Soap operas thrive on drama and they're not above borrowing from other sources. You could say it happens all the time, because it does. Of course, you can also go by that old Hollywood axiom that there are really only seven stories and they're told over and over again in a variety of new and different ways. Be that as it may, a look at some soap stories going on now will remind you of some other media.

For instance, on All My Children, you might look at Erica Kane's incarceration for insider trading (or whatever she was supposed to have done that was criminal) and think it's reminiscent of the Martha Stewart case. After all, like Martha, Erica is host of a TV show and an entrepreneur of the highest order. But the part of Erica's story that made me giggle was when she was on the run from prison with fellow con Carmen. Being handcuffed together was right out of The 39 Steps (the Hitchcock movie and now on Broadway) and The Defiant Ones, but the two women from different worlds clicking was more like Ugly Betty. Remember, last season when Claire Meade escaped from prison chained to a tough girl named Yoga? Think the AMC writers were taking notes?
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(S06E14) Lana has a stalker! Or alternatively titled, "The Lana Lingerie Issue" since she's in a nightie for about half the show. How long has it been since we've had one of these episodes? Quite a while. This stalker likes to send camera phone pictures to Lana on her Sprint Product Placement Powered Phone. However, when that phone has potentially earth-shattering evidence on it, you don't just hand it over to your megalomaniacal boyfriend and tell him to check it out. Seriously, what camera phone takes pictures that are that clear, especially when you blow 'em up to an 8" x 10"? Anyhow, nice work Lana, maybe you'll get yourself back to that girl who had so much spunk and moxie.

However, once again Chloe is stuck in the middle of things again while she checks out Lana's picture, and interfaces with Clark. How can she stand it? She just needs to spill the beans to Lana, thereby saving everyone the trouble of running around in circles. However, knowing Clark's secret gets you one of two things: either you don't appear much on the show anymore, or you get relegated to Pete Ross-land -- never to be seen again. They don't even get postcards or phone calls from wherever he got exiled to.

(S06E13) Valentine's Day comes to Smallville about two weeks before the rest of the country. Why can't these episodes come on closer to the actual date of the holiday? Okay, I'm griping too much. We've got the return of Red Kryptonite, and it's about darn time. It comes at the right time, too ... given the fact that Lois has gotten a bit itchy in her relationship with Oliver Queen, and Lana is about to go fully over to the dark side and marry Lex Luthor, not to mention have his baby. That's getting a bit too close to the whole Anakin/Padme relationship, ain't it?

The whole little Zoltar machine slash Gypsy slash matchmaker woman who just gives Lois the magical lipstick was wayyyyy to much of a plot device for me. It's like the writers were in a post-Chinese food coma and decided to just have some character waltz in and hand it over. Was it too convenient? Am I griping about the small stuff too much again? Most likely. Granted, the alternative was probably having a department of LuthorCorp working on cosmetics, and some wacky scientist decides to add meteor rocks and yadda yadda yadda. K-powered shampoo and shaving gel for the world.