TV Talk - Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman Season 3

Well, it’s finally time I got back to Lois and Clark: the New Adventures of Superman. I’ve gone through the first two seasons and they were good for the most part. It took a while to get through this season since I had other stuff to do. I remember seeing most of these episodes when they first aired. I know I missed some episodes including most of the season finale. It probably had something to do with church or we were out of town. The show still had a bit of an ongoing narrative with Clark’s and Lois’s relationship. Last season ended with something that was a big game-changer: Clark proposes to Lois. Even though they really only went out about four times, he asks her to marry him.

Season Three picks up that big plot point as well as Lois realizing Clark is Superman. The season basically revolves around them trying to make their relationship work through a lot of obstacles. There is a wedding and that’s all I’ll say about that for now.  There really aren’t any major cast changes this season or in the final season. Unfortunately, there aren’t many villains from the comics this time as well. We do get the return of Lex Luthor, which is always cool. We finally get some other Kryptonians showing up on the show. The season ended on a downer this time with Clark… well, that would be spoiling, wouldn’t it?

PROS

 Superman: Now, listen here, "Number One!" If you even get to be director of the next Star Trek movie, it had best be decent!

While this season pales in comparison to the first two, there are good things to say about it. Teri Hatcher and Dean Cain still sell it as Lois and Clark. We see them go through the ups and downs of their relationship and that was cool for the most part.  It’s a little rockier as Lois literally finds out his secret in the first minutes of Season Three. Lois even got a new hair-do. The two have probably the fastest wedding in a season since it took 14 episodes to get to that point. Fortunately (and unfortunately), this led Lex Luthor to return for the final time. While I’m not a huge fan of that arc, John Shea still sold it as Lex Luthor and kept that his part of the arc afloat for me.

While Perry and Jimmy were pushed further into the background, I still liked them. Perry even got to do something other than bark orders at Lois and Clark this season. A minute subplot about Perry and his wife’s separation was introduced. The Kents were fine as usual. They provided support and laughs when needed. We also have Lois’s parents playing a bit of a role this season and they were okay for the most part. I also liked the two Kryptonians that are introduced towards the end of the season. The show rarely focused on Clark’s alien heritage and this was nice even though Krypton’s culture was a little different here. STAR Labs also played decent role in the season with Dr. Klein basically being the replacement for Emil Hamilton and I liked him as well.

Other than Luthor, you didn’t have a lot of cool villains from the comics show up this season. We did get some villains that were interesting though. We did get Baron Sunday, a voodoo magician, to terrorize Clark. We also had an eccentric rich couple who were out to collect Superman and Lois. The couple was funnily played by Jonathan Frakes and his real wife, Genie Francis. We even get some Nazis this season and Nazis are always nice bad guys. Tempus the time traveler also makes an appearance and that was an interesting episode. Towards the end of the season, there is an alien bounty hunter named Tez and he was played by Roger Daultery of The Who. He was okay for the most part but his look was weird. He looked like the white version of Coolio or Flava Flav without his hats.

Dang, the alien has the worst case of gingivitis I've ever seen!

While you had some lackluster episodes this season, there were some good, standout episodes. The action and special effects were as about the same as last season. They were a little better but not by much. It’s a TV budget, remember? Overall, I did like this season, but it definitely pales in comparison to the first two seasons.

CONS

 Uh... Eh?

First off, there’s a part of me that feels like they rushed Lois’s and Clark’s relationship. They had only been on a few dates before Clark proposes to her. While it took a few episodes before they were officially engaged, it felt a little rushed. It may be the fact that the season was all about their relationship. Their time at the Daily Planet didn’t feel as important as before. Another niggle is the fact that Jimmy and Perry were shoved so far in the background that there were times when we didn’t even see them if at all. While Perry had his marriage issues, there wasn’t anything interesting about them. We never even met his wife, Alice, and that made me care less about that whole thing.

The season also had some pretty lackluster villains. The first couple of seasons had a couple of lackluster villains, but you’d think we get some more decent villains than we got this season.  Most of them tended to have that Lex/Otis vibe from the movies and that's kind of "bleh" since we get it a lot of that this season.We also didn’t get any major villains from the comics. It’s like the creators only saw Toyman, the Prankster, Metallo, and Luthor as Superman's only villains. He had a lot more than that especially during this era and it sucks that we didn’t get any more of them especially ones that could stand toe-to toe with Superman. Intergang definitely went down the crapper when Mindy Church (Bill Church’s new, hot-nurse wife) was brought in. I couldn’t stand that woman’s voice.

Then, we get to the wedding. It’s a five-part story arc that involves the wedding, clones, frogs, amnesia, a lecherous doctor, Bibbo (!), and Lex Luthor. The basic story is that Lois gets cloned and kidnapped by Luthor while Clark marries the clone. Lois then gets amnesia where she believes she’s a character from a book and then she looses her memory completely. For their first long arc, it’s not that good. The last time we had clones was “Vatman” and I didn’t like that episode much. I will say that some of the stuff with the clones was okay. Luthor was the main highlight of that arc. After he’s gone, the arc meanders until Lois gets her memory back. It’s one that I unfortunately don’t want to revisit anytime soon.

This series also had the worst version of Lana Lang. Mind you, this version was actually from an alternate universe where Lois died and Clark never became Superman. Still, she kind of sucked. Overall, the cons to this season really stick out this time around.

FAVORITE EPISODES

 Yes, I like this episode and it's not just because Teri Hatcher is looking "Smokin" in that suit.

Last, but not least, here are my six (technically seven) favorite episodes from the season.

1. Ultra Woman – Through a mishap involving red Kryptonite, Lois gains Clark’s powers.
2. Tempus, Anyone? – Tempus returns to send Lois to an alternate dimension where she’s dead, Perry is running for governor (?), and Clark never became Superman.
3. Seconds – Lex Luthor declares war on Superman and keeps hoarding an amnesiac Lois.
4. Through A Glass, Darkly/Big Girls Don’t Fly – A group of Kryptonians come to Earth in order to test Clark and see if he is the right one to lead their people on New Krypton.
5. Don’t Tug on Superman’s Cape – A eccentric couple want Superman and Lois as a souvenir for their collection.
6. Never On Sunday – A magician named Baron Sunday wants revenge on Clark for a story he wrote in his days before the Daily Planet.

Overall, Season Three is where the show started to slip. The show wasn’t perfect in the first two seasons, but it’s this season where the cracks began to show. Add the fake wedding arc to that and you get a pretty uneven season. Still, it does have its moments and decent episodes. As of now, it is my least favorite season. I haven’t even gotten to Season Four yet, so I can’t say if this season is the worst. Well, I’m outta here. Peace, God Bless, and watch out for clones who eat frogs… yes, they ate frogs. Man, this season’s weird.