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 !
