Spoilers Black Lightning - Season 1

[Kirk Prime]

I'm not really liking the whole, "Black Lightning is framed for murder" storyline. I'm far more interested in BL's daughters becoming a part of things. I don't like storylines that drag, and even after 2 episodes, this storyline with the framed for murder thing is dragging.

 

[Christopher]

The Freeland experiment put me in mind of the tragic Tuskegee syphilis experiment and by extension of plots of blaxploitation films like Three the Hard Way (and humorously in Black Dynamite).

I'm sure that was intentional. The ASA boss played by Gregg Henry was written as rather blatantly racist, talking about attempts to make the Freeland population "docile."

I wonder if Henderson would be suspicious of BL's call about lightning weapons after finding the morgue with the bodies had been forcibly smashed into. Did those weapons come from the ASA?

Honestly, they shouldn't even need to find the weapons. The framing subplot here isn't working for me at all. After all, Black Lightning was fighting Tobias's men at the nightclub at the same time Lady Eve was being attacked. There must be forensic evidence on the scene to prove he was there at that time, and probably some witnesses from the area who saw or heard evidence of the fight, even if none of Tobias's men are willing or available to talk. So he should have a reasonably solid alibi. What's more, a forensic analysis of the blast patterns at the mortuary should be able to determine that there were multiple attackers firing from different positions, and perhaps even that Lady Eve returned fire (although I think her shot only struck one of the assassins and didn't leave marks on the walls or floor).

Then again, there are a lot of cops in the Freeland PD who work for Tobias. So I guess Tobias could've instructed them to destroy any forensic evidence that would exonerate BL. But if so, then that should have been stated onscreen to patch the plot hole.

I'm not sure if the show is burning through subplots too quickly for it's own good or not. It's refreshing not having things drawn out but at the same time it might be shortchanging getting the viewers invested before pulling the rug.

It's only a 13-episode season, alas, and we're 8 episodes in. The pace seems appropriate.

 

[Morpheus 02]

Black Lightning
Episode eight: "The Book of Revelations"



Gambi: Finally, Gambi actually has a crisis of conscience after his visit to the local church / listening to Mrs. Johnson's spiritual advice, coming clean to Jefferson. I was hoping the showrunners did not simply make him the snake of this series, and actually give substance to some of his actions involving the A.S.A....

As a Christian, I have a different take on Be Thou My Vision..how did y'all interpret the song, and why it connected with Gambi? Kinda struggling a bit with Mrs. Johnson's words (the song is about God's grace...not about doing "good" works) ...but definitely agree with at times what we want is definitely NOT what we need.

I appreciate his inner struggle (and how it is all coming out)

And one more word about the scene..i know white evangelicalism is on the decline...but man (hoping that was just practice before an activity was starting)

Anissa Pierce: Automatically assuming a guy wearing a Confederate flag shirt is a threat...immature and stupid to say the least. Jefferson was correct in straightening her out (or trying to), only to be met by the weakest excuse of all, "nobody's perfect". As Jefferson observed, she reacts emotionally, instead of thinking ("You don't know a lot!"), the opposite of his "Brains, not brawn" line.

But i think natural, especially for this generation. Remember the recent "punch a Nazi" craze on social media recently...?

And this political environment really encourages reaction at the first sign of something against what you believe (again, with social media...i know i react to headlines rather than reading a story in contet)

Lynn: I guess we can assume a member of the A.S.A. stole Alvin Pierce's research papers and samples from Lynn's lab.

That's it about Lynn?? I really like how they write her... she's very smart, but also realisitically/appropriately emotional .

Jennifer: Now that her power has blossomed, will she trip and fall into trouble--especially if she's confronted by the soon-to-be-enhanced Khalil?

LaLa: Rather twisted inner demon in the form of his Lawanda fantasies. Clearly a result of guilt, yet the fantasy has this martyr encouraging him to kill...and being the object of his desires. Really twisted.

