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PLEASE NOTE: Michael D's is currently in READ ONLY MODE. Anything submitted will simply not be written to the database.
Lots of stuff is still broken, but at least reviews can now be looked up and read.
Lois & Clark-The New Adventures of Superman: Complete Third Season (1995)

Lois & Clark-The New Adventures of Superman: Complete Third Season (1995)

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Released 1-Nov-2006

Cover Art

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Details At A Glance

General Extras
Category Adventure Main Menu Introduction
Main Menu Audio & Animation
Featurette-Lois & Clark The History Of Romance
Trivia-Challenge-Man Of Steel
Rating Rated PG
Year Of Production 1995
Running Time 980:00
RSDL / Flipper Dual Layered
Multi Disc Set (6)
Cast & Crew
Start Up Menu
Region Coding 2,4,5 Directed By Neal Ahern Jr.
Michael Vejar
Jim Charleston
Robert Ginty
Studio
Distributor

Warner Home Video
Starring Dean Cain
Teri Hatcher
Lane Smith
Michael Landes
Justin Whalin
Tracy Scoggins
Eddie Jones
K Callan
John Shea
Case ?
RPI $39.95 Music Jay Gruska
William Kidd
Julius Robinson


Video Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame Full Frame English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Hungarian Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio None
16x9 Enhancement No
Video Format 576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio 1.33:1 Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures No
Subtitles English
Spanish
Hungarian
Danish
Finnish
Norwegian
Portuguese
Swedish
English for the Hearing Impaired
Smoking No
Annoying Product Placement No
Action In or After Credits No

NOTE: The Profanity Filter is ON. Turn it off here.

Plot Synopsis

    According to Warner Home Video, 2006 is the Year of Superman and the Season 3 release of Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman marks another noteworthy DVD release in the lore of the last son of Krypton.

    Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman offered up a fresh perspective on the classic superhero. Focusing on the romantic angle between the intrepid reporters, the show examined the relationship between the two (three if you include Superman) in a fairly non-traditional way for a comic book based show. With the romance attracting female viewers and the superhero line drawing in males, the program was a ratings smash. Lois and Clark became the 'it' TV couple of the nineties and launched the careers of Teri Hatcher and Dean Cain in the process.

    Allowing the romantic tension to build over the first two seasons, season three was where the wheels started to fall off. Audiences wanted the couple to get together, but the network wanted them to stay apart (ratings traditionally drop off after romances get consummated.) The writers, being torn between the two, started running out of ideas.

    Originally having set the scene for a wedding and marital bliss, the network ordered that the planned wedding be put off. Having had their plan tossed, the writers lost direction and as a result, Season 3 sees a quite a few clichés play prominent storylines. Nazis, amnesia, and clones all get a look in this season, as do druids and human sacrifice. Throw in a recurring Lois getting kidnapped to get to Superman theme and you soon get the vision of writers clutching at straws. There are fun moments in between, but unfortunately the signs of the slide increase as the season progresses.

    The show is worth the ride for Superman fans, but for casual fans the cheesiness of some of the plotlines will wear thin. Considering that Seasons 1 & 2 had such promise and charm, Season 3 is a bit of a let down.

    Disc 1

    301 We Have a Lot to Talk About (44:02): Lois tells Clark she knows that he is Superman. They then have an argument.

    302 Ordinary People (44:30) : A "Love expert"  has a plan to put Lois and Clark in danger to trap Superman.

    303 Contact (44:29): Lois is abducted by an 'alien' in order to get Superman's attention. Clark wants to call it off.

    304 When Irish Eyes are Killing (44:32): Lois tries to make Clark jealous.

    Disc 2

    305 Just Say Noah (44:48): Lois and Clark go undercover as husband and wife to investigate missing couples. Will romance bloom?

    306 Don't Tug on Superman's Case (44:25): Another 'Let's use Lois to get to Superman plot.'

    307 Ultra Woman (44:12): Red Kryptonite transfers Clark's powers to Lois.

    308 Chip Off the Old Clark (44:35): A woman claims her son is Superman's love child.

    Disc 3

    309 Super Mann (43:00): Nazis invade Metropolis (I'm not kidding.)

    310 Virtually Destroyed (44:06): Lex Luthor's illegitimate son traps Lois and Clark in his virtual world.

    311 Home is Where the Hurt is (44:07): A Kryptonian virus threatens Superman.

    312 Never On Sunday (43:36): Wedding co-ordinators, and a magician with a grudge against Clark.

    Disc 4

    313 The Dad Who Came in From the Cold (43:57): Father issues...

    314 Tempus Anyone? (43:50): Lois is kidnapped (again) and is taken to an alternate world.

    315 I Now Pronounce You (44:10): Wedding Day is approaching and Perry gives the dynamic duo an assignment on frogs. Will Kermit stop the wedding?

