Lois & Clark Forums Forums General Discussion Lois & Clark Scenes that annoy you

So I'm just browsing through youtube, looking at some of my favorite LnC clips and came across one that I really do like but there is something that just makes me cringe about the whole thing.

When Lois and Clark are line dancing in TGGGH, Clark has his hands positioned on his belt like he's got suspenders on or something. He looks SO dumb! None of the other country bumpkins were dancing like that. Ugh, so annoying. Lois looked good though.

What about y'all? Any scenes that just annoy you?

Well, sure, but when a scene annoys me enough, I 'fix' it. See No Greater Love for example.

Seriously though, the things that really bug me are either characters acting stupid (read entire NK arc, for example), or complete breaks with reality for plot purposes (let's have a Murder One trial, complete with sentencing, in two weeks, or let's give a troubled foster child to a reporter with no foster care license and a whopping conflict of interest). Argh!

Nice fic HG! I really liked the logic that you added to this episode... I mean, who'd a thought scoping out the place and getting the police involved instead of freezing the woman you love would work out so well. Ha!

Maybe you can rewrite the line dancing scene in the GGGH to where Clark is the smoothest country dancer on the dance floor.

LOL ... that description cracks me up. The scene still doesn't bother me in the slightest, though - they are soooo cute together there. Edited to add: did the Nigerian princess teach him that move?

Fun topic. And four words: Lois in tinfoil hat. I hate, hate, hate that scene in "Contact" with the white-hot intensity of a thousand suns. It just seems so completely out of character for Lois Lane, who likes hard facts and is not prone to being flaky. I don't even recognize her in that scene.

Lex and the cobra miffed me right off the bat. I know that it was supposed to show how evil he was, but seriously??

The scene when Lois and Clark have been "collected" and Clark is saying he misses touching Lois, and if I remember correctly, they were only captured a few moments ago and then he comes up with a plan to get away, so he was away from Lois, what, thirty minutes??? Blergh, how goofy sometimes...

If it wasn't for the chemistry between the characters and the fact that it was fun to watch I would have given up on the show.
Some plots are way out there for me and the Lois from seasons 3 and 4 is extremely different from season 1 - my favorite. It's as if she was replaced by a clone (?!) or had a personality transplant. And for the love of the show I'm willing to believe she mellowed because she fell in love. But deep down I know it was the writters' fault and some lazyness that made it that way.

Still what bothers me the most is the last episode, Family Hour. A baby in the living room?! Seriously.

I felt cheated. And that feeling grew after realising that the show wasn't coming back. Ever. And even more while reading online somewhere that the Family Hour made someone - I think it was the station's president or something - cry. I'd cry too if I was paying people to write plots like that with big-headed scientists/psycopaths and devices that make the in-laws forget that their daughter's husband moonlights in tights. And the piece de resistance: the baby in the living room. It's a try to go full circle with Clark's story but there are no consequences: where does it come from? Who left it there with a note? etc, etc. And instead of wondering Lois and Clark are just looking like they're going to kkep hime/her. No question's asked.

I think even Martha and Jonathan would worry if instead of finding Clark on a field he misteriously showed up inside a bassinet on their living room. I know I would.

But the fact that they don't even question it annoys me.

Ooh! And another thing that I've just remembered. When Sonny Bono was cast as the mayor in Man of Steel Bars most or even all his lines (can't quite remember) were titles of songs. I cringe everytime I watch him answer "I got you babe" to something Lois says. But, well, it's just one of the perks of stunt casting.

Sorry, I meant "keep him/ her".

Oh, Olive, YES! Clones and/or personality transplants is exactly how I feel about it too. I absolutely adored the show from the get-go because Lois was so Lois in a take-no-prisoners kind of way and because Clark as a smarta$$ who gave her as good as he got appealed to me on so many levels. By season 3 they were both shadows of their former selves. To me, they had become cartoon characters. In the first couple of seasons they felt more like *real* people instead of caricatures. /rant

The one scene that drives me absolutely crazy is in "Lucky Leon". Sadly, it occurs right before the smokin' hot kiss at the end. Lois and Clark are walking down the street and Clark says something to the effect of "Why did you come back for me tonight? I mean, you were running back into a nuclear explosion." And then Lois says, "I know. It doesn't make much sense, does it?" And then I scream, "NO! It freakin' doesn't make much sense! It's a NUCLEAR EXPLOSION. It wouldn't matter if she managed to get a half mile further down the road! IT'S A NUCLEAR EXPLOSION!"

<deep breath>

There are, of course, other instances. But that's the one that feels the most egregious to me. Whew. I feel better getting that one of my chest.

LOL, I cracked up on "I'd cry too, if I were paying people to write plots like this", but I will offer a bit of a defense on this:

You might not be aware that there was originally a "To Be Continued" splashed across that scene. When the last episode was filmed (and actually, when it aired in the UK), there was going to be a 5th season of the show, and this was meant to be a cliffhanger. All the questions you asked would have been answered in the opening arc of S5.

