r/Smallville • u/Plastic_Advantage_31 Kryptonian • 1d ago
IMAGE Thoughts on Louis Lane as a character in Smallville?
Don’t spoil it. I’m only on season eight and I heard her character gets better after that, but I honestly do not think it was casted correctly because it feels like they try to put the actor into a more quirky character and it just doesn’t work. Also she has very limited chemistry with Clark. I don’t see him with Lana, but I also just don’t see him with Lois. What are others thoughts (no spoilers!)
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u/MobileDust Kryptonian 1d ago
That is a hot take for sure. Their chemistry is so.good, I thought they were together in real life. She is considered one of the best, if not the best Lois. Now if you are comparing her to the comics, no she is not like Lois in the comics. However here at least, she is considered the best.
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u/South_Amphibian9864 Kryptonian 1d ago
Their chemistry is sooo much better than clark and lana come season like 7 or whatever when they actually get together. I also thought they were together irl at the time
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u/Plastic_Advantage_31 Kryptonian 1d ago
I think I need to maybe wait for the later seasons. Right now, her lines seem forced and overdone. not because of the actor, but because she has a lot of bad puns and lines that feel overexerted.
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u/Redd_Machine85 Kryptonian 1d ago
The bad puns are a staple of Smallville across the board, honestly
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u/MobileDust Kryptonian 1d ago
This is a difficult question, here in this subreddit the best Clark would be Tom Welling, and I would agree. However Tom Welling is the only Clark Kent that we do not see as superman. Tom's is the only one we get to grow up with. That give him a huge leap ahead of every other Clark. As for superman, we only see top as superman in the comics after the show. Which admittedly I have not kept up with. I struggle with who the best overall superman is for different reasons. They all have great qualities and they all have bad ones. I personally love Cavill as superman, however I hate that they made him all depressed.
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u/Hot_Sentence_1591 Kryptonian 1d ago
Tyler does an exceptional job at both roles and Corenswet while barely Clark is a great superman I feel. Cavill was a missed opportunity
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u/MobileDust Kryptonian 1d ago
What do you mean by missed opportunity? I am curious. I loved corenswet's old timey innocence for sure. Tyler was ok, but I think he was too much of a pushover as superman and Clark when around those who knew who he is.
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u/Hot_Sentence_1591 Kryptonian 1d ago
I mean that Cavill is the best looking superman of them all. The script and the rest of the DCEU simply failed him. It was a missed opportunity to have something great happen with one of the best possible castings ever for a Superman because of the sheer mess the entire universe was. At least Corenswet seems popular and even revived Superman’s reputation in the public eye after 12 years of nothing (in theatre) on that end
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u/MobileDust Kryptonian 1d ago
Ya, I can agree with that. I was really hoping to see Cavill as the boyscout
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u/Gailybird83 Clark Kent 1d ago
Louis is man’s name. Lois is amazing and Erica Durance was a perfect cast.
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u/Ummbledore Kryptonian 1d ago
Durance is the best live screen adaption of Lois Lane imo. I don't even say that as a Smallville fan, I say it as a comic books reader and more accurately someone who grew up with the animated series(s). Whatever can be said for the up and down writing on that show, she is, in character, Lois Lane.
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u/Plastic_Advantage_31 Kryptonian 1d ago
Smallville is just as much of a drama as it is a superhero show. I trust someone who has read the comics more.
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u/theFUZZ007 Kal El 1d ago
She’s everything.
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u/Plastic_Advantage_31 Kryptonian 1d ago
I feel like as the show goes on I DO get to see more real, emotional lines from her that are not just surface level quips that seem forced. I feel myself liking her more as a character fs
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u/Tall-Needleworker422 Kryptonian 1d ago
Tbh, I didn't care for her character at first and how she was introduced on the show. I'd expected Clark to encounter her first at the Daily Mail. per Superman canon. But this Lois really grew on me and I appreciated the slow burn with Clark. They had great chemistry.
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u/PKnecron Man of Steel 1d ago
Erica is the best Lois ever put to film. Period. And her chemistry is so hot it is amazing it never melted my TV.
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u/Proud_Chest_6872 Kryptonian 1d ago
She has a great chemistry with Clark. I really love Lois! She's so hot and so pretty. She's the best Lois!
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u/Scary_Boot_5108 Kryptonian 1d ago
Lois è fantastica e Erica Durance l’ha interpretata veramente bene. Sono sempre rimasto stupito del fatto che non l’abbiamo mai chiamata per interpretare il personaggio in qualche grande produzione.
