Tuesday TV Touchbase: Superman & Lois, Naomi and Batwoman

The CW's DC shows are taking a two week break so here's a chance to catch up a bit.

Superman & Lois were leaning hard into bringing the Doomsday storyline from the comics to TV. A mysterious hooded being punching his way out of a rocky prison miles underground. Lois describing Clark's psychic visions as some kind of portent of "doomsday". The hooded being bursts forth and kicks Superman's ass. The hood comes off.

Plot twist: it ain't Doomsday.

It's Bizarro. 

This is not the silly sounding distortion of Superman from the silver age of comic books. This Bizarro is dark and sinister in appearance with all of Superman's powers and zero inhibitions in using those powers in a rampage of death and destruction. 

Good on the writers of Superman & Lois for using my knowledge of comic book lore against me to send me in one direction but take me in another with a pretty satisfying twist. 

In other stuff, Lois is trying to save her sister Lucy from cult leader Ally Allston.  Couple of things on this front:

Lois calls Ally a "parasite" which is interesting because in the comics, Ally Allston is a version of the Parasite, a purple power sucking villain who has fought Superman over the years.

At the center of Ally's cult is her teaching something called "the Inverse Method". Since Bizzaro is an inverse version of Superman, is there some connection between these two plot lines? 

Lucy Lane is portrayed by Jenna Dewan who played Lucy on Supergirl where she was way more together than the frantic woman who is really into whatever Ally is selling, apparently to the point of nearly killing herself?

Sore point: while I am enjoying Superman & Lois, I am still frustrated by the show's failure to even acknowledge the larger "Arrowverse" it resides in.  When John Henry Irons asks Clark if there is any one else who can help him and Clark comes up empty, I'm snapping at the TV, "How about Supergirl, J'onn J'onnz, the Flash, Brainiac 5, Dreamer, Sentinel"?  Of course Superman is not one to put others in danger but this refusal to seek out super powered help just prompts John Henry to put on his barely operational Steel suit to help Superman and nearly gets himself killed for his trouble. 

We're halfway through season 2 without so much as a mention or even a photo on the wall of the Kent's Smallville farm of cousin Kara Danvers. 

Over on Naomi, the progression of a teenage comic book fan realizing she has super powers and is from another plant is moving... slowly. Perhaps too slowly.

It's taken 4 weeks for Naomi's parents to finally fess up they found baby Naomi all baby Kal-El style. No rocket, mind you, but swaddled in a blanked from who knows where.

It's taken 4 week for Naomi to find out she is a refugee from an alternate Earth, specifically Earth 29.  

I know it's all about the journey and not the destination but I am ready for less obtuse riddles and oblique references and more straight talk about who Naomi is, where she's from and what she can do and some forward motion on where Naomi is going from here.

Over on Batwoman, "Wildmoore" gets bizzay! 

Ryan Wilder and Sophie Moore tumble into bed in a destructive (Ryan didn't like that lamp anyway) and awkward (even lesbians have trouble with bras?) sexually charged frenzy. 

It was kind of hot but my wife Andrea was sitting right there on the sofa with me so I had to pretend it wasn't. 

Mary Hamilton is no longer Poison Ivy but she still feels guilty about the shit she did as Poison Ivy up to and including murder.

And Alice doesn't want to be Alice anymore? 

And Jada Jet confesses she put Ryan up for adoption and never ever checked on her because of love and I'm calling bullshit on that.

Meanwhile, Marquis Jet continues is descent into becoming his own version of the Joker with some help from Carla from Scrubs? Nooooooooooo! 

And both Jada and Marquis know Batwoman is Ryan Wilder and I'm starting to think who doesn't?  

There's a scene where Marquis is holding a press conference and it appears he's about to expose Ryan's secret. He doesn't but I imagine if he did, it would go something like this.

• Marquis Jet: And I ready to reveal to the world that Batwoman is..
• Reporter #1: Ryan Wilder.
• Reporter #2: Ryan Wilder, totally.
• Reporter #3: Ryan Wilder, everyone knows that.  
• Reporter #4: Kate Kane. (looks at other reporters) Sorry, I'm still on season 1.
• All reporters: Ryan Wilder!!! 
• A crestfallen Marquis Jet holds up a T-shirt with a maskless Batwoman that reads "Ryan Wilder Is Batwoman, bitch!" 
• Marquis Jet: And I spent so much money on these T-shirts.  
• Reporter #1: Didja hear "Wildmoore" got bizzay?  
• Reporter #2: Ryan and Sophie? No way! 
• Reporter #3: They totally did it! 
• Marquis Jet: Would anyone like a T-shirt?  
• Reporter #4: Wait, I thought Sophie was still hot for Kate Kane? 
• All reporters: Catch up already! 

And that is I think that for this week's Tuesday TV Touchbase.

Next week it's Star Trek time as I pontificate on Prodigy at it's midseason point and after almost two years of trying, Andrea and I catch up to new episodes of Discovery in real time.

Until next time, remember to be good to one another and try to keep it down in there, would ya? I'm trying to watch TV over here.