Per the writers, based on what was plotted and planned, but never filmed: The baby was a boy, and he was one of L&C's descendants from the future. HG Wells had dropped him off in the living room with the S and the note that said, "Lois and Clark, this baby belongs to you." The opening arc of S5 was supposed to cover where he'd come from and why L&C needed to take care of him. Presumably, it was going to be some sort of Tempus episode, but I don't recall if we ever got that confirmed. But the idea was that, since the boy was a blood relative from the future, Lois and Clark would end the arc knowing that they could have biological children, despite what Dr. Klein's tests showed. (And Sam's "This can't be right!" when looking at Bernie's data was supposed to be a clue to that outcome.)

So ... see? Not all bad.

Kathy

Except to the point where Tim Minear intended to use his super baby growth plot and have the kid turn into a surly teenager overnight who would cause no end of trouble with his super powers. Urgh. I was almost glad we didn't get a S5 and was very happy to have missed that one.

TM, incidentally, went on to use that plot in Angel and throughly ruined that show for me instead.

Does a scene that could have been but never was, count? If it had happened, that one would certainly have had me cringing.

LabRat

Not just one scene... every time Clark called her 'honey' (honey, honey, honeyhoneyhoney, gaaah!) in S4 I wanted to smack him. Very annoying.

Also, whenever Superman crossed his arms across his chest and looked at the baddies with that supercilious, arrogant, I'm-so-righteous look I wanted to get my Special K out and knock him down a peg. Loved DC's Clark, not such a fan of the Superman.

In GGGOH it really bothered me that Clark destroyed (pulverized) the Kryptonite in that creek / pond by his parent's house and then fought Trask in the same water not a minute later. Yea, on the wet Clark, boo on wouldn't that water now kill him! Especially if a little of it got in his mouth and he swallowed it by mistake. Nor is it ever addressed anywhere about the Kryptonite fallout to the water table, his parent's well and the food grown on the farm. Wouldn't these now be poisonous to him? Yet, he's constantly going to his parent's house and doing just that (eating food grown on the farm and drinking water from the well).

Secondly, and this is just the American in me, so I apologize to our international readers, it always annoyed me that the John Doe / Tempus as President storyline in S4 took place in February instead of November. I know that it was probably too soon after Kal-El is disintegrated by the NKs and Lois's imprisonment, but still. ARG! I have remedied this fact in my story Missing Lois and this story arch is now in November.

And, lastly (but not technically lastly, but lastly for this posting), the other pet peeve I have has not to do with storyline, but casting. It always was distracting and annoying the people cast for major villains and/or guest stars were well known TV actors. PLEASE. (note sarcasm) Think of how much better the show would have been without all those well-known faces from Laverne & Shirley, Night Court, Drew Carey, St. Elsewhere, etc. showing up. I know well known actors need jobs too, but it happened so much it was like the casting director was hiring his/her old buddies instead of finding the best person to play the part. People tuned in to watch Lois and Clark, not the guest stars. Anyway, it always annoyed me.

Thank God, they didn't do this for Tempus or H.G. Wells ( Tempus Anyone is one of my favorite episodes, if you haven't figured that out from my story, yet.)

If any of my concerns, especially the part about GGGOH, were explained elsewhere, please let me know.

Um, the pond was already a hazard due to high concentrations of lead?

I hadn't given much thought to the effects of kryptonite in the pond. But it does make sense.

Sue, I couldn't agree more. I wanted to pull my hair off when I watched that scene. And to top that Superman KICKS the warhead. Just like that. Who cares if it's something that should be dealed with utmost care? Let's just have fun and kick it.
I know that Dean Cain played football. But I could live without Superman showing off.


Actually, I did Kathy. I just decided not to go there because I also have issues with what would be the plot for the first episode of season 5, had it existed.

It's like that cliche where somebody says that they have good news and bad news. With that plot the good news was Lois and Clark could actually have children. But the bad news was the rest of the plot made no sense at all... And I agree with Labrat when she says:


But still I miss the show. Especially when it tried to make sense.

And another thing that just came to my mind. On the Pilot when Lois goes aboard the colonist's transport against Perry's orders, how did she expect to come back to Earth?
I always wondered about that. Would she live with the colonists? Or would the shuttle be more like a plane and come immediately back to Earth after dropping the colonists off on the space station? I have no idea.

Tim's hairbrained idea notwithstanding (I still choose to believe that, had it actually gotten to the storyboarding stage, cooler heads would have prevailed and the plot would have been molded into something watchable), I think it's more than possible that the baby arc could have been handled well. I will point to our fanfic Season 5 & Season 6 projects, which (while I am admittedly biased) did a great job of taking the concepts we heard about from the writers after the cancellation and turning them into clever episodes.

