By allowing the story to be bogged down by relationship drama, Superman & Lois season 2 delves into one of the biggest mistakes of both the Arrowverse and The CW before it can even get off the ground. The CW has been known for injecting a lot of melodrama into their programming, and with the Arrowverse turning 10-years-old in 2022, it has become well-known and highly criticized for doing the same thing at times. Superman & Lois season 1 was able to avoid campy melodrama for the most part, but season 2 may not be as lucky.
Superman & Lois season 2 opens up with Sarah returning to Smallville from summer camp, notably upset about something that she won’t share with anyone—not even Jordan. Sarah spends the multiple episodes being distant from Jordan until she finally reveals that she kissed a girl at summer camp. While Sarah says that it didn’t mean anything and “just sort of happened,” Jordan is still upset and leaves Sarah to be alone.
Relationship drama is something fans have constantly criticized The CW for overindulging in, and it appears that Superman & Lois can’t avoid it, either. While it makes sense that Sarah wouldn’t want to tell Jordan what happened, and the way she avoided it could even mean that it’s the first time she’s had to analyze her sexuality, it can still be annoying to have a good relationship like theirs—and Superman & Lois, as a whole—bogged down by relationship drama with no way of knowing how long it will last for. There are more interesting stories that can be told that don’t involve this sort of drama, yet that’s what the show seems to be focusing on.
What makes it worse is the possibility of a love triangle being added into the mix. While Sarah spent the first two episodes being distant from Jordan, she quickly opened up to Natalie Irons and almost immediately developed a friendship with her, with Natalie actually pushing Sarah to tell Jordan the truth. The reason why that could lead to a love triangle is that while Natalie’s sexuality hasn’t been addressed in Superman & Lois, she’s definitively attracted to girls in the comics; there’d be no reason to change that for the show. Since they went out of their way to have Sarah kiss a girl, her friendship with Natalie may spark an attraction between the two of them, which would ultimately lead into a love triangle with the two of them and Jordan. The Arrowverse’s love triangles are a big part of the problem where relationship drama is concerned, so it's hard to say the series wouldn't be better off without it.
Superman & Lois hasn’t been without its share of drama, but much of season 1's drama was centered on the Kent family and their return to Smallville. What made it start apart from the rest of The CW's Arrowverse was how quickly it handled its issues and how well it avoided falling back into the same issues of its predecessors. Now, however, the show appears to be tackling romantic woes, and possibly love triangles, in the same way that other shows on The CW would. Superman & Lois season 2 is still only a few episodes in, so there's no way of knowing exactly how the show will handle these issues going forward, but the fact that its dealing with potentially messy relationship issues at all will likely be to the show's detriment.
Superman & Lois releases new episodes Tuesdays on The CW.