    316 Double Jeopardy (43:29): Wedding night, clones, amnesia... What else could possibly happen?

    Disc 5

    317 Seconds (43:27): More clones, more amnesia.

    318 Forget Me Not (43:31): More amnesia (!!).

    319 Oedipus Wrecks (43:04): No amnesia but Lois doesn't love Clark anymore.

    320 It's a Small World After All (44:06): Lois and Clark go to Lois' high school reunion, where an old classmate has it in for Lois.

    Disc 6

    321 Through a Glass, Darkly (43:13): Superman is tested by Zara and Ching.

    322 Big Girls Don't Fly (44:33): Zara and Ching want Superman to leave the Earth to rule New Krypton.

Don't wish to see plot synopses in the future? Change your configuration.

Transfer Quality

Video

    The series is presented in its original TV broadcast ratio of fullscreen 1.33:1 and is presented in PAL format.

    I was reasonably impressed at how good this set looked for a TV show that aired a decade ago.

     The picture was reasonably sharp and was quite well defined, however some scenes were noticeably softer than others.

    There was noticeable grain in darker scenes.

    Colours were quite natural (even the terrible 90s wardrobes have dated), skin tones looked good and shadow detail was excellent.

    Stronger colours, like Superman's red cape sometimes showed signs of colour bleeding.

    Thankfully the commercial TV ad breaks have been marked with chapters.

    The subtitle options are Spanish, Hungarian, Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, Portuguese, Swedish and English for the Hearing Impaired.

    Overall a good transfer for a TV show.

Video Ratings Summary
Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The audio track is English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s).

    There is nothing really stand out or disappointing about the track - it is fairly middle of the road and probably what you would expect for a decade old TV show.

    The dialogue is mostly clear but can sometimes get drowned or lost in the the music.

    There were no sync, click or other audio issues.

    The music sounded good and the great super hero theme it had added a lot to the show. It did, however, muddy the dialogue at times.

    There are also Spanish and Hungarian Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) tracks.

Audio Ratings Summary
Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Extras

Main Menu Introduction 

    Cool intro on the first disc with footage from the George Reeves show, The Animated Series, films and Lois & Clark

Main Menu Audio & Animation 

Featurettes

Lois & Clark The History Of Romance (8:21)

    Interview footage with DC honchos Paul Levitz and Mike Carlin, Lois and Clark show producers and writers, as well as a peroxided Dean Cain. Looks at the change in the Lois and Clark relationship through the different comics, movies and shows. Enjoyable to watch, but a little brief. An appearance by Teri Hatcher would've been great.

Look Up In The Sky! The Amazing Story of Superman - Excerpts from the new Documentary produced by Bryan Singer & Kevin Burns (6:28)

    Essentially this is just an extended trailer for the new documentary. It will be available in the new Superman DVD box-set available later in 2006.

Trivia-Challenge-Man Of Steel

    I thought this would be an interactive trivia game, but it's actually Dean Cain reading the simplest Superman related questions you could possibly imagine. Has some cool footage from different shows.

R4 vs R1

NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.

    Releases are identical.

Summary

    Overall a fun show, but this season is not up to the standards of the previous two.

    The video is good.

    The audio is fine.

    The special features are interesting but short.

    Worth watching, but there are cringeworthy moments.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Ben Smith (boku no bio)
Tuesday, December 05, 2006
Review Equipment
DVDMarantz DV4300, using Component output
DisplaySony VPL HS10 projector on 100 inch 16x9 screen + Palsonic 76WSHD. Calibrated with THX Optimizer. This display device is 16x9 capable.
Audio DecoderSony STR-DE685. Calibrated with THX Optimizer.
AmplificationPioneer
SpeakersDB Dynamics VEGA series floor standers + centre, DB bipole rears, 10" 100W DB Dynamics sub

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