UK thoughts on Committed

[TheANIMAL (marcus)]

Do any of you look at the E4 webpage? Its pretty funny stuff.


Smallville: Is it a bird? No, it's a bloke.

Anywho, tonight's new episode is at 10 GMT, so that makes me estimate a countdown time of:


dun, dun, DUUUUNN


1 hour 22 minutes

[obsessedwithsv]

Totally friggin' AWESOME episode. loved it from all the Clois banter and one liners down to the 'Do you love this man?' theatrics and drama. :D

[TheANIMAL (marcus)]

I still havent worked out how Lois is supposed to have cheated on Clark.


It was alll shipper pr0n really. :p

[obsessedwithsv]

Lois and Clark weren't really going out when she was seeing Grant Gabriel so it's kind of like she was cheating on him... I think that is what I think the screenwriters were trying to get across.

Just as well I'm a Cloiser through and through then, I suppose, if it was all shipper porn, lol. I love it!!! :D :D :D :D

[newbaggy]

Filler! Shipper porn! You could be forgiven for thinking along these lines given the apparently unpromising premise for this episode: psychotic jeweller (not a phrase I hear very often!) kidnaps recently-engaged couples to test their honesty to each other with a deadly forfeit for those who fail. Add to that Chloe and Jimmy as the latest victims, and Lois and Clark going undercover as a couple to lure out the villain, and it looked like a recipe for somthing impossibly cheesy and silly and...well, a bit rubbish, really. Instead what we got was a minor classic: an episode that easily goes into my personal Smallville Top Ten.

How can this be? Well, the premise might have been lousy, but the execution was superb. According to IMDB, this was Brian Q. Miller's only screen credit, but his script neatly mixed rom-com with the sort of villain that could have come out of The Avengers (the 1960s spy spoof, not the Marvel superhero team), and everyone working on the story seems to have responded positively to it. He was hugely aided by Glen Winter's direction. As one of the show's regular directors of photography, Winter certainly understands the technicalities of filming and how to place and move the camera (look at the scene when Clark and Lois search the Talon apartment - rather than simply pointing the camera at the actors, Winter uses it to lead he audience through the scene, picking up on the visual clues to what has happened). What was an extremely pleasant surprise is how good a director of actors he is. He got a nicely-balanced performance from David Lewis as the jeweller. Instead of being a completely over-the-top maniac, the jeweller came across as an ordinary guy who had simply taken logic beyond morality: lies ended his marriage, so couples must be shown how lies hurt the ones they love - even if that means torture and murder.

All the regulars were on top form. I'm still not sure that I buy Tess and Oliver as ex-lovers, but Justin Hartley and Cassidy Freeman certainly came off better than their slightly flat performances in "Toxic". As for Chloe and Jimmy, Allison Mack and Aaron Ashmore were so good together that I could almost believe in Chimmy. Unfortunately, we had to have another lie from Jimmy. However, it wasn't the fact that Jimmy lied about his parents that annoyed me (the scene in which he revealed the truth worked well enough), but simply that tptb have shown him lying to Chloe too often to make him look like someone who would make a faithful husband. A little more of the Jimmy Olsen who is worthy to be called "Superman's Pal" wouldn't go amiss.

Last, but far from least, Clark and Lois. Tom Welling is clearly thriving on being able to play Clark as a "grown up" rather than a teenager this season, and having Erica Durance's Lois Lane to play off appears to be easier for him than Kristin Kreuk's Lana (not really Kristin's fault - more to do with the way Clana was written as an angst-ridden, yet strangely shallow, teen romance). Clark and Lois claim to be "barely friends", but they unconsciously act like an old married couple. Note the way Clark casually manhandles Lois: lifting her down from the bar stool to cut short her speech; dragging her out of the stationery store whilst she's in mid-rant; pulling her back to stop her walking into the path of a taxi - and note too Lois' response. Clark doesn't get mad at her, he just knows that she needs to be kept under control at times, and Lois doesn't get angry at being pulled around, she just accepts that this is Clark being Clark. It's as if they have their own little dance where each knows the other's moves so well they simply fit in with them. Actually, the dance extends both to the dialogue and the body language between them in every scene. I hate to bring up the comparison with Clana, but last season, we got so many dull, "empty" scenes in which Tom and Kristin did little more than recite lines at each other. By contrast, Tom and Erica filled their scenes with beautifully effective combinations of lines, looks and moves as their characters constantly interacted with each other.

