Spoilers Black Lightning - Season 1

[The Realist]

This may just be the best episode yet. Uncompromising, as I said above, and it's effectively unsettling to watch Pierce be put through this after weeks of establishing what a good man he is both in and out of costume. And damn, does Henderson ever get to prove his mettle in a major way.

Minor caveat: those TV news reports look phony as hell. The location footage is so slick and polished and cinematographic -- has whoever directed those ever watched local news?

Next week looks awesome, as well. Tobias is back, Syonide is all over the preview, and didn't I glimpse Lala too?

 

[Mr. Adventure]

I was OK with the VP being a snitch but it was kind of odd seeing her as some type of ASA agent.

The show’s substitute usage of negro and on occasion ninja sticks out sometimes.

Henderson definitely deserves to be added to the inner circle one of these days. He’s gone above and beyond a few times now, does he have any favors left to call?

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

Black Lightning
Episode eleven: "Black Jesus: The Book of Crucifixion"

Jefferson Pierce/Black Lightning: Unlike many superhero series, the hero has been placed in grave danger early on in its run. A series so far from the others.

Jefferson's "No one wants to see another black man in cuffs today." That, and Jefferson's set-up / arrest / dehumanizing treatment were the all-too timely, all too relevant comment on the risk faced by countless black males In the United States. The rectal cavity search is just a hint of what so many black men experience in their dealing with law enforcement.

This series is not the pure fantasyland of other CW series and could not possibly work in a crossover.

...I do think Jefferson being exonerated could have been placed on the back burner for another episode--just to build on the season-ending conflict.

Proctor / the A.S.A.: "National Security" interest, or just another way of saying A.S.A. Just missed getting all they need to know about Jefferson.

Fowdy: She seemed genuinely upset that Jefferson was arrested...or that's an act, considering her ruthless behavior with the A.S.A. agents. Fowdy buying Gambi and Anissa's trick....hmm...

Henderson: He's really moving toward the Commissioner Gordon role on the show.

Anissa & Jennifer Pierce: Anissa: Enjoying her relationship with Gambi.
Anissa and Jennifer...come on. Only a moron would expose their powers in front of law enforcement. What would that do--other than have the A.S.A. treat all three to their family plan.

Lynn's "You can't punch or superpower your way out..." was not only what Jennifer needed to hear, but it should be directed at other superhero productions.

NOTES: LOVE the family prayer at dinner. Too many series leap to make their characters atheists and/or secular humanists, but this series' creators do not play into that long-running, hardline choice in TV.

Okay, the old lady's reaction to the rumor of "black Jesus" was too pointed (and very late) at the Megyn Kelly Assbrained Statement of the Century.

GRADE: A. Hitting it out of the park every week. Rare record.

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

and didn't I glimpse Lala too?

Yes.

 

[Christopher]

The old "use a fake double of the hero as an alibi for the secret identity" trick is an oldie, though I guess a hologram is more convincing that Gambi dressing up in the Black Lightning costume, say. It's a nice touch that they seeded Gambi having hologram technology in the training simulations earlier in the season, so this isn't completely out of the blue.

I was OK with the VP being a snitch but it was kind of odd seeing her as some type of ASA agent.

Oh, it's odder than that. Didn't you notice? She communicated with the ASA on her tablet, and then she reported what the ASA was doing to someone else on her desktop computer. So she's a triple agent at least.

The show’s substitute usage of negro and on occasion ninja sticks out sometimes.

Better than the alternative. I know it would be more authentic, but I can't stand that word.

"Ninja," though? I hadn't noticed that being used.

Henderson definitely deserves to be added to the inner circle one of these days. He’s gone above and beyond a few times now, does he have any favors left to call?

I don't think Jeff could tell him the truth in the police station, not with "eyes and ears everywhere," as Henderson said. More broadly, maybe he doesn't want to put Henderson in the position of knowing the identity of a vigilante outlaw and having to choose whether to betray his duty as a cop.

"Deputy Chief Henderson" is going to take some getting used to. He's been "Inspector Henderson" since 1940 or so.

 

[Greg Cox]

Good episode, although I half-expected them to use Jennifer's electrical powers to fake people into thinking that Black Lightning was still at large.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

Oh, it's odder than that. Didn't you notice? She communicated with the ASA on her tablet, and then she reported what the ASA was doing to someone else on her desktop computer. So she's a triple agent at least.

I guess I didn't catch that, I just figured she was communicating with ASA again and didn't pay full attention.

Better than the alternative. I know it would be more authentic, but I can't stand that word.

"Ninja," though? I hadn't noticed that being used.

Ninja was in a previous episode, I wonder if it should be avoided altogether though Tobias makes "Negro" work pretty well and kind of makes sense given his extended age.

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

Ninja was in a previous episode, I wonder if it should be avoided altogether though Tobias makes "Negro" work pretty well and kind of makes sense given his extended age.

Tobias is not that old. IOW, he's of a generation where "negro" had been out of use (and cultural acceptance) for decades. This series is walking the lines of reality like no other fantasy series (e.g., Jefferson's treatment at the police station), so using the real "N-word" should not be off limits (and let's face it, in parts of African American culture, the "N-word" is used everyday, no matter the context., Considering the heavy sociopolitical themes of BL, it would add yet more realism, just as long as every character is not spitting that out every other second.

 

[The Realist]

Tobias is not that old. IOW, he's of a generation where "negro" had been out of use (and cultural acceptance) for decades. This series is walking the lines of reality like no other fantasy series (e.g., Jefferson's treatment at the police station), so using the real "N-word" should not be off limits (and let's face it, in parts of African American culture, the "N-word" is used everyday, no matter the context., Considering the heavy sociopolitical themes of BL, it would add yet more realism, just as long as every character is not spitting that out every other second.

