Smallville Review – “Devoted”

I looks like I’m going to be working late on
Wednesdays from now on, so the rest of this season’s
reviews may come Thursday morning or evening instead
of Wednesday night.

Cast

Tom
Welling
as
Clark Kent

Kristen Kreuk as
Lana Lang

Michael
Rosenbaum
as Lex Luthor

John
Glover

as Lionel Luthor

Annette
O’Toole
as Martha Kent

John
Schneider
as Jonathan Kent

Jensen Ackles as
Jason Teague

Allison Mack as
Chloe Sullivan.

Written by Luke
Schelhaas
.

Directed by David Carlson.

Original Airdate


Devoted
originally aired on Wednesday,
October 13, 2004.

Synopsis

Cheerleaders decide they need extra help to make
their boyfriends do
exactly what they want them to do.

High Point

The Christopher Reeve tribute was a nice touch. As
for the episode
itself, the “darkness within” speech was a nice
touch, and well
lighted.

Low Point

I don’t mind the odd episode that is driven by lust,
but the awkward
“romantic” situations seem to be taking up a
significant portion of
this season so far.

The Review

This was a slightly more focused version of
“Nicodemus” from the first
season. This did have a fairly original
sequence with the
results of Clark’s thirst quenching, though. For
once, there’s a
reasonable way for people to not notice his
abilities. I give it 4
out of 6.

The effects were limited to stuff we’ve
already seen, but
well done nonetheless. I give it 5 out of 6.

The story works, provided Lois really did
clue in as I
suspect she has. Everyone else had a convenient loss
of consciousness
or memory, or something distracting enough to make
his sudden entrance
plausible. (Lex’ barn entrance was similarly well
timed.) Those
convenient mishaps are pretty irritating, though. I
give it 4 out of
6.

The acting was typical of the series. Mack
and Rosenbaum are
good, as is Jensen Ackles. Kreuk seems to be getting
better, too.
Welling is always awkward, and Durance had some off
moments. I give
it 4 out of 6.

The emotional response was muted by the
recurring sex theme.
I like Lois’ investigative skills developing,
particularly with the
observation of the weirdness of the town. I give it
3 out of 6.

The production was well done. The colour
saturation made the
scoreboard a bit tricky to read, but otherwise it
worked well. I give
it 5 out of 6.

Overall, it’s a decent episode, but they
really need to
lighten up the sexual content the weeks before and
after an episode
like this so it doesn’t get overtaxed. I give it 4
out of 6. (Next
week’s episode doesn’t seem to be heading that
direction just yet.)

In total,
Devoted
receives
29
out of 42.

9 replies on “Smallville Review – “Devoted””

  1. bit of a letdown
    It would have been more interesting if the stuff had worked on Clark, to see which of the three girls he’d go for. (Or maybe it did, explaining why he was willing to talk to Lex.)

    • Re: bit of a letdown

      It would have been more interesting if the stuff had worked on Clark, to see
      which of the three girls he’d go for. (Or maybe it did, explaining why he was
      willing to talk to Lex.)

      I was actually worried they would do that, but fortunatly, green K still makes
      him sick.

      I’m loving how much Lois is being Lois and is in constant need of rescuing ;-)

  2. Too much sex
    I agree that I wish they would back off all the sexual stuff. Every other drama on the WB is full of it, and that’s one thing I respected about Smallville. It didn’t stoop to cheap sex stories to bring in viewers. Sure, I like seeing hot chicks barely clothed like the next guy, but come on.

  3. sex me up
    One of my biggest complaints is the over sexing of the show they seem to do.
    Lana going nutso and stripping to vickie secrets (at a jr. in high school)
    waving her ass in the air in back arching moves…

    Sure she’s attractive, as is Chloe and all the other girls (unless they’re the
    freak of the week)

    I guess one would think after a while and all the mishaps people would figure
    out to stay the hell away from ‘meteor rock’…but noooo

  4. Veronica Mars
    anyone seen this on Tuesdays? it takes place in Neptune, a sunny place. does this TV crime fighter cut it for you?

