• Merlin is a thunderingly obvious lift of the initial premise of Smallville, right down to most of the characters serving as functional analogues of the original cast.

Okay, I'll bite: Who are the Merlin counterparts of:

• Lex? (Not Arthur; even if Uther is Lionel, Arthur doesn't have the "destined to become an enemy" gimmick - quite the reverse, in fact.)
• Ma Kent? (I'll accept Gaius as Jonathan.)
• Pete Ross? (Again, Arthur doesn't exactly fit.)

I'm assuming Gwen and Morgana are meant to be Chloe and Lana, although since there's no real similarity I'm not sure which is which.

I'm not saying Merlin wasn't inspired by Smallville, it clearly was. I just think "thunderingly obvious lift" is a bit strong.