Stargirl Season 2 - Discussion ( Spoiler Warning)

Only tangentially related, but I've always thought it's a shame that most adaptations of Courtney/Stargirl have done away with how she was the continuation of two different legacies - Sly Pemberton's Star-Spangled Kid when she started, and then adding the Knight family's Starman when Jack Knight gave her the Cosmic Staff. I think that's pretty unique and it's too bad that the Knights seem to have disappeared into Sylvester in this adaptation. He's fine and all, but Jack Knight would have been a much cooler source of the staff.

 

I'm hoping Ted and Jack will show up.

And speaking of costuming. Court should probably lay off the stars and stripes motifs in her civilian attire.

 

I was thinking that too.

Although have any of them been in the spotlight?

 

I like the comics accurate costumes as well.

 

I love the costumes as well. I think that part of the point of the series is that they are supposed to look awkward on the kids. But looking at that Infinity Inc picture, it strikes me that the 40s designs that looked date when I was young now look much better than than a lot of the seventies and eighties designs.

 

The Ted Knight Starman was my favorite Earth 2 hero when I was a kid.

 

The thing is, that's rather dependent on being a continuation of a well-established history and mythology. When you're rebooting a concept from scratch for a new audience, you kind of have to simplify such things or the audience will be lost in the weeds.

I'm reminded of the Birds of Prey TV series from the early 2000s. It went for this very complicated backstory -- "Once there was Batman, and he fell in love with Catwoman and had a metahuman daughter, and then the Joker killed Catwoman and paralyzed Batgirl, and Batman retired and vanished, and Batgirl became Oracle and trained Batman & Catwoman's daughter to become Huntress, and my name is Alfred Pennyworth and this opening narration has taken so long that most of you have probably already changed the channel." There was just such a long on-ramp to figuring out the premise, and it was poured on in such a heavy infodump at the start of every episode, that I feel many viewers would've seen it as a barrier to entry and just walked away.

It's somewhat easier with today's serialized shows where you can ease the characters and the audience into the backstory. But Stargirl has such a complicated backstory/mythos already that it makes sense to streamline where they can. Courtney was already torn between two father figures in season 1, so bringing in a third would've been an excessive complication.

Taking a cue from a generation of Power Rangers who always wear civilian clothes the same color as their Ranger identities.

Really, though, it's not much of an issue here, since the Junior JSA operates in secret and the general public has never seen Stargirl.

Which is fine for the first season or so, but it feels right for them to eventually mature beyond that, to make the identities their own. If you're going to tell a story where costumes are a major element, it's often good to use costume upgrades to symbolize milestones in character development. Like Robin becoming Nightwing, say.

 

I love when men discuss costumes.

Maybe. His uncle's abusiveness may be key to getting Rick out of jail. Plus, Rick is going to feel terrible no matter what.

My hubby and I both made Young Frankenstein jokes.

I was really pleased with how Beth found her inner strength. Eclipso is smart enough to play "divide and conquer" but she wasn't the easy prey he expected! I also liked the ending where her parents *finally* showed real care and love for her.

I would have been perfectly happy to have never seen those 80s monstrosities again. Gonna give me nightmares!

It was a scary time in comics, man.

I could live with that.

I'd love to at least hear Ted and/or Jack mentioned.

I actually get a kick out of Courtney's civilian attire. Just like how Smallville dressed Clark in red and blue all the time. It's a fun little thing.

Agreed. But have you *seen* the original Nightwing costume? Not one of George's best designs!

 

What--men can't be interested in fashion? Regarding Beth's parents, I am thinking that the reveal will be that one of them is gay and that's why they are getting a divorce, and yes I am basing that on the CW network.

As for Nightwing, like all the other costumes of the era it wasn't out of place in the eighties, but it just didn't age well.

 

Of course I have, but it's utterly beside the point, because Nightwing is not a character in this show, and because the topic is the concept of costume upgrades in general, not any single specific costume design.

 

Spoiler for season three...

Spoiler: new regular character

Joel McHale has been made a regular for season three.

 

Nice development

Spoiler

I remember reading his role would increase in later part of the current season. Which likely means once he shows up in Blue Valley he is not going away. Which will be a nice pay off to the slow buildup the whole series. Would have been huge letdown for him to leave quickly or worse be killed off. Also opens up the possibility of more flashbacks to the original JSA’s past.

 

Ah. My bad.

Interesting...

 

I'm probably Wrong, but the Parents seemed more loving after Beth put the Eclipso proof Goggles on?

I thought they were telling us that the entire Divorce subplot was Eclipso messing with Beth.

(edit, just rewatched a bit)

The Mom is still wearing her wedding Ring at the end when Beth is wearing her goggles, and the confrontation where they admitted they were having a Divorce and Beth ruined their lives, was made up, because Mom and Dad hadn't been home all day.

The sleuthing about the Divorce goes way back, so they may still be getting a divorce, but the harshed mellow from last week where it all comes out, was Eclipso.

So...

50/50?

 

Oh wow, talk about feeling old. He mentioned he's turning 50 next month. I remember him from his 'Almost Live!' days back in the 90s. He must have been 20-21 when he started on that show.

 

Yeah, I was trying to figure that out. I think Eclipso just exacerbated the existing tensions. So hopefully - hope remains.

Still waiting for the new JSA team members to realize they need to take everything they are experiencing with a massive heap of salt. And realize that Eclipso is dismantling the team one-by-one.

 

John Wesley Shipp is in this episode. That’s interesting. Is he playing the same “Earth 2” Flash we see in the The Flash tv show or a different version.

i don’t buy Courtney’s reaction at the end. Sure she would be a little upset but not overly so. I mean that’s not the sort of story you would want to tell.

 

Hm, the map in Bruce Gordon’s study was mirrored

 

Okay, so we get a flashback to what's apparently "a lot of years" before the end of the JSA, yet everyone looks the same age they do now. If they couldn't afford digital de-aging, they should've gone for the old standby of recasting with younger actors. It's not like we couldn't have recognized them, since the costumes would've cued us in handily enough (except in the funeral scene).

I'm still not enjoying this season. It's just one slow-paced, creepy Eclipso vision after another. I get tired of seeing so much screen time devoted to things that aren't actually happening. By now we know none of it is real, so we don't even have the suspense of not knowing anymore. The device has worn out its welcome.

At least this time it served as a vehicle to reveal what really happened with the JSA and Eclipso, but that just leads to another overused series-TV trope, the characters promising to have no more secrets and then going right back to keeping secrets.