However, the greatest compliment that I could pay this episode is that, even after repeated viewings, I not only want to watch it again, but I want to watch every scene...no, every frame...just as I would when watching a favourite movie like "Some Like It Hot" or "The Philadelpha Story". "Committed" was that rarest of Smallville episodes: a story where not only everyone concerned seemed to be on top form, but where every scene actually rewards the viewer with something worthwhile. This was an episode that showed just how good Smallville can be when all the elements actually work with, rather than against, each other. Not bad for something that should have been nothing more than a piece of fluff!

[WellingFan]

That was great. Clark and Lois scenes were funny as hell!

[Pesk]

This episode was a cloiser's dream come true.

I won't go on about how great it is watching clark and lois play off each other, newbaggy has already covered everything. :)

But I would like to say that the oliver/tess scenes seemed pointlessly tacked on, just to let the actors fill their episode quota. And it was pretty obvious that the jeweller was the bad guy, he was the only non-main character in the whole episode. But these are only tiny nitpicks really.

[obsessedwithsv]

By contrast, Tom and Erica filled their scenes with beautifully effective combinations of lines, looks and moves as their characters constantly interacted with each other.

However, the greatest compliment that I could pay this episode is that, even after repeated viewings, I not only want to watch it again, but I want to watch every scene...no, every frame...just as I would when watching a favourite movie like "Some Like It Hot" or "The Philadelpha Story". "Committed" was that rarest of Smallville episodes: a story where not only everyone concerned seemed to be on top form, but where every scene actually rewards the viewer with something worthwhile. This was an episode that showed just how good Smallville can be when all the elements actually work with, rather than against, each other. Not bad for something that should have been nothing more than a piece of fluff!

ITA!

I think TW does his best acting when he's opposite ED and 'Committed' is easily my favourite episode of the entire series for various reasons. I'm not saying SV can only go downhill in my eyes after 'Committed', I think this season is going to provide us with some of, if not the best storylines the show's ever been able to offer us and I'm eager to continue to watch. I hope the SV 'revival' of S8 will guarantee us a season 9!! :)

[Supermania]

I agree with all the other UK viewers here! Commited was one of the best examples of Lois & Clark action thus far in the series. Did anyone see Queen's face when L&C told him they were getting married? And the dramatic intensity as Lois said she loved Clark and she didn't get shocked? It was awesomeness!

[leanne xx]

yeh i think it was the best epi so far for clois and i loved the answer machine moment!!!

[Dean-El]

Do any of you look at the E4 webpage? Its pretty funny stuff.


Smallville: Is it a bird? No, it's a bloke.

Anywho, tonight's new episode is at 10 GMT, so that makes me estimate a countdown time of:


dun, dun, DUUUUNN


1 hour 22 minutes


I do look at the E4 site from time to time, but it just doesn't keep as up to date as this site does. Not a bad little site though, could do with a forum though.

As for the episode. I thought ''Committed'' was a fantastic look into what's to come of the Clark and Lois storyline. The chemistry is definetely there between Tom Welling and Erica Durance.
Chloe and Jimmy are such a cute couple. I really liked Jimmy in this episode, in the last one (Instinct) I found him a little anoying, but then he does an episode like this where he's really sweet.

