It's been a wild ride with two of my favorite fictional people, Superman and Lois Lane, over there on the CW.
Ever since DC television introduced Tyler Hoechlin as Superman on their Supergirl show, and eventually brought in Elizabeth "Bitsie" Tulloch as Lois, CW kinda/ sorta had to figure out how to make a Superman television program. And, indeed they did.
As DC wrapped up the "Arrowverse", it was decreed that the coming Superman and Lois show would have nothing to do with that universe, and we'd see a stand-alone Superman. No Arrow, Supergirl, Black Lightning, Flash, etc...* For the time being, it would be pure Superman. And with comics going back to the 1930's, that was plenty, for me.
- Casting Lois News
- The Pilot discussion
- Second Episode discussion
- Post Season 1 Wrap-Up
- Post Season 2 Wrap-Up
- Apparently I didn't write up Season 3?
Ownership of the CW changed mid-production for the show, and I think it did have some impact on DC's willingness to bother with the CW. I won't go into the politics, but there is no way it didn't have an impact on the show as Nat was portrayed for the first time in media as straight, and the bisexual storyline for another character was never mentioned again.
The clock was ticking on the show once WB put all of DC's motion-media in James Gunn's hands, and *everything* (minus The Batman and the flop that was Joker 2) would be part of a coherent, single universe. TV, cartoons, movies, flipbooks... I can understand WB's desire to give Gunn a clean slate to work with as he brings his vision for Superman to the big screen, and there were always going to be casualties of things I liked.**
With the axe coming down, making the fourth season count was on the table. Already Superman and Lois was about an era in Superman's life that Superman stories had only recently begun to explore. What happens after Superman and Lois settle down? Have kids? Deal with basic parent problems?
By looking beyond the endless loop of adventures where everything resets one way or another, it meant Superman's time was now linear and moving in one direction.
Now, it could show us how things end for The Man of Steel.
Superman and Lois was always a curious proposition. The show removed Clark and Lois from Metropolis and dropped them in Smallville during a crucial period as Superman and Lois enter middle-age (though neither look it). And - I am certain - they picked a small town and farmhouse to manage the budget, which WB would be familiar with after years of Arrowverse shows. But it did change the entire notion of Superman in some ways as he went from big city reporter to smalltown dad living on a farm. And Lois *still* managed to do journalism and get into trouble.
So... whether the decision was entirely budget based, or to move away from what every Arrowverse show had already covered - the urban hero figuring things out - it worked.
But whether it was that budget, an aesthetic decision, or something else - this Superman was, in some ways, very different from other incarnations. They got out ahead of some structural issues by having Superman partner with the Department of Defense rather than building out a watchtower full of super-friends. Super-types were few and far between on this show - remaining special in a world of humans punctuated by a Kryptonian here or there, rather than the end result of most of these shows were by show's end, there's usually only 1 or 2 normies floating around.
And when your greatest super power on a show is just Lois being Lois, it kind of makes sense.
And that may be because what the show managed to do was find solid performers for their leads.
I plan to actually do a full post just on Elizabeth "Bitsie" Tulloch as Lois Lane, but that's not to suggest that Tyler Hoechlin, in the end, isn't going to walk away as one of the best to wear the cape. And I think what worked - he wasn't Superman, he was Clark Kent, a nice guy from middle-America. Superman was a job Clark did, and he did it without angst or complaint - glad to be of service. It's not a mistake that this Clark likes wearing his patterned shirts and work jackets more than the suit. He's an okay guy who loves his wife more than anything, and knows she's his north star. He loves his sons, and he doesn't like how his job as Superman has caused issues for them, or his alien heritage. But, sometimes, he has to be the one who has to save the day, and he also has to help these two navigate the world as humans and super-powered beings.
I think we were remarkably lucky to get Hoechlin in the role. I didn't know what to expect initially, but from his first appearance on Supergirl, he seemed like the right guy for the "S".
But all of the casting was kind of like that. Wole Parks as John Henry was, honestly, great, and made what could have been a weird role, given how he started on the show, work. Emmanuelle Chriqui brought an adult sensibility to Lana that never felt like the soap opera supporting character I feared she'd be, and it made her considerable screentime a welcome part of the show. And on and on.
No, not every one of the storylines was great or for everyone. And sometimes you were very aware that the younger actors were younger actors doing their best and it was hard to make someone's girl troubles seem like a good use of screentime when there were malevolent forces out mucking with the earth.
But the show also figured out how to be better at writing teens over the four seasons, finally sorting out that just making a character perpetually sad or mad isn't actually very good TV. And, when they dug in a bit deeper to give the kids a bit more going on, it paid off.
I do wish we'd had more time to explore more than we did with either or both of the sons figuring out how to be a superhero and wear the S and see them come a bit into their own. But I understand the show was ending.
The over-arching arcs/ challenges of the first two seasons were an interesting slow burn to reach Superman-level cosmic cataclysm that rewarded the viewer with finales that felt Superman-worthy. But, in many ways, after those events ended, the show did a better-than-average job of carrying events - big and small - of prior seasons forward, and remembering that the audience remembers those things - and that characters grow.
All of that said - I'm not sure the final season worked for me until the final two episodes. It would be interesting to go back and see if I liked those episodes better given how everything wraps up - but I don't really do that as a practice. Of the ten episodes, I liked the first episode, a bottle episode, and then really liked the last two episodes. With an All-Lex-All-The-Time storyline, it could feel like they were beating around the bush - which was not something I'd felt was a problem with the show in the prior three seasons as they spread the story across the large cast.
Maybe most vexing was that, despite some writing choices, I thought the cast was really pretty great this season. They were hitting all the right notes for what they were given to do - I'm just not sure I think what they decided to do always worked terribly well.
