The CW's Superman & Lois is the Arrowverse's most confident debut yet

San Francisco Chronicle

"Starring Tyler Hoechlin and Elizabeth Tulloch as the title twosome, Superman & Lois is a spin-off of CW stablemate Supergirl (now entering its sixth and final season)," says Zaki Hasan. "It’s also the latest entry in a remarkable DC Comics-based television franchise, known to fans as the Arrowverse, that’s proliferated on the network since the 2012 debut of Arrow. But while many of the same creatives are involved behind the scenes, including omnipresent producer Greg Berlanti (who co-developed the show with Todd Helbing), this series boasts a unique visual palette and noticeably bigger budget that elevates it from its sister shows. Its premise also carries the well-trodden Superman story to directions never before seen onscreen: The titular superhero and his ace reporter wife are now doting parents." Hasan adds: "From the two episodes made available for review, the show is off to a promising start at balancing the Kents’ family drama with the various elements of derring-do one expects from a show with the word 'Superman' in its title. This is helped along by the palpable chemistry between the title stars. Hoechlin has a self-effacing quality drawing to mind the best elements of Christopher Reeve’s Superman and Dean Cain’s Clark, while also marking a place for himself separate from fellow current Superman Henry Cavill. And while Lois’ story line, which involves digging into shady financial goings-on in Smallville, doesn’t really kick in until episode two, Tulloch easily embodies the gutsy spirit we’ve come to expect from one of the most famous investigative journalists in fiction."

