TV Review: Superman & Lois (Season 1)

***This review contains minor spoilers***

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With its first season, “Superman & Lois” quickly establishes itself as not just a great new addition to the Arrowverse, but one of the best superhero shows to date. Only some weird pacing choices and a few other odd decisions negatively impact the overall product.

The plot is the show’s biggest issue. It starts one way, and midway through it goes in a seemingly different direction. Initially, it’s about a mysterious stranger who is out for blood that can go toe-to-toe with Superman. But, that thread eventually does a 180, and the corrupt businessman Morgan Edge takes center stage in an interesting new take on Superman’s mythology. His evil plan doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense, and it’s only in the final few episodes that we get a better idea what the end goal is…although that still seems too vague. Characters that seem important in early episodes get suddenly shoved aside, and only later we get some idea of their importance to the overall story. (Some of this could be due to COVID, as at least one major change to the story was made while they had time to reflect on the show.) One thing that was a constant was the family drama. Not just a consistent story thread, but consistently compelling.

These family moments are well-written. While they still on occasion come off as cliché, there’s also a realness there. People act more like real people, and they display complicated emotions that make sense for their characters. (Although sometimes Jonathan’s role as the “good son” occasional seems like it shouldn’t be able to withstand all the crap he ends up dealing with.) But what ultimately makes it all work is the acting, All the lead actors do a great job, but it ends up being Elizabeth Tulloch’s Lois Lane that does the heavy-lifting. She is able to go from confident, world-famous reporter to a sobbing vulnerable mother and quite a few things in-between. As far as the villains go, they’re pretty one-dimensional besides Edge. And while he has some strong moments, the details come so late in the story that it doesn’t really elevate him as much as it could’ve.

The show looks, and sounds, fantastic. It’s shot almost like a movie, with some solid cinematography. The special effects are lightyears above the other Arrowverse shows, and are easily up there with the pricier HBO Max series. And the sound effects, like the boom when Superman takes off or the sear of heat vision drive home the power of these characters, and mesh well with a strong soundtrack.

“Superman & Lois” season one is a great blend of modern superhero storytelling and classic Superman from other media. Strong, family-oriented story arcs, anchored by great acting compliment the high-stakes action later in the season. But, the zig-zag path it takes to get there and the frequent jettisoning of seemingly-important characters keeps it from feeling like a cohesive tale.

**** out of *****

Movie Review: The Suicide Squad

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A sequel that easily surpasses the original, this film fires a barrage of humor, gore, misfit characters, and action that just don’t quite payoff in the end. While the plot is a pretty straightforward tale of a ragtag group on a dangerous mission, most of the attempts to surprise the audience can be seen coming a mile away. (Although a lot of this might be due to the film’s trailers.) There are also a few moments where the film jumps around with chronologically. It works fine initially, but it hurts the flow more often than not. The characters are a mixed-bag. Since most of them are obscure characters, the audience has no expectations about them. This hurts the film early on, because most of them are clearly bad people, or we assume they’re bad because of their status as prisoners in a super-max prison. It makes it tricky to find anybody to root for, and even harder to know if any of them should trust each other. That means the story has to work extra hard to make you sympathize with them. Thankfully, strong performances from the cast help make these characters more palatable. It’s not just the acting, but also the way the actors portray their characters that breathe life into them and really help them gel as a group. The action is good, with everybody’s unique fighting styles and abilities keeping the action distinct depending on the characters. The special effects look pretty solid (especially with King Shark, whose scales look life-like in his close-ups.) This film is absolutely Rated R, thanks to lots of swearing, full-frontal male and female nudity, and an almost-gratuitous amount of gore. There’s a mid-credits and post-credit scene. The final one seems to be the more important of the two.

***1/2 out of *****