Arawn, a friend of mine is going to knock me upside the head (since we went round and round over this very subject when we spoke the other night)... and she's probably going to think I'm just trying to score points with you... but, oh well... I'm really not.
I totally agree with almost everything you said above. I really REALLY enjoyed season 4. It's what I had been waiting for since the end of season 2 - getting to see them as a married couple and how they would deal with that (and of course the increase in waffy scenes, kissing, ahem, and other things...) I think you are right about there being sub-par episodes in every season. Leaving out clone/wedding arcs and other such episodes, there were at least 3 eps that I never re-watch in Season 1 and a couple that I don't care for in Season 2.
And I agree with what you said about Lois. It was said to me that the Lois and Clark of Season 1 were too shockingly different from the Lois and Clark of Season 4. That Lois was b**chy in season 1 and Clark was edgy (liked to tease Lois and put her in her place) and that (while it was a gradual progression) by the time Season 4 rolled around, Lois was too nice and Clark had been neutered.
I will agree that the characters had changed, even quite significantly, from Season 1 to Season 4. But I really don't think this is because we had bad writing in Season 4. I'll agree that some of the episodes were substandard. Toy Story happened to be my least favorite of the storylines. But I'm like you. I think the fugitive 2-parter, Stop The Presses, Lethal Weapon, Sex Lies & Vid, AKA Superman and the Lex Files series were well written and explored some interesting themes for a married couple.
I don't think it was due to "writing styles" that the couples evolved. I think that was a natural progression in the development of their characters.
I mean, think about it for a second, Clark Kent in Season 1 was a young, green reporter who was fresh off of traveling the world. He met this spunky young female reporter who put him in his place (whom he felt an attraction to)... if you are a guy with any backbone at all, how are you going to react to that? You are going to try to put her in her place right back. You are going to try to tease her and irritate her and try your best to prove yourself and get her to notice you. (At least that's what I noticed of other guys back before I got married - grin).
Plus you have the fact that Clark was kind of a head-case when he first became Superman. Still trying to figure out how to deal with the dual-persona thing, and having to deal with Lois throwing herself all over Superman and ignoring Clark. I think that too lent itself to his behavior at the beginning. I think we saw a gradual softening of Clark because we saw a gradual softening of Lois, as she fell for Clark. In Season 2 he softens some because Lois begins to fall for him. He's still plenty edgy though when Dan Scardino comes around as competition. I think we see a further softening of him in Season 3 when he "has" the girl. He's still pretty spunky around Patrick, and even Deter (even though I will admit bad writing there). And there are still some classic spots where he teases her - like in "The Dad Who Came In From The Cold" where she asks if there isn't any language he doesn't know and he replies that he has trouble understanding her sometimes. Hah.
Then by Season 4, he knows that Lois is his and they finally get married. I think that finally strips away all of Clark's prior insecurities and his difficulty excepting who he is and his fear of fitting in. He no longer needs to tease Lois or try to prove anything to her. But there are still some playful interactions and teasing in season 4, in my opinion - Ghosts comes to mind... it's far from my fav and I haven't watched it a lot, but I seem to remember Clark teasing Lois quite a bit about her cooking in that one - and about her seeing Ghosts. I also think he's far from being "neutered" - I think there are plenty of times that he stands up and acts like a man. The scene from the NK arc where Clark is asked who he is to be making orders and he stands up and broodingly says "I am your leader, that's who" (not worded like that, I'm sleepy, it's the best I could do) - his actions there showed a far stronger man than the one we saw, for instance, during the clone arc. I think Stop the Presses is a really good example that he isn't going to just lie there and "take it". I could name others, but I'll stop there.
Anyway, mine is but one opinion, and I try not to be too opinionated or verbalize my opinions too too often. But I decided I hadn't used my opinion card yet for this month
so this would be my chance.
<DJ slinks away from the thread...>
