Spoilers Supergirl - Season 1

This show is going to be awesome. (It's actually a goal of mine to write for this show someday!) Too, I'm hoping to find a t-shirt of the Benoist version of Supergirl somewhere, since I've only seen the non-live action version available.

 

Time is relative. As measured in her personal reference frame, she's 24. But as measured in the Earth's reference frame, she was born 48 years ago. (Insofar as it's possible to define simultaneity of events with a planet 2000 light-years away.) Both are chronological ages, just measured in different frames of reference, because time is not an absolute. It might be clearer to say that she is biologically 24 and calendrically 48.

It was a lot of fun. It wasn't perfect; in particular, it felt a little inconsistent that she'd hidden her powers for so long yet felt such a powerful yearning to make a difference. It would've been nice to have a clearer sense of what had provoked her recent attitude of being sick of hiding herself. But maybe that didn't matter much, because it was an allegory for young women/young people in general driven to prove themselves to a world that doubts them. It was still quite a thrill to see her excitement and joy at taking flight and being a hero.

I also like it that there's a clearly defined melodic theme. It's not one of the best Super-person themes in the history of the franchise -- it doesn't hold a candle to the Goldsmith Supergirl theme from the movie -- but it's appropriate for a superhero, especially a Super-hero, to have a clear fanfare like this. Most Superman-related shows have had strong themes for the hero, though this is something Smallville totally dropped the ball on until late in its run, because it went with Mark Snow's atmospheric droning instead of something with actual melody, and then it just copied John Williams's Superman theme, which just didn't fit with the rest of the music. (Although later composer Louis Febre did finally concoct a decent heroic theme for Clark in the last couple of seasons.)

 

The last time Chyler Leigh was on TV she played the sister. Her name was Lexi. She died in a plane crash.

Just sayin.

My original assessment hasn't changed. It follows the exact same formula as the other Berlanti shows, save for it's definitely more family-oriented. Unfortunately it shares the same primary weakness as Arrow/Flash: the acting. While, it's fine and passible for a network like CW, I just don't think it's at a level acceptable for one of the big three. And I just don't see it lasting very long without some drastic improvements. CBS is like Top Gun. There is no room for second place.

 

Taxi Brooklyn never happened?

It was all a dream?

Wow. Thanks, that's such a relief.

 

Is that why people in this thread are calling her character "Lexi" when her actual name is Alex?

Well, the other Berlanti superhero shows, perhaps. A half hour after watching this, I watched Berlanti and Martin Gero's Blindspot on NBC, and I was struck by how completely different they are in tone and attitude, with Blindspot being a much grittier, enormously more violent show. They're at opposite ends of the Berlanti spectrum, you could say.

 

Having just watched it this morning, I add my three cents (inflation):

-I liked it. It started out a little girly and "Devil Wears prada" for my tastes but got deep when the gummint agents showed up.

-Holy Sheath Dress! Calista Flockhart finally has hips!

-James Olsen knowing is the worst telegraphed "twist" in the history of telegraphed twists.

-This will sound strange: I'm glad the plane was sabotaged, because otherwise the plane going down would be the worst trope. Real multi-engine aircraft don't fold like cheap suits when they lose an engine. That's the point of giving them more than one.

-If the show lasts a few years and Marvel premieres a movie with another blonde superheroine named Carol Danvers, who sues whom first?

Good show. I'll keep watching.

 

My wife is not a big superhero fan, but she watched this show with me. We enjoyed it immensely, even though some of the writing was so cheesy I got constipated.

The FX were good, the storyline was predictable but enjoyable, there were more than a few good monologues, and I look forward to more in this series.

I must comment that Calista Flockhart looked.... altered... and was almost unrecognizable, and that the DEO general was sort of a Discount Dennis Haysbert. Also if they don't give Dean Cain some screen time, that would be criminal.

Is there any indication that the various DC TV heroes will bump into each other some time in the future?

 

ComicsAlliance has an extended trailer for the season, with glimpses of new villains and guest characters:

http://comicsalliance.com/supergirl-full-season-trailer/

Interesting that they seem to be establishing Lucy Lane as James Olsen's estranged ex-girlfriend -- at least that was the impression I got. From what I gather, in the Silver Age comics, Lucy was Jimmy Olsen's girlfriend from hell, the kind of Silver Age DC girlfriend who was deeply judgmental and constantly denigrating the hero and finding him unworthy. Usually the girlfriends trashed the hero's civilian identity while adoring their superhero identity, but Jimmy only had the one identity, so Lucy was pretty one-sidedly contemptuous toward him.

David Harewood, MBE is a pretty accomplished actor in England. He was the industrialist in Doctor Who: "The End of Time," and he was a revisionist, tough-guy Friar Tuck in the third season of the 2006 Robin Hood series, though he has many, many more credits that I haven't seen. Apparently he was in Showtime's Homeland in a similar role to this one.

