Superman and Lois – Closer review S3 E1
With a minimal amount of the melodrama that upended Season 2, Closer provided plenty of reasons to be optimistic for the new season of Superman and Lois.
Clark is working at the Smallville Gazette alongside Lois and Chrissy. The shared workspace has put a spark back into Clark and Lois’ love life as they’re acting like newlyweds.
While Lois is investigating the latest activities of crime boss Bruno Mannheim (Chad L. Coleman, The Walking Dead, All-American), in Metropolis, Clark is training Jordan.
The hologram fighting simulations with Atomic Skull and Titano was a nice touch. Later on, Jordan tries to help Superman deal with an emergency in Malaysia only to make the situation worse. That’s what not listening to Superman will get you, Jordan,
Lois didn’t miss out on son bonding time as she helps Jonathan with driving. The “Your father is a terrible driver” was a great line as that’s something that makes perfect sense that Superman wouldn’t be great at doing.
New Jonathan actor Michael Bishop did just fine replacing Jordan Elsass. The show runners made the transition from one actor to another as seamless as possible by not making a big deal of it and using the season premiere as a soft reset on Jonathan.
John Henry is working with General Lane, who’s just as interested in bringing Natalie into the fold. This feels like a common issue with Steel even in the comic books where John Henry on his own is never enough and Nat has to be brought in as well. Sam is initially so focused on recruiting Nat to the DOD that he glosses over the fact that in her world, her grandfather looked just like him.
This subplot mercifully doesn’t stretch out too long. Sam apologizes for taking Nat on a recruiting chat under the pretense of seeing a horror movie and vows to establish a genuine relationship with her. I like the pairing of Sam with John Henry and Nat as this should allow for some useful DOD storylines without always relying on Superman to fix a problem.
Speaking of problems, Lana’s feelings towards Kyle remain a death trap for the writers. It feels like they desperately want viewers invested in this will she?/won’t she? deal, but the writers killed off all the interest in the Kyle and Lana subplot the moment they decided to separate them was a good idea.
This episode reveals Lana still hasn’t signed the divorce papers claiming she’s too busy. I’m sure this is more of a eventually the writers hope to reunite them, but that ship of interest is long out the port. Lana also has to deal with mold at a school and diverting some money the old mayor had earmarked for something. That all seems like the writers trying to load up the Lana subplots for the season.
Equally tiresome is the Sarah/Jordan subplot. The writers put themselves in a corner by tying her so close to Jordan, but her relevance to the show is more as Jordan’s love interest not as Lana and Kyle’s daughter.
Sarah wants time to herself and wants Jordan to respect that, but also wants him not to ignore her. That doesn’t make sense.
Cool note about this episode. It was directed by The Flash’s Thawne himself, Tom Cavanagh.
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Lois goes undercover to talk to this Earth’s John Henry’s sister, Dr. Irons (Angel Parker, The Recruit). Despite her initial misgivings, Dr. Irons does offer some insight on what got her brother killed. Also, Lois really did have a legit reason for going to the doctor. She might be pregnant!
Both Lois and Clark are excited about the idea of being parents again and share the news with their BFFs — Lana and John Henry.
The twins’ 16th birthday goes a lot smoother than Sarah’s, but Clark has to stop a threat in Metropolis after the slideshow.
One thing this show has excelled at since the start is the constant heroic presentation of Superman and making him look cool while doing it. Superman battles Atom-Man (Paul Lazenby) and it’s another impressive fight scene on a TV budget.
Superman can’t stop Atom-Man from getting gunned down by some mysterious figure although there’s no trace of any bullets.
Chrissy commiserates with Kyle on their sorry lives and they pull a Best Man and wind up sleeping together. Kyle is fine with a one-night hookup — Chrissy seems like a clinger — but before she runs off for her Walk of Shame, Lana knocks on the door tearfully holding the signed divorce papers. Yay?
Lois isn’t pregnant, but something is wrong with her physically. Hopefully sick Lois won’t be her dominant subplot this season.
Manheim is cooking up something in his lair and has Atom-Man re-animated just like he told the mysterious figure. He’s excited about the prospect of them getting closer.
The usual Lana/Sarah drama aside, this was a strong kickoff to the season with lots of exciting directions to take the various subplots. If they can limit the goofy teen melodrama the show seems poised to get back on track.
Rating: 8 out of 10
Photo Credit: The CW