Still, now that he's back, I cannot believe his entire life's direction will center on crime. His fantasies are pointing him in the direction of learning the secret of his resurrection, so if and when he runs into Proctor / A.S.A., will he attempt to exploit that discovery? Join them? Help BL? Should be an interesting journey if the showrunners take him out of the simple villain role.

Shadow Board: Nothing about this group in this episode...unless they're just another arm of the A.S.A.

NOTES:

Using the Carl Douglas song Kung Fu Fighting (1974) was too corny. At the time of its original release during the height of the martial arts movie and school craze in North America, it was relevant, but it was eventually turned into the backdrop for too many comedians and/or comedy films, losing its meaning or cool factor.

GRADE: A

I think the Kung Fu FIghting song was perfect..and is totally relevent... i mean, c'mon, "...fast as LIGHTNING..."


And i would also grade this an A episode.

This is fun. A superhero dad training a superhero daughter -- that's not a dynamic we've seen much onscreen, if at all. I mean, we've seen veteran heroes training new heroes (Flash/Elongated Man) or their successors (Hank Pym and Scott Lang as Ant-Man), but the family dynamic is a novel twist.

So this is a world where an evil government agency has been hunting down and experimenting on metahumans for over 30 years. That would seem to rule out Earth-1 as its setting. It's not incompatible with Earth-38, though, since we've seen secretive government programs and unethical experimentation on aliens there, so it kind of fits.

Uh...isn't Justce Society form Earth 1?

And the government agencies might think that Team Flash metas are out of their control, so they aren't bothering them...and Team Arrow, seems to be all tech, right? Does the public (or at least a secret agency) know that the original Black Canaries had tech emitting the cry? ANd maybe assuming the new Canary is also tech?

And now we have the unified theory of Gambi. It explains a lot about his divided loyalties and why he seems to be playing both sides. He has to maintain the ASA's trust if he's to be effective at protecting the Pierces from them. The ASA is clearly behind Greenlight, and apparently Lady Eve was one of their operatives.

Anyway, I assume Jeff and Gambi will reconcile soon, since Anissa still needs to get her Thunder costume.

Oh yeah, and about that, it was weird that Gambi just casually name-dropped "Black Lightning and Thunder" as the first onscreen mention of Anissa's hero name. You'd think the selection of her name would've been a big moment, not some throwaway thing that happened offscreen.

I'm surprised to see Jennifer's powers manifesting so soon. I was thinking maybe that was something they'd save for season 2, or maybe as a cliffhanger at the end of season 1. It's an odd coincidence that the daughters are manifesting powers only a couple of months apart despite having 7 years' difference in age. And so soon after their father gets back into using his powers regularly, besides. I wonder if there's some shared factor causing it all. Maybe it's just the stress of recent events triggering the girls' latent metagenes. Or maybe Jefferson starting to use his powers again after 9 years is somehow giving off some kind of aura that his daughters' metagenes are resonating with. Or maybe the ASA is putting something in the water.

Well, they don't have a Cisco with Team Lightning, so no one to challenge names? But yeah, a little quick on the naming. Almost like the characters calling it the Temporarl COld War -- an excelelnt description for viewers, but sounds random when the characters use it.

i think the powers manifesting together might simply be for convenience...since they don't know how well received the show would be.. like would it mainly appeal to black audiences, or be generally well received like Black Panther, so they got this in to set up a sub plot for season 2

I'm not sure if the show is burning through subplots too quickly for it's own good or not. It's refreshing not having things drawn out but at the same time it might be shortchanging getting the viewers invested before pulling the rug.
.

I think the pace is reasonable...it doesn't feel quite too fast. Certainly for a 1st season, i think they're establishing a good foundation for the long term.

I'm sure that was intentional. The ASA boss played by Gregg Henry was written as rather blatantly racist, talking about attempts to make the Freeland population "docile."


