Bringing It Home

When the CW changed ownership hands, having been sold by CBS and Warner Bros. over to Nexstar, it was assumed that there would be changes for the network. The CW technically was never profitable, producing a lot of low-watched shows that never rose above “that’s CW fare” in the mind of audiences. A show that did well on the CW could maybe pull in a 2.0 share in the ratings, while a successful show over on CBS or ABC was getting a 8.0 share, sometimes upwards of a 13.0. Viewership for the network was low, and this meant that CW shows ended up being cheaper, catering to an audience that was interested but never having the kinds of breakout hits other networks could see. And now, in an era where terrestrial TV is dying, it’s hard to see any network being as successful as they once were.

Nexstar’s purchase has changed a lot for the network, bringing in more sports, more Canadian shows, with less money spent on homegrown hits. And the biggest change is that all the major shows that once were the bread and butter of the CW, most specifically the ArrowverseWhen it was announced that the CW was creating a show based on the Green Arrow, people laughed. The CW? Really? Was it going to be teen-oriented like everything else on the network and be called "Arrow High"? And yet that one show, Arrow has spawned three spin-offs, various related shows and given DC a successful shared universe, the Arrowverse on TV and streaming., they’re all gone now. The Flash wrapped up last season, and with this fourth season that just finished airing a few weeks ago (before debuting on Max, where I watched it), the very last remnant of DC’s big superhero TV crossover universe is gone. And, in a way, it went out just about as well as it could have.

Superman & Lois has been one of the best of the Arrowverse shows, even after its first season when it then diverged from the main Arrowverse and became its own thing. I don’t begrudge the show as splitting off and doing its own thing allowed it to introduce new versions of many of its characters, reformatting and changing things up to find fresh new stories that hadn’t already been explored over on Supergirl. In this season we get to see a new version of Lex Luthor, very different from the one played by Jon Cryer over on its parent series, as well as new actors playing Jimmy Olsen and his sister, Kelly. Plus, splitting off meant the show could stake out its own tone, its own style. It didn’t have to be beholden to the Arrowverse format. It could be its own thing.

Sometimes it’s actually successful at that. This fourth, and last, season, trimmed down to just 10 episodes when the show had been 13 to 15 in seasons prior, has to do a lot with only a little. Less episodes were coupled with a smaller budget, and many of the main cast members were downgraded to recurring roles. This means there’s more focus put onto the core family, Clark and Lois along with their two sons, Jordan and Johnathan. And, honestly, this is where the focus should be as they’re the best characters on the show. Okay, maybe not Jordan and Johnathan, as neither of them have impressed me, but Clark and Lois are fantastic. That hasn’t changed in this fourth season.

For my money, and I’ve said this every season of the show, Tyler Hoechlin is the best live action SupermanThe first big superhero from DC Comics, Superman has survived any number of pretenders to the throne, besting not only other comic titans but even Wolrd War II to remain one of only three comics to continue publishing since the 1940s. we’ve yet had (maybe that changes with James Gunn’s film, but that’s not out at the time of this writing). He embodies all the qualities we want from Superman. He has the boyish, aw shucks charm that Clark should have considering he was raised by two sweet, well meaning parents in Smallville. He has a dorky quality that plays so well considering Clark had to be on his own, alone, for much of his life once he grew up. And he’s able to project the beacon of hope we all need, the do-right quality that Superman evokes just standing there, existing. That doesn’t change here. If anything, with the renewed focus on the core four of the cast, Clark gets even more time to show off his best qualities, and it lets Hoechlin shine.

Elizabeth Tulloch is also fantastic again this season. While last season her character was mired in the cancer storyline (which I actually didn’t hate as it allowed us to explore new facets of the relationship between Clark and Lois), Lois gets to be a bigger player against the villain this time around. She and Lex have history, and Lex’s grand plans this season aren’t specifically aimed at Superman but at Lois. He wants to destroy her and it lets Tulloch play well as the heroic heavy against the villain. We get multiple sides to her character from the actress, but above it all she continues to be a strong Lois.

And I think the new Lex they’ve brought in, as played by Michael Cudlitz, is solid. He’s a big, strong dude, physically imposing, but you also see the rage and anger riding in the villain. He’s not comic accurate, but then most of this show isn’t so I don’t hold that against Lex. What he is, though, is a strong opponent for both Clark and Lois, playing them from multiple angles, getting into their heads. It works well, and creates a really strong dynamic between the heroes and the villain that the season needed.

With all that said, this is still a CW show and all the inherent flaws with the format come with. For starters, this is frankly a story that could have been told at movie length, or maybe as a short mini-series. Lex battling Lois while the monster he created, Doomsday, battles Superman, can make for an interesting couple of episodes or so, but it isn’t enough meat to draw out ten episodes. By the halfway point we’d already seen most of what the season had to offer, meaning the back half, despite a few interesting story ideas, feels like it starts to drag.

There’s also multiple moments of just terrible writing that are unforgivable. One of the worst is a sequence that sees John Henry Irons’s Steel save a man trapped in a rolled car, but that man is a hacker that was planted there to steal Steel’s suit. Except, how could he know Irons would be the one to save him. Even with a situation engineered to put Superman far away from the scene, there are multiple other heroes (both Superboys) nearby that likely should have been the ones to save the guy instead. It’s lazy writing to set up a situation where the suit gets stolen all so Lex can have it and then use it to battle Superman.

But… Lex is supposed to be a business (and maybe tech) genius. He should have been able to pay someone to build him a suit, with no need to steal one. He could buy out an entire armory if he wanted and build the Lex Suit of his dreams. It’s lazy writing, not just in the way it’s set but also so that the show can write out some of the pieces from the story’s chess board for the finale of the show. I couldn’t stop my brain from questioning it and it absolutely pulled me out of the moment.

At the same time, sometimes the show hit absolute pay dirt. One of the best storylines in the show was Clark trying to keep his identity a secret as more and more people have learned it over the last couple of seasons. But then, when pushed to the point when keeping the secret was too difficult anymore, Clark had to reveal who he truly was. And this makes you realize that Clark has been lying to people for his whole life which seems to go against the very moral fiber of Superman. His reveal, and then the discussion afterwards, allows for character growth in a way you wouldn’t expect from Superman, and that’s great. This was a solid character decision and I’m glad the show committed to it.

Look, if the show were continuing on for another season or two then I’d probably judge this fourth season more harshly. It does a lot to wrap up its storylines and send its characters into the great beyond with grace. The creators knew the show was ending so they did all they could to end it right and I respect that. The show didn’t linger for another four or five seasons (looking at you, The Flash), and it got to go out on its own terms. It might have had flaws this season, but in the end it got to a solid place and wrote an ending that feels complete. Plus, in the process, it got to define its core characters and give us great performances from all of them, which I really liked.

Superman & Lois was never perfect but it understood its characters better than most Superman adaptations ever have. I’m going to miss this show’s Clark and Lois, and I know I’m gonna go back at some point and watch this whole series again. It’s a definitive take on Superman, flaws and all, and a really great show from start to finish. You accept the flaws because the show got to go out the way it wanted, and that’s better than ending too soon or lingering past the point when it should have died. This fourth season does right by the series and, in the end, that’s really what it needed to do.