Fossil trail of 80s early woke

I watched the first few episodes out of nostalgia. Shouldn't have. It's meh.

The music, the cinematography, the pocket-change budget: yep, this is one of the long litany of Cannell shows that graced the 80s. Theme song to this one's really good, though.

What sets outs as a touchy-feely take on Superman turns out more nuanced than expected after living through one quarter of the 21st century.

The main characters are pretty on the nose: Katt's (whose name shall not be uttered due to an attempt on President Reagan's life) a frizzled blonde surfer dude special ed teacher, Culp's a 3-piece wearing, ex-mil FBI op. Guess who votes Republican.

And yet, Super non-threatening Male does defend G-man, mansplaining to his girlfriend that while they were drinking coffee, young G-man was down in the trenches defending their country.

Unexpectedly true and truly unexpected. The modern audience would want Culp to be pigeon-holed as the apex of toxic masculinity, and stupidity too. Instead, he's a bona fide badass, with many imperfections but undeniable grit. Then again, they would want the woman to wear the suit, which would then be perfect.
Instead, Selleca's character butts heads with Culp's, who's an outspoken derider of feminism. And she does not systematically come out on top, as taking bullets is mostly a meritocracy. And Katt's is a custodial divorced dad. Pure fiction.

By the way, Selleca is (well, was, probably) a very fine woman, but she's been rendered as bland a humanly possible (and then some); they manage to make her actually unattractive. Not ugly, just, well, barely there. Impressive feat. Feminism hating women's traditional image. Contrast with Charlie's Angels a few years earlier, which was pretty unapologetic. Or the Dukes of Hazzard. Or the Fall Guy. Or Riptide. Riptide never got the memo.

Crap, this show heralded the beginning of the end. It even ends with handing over the mantle to a woman. Precursor show. Not in a good way. 1 woke star because it's early and timid messaging diluted by 80s common sense.