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True story: despite being a Smallville superfan, I had zero interest in Superman and Lois since the day it was announced. On the one hand, it overlaps Super Girl ‘s own on The CW (which we now know will end), and TV’s Girl of Steel already has and generously borrowed from his cousin’s comic book tradition. Additionally, this iteration of Clark and Lois comes with, Ugh, adolescents.
Well here’s today’s headline from Smallville Gazette: Superman and Lois works. And often, it is quite wonderful.
Picking up a short time after the events of the Arrowverse’s “Crisis on Infinite Earths” – whose ripple effects (among other things) doubled the number of sons of Clark and Lois and apparently aged them a lot – Superman and Lois stars Tyler Hoechlin and Elizabeth Tulloch, reprising their roles as Super girl. Launched on Tuesday, February 23 as part of a two-hour event, the oversized pilot kicks off with a hugely effective and very engaging montage narrated by Clark, which recaps his arrival on Earth as a child, hits several of the usual rhythms ( including him quietly meeting Lois), and brings us to where we are today.
Clark and Lois are colleagues from the Daily Planet at the opening of the series, while the Jonathan twins (Small fires everywhereJordan Elsass) and Jordan (Alexander Garfin) are a confident high school QB and a loner, respectively, diagnosed with social anxiety disorder. Family life in Metropolis seems pretty good, although Dad is often “away” for work, and even when he’s at home Jordan tends to withdraw into his video games (where he fights against Superman #SuperAwkward).
A series of unfortunate events shakes up the Kents’ existence and sets the stage for a trip to Smallville, where a reunion awaits Clark and his girlfriend Lana Lang Cushing (EntourageEmmanuelle Chriqui), as well as Lana’s two brothers and eldest daughter, Sarah (13 Reason whyIndia Navarrette). Erik Valdez (Graceland) stars as Lana’s fire chief’s husband Kyle, who enters Clark’s “abandonment” of his hometown and defending mogul Morgan Edge (TyrantAdam Rayner) at the rat-smelling reporter Lois hits just the right note of quiet threat.
Smallville’s visit also sets the stage for a crisis that leaves Clark with no choice but to finally reveal his superhero identity to his sons – resulting in an array of reactions that really take the series to a whole new one. other speed and direct the brothers on separate paths.
To complete the cast, Dylan Walsh (Nip / Tuck) as Lois’ father General Sam Lane (conceived here a little less as a militarist blowhard and more as a duly preoccupied father whose super-son-in-law is on speed dial), while Wolé Parks (All Americans, Vampire Diaries) plays a disturbing stranger who enters Superman’s orbit. More information on him in a moment.
As directed by Lee Toland Krieger, the 90 Minute Pilot is just as cinematic as you’ve heard it, and more. It has no smooth veneer of, say, Flash or Super girl, and it’s certainly not grainy like The arrow. Instead, the feel and earthy tone (showrunner Todd Helbing wrote the screenplay based on a story of him and the EP Greg Berlanti) is better compared to Berlanti’s. Everwood and … the parts of Steel man who weren’t busy leveling buildings and endangering thousands of innocent people. That said, the visual effects are here really clever (including a sequence from Episode 2 where Supes flies through a series of concrete walls.).
How? ‘Or’ What Superman and Lois win me over, despite my determination to be apathetic? For one thing, we just haven’t seen this story of Clark and Lois live, as struggling parents. And because of that, no one might have ever realized that Clark could be, well, a somewhat shitty dad, regularly missing family events and gravitating toward the athletic (supernatural?) Son. These risky topics, and the way the early episodes tackle them, are different and interesting.
Second, the youth cast is enough well – more perfect choices by the genius of the Arrowverse cast, David Rapaport. Like Jonathan, Elsass conjures up a warmer version of It’s us“Teenage Kevin; Navarrette wins as Sarah, who is struggling with similar issues / medications as Jordan’s; and Garfin brings just enough light to darken Jordan as we support the boy’s turnaround. Among the new adult cast, Rayner (an English actor) gives Edge a slightly sassy international bent, while Sofia Hasmik (the Crazy of you revival) is a nice touch of comedic relief as Smallville reporter / superfan Lois Lane Chrissy Beppo.
Of course, the best Superman stories have a compelling villain. I like it, at least based on the first two episodes made available to the press, we don’t seem to be on the way to disposable Meteor Freaks of the Week. Instead, Parks’ character – and everything he stands for, as breathtakingly revealed in Episode 2 – promises to fuel a lot of a story and a story that might go in directions you don’t expect.
Finally, and on a superficial level, the design and “sculpture” of the Hoechlin supersuit is huge An upgrade from anything he’s worn before, and the camera is much more in the style of Supes’ most recent big-screen incarnation.
THE LOWER LINE OF TVLINE: Superman and Lois flies the Arrowverse into whole new territory – and we’re off for the ride.
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