Welcome back to Boomb Tube! Here, we will be catching you up on the week in comics TV, both through micro-reviews, as well as links to our full-length TV reviews. We also tend to review series that are dropped all at once weekly so there are a few ‘older’ shows mixed in for good measure. Are we missing your favorite show? Let us know in the comments!
American Born Chinese – “Make a Splash” (S1E4, Disney+)
Read our full review by Paul Lai.
American Born Chinese – “Abracadabra” (S1E5, Disney+)
Tune in later today for our full review of the fifth episode by Paul Lai.
Riverdale – “After the Fall” (S7E12, The CW)
Read our full review by Elias Rosner
Secret Invasion – “Resurrection” (S1E1, Disney+)
Read our full review of the series premiere by Robbie Pleasant.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds – “Ad Astra Per Aspera” (S2E2, Paramount+)
Read our full review by Christopher Egan.
Superman & Lois – “Injustice” (S3E12, CW)
After a season of teasing and talking around him, Superman & Lois finally introduces Superman’s ultimate nemesis Lex Luthor, played by Michael Cudlitz. This Luthor feels different from others. His theme is industrial metal. Cudlitz is physically imposing over Superman, most of the time he is smaller than the Man of Steel. Cudlitz plays him like a hulking brute who just so happens to be a genius. When we are first introduced to him, he’s doing push-ups in his cell, and the camera pans up his back, letting us see all the bullet scars that riddle his body. Cudlitz, for his part, plays him as if he were taking the definition of nemesis from Snatch “a righteous infliction of retribution manifested by an appropriate agent.” There is something elemental about this iteration, this one lacks the false charm of industrialists or present-era tech sociopaths or a Bond villain. Those masks have fallen. He is just the opposite of Superman at this point. If the Man of Steel is about empathy, Luthor is only about domination and subjugation. He does not tell others how to do things, only what needs to happen.
This take on Luthor took a little while to grow on me. They lay it on a little thick at first, showing him enjoying his daily breakfast. That is a masquerade of civility. The episode C-plot shows how he took over his cell block for a pair of clippers and got some human furniture. As he walks to Smallville from Stryker’s Prison (don’t try to think about the geography of that), he brings a storm with him. Until finally, he arrives on the doorstep of the Kents to threaten Lois and Clark into retirement … or else. The way he explodes in rage at Lois for what he sees as her role in his incarceration for 17 years is horrifying and righteous. Cudlitz is well-cast in this role.
The storm Luthor brings with him to Smallville eventually manifests itself as a tornado that threatens Smallville. Superman and tornadoes give me a more iconic couple. It becomes the climax to the season-long story involving Jordan and his Superboy identity. When Sam Lane is caught up in the storm, I had thought they might pull a Man of Steel with Grandpa Lane sacrificing himself to keep Jordan’s secret safe. That doesn’t happen instead, it becomes the event that outs him to the world, and he is loving it. I’m rather glad this show was renewed for another season because this storyline is perhaps the most interesting in the show as it runs up against Gen Z and Millennial ideas of celebrity, the internet, and performativity.
During the break, and in a bit of a hail mary, Superman & Lois was renewed for a fourth season of 10 episodes, surprisingly. It’ll be interesting to see how that goes because part of that is a restructuring of the budget and cutting the regular cast from 10 down to the Kents and Luthor pretty much. Everyone else will be reduced to recurring or guest roles if deals can be made. With Nextstarr owning the CW and lacking the long-term streaming rights to the series Superman & Lois, the producers are running into the buzzsaw that is the contemporary TV market. Reducing budgets and playing around with cast contracts are not uncommon now as distributors who don’t own the show seek to maximize, if not profit, and take the lowest loss possible. We’ll see who is around for a fourth season and if they’re even in Smallville anymore. The lack of an ensemble is a bit of a bummer as it made the Smallville setting really work.
Continued belowThe season finale is next, and the episode ends with Luthor meeting the Bizarro Superman. So what mad science does he have planned for “What Kills You Only Makes You Stronger”? – Michael Mazzacane
The Walking Dead: Dead City – “Old Acquaintances” (S1E1, AMC)
Read our full review of the series premiere by Alexander Manzo.
