Superman and Lois (2021) – Pilot Review

The pilot for Superman and Lois was fantastic and a great way to kick off the show. It’s not your traditional Superman story, but instead focuses more on Clark’s work life balance between being Superman and being there for his family. 

The introduction of the episode had great storytelling using flashbacks to show the events well known from Superman’s story: his ship traveling to Earth, the Kents finding and raising him, his father dying of a heart attack, starting at the Daily Planet and meeting Lois. We then moved on to Clark falling in love with Lois, telling her his secret, them getting married and having twins. All of this in a span of four minutes of screentime. In this instance, less was more and it accomplished establishing his origin quickly, but it still had the emotional impact behind it. Now that’s good storytelling

Spoilers Ahead

The pilot had great special effects. Everything from Superman flying, to picking up a pickup truck, to freezing water and carrying an iceberg into a nuclear reactor all looked great. Maybe not the best, but enough to keep me immersed and impressed thinking “this is Superman.” And I know that they usually have a bigger budget and pull out all the stops for the pilot, but I’m hopeful the quality will continue. If the show follows the path of its predecessors Flash and Arrow, at least the first two seasons will be good.

I loved some of the Easter eggs, my favorite being Superman’s first appearance in Metropolis donning the classic  suit and catching the green car from Action Comics #1.

Check out all of the Easter eggs from the first episode here.

Starring Tyler Hoechlin as Superman and Elizabeth Tulloch as Lois Lane, I thought both did great in their respective roles. When the two were introduced before in Supergirl and the CW Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover, I wasn’t a big fan of either of them. Having the spotlight focus on them here, though, they changed my mind to see them be a good fit for their roles. Plus, his Superman suit was much better in this one (even if there was a little extra padding).

Overall, I was really impressed with the Superman and Lois pilot and would rate it 4 ½ / 5 stars. It didn’t have the same campy vibes as some of the other CW superhero shows but instead a darker, more real world vibe to it. I didn’t go in with very high expectations based on the Supergirl CW show, but it still surprised me, being a Superman fan, how much I enjoyed it. If this seems like it would interest you, I’d definitely recommend checking out the pilot on the CW app. Again, I don’t know if the quality of the show will continue, but I think we could all use a little more Superman in our lives these days. New episodes air Tuesdays on cable and are free to watch the next day on the CW app.