Many things did work. One stand-out was that the boys, now both with powers, take in the realization that Clark had to figure out how to be Superman on his own. But, in particular, I liked that Smallville put the pieces together about Superman's true identity, and, because they know Clark, they seem willing to keep the secret in town. But - in the end, the Kents go public. A great episode, really.
The reveal seemed more organic and better thought out than the attempt to do same in the comics a few years back, which was based on the idea that "Superman doesn't lie" more than anything. And, initially, it was an interesting story, but in the everyday pages of the comics that followed, didn't work terrifically well. Nor did putting the genie back in the bottle feel satisfying.
I was also stunned the show didn't do anything with the boys not wanting to play by Dad's rules, which seemed... obvious? And a chance to show why Superman does have rules and a code. It would have also been nice if they could have inserted scenes where the boys are saving dear 'ol dad, showing they are ready, actually. (And, over and over, they seemed to forget they had laser-eyes.)
What really didn't work, however was that Superman and Lois's take on Lex never felt like a criminal mastermind or devious genius. He felt more like a shark, where he's obviously dangerous, but you kind of know what he's going to do, and the trick is just to get out of the way. At this point, I have a pretty good idea of who Lex Luthor is across hundreds of takes, and growling biker-daddy is not it. Lex seemed a threat only because the show wrote everyone else as if they couldn't possibly think of a way to push back on him. If he had a huge organization, it only popped up as needed - and made no sense after 17 years in prison. And several times during the season when he was rolling out his master plans, it seemed like Lex would have been stunningly easy to outmaneuver, or the characters had to make dumb choices for Lex's plan to work - and that's unsatisfying.
Frankly, it kind of didn't make a ton of sense that Lex was so mad at Lois Lane when it wasn't Lois who put him in jail. That would be cops, attorneys, judges and juries. All the press can do is collect evidence, and if you left evidence, you're a big 'ol dummy, Lex.
I know Michael Cudlitz is a fine actor, so... it was just odd. But it did serve the purpose of showing the way rage and vengeance can blind you.
All that said, I see now that the season was all about showing a final conflict between Superman and Lex Luthor, as Superman wraps things up, closing the door on old business so he can look to the future.
And for those last two episodes - or episode and a half - it really does have the feel of "how could things actually end with someone's greatest foe?" But they used the back half of the final episode to do something I've never seen before with Superman through thousands of comics and innumerable TV shows, movies, cartoons, etc...
By moving in a linear fashion, they could show Superman's years once he's started thinking about his legacy beyond being the guy who catches airplanes out of the sky. They could show what Superman and Lois could do to lead people, and create a culture of stepping-up, making the world that one iota better. We don't get time for more than some vague nods to what happens. They start a foundation for people to help out. Clark seems to wear the suit less and less, but still puts it on to face challenges alongside his family and friends.
Thus, we got the shot of the Superman Family that's going to be circulated for years to come.
The show pushes years and years forward, with the boys becoming men and having their own families.
And, then, we see Superman and Lois die.
They don't pass as part of some cataclysmic event. It's not Doomsday or Darkseid, nor are they consumed by red skies. Instead, Lois and Clark simply grow old and pass from ailments that can take anyone. Lois - who fought cancer in Season 3 - passes quietly after the cancer returns. Clark passes from a heart-attack, his heart the transplanted organ of his father-in-law.
I think it's important that they don't die in violence, but in the company of loved ones.
The show's pivot to look forward, to look to the future, illustrates the *point* of Lois and Superman - at least as the character exists today in comics, and now television. It's that you have a chance and a choice here on this rock circling an unremarkable star, to do good, appreciate the time you have here, and to love people and be loved in return. And it's a reminder that Superman and Lois are about truth and justice, and certainly about a life well-lived leads to a better tomorrow. Not for you alone, but for everyone.
Maybe even Lex gets a bit of redemption.
As closing chapters go, this one was one of the best I recall seeing for a series - especially a superhero series, which usually run until the wheels fall off and the last episodes seem alien to the first season. I'm glad Superman and Lois leaned into it, and went well beyond just tying up as many plots as they could, which is usually all you can hope for. And with their 30-minute coda, raised the bar for all future end-games for Superman and other superhero shows.
Sometimes someone calls the homerun hit, swings and knocks it over the wall.
Every season, Superman and Lois genuinely surprised me. They were clever enough to mess with us long-time fans and defy and subvert our expectations. The show managed to remain a cut above what we'd had before in CW superhero shows, refusing to circle the drain, and remembering that Superman walks among people, and is one of them. He just happens to be able to be Superman when needed.
I may not have loved everything this season, but in retrospect, I get it. I can't say "it's not what I would have done" - as that isn't really a useful measuring stick, and I so deeply appreciate some of the episodes this season that it kind of more than makes up for any misgivings.
To close out - here's to the remarkable writers, producers, set-design, costume team, DP's, FX squad who made the best live action Doomsday on screen. And everyone else who put the show together. And here's to the actors who I hope know and appreciate their place in the legacy of Superman as we approach 90 years of the character.
*many fans, even today, seem baffled by this and maybe even mad that CW didn't keep their favorite actors sitting in a warehouse waiting to tap in and reprise their roles from 10 years ago.
**(late edit) Superman Homepage has released an article on why the show was canceled, which is well researched, but ignores social media posts wherein Gunn has stated he wanted to reduce the confusion of DC's hodge-podge approach, the way Marvel has done. And there have been articles on the S&L cast sending their best wishes to the movie cast, suggesting feelings did exist about all this. I think Steve is right about CW's approach. But to ignore the plans for the DCU, or think that they couldn't have brought this to Max or another outlet seems confusing
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