April 21, 2016

A Look at Supergirl-Season 1

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Well since the CBS series Supergirl has wrapped up I guess this would be a good time to go over my thoughts on the series. Last year when I did this for The Flash the article was a tad….to long. So I will try to keep this short and sweet, and list only five things I liked and did not like versus fifteen endless categories. But there were will be spoilers, sorry it’s hard to talk about the series as a whole without them.






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Before I do that let just let me generally say if I liked the show. To be honest, I did not ar first. The pilot looked pretty cool, and I didn’t mind the tweaks to the character;s backstory (they repeat it at the start of every episode if you don’t know it). But then I was disappointed. It looked like they were just going for a copy of what the (same creators) had done over on Flash. I dropped it for a couple weeks. But then I came back when I found out about Martian Manhunter. Why the creators used the name Hank Henshaw I will never know, even a casual Superman fan should know that name. But the series got better and I enjoyed watching it. The bizarro episode was real good, the black mercy episode was a great re-telling of one of my favorite Superman stories by Alan Moore, and the red kryptonite episode was just fantastic.




1.Supergirl
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Well, duh. But to be fair it could have been a bad casting choice. Instead, Melissa Benoist is simply perfect as Supergirl. She is strong and tough when she needs to be and is cute and adorable when she needs to be. Her Supergirl kicks major ass, and she isn’t bad as the alter ego Kara either. Even when she was evil because of red kryptonite she sold every scene..including the end when she was normal again and had to accept what she had done. Nice scene.






2.Cat Grant and supporting cast
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Much like others, I was not happy to see this version of Cat Grant at first. Cat was many things in the comics but an uptight bitch was not one of them. This seemed to go against everything about her character. But I can’t lie, as the episodes went on Calisa Flockhart won me over. Maybe because they softened her up a bit, but whatever the case I really liked her by the end. I have a conspiracy theory that she was supposed to a Lex Luthor type (notice Supergirl has none) but when fans cried foul they changed it so she was more of a mentor type. And it worked, the scenes between Cat and Supergirl are great and it’s clear she has respect for her assistant Kara despite calling her by the wrong name. This is proven in the final episode when not only dies Kara get a promotion, but Cat finally pronounces her name correctly.

What about the rest pf the supporting cast?
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I’ll get to some as we go, but as for Winn, I had to look his name that’s how memorable he was. Oh they tried to make him interesting but not so much. I didn’t get why Kara needed a sister at first but Alex Danvers grew on me and I liked her. I was also annoyed that she had to work with the DEO, again it felt like a Flash knock off. But they made it work and I kind of like that these shows have the hero getting help from others, even a team of others. With no word balloons or caption boxes they need to get this stuff out somehow and it makes things a little more believable.






3.Action Scenes and Cool Villains!
"Red Faced" -- Personal and professional stress get the better of Kara when she goes too far during a training exercise against Red Tornado, a military cyborg commissioned by Lucy Lane's father, General Sam Lane, on SUPERGIRL, Monday, Nov. 30 (8:00-9:00 PM, ET) on the CBS Television Network. Pictured left to right: Melissa Benoist and Iddo Goldberg as Red Tornado Photo: Darren Michaels/CBS ©2015 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reservedsupergirl-bullet-proofrs_1024x759-160229090057-1024.supergirl-laura-vandervoort.ch.02916107450_wb_0290b_2
I loved the action scenes in this series. They felt like good old fashioned comic book super hero action. Gotta love how Supergirl wasn’t afraid to throw a punch! And no slow motion crap. And on top of that the series is bright and cheery, not dark and broody like a certain depressing movie that just came out. This is what comic books are supposed to be! The villains were pretty well done, staying true to he comics while creating something original. I really liked the female Brainiac called Indigo. There were others like the Toyman, Live Wire and Bizarro and they all worked well. There was one I didn’t like so much, but we’ll save that for the next category. Of course the main villains for the run of the season were the Krypton criminals. Non was an obvious Zod knock off and Astra was kind of boring. Thankfully they were smart enough to make her related to Kara which gave the villains an added dynamic that they really needed. Also I missed the Red Tornado episode but it looked cool from the clip I saw online.





4.World’s Finest (and Martian Manhunter)
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Ok, first things first. I added Martian Manhunter here because I had nowhere else to discuss him. Unlike Smallville which didn’t do the character much justice, this series really does. I have always liked John J’onzz and he is very well played here. I like his human Hank Henshaw disguise too. Not only do they portray him correctly, but the backstory is pretty close to the comics also. Nice. But my favorite superhero appearance and favorite episode has to be the crossover with The Flash. I loved it! The chemistry between Benoist and Gunstin was just adorable. Every scene with two was excellent. I could complain about the weak tie in with the actual Flash series, but this is Supergirl we’re talking about.  The episode fit very nicely into the continuity of both series, and the episode truly felt like a classic comic book crossover.




