Breaking The Time Barrier: Supergirl Season 1 Rewatch & Discussion

[The Crazed Spruce]

'Cause I couldn't come up with a pithy title about flying around the world to reverse time... :)

Hey, wanna talk about the CW's Supergirl reruns without looking up the old episode threads? Do it here!

(Limited time offer. Some conditions may apply. Offer ends once the second season premiers. Offer void in the Phantom Zone.)

[brgjoe]

Hey, I like it.  :)  Hopefully it will stay.  Since I think it makes sense to have a thread like this when the CW network is re-airing last season's episodes.

Now all I have to do is find my CW affiliate in my cable lineup.  :P

[legaleagle53]

On 7/31/2016 at 0:59 AM, The Crazed Spruce said:

'Cause I couldn't come up with a pithy title about flying around the world to reverse time... :)

Which is just as well, since that's not quite how it worked (I don't know whether that ability has been restored as part of the umpteen reboots since 1985's Crisis on Infinite Earths, when it was discarded after having been a standard Kryptonian ability since the late Golden Age).  Merely flying around the world wouldn't propel anyone either forward or backward in time. Flying faster than light in a specific direction is what triggered the time-travel pursuant to Einstein's Theory of Relativity.  Whether the trip was to the past or the future depended upon the direction of the flight:  with the Earth's rotation to travel to the future; against the Earth's rotation to travel to the past.

Edited August 2, 2016 by legaleagle53

[stealinghome]

Rewatching the first two episodes tonight, I'm struck by how much the show invented its own Superman problem, in the sense that the CONSTANT name-dropping of Superman is precisely what made everyone wonder why he wasn't showing up. I get that a second Superperson would have totally been the talk of the town and people would have been speculating about the connection, but man, I forgot how incessant bringing up Superman was--and how ANNOYING it was. They really could have toned that down 50% and it would have been fine. When Cat said "I'm sick of hearing about the Man of Steel," I wanted to be like PREACH! Also, when you come to rescue a bunch of firemen, is the chief REALLY so rude as to be like "What are you waiting for?? Superman would have done xyz already!" That just seems like such poor rescue-ee etiquette.

I also forgot how MEAN Hank was at the beginning of the show! Though they softened him up right quick. I'm surprised we got the red glow eye reveal at the end of episode 2; somehow in my memory it took a few episodes longer. I did enjoy wondering if he was good or bad for a while.

Overall, I'm sticking to my original assessment that the pilot's biggest flaw was being overstuffed, and that the second episode was stronger particularly in the second half. In the pilot, there were one too many "Kara loses faith and needs a pep talk" moments; the first 25 minutes hummed along really well but then the pacing got all wonky because too much confidence yo-yoing was thrown in the mix. We really didn't need the random Alura pep talk. Also, the pilot was so on the nose about its own feminism; I'm totally on board with what Supergirl is selling gender-wise (well, aside from Cat's explanation for why SuperGIRL isn't demeaning, that was ridiculously contorted and so deeply unbelievable), but I think it would have been more effective if it hadn't been pointed out to us over. and. over. again. Explicitly. I still wish the show could more consistently hit the tone the second episode had more of. More adult, but still upbeat.

Kara and James genuinely sparked early on and were rather charming together. I forgot how much I liked them at the start of the season, but then it's like the show did everything possible to make them an unappealing couple. I could probably get re-onboard with the couple if the show could recapture the relaxed, "let's just see how things unfold" vibe they had early on. Speaking of James, I also wish the show had done a bit more with him and Cat. Their relationship was very different to Cat and Kara's, but it gave us a different perspective on both characters because they were closer to equals.

It's interesting, in retrospect, how almost everyone in the pilot is lying to or misleading Kara. Particularly where Alex is concerned, I wish the show would play on that tension more. I love that the show has made their sisterhood and ride-or-die unconditional love for each other its central pillar, but they're more interesting like they were in the first few episodes, where there was a little more tension between them even though you could tell at the same time they really loved each other. Also, on rewatch it struck me how much of a risk the show took with Alex especially early on, as they ran the risk of making her really unlikable. I think they lucked out that Chyler Leigh is so endearing and she and Melissa Benoist clicked from Day One.

I still think the show works best when it leans into the fact that Kara is an alien first, Supergirl second, and resident of Earth third. Lean into the fact that it's Kara that's the REAL last daughter of Krypton, show! Make her fundamentally alien!

Astra was so much fun as a villain, and you could tell Laura Benanti was having a ton of fun with the role. Maybe someday they can convince Benanti to come back and they can find Astra at Cadmus. Also, I love how all female villains must have SUPER DARK eyeliner. That's how you know a superhero from a supervillain! That and their personal space issues...I forgot how up in Alex's space Astra was when they first meet.

