TV: Smallville

Have you ever heard the joke: "I was watching the fights tonight, when all of a sudden a hockey game broke out"?

I was watching a car commercial tonight, when all of a sudden an episode of Smallville broke out.

There are product placements, and then there are product placements. And then there is tonight's Smallville, which might as well have dropped the pretense and spent the whole 60 minutes with all the characters shopping for, buying, singing the praises of, and making sweet, sweet love to the new Ford Fusion.

Hell, I'm surprised the Ford Fusion didn't cure Martha Kent's mystery disease. Or maybe Clark could've painted one red and blue with a big yellow S on the hood, and called it the Supermobile. Or maybe Ford and the WB could've sent a representative over to every TV viewer's house in America, to kick in our doors, pin us to the floor with a knee in our throat, and ask us if we want the rustproof undercoating with our new Fusion.

Rein it back a notch, is what I'm saying. I understand that product placement has become an essential component of funding for many TV shows and movies, however monumentally obnoxious it may be. But try, try to keep it a little more subtle, would you?

I wish I hadn't said Ford Fusion so much. Now I'm going to get Google hits off that phrase. Hey you -- if you came here looking for info on the Ford Fusion: bite me!