Spoilers Supergirl - Season 5

[TREK_GOD_1]

Hope is controlling Lena.

Hardly. Lena's downward slide was not overnight (IOW, the period that would serve as backstory long before she joined this show, and/or used the Hope A.I.).

Also, Hope is clearly an evil version of Brainiac.

Speaking of Brainy, I'm still waiting for the other show to drop regarding his altered programming during season four.

 

[Dick Whitman]

David Harewood posted on Twitter TWICE today that there is Zero truth of any of the rumors surrounding him and Martian Manhunter. Seems to be annoyed by it.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Pandering comes down to how you express it. If it is subtle it is called comentary. If it is ovious it is called pandering.

Nope.

 

[Turtletrekker]

David Harewood posted on Twitter TWICE today that there is Zero truth of any of the rumors surrounding him and Martian Manhunter. Seems to be annoyed by it.

Which rumors? The spinoff rumors or the Legends of Tomorrow rumors?

 

[DigificWriter]

Which rumors? The spinoff rumors or the Legends of Tomorrow rumors?

Both.

 

[Jayson1]

Nope.

Pandering might not be the right word. Talking down to it's audience or generally not trusting it's audience to understand complex issues or come to their own conclussions might be better. Basically all comes down to good or bad writing. I think when you see bad writing you hear the writer. When you see good writing you hear the character because no matter what they say it feels authentic to the character at least a real human being. Unless we are talking about people like Joss Whedon,Sorkin or Wes Anderson who have a specific style that you can spot instantly without even knowing before you started watching. Jason

 

[Nerys Myk]

Pandering might not be the right word. Talking down to it's audience or generally not trusting it's audience to understand complex issues or come to their own conclussions might be better

It's not
I'm not seeing that on this show. They may not be subtle, but they don't seem to be treating the audience as idiots.
Again, it's not art's job to be "fair and balanced". To give the facts and let the viewer draw conclusions from them. Art has a point of view. It presents that point of view. The viewer can accept that POV or not.

 

[Jayson1]

It's not
I'm not seeing that on this show. They may not be subtle, but they don't seem to be treating the audience as idiots.
Again, it's not art's job to be "fair and balanced". To give the facts and let the viewer draw conclusions from them. Art has a point of view. It presents that point of view. The viewer can accept that POV or not.

My biggest issue is sort of same issue I had with TNG. The lack of internal conflict since noboby who is a regular is allowed to be to bad and lots of the attempts fall into melodrama. I tend to prefer darker shows but even things like TOS gave us Kirk,Spock and McCoy conflict. The other shows have Ollie and others who have killed and Black Lighting deals with real racism and it feels like you often see the characters values tested all the time and while Supergil sometimes touches this they are to afraid to do things that will offend it's core audience. Jason

 

[Dick Whitman]

Both.

Exactly.

Minor Crisis spoiler -



For the first time he is significantly involved in a crossover. He has been spotted on location in the Martian Manhunter suit with a large group of other heroes from the various shows. The Martian look of his Head is always added digitally in post. Last year he had a minor appearance in Elseworlds. He came to Earth 1 in the musical Flash/Supergirl crossover. Otherwise in the past he has not involved at all.

My guess is him having scenes with the Legends cast for the first time sparked that rumor. But no reason to think he is joining Legends than Cress Williams is as Black Lightning. Who also filmed scenes for the crossover! lol

 

[Christopher]

The Martian look of his Head is always added digitally in post.

I wonder why. The face isn't that far from human, so it could be done easily enough with prosthetics. I guess maybe it's because he'd need to spend far more time in the makeup chair that way.

 

[JanewayRulz!]

I never really noticed before, but pretty much all of Alex's storylines have been about her love life. I was trying to think of a non romantic arc that she's had, and I'm coming up blank. With all of the skills that she has, you'd think they could find more for her to do.

Actually, Alex's story line has always been linked to taking care of Supergirl. The only time there was the disconnect was when she couldn't remember she was Supergirl's sister.

I rewatched the season premiere yesterday and was struck at how tightly Alex's job was still connected to taking care of her little sister. Even with her new lover at her side, all Alex could do during Lena's introduction at the Pulitzer party was watch how Kara was taking the seemingly subtle hits then praise from their billionaire friend.

During the ensuing fight, DEO director Danvers did surface to direct Jonn to lead the villlain away from the party as everyone else followed to do battle. And far from barking... she did provide some much needed levity when she arrived to fight in an evening dress while Kara, Brainy and Guardian had not only beat her to the auditorium but also found the time to get dressed for the fight.

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As for supposedly dropping the whole baby storyline, Kelly already knows about Alex's secret desire since she backed up Alex during the possible adoption story last season, but now that these two are a new couple they need to see how well they fit together before introducing an new destablizing force like a baby.