Melissa Benoist was the show's saving grace from the start. She's just dynamite as Kara. I'm glad they course-corrected a bit and ultimately made her less bumbling than in the first few episodes, but even then, she was just wonderful in the role. Whoever cast her should be able to ride that casting brag for life!

ETA: Oh, and I forgot to say that early on, it seems like the CatCo and DEO sides of the show worked about equally well. By the season's end, the DEO side is DEFINITELY better, so I'll be curious in the rewatch to see when that starts to change.

Edited August 2, 2016 by stealinghome

[craziness]

I'm psyched that the CW is running the first season,  since I didn't catch on to the show until half way through the season.  Thought I'd have to buy the dvds. And 2 episodes every Monday,  sweet. Now I just have to decide how to record this,  American ninja warrior,  and rizzoli and isles when my dvr only records 2 shows at once. 

[Trini]

Watching the first two episodes again makes me think about how much I'm going to miss Cat and Alura/Astra next season, and how I would have liked seeing Lois Lane show up before Superman/Clark.

 

1 hour ago, stealinghome said:

(well, aside from Cat's explanation for why SuperGIRL isn't demeaning, that was ridiculously contorted and so deeply unbelievable)

Ugh, yeah; never liked that bit. Didn't need some quasi-feminist statement about why they were keeping the name.

1 hour ago, stealinghome said:

Kara and James genuinely sparked early on and were rather charming together. I forgot how much I liked them at the start of the season, but then it's like the show did everything possible to make them an unappealing couple. I could probably get re-onboard with the couple if the show could recapture the relaxed, "let's just see how things unfold" vibe they had early on.

They did have some nice chemistry in the very beginning! I just wish the showrunners hadn't accelerated that (romantic) relationship. I think they should have slowed down (but still with hints of attraction between them), and showed them growing closer as friends and confidantes. (I think they were already using the "L" word by mid-season...)

Still here for Hot Jimmy James, though.  :)

[j5cochran]

On 8/1/2016 at 10:35 PM, stealinghome said:

Astra was so much fun as a villain, and you could tell Laura Benanti was having a ton of fun with the role. Maybe someday they can convince Benanti to come back and they can find Astra at Cadmus. Also, I love how all female villains must have SUPER DARK eyeliner. That's how you know a superhero from a supervillain! That and their personal space issues...I forgot how up in Alex's space Astra was when they first meet.

Aha!  So the secret key for a female supervillain is the dark eyeliner -- then the secret key for a male supervillain must be the goatee and mustache!  (At least, that's the way it works in the mirror universe in Star Trek ;-) )

[FurryFury]

I remember at least one recent example where a male villain got the eyeliner treatment as well (he was played by the same actor as one of the heroes, hence the need).

Edited August 5, 2016 by FurryFury

[stealinghome]

Gotta say, I would SO WATCH "Keeping up with the Kryptonians." So. Watch.

Reactron was a lame villain, but even weirder was the message that the show was trying to sell. It's a little jarring to, immediately after 1x02 when Kara's all "Stronger Together! Ask for help! Help is a sign of strength!", see Kara in 1x03 be like "I have to go it alone! No help from outside parties! No Superman allowed here!" (Especially since Supes DID save her life.) I mean, I get what they were trying to say about Kara needing to do things on her own, but maybe don't put that in the episode RIGHT AFTER she's preaching the value of teamwork and help? I think maybe they didn't know what exactly they wanted Kara's relationship to Supes to be early on (arguably still don't), and the growing pains showed a bit here. And they're trying really hard to differentiate Kara from Clark in terms of superhero-ing approach, but I'm not entirely sure they've done it effectively.

Cat getting all excited to write the first expose on Supergirl in 1x03 reminded me all over again of just how much Calista Flockhart brings to the show. 1x04 was the first real showcase for Cat, but I thought CF really started bringing it in 1x03. You could tell there was something about Cat here. Sadly, though, the Max Lord/Cat dance was terrible. PF and CF couldn't overcome the clunky dialogue, and couldn't quite generate the sparks they were supposed to.

Alex's reaction shots to some of Kara's most awkward moments give me life. I actually snorted at Alex's face when Kara was being awkward with James at the coffeeshop. Maybe "Keeping up with the Kryptonians" can involve lots of Kara and Clark being all bumbling and Alex silently judging them. Speaking of James: letting Superman's secret identity slip to Winn like that? Come oooooon, show, that was just lame. Half of the world would know Supes' identity by now if James was regularly that careless. More broadly, I wish the show had held off on the James/Kara conflict in 1x03 for a few more episodes. This episode began the trend of rushing Kara/James, as this was too early in their friendship for the conflict to really matter; giving them a few more episodes to establish a relationship would have made the conflict feel like it had a bit more weight. Sadly, this episode also started the trend of everyone anvilling it to us OVER. AND. OVER. AGAIN. that Kara really likes James and they should be together. Not looking forward to a bazillion more episodes of this. Also why Lucy, show? Love triangles NEVER work well. Ever.

