“Superman & Lois” The Complete First Season – Blu-ray Review

Superman & Lois: The Complete First Season arrives on Blu-ray and DVD today, featuring extended versions of all 15 episodes as well as special features packed onto three discs.

Warner Bros. Home Entertainment provided me with a free copy of Superman & Lois: The Complete First Season Blu-ray that I reviewed in this blog post. The opinions I share are my own.

After years of facing super-villains, monsters, and alien invaders intent on wiping out the human race, one of the world’s greatest super heroes (Tyler Hoechlin) and comic books’ most famous journalist (Elizabeth Tulloch) come face to face with one of their greatest challenges ever – dealing with all the stress, pressures, and complexities that come with being working parents!

Superman & Lois was the number one premiere on the CW for the 2020-2021 season among adults 18-49, although sadly it could not maintain its numbers throughout the season. A lot of this likely had to do with the numerous production shutdowns, which led to long hiatuses (the longest being seven weeks) between episodes. The show has been renewed for season 2, to return mid-season sometime in 2022, so hopefully, the audience will stick around.

I’ve been reviewing all of the episodes since the premiere if you want to check those out, but when I review a Blu-ray set, I like to focus on the special features because honestly, that’s why I buy Blu-rays and DVDs. I will say, though, that if you gave up during the season because you couldn’t remember when the show would be returning, you should definitely check it out now that the season is complete. This is a very well-written show, being heralded among many netizens as one of the best incarnations of both Superman and Lois Lane, and it suffered greatly from the long gaps between episodes because it messed with the narrative pacing.

As far as Blu-ray sets go, Superman & Lois: The Complete First Season is lacking on the special features front. (I imagine a lot of this is due to, you know, everything.) There are four featurettes, “Superman: Alien Spirit”, “Superman & Lois: Legacy of Hope” (which originally aired after the pilot and can be streamed on the CW app), “Never Alone: Heroes and Allies” (which is included on the other DCTV shows), and the Superman & Lois 2020 DC FanDome panel. All together, it’s approximately 85 minutes of bonus content.

“Superman & Lois: Legacy of Hope” was a great introduction to the series and the characters, but I’m a little disappointed that this is one of the only featurettes because not only have I already seen it, I can watch it already on the CW app. “Superman: Alien Spirit” had some different soundbites and clips, but it was kind of the same thing as “Legacy of Hope” – although I appreciated Bitsie’s commentary on the origins of Lois Lane and what it meant in the 1930s to see a female character like that. However, I am extremely shallow and will happily listen to Tyler wax poetic about playing Clark Kent for however long he wants to.

“Never Alone: Heroes and Allies” is kind of interesting, as it explores the birth of the “sidekick” in comics, but as someone who doesn’t watch the other DCTV shows, it didn’t really grab me the way it might others. I’m sure there are financial reasons for doing this, but this isn’t the first time WBHE has put the same featurette on every DCTV show, and I think it’s kind of a cop-out to do that. Not everyone is a fan of all of the shows in the universe; I would rather see more Superman & Lois specific content.

The Superman & Lois DC FanDome panel was a nice inclusion, because I had to work during FanDome and so I wasn’t able to watch any of the panels. As this was last year’s FanDome panel (FanDome 2021 was this past weekend, so too late to be on the Blu-ray), it mostly consists of Tyler and Bitsie talking about the show and their characters. I did like the bit where all of the panelists took instruction from Jim Lee on how to draw the S.

The current Superman & Lois season one Blu-ray home release doesn’t have deleted scenes, but that’s because every episode is presented in a one-hour extended cut. The press release describes these as “never-before-seen”, which I am inclined to doubt just because both the CW app and HBO Max already list the episodes as the extended cut. Is it possible there are two extended cuts? Yes. I honestly don’t remember enough about the individual episodes to be able to tell whether or not there are additional additional scenes.

Is it worth watching the extended episodes? I am always a fan of more material. I know that primetime shows have to fit into a timeslot and so stuff needs to be trimmed, but I always appreciate when those extra scenes are included on the Blu-ray because sometimes they add context and sometimes they’re little character moments that are just nice to see. Because of the hiatuses, I often forgot when the show was returning and would watch it on the CW app the next day, so probably half of the episodes I reviewed, I watched the extended cut.

As usual, the picture and sound quality featured in the Blu-ray are excellent, and as I recently bought a new, larger television, I got to appreciate it even more.

In short, while I do wish there was a little more bonus content, I understand that circumstances outside their control may have influenced that this year. (If I may make a suggestion for season 2? Gag reel.) I still enjoyed what was offered, and as a fan of Tyler and someone who loves Bitsie’s Lois, I loved listening to them talk about their characters. Being able to binge the show at my leisure, or go at my pace, is preferable to the hodgepodge way the episodes were aired on TV.

Superman & Lois: The Complete First Season arrives on Blu-ray and DVD today. The DVD retails for $24.98 SRP ($29.98 in Canada), the Blu-ray for $29.98 SRP ($39.99 in Canada), which includes a Digital copy (in the US only). The show is also available to own on Digital via purchase from digital retailers and to stream exclusively on HBO Max.

Author: Jamie Sugah

Jamie has a BA in English with a focus in creative writing from The Ohio State University. She self-published her first novel, The Perils of Long Hair on a Windy Day, which is available through Amazon. She is currently an archivist and lives in New York City with her demon ninja vampire cat. She covers television, books, movies, anime, and conventions in the NYC area.

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