 

[Nerys Myk]

My biggest issue is sort of same issue I had with TNG. The lack of internal conflict since noboby who is a regular is allowed to be to bad and lots of the attempts fall into melodrama. I tend to prefer darker shows but even things like TOS gave us Kirk,Spock and McCoy conflict. The other shows have Ollie and others who have killed and Black Lighting deals with real racism and it feels like you often see the characters values tested all the time and while Supergil sometimes touches this they are to afraid to do things that will offend it's core audience. Jason

Pick a lane, man. You're all over the course. You cant go from pander to dialog to darkness at breakneck speed. The goal posts canna stand the strain.
You can't complain about dialog remaining true to the characters and then complain that a show about bright positive characters in primary colors aren't dark enough. The Super family doesn't really do dark and brooding. So looking for that in Supergirl is a fool's errand. Still, at this very moment folks are worried about Lena's dark turn. So I can't really grasp the idea that they won't do things that "offend" the core audience.

 

[Jayson1]

Pick a lane, man. You're all over the course. You cant go from pander to dialog to darkness at breakneck speed. The goal posts canna stand the strain.
You can't complain about dialog remaining true to the characters and then complain that a show about bright positive characters in primary colors aren't dark enough. The Super family doesn't really do dark and brooding. So looking for that in Supergirl is a fool's errand. Still, at this very moment folks are worried about Lena's dark turn. So I can't really grasp the idea that they won't so things that "offend" the core audience.

Supergirl has to stay bright and positive but the supporting cast can have a little more edge within reason. We had that in season 1 with Cat and Joon was more strict and she and her sister had some conflict and you didn't know if you could trust Lena. When that went away and she herself grew more comfortable being a hero they never replaced it. All the conflict started coming from real life and the arc villians. They should have corrupted Lena years ago or Brainy goes all cold and logical like they hinted for 5 seconds or shut down the DEO and they become fugites or Lex kills James and Supergirl comes close to killing him out of revenge but stops herself. Jason

 

[Christopher]

Supergirl has to stay bright and positive but the supporting cast can have a little more edge within reason. We had that in season 1 with Cat and Joon was more strict and she and her sister had some conflict and you didn't know if you could trust Lena. When that went away and she herself grew more comfortable being a hero they never replaced it. All the conflict started coming from real life and the arc villians. They should have corrupted Lena years ago or Brainy goes all cold and logical like they hinted for 5 seconds or shut down the DEO and they become fugites or Lex kills James and Supergirl comes close to killing him out of revenge but stops herself. Jason

You're making the same mistake as Warner Bros.' movie execs prior to Wonder Woman -- assuming that everything has to be as dark as Batman. If that's what you want, watch Arrow or Batwoman. It's unreasonable to demand that every show have exactly the same tone. What's the point of having such a huge shared universe if it doesn't offer a variety of different approaches?

Anyway, have you even watched the current season? The recent revelations about what J'onn did on Mars 300 years ago are incredibly dark.

 

[Guy Gardener]

What fun there will be arguing about who is going to carry the baby, and the ethnicity of the sperm donor.

Or at least it was on the L-Word. The contemptible biracial couple, had to find a black daddy for the white mommy to mix DNA with, so that the black mommy wouldn't be accused of kidnapping her own white kid by an idiot.

Is Alex a Robot?

I suppose they couldn't telepathically mind wipe a robot (maybe a synthezoid?) unless it was just playing along to perpetuate the illusion that Alex is a real girl?

3 possibilities.

1. Superman gave the Danver's a robot to protect them in case Kara had a nightmare and threw their house into orbit.

2. The Danvers Built a robot to protect themselves after tween Kara had a tantrum and threw their car away.

3. Manhunters. In the 80s, there was a comic book cross over event where all the heroes discovered that they were being monitored by a species of robots who were the billion year old precursor to the green lantern Corps, who got shit canned by the guardians for being over zealous. That's PC for genocidal. Friends and family of "everyone" had been murdered and replaced by robot duplicates years and years ago earlier before the Manhunters started being outed.

Wally West's dad even.

 

[urbandefault]

Been trying to like this show, and I've watched everything to date, but it's just not working for me. Not engaging.

Soapish, if that's a word.

Nothing about it makes me want to "tune in next week." I usually catch up on Netflix when the season is released. Mostly for the crossovers.

And it's not just this show. There are other Arrowverse shows that I wouldn't care if they went away.

(Don't ask if you don't want to know. )

 

[TRON JA307020]

Actually, Alex's story line has always been linked to taking care of Supergirl. The only time there was the disconnect was when she couldn't remember she was Supergirl's sister.

I rewatched the season premiere yesterday and was struck at how tightly Alex's job was still connected to taking care of her little sister. Even with her new lover at her side, all Alex could do during Lena's introduction at the Pulitzer party was watch how Kara was taking the seemingly subtle hits then praise from their billionaire friend.

During the ensuing fight, DEO director Danvers did surface to direct Jonn to lead the villlain away from the party as everyone else followed to do battle. And far from barking... she did provide some much needed levity when she arrived to fight in an evening dress while Kara, Brainy and Guardian had not only beat her to the auditorium but also found the time to get dressed for the fight.