Poor Kara shouldn't have saved Max Lord from Reactron. He's such a smarmy PITA.

I wonder at what point they let David Harewood know Hank was going to be J'onn and a good guy...he was really laying on the menace thick in the first few episodes.

I think 1x03 was also the first episode where we got to see MB and CL relax into the sister bond, and it was really quite good--immediately they clicked more than Kara/James or Kara/Winn. But I have to say that the music choices on this show are often TERRIBLE, and the end of 1x03 was no exception. I get thematically why they keep going for acoustic female covers, but so often the music just doesn't really fit the scene. The end of 1x03 is a good example, as was the cover of "Take Me to Church" that played in the Alex/Eliza scene in 1x04. They need to hire the people who do the music for Grey's or Person of Interest or really, any show that has significantly better music choices.

-

1x04 was a very solid episode for so many reasons. First, the end-episode reveal that Jeremiah was part of the DEO, and died ("died") working for them, really was good--it was the first "oh shit!" moment this show had for me, and it still remains a moment that makes you sit up and say "whaaaaat?" Second, it introduced Eliza, who I find plays well off both Alex and Kara. I like that there's conflict between all three, as it makes them more realistic and gives all the characters more depth. Third, I think think this episode was really Cat/CF's coming out party, and established the Cat/Kara dynamic as one of the best as the show. MB and CF really clicked here; the scene in the hospital room and then the scene in which Kara tells Cat about her family dying and they bond over mother/daughter trauma were both really good. The episode also gave Cat some much-needed depth, especially pertaining to her self-reflection re: Leslie; she'd been perilously close to a walking talking stereotype before this. I know we're on limited Calista Flockhart time in S2, but I demand at least one more episode where Cat and Kara team up, because they really do work so well together. Cat drawling disdainfully into the microphone as Kara watched was awesome. Talk about a power couple!

Oh yeah, this episode also confirmed that Kara's love life is by far the least interesting thing about her. Sadly, I foresee that element of the show getting amped up with the move to the CW...sigh.

Oh, Eliza. You're such a jerk to Alex sometimes. I get that you have a lot of baggage, but still, why so mean? I hope they go to this well more often in S2, since if we're searching for Daddy Danvers, it's a natural route for Alex to work through her parental issues and give Alex some meaty stuff to work with. I did love Alex guzzling ALL the wine at Thanksgiving dinner. I mean, who hasn't been there at some point? Also, Young Kara and Young Alex really do resemble MB and CL--good job, casting people!

"What fresh incompetence is this?" "Well, clearly she's recovered." "Oooooh, crap." "Yes, congratulations, you have the wit of a YouTube comment." Cat's one-liners were in top form in this ep. Wish all the episodes had this caliber of dialogue.

This episode also started the somewhat jerk-ifying of James, calling Kara while away with Lucy. Bad James!

Show, I hate to fact-check you, but if you aren't done with your dissertation yet, you are most definitely not a doctor yet.

Winn and Kara are actually sweet as bubbly friends; too bad they're about to Nice Guy him. Still think the character is pretty extraneous though. Would the show change at all if he disappeared?

Awww, Cat, "there's a lot about you I don't know...that should change." Get down with your fuzzy self.

 

Okay, so I think the CatCo half of the show working less well than the DEO side of the show by season's end can be put down to two factors: first, bringing Lucy in and making CatCo largely about Kara's romantic drama was just a bad idea. As I said above, Kara's romantic life is by far the least interesting part of the show, and it was all concentrated at CatCo. I enjoy CatCo much more when it's about Cat and/or Kara's work life and challenges. Second, I think CatCo starts working less well when Kara essentially goes all-in with the DEO. It worked better in their early episodes when Hank/J'onn was riding Kara hard and didn't want to let her do basically anything, and so the Winn/James/Batcave stuff was her outlet for doing good. But once Kara basically becomes a full-fledged DEO member, that part of the show often feels extraneous.

[Trini]

On 8/8/2016 at 10:53 PM, stealinghome said:

But I have to say that the music choices on this show are often TERRIBLE, and the end of 1x03 was no exception. I get thematically why they keep going for acoustic female covers, but so often the music just doesn't really fit the scene. The end of 1x03 is a good example, as was the cover of "Take Me to Church" that played in the Alex/Eliza scene in 1x04. They need to hire the people who do the music for Grey's or Person of Interest or really, any show that has significantly better music choices.

YES. Someone new to pick songs is on my wishlist for Season 2. Maybe Adler can use use her Chuck connections to get the people who worked on that show; the music there was always on point.

