"Smallville" Upgrade (TV Episode 2010) Poster

(TV Series)

(2010)

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2/10
Disastrous lighting and editing, incongruous situations, terrible Metallo sequel, mumbo jumbo and unoriginal story
igoatabase18 April 2010
It was one hell of a miserable epizode ! Checkmate worried me because of its questionable writing and direction but when I read that Upgrade was directed by Michael Rohl (Rabid, Crossfire) and written by Pandora's dream team I felt relieved. However this installment was a complete disaster and I'm even considering to give up on Smallville.

First poor lighting prevented immersion and many scenes were awful. Did they film them with a webcam ? Rabid reminded of some bad B movie productions but here the visuals were overclocked. I really wonder what happened because the show never looked so amateurish. Second the editing was probably done by an epileptic zombie because the different arcs were linked in the worst possible fashion. Right from the beginning I knew something was wrong because I just couldn't comprehend what happened to Lois. Third the staged situations weren't believable and I was specially disappointed by Big Chloe because I think Allison Mack lacks charisma to make her character grow on us. Fourth Metallo didn't deserve such a terrible sequel and even if I was glad to see John Corben back he just didn't fit in. Brian Austin Green astonishing talent was wasted because of incongruous scenes. As for the story it wasn't as sad and smart as Metallo's one. I found his vendetta, to avenge the death of her sister, far much more inspiring than the whole Lois mumbo jumbo. Last but not least what happened to Clark felt like déjà-vu. And in the end it's exactly what Upgrade was, a rehash of past installments with some one-trick super ponies. Even Tess mind games are starting to annoy me so let's hope they'll fix all these issues or else the number of viewers will continue its weekly drop. And the cliffhanger didn't save anything, far from it. Of course the religious metaphora was interesting but the overall bottom of the barrel execution of the rest ruined it.

What a nightmare ! I'm glad Oliver was out of that shameful picture. Next time you want to bug a friend, force it to watch Upgrade. It'll definitely redefine its vision of mainstream entertainment !
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4/10
Metallo saved the episode.
m-478266 August 2023
Warning: Spoilers
Clark was once again under red kryptonite. Only this time, he was boring, and teamed up with crybaby Zod. Which made it even worse. Then female Lex and Chloe were arguing, when Lois was stealing something for John Corben. A red « heart », which I honestly have no clue what makes it different from the green one. And we'll probably never know, because writers used the Lois and Clark's romance shield, to not carry on the Lois/John fling, implied on the season premiere... The episode ends with Zod playing Jesus to his army of kandorian soldiers, by giving them his blood to drink. Blood that is now part Kal-El's, after he healed him of a fatal wound, episodes earlier. Season 9 is just bad. It's not even Smallville anymore. Even the lighter toned episodes feel off, and the couples simply don't work. Putting Chloe and Oliver together, was clearly lazy writing. But it's also the one before the last, so maybe it explains why writers look so exhausted out of good ideas.
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