Superman & Lois
Things are really start to ramp up during season 2. I was nervous that season 2 was going to meander or be a downgrade from season 1, but I'm maybe more excited for this season that I was for the debut season. Let's get to it.
"The Inverse Method"
Ally Alston: "I don't respond well to threats, Lois."
Lois Lane: "Neither do I."
After being ambushed by Ally Alson at the diner, Lois is even more determined to take her down. Lois and Chrissy track down Lucy who is with Ally, but the meeting doesn't go the way Lois hoped. And it fractures Chrissy and Lois' relationship even more. Meanwhile, Bizarro finds a pendant that affects Superman when the two of them clash. The Man of Steel continues to get pushback from Anderson and the DOD and despite John Henry's advice, he confronts Bizarro without back up. When John Henry rushes to assist in a suit that isn't at 100% will tragedy strike?
 |
| Who needs Channing Tatum? |
As I was watching the first three episodes of "Superman & Lois," I was nervous. I was into both the Bizarro and the Ally Alston plot, but I was scared that they wouldn't be able to tie these seemingly disparate plots together. Well, I shouldn't have worried. These two episodes do a beautiful job of blending the Bizarro and Alston plots and we have a clear view of where this season is heading. Where the sophomore season is struggling a little bit is in the smaller subplots that pepper the episodes.
The plot that interests me the most right now is Ally Alston and the Inverse Society. Everyone knows that I am watching this show for Lois Lane and this plot is giving us so much Lois and I'm here for it. It is causing her two worlds to collide: journalism and family. Ally Alston is played by Rya Kihlstedt and she is phenomenal as Ally. She feels like she is on Lois' level. That she can actually match wits with her. That opening diner scene is intense. I barely breathed and I'm not even kidding you. I was entranced. It was like two lionesses circling each other on the Serengeti. If someone is going to go head to head with Lois, you have to feel like they actually have a chance of taking her down and you feel that with Ally.
It's not just with Lois where Ally shines. When she is speaking to the people that she has conned, you see why people are drawn to her. She's extremely charismatic and she is telling people what they want to hear. She is the epitome of a cult leader and even though you kind of hate her, you can't help but find yourself being drawn to her. You believe that people would get pulled into her orbit and want to please her so they can get that praise or have some of her attention. I think she will be a formidable villain this season and I expect her to be facing off against the Man of Steel as well.
Lois and Lucy have a face to face showdown in this episode. Lucy Lane is played by Jenna Dewan who played the character on the CW's "Supergirl" as well. This is not the same Lucy Lane from that show. In "Supergirl," Lucy is a confident major in the army. She was director of the DEO. This Lucy is not confident. She's lost. She's at odds with her sister, Lois. She's angry. She's clearly being preyed on by Ally, but you get where she's coming from. Tulloch and Dewan are great together. They feel like family and when they have their blow out in Lucy's hotel room, you can just feel the weight of years of familial trauma spewing form both of them. It's kind of heartbreaking particularly when you find out that Lucy is setting Lois up for a "gotcha" moment.
If I have one issue with this, it is the reaction from Chrissy when she finds out that Lois did leave out Lucy talking about "crossing over" when she reported her story. Like, I get that Chrissy is upset because she feels like Lois isn't being honest with her, but I don't think it is insane that Lois wouldn't talk about that in her story. It doesn't feel relevant. I just think this conflict is kind of contrived and I just want them to get along and do some sleuthing together. This episode is implying that Lois did something bad or shady and I'm not buying it. I completely will say I'm biased towards Lois so maybe I'm not being objective.
Bizarro finds a pendant in the Arctic and when he shows up at the Kent farm and he and Superman go at it, the pendant seems to be affecting Superman in a strange way. We don't get a ton of forward movement on the Bizarro front. Superman is determined to handle things solo but John Henry encourages him to get help from the DOD which is heavy foreshadowing that something bad is going to happened to John Henry. I do enjoy that the show is making Anderson look like a fool but he kind of is. I rolled my eyes when I learned his teen team are called "The Supermen of America." Two of them are killed by Bizarro leaving only Tag surviving who takes the pendant. John Henry shows up to help Superman in a compromised Steel suit and after one punch from Bizarro John Henry lands in intensive care.
