Smallville Review – “Nocturne”

Smallville’s night life just became a little more interesting.

Cast

Tom Welling as
Clark Kent
Kristen Kreuk as
Lana Lang
Michael
Rosenbaum
as Lex Luthor
John Glover
as Lionel Luthor
Sam Jones III as
Pete Ross
Allison Mack as
Chloe Sullivan
Annette
O’Toole
as Martha Kent
John
Schneider
as Jonathan Kent

Written by
Brian
Peterson and Kelly Souders. Neither of them appears to have an IMDB entry.

Directed by Rick
Wallace
.

Original Airdate

Nocturne originally aired on Tuesday, October 22, 2002.

Synopsis

Martha Kent starts working for Lionel Luthor, while a nocturnal boy
romances Lana.

High Point

The “Man of Steel” and “my family doesn’t fly much” cracks were
amusing, but the part I liked the most was that the freak of the week
had no apparant relationship with kryptonite.

Any scene with Lionel Luthor was excellent, as well.

Low Point

I like the fact that Lana’s upset about being kept out of Clark’s
personal life, but does she need to mention that every single time
they talk to each other?

The Review

This was a moderately original episode. The freak of the
week was basically the reverse of the grey Hulk from Marvel comics.
(The grey Hulk emerged only at night.) We’ve seen the unexpected
assisstant before, but I’ll forgive that because it was used to show
us completely new aspects of Martha Kent and Lionel Luthor. As I
mentioned above, the freak of the week was completely unrelated to
kryptonite. I give it 4 out of 6.

The effects were convincing, but not challenging. This crew
has done those effects before. I give it 5 out of 6.

The story was nicely written, although it lacked subtlety in
places. We had a lot of clues about the danger of Byron going into
the light before we witnessed the ramifications. I also think Byron
would have been a little more informative while Clark was breaking him
out. As I mentioned above, Lana doesn’t need to remind Clark about
not being open with her every time they meet. On the plus side, any
scene with at least one Luthor was very well written. I give it 4 out
of 6.

The acting was fairly impressive all around. Acting ranged
from acceptable (Tom Welling, Kristen Kreuk) to good (Annette O’Toole,
Richard Moll) to excellent (John Glover, Michael Rosenbaum.) The
Luthors really make this show. I give the acting 4 out of 6.

The emotional response this generated was above average. I
laughed in the right places, and felt sympathy toward Byron. My
opinion of Byron’s parents changed through the course of the episode
as we learned a bit more of what happened. My curiosity was also
peaked, as I wondered how much Lionel has decyphered about Clark, and
whether or not Byron would be back in the future. I give it 4 out of 6.

The production was the usual Tollin/Robbins high. The
technical aspects were all competant, but not outstanding. I give it
5 out of 6.

Overall, this was an entertaining episode that I’d watch as a
rerun. It has a few elements that will serve to move the story along
from one week to the next. I give it 5 out of 6.

In total, Nocturne receives 31 out of 42.

6 replies on “Smallville Review – “Nocturne””

  1. fox
    I get smallville via fox since there is no WB signal here. Hence: No
    smallville yet, I’ll have to use self-control to only look at the total
    score down below and not read the review ’till later.

    Its even worse with Buffy, it airs on saturdays…

  2. Favorite image
    Clark arives at Lex’s looking for Byron, Close-up Clark:
    primary red button down flowing behind;
    primary blue across his chest.
    That’s my kind of foreshadowing.

    • Re: Favorite image

      Clark arives at Lex’s looking for Byron, Close-up Clark:
      primary red button down flowing behind;
      primary blue across his chest.
      That’s my kind of foreshadowing.

      To the best of my knowledge, the creators said we’d never see this Clark Kent ever referred to as Superman, we’d never see him fly (I mean really fly, not like the floating over the bed or up to Lana in the tornado), and we’d never see him in the blue and red spandex suit. But who knows? They may change their minds. I personally think that would take many seasons to even reach that point. The fact that here we are, season 2, and he’s still in high school (what grade is he in anyway?). A lot has to happen between now and then.

    • Re: Favorite image
      I’m so glad that I wasn’t the only one that noticed this! I thought that that was an exceptionally cool feature of the episode!

  3. Could she be any hotter?!
    I have to say, Allison Mack seems to get hotter every episode. Dare I say it…I’m in love!

    Really though, she is hot, and really brings so much to the show. Clark is a dufus to go after the moody Lana Lang. Chloe is more my type. Cute and spunky…and hot!

    • Re: Could she be any hotter?!
      I have to agree with this. You never even really paid much attention to her in the first season…except around the last ep. when you see she has feelings for him.

      She seems to have somehow, though, gotten hotter over the summer. Weird…I really hope that he just kind of gives up on Lana for a little while so that the 2 of them can develop something (although MY personal pref. would still be Kreuk [NOT Lana ;)])

Comments are closed.