Edited August 16, 2016 by Trini

[bettername2come]

I was just coming to post about the covers. Is it in every single episode? I noticed a few of them the first time around, but it's much more noticeable with double episodes. And yeah, poor choice. Acoustic "Go Your Own Way" while Kara and Cat talk about why women can't be get angry in the workplace doesn't fit thematically.

[stealinghome]

1x05 was such a mixed bag. Parts of it were really good--in the frantic "everything is gonna blow up" scene, the pan-around transitions worked really really well, it's the kind of visual trick the show should do more; Carter was fun and continued giving Cat new facets, and he and Kara actually bounced off each other really well; and the overall plotline of the episode was really engaging. On the other hand, James and Lucy are sooo boring--the first nail in the Kara/James coffin was definitely introducing Lucy and the love triangle, as exactly zero of that is at all compelling--and the episode is so cliche. James and Lucy are cliche (and don't have much chemistry), the love triangle is cliche, Kara is cliche in the love triangle, and Maxwell Lord could not get any more cliche if they named him Jerky Obnoxious Morally Ambiguous McCliche. Peter Facinelli laid it on waaaaaay too thick, especially in the end scene, I was waiting for him to start twirling his scruff. I'm glad he dials it back by the end of the season.

I think I figured out where the writers went wrong with Kara/James. Part of it is the love triangle, yes, because literally no one ever comes out from a triangle looking good. But part of it is that the writers wrote the wrong kind of love story for Kara and James. They do have chemistry, but it's a kind of goofy, fun, sweet, almost adolescent chemistry. Not puppy love, but it has a bit of that vibe. As a couple, Kara and James should epitomize the slow burn "friends to lovers," "I married my best friend" kind of love. But the love triangle stuff tried to shoehorn them into a more conflicted, tormented, "overcome every obstacle," "I will always find you" epic kind of story, and that's just not the right story for their chemistry and how they interact. Get them back to being the fun young solid friends, not epic/tortured couple. Also, I think Mehcad Brooks is a likeable actor, but I'm going to throw out that emotional turmoil is not his forte as an actor. This episode was a lot about James, and that was often not so good.

1x06, otoh, was pretty weak. General Lane is a paper-thin, really dumb "villain" (played by an even thinner actor, wow he was bad) and the logic of the episode is eyeroll-y. Kara suddenly developing an anger management problem is like, bwuh? Stiiiiiiiiiiiill don't care about James/Lucy drama, this time with her dad--though I will say that when she got upset at the end and he hugged her, it was the first time MB and JDT had any semblance of chemistry or came off like people who were in a LTR, even if it was off-again on-again. Red Tornado was a cool idea, but I feel at the end of the day it was underdeveloped because the other stuff ate so much time.  The episode could have been better.

This episode did have its moments, though. Pretty much everything from Kara snapping at Cat to Cat giving advice and then having the hangover from hell was awesome, haha. I definitely enjoyed super drunk Cat; she dropped some truth bombs, but also, CF looked like she had a BALL playing a smashed Cat! Cat taking a stand against her mom at the end--and on Kara's behalf--was awesome. These two episodes were really great if you ship Supercat, ps, between "Carter has two mommies" and Cat rallying against her mom because of Kara. Doctor Morrow was hot, and I did like the Danvers sisters fighting "together," when Alex took on Morrow and Kara Red Tornado. And Kara flashing back to her last moments on Krypton was poignant. But the moments weren't enough to save the overall episode.

I feel like episodes 5&6 are when the CatCo stuff really started to falter. I stand by what I said last time--I think once Kara basically went all-in with the DEO and CatCo became less about fighting crime and more about Kara's love life, it became the far weaker part of the show. You can already see it happening. I wonder how many scenes actually happen in the Batcave at CatCo the rest of the season.

I forgot how hard the show leaned into the "is Hank evil???" mystery early on. #daddydanversain'tdead!

[Trini]

I forgot that the one episode was shown out of order (and CW is re-airing them in the same order); "How Does She Do It" was supposed to be before "Livewire". The storylines that are affected are James getting back together with Lucy, and Kara and Alex finding out about Hank Henshaw and their father.

[Black Knight]

On August 8, 2016 at 7:53 PM, stealinghome said:

-Oh, Eliza. You're such a jerk to Alex sometimes. I get that you have a lot of baggage, but still, why so mean? I hope they go to this well more often in S2, since if we're searching for Daddy Danvers, it's a natural route for Alex to work through her parental issues and give Alex some meaty stuff to work with. I did love Alex guzzling ALL the wine at Thanksgiving dinner. I mean, who hasn't been there at some point?

