Episode #1: Pilot (watched On Demand)
Rating: 3 stars
I finally decided to watch the first episode of Supergirl and guess what, I thought it was good.
I figured I would start with the things that I liked first such as: the show was light-hearted, had good pacing and good action scenes. So far I get a Smallville, Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman and an Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt sort of vibe from it. Out of all the characters that were in this episode there were only three that I liked: Kara Danvers, Cat Grant and James Olsen.
I like Kara Danvers. Despite having a very similar dorky personality to Barry Allen on The Flash and Felicity Smoak on Arrow, I found that out of the three, she's the only one that I find likeable. I don't think it will take me too long to get use to her personality, well at least I didn't find her annoying. I do wish she was more confident and would stand up for herself. Case in point, I wish Kara would have stood up more to her sister. In the scene after Kara saved the plane, she had been so happy but her sister Alex showed up and squashed her enthusiasm. Alex would not be alive had Kara not rushed out and saved that plane so instead of Alex being happy for her or even grateful towards her, she was very callous.
I heard a lot of bad things about this version of Cat Grant (and that trailer certainly didn't help) but I didn't find her as jarring as I thought she would be. Yes, she's a clone of Miranda Priestly from The Devil Wears Prada but she isn't truly unlikeable. The writers have chosen to make her a sterotypical high-powered cold business person whose only drive is to succeed at any cost. I wonder how the character would have been if she was given Cat's signature ditzy personality.
Now as for James "don't call me Jimmy" Olsen I've been hearing a lot of complaints about him but surprisingly I like him. From a first glance, he doesn't have the traditional dorky personality mostly associated with Jimmy Olsen but I don't get a sense that he's as cool as many of the complaints have stated. He kind of reminds me of the Jimmy from Smallville who also wasn't extremely dorky. I just see a guy who has moved away from Metropolis to build a new career in another city. I do wish he had not given Kara credit for taking the photo of Supergirl, he's Jimmy Olsen, a world class photographer. He should have taken the credit for it. All the so called complaints makes me wonder if most of them have more to do with the actor's ethnicity than anything else. It's certainly not the portrayal.
Good things aside, there were a few things that I didn't like such as:
- The public believing that aliens don't exist thing. So what do they consider Superman then? How can Superman have existed all this time and no one believes in aliens. Are there no other aliens or heroes for that matter operating throughout the world?
- The constant comparisons to Superman.
- Too many people on this show know that Kara is Supergirl.
- Kara's overbearing sister Alex. Besides being a liar, she works for the DEO which is an organization that goes after aliens. Her sister is an alien why would she work for them? I really wish she wasn't on the show. I don't like how she treats Kara as if she were a child. Kara's an adult and can do whatever she wants.
- The Department of Extra-Normal Operations (DEO). I don't understand why they would go after Kara just to tell her to stop trying to be a hero. She doesn't need their permission if she wanted to go after the Phantom Zone escapees, she would just do it. Side Note: Wasn't there a similar Phantom Zone escapees storyline already featured on Smallville?
- Potential villain-to-be as a comrade: Hank Henshaw. Will he eventually become a villain or stay a military man?
- The villains are lame.
- Kara's fighting skills are awful. The thing about most Supers is they do have awful fighting skills but since they are so powerful they don't need to be great fighters. However they can normally easily take down lame villains like Vartox in no time. It was embarrassing that Supergirl was saved by the DEO from the villain in her first fight against him. She is one of the most powerful beings on the planet (or make that the universe) and she couldn't stop Vartox. Even in her second fight with him, she really didn't stop him either. He ended up killing himself, so she didn't even get the victory of stopping him.
- The annoying Winslow "Winn" Schott, Jr.. This is another character that I really don't like and I still can't fathom why Kara would even tell him her secret. That guy is a jerk and not to mention is the son of one of Superman's villains (I wonder if that will be focused on in this series). I feel like she didn't need any help from him (or her sister for that matter) to figure out the whole superhero thing. I can't believe he helped her figure out her costume which is something that she could have easily figured out and that would have been a great learning experience for her.
- Kara working as the lowly assistant to Cat Grant. It would have been so cool if Kara had been a freelance writer or did anything else other than working at Catco. Kara really doesn't have a lot of ambition or confidence. When did being "normal" mean settling for anything mediocre. Why didn't she ask Cat for more responsibility or even a chance to write an article. Why does she just put up with Cat's treatment towards her?
- Although this is a minor issue, I do wished that Clark had taken Kara to his parents Martha and Jonathan Kent to be raised in Smallville. Because then the Kents could show up from time to time. It also would have at least made it seemed as though Clark actually cared about her and didn't just drop her off with strangers then took off. She has had zero contact with her cousin since she has been with the Danvers and why relay messages through Jimmy, that doesn't speak too highly of Clark.
- The Pep Talks. Kara shouldn't need that many pep talks to go out there and do what she has to do. She has too many people influencing her.
Despite all the problems, I did enjoy watching the first episode and I will be watching the second one. I do hope the show will get better and not worse.
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