The SmarK DVD Rant for Lois & Clark – The New Adventures of Superman – Season 2
I think it’s telling that the producers of Lois & Clark had lost so much of the viewers’ trust by the fourth and final season that the Wedding Episode was actually titled “Swear To God, This Time We’re Not Kidding”.
But I’m getting ahead of myself.
The Film
In the late 70s and early 80s, Superman was in pretty rough shape as far as DC Comics was concerned. Although the first two movies had revitalized his image in the eyes of pop culture, the comics were getting weaker by the issue, as the Superman universe was overcrowded with super-relatives, kryptonite variations, alternate universes, and ridiculous explanations for why Lois Lane hadn’t yet figured out Superman’s big secret. Never mind that Clark Kent was now a world-famous TV anchorman who couldn’t possibly conceal his identity from billions of people with a pair of glasses. So to clear things up once and for all, John Byrne was called in to completely reboot Superman from scratch and create a new mythos around him. Without going into all the gory details of what this entailed, there were a couple of major changes that fundamentally altered the nature of the character:
1)No longer was Clark Kent the secret identity of Superman, to be thrown on and off like a cheap suit. Now, the person was Clark Kent, who happened to also be known as Superman. The distinction was an important one, because Clark defined himself as Clark first and foremost, and thus no longer felt the need to be a sniveling coward to protect his Superman identity. He was raised as a human being and didn’t gain his powers until late in his teens, whereas before Superman was Super from birth and stood in judgment of the human race like Moses on the mountain because he knew himself to be better. Clark Kent was previously Superman’s subconscious view of what the human race was like to him — weak, cowardly, insignificant. Now, he thought of himself as one of them. In the new version of history, Clark Kent could thus feel free to be a pretty cool guy and not such a wank.
2)With Clark Kent free to act like a normal human being and interact with normal human beings like a human being would (instead of judging them from afar like a god), he could also pursue relationships like a normal human being. Thus, the subject of Lois Lane and Clark Kent was no longer the subject of cutesy dream sequences and hamfisted fakeouts. Clark Kent wanted to win over Lois Lane as Clark Kent, not as Superman, but they were definitely on that road from the start.
Now with this new dynamic established, the “new look” Superman seemed like a perfect fit for a TV show. Instead of one actor having to be both super-confident Superman and weaselly Clark Kent, all that was needed was one actor who could play different nuances of the same character. In fact, Superman was very much the secondary character on this show — Clark Kent is a fleshed out character with well-defined motivations, whereas Superman is a guy who swoops in to save Lois Lane now and then and rarely has more than a few lines of dialogue. Clearly, Clark Kent and Lois Lane are destined to be together in this version of the Superman story, as they were in the comics by that point.
However, the problem with the show came about because of a conflict between the producers and the comic book editors — with Lois and Clark so clearly on the path to romance, it was impossible to tease the fans (who were mainly females due to the soap-opera nature of the plots at times) for very long without a romantic payoff between the lead characters, but DC Comics didn’t want any other media spoiling their wedding before the comic book featuring that wedding could be released. Thus, the first season of Lois & Clark built to a natural conclusion of the main characters falling in love, at which point Lois promptly ran off and married Lex Luthor, who ended up dead as a result.
See, I told you it was like a soap opera.
All that being said, the second season was essentially the peak for the show, featuring better special effects for Superman (with less glaring green screens present), better writing, more imaginative plotlines, and a definite positive direction for the characters. The stories in particular were much more engaging here (pardon the pun) than they were in the first season, and by far moreso than in the last two seasons, where it degenerated into villain-of-the-week boredom and endless soap opera. With Lex Luthor “dead” for much of the second season, the over-reaching story arc became the war between Superman and Intergang, a network of worldwide street gangs controlled by what appears to be Wal-Mart. Along the way we meet Dr. Emil Hamilton from the comics, a brief appearance by Gangbuster (albeit as a third identity for Clark Kent), a cloned group of gangsters from the 30s in one of the most fun episodes of the season, a time-traveling Terry Kiser, and a soon-to-be-dead assistant DA who has the hots for Clark Kent, but not for Superman. Most of it is well-paced and all in good fun, with a very comic book feel to it. At the same time, Teri Hatcher created a career for herself as the bubble-headed but very hot Lois Lane, setting the stage for her comeback on Desperate Housewives. The nature of the relationships on the show also seems to foreshadow the direction that the franchise would go with Smallville, focusing more on the growth of Clark as a human being than on the cape-and-tights stuff. There’s a few clunkers (anything with Charles Rocket as the bad guy usually means they were hard up for ideas) but overall the season was fun to watch and lead well to the payoff of Luthor’s return and the impending marriage of Lois & Clark. However, the big twist at the end ruined the show for me, and caused a GIGANTIC drop in ratings and interest at the start of the third season, so be warned if you’ve never seen this season before. Aside from that, Lois & Clark is an underappreciated addition to the Superman legend and well worth checking out by any fan of Smallville.
Season two is comprised of the following 24 episodes, spread out over six discs:
Disc One:
Madame Ex
Wall of Sound
The Source
The Prankster
Disc Two:
Church of Metropolis
Operation Blackout
That Old Gang of Mine
A Bolt from the Blue
Disc Three:
Season’s Greedings
Metallo
Chi of Steel
Disc Four:
The Eyes Have It
The Phoenix
Top Copy
Return of the Prankster
Disc Five:
Lucky Leon
Resurrection
Tempus Fugitive
Target: Jimmy Olsen!
Disc Six:
Individual Responsibility
Whine, Whine, Whine
And the Answer Is…
The Video
Quite good for a mid-level Warner show, actually. Superman’s red-and-blue costume boasts strong colors, and the picture doesn’t betray too many of the special effects by looking cheap. There’s some grain here and there and it’s hardly high-resolution like today’s shows, but other than that it looks great for what it is.
The Audio
Just plain stereo, not even Dolby Digital. Too bad, because some of the more action-heavy episodes would lend themselves well to Superman whooshing back and forth through the surrounds, but dialogue is fairly clear so this is good enough for a TV show.
The Extras
Not too much here. You get Dean Cain commentary on “Season’s Greedings,” the Christmas episode that he wrote (and did a good job on, too), as well as a behind-the-scenes feature on the second season and a feature on the fans of the show. Mostly fluff, but it’s better than nothing.
The Ratings
The Film: ***1/2
The Video: ***1/2
The Audio: **
The Extras: *1/2