Totally agree, if/when Jeremiah is found, they need to have a storyline where he's told what it was like for Alex being raised by Eliza. Because somehow I don't think that when he would say that Alex was the strongest of them all, he actually meant that Kara should get all the love and acceptance and kid glove treatment while Alex should be continually faulted not only for whatever she did as being not good enough but also for anything that Kara did or that was going on in Kara's life that Eliza didn't like. I feel like if Jeremiah hadn't disappeared, the remainder of Alex's childhood would've gone quite a bit differently and the sisters would have been treated more equally - we saw in that flashback where Kara and Alex went flying that Jeremiah came down on both of them for it, whereas we know Eliza's style was to blame Alex. The way Eliza parented the sisters, it's a minor miracle that Alex merely resented Kara instead of hating her outright; if Jeremiah had been around, Alex probably would've had much less to resent.

Re-watching "Livewire" this week, I was reminded of how compelling the Danvers family dynamics are. One of the more interesting things in that episode is the window into how Kara deals with Eliza and Alex's problematic relationship. She spends the first half of the episode pooh-poohing Alex's concerns about Eliza and brushing aside any hint that Eliza favors her, and at first viewers are not sure whether Kara is just naive and believing the best of everyone, or playing dumb. But then at the disastrous dinner she tells Eliza straight up that she was always so much harder on Alex than Kara and we know that she was playing dumb before. Which makes sense, because she loves both of them, she especially adores Alex, and she knows she's a big part of why Alex has such issues with her mother - so of course she'd rather play dumb to avoid discussing it, until circumstances force her.

Looking at the season as a whole, what I love most is that the show was consistent about Kara/Alex being the core relationship. That was the relationship that they spent the pilot and second episode establishing as the most important one, and that never changed throughout the season. (And thank goodness for that, considering how lame the romantic stuff was - if Kara and any of her men had been the core relationship, this show really would've been in trouble. I had to laugh later in the season when all they could find for RedKara to do with Winn was basically ignore him and with James, to take a few verbal potshots at Lucy. It really showed how two-dimensional her relationships with them are compared to her relationships with Alex, Hank and Cat.) For me CL and MB clicked well from the start and I liked that their relationship was written as nuanced from the get-go; they love each other more than anyone else but they also have some resentment towards each other. (What's especially interesting is that in present time, Kara has more resentment towards Alex, while younger Alex had plenty of resentment towards Kara, but it seems like by the time we meet Alex on the show she'd basically worked through that - for one thing, she takes no pleasure at beating Kara in the second episode, which if she was still feeling "lesser than" you'd think she'd enjoy on at least some level, but she hates it, and we learn that she did it only because Hank made her. In the past, she was happy about Kara deciding not to use her powers because it made Alex feel less inferior, but since then, she's joined the DEO and has learned about the Ft. Rozz aliens and so now her reason is fear of the Ft. Rozz aliens realizing who Kara is and targeting her. Alex's resentment, currently, is directed almost entirely at her mother. Which is pretty much appropriate, given what we see and learn about Eliza. Kara herself she's devoted to, and just try telling her not to look after her sister - Hank threatening her with prison doesn't work, and she attacks both Hank and James when she thinks they pulled her out of the Black Mercy's simulation to save her life. If Kara's not here, Alex doesn't want to be here either.) And I loved how it came full circle: In the pilot, Kara flew into the sky to save Alex, and in the finale, Alex flew into the sky to save Kara. It was all the better for the fact that neither of them actually commented on that parallel, when usually the show couldn't help but spell everything out.

[stealinghome]

1x07 is more a return to form after the weakness of 1x06. Again, I find the central dilemma--Kara and Alex separated while Kara deals with being human and Alex is in DEO lockdown--to be really compelling on both ends. I wonder if it's because already, even at this early stage of the game, the Kara/Alex/Hank trio seemed so powerful that the only way to seriously endanger them was to split them up. I liked Kara having to deal with the prospect of going back to being "normal Kara Danvers" after she's been Supergirl, loved seeing her talk the robber down and all that that entailed/implied, and appreciated the episode's message about heroism and hope (as opposed to negativity). I also, frankly, liked seeing Kara having to think her way through problems for once, instead of just punching through them. Also, Cat and Kara's intercut monologues of hope really were excellent. An early standout moment for the show. Cat's response to the crisis was awesome in general; it would be so easy to make the character a caricature, but the writers and Flockhart have clearly put a lot of thought into giving her some substance, to boot.

Also, this episode again showed that Kara and James work well when they're the best friends who become lovers, angst-free fun couple. No Lucy around and no contrived romantic angst BS, and they're still fun and charming together. I did lol at him dramatically stripping off his button-down to make her a sling at the start, talk about fanservice. But speaking of BS, I forgot that this episode began the assification of Winn. What a jackass Nice Guy he turned out to be, and I can't believe they had Kara sniveling up to him at the end like she did something wrong and Winn was in the right for being a Grade-A Douchebag. What is his point as a character again? It took Cat's magical powers of awesomeness to make him even marginally interesting for once.