Honestly, they shouldn't even need to find the weapons. The framing subplot here isn't working for me at all. After all, Black Lightning was fighting Tobias's men at the nightclub at the same time Lady Eve was being attacked. There must be forensic evidence on the scene to prove he was there at that time, and probably some witnesses from the area who saw or heard evidence of the fight, even if none of Tobias's men are willing or available to talk. So he should have a reasonably solid alibi. What's more, a forensic analysis of the blast patterns at the mortuary should be able to determine that there were multiple attackers firing from different positions, and perhaps even that Lady Eve returned fire (although I think her shot only struck one of the assassins and didn't leave marks on the walls or floor).

i disagree. I think the plot is fine (at least for now). I am not sure if the medical examiner has had enough experience to know the difference. (We don't know how experienced they are, etc... clearly their security is low, and probably the rets of the budget is low for that part of the government)

It's only a 13-episode season, alas, and we're 8 episodes in. The pace seems appropriate.

Thanks for the clarification. Good to know how much more we have to lok forward to. ANy word on ratings or renewal status?

---

Also, i think somone mentioned hwo they like how Black Lightning starts n the middle of the story, and i think the revelations have been great. And the training of ANissa (and soon Jennifer) will lead to some more background info that will be completely natural in how it is presented, and not feel likeforced dialogue. As a father, i am loving how that is coming together

 

[dahj]

Great episode, lots of ground covered, Gambi's secret's out, Jen coming into powers, and whatever the heck is going on with Lala. I'm sooooo glad Jennifer immediately went to Anissa, can't wait for next week

A superhero dad training a superhero daughter -- that's not a dynamic we've seen much onscreen, if at all.

Well, Malcolm trained Thea, thought he's hardly a hero

So this is a world where an evil government agency has been hunting down and experimenting on metahumans for over 30 years. That would seem to rule out Earth-1 as its setting

Not necessarily, there are other metas on Earth-1 that weren't caused by Central City shenanigans, and we know the government knew about them and even operated the JSA as far back as the '40s, so it wouldn't be surprising if the more shady parts of the system kept investigating that angle over the years.

 

[Christopher]

Well, Malcolm trained Thea, thought he's hardly a hero

No superpowers involved either. And their father-daughter dynamic was strained at best.

Not necessarily, there are other metas on Earth-1 that weren't caused by Central City shenanigans, and we know the government knew about them and even operated the JSA as far back as the '40s, so it wouldn't be surprising if the more shady parts of the system kept investigating that angle over the years.

Except that Black Lightning was a famous metahuman hero up until 9 years ago, and for some years before then. His existence was hardly secret, so it doesn't fit the Earth-1 timeline where there was no general, public knowledge of metas or superheroes until the past 4 years. Also, on Earth-1, the government agency in charge of investigating metahumans is A.R.G.U.S., not the A.S.A. If there had been something like that going on in years past, then it would probably have been happening on Amanda Waller's watch, not this guy's. I suppose you could stretch the details enough to make it fit, but it seems improbable, especially in terms of public knowledge of superheroes.

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

This is easily my favorite superhero show right now. The whole cast, big and small roles seem so natural. No one seems underused. Which is often the case with some of other CW shows. We will see if they have continue that in the long run.

Out of the gates, it was the best DC/CW show, and seems to be getting better. Regarding the underused matter, yes, there's no James Olsen situation here--no character is purposely marginalized, with no purpose.

I think that both daughter's developing their powers so early could be to the show's long term advantage. Establishing already that is a part of what the show is about. With their father having a history before the series as a hero, the writers do not need to take time from Black Lightning progress as a new hero.

Agreed.

I'm hoping the A.S.A. threat proves to be a longstanding threat for BL & his daughters, and not have the predictable vanishing act by season's end like other TV series.

I wonder what's up with Lala, that resurrection story seems disconnected from the rest of the plot elements with the metahumans and Green Light, etc. Could that have something to do with the serum Tobias uses? I don't really remember where they explained the serum, did they just throw that out there the way BL seems to with its "supernatural" elements?

According to Gambi, Tobias' serum slowed the aging process, and apparently gives him enhanced strength--something not seen in anyone else (the anti-aging part), so it would seem any derivative of A.S.A's research (including Green Light) grants different abilities.