Perhaps oddly, the show's use of "Negro" has never struck me as forced or artificial. It might be because Tobias seems to be the character who mostly uses it, and I guess I just took it as his personal style of speech. Though now that I think about it, I suppose it is a bit strange that no character, of any race, has been heard to use the "N" word at all, but I haven't really missed it.

 

[Christopher]

Good episode, although I half-expected them to use Jennifer's electrical powers to fake people into thinking that Black Lightning was still at large.

Yeah, that could've been a cool way to get her to change her mind about using her powers, at least when it came to helping her dad.


Speaking of folks with electrical powers, am I the only one hoping that one of the metahuman kids in those tubes is named Virgil Hawkins...?

 

[DarrenTR1970]

I was at the library yesterday reading a back issue of Empire magazine, which had a feature on Black Lightning in it and this caught my eye and I'm paraphrasing - they talked to the producers and cast and they said that they wanted the setting to be 'realistic'; so, to that extent, the series was going to be set in Atlanta or New Orleans instead of some fictional Arrowverse city like Metropolis or Star City.
Now having watched a couple of episodes I see that they'e using the fictional town of Freeland instead.
I know these articles are written well in advance of publication but does anyone here know why the setting was changed from Atlanta to Freeland?

 

[Christopher]

I know these articles are written well in advance of publication but does anyone here know why the setting was changed from Atlanta to Freeland?

Well, the fact that the show portrays the city's police force and government as deeply corrupt is probably a large part of the reason. Portraying real-world institutions as criminal makes studio/network lawyers wary of defamation suits. All those "No similarity to real persons is intended" legal disclaimers on fiction are there for a reason.

I imagine it's also more liberating, because a fictional city can be given whatever history, geography, etc. that the storytellers need, and can be a stand-in for whatever real city you need, instead of just one. For instance, the episode about the Confederate statue protest was clearly inspired by the white-supremacist rallies and counter-protests in Charlottesville last year.

 

[The Realist]

^ All that said, the show is shot in Atlanta and features many identifiable locations and landmarks. Of course, the same could be said for the Arrowverse shows shot in Vancouver, but there is onscreen evidence Freeland is a Georgia city, at least (in the form of a Georgia State University bus plainly visible in one street scene). I just tend to assume Freeland is the Earth-whatever equivalent of Atlanta.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

Tobias is not that old. IOW, he's of a generation where "negro" had been out of use (and cultural acceptance) for decades.

How old do you figure him to be? I figured he had to at least be a contemporary of BL's father.

 

[Shamrock Holmes]

"Deputy Chief Henderson" is going to take some getting used to. He's been "Inspector Henderson" since 1940 or so.

He was an inspector from 1940s to 1990s in the comics, then was promoted to Commissioner during the "Death of Superman" arc, however Dan Turpin and Maggie Sawyer got a lot more screen time during that era.

Interestingly, Earth-BL!Henderson appears to a be a hybrid of the classic Bill Henderson and a later Inspector Mike Henderson, the African-American OIC of the Metacrimes Division which replaced the SCU after Turpin's death and Maggie's transfer to GCPD (Supergirl vol 5 [2005-11]).

As far as previous TV adaptations go he appear as an inspector in AoS (1950s), Superman (1988) and on L&C (1990s), but cameo'd as a Pollce Commissioner in his most recent appearance Superman:TAS (1996-2000).

So technically he hasn't been "Inspector Henderson" for about twenty years (although that's about half the time he was an inspector so...)

 

[The Realist]

^ Wow, that informative and exhaustive recitation was worthy of Christopher himself. Things are going to get crazy if you two start trying to out-fact each other.

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

Perhaps oddly, the show's use of "Negro" has never struck me as forced or artificial. It might be because Tobias seems to be the character who mostly uses it, and I guess I just took it as his personal style of speech. Though now that I think about it, I suppose it is a bit strange that no character, of any race, has been heard to use the "N" word at all, but I haven't really missed it.

The absence of that expression in a largely black community (I'll save the discussion of that disturbing legacy for another thread/time) is the one detail that's glaring on a show that addresses so many issues of such a community.

How old do you figure him to be? I figured he had to at least be a contemporary of BL's father.

Even so, by the late 1960s, to many African Americans, "negro" had been separated from its so-called "respectable" status (as used by white society) and seen as a term for use by racists/slave traders, etc., and not a term of identification created for themselves. Of course, too many African Americas ended up reappropriating another term once considered the height of offensive slurs (mentioned to The Realist), so it would not be out of place to hear it on Black Lightning.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

^ Tobias seems to use it negatively or derisively so it’s not out of the question even as you say. I was just saying he seems to make it work better than the others on the series.

They talked about it on the radio (not related to BL) here in the Detroit area discussing how it was still on the last census and had people call in to say how they felt. The hosts were surprised by the number of people who called in that said they still identified with the term.

 

[Dick Whitman]

I thought Henderson became Commissioner around the Death of Superman. But yes, he was so rarely used most barely remember it. The same thing with the animated series. Maggie and Turpin completely took over.

This was the first episode Henderson's first name Bill was used on this show. Which made sense in formal situations when he was on the job to call him just "Inspector" or "Henderson". But it was surprising that they avoided calling him Bill in the scene from a previous episode when he and his wife visited the Pierce home for dinner.

 

[Christopher]

But it was surprising that they avoided calling him Bill in the scene from a previous episode when he and his wife visited the Pierce home for dinner.

Or that scene between Jeff and Henderson on the Pierces' front porch, around episode 2 or 3. I was surprised when Jeff called him "Henderson" instead of "Bill."