We can briefly chat about the subplots. This is maybe the darkest mayoral election in small town history. Would someone really expose an opponent's child suicide attempt to win? It's crazy. And just when I start to like Kyle, we learn that he was cheating on Lana, because of course he was. After a mishap stopping some shoplifters in a classmate's families general store, Jordan has to call in a favor from Sam and ends up asking to be trained. Sam agrees but it has to be in secret. This will end well. Oh and Jordan is still doing drugs for... football. Sigh.
Grade: A-
"Girl... You'll Be a Woman, Soon"
Bizarro: "I should've killed you."
Superman: "You tried more than once."
Lara Lor-Van: "Why are you here, Kal-El?"
Bizarro: "To save my world... and yours."
It's time for the Smallville social event of the season: Sarah Lang-Cushing's quinceanera being held in the Kent family barn. Chrissy goes to see Ally Alston without Lois and has an out of body experience. The Kent brothers have their first big dust up. Kyle's having a difficult time keeping his indiscretion a secret. And we finally get an idea of what is going on with Bizarro.
 |
| Worst party ever. |
I recently watched the first two episodes of season four of "Titans." And the CGI on that show is pretty questionable, which is odd since it is on HBO Max. Here is "Superman & Lois," a CW show, and I am pretty impressed with the CGI. It feels like they really know how to use their CGI budget the right way. The fight between Bizarro and Superman in this episode is a highlight. I routinely talk about how it can be difficult with Superman to find foes that he can actually go toe to toe with and let loose without, you know, killing them. I will say that we are having two Kryptonian threats in a row, but I think Bizarro is so classic that I can give them a pass. If General Zod shows up in season three, we might have a problem. I forget that Bizarro's powers are the opposite of Superman's. He has heat breath and ice vision. The heat breath visual always makes me chuckle.
I have been pretty hard on the subplots this season and I stand by that, but I will say I have to give it up to Inde Navarette & Emmanuelle Chriqui who play Sarah and Lana, respectively. They do great work in this episode. Lana's speech at Sarah's party after she overhears Kyle talking to his mistress is extremely emotional and powerful. You couple that with Lana's pep talk to Sarah outside and I was maybe tearing up a little. I'm kind of hoping that the show explores the Lang-Cushing's Mexican heritage more on the show. I love that Sarah is reclaiming their original last name of Cortez. It just makes me like her more.
The brothers Kent continue to be the weak link of this season. I can't fathom why Sam thinks that training Jordan in secret is a good idea. He just reconciled with Lois after the whole Lucy business and now he's going behind her back? It just feels silly to me. And now Jonathan is jealous and using drugs to compete with Jordan. Then, he lies to Jordan about powers coming in but don't tell mom and dad. It's messy and it's going to be a disaster. And, the worst thing is that it feels extremely cliched and uninteresting which is my biggest issue with these plots as a whole.
When Chrissy goes to see Ally one on one we finally figure out how the Bizarro and Alston plots are going to connect. Ally drugs Christy and uses a pendant similar to the one Bizarro found to allow Chrissy to "cross over." While she's under, she seemingly goes to Bizarro World and sees her double and it looks like Ally has taken over. This is a nice twist that I didn't see coming and it is a great way to tie the two plots together. It also brings Chrissy and Lois back together which makes me happy. I was concerned that we were going to get a full season of the two of them at each other's throats or that crossing over would sway Chrissy to Ally, so this was a nice development.
Bizarro is making the rounds. Lois finds out that Dr Faulkner is a devotee of Ally and goes to visit her at the mines. She finds Bizarro crouched over Faulkner's body and her head has been turned almost all the way around. This is a pretty gruesome scene for the show. Bizarro doesn't attack Lois, just takes off. This leads to Superman saving Ally from Bizarro and taking him back to the desert fortress.
I kind of love Superman taking over Tal's fortress and Lara taking the place of Jor-El. It's nice to see Lara get some play when she's normally kind of left by the wayside. Bizarro tells Superman that Ally took over his world and she will take over his if Superman doesn't kill her first. Deep.
I should probably talk about Kyle and his cheating and Sarah and Lana finding out. Like I said before though, it's all such a cliche. I'm sure this will send Kyle back into a spiral of drinking and it will have ramifications and blah, blah, blah and I just really don't care at all.
Grade: B+
Next up, Lois and Chrissy dive deeper into the Inverse Society while Superman urges Anderson to investigate them.
How are you all liking season two so far? Are you as into the Ally plot as I am? What do you think about Bizarro? Did they way they link up surprise you? Let me know in the comments.
No comments:
Post a Comment