The Freeland experiment put me in mind of the tragic Tuskegee syphilis experiment and by extension of plots of blaxploitation films like Three the Hard Way (and humorously in Black Dynamite).

The former came to mind, but the latter should be forgotten, especially Three the Hard Way, with its ridiculous Neo-Nazis spiking the water supply with a designer death drug only affecting black people plot. Sheesh.

I wonder if Henderson would be suspicious of BL's call about lightning weapons after finding the morgue with the bodies had been forcibly smashed into. Did those weapons come from the ASA?

I'm assuming the weapons are from A.S.A--probably created as part of their countermeasures against any of the metahuman experiments wandering around over the past three decades (dating back to the period Gambi arrived in Freeland).

I'm not sure if the show is burning through subplots too quickly for it's own good or not. It's refreshing not having things drawn out but at the same time it might be shortchanging getting the viewers invested before pulling the rug.

That's where the A.S.A.comes in--it should be a long-running threat, as its so tied to Jefferson's life, and even from what little we know at this point, they seem like they are not the type of organization that would be taken out by a few lightning bolts and stomps.

And Lynn really dresses up for the lab. It seems like it'd be hard to clean up the lab in those stiletto heels.

Hey, if you've got it, flaunt it!

 

[Morpheus 02]

No superpowers involved either. And their father-daughter dynamic was strained at best.




Except that Black Lightning was a famous metahuman hero up until 9 years ago, and for some years before then. His existence was hardly secret, so it doesn't fit the Earth-1 timeline where there was no general, public knowledge of metas or superheroes until the past 4 years. Also, on Earth-1, the government agency in charge of investigating metahumans is A.R.G.U.S., not the A.S.A. If there had been something like that going on in years past, then it would probably have been happening on Amanda Waller's watch, not this guy's. I suppose you could stretch the details enough to make it fit, but it seems improbable, especially in terms of public knowledge of superheroes.

Not really a stretch.

1st, the ASA was 30 years ago... their official work with meta humans might have dropped when everything went down with the "vaccinations"..or officially they are about health stuff, but the metahuman stuff is a tangent they are stuck on.

How old is ARGUS? Also, there were other departments that covered what Hoeland Security now oversees, but due to circumstances those responsibilities (officially) changed

And while improbable, metahumans may have been undercover the whole time since WW2, and at best were urban legends (or maybe suburban legends or rural legends, making it even more hidden )

And what does ARGUS and ASA stand for?

On Earth 38, when did they know about Superman? If it was when he landed, it still wasn't the ASA that dealt with him. We have only heard about the DEO, which has been around about 12 years at least.

 

[JD]

It's nice to finally get the details about what exactly is going on with Gambi. The big connections between Green Light, Jefferson's father's murder, and the ASA were a surprise.
Jefferson and Annissa training and working together was a lot of fun, I really like the dynamic that's being established between them.
I'm not quite sure what the make of Lala and Lawanda right.
I did not expect Jennifer to start to develop powers already, I figured it would happen before the end of the season, but I figured they'd give Anissa a bit more time to develop her superhero identity first.

 

[Christopher]

By the way, one thing keeps puzzling me about the show. Both Henderson and Anissa have teased Black Lightning about the cell phones he uses to contact Henderson, and their dialogue implies they see them as quaint or backward or something (last week's episode had Jeff insisting to Anissa that it was "current technology"), but I can't see any difference between the "Black-Signal" phones and a regular smartphone. Could it be that the writers intended them to be those more basic flip phones that tend to be used in TV and movies as disposable "burner phones," but the prop department didn't get the memo?

 

[dahj]

but I can't see any difference between the "Black-Signal" phones and a regular smartphone.

Clearly you're lucky enough not to know any snobbish iPhone users.

 

[Christopher]

Clearly you're lucky enough not to know any snobbish iPhone users.

Are you saying there is a difference I'm missing, or are you just making a joke?

 

[Morpheus 02]

Clearly you're lucky enough not to know any snobbish iPhone users.

Are you saying there is a difference I'm missing, or are you just making a joke?

Umm...that's kinda what the smiley face means...