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• Superman & Lois is able to juggle the superhero story with a human element: "Superman & Lois actually weaves a compelling story from the efforts of the character to balance his responsibility to the world with the time and attention he owes his family," says Eric Deggans. "Many years ago, I read a quote from a science fiction writer who said that watching a superhuman man confront a problem is boring; he's going to win. But watching a regular man confront a superhuman problem is where great drama lies. Superman & Lois has it both ways — contrasting Superman's struggle to beat a surprisingly powerful mystery villain with Clark Kent's effort to connect with his family and handle a series of surprising losses."
• Superman & Lois finds a new way to solve the Superman problem: "Superman & Lois isn’t the first TV series to attempt to humanize Superman," says Noel Murray. "Smallville aired on the CW (and its precursor, the WB) from 2001-11, producing 10 seasons and more than 200 episodes of stories that generally minimized super-heroics in favor of dramatizing the emotions and relationships of a small-town youngster hiding a big secret. Before that, the late-’80s/early-’90s syndicated action-adventure Superboy featured multiple approaches to Clark Kent’s early life, including depicting him as a college journalism student, then later sending him to work for an X-Files-like paranormal investigation agency. In the mid-’90s, Lois & Clark aimed to be a workplace dramedy, sprinkled with fantastical interludes and swooning romance. All these shows — and now Superman & Lois — have tried to work around what could be called 'the Superman problem.' When a hero is essentially all-powerful, vulnerable only to a rare radioactive rock (and occasionally to magic), how do you introduce the kind of narrative obstacles necessary for a good story? The answer: Focus on what he can’t control, like the well-being of his friends and family."
• Superman & Lois' mediocrity is probably intentional: "Just as The CW's Walker is a pretty dreadful show when it's trying to be a remake of Walker, Texas Ranger, Superman & Lois is at best a mediocre show when it's trying to be a Superman show," says Daniel Fienberg. "And that's probably intentional. The series wants you to invest in the domestic unrest in Casa Superman, to take an interest in the Kent twins and maybe even to ponder Lois' work-flow at the Daily Planet. And it knows you won't do that if the show is equally invested in the Big Bad and his nefarious scheme. In the two episodes sent to critics, it's presented as a total imposition and inconvenience whenever Clark has to change into his tights and save the world."
• Kudos to Superman & Lois for not casting a bodybuilder as Superman: "I always wondered why the various iterations of TV and movie Supermen through the decades almost always looked like bodybuilders," says Richard Roeper. "After all, Superman didn’t get his strength and superpowers from hitting the gym; wouldn’t it make it easier for him to blend in as 'Clark Kent, mild-mannered reporter' if he wasn’t all bulked up? With that in mind, kudos to the new CW series Superman & Lois for casting Tyler Hoechlin as Clark Kent/Superman, for while Hoechlin certainly looks to be in shape, he’s built more like a smallish punt returner than an outside linebacker. Then again, Superman is still fooling people by donning glasses to mask his secret identity, so some things never change."
• We simply haven’t seen this live-action Clark and Lois story before, as struggling parents: "And because of that, it perhaps never dawned on anyone that Clark could be, well, a bit of a crappy dad, regularly missing family events and gravitating toward the (preternaturally?) athletic son," says Matt Webb Mitovich. "Those dicey topics, and the way the first episodes get into them, are different and interesting."
• Superman & Lois' big problem is that one of its title characters isn't that important: "The bigger issue: Lois is the fifth most crucial character in the premiere, sixth if you count the enigmatic stranger, seventh if you spark to Lana's quiet domestic tragedy," says Darren Franich. "In episode 2, she starts a deeper investigation into Morgan Edge, which foregrounds a lot of Bigger Conversations about the state of investigative journalism. Something's missing here, though. You get zero sense of the work-life balance for an award-winning reporter with twin teenagers and a husband who's always away. I think it's crucial that Lois Lane seem just as busy as Clark Kent — that, in fact, her powerless professionalism should come off way more impressive than her invincible coworker-bae who's secretly writing his own positive press."
• Superman & Lois is a departure from Arrowverse in a good way: "The CW DC shows have generally been set in cities (or spaceships) and worked with a kind of heightened comic book reality that served the tone of those shows, but Superman and Lois is a departure there as well," says Jessica Mason. "Clark and Lois head home to Smallville and end up staying, and that rural, hardscrabble, small-town setting means the series takes more cues from Friday Night Lights than it does from Supergirl most of the time. I like that. I think it’s really interesting and sets the show apart from anything else in the superhero landscape right now. It’s not a brooding or serious as Batwoman (though the show has become more fun this season thanks to a lead actress that likes being on the show) or the late Arrow, and it’s not as wacky and wild as Legends of Tomorrow. Superman & Lois is just as concerned with the consequences of reverse mortgages for the elderly and small-town economic woes as with Superman preventing a nuclear meltdown. And that’s intriguing."
• Superman & Lois shows that the Arrowverse can evolve and change: "What exactly is so groundbreaking about a superhero show that functions more like a family drama on The CW?" says Megan Vick. "Superman & Lois is technically the first new Arrowverse show to premiere on The CW after the end of Arrow. (Stargirl premiered last spring after the Arrow finale, but it was originally created for DC Universe and co-aired on The CW.) As such, this new show is the start of a new chapter for the Arrowverse, which has previously followed a pretty succinct recipe for success. Yes, each of the Arrowverse heroes has their own distinct personality and thus the vibe of the shows they lead varies depending on who is leading the team, but Superman & Lois is the first show in this universe to change the timbre of the world, and by aging up Superman and his family, it opens up the type of stories this show can tell. It shows that even after a decade, the Arrowverse has the ability to evolve and change, which is a crucial point to make as The CW continues to devote roughly half of its schedule to these heroes."
• Elizabeth Tulloch and Tyler Hoechlin say Superman & Lois' advantage is showing a superhero family struggling: "The show is really about a family, and it’s a family that is dealing with a lot of the same kinds of issues that people around the world are dealing with right now," says Tulloch. "The Superman and Lois aspect is secondary. It’s interesting to see these iconic characters struggle. They are at the pinnacle of their careers, but as parents to teenagers, they are faltering a little." Hoechlin adds: " It’s not like you show up every week and they have all the answers. That aspect allows you to put yourself in their shoes."
• Hoechlin on why Superman is more relevant than ever: "As far as being relevant, the one thing I always look at is, 'When is it irrelevant that you need someone who is always there to do good?'" he says. "I hope to God we don't have a time where we don't think it's important to have people around who just stand up for what's right and help those who can't help themselves kind of thing. For me, that relevant question always come back to that. I don't know a time that we're ever not going to need people who step in to do good and do the right thing."
• Superman & Lois boss explains the premiere's twist: "Our show is different," says showrunner showrunner Todd Helbing. "We wanted to tell a new story. There’s a lot of twists and turns, secrets are revealed and mysteries unfold in (a) way that this version is going to feel fresh and new and completely different than anything we’ve seen before.”