CLARK:Will you marry me?LOIS:Who’s asking? Clark or Superman?-- “We Have A Lot to Talk About” (03.01)
Ah, Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman (or any variation of that title) was the Smallville of its time. Kid-friendly but with enough eye-candy and adult references to please the parents, Deborah Joy Levine’s vision was to place the relationship between Lois and Clark center stage while Superman continued to battle evil super villains and Lex Luthor (who undoubtedly deserves a mention of his own). On one hand, it was brilliantly good clean fun; on the other, it went to bizarre lengths to keep Lois and Clark from getting hitched, losing most of its audience when the audience lost patience.

Brilliant is definitely the way to describe the chemistry between the two leads. Teri Hatcher and Dean Cain sizzled on screen. They had great back and forth, and undoubtedly their interaction worked best before they got together and they lost some of their sparring in domestic bliss and/or romantic angst. While both of them got a lot of reviews for being hunky (in the case of Cain) or beautiful (in the case of Hatcher), they did actually perform their roles brilliantly too. Personally, I can always remember Cain’s performance in the episode where Clark loses his memory and forgets that he’s Superman (“All Shook Up”, 01.12), and Hatcher’s when she has to convince an alternate dimension version of Clark to assume the mantle of Superman (“Tempus Anyone?”, 03.14). They both put in a great performance in the Season 2 finale when Lois is frozen to enable Clark to save his parents (“And the Answer Is…”, 02.22).

Also brilliant was John Shea as Lex Luthor. Shea was fantastic; managing to convey a Luthor insane in his megalomania but charming in his mask of civility. Shea and Cain built a very credible superhero versus super villain anti-relationship between them in Season 1 and the show lost something when it lost Shea as Luthor (you would have thought Smallville might have learned something, but never mind). Inter-gang, Tempus, Lord Nor and various Luthor-wannabees never managed to quite give Superman enough of a challenge thereafter. Shea did revisit the role for the whole frog-eating clone debacle but more on that later.

Brilliant too was the supporting cast of Lane Smith, Justin Whalin, Eddie Jones, K Callan and the many recurring actors who turned up over the four years. However, these four provided the nucleus around Lois and Clark that enabled the two main stars to shine at the same time as being credible side-kicks. Smith, in particular, made a lovably gruff Perry White with his up and down relationship with unseen wife Alice being a running joke on the series.

Unfortunately, what were at the time brilliant special effects don’t quite meet the standard now -- there’s too much fake about the CGI, the cuts and pastes between foreground and background can be seen. But they should be mentioned too in the ‘brilliant’ category since they were brilliant at the time for a small screen endeavor. But let’s now turn our attention to the bizarre.

Three words: Frog. Eating. Clones.

Need I say more? Well, if you insist. Frankly, where Lois and Clark started losing fans -- and certainly this fan -- was in the bizarre obstacles that it threw in the path of Lois and Clark getting hitched once Lois had decided to marry Clark in the fantastic episode, “Ultrawoman” (03.07). By the time the actual wedding arrived in “Swear to God, This Time We’re Not Kidding” (04.03), we’d had frog eating clones,best tv series online, Lex back from the dead, Lois losing her memory and being vampy nightclub singer Wanda, amnesiac Lois falling in love with her shrink, Clark’s long-lost Kryptonian bride turning up to claim him and Lord Nor wanting to take over the world but bizarrely (I’m sorry but it really is the only word that fits) settling for Smallville!

In retrospect, I don’t think it was so much the frog eating clone or the delays (they were kind of expected) but that the audience (read: ME?) felt cheated. I had been promised a beautiful romantic wedding and the happily ever after. I got the wedding but IT WAS WITH A CLONE! (And yes, capslock is required). Hell hath no fury than a fandom scorned (you may have noticed that I may still have some unresolved anger).

Season 4 was actually reasonably good (wedding episode aside). Episodes such as “Sex, Lies and Videotape” (04.13),buy cheap movies online, “Meet John Doe/Lois and Clarks” (04.14/15), and “I’ve Got You Under My Skin” (04.20) were better than reasonably good, but Season 3’s complete farce meant that a lot of people had simply lost interest. And so Lois and Clark ended happily married and with a baby left on their doorstep to provide them with the complete family.

In many ways, Lois and Clark was at its best in Season 1 when Lois knew nothing about Clark’s secret and Superman had a consistent baddie in Luthor to battle against but it was always good fun in its subsequent seasons. While it probably got the moment to reveal the truth to Lois completely right, it badly misjudged the whole wedding debacle. Brilliant and bizarre (as I may have mentioned), it still remains as one of the more cherished shows of my late teens. Maybe one of these days, I’ll even forgive the frog eating clones.

Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman 28D9+2D5 DVD Boxset

Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman 28D9+2D5 DVD Boxset

Region: FREE  Audio: English Dolby Surround  Discs: 28D9+2D5  Format: Support both NTSC & PAL  Price: $58.99  Display Format: Fullscreen    Subtitle: English

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