5.Helen Slater and Dean Cain
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One of the coolest things in the series were all the nods to previous Superman and Supergirl series and movies. Kara’s mother adopted mother was played by Helen Slater, the original Supergirl herself. Her adopted father was played by Dean Cain who of course was Superman in Lois & Clark. I can’t lie, Cain was not the best choice but I still liked him here. Slater was just awesome, especially in the last two episode. But that’s not all, remember Indigo? She was played by Laura Vandervoort who had played Supergirl back in Smallville. The coolest thing off all? The Omegahedron prop from the Supergirl movie was even seen! Now that is awesome!







And now here five things I didn’t love as much



1.Forced Romance
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Why does this have to be a thing in every series? Is it really necessary that Kara and James have a romance? I mean really is it so bad that just be good friends who care about each other? No of course we need the unrequited love cliche! Of course we get all the tropes, James is dating Lucy but she dumps him because has eyes for Kara. Kara denies her feelings until James says something. Now she wants him, but maybe they should just be friends. Yuck. Heck in the World’s Finest episode James is pouting like a child as Kara and Barry seem to connect real good. It’s stupid and, of course, goes nowhere in the end. Course the series did other cliche’s to, like the “shocking” reveal that Kara’s father is alive. Yawn.



Speaking of James…

2.
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Now I will be honest, Mehcad Brooks is a fine actor and I have no problem with his character either. He has a nice chemistry with . I liked him…until you call him Jimmy Olsen. This is so far off the mark that they have to call him James Olsen. At least with Cat there are hints of the original character, like her son for instance, but this is supposed to be Jimmy Olsen??? I don’t buy it for a second.




3.Silver Banshee
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Man, they really tried. I give them credit for that. It was like five episode introducing  us to Siobhan, getting us to know her, learning why she hates Supergirl and Kara, and then developing her powers. But it was still a mess. Banshee did more than just wail in the comics. The wail was lethal, not just a some evil version of the Black Canary cry. Also she has superhuman strength. And the look when she finally got dressed up was just…silly. Then she was defeated way to fast. I suppose she will return next season but, and I hate to say it, Smallville did it better.




4.Anti Alien Crap/Maxwell Lord
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This is the new thing now, I guess it’s a reflection of the times but I don’t get it. Why do people in comics (and movies and TV shows based on comics) hate aliens all of a sudden? Maybe in Marvel you can get away with this, but DC Comics as always been all bout the aliens and  the fact that people trust them. Martian Manhunter, Hawkman, Green Lantern Corps, Starfire, and of course Superman and Supergirl. There are two main focuses of this, General Lane which I liked. Lois’s father has always been a general and added some dynamic to the series. But what the heck was up with Maxwell Lord? You can’t just slap an established name om a character and say “tada!” Ok Ok, I know Max Lord was retconned to be alien hating eventually in the comics so that’s fair. But his character in the series is all over the place, he almost feels a plot device they used when they couldn’t come with another idea. The worst part was when the DEO locked him up for three episodes without due process. This should have been a big deal! What became of this? Nothing. Nothing at all.





5.Where the heck is Superman?
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I can’t find a solid reason for this. Some say it’s because of the movie universe, but I can find no proof that. And I get it, a series based on Supergirl should be focused tightly on Supergirl. That really does make sense. Problem is just how little we’ve seen of Superman. I mean instant messaging her at work? She has a cell phone! It becomes a real problem when there is a major threat, like in the series finale which was good but also failed in a few spots. Superman is first off world, and then suddenly he is rushing to the rescue–when the weapon being used affects him even though Supergirl is fine (the reason for this is stupid). Superman is unconscious later, with Kara barely noticing and we only see his boots. After Kara saves the world and is saved by her sister in Kara’s old pod  (which is so rushed it was stupid, she could operate that ship that fast huh?) Superman is suddenly messaging her again about proud he is of her. When did he wake up? Why was he unconscious longer? Never explained! The series acts like it’s a spin-off show of a Superman series that doesn’t really exist! I don’t get it, why not have him be there to congratulate her after she saved the world? Heck do the silhouette thing again, I don’t care! If you can’t show his face, could we at least give him a voice????? These two need to have more interaction than stupid instance messaging which, by the way, is very dated!



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I guess the biggest criticism is that the supporting cast isn’t very fleshed out. I didn’t even mention Lucy, who was invisible for most of the year. She only got interesting in the last couple episodes. When you compare to Flash or Arrow there is a difference I have to say. But overall, I liked this series. What worked really worked and I hope there is a season 2.




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So what did you guys think? Was the series good, or a miss?

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