    • Thanks & Question

      anyone seen this on Tuesdays? it takes place in Neptune, a sunny place. does this TV crime fighter cut it for you?

      I don’t think it really fits this site – unless the strange Chloe similarities bring about a Wall of Weird – but I’d like to say thanks for getting me hooked. For those of you interested, you’ll be able to find BitTorrents if you look around.

      Hmmm… I do have a question for one of the big cheeses – what’s the official site line towards BitTorrent and sites providing them? I could have linked right to a site, but I wasn’t sure if I should.

      • Re: Thanks & Question

        Hmmm… I do have a question for one of the big cheeses –
        what’s the official site line towards BitTorrent and sites
        providing them? I could have linked right to a site, but
        I wasn’t sure if I should.

        I don’t think we’ve discussed it as a group. Personally,
        I refuse to support those. I agree that current
        distribution systems are broken, but circumventing them
        illegally won’t convince TPTB to change them. Following
        the current models, particularly for movies and music, is
        the only method that gets dollars back to the creators,
        where it belongs. They don’t get a big enough cut,
        especially in the music industry, but it’s better than
        nothing.

        • Re: Thanks & Question

          I don’t think we’ve discussed it as a group. Personally,
          I refuse to support those. I agree that current
          distribution systems are broken, but circumventing them
          illegally won’t convince TPTB to change them. Following
          the current models, particularly for movies and music, is
          the only method that gets dollars back to the creators,
          where it belongs. They don’t get a big enough cut,
          especially in the music industry, but it’s better than
          nothing.

          I personally don’t download Movies, as I prefer DVDs for quality and extras. Also, since I can get the new releases at cost and used stuff for cheap at work, so I don’t see the point to downloading it. For music, I buy albums since I like cover art, and there’s usually something entertaining in the liner notes – plus, like you, I’d like to think that some of my money is getting back to the creators.

          TV though, is different in my mind. I download episodes and watch them, then delete (always as they’re far to large to stay on my computer’s limited HD space, and that same fact makes them unviable for CD Burning – DVD burning is a maybe, but the quality doesn’t make it worth saving them if official DVDs are released, plus I don’t have a DVD burner). I always thought they covered most of their money from commercials anyways, and since this particular show (Veronica Mars – which I highly recommend – it’s Smallville sans Weird & Clark and with more Chloe & Pete) isn’t being aired in Canada, it’s really the only way I have access to it. Other shows I buy on DVD (again, a quality issue – I like my colours crisp and my details fine) but since there’s usually a couple months worth of delay between airdate and release date, it makes it a little hard to stay current. I could buy a VCR or a DVD recorder for the shows I do have access to, but I would be doing essentially the same thing that I’m doing now, only on a smaller screen and with an extra couple hundred of dollars worth of equipment.

          However, I understand your concerns – I will no longer mention BitTorrent here, and as long as an important plot point of some show doesn’t come out of the commercials, I should be fine. I just wanted to justify/clarify where I was coming from – technically it could be viewed as piracy, which is why I asked the question in the first place.

          Also, thanks for the quick response! That’s why I love this site – attention to details and a personable staff.

          • Re: Thanks & Question

            I always thought they covered most of their money from
            commercials anyways, and since this particular show
            (Veronica Mars – which I highly recommend – it’s
            Smallville sans Weird & Clark and with more Chloe &
            Pete) isn’t being aired in Canada, it’s really the only
            way I have access to it.

            Not on basic cable, but with digital or satellite, you can
            get it. For some reason, though, my local cable company
            has UPN and WB in its digital lineup, but not in its HDTV
            lineup. They get calls from me every three months asking
            what the delay is, as they were promised a year ago.

            Also, thanks for the quick response! That’s why I love
            this site – attention to details and a personable staff.

            Thanks. We’re all here because we enjoy it, which (I
            think) makes a difference, and not just by limiting our
            volume because we’ve all got day jobs. :)

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