The manhunt for the psychic alien, with Alex not knowing if she can trust Hank, was really tense and well-done, and the MM reveal at the end was AWESOME. I think if you didn't know Hank was MM, you would be legit creeped out by Hank and wondering whether he was going to stab Alex at any moment. Also, David Harewood's acting in the scene where he tells Alex his identity was awesome, and I liked how Chyler Leigh played Alex's descent into tears/emotion while still keeping Alex's military composure intact.

I laughed at the "Kara saves a bus" moment, as I took that to be a shout-out to Man of Steel.

And then the end! You think it's a nice feel-good moment, and then BAM, Astra. Nice cliffhanger. It really felt like the show was finding its stride in this episode.

 

1x08 is a tale of two halves. The stuff with Astra and the Kryptonian backstory and the DEO was great, really gripping, and I legitimately think that Kara blowing up at Alura's hologram was MB's best acting moment in the entire season. She just BROUGHT IT in that moment, you absolutely felt Kara's pain and anger and grief. Again, I show the show is so much better when it leans into Kara's pathos. Also the last ten minutes or so were utterly fantastic--Cat being all "You're Supergirl!" was truly awesome, it's too bad the show backpedaled on that, she really ought to know (openly) and be working alongside Kara. And then the end, with Lord Technology under Kryptonian siege and Kara and Non hurtling toward each other, was also excellent. Too bad the show couldn't keep the momentum.

That reminds me--is there a reason they haven't grabbed Supergirl a Kryptonite inhibitor that Astra et al had?

But for the other half, the corporate espionage stuff was lamer and slower than it ought to have been, and Winn and James getting into a pissing match over Kara (instigated by Winn) did no one involved any favors, particularly Winn. There are not enough eyeroll emoticons to express how far back my eyes are still rolled. I think this episode when the quadrangle ('cause I guess it's Kara/James/Lucy/Winn) starts to become really a problem instead of just annoying; James telling Winn to go after Kara is like, vomit. Kara and James are so good when no one brings the quadrangle stuff up, and then it just sinks them.

I know Laura Benanti had to go do Broadway, but this episode reminded me that the show took the easy way out when it came to Astra, insofar as she...was kind of totally right about Krypton and thus might have a point about Earth? The show has never truly delved into the complexities of Alura being on some level guilty of not doing more to avert Krypton's demise, of Astra being right, of what Krypton might mean for Earth and the idea that Astra and Non went too far but did have not totally terrible intentions. Which is too bad--that stuff is thought-provoking and compelling, and makes Supergirl more of an adult show. Maybe the DEO can find Astra alive in Cadmus at the end of the second season, and the third season can deal with this stuff. It's just...Astra, and Kara's family, is such RICH material that the show barely touched on and then abandoned, but it gives Kara such wrenching and organic conflict. (Also, Astra and Non seemed to have a...great...marriage. I'd love to see the show delve into American/Kryptonian cultural differences someday, too.)

I think this episode forgot that Kara should be able to read all Cat's emails in like three seconds to find anything incriminating. And also that Kara should be able to get in and out of Armstrong's office before anyone can see her, as opposed to "keeping lookout" with her "alien eyes." Tsk tsk, show, since her overhearing the board member in the elevator was such a major plot point. Usually this show is actually pretty good about not having Kara's power levels fluctuate based on the case of the week, but this episode gets a solid F in that area.

Cat was wicked on point with her one-liners this episode. "And that I asked out Idris Elba on a date and he said no...his loss." "Oh please, I call her that to her face and worse." "If I wanted to have sex with a beach boy, I'd still be sleeping with John Stamos." "Well congratulations, you got the looks." Hee! But seriously, Calista Flockhart was really, really good in the scene where she tells Kara about Adam and decides to step down. That was quite good. She and David Harewood really do bring a gravitas to the cast that makes a difference; they both have this world-weariness about them that grounds the show and provides such a nice change of pace. Also they act circles around everyone but Benoist and Leigh. Also, awww, Cat's "you always have a job with me." She DOES like Kara/Kiera!

Alex's horrified "You can read minds???" Hee!

I forgot how much plot Supergirl burned through in its first 8 episodes alone (and how many cliches, heh). No wonder the back half faltered so badly--they blew most of their load in the front half.

[stealinghome]

1x09 is both good and frustrating. Good because the Kara and Astra stuff was again compelling, but frustrating because a) it re-set the Cat and Kara relationship back to status quo when it really ought to have changed it and b) the sloppiness/rushed-ness (and slight mixed messaging) of the Kryptonian plot really became apparent. It's all so all over the place that I'm not sure whether I'm supposed to like Alura and hate Astra, vice versa, like both, or like neither. Also, if "reason and compassion" didn’t work on Krypton, it's not a great advertisement for relying on them on Earth.