Even the "super-baby grows up overnight" concept turned into the really fun and charming Hypergirl in the capable hands of Crystal Wimmer. But I personally would have liked to have seen us get that 1/2 5th season like we were promised. Especially since, once Teri announced her pregnancy, the obvious solution would have been to make the FH baby L&C's child from exactly one year in the future -- thus letting L&C discover, at the end of the arc when the baby return to his time, that Lois has just gotten pregnant.

But! Back to the point of the thread ... yes, the February elections in Meet John Doe made no sense, and LOL about contaminating the Kent's pond. I don't think I'd ever heard anyone mention that before, so good catch -- sounds like a fanfic idea to me.

Now as for Clark's (over)use of "Honey" in S4, I seem to recall most fans actually loving that when the show was on the air, though I agree that sometimes it could have easily been turned into a drinking game.

Kathy

Human nature is funny. It's a lot easier to suspend disbelief over huge things (e.g., clones, alternate universes, and soul transference, not to mention a super-powered alien who just happens to look completely human and who uses his powers so selflessly), but it is the little things (elections in said alternate universe not being in November) that we have a hard time swallowing.

A little thing that gets me is the way Clark's super-senses only kick in when it's necessary for the plot. When I was growing up, my hearing was far more sensitive than that of most people. I could hear my parents speaking just above a whisper in the opposite end of our house. I liked having extremely acute hearing, but it definitely had its drawbacks. For example, when we went to my sister's high school band performance, I had to listen to it out in the lobby, with the auditorium doors closed; out there, it was a comfortable volume. I had started out in the auditorium along with everyone else, but it was so loud in there that, even with my hands over my ears, I was in a lot of pain. (The volume didn't seem to bother anyone else there.) I wish I could have turned the sensitivity of my ears up or down, but I couldn't. And the times we visited my grandparents in New York City, I was also in agony when we were outside because of all of the traffic noise. (If I were a child in school nowadays, I would be labelled as having hypersentive hearing and would be sent to an occupational therapist for sensory integration therapy to help me cope. I'm glad I grew up when I did. For all that my overly acute hearing did have its drawbacks, I'm glad I grew up to think of it as an ability, and not a disability.)

Now, my hearing was very good, but it was hardly super. (Alas, it has since deteriorated so that my hearing is probably about normal now.) There's no way that Clark would be able to live in a city with his hearing. Of course, I tell myself that Kryptonian hearing is different than human hearing, and that he, unlike us, can control how much he hears. (That seems to be the idea in IGYuMS, where Woody Samms is at first overwhelmed by his senses but then seems to cope better with them after a while.) But it still seems a bit coincidental that Clark's senses are only sharp when they need to be for plot purposes.

And along those lines: Why does he only ever hear one cry for help at a time, and those only at the most inopportune moments? Surely in a city the size of Metropolis, there would be bound to be multiple crimes and other disasters taking place at almost any given time. Superman's presence would help deter crimes, of course, but Lois had had to copy with simultaneous disasters during her brief stint as Ultra Woman; why did Clark never have to?

And lets not even get started on the universal prosopagnosia (face-blindness) in the L&C-verse! And even if everyone there were face-blind, surely more people would have been able to figure out that CK=S just from his feeble excuses to leave every time there was a Superman emergency.

The story I'm writing now is an attempt to address another pet peeve I have with the show. (Who was it who first said that people write fanfic to fix their favourite shows?)

Joy,
Lynn

Actually, they did. Lane Davies was a very popular soap star back in the day. A lot of people 'knew' him. And I don't think another actor anywhere could have played him! (And he's a darn nice guy in person.) A lot of regular TV shows have stars for guest spots. (Think Dean Cain on 'The Division', 'Frazier', and the other one- what was it? 'Hope and Faith'. There's a couple more, too. And let's not forget him and Teri Hatcher on 'Smallville'.)

The honey thing annoyed me, too. Come on... ten times in like two minutes?! Personally, I liked 'my little tornado' much better.

What annoyed the heck out of me was the 'Meet the Presses' argument. Lois killed Clark's story when a blind man could have seen there was something there! And how about him jerking the door off the hinges?! )

This is a fun thread!

SQD

Oooo... got a another one. When the cloned Superman kissed Lois, she knew he wasn't Superman. Why didn't she know Clark was Superman when he kissed her? Duh? I mean, I could understand Lois not 'seeing' Clark, but not knowing him from his kiss? And she kissed Superman a LOT before she kissed Clark.

SQD

There's a fanfic in which Clark has to rescue his own daughter. Since she doesn't know CK=S, he rescues her from behind so she doesn't see his face. But the clever girl recognizes Dad by his hands. Wouldn't you? I'd certainly know my husband's hands even if the rest of him were hidden.