The Week in Gay TV: Goodbye to "Smallville" and Plenty of Season Finales

It's time once again to take a look at The Week in Gay TV, your guide to the shows battling for your attention in the next few days. The traditional TV season is getting ready to give way to the summer schedule and that means plenty of your regular faves are getting ready to deliver their final chapters for the next few months (providing things go well when the networks announce their fall schedules next week) including Raising Hope, The Fabulous Beekman Boys and Parks and Recreation.

"Oh Clark, it's been too long since we've looked into each others' eyes so intensely."

Ten seasons of superheroics, bromantic relationships and plenty of homoerotic tension wrap up Friday night when Smallville airs its final episode. There have been fans of hoyay for a long time but this was the series that brought them out into the open so later shows such as Heroes would openly court their support.

The two-hour finale will include the return of Michael Rosenbaum as Lex as well as promises of several reminders of the series' days gone by. Meanwhile, there's also a battle with Darkseid — though I'm expecting that to be as anticlimatic as last season's battle with Zod — as well as putting Clark in the blue, red and gold tights.

While Smallville's never been a great show, it usually knew how to deliver just enough fun, sometimes because of its ability to bring out viewers' snarky side, and sometimes because of the way it adapted the DC comics characters that had never been a part of a live-action drama. Throughout it all, Smallville had a cast full of good-looking guys like Tom Welling, Sam Jones and Justin Hartley, a sure way to get a following among gay superhero fans.

Friday also brings a new episode of Friday Night Lights that sees the Lions take a road trip with lasting consequences and Coach Taylor dealing with recruitment regulations.

Neil Gaiman with Doctor Who's Matt Smith and Suranne Jones.

Fandoms collide Saturday when Doctor Who debuts a long-awaited episode written by Neil Gaiman. The story finds The Doctor following a signal that sounds like it could come from a fellow Time Lord, a decision that only ends up putting The Doctor and his companions in danger. Considering the passion both Doctor Who and Neil Gaiman inspires among fans, this is a highly anticipated episode and the early reviews say the story doesn't disappoint.

Following Doctor Who, BBCAmerica has a new episode of The Graham Norton Show. This week, Graham's guests include Twlight star Robert Pattinson — who I hope turns out to be far more chatty than when he appeared on The Daily Show — Reese Witherspoon and Hugh Laurie.

Saturday also brings a new episode of Pretty Hurts which sees Janice Dickinson and Raven visit Rand Rusher's clinic. Honestly, a reality show about cosmetic procedures is a tough enough sell for me. Adding Dickinson and Raven into the mix doesn't increase my interest.

Remember how last week I told you that fx pulled those Running Wilde episodes it was planning on burning off on Thursdays and moved them to Fridays? The canceled comedy seems to have gotten another time slot downgrade as it's now airing on Saturday nights.

Saturday also sees Geotge Takei advising the Supah Ninjas as they deal with a mutated biology teacher while Ed Helms hosts Saturday Night Live with musical guest Paul Simon.