We shoulda figured that Astra was dead woman walking when Non got the “Zod from MoS” treatment.

With Bizarro, Max Lord overstayed his welcome as of...now. Talk about thirty shades of messed up. Let the next Kryptonians squash him like a bug, please. I think the writers must be parodying themselves, because Lord's like every cliche walking. I just started laughing uncontrollably when he started beating up on James (also, people on this show do not know the meaning of "beaten to a pulp" if they think a bruised lip qualifies).

omfg Cat trying to be nice and encouraging and being all "sit here." HEE. Kara's weirded-out facial expressions were the best. That scene was comedy gold. Speaking of Cat, while I liked that Cat played Kara using moral responsibility, it's so irritating that the show didn't do anything with Cat knowing. I wish we had either had a bunch more episodes of Cat testing Kara, or a real change in the status quo where Kara and Cat navigated both knowing--and knowing the other knew--about her being Supergirl. That could have been so interesting. (Also, didn't Cat say earlier that she knows the Superpeople have mastered the trick of appearing to be in two places at once earlier in the episode? Why did Kara just assume Cat bought the ruse? I mean, I think Cat knows but is choosing to pretend she doesn't, so I don't think she bought it, but I don't think Kara and J'onn should have assumed she bought it so easily either.)

They tried to give Lane depth here, but he’s still so mustache-twirly. "I am a man of honor…so I’m TOTALLY going to torture you." Loved that Astra played him! If you’re dumb enough to take orders from “I Have Fool Stamped On My Forehead” Lane, you deserve what you get. But I loved that Non was hypocritical, too; both sides' leaders here were shown to be honorless scumbags even as they claimed to be following the truly honorable course.

Winn and James were actually kind of tolerable when they’re buddy copping it up and trying to help Kara, with no hint of romantic jealousy, even if they get a total FAIL on execution (and it was a little implausible). I think it helps that they were actively helping with the DEO/alien side of the story. When they’re just supporting Kara as Supergirl, they work okay enough, but it still feels like we only need one of them.

The Army guy disobeying a direct order was ridonk. Lane would have court-martialed him in like .5 seconds.

"You’re from MaaaAAAAAAARS?!" "No you can’t!" The beginning of the awesomeness that is the Alex/Kara/J'onn trio!!! I love how Kara and J'onn clicked immediately after his ID was revealed. Them flying together at the start of the next episode was so cute.

1x10 was a weird episode in that its A and B-plot were both interesting, but didn't mesh well together, and the placement of the Toyman A-plot was kind of odd in the larger season, in that it got a bit lost with the Lord machinations. You kind of feel like, if Winn was going to get a centric, he deserved not to get overshadowed. And this episode finally succeeded at giving Winn some depth--but then totally undid all the good it did by having him be not particularly good to Kara at the end. Dude, she's made it clear she's just not that into you. You don't want to bottle your feelings up anymore? I totally get that. But then go hire a therapist (in fact, your daddy issues suggest that you have a MAJOR need for therapy in general). Don't put your feelings on Kara when she's made it clear she's not comfortable hearing it/doesn't want to.

Side note, while I can accept that Kara would feel bad about not reciprocating Winn's feelings--she is enough of a people-pleaser that it's in character for her to feel guilty even when she's not at fault, and it's not like most people relish having to turn down a friend anyway--I can't accept that Alex was like "yup, we ruin men" instead of being like "Kara, really, you don't have to feel guilty about not feeling a certain way about someone." I don't like that through Alex's comment, the show implicitly supported the idea that Kara's at fault here when she's not. (The great counter to this moment, of course, is when Cat absolutely shuts down Kara’s "shouldn’t you have asked James???" routine by saying stfu, your problem is that you're having an emotional affair with James. I do love Cat.)

I kind of loved that Lucy and Cat got along smashingly--I'd watch them be weird friends any day. Also I did find Kara and James funny when they were commiserating over being weirded out by it. But siiiiiiigh, the return of James/Lucy boringness. Lucy, listen to your instincts: it's totally about your relationship.

Jeremy Jordan’s monologue on his dad was probably best acting moment in the season.

