Superman & Lois: Rate #1.4 "Haywire"

[CKent/KalEl]

I think Smallville suffered from outgrowing it's original idea. It's a show that didn't know where it should be, or how to get to where they wanted it to end. It's been a problem as long as we've had serialized TV with any kind of continuity.

Hmm, I'd say that Smallville made faithful Superman fans suffer with it ; and it really shouldn't have been written so badly to do such a thing, considering the rich source material. Yet it was. Smallville had that great luxury of being a Superman story and as such it just had too many fans who were willing to endure the suffering till the show's bitter end. (season 10! ) Hoping it will get better. And it did... in season 9! At the same time being a Superman story was a curse when you are inept showrunners who don't know how to "kill" their darlings.

I feel like the road map to some coherent story telling on tv for Superman is so easy to do. At least if they did it today on some streaming platform. Just go with three seasons for the early years: Focus s1 on the last year of high school. S2 on university, starting to save people, preforming heroic acts on a larger scale and s3 on Year 1 as Superman. Lana Lang can be the romantic interest with the relationship ending when Clark becomes Superman. Then if it's popular enough you have an easy roadmap for seasons 4+ with Clark getting a job at the daily planet, meeting and falling in love with Lois etc.

Superman and Lois could easily fall into this trap as well. Especially being a show with an already established character, doing what he's already known for. The upside is also the fact they can tell new stories with new hang ups, and explore and relatively uncharted area of Superman's life. I hope they don't end up simply taking the Smallville route with freaks of the week. At the same time, a little of that can work in a world where we already have metahumans running around anyway.

I agree. But I have a bad hunch the show will soon start to repeat the error of Smallville's ways. Sadly. Because it really is amazing at the moment.

With Lana, I don't see it becoming a love triangle. Clark and Lois have a pretty healthy marriage. If anything, I see Lana spiraling if her marriage comes apart, and trying to get closer to Clark as he's the one who got away. She's essentially married "knock off Clark" as it is. Dedicated community man, Fire Chief always running out to save the day, civic minded. The problems he has are pretty common today. An inability to properly deal with the complicated mental health issues his family is having. A wife who may have married him because, maybe in his view only, she settled for someone she wasn't as crazy about. A town whose jobs are drying up, resources are leaving, and the steadfast community folk you could count on are literally dying out in front of him. In a way, he sees himself as the last of a breed of people doing everything he can to save Smallville, instead of throwing in the towel. Which, in a way, is how he sees Clark's actions. He gave up on them to pursue the "big city" dream, and only came back when his world crashed down around him. Even his marriage problems, while problems, are a sign of how he's seeing the world. He doesn't feel like he's pulled away from Lana, though he has. He's the one feeling hurt and left behind. This is also coloring his views of Edge. Edge is promising him a return to what he saw as an ideal life before the last few years. He's blinding by the hope he has, to very real problems right in front of him. Such as Edge's treatment of Lana. Back to the original point though, I see Lana as becoming more of a third wheel, with Clark and Lois trying to deal with her obvious feelings for him that aren't reciprocated. Clark, essentially, could never marry a Lana. She's someone he had to move on from. If this show keeps being as good as it can, and a Lana/Clark/Lois situation happens, Lana will realize that in an adult way.

Nicely written.

I just... don't trust the CW writers to use common sense and logic in any long term property they have their dirty little paws on.

[ThulaLani]

oh yeah that was really skeazy. Either her husband is clueless or he cares so little for Lana that he is willing to turn a blind eye to this crap to benefit from Edge in some way.

I’m rewatching Smallville and this version of Edge is like Lex and Lionel put together.

I do think divorce is on the way too but I am sick of love triangles too. I would prefer they bring Pete Ross into the picture. Heck, I would take ‘Pierre Rousseau’ at this point (think the French equivalent in ‘Apocalypse’) over a Lana/Clark/Lois love triangle.

I think he's so taken in with "saving" Smallville that he's being willfully ignorant to any signs that Edge is a shady businessman and now a skeevy creep hitting on his wife. He won't see the truth even if it slapped him in the face. He's got tunnel vision and led Lana to the wolves without realising it.

