10 4th Wall Breaking TV Show Moments Everyone Hated
4. Jimmy & Perry Realise They're Supporting Characters - Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman
From one Olsen to another now, then, with Jimmy Olsen (Justin Whalin) and Perry White's (Lane Smith) bizarre wink at the audience in the final episode of Lois & Clark's second season, "And the Answer Is..."
At the tail-end of the episode, Jimmy asks Perry why, instead of just wondering what Lois Lane (Teri Hatcher) and Clark Kent (Dean Cain) are doing all the time, why don't the pair of them "[get] lives of their own that are a little more interesting."
Perry then straight-up takes a sledgehammer to the fourth wall when he tells Jimmy, "It's like we're supporting characters in some TV show that's only about them."
Jimmy concurs and adds that the pair of them only exist to advance Lois and Clark's plots, and the pair agree that they're absolutely sick of playing second fiddle.
While this scene was clearly intended to reference fan complaints that Jimmy and Perry were thinly developed characters with little real agency of their own, the fact that nothing was done in subsequent seasons to address the issue made this meta moment feel hollow at best, annoyingly self-aware at worst.
Why peel back the series' veil of reality to tell the audience, "We hear you," if you're not going to actually do something about it?