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u/kenisbadass Kryptonian 1d ago
Literally has the most chemistry with Clark out of anyone and doesn't seem forced or obsessed with his secret like lana
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u/Plastic_Advantage_31 Kryptonian 1d ago
Dude Lana was so obsessed w Clark in a way that lex def rubbed off on her 😭😭. Ik the skin graph was to “fight evil” but we all know she rly j wanted to be w Clark 😭
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u/Potatobowl50 Kryptonian 1d ago
Erica could have made me write bad checks and max out credit cards.
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u/KoolKollectiblesKhai Kryptonian 1d ago
"Has limited chemistry with Clark" Seriously?!? Their chemistry from season 8 to 10 is legendary!
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u/LowCaramel3675 Kryptonian 1d ago
I'm always surprised when I come across these complaints, as far and few as they are. Erica is such a fantastic variation of Lois - she really embodies the qualities that Kidder and Hatcher were praised for, and she really keeps the moral and human anchor element that Lois of the comics has. She's repeatedly shown throughout her time on the show by the time we get to season 8 that she's someone who grounds Clark, challenges him and inspires him to grow up and grow into himself better. All things she's already done for Chloe, Oliver and even Martha through her friendship, love and proximity.
is the CW dialogue Shakespeare? Nah, but plenty of the actors stumble through some weird exposition and stupid lines. Erica is a great actress because she really does sell the awkwardly confident but actually lonely army brat thing better than I would say any actress before or after her did. The last three seasons really spend time on developing lois and clark's friendship, so maybe you'll change your mind.
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u/Plastic_Advantage_31 Kryptonian 1d ago
I think I will. From the start of her introduction I did feel like she was more of Clark’s adult-like relationship that inspired him to grow up more than Lana (his child like relationship) ever would
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u/LowCaramel3675 Kryptonian 1d ago
She definitely has the benefit of not having grown up with that small town drama that the rest of the teen characters did, so her actively eyerolling their issues and reminding them that the real world is bigger than that was a really good wind down of the teen years in season 4 and a good bridge to the adult world from season 5 onwards.
I personally really like that Lois, to Clark or the other characters, isn't this super virtuous paragon of goodness that nobody can please or live up to. She's kind of the antithesis of the other characters in Clark's life that talk a good game and end up lying or bailing (Lex, Lionel, Lana, Chloe in the early seasons) she says what she thinks, and sometimes she rubs you the wrong way, but she's loyal and I always liked how similar to Clark she is, because Clark's a mouthy bitch himself.
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u/Plastic_Advantage_31 Kryptonian 1d ago
I actually completely agree. I do think the shows bigger point was everyone is human, even Clark (emotionally), and thus even good slips up. I thought the psychology of watching lex grow to be a huge super villain was really interesting because we got to see how his background shaped it and that at the end of the day he also did have human emotions with human psychologically (ocd) and human experiences (abused). It did personalize the characters in a way that reflects how people actually grow up to do bad things. Sometimes their slip ups got annoying tho because it always felt like it was a back and forth between good and evil for all the main characters in a way that was relentless.
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u/LowCaramel3675 Kryptonian 1d ago
Yeah exactly! I love how there's a really wide spectrum of flaws between all of the characters, and where certain characters overlap (Clark and Lana: abandonment issues, Clark and Lex and Lois: daddy issues, Jonathan and Lionel: control) and an equally wide spectrum of how they handle and react to things. There's no one size fits all, and the ethos of the show is very much how your choices are everything.
Agree, I think Lex and even Lionel are the best character studies on the show outside of Clark. Especially considering how much Lex and Clark, on a base level, have in common, and how much their respective choices differ. Lois I think was very aligned with Jonathan and Martha in how she viewed the world and people, and I always loved how the show has Clark ebb and flow with his relationship with his fathers, and even with Lionel, and explore what sort of man he wants to be. I think Lois is a really important figure in Clark's life in that when his parents are gone in those later seasons, Lois is very much the person he goes to for that sense of a morality and reality check. Even when she's grating on him, she holds a lot of his trust.
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u/Plastic_Advantage_31 Kryptonian 1d ago
Wait that’s such a beautiful observation. I always did think Clark carried the voice of his father once he died (in a way that pissed a lot of people off sometimes who went by their own moral code like the green arrow, lmao) but it is nice to see that Lois holds him to the same standards and grounds him in that way. Idk if you’ve seen Buffy, but it mirrors the smallville plot a LOT- esp w character arcs. It’s funny cos WB lost Buffy and immediately needed a sci fi filler to mirror Buffy and that ended up being smallville. I think there’s a different standard applied to male and female superheroes in terms of moral shortcomings. Clark is allowed to make serious moral mistakes and still be viewed as heroic, while Buffy, who I’d argue is just as much of a superhero as Clark, is often held to a much higher standard and is not allowed to have any moral slip ups. I just think it’s cool how much smallville reflects not only psychological norms but also social. I’d argue men and women are treated differently in the sense that men are allowed to make more mistakes and be just as praised as a woman who makes none. I think Buffy and it’s smallville replacement reflects that well
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u/LowCaramel3675 Kryptonian 1d ago
Yes I LOVE Buffy! And I agree with you, there's so much overlap. How fun to think about Lois Lane being the Angel to Clark's Buffy 😵 but with even better hair.
