SV: The Lana Lang Effect

Lana Lang is the most hated character in the Smallville fandom. Just Google “I hate Lana” to see how many hits you get. The reason is very simple. She’s the small town pretty princess that is bitchy and self-righteous, acquires skills out of thin air and is never called out on the crappy stuff she does.

She is foreever obsessed with having no secrets and telling no lies but she is not above lying and keeping secrets from others. Of course, that would be fine if it was acknowledged that she’s underhanded, but the other characters never recognize/admit/call her on her shortcomings. Lana Lang gets away with everything (even murder) and every single character lets her. She is forever on a pedestal; the damsel in distress; the sweet small town princess.

It's infuriating because the other characters look like morons for being blind to Lana's faults. It's infuriating because Lana spews out hateful lines and the other characters don't defend themselves. It's infuriating because intelligent characters are outsmarted by Lana (who acquires skills in the blink of an eye).

After 6 years of SV, I am hypersensitive to The Lana Lang Effect.

So I was watching Zoey 101 with my daughter. In the episode, Chase (the nice guy) nominates Zoey (the main character) for class president and she retaliates by nominating him back. Anyway, Logan (the sleazy rich character) somehow becomes Chase’s campaign manager and does some pretty underhanded stuff to get Chase to win. Chase is justifiably outraged and tries to get him to stop.

When Zoey finds out, Chase tries desperately to explain to her that Logan is doing this on his own. He tells Zoey that he nominated her because he truly believes she’ll be a great class president (unlike Zoey who nominated him to get even). But, even after Chase’s explanation, Zoey is still angry and walks away (a very Lana-like reaction). Clark, er, Lex, er, Chase is left standing there; he never tries to defend himself and he never tells her that she’s wrong.

In the end, Chase goes so far as to bow out of the race and sing Zoey’s praises to their classmates. Zoey is finally placated but makes no apologizes for her actions. Lana Lang!

Now, this is a show for teen/pre-teens but I couldn’t watch without seeing Lana-like behavior in Zoey and disliking the character.

Btw, I was thrilled when Heroes killed their Lana Lang. Ha!