[Lex Dance]

Wow guys - these UK threads are taking off. Great stuff!
This episode was absolutely fantastic. For the first time in a long long time I knew absolutely nothing about this episode. It was so nice to be totally surprised by everything that happened in the episode - not since S4 (in the days before I discovered Kryptonsite) has that happened! Nowadays I use my wife's verdict as a barometer - she's no way near the big fan she used to be - and she absolutely loved it too. Praise indeed! I just get this feeling that S8 is going to be the light after the dark. Like I said about Instinct - everything feels fresh. Most importantly the Lois/Clark relationship. I can't believe I'm saying this about a season with my favourite character gone, but maybe Lex's (and of course, Lana's) absence has given the chance for new character developments. Would Clark be able to relax with those two still around? Definitely not. Like newbaggy says, there's something quite special about the way ED and TW interact. I just loved the way he held her back from walking into the traffic, and the way he stepped in to stop her embarassing her cousin even further at the engagement party. These things are so touching and natural and just what you want between two characters destined to be together. ED absolutely killed it in the lie detector test! I really bought that she loves Clark (although does anyone else think that that type of revelation has come a bit too early in the season?). And despite being embarassed later on at the Planet, I love the way she turned it round on Clark - he was so crestfallen! I also really liked the way Clark helped Lois escape from the cellar - so Supermanly! Almost like he wanted to show her a little something of his true self.
I'll definitely be watching this one again next week!

[psycosis]

Not to put a downer on all the great things you guys are saying - but I have slightly higher standards than what this episode really provided, especially if this is Smallville's final season.

Though I do love the character growth and all the relationship's coming into there own, but did they really have to come up with such a sub-standard plot device?
We already had a Saw clone (Mercy), did we really need another?

There was a lot of fun had in this episode and it was very entertaining and breathing new life into the show - but I’m finding myself being very hard on this season after looking only at the positives in the last season.

[Lex Dance]

That's unusual, psycosis. The feeling I get from the majority of posts on the forum is tough love for S7 and overwhelming praise (from mostly the same people) for S8. The plot device was definitely derivative, but I thought it was done with suitable creepiness reminiscent of early Smallville. I actually liked the way he just returned Chloe and Jimmy to their normal life (plus the joke surrounding the fluffy pink handcuffs!)

[newbaggy]

Not to put a downer on all the great things you guys are saying - but I have slightly higher standards than what this episode really provided, especially if this is Smallville's final season.

Though I do love the character growth and all the relationship's coming into there own, but did they really have to come up with such a sub-standard plot device?
We already had a Saw clone (Mercy), did we really need another?

There was a lot of fun had in this episode and it was very entertaining and breathing new life into the show - but I’m finding myself being very hard on this season after looking only at the positives in the last season.

Actually, you could also point out that the basement setting with two victims facing each other was a rip-off of "Tomb", as was the idea of the Kryptonite worn on the wrist to incapacitate Clark at a crucial moment (alright, so it was a bracelet in "Tomb", not a watch strap). However, I've always seen "Smallville" as highly-derivative of other films and TV shows - you can watch some episodes, and make a fair guess at the DVD the writers rented the night before! So, given that originality is in short supply, quality of execution becomes important.

Now, "Tomb" and "Mercy" are not only highly-derivative, they are both episodes that I find quite dull: they are both horror movie rip-offs that thoughtlessly rehash every cliche going to little positive effect. Season 8 is full of sci-fi/horror "B" movie cliches, but the big difference is that they are treated in a way that makes them fun and entertaining, and it enlivens the show no end. In previous seasons, they were often handled in a manner that was drab, boring and sucked the life out of the series. There is definitely room for improvement on the dramatic front, but at least we have episodes that can be enjoyed, rather than feeling - as happened so often last season - that the story has to be endured for the occasional good scene along the way.

[c-scull88]

on tonight again on repeat at 9! cant wait for it again, one of my fav season 8 episodes, and especially as lois is in it! though wil have to watch it on e4 plus one due to footie training being on!