True story: despite being a Smallville superfan, I had zero interested in Superman and Lois since the day it was announced. On the one hand, it overlaps with Supergirl ‘its own showing on the CW (which we now know is ending), and TV’s Girl of Steel has already and liberally borrowed from his cousin’s comic strip. In addition, this iteration of Clark and Lois comes with, ugh, teenagers.
Well, here’s today’s headline from Smallville Gazette: Superman and Lois job. And it is often wonderful.
Taking some time after the events of Arrowverse’s “Crisis on Infinite Earths” – the ripple effects (among other things) doubled the number of Clark and Lois’s children and apparently aged them a lot – Superman and Lois stars Tyler Hoechlin and Elizabeth Tulloch, reprising their roles in Supergirl. Debuting on Tuesday, February 23 as part of a two-hour event, the oversized pilot begins with an extremely efficient and highly engaging montage narrated by Clark, who recapitulates his arrival on Earth as a child, hits several of the usual beats ( including him knowing Lois in an idiotic way), and brings us to where we are today.
Clark and Lois are colleagues at Daily Planet when the series opens, while the twin sons Jonathan (Small fires everywhereJordan Elsass and Jordan (Alexander Garfin) are, respectively, a confident high school QB and a loner diagnosed with social anxiety disorder. Family life in Metropolis looks good enough, although Dad is very “absent” at work, and even when he’s at home, Jordan tends to take refuge in his video games (where he fights against Superman. #SuperAwkward).
A series of unfortunate events shakes the Kents’ existence and sets the stage for a trip to Smallville, where meetings await Clark and his ex-girlfriend Lana Lang Cushing (EntourageEmmanuelle Chriqui), as well as Lana’s two brothers and eldest daughter Sarah (13 reasons whyInde Navarrette). Erik Valdez (Graceland) plays the fire chief, Lana’s husband, Kyle, who between hiding Clark’s “abandonment” from his hometown and defending the magnate Morgan Edge (TyrantAdam Rayner) for the rat-smelling reporter Lois hits the right note of discreet threat.
Jordan and Jonathan Kent
The visit to Smallville also paves the way for a crisis that leaves Clark with no choice but to finally reveal his superhero identity to his children – resulting in a series of reactions that really kick the series into another gear and lead the brothers on paths. distinct.
Completing the cast is Dylan Walsh (Nip / Tuck) as Lois’s father, General Sam Lane (conceived here as a little less of a militaristic braggart and more like a properly concerned father whose super-son-in-law is on speed dial), while Wolé Parks (All American, Vampire Diaries) plays a strange sinister that enters Superman’s orbit. More about him in a moment.
As directed by Lee Toland Krieger, the 90-minute pilot is as cinematic as you heard it, and more. There’s nothing like the smooth veneer of, say, The Flash or Supergirl, and it certainly is not brave as Arrow. Instead, the sensation and earth tone (showrunner Todd Helbing wrote the script based on a story by him and EP Greg Berlanti) is better compared to Berlanti’s own Everwood and … the parts of Steel man who were not busy destroying buildings and endangering thousands of innocents. That said, the visual effects here are really cool (including a sequence from Episode 2 in which Supes flies through a series of concrete walls).
How did Superman and Lois conquer me, despite my decision to be listless? On the one hand, we just haven’t seen this Clark and Lois story before, as fighting parents. And because of that, it may never have occurred to anyone that Clark could be, well, a lousy father, regularly missing family events and gravitating to his (supernaturally?) Athletic son. These risky topics and the way the first episodes get into them are different and interesting.
Second, the youth cast is quite good – more perfect choices of the casting genius of Arrowverse, David Rapaport. Like Jonathan, Elsass evokes a warmer version of This is us‘teenager Kevin; Navarrette is winning like Sarah, who struggles with problems / remedies similar to Jordan’s; and Garfin brings just enough light to love Jordan, who we hope for the boy’s turnaround. Among the new adult cast, Rayner (an English actor) gives Edge a slightly cheeky international touch, while Sofia Hasmik (the Crazy for You revival) is a nice touch of comic relief like Smallville newspaper / superfan by Lois Lane, Chrissy Beppo.
Of course, the best Superman stories have a convincing villain. I like that, at least based on the first two episodes made available to the press, we don’t seem to be on the way to the disposable Meteor Freaks of the Week. Instead, Parks’s character – and everything he represents, as surprisingly revealed in Episode 2 – promises to feed a much of a story, and a story that can go in directions you don’t expect.
Finally, and on a superficial level, the design and “sculpture” of Hoechlin’s supersuit is a shivering updating anything he has ever displayed before, and on camera is much more in the style of Supes’ most recent big-screen incarnation.
THE TVLINE BOTTOM LINE: Superman and Lois the Arrowverse flies into a whole new territory – and we’re together for the trip.