Smallville, Season 4 (2004)

Having ended season three with no less than three different main characters on the brink of death, this fourth season of the show wastes no time in dropping another major development: the arrival of Lois Lane.  This is not the career-focused hotshot reporter of your parents' Superman, though.  This Lois is a smart alecky city girl with a healthy dose of grifter in her genes.  She's rapidly risen to be my favourite character in the show, and I'm looking forward to seeing her relationship with Clark - which is currently much like that of squabbling siblings - develop over the remaining seasons.

Anyway, after resolving the various major cliffhangers of last season and introducing Ms Lane to the gang, this year's Smallville sets off on its usual pattern of plenty of "villain of the week" episodes through which longer form plotlines are threaded.  These include round 3,000 of Clark and Lana's romance; the main characters' impending transition from high school to college; round 2,000 of Luthor family squabbles; 17th century witches; and alien power stones, oh my!  Basically, everything except lions and tigers and the kitchen sink.  But then there are still six more seasons for them to squeeze those in!

This season of Smallville is certainly not perfect TV: there are the usual less-good episodes from time to time, and I feel like the plotline involved Jensen Ackles's character (another new addition to the cast this year) ends up rather muddled.  Possibly plans had to be altered when he landed the lead role on Supernatural?  But it has a fun overall dynamic and it has finally started to break away from "everyone's powers come from kryptonite" crutch that was repeatedly used to weaken Clark in the first season.

This is not to say that kyptonite doesn't still turn up a lot, because it does.  We even get a third type - black kryptonite - to go with the familiar red and green varieties.  But the show is definitely expanding its horizons in the same way that the characters are.  I approve.

I also approve of the gloriously over the top final episode, which takes the multiple cliffhangers of last year and turns the volume up a couple of notches.  I admire that chutzpah.