Superman & Lois Season 1, Episode 1 - TV Episode Review

 Hey guys! How's it going? I'm doing alright. Last night the first episode of Superman & Lois aired. It was great and that's what I'm going to talk about today. There will be some minor spoilers for both this episode and for the last Arrowverse crossover, Crisis on Infinite Earths so if you haven't watched this episode yet or haven't caught up on the CW/DC Comics shows, please beware of that. With that said, let's get right into it.

Superman & Lois feels like a cross between Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman and Smallville, mixed with the cinematic scope of a Netflix series or a Disney+ series. It airs on The CW like Smallville did, and even has some of the teenage elements that Smallville explored with Clark Kent. At the same time though it's very much focused on the relationship between Lois and Clark like Lois & Clark was. Even by looking at the name of the show, Superman & Lois, you know this show is going to have alot of Superman action rather than the more romantic aspect of Lois & Clark. Which totally works for the show that Greg Berlanti and Todd Helbing developed. If you're wondering why the name Todd Helbing is familiar, it's because he did alot of work on The Flash during that show's first five seasons and made that show as good as it was for so long. And of course we all know Greg Berlanti from his years writing and producing TV shows and movies. 

Because this is the first episode of a Superman TV series, the first one we've had since Lois & Clark ended in 1997, the opening of the episode presents to us Superman's origin, which we haven't gotten since Man of Steel in 2013, and which we only saw the part that pertained to Kara Zor-El in the first episode of Supergirl in 2015. Because this isn't a Spider-Man situation where every time a new version of the character pops up in movies or on TV, we have to have a full origin story for the character. No, in this case we get a highlights reel that pertains directly to Kal-El's arrival on Earth, his start at The Daily Planet, and his relationship with Lois Lane. Which I am totally okay with being that we haven't gotten a full Superman origin on TV since Smallville, and it was nice to see the Arrowverse's version of that story given that Superman was already active on Earth-38 (pre-Crisis) when Kara became Supergirl, and we don't know how long he's been operating in the post-Crisis Arrowverse. 

One of the coolest things we get to see in this flashback/montage is a nod to Action Comics #1 where Superman lifts up a green car from the back. In this case it's a PT Cruiser, because apparently in this iteration, Superman has been active since the late 90s or early 2000s. And trust me, PT Cruisers were EVERYWHERE in that time period. The coolest part of that section is that Superman is wearing the Max Fleischer cartoon Superman costume, complete with the red "S" against a black background with a yellow outline, which is similar to the colour scheme used by the Brandon Routh version of Superman seen in Crisis on Infinite Earths. I geeked out so hard when that flashback happened.

One of the things I was concerned about going into this episode is the kids, Jonathan and Jordan Kent. Just because this is a CW show, and most of the kid/teenage characters can be pretty obnoxious. Of course the adult characters in the Arrowverse shows have gotten pretty obnoxious at times too. However, at least in this episode, the three kids, Jonathan, Jordan, and Sarah, who is the older daughter of the Arrowverse's version of Lana Lang and her husband, Kyle Cushing, are actually pretty interesting characters. Although Sarah does have the potential to become as destructive as the majority of the characters on Riverdale, but I think Todd Helbing and the Writer's Room for Superman & Lois have a better handle on these characters than Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and the Riverdale Writer's Room have on that show's characters so we probably won't have to worry about that too much. I hope anyway. Especially since it would be great if Sarah found out about Jordan's powers sooner rather than later, instead of dragging it out for six seasons like Smallville did with Lana. Oh and so far Jordan seems to be the only one of the two boys whose powers have begun to manifest. 

Speaking of Lana Lang, I like this version alot. What's unique about this version is that Lana has no clue about Clark's powers and the fact that he's Superman. Which is bizarre because ever since The Man of Steel by John Byrne was published in 1986, Lana has pretty much always been one of the few people who does know that Superman and Clark Kent are one and the same. Even on Smallville Lana knew about Clark's powers (eventually). The exception being Superboy which aired from 1988 until 1992. Lana is played by Emmanuelle Chriqui, who played Claire Bonner, the love interest of Mark Webber's character in the 2000 Nickelodeon comedy film, Snow Day, which I saw like twenty years ago. So far, from what we got of her in this episode, Lana is pretty good in this series. Unlike Clark, Lana stayed in Smallville and became a loan officer at the Smallville Bank, marrying Kyle Cushing and having two daughters, Sarah and Sophie. We know that Clark and Lana were friends in high school, and they knew Pete Ross, but beyond that we don't know much about their relationship. She's also interesting because she doesn't shy away from it when Lois brings up that Morgan Edge bought the Smallville Bank.

Which brings me to the problem that I have with this episode. Everywhere I've looked it said that Superman & Lois is in the Arrowverse, with the show running concurrently with Supergirl and the other Arrowverse shows that are still on the air. However, there are subtle differences that hint at the possibility that this show doesn't take place within the Arrowverse proper. First, the exterior of the Kent Farm is no longer the old Smallville exterior used on Supergirl. Instead the exteriors look more like what the Kent Farm might look like in a movie. The second is that both Lois's father, Sam Lane, and Morgan Edge are played by different people than they were on Supergirl. Also, there's no mention of Kara or of James Olsen on this show. And General Lane is aware that Clark Kent is Superman, which is a complete switch from how things are between Superman and Lane. There are other more subtle differences too like how Lois and Clark got married in the 2000s, and Jonathan and Jordan are teenagers, instead of babies like they were at the end of Crisis. But other than those visual and continuity differences, not to mention the completely different tone of the show compared to the other Arrowverse shows, there's no real indication one way or the other if Superman & Lois is set in the Arrowverse, or is Arrowverse adjacent like Stargirl, Titans, Doom Patrol, and Swamp Thing are.

One more cool thing that I want to talk about before I end this review is the shows that Helbing took inspiration from for the tone of Superman & Lois. The two shows he took inspiration from are Everwood, also created by Greg Berlanti, and Friday Night Lights, created by Peter Berg. Which is interesting. Everwood was one of my favourite shows when I was in high school and so it's kind of nice to see it get some appreciation as I feel many people have forgotten about it despite the fact that Chris Pratt and Emily VanCamp both started on Everwood.  

Overall this was a great episode. When the show was announced I was afraid that Superman & Lois would just be yet another CW comic book based series with no real distinction between it and the other Arrowverse shows. And it does have the potential to quickly descend into those tropes. So far though, between the trailer and then this episode, I don't think we really have to worry about that happening. At least not for many many years. If you're a Superman fan there's lots here for you to geek out about. There's an interesting story here and I am really excited to see where it goes from here.

Alright guys that is going to be it for me for today. I'll be back on Friday with a comic book review. So until then have a great evening and I will talk to you all later. Take care.