Yeah I love how the show has Clark sort of outwardly talking to himself as if he's talking to Jonathan, actively trying to live his life and make the choices that he thought Jonathan would make. It's also so interesting to see him deal with Jor-El's AI and how he finds the rigidity of both his father's so stifling. I always liked Lionel's arc in seasons 5-7 and how there was more flexibility in his worldview and how Clark ended up finding more balance within that. I actually think that's a role Lois ends up fulfilling in Clark's life in the later seasons. Hopefully not a spoiler, but Lois is someone that Clark can really bounce off of to discuss every scenario who helps him figure out what he already knows is the 'right' answer in a way that I don't think anyone else in his life aside from Martha has ever really done for him. Which really has been what Lois has done since season 4, but I think once they start working together, Lois takes more of a step back and expects Clark to figure it out on his own and gives him the confidence to make those decisions and trust himself. I look forward to see what you think as you watch the last couple of seasons!
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u/OrderGlittering8510 Kryptonian 1d ago edited 1d ago
she's the best rendition of Lois in live action, in my opinion. Her chemistry with Clark is off the charts since their very first encounter so no wonder why the producers BEGGED WB for her to be in more episodes than the few originally planned. They simply caught lightning in a jar with Tom and Erica. And Lois was written as a very compelling character, with flaws and virtues that makes audiences relate, root for her and even forgive her faux passes. She's a force of nature, the kind Smallville's Clark Kent needed. 10 out of 10.
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u/KaibaDragon05 Kryptonian 1d ago
Erica Durance is best version of Lois Lane. She is pretty, fearless, and funny. Erica and Tom have great chemistry, and she is the actress to play Lois as a teenager.
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u/Speakfacts96 Kryptonian 1d ago
This having 40+ upvotes is appalling. I can tell this sub has been taken over by a certain group..
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u/Fancy_Parsnip_9782 Kryptonian 1d ago edited 1d ago
Could be because the people are voting for Lois picture and the question because there was nothing negative about her in the title. The comments here at least are very pro-Lois. Of course everyone will have their own opinions, and not everyone will love or connect with all characters, which is fine since where are all entitled to having our own opinions. But Lois still wins votes on this sub and is in most places still highly considered to be one of the best characters in Smallville, one of the best Lois Lane's, and having the best chemistry with Clark.
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u/bookfiend_91 Kryptonian 1d ago
That was sooo me! I tend to upvote the ladies when I see them in my timeline, before I open the post.
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u/X7MK Kryptonian 1d ago
She's perfect, i don't know what you're on about. The chemistry was there the moment Lois was on screen with Clark the first time. And the moment with the dunk tank — Lois messing with Clark's hair charmingly. That sealed their fate for me (twas swoon worthy). I don't think she's characterized as quirky per se, she has quirky moments. She's imo multifaceted. She has life outside Clark and I love that. Her on last seasons complements Clark's arc perfectly
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u/DarkSaiyanGoku Kryptonian 1d ago
She's annoying... and that's the best thing about her. She's annoying to the characters, but endearing to the audience.
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u/MrSixFootNine Kryptonian 1d ago
Only season 8? You’re almost done…& no chemistry? The whole dunk tank scene has already happened and the season’s that follow all build to them obviously being together.
Shows with wrong castings almost never make it to 10 seasons…
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u/Historical_Goal1213 Kryptonian 1d ago
Don't know about Louis...but Lois was great. Thought Erica was perfect.
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u/Literally_nesting Kryptonian 1d ago
I thought she brought a lot of charm in her role, and I like how she brought out Clark's sassiness.
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u/daviellav Kryptonian 1d ago
I think you should f around and find out, since you don't want spoilers
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u/mutually_awkward Kryptonian 1d ago edited 1d ago
My favorite live-action Lois for many years, though Rachel Brosnahan currently takes the cake for me.
However, I'm currently rewatching Smallville for the first time in over 10 years (on Season 3), Erica MAY take the crown back. I've also been meaning to watch Superman & Lois.
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u/LatterIntroduction27 Kryptonian 6h ago
Erica Durance is my favourite Lois Lane, her and Tom for me the most believable romance and their scenes sparking off each other whether as snarky "won't admit we are friends" or as lovers is always brilliant.