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As for supposedly dropping the whole baby storyline, Kelly already knows about Alex's secret desire since she backed up Alex during the possible adoption story last season, but now that these two are a new couple they need to see how well they fit together before introducing an new destablizing force like a baby.

Wow those effects are really bad. I have only seen like the first 2 eps. When I realized it was part of arrowverse i stopped. The effects seem to have gotten worse.

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

Supergirl
Season 5 / Episode 4- "Dangerous Liaisons

SG/Kara: SG - Oh gee..the dawning, cutesy romantic interest between Kara and Dey. This long-predicted plot will only have value if Day turns out to be a member of another criminal group opposed to the Leviathan organization, hence his interest in "uncovering" all things Rojas. Otherwise, he's just another "cad with a heart of Gold" trope on two feet.

SG's "You don't care about all those people you killed." Is she freaking kidding? Brainy was channeling a killer....duh. Would anyone ask that of Whitey Bulger? Don't think so.

William Dey: The Russell backstory never rang true...when the Doc Ock-esque thief clearly looked like a hairy version of Russell. The question is what made Russell join the Leviathans (and/or Rojas), and how does Dey really fit in this story.

Rojas: The Obsidian VR contacts--from the perspective of Day--reads as just the kind of tech that will control the masses...just like the work of someone else. On that point, now that she's affiliated with the Leviathans, and if the VR contacts have any mind/will altering effect, she will end up facing off against Lena's own version of mind-control tech. That should be a disaster for a large part of the population, if written as it should be.

Lena / Eve: "Rendering people incapable of hurting each other..." That, and experimenting on / controlling J'onn's brother..what a heroine.

NOTES: The alien FX...yikes.
The waterdrop FX on the screen was unnecessary and did not sell the location, because...you know...there's no camera lens there to be sprayed... Its the same nonsensical application of a an effect like J.J.'s obsession with lens flares in his Star Trek movies. Where's the camera out there in a space? Ugh.

Kelly is here for what reason again? It seems she's in danger or needs someone to rescue her nearly every week....

GRADE: C+.

 

[Dick Whitman]

I wonder why. The face isn't that far from human, so it could be done easily enough with prosthetics. I guess maybe it's because he'd need to spend far more time in the makeup chair that way.

Mostly likely. Usually he does have performance capture dots applied to his face. Though for the location shoot I mentioned he did not appear to. Maybe because it’s a group scene and no closeups.

I do NOT understand the choices of why some scenes J’onn is in human form and using his powers and others in full Martian look. Like tonight - him and Supergirl were flying above Antarctica and it was David Harewood in street clothes.

Likely budget is a factor too. I would expect that Makeup would be much cheaper and we would be able to see more of him being Martian. Though scheduling time in the makeup could be the downside. Plus guest stars playing Martians as well.

It was great to see Phil Lamarr actually physically playing Malefic. Up to this point I am assuming it was just a stand-in. With him doing the voice. Arrowverse series have a long history of masked villains voiced by actors who never physically appear. But given how little we see J’onn appear in Martian form I was wondering how long Malefic would be that way. I had been hoping we would actually see Phil.

 

[Christopher]

I'm not sure I like how Kara's being written this season. She jumped to the conclusion that William was sleazy and corrupt and then he wasn't. She jumped to the conclusion that Andrea was an evil mastermind and then she wasn't. Whatever happened to the Supergirl who saw the best in everyone?

Also, the climactic action didn't make any sense. Brainy: "A tsunami is about to strike the entire western seaboard of North America!" Dreamer: [fires at exactly one spot in the wave] Everyone: "Yay, we're all saved!"

It was also obvious that Riproar was William's supposedly dead friend as soon as William said there was no body. I mean, if he was fleeing the apartment right after killing Russ, then why wasn't there a body? And if he killed Russ elsewhere, why was he in Russ's apartment? Okay, I guess he could've been searching for something, but come on, the beard was kind of a giveaway. (Also, Riproar, really? RoboCop's helmet and Doc Ock's arms? Pick a cosplay and commit to it, man!)

Lena was also pretty reckless in her experimental techniques. She let out an incredibly vicious predator in the same room with her and relied entirely on trust that a) Malefic could successfully control it and b) Malefic wouldn't betray her and make it kill her. You'd think she would've had some kind of safeguards in case either of those wasn't correct.

It was great to see Phil Lamarr actually physically playing Ma'alefa'ak. Up to this point I am assuming it was just a stand-in. With him doing the voice. Arrowverse series have a long history of masked villains voiced by actors who never physically appear. But given how little we see J’onn appear in Martian form I was wondering how long Ma'alefa'ak would be that way. I was hoping we would actually see Phil.

I read a quote from a producer saying that he wouldn't have a regular on-camera actor, but would just appear as the various humans he impersonated or in Martian form. I guess they wanted this to be a surprise.