and all the Smallville gang are back for another year of superhero and high school shenanigans, though the "90210 with superpowers" tone of seasons one and two is definitely more muted here. There's more emphasis on home and work life drama than on high school matters.
There's also a bit more emphasis on - and in fact some obvious assumptions that the audience will be familiar with - the broader Superman franchise. Using "The name's Perry White" as a sting right before your credits, for instance, only makes sense if you expect your audience to know that he is adult Clark Kent's boss. Lois Lane also gets her first name drop midway through this series (and will, I believe, actually join the show in season 4).
So how does it measure up? Well, if you've found seasons one and two tolerably enjoyable then you should like this one, too. Lex remains a great character, even if I am much less enamoured of his father Lionel than the writers seem to be, and Lana Lang actually gets to be feisty this season, rather than just a damsel in distress, which is nice. I mean, she still gets lumbered with the damsel in distress thing a bit, but at least she gets to do other stuff, too. "Phoenix" and "Extinction" from early in the season are both good "Lana gets to do something cool" episodes.
The season's not all winners, of course. There are good episodes, but also potentially good concepts that aren't well executed ("Obsession" would have worked a lot better if stretched out over multiple episodes, for instance, but likely wasn't because it would have been too similar to another multi-episode sub-plot), and just plain bad ones ("Legacy", frankly, is terrible in almost every way).
If you like comic book-themed TV, and you don't mind that it's got that "sometimes, it's just not that good" thing that comic books themselves go through, Smallville might be for you.
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