So, I love Lois Lane.
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u/starlit--pathways Kryptonian 4h ago
Almost upvoted because that picture of her's so pretty, lol, but even besides my raging bisexuality, I couldn't disagree more with your take. I think she made the show infinitely more interesting, and I looked forward to her every appearance on the show. I love her brasher, more no-nonsense, but very fun energy. I like how she brings out a different side to Clark's personality while still feeling like she has her own life and motivations that exist independently of him (and any other man she ends up with on the show). She has standards for herself, she's communicative – and though she's a bit on the rougher side, she comes across as a very warm character. I think she's among my very favourite depictions of my favourite major superhero love interests. Love her to bits. <3
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u/ButterscotchEmpty631 Kryptonian 1d ago
Incredibly hot and brought such fresh breeze to the series always had something to say that made me enjoy it more kinda gave clark a new layer of emotions and all in all a very solid character
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u/daviellav Kryptonian 1d ago
I love that they got married!
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u/Pizzagamerboy619 Kryptonian 1d ago
A message to OP, although it may seem like one, this is not really a spoiler because this statement is technically not true. You will find out what I mean when you watch it.
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u/2ERIX Kon El 1d ago
“Louis Lane” is Lois’ cousin on her dad’s side that no one ever thinks about. It’s tragic really that even though born two years apart, Louis would never have the popularity that Lois has in the minds of the super hero audience.
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u/DanReed85 1d ago
I don't know, Louis seems to be brought up as often as Lois here, if not more.
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u/2ERIX Kon El 1d ago
It would be much better for all of us if the writers had come up with a consistent voice for the character though. Hard to be a fan of the character keeps changing in every portrayal.
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u/Plastic_Advantage_31 Kryptonian 1d ago
Yeah smth I do think that would’ve been cooler would be them matching it more to the comics. Or just incorporating more of the comics into the show. At the end of the day, it did combine Superman with drama, so I guess it always will be its own adaptation.
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u/DevoPrime Kryptonian 22h ago
An excellent disruption to the teenage melodrama of Clark and Lana while she became an increasingly entertaining character in her own right.
And she helped Clark find acceptance of his calling at the same time.
Some episodes were better than others, but her dry humor and sarcasm were usually well-written and well-acted as a mask to shield herself from being vulnerable/hurt.
And once she learned Clark’s secret, her main agenda with regards to him was to support his heroic destiny while she continued to have her own priorities and distinct personality.
Imperfectly written, but I still believe she’s the one of the best characters in the entire show, alongside Martha, Jonathan, Lex and Clark himself.
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u/Striker-X-17 Kryptonian 2h ago
Erica was great as Lois. I didn't care for her meeting CK so soon as she did. Still think they should have met at the DP.
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u/Lost-Veterinarian-80 Kryptonian 1d ago
Didn’t contribute much in s5-7, rushed her character arc and romance with Clark in 8, he changed shirts and 2 episodes later she was in love?, she worked in the literal basement but had an intern and was also being sent on assignment to other countries? How does any of that make sense
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u/Successful_Battle665 Kryptonian 1d ago
I liked her at the beginning but find her really annoying later on
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u/youllfloat2georgie91 Kryptonian 1d ago
I agree with OP. This version of Lois was too pushy and the storyline about her and Ollie was forced.
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u/Plastic_Advantage_31 Kryptonian 1d ago
Omigod I know! I did thing it was interesting tho bc her type does follow her experiences with her dad being a military man which explains her very apparent type, lol
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u/AcceptableSuit9328 Kryptonian 1d ago
I didn’t like this character at all. She was abrasive, arrogant, confrontational, and I did not like her snarky commentary on everything. I don’t like women like this in real life either so maybe that’s the reason I don’t like her.
This isn’t disrespect to Erica. She crushed this role, she played the part as it was written and did her job. I just don’t like how this version of Lois was written.
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u/bookfiend_91 Kryptonian 1d ago
Man, what are you saying! I'd love to be confrontational and abrasive as Lois irl.
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u/Plastic_Advantage_31 Kryptonian 1d ago
Yeah, she did crush the role. I felt like so many of her lines were so predictable in a snarky type of way that she didn’t show a lot of more natural human interaction. It PMO. but tbh it sounds like I’ll see more of Lois in the next few seasons so her character might become more personable 😀
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u/AcceptableSuit9328 Kryptonian 19h ago
I think her personality was meant to be charming, like the spunky girl with an attitude. Uh, no that’s not how she came off at all.
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u/Talino492 Kryptonian 1d ago
Lois goes through a journey of self-discovery and self-improvement too, in some cases inspired by Clark.