dragonfire88's Full Review: Lois & Clark - The Complete First Season
Plot Details: This opinion reveals minor details about the movie''s plot.
In the fall of 1993, one of the new shows on ABC was Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman. I started watching the show then and kept watching it throughout the run of the series. In 2005, Lois & Clark: The Complete First Season was released. For some reason I didn’t pick up this set until recently.
Obviously Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman was about Superman and his world. This show gave an updated look at the characters in the form of a romantic comedy. With their names being in the title, Lois and Clark were the main characters and most of the episodes revolved around them in some way. Superman was also featured of course, but there was more attention paid to Clark. Dean Cain was cast as Clark/Superman. I hadn’t heard of him before I started watching this show. His acting wasn’t horrible, but it wasn’t the best either. He did look the part and managed to be believable as both Clark and Superman. His Clark wasn’t geeky or nerdy like the character has been portrayed in other versions. This Clark was more confident and had traveled the world before moving to Metropolis. He did have a clumsy moment every once in a while. Clark wasn’t looking for glory or fame when he created Superman. He just wanted a way to be able to use his unique powers to help people.
Teri Hatcher’s Lois Lane was a very driven, successful career woman who acted tough in public to hide her softer side and true feelings. Lois didn’t always think before she acted when investigating a story which lead to her ended up in dangerous situations more than once. Even though she was independent and capable of taking care of herself, she did look to Superman to rescue her more than once. She did have a tendency to be stubborn. There were a few times, especially later in the first season, when Lois did things that annoyed me. Overall she was a likable character and a good update of Lois. Before seeing this show, I had only seen Hatcher in a few small roles. This part really did seem to launch her career.
Martha and Jonathon Kent were the couple from Smallville Kansas that found Clark when he was a baby and raised him as their son. They were very loving and supportive of Clark and his decision to create Superman. They instilled strong values in him as he was growing up. I really liked how Martha and Jonathon turned up at least briefly in every episode, either through visits or phone calls. They helped to keep Clark centered and grounded. I really liked K Callan and Eddie Jones in the parts.
John Shea’s Lex Luthor looked very different from how the character had looked in the past. He had hair and I think he was even a bit younger. Lex was a very manipulative man that would kill his own mother if he thought he would help him in some way. He wasn’t a nice guy at all even though most people in Metropolis tended to think he was wonderful. Lex was very jealous of Superman and was obsessed with killing him. Lex could go from being charming to downright evil in the blink of an eye.
Lois and Clark both worked for The Daily Planet, a very successful newspaper in Metropolis. When the newsroom was shown during episodes, there were usually a lot of other people around. Only three other characters were given much time and development. Catherine Grant (Cat) wrote a gossip column for the paper and kept trying to get Clark to take her out. She was mostly a flat character, seeming to only be concerned with men. Tracey Scoggins didn’t have as much screen time as some of the others. She wore some very bizarre outfits. Jimmy Olsen seemed to just be some kind of gopher at first instead of a photographer. I liked Michael Landes in the part and was disappointed that he wasn’t back for the rest of the series. Perry White was the editor of the paper. Lane Smith was really good as the Elvis obsessed Perry. The other characters that turned up were usually only in a few episodes. The first season included several guest stars including Morgan Fairchild and James Earl Jones.
CAST
Dean Caine - Clark Kent/Superman K Callan - Martha Kent Teri Hatcher - Lois Lane Eddie Jones - Jonathon Kent Michael Landes - Jimmy Olsen Tracey Scoggins - Cat Grant John Shea - Lex Luthor Lane Smith - Perry White
Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman didn’t take time to show the origins of Clark/Superman in the first episode. The pilot started with Clark arriving in Metropolis hoping to get a job at The Daily Planet. Over the course of the episode, Clark did different things that showed off his powers as well as decide that he needed to create a secret identity he could use to help people while still keeping his normal life and job. One of the funniest scenes happened when Clark got his mother’s help in creating a costume for him to wear. Martha came up with some very unique outfits before they decided on the one he would use. I did notice that the costume changed more than once before the end of the season. The biggest thing I really noticed was the way the cape changed in how it was attached to the costume. It looked rather strange in a few versions. The size of the emblem on the front of the costume changed as well. Clark slowly learned more about his past, like that he was sent to Earth from Krypton by his parents before the planet exploded, as the season progressed. A few small things were changed here and there regarding Clark’s history but overall the show stayed true to what had been established for the character.
