For me, the CW TV series Smallville has always been pretty much a guilty pleasure.

Yes, it’s cheesy. Yes, for a very long time it devolved into a teenage soap opera. And yes, it’s written with the subtlety of a car wreck… but it’s about how Clark Kent becomes SUPERMAN. How can I not watch that?

The series has ranged from “decent” to “awful” to “OK, that was kind of cool” over the course of its nine year run. It started out fairly family friendly, but as time went on succumbed to the typical CW temptation of adding some female skin, sexual situations and even one episode that was as close as they dared get to one of the Saw movies as far as gore. I’ve never missed an episode, and as far as I can remember they always stayed away from politics.

Until this (supposedly) final 10th season.

Before I go on, let me say that I’m fully aware that superhero stories have been used as allegories for what happens in the real world – it’s well known that in the X-Men comics that mutants living in fear represented gays. Marvel Comics’ Civil War saga (conceptualized and written by well known Leftie comic book scribe Mark Millar) about the “Superhero Registration Act” in which superheroes had to reveal their secret identities to the US government and go to work for it was a reaction to the War on Terror (or as it’s now known: “The disagreement with those who shall not be named”) and the Patriot Act.

But Smallville always steered clear of all that (stick with what works with your target audience: teenage romance and angst).

Back in spring 2008, series creators Alfred Gough and Miles Millar decided to leave the show. They’d completed seven seasons, and despite the press release-type statements, the real reason they left was never known. For season 8 and beyond, the highest ranked staffers on the show stepped up to produce it. That season wavered between good episodes and not, but season 9 turned out to be one of the better seasons of the entire run with Clark really getting into the whole superhero thing, appearances by the Justice Society (Star Girl and Hawkman’s costumes notwithstanding).

However, now, in its 10th and what is supposed to be final season, a definite political agenda has crept into the show. It started out fine with the season premiere episode, but in the second episode (entitled “Shield“) they introduced a character from the comics named Cat Grant. Here she was portrayed as a typical Conservative woman as seen through the distorted glasses worn by a Liberal: She was naive, arrogant, judgmental, and annoying as hell in a squeaky clean way. She referred to the fact that superheroes should “come out of the shadows (i.e. closet)” even though she thought they were obviously “bad.”

I was annoyed but thought, eh, maybe I’m reading to much into it.

The following episode, entitled “Supergirl” opened with an obviously “bad” radio talk show host (made to seem like Michael Savage, Glenn Beck, etc.) talking about the evils of these super-powered vigilantes (read: illegal immigrants) and how they must be stopped, etc., etc. He’s taken over by a super-baddie and fans the flames of fear and hatred against super-vigilantes. Oh, he’s religious, too.

Second episode in a row… maybe it’s NOT just my imagination.

Now we’re onto the next: “Homecoming.” In this episode, four minutes from the end, Oliver Queen (aka Green Arrow) goes off full-on into a liberal talking points speech – talking about oil money greed and putting up a barbed wire fence to keep out people that just want a better life. Granted, the comic book character has always been portrayed as a Liberal, but he’s been on the show for 3 1/2 years and this is the first I’ve noticed it.

Yeah. Something is definitely up.

And last week’s episode, “Isis” – where I cringed at the return of Cat Grant who was her pleasant self once again. I suppose the writers figured that they were being too subtle for the typical Smallville fan, so in this episode they actually had her say “I will never understand liberals.”

Of course I’ve gotten into arguments with readers on my own site over this – but even some of those who at first were saying “aw, come on, you’re reading too much into this” are starting to say “What the hell – can they knock this political crap off?”

Of course at least one irony found in this situation, is that while the staff of Smallville is all for using super-powered vigilantes as allegory, I’m pretty sure they’d be the first to cry foul at the thought of real-life vigilantes stopping crime, just as I would guess they’re against allowing citizens to protect themselves via the second amendment – you know, the one that makes you and me “super-powered” against an overpowering adversary. Of course this is all speculation on my part… *cough*.

I emailed the press contact for the series, and at the time I’m writing this have yet to receive any sort of reply regarding a change in tone or staffing on the show that might explain this.