A town hall meeting about Morgan Edge’s proposals seems an ideal opportunity for Lois to halt his plans, but she’ll need to rely on Clark, who is still struggling to find balance between his duties as a husband, a father and Superman.

What’s really stood out about Superman & Lois so far is that it doesn’t do any of the things you expect from a superhero show, or even a CW show. Where Arrow and The Flash and Batwoman all tend towards feeling a little soap-opera, with long, drawn out misunderstandings which flare into disagreements that can put relationships at risk sometimes for entire seasons, Superman & Lois just… doesn’t.

That’s not to say that there isn’t conflict here, but the Kents tend to have a healthy attitude towards that – they talk it out, they express themselves and they are there for one another when they need to be. It makes for some genuinely compelling television to see a loving family unit willing to go to bat for one another and willing to be honest with one another week after week.

It also means that the conflicts get to be interesting. This week, Jonathan is feeling a little unusually left out now that Jordan is the new star player of the football team. This means that all the things which have come so easily to Jonathan for so many years – popularity, being in with the cool crowd and having lots of friends – are suddenly all Jordan’s, and he’s slightly left to the side. Another show might have Jonathan be openly resentful as a jock who doesn’t know how to express his emotions, while Jordan might become an aloof pain now that he has all he ever wanted. Instead, Jordan is able to recognise his brother’s newfound awkwardness, and empathise, even as Jonathan realises that his brother is finally getting his turn, and whereas that’s hard, it’s also not his fault and something he probably deserves. If there was any better way to prove that these two are Clark Kent’s kids, I can’t think of it.

Clark himself meanwhile, finds himself increasingly pulled in various directions. He’s making good on his promise to be a more present father to his sons, but that means he’s more absent from his ‘duties’ as Superman, something which hasn’t gone unnoticed either by Metropolis’ criminal elite or by Sam Lane and his DOD paymasters. This leads to a minor incident which, in the way of fixing, Clark manages to let down someone else in his life, creating more tension, more honest conversations and more resolution. It’s a definite theme to the show and again, proves that making Superman an interesting character week after week isn’t all that difficult when you approach it properly.

Speaking of Sam, he’s another source of conflict, sticking his nose in to the Kent family when he really shouldn’t because he wants his red and blue-clad enforcer back on the job full time. His refusal to accept Clark’s new devotion to his family turns out to tie back partially to his own parenting style (no wonder Lois grew up quite so tough) but even he seems to take criticism on board. That said, he’s still got those dog tags and he doesn’t seem quite ready to ignore Captain Luthor’s warning just yet.

And Lois is up against the machinations of Morgan Edge, who is swiftly turning out to be a bit of a bastard all round, and a worrying well-connected one at that. It’s great to watch Lois really give her all into trying to put a stop to his scheming, even as she tends to get frustrated at every turn, but I suspect he’s due a rude surprise or two to come.

On top of all this we have issues for one of Jonathan and Jordan’s fellow pupils, some progress in resolving the issues clearly plaguing the Cushing household and all of it is handled with similar aplomb.

Verdict: There isn’t a single moment of this which isn’t a pleasure to watch. 10/10

Greg D. Smith