Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman - The Complete Third Season

While the season does introduce Clark's non-sun induced ability quite nicely in "Home Is Where the Hurt Is", and uses it in the two part finale ("Through a Glass, Darkly" and "Big Girls Don't Fly"), the show jumped the shark horribly in "I Now Pronounce You..." {If they had kept the last two minutes out of it (and removed references to fiancé [replacing it with husband/wife] and engaged [replacing it with married], along with any reference to the character introduced in those two minutes from the rest of the season) the series might have gained another star in my evaluation.} As it is, the other episodes aren't overly bad; even "It's A Small World" isn't the worst in the world, as there are funny and goofy bits in it. The two part cap to this season almost made it recover, but, sadly, this plot goof is just too big to ignore, especially with a certain character included in those two episodes that just remind you somehow of the character-that-should-never-have-been from earlier in the season.

Now on to technical reasons for the low score... First, not only are the disks are in the same overlapping format as the first two seasons, but disks four and five are also mislabeled. "Double Jeopardy" (the one following the jumping of the shark) is on the fourth and not the fifth disk as the set implies. Second, the English subtitle option was not included in this season, something that causes the set to automatically lose a star (especially in this instance where the first two seasons did have that included).

The first DVD has commercials for other Superman products, and I do not consider the previews on the third disk to have any place under "Special Features". As for the Features on the sixth disk, the "History of Romance" also references multiple Superman sources. Seeing as how Dean Cain, in my mind, is the _only_ Superman, the inclusion of so many other Superman products/lines into the bonus features turns me off even more. (Especially the fact that the comics apparently tried to tie into the show until those last few minutes of "I Now Pronounce You...", which may explain why they felt compelled to stick us with this scrap as "Special Features", but that's no excuse.)

The final Feature is a "trivia challenge" and...you guessed it. Multiple Supermans "spanning his entire history"... Disappointing to the extreme, especially since all the questions are so obvious that I'd actually answered them all before Mr. Cain was done asking the questions that had any reference to the show I paid money to own. (The only ones I missed were related to actors who were not on this show. Because I probably couldn't have cared less if I'd tried.) So absolutely _no_ features are specific to the show or help you get any insight on the canon of the show.

There are a few canon issues, such as Lois and Superman being in space twice (and her not dying), Superman's wishy-washy issue with either holding his breath for 20 minutes or being able to breathe and speak in space (an issue from the first two seasons as well), and if Kryptonians need to eat/drink. It was previously stated that they didn't, but this season seems to suggest that they do.

By the end of this season, despite the fact that I've been watching the seasons in order over the last little while, I'd completely forgotten that there was ever another Jimmy Olsen. The new (younger) actor has slipped into the character completely somewhere in this set and I can't quite put my finger on when, but it's done naturally. Unfortunately, this is pretty much cancelled out by the canon issues above so far as effecting my evaluation of this set.

No more PVRing! I enjoy the series and ready for a long rainy weekend for a third season marathon! Mine for keeps.

Lois & Clark can be a bit corny. But its a relatively nice family TV show. Dean Cain and Teri Hatcher work well together. It's disappointing that the show ended abruptly. It sucks to leave a show hanging.