 

[dahj]

Are you saying there is a difference I'm missing

No, it looked like a generic smartphone.
My (joking) point is phones are status symbols these days and if you've got a crap one you're not cool as I've been told several times for still using a 3 year old phone(luckily, I ooze swagger, so I can still pull it off).

 

[Christopher]

Is there such a thing now as a "burner" smartphone? I'm not even sure what "burner" phones are, honestly, except they're something used by criminals and spies and such on TV as a source of anonymous or untraceable communication. I gather they're the sort of thing you buy at a grocery store or the like, a basic phone without a plan attached, something cheap and disposable. At least, that's the impression I've gotten, since they're usually shown as non-smart flip phones.

 

[dahj]

Is there such a thing now as a "burner" smartphone? I'm not even sure what "burner" phones are, honestly

It's just a cheap phone with a prepaid SIM card that doesn't require you to register your name so you can use it anonymously.
Up to a few years ago regular phones were much cheaper than smartphones, but now one can find very cheap smartphones as well and frankly smartphones would make much more sense for this sort of thing because one could even use apps to encrypt communications... I guess... not that I would know anything about any illegal activities.

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

Black Lightning
Episode nine: "The Book of Little Black Lies"

Jefferson Pierce/Black Lightning: I do enjoy the father/daughter relationship between Jefferson & Anissa. Although there are some key differences on how life should be / the purpose of law and order, as a team--in and out of costume--they are a good fit. Its rare to see father/daughter relationships handled like this in film.

BL, Thunder and Henderson's takedown of the A.S.A. lab was short and sweet. For a moment, I thought BL or Thunder were going to be captured.

"Its like declaring war" - apt assessment of the A.S.A. situation.

Gambi: Snake venom. Entertaining way for forcing information out of someone.

The hall of lab captives/experiments--metahumans, I presume. Very interesting. I appreciate that for now, Anissa still refers to him as "Uncle Gambi", despite Jefferson's warning.

Anissa & Jennifer Pierce: Anissa. Oh, boy. She could have handed the reveal better than just dropping all of the secrets on Jennifer. I hope Jennifer is not ready to move into Media Stupid Teenage Stereotype Mode and walk into something she cannot handle.

Contrary to Anissa's position, its not disrespectful to call a president by his first name. "Teddy" and "Jack" were oft-used nicknames for Roosevelt and Kennedy, respectively.

Lynn: Her entire speech to Anissa and Jennifer were spot on.

Martin Proctor / The A.S.A. / Henderson: Well, Henderson now knows one of his own detectives (Kamen) is receiving A.S.A. weapons as part of the plot against BL.
Good moment with Henderson realizing how much danger he's in, asking BL to set the record straight on him in the event he's killed.

NOTES:
Jennifer feeling like a "freak" (and fearing being divorced from her normal of expectations of marriage and having kids) for having powers is an interesting take on superheroes. In this current generation of superhero productions, most characters just jump into the tights with no second thoughts or regret.

Vixen and Supergirl were mentioned, but are they real in this universe--or just comic book characters the way someone will reference Spider-Man in that way in real life?

The Thunder costume is okay, but a little...plain.

GRADE: A. Getting better each week. No other CW/DC shares that kind of run.

 

[Christopher]

This is weird. They're talking about Thunder as a superhero whose name is already known and who's building a reputation, but we haven't seen her do anything public since she took down that statue, and she didn't stick around to introduce herself. I thought she was still training with her father and that her public debut was yet to come. It's weird to get these throwaway mentions to her already being a public superhero offscreen, somehow in between installments of this rather tightly serialized show. When has this been happening? And shouldn't it have been a bigger deal? This is the one thing about this show so far that I feel is clumsy and unsuccessful. The naming and debut of a new superhero should be a bigger event.

Thunder's proper-costume debut was pretty effective, though. I presume they got all the bad guys out of the building before doing the cool slow-motion hero walk away from the explosion. Gambi just said last week that Black Lightning's never killed anybody, so it seems unlikely that he'd reverse that policy the very next week.