[ThulaLani]

Hmm, I'd say that Smallville made faithful Superman fans suffer with it ; and it really shouldn't have been written so badly to do such a thing, considering the rich source material. Yet it was. Smallville had that great luxury of being a Superman story and as such it just had too many fans who were willing to endure the suffering till the show's bitter end. (season 10! ) Hoping it will get better. And it did... in season 9! At the same time being a Superman story was a curse when you are inept showrunners who don't know how to "kill" their darlings.

I feel like the road map to some coherent story telling on tv for Superman is so easy to do. At least if they did it today on some streaming platform. Just go with three seasons for the early years: Focus s1 on the last year of high school. S2 on university, starting to save people, preforming heroic acts on a larger scale and s3 on Year 1 as Superman. Lana Lang can be the romantic interest with the relationship ending when Clark becomes Superman. Then if it's popular enough you have an easy roadmap for seasons 4+ with Clark getting a job at the daily planet, meeting and falling in love with Lois etc.






I agree. But I have a bad hunch the show will soon start to repeat the error of Smallville's ways. Sadly. Because it really is amazing at the moment.




Nicely written.

I just... don't trust the CW writers to use common sense and logic in any long term property they have their dirty little paws on.

The family theme of this show is its biggest sell, they won't throw Lois (a title character) under the bus for a high school relationship that never went anywhere in the first place. Smallville's horrible obsession with Lana is not a road map they are following. In a handful of episodes, they seem to be dipping quite a bit into the comics for more inspiration than Smallville ever did in it's ten year run. Clark has barely looked twice at Lana, and is wholly enraptured by his wife, the epitome of perfection for him. No writer worth his salt would shoot the golden goose by painting Clark as an unfaithful, two-timing cheat throwing his family away for a high school sweetheart he more than like didn't have anything more than a crush on. Lana on the other hand is in a different position, Clark will ALWAYS be the one that got away and now she sees him, the man he's become, a literal, walking, "grass greener on the other side" with flesh and bones. I get more of a "Superman The Movie" call back than "Smallville:S1-8" where Clark was infatuated with the cute cheerleader that didn't give him the time of day and eventually left for the big city and never came back until he grew into the man he'd become and met the great love of his life.

[Lara Queen]

My episode 4 musings.

I was slightly worried seeing the football game at the start that this episode would focus on that. I'm glad that wasn't the case and I enjoyed the bonding session between Clark and his boys and him encouraging Jordan in the game.

Sam shocked at Jordan having powers didn't surprise me although I understood his concerns.

Clark and Lois set him straight at least but there was still tensions ahead with Sam wanting Clark to focus more on him being Superman than a father when there should be a balance of course.

General Lane's weekend stay didn't end well with the family fighting that went on. I feel like the show will turn evil some point especially with what he done in the end.

So there's a new type of Kryptonite which can give people powers for a limited time like how meteor rocks in Smallville gave many characters powers there and the reason Edge brought the mine was to use that to make a super soldier army like Smallville's Lex did 33.1.

Could Lana be a possible candidate to get powers seeing how her storyline's tied to Edge then?

Her disappointment seemed to carry over this episode from last week although by the end it looked like she was doing better.

Hopefully her getting these powers if she does isn't how she learns Clark is Superman which I'd like a more personal way of that happening then.

Kyle not believing Edge is up to something continues to frustrate me. Man can he get anymore dumber. Lana please divorce him.

Lois and Clark's relationship still fascinates me how healthy it is with who he is and everything including them fighting as well then.

Her being angry at Clark for not being at the meeting was understandable and it was nice that Clark apologised and showed his romantic side and how much he loves Lois which I loved seeing. Tyler and Elizabeth do have nice chemistry onscreen.

Nice seeing Lana and Lois more becoming friends and having a drink with no signs of a love triangle happening which pleases me. I'd love seeing them team up against Edge.

We got to see Metropolis again in the form of Clark and the weeks villain Thaddeus Killgrave fighting another good thing and Superman used Supergirl's hand slap before flying off to Jordan and Johnathan although Killgrave I thought was just an average mouthy villain whereas Edge is more interesting in my opinion.

Johnathan impressed me here with how he tried to help Tag.

And Leslie and Edge uncovering a large amount of X-Kryptonite at the end worries me what'll happen if they refine that and create a super soldier army.