As many probably already know, Lois and Clark/Superman’s relationship has played an important part throughout the history of Superman even though it frequently took a backseat to whatever villain Superman had to deal with. Superman still had villains to deal with in Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman but there was more focus on the relationship. Lois wasn’t happy when Clark was hired at The Daily Planet and she did look down on him because he was from Kansas. As the first season progressed, she changed her opinion of him. Clark was very interested in Lois and had strong feelings for her though it did take him a while to realize just how strong they were. Lois fell for Superman after she first met him which did create a unique love triangle since Clark and Superman were the same man.
Most of the romance in Lois & Clark: The Complete First Season came from the growing attraction between Lois and Clark. Some other characters showed interest in both Lois and Clark to complicate things. Cat hit on Clark whenever she could and didn’t want to take no for an answer. Other women who were only around for one episode, including Lois’s former best friend, also showed interest in Clark. Even while trying to act like she didn’t care about Clark, she got jealous when other women showed interest in him. Lois didn’t do much dating because she’d been so focused on her career. That started to change when Lex decided that he loved Lois. Personally, I didn’t like that development at all. Lois was supposed to be such a smart woman but she let herself be dazzled by Lex. She refused to see even the possibility that Lex was up to no good even though she and Clark had turned up connections to Lex and his various companies in previous investigations. Frankly, I thought that made her look stupid. I just didn’t like her being interested in Lex and it seemed wrong to me. It has been long enough since I’ve seen the original movies that I can’t remember if there was something like that going on in either of them.
Lois and Clark ended up in several situations that provided humor for the show. Some of the humor worked well even if it was a bit silly. I did think that some of the episodes were funnier than others. Perry added a lot of small bits of humor with his Elvis obsession. He even did an Elvis impersonation in one episode. Some things that I think were attempts at humor didn’t work and ended up being more campy or corny. In several episodes Clark was shown doing things that showed off his powers. A few of them, like when Clark was playing a baseball game alone, playing all the positions, just seemed stupid to me. That particular scene probably wasn’t supposed to add humor, though I could be wrong.
Lois and Clark’s work at The Daily Planet played a very big part in the show. There were shown working on different stories in almost every episode. In a few of them, like in Fly Hard when terrorists took over the newsroom, there was very little actual work on a story shown. Most of the episodes did included small mysteries related to the stories that Lois and Clark were working on. One episode had Clark discovering more about his past and how he came to Earth through a story that he and Lois were working on. Some of the stories, like one about an invisible man or one about children that somehow became really smart, did get a bit corny. That didn’t bother me since I thought that the shows were entertaining overall.
Superman turned up in every episode to deal with different criminals which did add some action to the show. Superman did get into fights with some of the criminals he was dealing with. I didn’t think those scenes made the show violent. Superman flew in all the episodes, occasionally carrying another person. Special effects were used to show his different powers as well as a few other things like when a character was falling. It was more obvious in some shots than others that special effects had been used. For the time, and considering this was a television show instead of the movie, the effects were fine.
The DVD set for Lois & Clark: The Complete First Season has six discs in a case that unfolds. The discs are placed two per panel, one slightly below and on top of the other one. I really don’t like that since to get to the second disc on a panel the first disc has to be removed. The same thing has to be done to replace the second disc on a panel. The case includes an episode list that told who wrote and directed each episode, as well as the original air date and a small plot summary.
Lois & Clark: The Complete First Season only has a few extras. Deborah Joy Levine, the creator of the show, Dean Caine, and director Robert Butler did a commentary on the first episode. The original pilot presentation, with an introduction by Levine, was also included on the first disc. The two other extras are on the sixth disc. From Rivals to Romance: The Making of Lois & Clark featured Levine and some of the cast and crew, including Hatcher, Caine, and Shea, talking about the experience of making the show. Levine did talk about the casting of the two main characters and her decision to make the show a romantic comedy. She also talked about how she set out to keep Lois and Clark apart for as long as she could because she didn't want to loose the sexual tension that was between them. The way the characters were kept apart over the run of the show did irritate me at times. I've actually stopped watching other television shows when that continued to go on season after season. Taking Flight: The Visual Effects of Lois & Clark explained how some of the special features were created.
Episode List
Pilot Strange Visitor (from Other Planet) Neverending Battle I’m Looking Through You Requiem for a Superhero I’ve Got a Crush on You Smart Kids The Green, Green Glow of Home The Man of Steel Bars Pheromone, My Lovely Honeymoon in Metropolis All Shook Up Witness Illusions of Grandeur The Ides of Metropolis Foundling The Rival Vatman Fly Hard Barbarians at the Planet The House of Luthor
Lois & Clark: The Complete First Season is a good DVD set for fans of the television show Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman. Fans of Superman in general may enjoy this show, though they should keep in mind that does have a different take on the characters and gets a bit campy at times.
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