[NAS] The Eyes Have It

TV Programme: The New Adventures Of Superman
Season: 2
Episode: 12
Date I watched this episode: 12/07/2009
Time since I last watched this programme: 7 days.

After complaining in my last review that the storylines were not very imaginative, actually this idea wasn't too bad. Seeing how Clark would react to blindness is not something I've thought about or seen done before. It's the little things that made this so great; Lois having to guide Superman home, Clark trying to cook but ending up breaking all the china, Clark trying to help the blind man when he can't even see himself.

Also the fact that Clark had to stay at Lois's house "as Superman" made it all the more compelling. Jonathan and Martha struggling to cope with having to pretend Superman wasn't their son, Lois being amazed by the fact that Superman actually sleeps, and so on. Lois was her typical swooning self around Superman, which I guess did get a bit tiring, but we don't often get to see these two together for as much screentime as we did in this ep.

The actual conflict in this episode centred around the "knowledge-transferring pen". There were a couple of things here which seemed just a bit off-balance at first but gradually became important. For example the "pen" itself which seemed a pointless red-herring but then grew into the main event. Also this whole "leaking of information": when Lois first said something about the gold standard to Mayson Drake, it seemed like a casual part of conversation, and I didn't think out of the ordinary, I just thought I didn't really get it.

Of course this episode still suffers from problems which plague this series. First of all the villains themselves - they were just the same as every other "evil genius" villain we've had. That's why it was so much better when we had Lex to tie them together. The villains nowadays are always comical, clumsy fools who stumble into accuracy sometimes. Another character thing which I always bring up is Jimmy - who once again was only involved in fairly incidental storylines, this time around women.

The sound editing in the ep was pretty odd to say the least. A weird sound effect played every time the pen got moved to a different location or Lois had an information leak. But this just sounded cheesy and out-of-place. Sometimes this show doesn't take itself seriously enough.

I'm feeling like this one was above average for the season so far, but still disappointing. Only when they see their failings and move with the times, re-invent the show for the environment we are now in (and by that I mean no Lex, a completely different Jimmy, Superman more comfortable in his surroundings) then they can actually move back to where this show was.