Smallville: Too much Filler not enough Killer

I Love Smallville but for me the past two seasons have been pretty poor overall. Too much filler not enough killer. Season 3 which I consider too is the best also had this problem. There was the best season opener Exile, superb episodes like Slumber, Shattered, Asylum and Memoria. However there were far too many mediocre episodes and the finale was disappointing. Season 4 was even worse. One of the things that irks me is how much the episodes waste time on Clark + Lana and spend very little time dealing with the mythology and the cool things. When it is at its best Smallville is as good as anything on TV. Maybe the episodes should be reduced as I do not think 20+ episodes reflect quality but quantity.