Superman & Lois Season 2 (2022) TV Show Review

 Hey everyone! How's your week going so far? Mine's been pretty good. So, we're at the end of the second season of Superman & Lois, which is one of the best superhero shows on TV right now, so I decided to come and talk about it because I have alot of thoughts. There will be spoilers for the season so if you're watching the show and aren't caught up on the season, or were waiting for the season to be finished before watching it, then don't read this review until you've finished the season. Now, let's get into it.

Superman is probably one of the hardest characters to write for. Mainly because he's so powerful that it's hard to come up with a threat for him to struggle with instead of taking it out with one punch. This is a problem that the movies and TV shows have had since the '70s and '80s when the Christopher Reeve movies were coming out. It's because of that difficulty that I am amazed at how well this season turned out. But I think that's because the writers focused on the characters rather than on Superman's abilities. Which is key.

When the season started and it looked like they were going in the Death of Superman/Doomsday route I was concerned because the show hadn't been renewed for a third season yet and killing Superman off in this season made sense if the series was going to be canceled. But that shifted very quickly into Bizarro territory, which is something we haven't really seen since Smallville and even then it wasn't full on Bizarro, if I remember correctly. And the crazy thing is they didn't go Kryptonian or Luthor for the villain this season. They went with a more recent version of the villain Parasite, Alexandra Allston (Ally on the show), who is from Greg Rucka's run on The Adventures of Superman in 2004. Which is interesting given how much the TV shows and movies love using Lex Luthor, General Zod, and Doomsday as the villains.

Speaking of Ally, I spent the entire season trying to figure out where I've seen the actress who plays her, Rya Kihlstedt, before. I looked her up on Wikipedia and she played Alice Ribbons, one of the four criminals in Home Alone 3 (1997). She's 25 years older than she was in that movie, but every time she smiled is when I had the feeling that I'd seen her play a bad guy before. 

I kinda felt that Jonathan's storyline fizzled out once he and Candace reveal to Lois and Sam their involvement with the X-Kryptonite. It felt like it was leading up to something major linked to Ally, but that went away very quickly and it feels unfinished to me. Maybe something to be picked up next season?

I liked Jordan's storyline for the most part. I say the most part because this is the stuff that felt the most like a CW show this season. It was fine but there were times where the writers wrote Sarah like they were writing Lana Lang from Smallville. Mind you there were also moments where they were writing Lana like Lana from Smallville, but I'll get into that a little bit more later. I also like that Sarah also had her own storyline that had nothing to do with Jordan. It made her feel more like an actual character, which is hard to come by in superhero shows like this. Normally the love interest is pushed to the side. Especially if she's/he's/they're not one of the leads.

Speaking of Lana, she was written fairly well this season. Except for those first couple of episodes after Clark revealed that he's Superman to her. Those lines were very shades of Lana from Smallville and it felt a bit odd coming from Emmanuelle Chriqui's Lana, who has been one of my favourite characters on the show so far. I did like the her becoming mayor storyline and I felt it kinda held back the sting of the marital problems storyline they had going on between her and Kyle this season. That sort of thing is so cliched, particularly for a CW show, not to mention a CW comic book based show, that it kind of fell flat for me. Aside from the whole cheating on Lana thing, Kyle was actually pretty good this season.

Finally, after two seasons the season finale finally made it clear that Superman & Lois takes place on an Earth that is separate from Earth Prime, where the rest of the Arrowverse takes place, and that Superman is the only hero on that Earth. Which explains why the Flash, Supergirl, Batwoman, and the Legends didn't show up to lend a hand when Superman was on Bizarro World or when Ally had stripped him of his powers. Because those events definitely needed the other heroes to show up. Setting it on a separate Earth, as they had originally done with Supergirl, makes it easier for the writers be creative with solutions to the problems that Superman has, without writing a conceit into scripts as to why Barry or Kara don't just show up to help save the day. So I like that because I've felt that Warner Bros. has relied too heavily on the shared universe aspect of the DC Universe for these shows and movies. I did enjoy seeing David Ramsay show up as Diggle for two minutes at the end of the finale to talk to John Henry Irons.

Speaking of John Henry Irons, he and his daughter Nat were great this season. I wasn't sure about how Nat would fit in with everyone on the show, but I enjoyed watching her adjust to life on a new Earth, with people that resemble her mom and the person who killed her mom. This show's version of John Henry Irons is becoming one of my favourite characters in any DC Comics based show and his comic book counterpart, John Henry Irons/Steel is a great character in the comics.

Overall this season was amazing. Aside from a few issues I had with how Lana and Sarah were written in a couple of episodes, this was a solid season of television. A bit more dramatic than season 1 but it wasn't too over the top like it would've been on any other CW DC Comics based show, so I'm happy. If you enjoyed the first season but haven't watched this season yet, or just aren't caught up on it yet, I highly recommend watching it. It's a great Superman show and the best CW DC show.

That my friends is going to be it for me for today. I'll be back tomorrow for a look at the 1988 trade paperback collection, The Greatest Batman Stories Ever Told. So until then have a wonderful afternoon and I will talk to you all later. Take care.