The costume looks fairly good, though the mask is still a bit odd. It's less armorlike and more flexible than I expected from the photos. I remember Gambi said it would have a kevlar weave, and I do recall thinking in passing that that didn't fit my expectation of rigid armor, but I didn't think it through.

I just realized that the sound cue of Anissa's echoing inhalation before she uses her powers is sort of a diegetic equivalent to the "ta-ta-ta-tang" sound of Steve Austin or Jaime Sommers using their bionics -- a cue to the audience that the superpower is being engaged.

Oh, another thing that got glossed over a bit was Henderson. Two weeks ago, he was the one accusing BL of murder. Now he accepts that BL was framed. We didn't really get to see his transition there, since he didn't appear onscreen last week.

Jennifer reacted to her powers pretty much the way I anticipated she would -- I don't want this, I wanna be normal, I don't want to save the world, etc. The show has defined her pretty clearly as skeptical of the others' activism and longing for an ordinary teenage life, so it was easy to guess that she wouldn't be rushing to put on a costume like Anissa did. I do wonder where they're going with this. Presumably she'll eventually end up as Lightning, but probably not for another season or two.

The Earth-38 theory is starting to look questionable. Vixen exists on this Earth (and Lynn & Jennifer's conversation implied that both Vixen and Supergirl are real heroes), and Obama was a nominee for president twice, which seems incompatible with the established fact of Olivia Marsdin being president in 2016. (He could've run a second time and lost to Marsdin, but no way is she a Republican, and an independent winning a US presidential election is somewhat more unbelievable than a disguised alien winning a US presidential election.) So I'm now leaning toward the theory that this is a third Earth with doppelgangers of both Earth-1 and Earth-38 heroes.

 

[The Realist]

The various bad-guy factions are starting to get a little confusing to me, and maybe to the writers. Gambi is trying to trace the source of the BL-framing electric weapons that killed Lady Eve, with the suggestion that investigation somehow leads him to Proctor's metahuman storage facility. But Tobias had Lady Eve killed -- not the ASA, with whom she was working and who most certainly did not want her dead. Though it was always unclear where Tobias came up with those sci-fi weapons in the first place; did he (or his late sister) somehow steal them from the ASA? Maybe all will be made clear eventually, but for now the who-did-what-and-how seems a bit muddled.

 

[Greg Cox]

Good episode, although it did strike me that the whole family was so focused on the secrets/honesty issues that they kinda buried the lede: that, ohmigod, Jennifer has super-powers!

You'd think the parents' first response would be "Wait, Jennifer has powers? What kind of powers?" as opposed to "How dare you reveal our big secrets to your little sister without consulting us?"

 

[dahj]

I like that the show has fewer episodes than other CW shows, the story is moving along at a good pace and they're not unnecessarily dragging the drama out(khm, looking at you Arrow, khm), but I do feel we're missing an episode where Thunder did some solo superheroing.

Another really good one, gotta feel for Jennifer here, she told her parents when she was about to start having sex, and the second she discovered she had powers she went to her sister, so finding out that honesty apparently only applies if you're the one being honest must have sucked. All the family stuff was again very well done, loved every minute of it.

The build up to the Green Light takedown was good, I was honestly worried for Henderson's and Gambi's lives, and that Black Lightning and Thunder might get injured or captured. I like that the henchmen and random staff at the lab didn't even try and fight BL&T (they really need a non-sandwichy acronym ) and they just ran off, which was a nice contrast to usual van drivers and lab technicians who suddenly discover their inner martial artists in these situations.

You'd think the parents' first response would be "Wait, Jennifer has powers? What kind of powers?" as opposed to "How dare you reveal our big secrets to your little sister without consulting us?"

Well they're not comic book fans, they're their parents so... different priorities.

Even if they did ask that question right then at best they'd get an expository line of the stuff we've already seen ("she fried a phone, so some lightning stuff") so can't say I missed that, and I though the way they later on addressed that uncertainty of what exactly does having wonky DNA entail("Can I have kids?") felt real and not commonly seen in shows like this.