Lois & Clark Season Two
Continuing my watch through of these New Adventures of Superman I recently finished Season Two and wanted to get out some thoughts. In no particular order:
Season one is absolutely superior
When I was writing about season one I found a website that had an excellent history of the show. Sadly, the website is no longer online. The site had a detailed account of the struggles in the production of the second season. After Deborah Joy LeVine was ousted as showrunner the network couldn’t decide if the show was a romance or a superhero action show (hint: it’s both and LeVine understood that). The show turned into the worst freak-of-the-week Smallville for the first 12 episodes. With very little connective thread.
A huge strength of the first season was Luthor pulling the strings. They tried to do the same thing with Intergang, but it was very loosely put together. Especially when Bruce Campbell shows up as Bill Church Jr.
When Luthor makes a return in episode 13’s The Phoenix the show finally catches it’s footing. The latter portion of the season really pushes the Lois & Clark relationship forward. It worked really well to have Clark need to run off and be Superman every time they tried to talk about their relationship. Works much better than Lana dancing around Clark’s “secret” in Smallville for years. By the time we get to season six of Smallville and Lana discovers he has powers it had become dumb. By the last episode I was yelling at the TV for Clark to just tell her!
A cast member who will not be named should really watch the first episode
The first episode consists of a grifter spreading lies and misinformation about Superman. Gave me strong right-wing misinformation vibes and I liked watching Lois & Clark combat that. Truth & Justice! It got a little silly with subliminal messages at the end, but they were leaning into the sci-fi superhero side of the show. Episode 19 on the other hand he can skip. There is a government medical conspiracy that comes off weird in 2022. While there have been legitimate government medical conspiracies like MKUltra, this one hit me as a way someone like that could legitimize Q anon.
Despite the goofy plots Lois & Clark are a great investigative team
The have amazing chemistry and legitimately solve mysteries, better than Bats does in the new Batman movie IMO. A funny thing that hit me was all of the social engineering Lois does to get information. I recently went through security training at work that teaches to you to be on the lookout for all the stuff Lois does here. She’s good.
The Legion, Tempus, and the Legacy of Superman
The highlight of this season and possibly the entire show is episode 18: Tempus Fugitive. Surprising that such a popular episode and by extension character hasn’t been brought back into the comics. I love the idea Superman is such an inspiring force on mankind; Earth becomes a true utopia. This idea isn’t unique to the show, it’s something the Legion of Super Heroes hints at a bit. The inspiration of Superman and the age of heroes carries forward a thousand years into a better tomorrow. Superman #400 does this too with the Living Legends of Superman. It’s such a powerful idea that he can inspire us all to be better and by extension make the world we want. Almost the opposite of how Star Trek envisions us getting there (nuclear World War III). It also answers the question of why Lois doesn’t see Clark for who he really is. Blinded by love. I don’t know about you, but that’s such a satisfying answer. Especially in this show where Superman is played no differently than Clark.
On a final note, Teri Hatcher is perfect 100% of the time.