Who cares? In the four episodes that reached air before the axe fell, only two actually engaged their haters in a meaningful way that might have had a chance to change their perspective. The rest just showed off the fruits of their fame, which is part of what inspired their haters to hate in the first place.

So, good riddance.

Not literally. But the actress who became famous for portraying her on TV is back on the small screen, with her new CW hit, Ringer, in which she plays identical twins.

And while some people are still scrambling to obtain a barcode scanner online in order to obtain more copies of Cruel Intentions, I’m far more interested in what the one-time vampire slayer is doing lately.

Ringer has the potential to get a bit sudsy, but so far it’s been a solid suspense series. Here’s hoping it stays true to those roots.

All I can say is, thank goodness. Even moreso than guest appearances by Clark’s parents, Lana or even Pete Ross, any finale that lacked Rosenbaum’s presence would feel somehow incomplete, given how integral he was to the show for so long. Someone buy Michael some vitamins online and reassure him that his hair will grow back after shaving bald for one final shoot.

Sure, Smallville was played out and should have ended right around the time Rosenbaum and Kristen Kruek left the show; but now that it’s finally ending, it’s only right that it should be all hands on deck for a fond farewell to this generation’s Superboy as he finally becomes Superman.

Now comes news that the CW is pleased with the show’s ratings performance enough to overlook the high production costs and renew the show for an unprecedented tenth season. While Clark is now six years past being a high school freshman and over his Lana fixation, and subplots about Clark’s public speaking anxiety are long since a thing of the past, the show remains intriguing and well scripted, even following the exit of series creators Miles Millar and Alfred Gough.

By offering the show an early renewal, the network allows Smallville the chance to craft a season cliffhanger rather than a series-ending capstone episode.

Tyler Labine won’t return either way, it appears, as he has been cast in Fox’s Sons of Tuscon. Which is too bad because Labine was a consistent high point of Reaper. Perhaps it’s better if Sam and company stay dead; otherwise Ray Wise’s Satan may need to look into some appetite suppressants that work for all the camera-gobbling he’s been doing the last two seasons. Great performance!

Make that March 3, to be exact. The show will air Tuesday at 7 PM central, followed by 90210. Not exactly a thematic match, but at least the show’s back on the air.

Notable for the casting of Twin Peaks alum Ray Wise as Satan, the show centers around the adventures of Bret Harrison, Tyler Labine and Missy Peregrym’s characters after Harrison’s parents reveal they have sold his soul to Wise’s devil, who makes Sam (Harrison) his special errand boy.

The show debuted to some acclaim due to the involvement of indy filmmaker Kevin Smith, who continues to serve was an executive producer though he is largely uninvolved with the series on a regular basis.

Since TV Guide’s Michael Ausseillo is generally more reliable than life insurance quotes, the question now remains whether the show can maintain its popularity without two of the show’s “core four” returning.

The “core four” for Smallville have been Clark, Lana, Lex and Chloe for the past seven seasons; that list used to include a fifth, Pete Ross played by Sam Jones III, who exited after the third season. While the show can theorhetically survive without Kruek’s Lana – who, after all, is not Superman’s bride in the comics, and the show already has her replacement, Erica Durance’s Lois Lane, in place for the past several seasons – but replacing Rosenbaum’s Luthor could be the real problem.

From the debut episode, the emotional core of the show has been the almost brother-like friendship between Clark and Lex, and the devolution of that friendship into a bitter enmity that sets them up as future rivals. There is no established replacement who can play the foil to Clark at the same level that Rosenbaum’s Luthor is able to, setting up the potential for the show to become, once more, a “villain of the week” melodrama, much as it was in the first season.

Of course, the show has survived multiple exits; John Schneider’s Johnathon Kent was written out via a character death in season five, while Annette O’Toole’s Martha Kent has been largely absent throughout the current season, the show’s seventh. Yet with only Chloe Steel and Clark Kent surviving from the first season to next fall’s eighth season, it appear more likely than ever that next season could be the show’s final bow.