Underrated sci-fi series that ‘slipped under the radar’ now streaming on Amazon Prime

Superman fever swept the summer, as David Corenswet brought his latest iteration of the caped crusader to the big screen.

But there’s long been a prolific Superman-verse on the smaller box, with beloved entries such as Smallville and Supergirl.

Superman & Louis might be lesser known in comparison, but it’s as good if not better (according to some Rotten Tomatoes number-crunching) – and it’s all on Amazon Prime Video.

This DC adaptation for TV finds Clark Kent, played by Tyler Hoechlin, and Lois Lane, Elizabeth Tulloch, in later life. For Supergirl fans: the actors reprise their roles from that show, so this is a bit of a spin-off of a spin-off. Spin-off inception, if you will.

The four-season show brought a fresh take on the ubiquitous characters. Instead of wrangling with megalomaniacs and dodgy crooks in Metropolis, they’re facing down two mini-monsters: their own teenage sons.

Clark and Lois have had it with city life and the argy-bargy of the Daily Planet news desk, so they make the move to Smallville to raise the little-ish ones, Jonathan and Jordan.

But it isn’t all quiet domesticity – naturally, this is Superman – as they’ve been trailed to the small town by someone, ominously called The Stranger, who’s intent on tearing the iconic superhero limb from limb. 

As if that wasn’t bad enough, the business bigwig who just bought out their old paper has also pitched up.

The show wrapped up its run on The CW in the US in 2024, after the broadcaster (which had long been the home of appointment viewing TV for young people) was bought out by Nexstar, which cancelled much of the slate of shows.

Superman & Lois still boasts an 88% rating on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, putting it on a par with Supergirl. But if we’re talking audience scores, it’s no contest – let’s hope those are purely merit-based decisions and not relating to the fact that Supergirl’s story is (ahem) about a woman.

The 84% audience score for Superman & Louis certainly makes sense when you see the way viewers have talked about the show, dousing it in tremendously high praise. 

Chatting on a Superman-dedicated Facebook group, David Durman questioned: ‘How did Superman & Lois slip under the radar? It has absurd amounts of production value and is well-written on top of it.’

Derrick Lugo seemed equally perplexed, writing: ‘It’s the best superhero show The CW has ever produced, and they stuck the landing perfectly.’

‘I recently finished S1 and was surprised how well written and directed it was,’ Louie Vain wrote in the replies.

Chris Kazmierczak added: ‘Well done show, I would have liked it to have gone on a few years more but it tells a great story regardless.’

Superman & Lois is available to stream on Amazon Prime Video.

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