CBS appears to be resistant to the idea, though the producers of the various Berlanti shows are open to the possibility. Supergirl seems to be pretty clearly in a different reality from Arrow/The Flash/etc., with only one superhero in its world up to now, but The Flash has just introduced the concept of the multiverse, so I'd say a cross-dimensional crossover is a possibility. I doubt we'd ever see a crossover with Gotham, though, particularly since it and Supergirl are competing for the same time slot. (Just as well I stopped watching Gotham weeks ago.)

 

Why did Kara wear glasses before she was Supergirl?

 

The trailer I linked above shows Cat Grant having a face-to-face interview with Supergirl, and it occurred to me that she's probably so dismissive of Kara as her assistant that she's never even bothered to take a close look at her face, so she doesn't notice the resemblance. I wonder if that's how it will actually play out.

Or maybe it's like Davies-era Doctor Who, where alien invasions happened once or twice a year, but the majority of the population just dismissed them as hoaxes or refused to believe despite the evidence. (Isn't there a psychological phenomenon where if you show people hard proof that their beliefs are wrong, they just double down on their convictions?)

While we're on the subject of aliens, one thing bugs me about the whole Fort Rozz/Phantom Zone prison thing. It looks like Fort Rozz's inmates include a bunch of different aliens from different worlds. Which would mean that Krypton had well-established spaceflight and interstellar contacts. So how come they only had enough ships to send two kids to safety when the planet blew up? Why aren't there hundreds or thousands or millions of other Kryptonians who were off on starships or colony worlds when the homeworld was destroyed? This isn't the first version of the Superman mythos to raise that question, but it always bugs me.

Probably because she was trying to hide herself and appear unassuming. She was afraid to acknowledge her power, so she donned the appearance of having physical limitations.

By the way, Lois and Clark did the same thing, but it never offered any explanation for why Clark wore glasses before adopting a dual identity.

 

Weeks ago, there was an article with the showrunners, where the Donner Superman films were cited as an influence. That was clear with Kara doing the exact awkward act we witnessed with Clark Kent in the Donner films.

Berlanti on the Donner influence:

If that holds, audiences should expect a move away from a superhero overdosing on being morose, smart-assed, the already-tired trend of many comic adaptations. Personally, I welcome that change.

I'm not sure about this show, but the way some humans are wired, they focus on the one--particularly if he's perceived as good, or tying to single him out as God, instead of what he really is (in the DCU comics)--one of an endless number of aliens running around the universe.

That's a good thing. While i've said the DCU (in comics) established aliens are not in short supply, everyone is not interested in earth, or humans. That's a sci-fi writer conceit that has been beaten into the ground. I find interest in humans being capable of elevating themselves to a point where they could pose a threat to a super-powered being.

Well, after one episode, I would suggest giving this a chance. Everyone needs to find their footing, and from my view, its rare for any actor in the history of TV or movie comic adaptations to have a firm, believable lock on their role at the start of a production.

I think the Supergirl cast is appealing enough to allow them time to find their rhythm.

 

The acting wasn't all that spectacular, but neither is the acting on NCIS, Mom, Scorpions, etc. For many CBS shows its like the showrunners and actors are given about 10 colors and told to paint a picture using only those colors. So the comedies get a range of colors, the procedurals get a range of colors, the dramas get a range of colors, but no single show gets all the colors.

 

If this show is a hit, I'm sure CBS would rather have it crossover with Supergirl: Miami and Supergirl: New Orleans than Arrow or The Flash.

 

So it got 14 million viewers and was the highest rated premiere of the fall, which is cool to see. I'm sure that will drop as the weeks go on, but hopefully not by a huge amount.

Although I'm still not sure exactly what rating CBS expects or requires for it to be considered a success by their standards, or how many need to keep watching. 10-12 million? 9-10? Something tells me it probably can't go much lower than that...

 

Aside from audiences giving it a chance, its survival also rests on the general audience's interest in this flood of superhero TV & movies.

I have a feeling the Supergirl producers would have helped themselves launching this after Dawn of Justice, just to push the point of all things "super."

What are the ratings for Agents of SHIELD?

 

Agents of Shield is on ABC. Which is owned by Disney. Which owns Marvel. It gets a pass on ratings a bit due to it being built in advertising.

 

Good to hear!

I just watched it a second time via On Demand. After Alex rappels down from the helicopter and orders its pilot to pursue Vartox, does she call him "Trap One?" That's a UNIT code! Is there a Doctor Who fan on staff?

Prediction: Kara's evil aunt will turn out to have been somehow responsible for using Kara's ship to free Fort Rozz from the Phantom Zone.