Wednesday, October 19, 2016

The Adventures of Supergirl


Look! Up in the sky! It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s…

 

SUPERGIRL!!!

 

Also: Superman.


Image result for supergirl and superman

 

After playing coy with the existence of Kara Zor-El’s cousin over in Metropolis last season (lots of references to “my cousin” and “him”), we get to see the main man up front and personal in the season 2 premier of Supergirl.  

 

Tyler Hoechlin is Clark Kent, mild mannered reporter for the Metropolis Daily Planet and his costumed alter ego, Superman. Tyler’s Clark is a bit of dork but not in cartoonish way while his Superman is relaxed and gracious with just enough gravitas take him seriously.  After just one episode,  I think that Tyler Hoechlin may be my favorite Superman ever.


Which is a shame because I don’t think we’re getting a Superman TV series out of this. And we can’t have Superman hanging around here too much because the show is called Supergirl; Kara can’t get upstaged in her own show.

 

But even in the presences of Hoechlin’s incredibly appealing take on Superman, Melissa Benoist continues to charm us viewers with her takes on Supergirl and her civilian persona, Kara Danvers. While Supergirl is positively ecstatic to have her cousin in town to share in the super powered derring do, Kara’s personal life is in a quandary. She hasn’t quite made up her mind what to do with Cat Grant’s generous offer from the end of last season to basically do whatever the hell she wants. But Kara isn’t sure what she wants. She’s even not sure about her relationship with James Olsen, even affter their season long flirtatious game of will they/won’t they.

 

Thankfully for Kara, her cuz is in town. Here, we have two people cast out of their home world, both with powers and abilities beyond normal humans, Kara and Clark understand each other in a way no one else can. Yet they have unique experiences. Kara is still new to the super hero game while Clark, unlike Kara, does not have a personal frame of reference for what life on Krypton was like. This is a relationship that makes senses which counteracts one of the missteps from season 1. For whatever creative or legal reasons necessary to keep Superman out of the picture, it portrayed a Superman who was being a dick to his cousin by keeping out of her life. It was a scenario that never really rang true for me but the debut of season 2 goes a long way to rectify that.

 

The move from CBS to the CW also meant a move from Los Angeles to Vancouver for production of the series. CatCo looks the same but the producers decided to take advantage of the move to get the DEO out of the caves into a sleek modern HQ hidden in plain sight in downtown National City. It looks cool but I wonder about the significant security risks.

 

Another change with the move isn’t evident yet but seeds were sown in Episode 1 of the Season 2 as we get hints that Cat Grant might be looking to make a big change in her life. Sadly, Calista Flockhart is not up for the move to Canada so her character will be moved to a recurring role. Which is a shame because Flockhart’s take on Cat Grant has been nothing short of amazing, imbedding a potential cartoonish characterization with a level of depth and nuance that made her a break out in Season 1 on par with Supergirl herself. 

 

By the way, Winn is no longer at Catco but is now putting that computer wizardry to work for the DEO which makes sense to me. And we meet Lex Luthor’s sister who just wants to reclaim her family name away from Lex’s evil legacy. But can we really trust her? And Cadmus is going to cause trouble this season.

 

By the time this posts, episode 2 of the new season will have aired but I’m not sure I will have a chance to amend this to include info from that episode. Some of the questions posed in episode 1 (like what is Cat up to) may well be answered by now.

 

But I think Supergirl is off to a strong start at her new network home and I’m really looking forward to what happens next.

 

___________________________________________________

 

 

As Supergirl enjoys a new start, tomorrow’s blog post takes a look at an ending. I’ve seen the last two episodes of Stranger Things’ first season and… and…

 

Oh my God, the feels! The FEELS!!!

 

Anyway, I’ll be posting on that tomorrow.

 

Later tonight is the 3rd Presidential debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. Assuming the world is not reduced to a smoking cinder floating in space, I will share my thoughts on that in Friday’s post.

 

Until next time, this is Dave-El reminding you to remember to be good to one another, just like my cousins Kal-El and Kara Zor-El would do.* 

*They'll tell you I'm not really their cousin. Oh, you guys, what a couple of kidders you are!   

  

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