Lois & Clark Season One Review

So I finished watching Season One of Lois and Clark the other night. I must say, this is a great show that seems to be forgotten and it doesn’t seem to get the credit it deserves. This show is what introduced me to Superman as a child. Sure, it’s campy. It has cringe-worthy parts, but it’s okay. This show is somewhat similar to the 60s Batman TV show. Granted, Batman was a lot campier, and that’s what it aimed for. L & C has a certain charm about it that just makes me smile and enjoy.
Let’s start from the beginning. The Pilot is fantastic. Each character is introduced in their own unique way. We meet Clark literally as he steps off the bus that took him to Metropolis. Lois is coming in from an undercover job. Now, the cheesiest part of the ep is when he’s trying on different costumes. But, it makes up with a great finish. The Pilot clocks in at around 90 minutes with no commercials. What a powerful start.
Lex Luthor is portrayed fantastically by the great John Shea. He’s not a campy, text book super villain. He’s behind the scenes. Most of the villains Superman faces throughout the first season are controlled by Luthor. He’s a menace that pulls all the strings.
Episode 3 is great. Luthor sets up a series of tests to test Superman’s abilities. Clark even quits after Luthor threatens to kill more people if he remains. Under the words of Lois, Clark dons the cape once more to save the city and a rivalry is born with a great scene in the end involving Superman and Lex.
Trask was a great villain. I really wish they would have kept him around. He only makes two appearances, but they make for great episodes. He’s such a determined person; he’ll do anything, including torcher, to get Superman.
Of course, people complain because of the romance aspect, which does add cheese, but it does add something to the show. The relationships between all the characters are great. Everyone at the Planet is one big family. Lane Smith is great as Perry White, he is the campiest character next to Cat, who is useless, but he plays the chief great. Smith really shines in Ep 21, the season finale. He shows what the character is all about. He just doesn’t shout at people, sit behind his desk and treat Jimmy like a servant. He shows his true passion for news reporting and his great detective work in finding the truth.
Dean Cain catches a lot of flack as Superman, which is understandable. I don’t really like the way he looks, but he plays the role great. His Clark is spot on, nerdy at times, but cocky and suave. He’s funny, yet serious. He plays the “Boy Scout” and voice of reason really well. I like him as Clark (the main character, not Superman) a lot more than Superman. This is okay, because Superman is more in the background and normally doesn’t show up for more than ten minutes and episode. Cain and Hatcher play off each other greatly. They have chemistry that takes a few episodes to get used to, but they are great leads.
The season finale was epic. It’s nail-biting two parter with twists, turns, and Kryptonite.
I know the series started to decline after season one, but it doesn’t matter to me, season one is all I’m reviewing in this, and it is great. I will begin Season Two hopefully within the next few days.
If you want to check out a few episodes, I would highly recommend: Pilot, 2, 3, 8, 11, 12, 13, 16, 19, 20, & 21.

My take on Public Enemies.

In all honesty, I liked the movie. It was enjoyable. Maybe a little slow in parts, but I was intrigued the whole time. I could see my friend checking her watch about every ten minutes after the first hour and I wasn’t sure why. I guess it just wasn’t her type of movie, I don’t know.
Seriously, to me, it could have been a little longer. The book on which it’s based (I haven’t finished it yet) is more on the formation of the FBI. I felt the two strongest performances, Bale and Crudup, were completely underutilized. At the end of the movie, I felt a little cheated. Nothing seemed to come full circle. After Dillinger’s whole gang was killed it seemed to lose steam. Instead of trying to glorify a brutal murderer, it should have focus more on the good guys’ side. In my opinion, Bale is the master of accents. His portrayal of Purvis was great.
The prison break and bank robbery scenes were fantastic, they were exciting and on-the-edge of your seat thrilling. I didn’t mind the shaky cam, which seems to be a main complaint. It helped give the movie a more real feel to it. All around, the performances were great and Mann directs just as good as he always does, a little different than before, but it’s good to shake things up (no pun intended).
I felt that this flick would be Mann’s chance to redeem himself for Miami Vice, which I liked and feel it catches too much criticism. He was too concerned with revisiting Heat, that’s why he only focused on the one side of the law, but he did it so well before, he should have just done it again. I feel it would have made the movie one of the best of the year. It had so much potential but was wasted. It gets a little tiring just focusing on Dillinger the whole time. When they’re not robbing banks, they’re on down time doing more or less nothing. All and all, it isn’t Mann’s best work, but it was a great effort. I would say the movie is good, just falling short of great.
For an overall rating, I give Public Enemies: 7.5/10.

Maybe I expected way too much from this flick.

I would recommend this movie to any fans of Michael Mann, the crime genre, gangster genre, or period piece fans.

Welcome All!

As you see, I have moved to a new domain. I expect more frequent updates which will include my thoughts, reviews, and news. Welcome back.