A pretty good pilot, but pretty darn rushed. I wonder why nobody does 2-hour pilots anymore. Or even 90 minutes.
Benoist is appealing. Brooks is pretty good -- not what you expect from Jimmy Olsen, but that's the point, since he's grown out of the cub-reporter years and is a grown man now. The rest of the cast is mostly okay, but I feel that David Harewood's performance suffers a bit from being saddled with an American accent, and Chyler Leigh is a bit bland as Alex. (And it's interesting that Dean Cain got special-guest billing for a wordless, 20-second cameo.)
It's interesting that this shares something in common with the '84 Supergirl movie, aside from Helen Slater's presence. Both stories are about Kara becoming Supergirl in order to fix a problem that she herself inadvertently caused -- sending the Omegahedron to Earth in the movie, bringing Fort Rozz to Earth here. (I keep wanting to spell it Fort Ra's, because of how they pronounce Ra's al Ghul's name in Arrow and the movies.)
I like it that the show makes no apologies about being feminist. That's not a dirty word, and it's good that the show embraces it. At least, I hope it gets to continue to embrace it. I remember the '70s Wonder Woman pilot having a front-and-center feminist message that got totally quashed after just a few episodes. Hopefully we've gained some ground since then.
I also like how much time she spent in costume. Too many superhero series in the past have minimized the in-costume time. Hopefully that won't be the case here. I don't like it, though, that Henshaw and Alex were openly blabbing about Kara's true identity in front of dozens of people in the secret agency headquarters.
A bit of a naming error -- they referred to Kara's mother as Alura Zor-El, but that's not how Kryptonian names work. The female second name is the father's name, not the husband's. Kara Zor-El's mother is Alura (originally Allura) In-Ze. (And Jor-El's wife is Lara Lor-Van, not Lara Jor-El.)
Who was that playing Kara's evil aunt in the tag scene there? Was that Laura Benanti in a dual role, or a different actress who just looks similar?
So what was changed from the leaked pilot? It seemed to me that the costume-design sequence was shortened from what was in the extended teaser video. And, as noted, they added "Superman" to the opening narration. Any other changes?
But I do still think it appeals to a pretty limited male fanboy crowd compared to something like Supergirl which is clearly trying to be much more approachable and mainstream (much like Lois & Clark back in the day).
It was...ok. A bit bland, a bit annoying but with some good stuff, and Supergirl herself is pretty good (as is Jimmy Olsen). Her guy friend from work was inoffensive, although kind of forgettable. The action was also pretty good, especially on a TV budget. I hope we get more of the character who imdb calls "The Commander" (he's the one who was giving orders to the villain of the week over video in the truck. I liked the actor in his (somewhat minor) role in Warehouse 13, and it would be cool to see him again.