I'm LOLing that Alex is in Lord's phone as Mata Hari, but strongly dislike that she's apparently so incompetent that she didn't notice Lord put a bug on her bag. I thought Alex started off as a relatively solid character, but in the last 3 or so episodes it's felt like she is whatever the writers want her to be (not a fan of her pushing J'onn so hard to use his powers either--but I can fanwank that as Kara Trumps All). Of course the writing here was sloppy all around--Kara gets stuck in quicksand for more than a fraction of a second and then magically can't track Toyman down, really? Kara doesn't hear Toyman IN THE HALL STEALING WINN, really??? Kara falls for the SO OBVIOUSLY FAKE CHILD VOICE THAT EVEN I COULD TELL WAS RECORDED, really??? (And doesn't, like, realize she doesn't hear a heartbeat? Even if the trunk is lined with lead so she can't see?) And good God, Alex and Hank are the WORST SECRET KEEPERS EVER, because they keep talking about super duper important secrets in the middle of their super secret agency base. At normal volume. At this point I'm convinced the whole DEO knows about Hank and they just play along like they don't. I also cringed at Alex's "Why? Because she's a woman?" line; I thought we had left the sledgehammer-obvious feminism behind, and I actually don't think Max really cares about gender. He's way more hung up on the alien thing.

When Winn said Kara would be fine without him, he spoke the truth. Kara had a nice attempt at making Winn sound like the wind beneath her wings, but that’s just not what we’ve been shown imo. That whole part was forced.

J'onn's riffing on Lord--"my narcissism" and "ill-kempt facial hair"--had me in stitches. It is too bad the show made Lord such a shitbag, because he and Alex have decent chemistry.

[stealinghome]

1x11: Alex's facial expressions when Kara was praising Cat (to Adam) gave me LIFE. MB and her real-life hubby don't have much on-screen chemistry, though, gotta say--MB can spark with all the ladies, can they not find ONE guy she has on-screen chemistry with?? I was kind of meh on Adam showing up (at least so soon)--and Adam himself--but I did feel for Cat, who clearly DOES want to be in Adam's life in some way, but who just as clearly is pretty inept at normal human interaction. The scenes where she cried on the balcony, and then when she and Adam had their second dinner in the bar with Kara (which I kind of wish had been the end scene of the episode, actually), were really affecting. Calista Flockhart just knocked it out of the park acting-wise. The strength of her performance was also evident in how the Adam stuff DIDN'T get overshadowed by the White Martian/J'onn's angst plotline, which easily could've overpowered it.

If you're a Supercat shipper, this was a good episode, as weird as that sounds to say.

Poor J'onn. DH did a good job of conveying J'onn's rage and pain and fear, in an understated way, in the first White Martian reveal scene, and then was QUITE good when he talked about the genocide of the Green Martians. But his "I will kill the White Martian"/"no jk, this is passive suicide"/"no, it's murder" turns were a little whiplash-inducing. I liked the pace of this episode until the last 15 minutes or so--it moved perfectly along for all the twists for most of the ep, but then it was like one too many pep talks and changes of mind from J'onn. I wish they'd just kept the final fight to the sewers, with Alex captured.

J'onn versus the WM when she was pressing the DEO to do an internal review, right before she revealed herself, was an TENSE scene, but the shaky cam in the "WM runs wild in the DEO scene after" was pretty awful. You could get where it was trying to go, but it...didn't quite get there. At all. (Though I DID like the cuts from the rally to CatCo earlier.)

"There is no shame in surviving" should be every superhero's motto. As should be "you can't save everyone all the time," or whatever the close equivalent was that Alex said.

Kara is such a terrible liar, it's kind of super charming. Also, I continue to love Kara and J'onn's relationship now that she knows. "Enough of that." Hee!

Non-Secrets Watch: J'onn was practically YELLING HIS SECRETS IN THE DEO--there is no way the rest of the agents don't know he's an alien. They MUST be humoring him by pretending they don't. And the whole DEO must know Alex and Kara are sisters too (that was supposed to be secret at some point, wasn't it?).

Poor Alex really is the alien emotional support task force these days. The next time a supervillain takes her prisoner, literally the entire alien population of earth will come to kick the villain's butt and get Alex back.

Senator Crane changing because of Supergirl was corny but also awesome. Come to think of it, I kind of wish THAT had been the end scene, too--just the cameras flashing as she said Supergirl changed her mind.

I will say that the first season DID do a good job of making you want to tune into the next episode by sowing the seeds at the end. I'm also glad the show recommitted to foregrounding the Kara/Alex relationship here, after it'd been backburnered for a few eps. That relationship really is the center of the show.

 

1x12: Yeah, this is when Max Lord went full-on evil. Like, hey Max, here's a hint: if the only way you can find alien menaces is to create them yourself, maybe you're not really on the right side here. Just a thought. And poor, poor Bizarro. "Supergirl save people. Supergirl not bad." Lord really is a monster.

"The skirt was surprisingly comfortable"--hee. And "except she talks like Cookie Monster"--the one-liners were on point this episode! Snappier dialogue than usual.

I do think Adam overstayed his welcome by an episode, the whole "he dates Kara and then she dumps him" thing was unnecessary and seemed to exist only to reset Kara and Cat back to ground zero AGAIN (for the second time in like what, four episodes?)--but I can't lie, I would watch an entire webseries of Cat third wheeling it and snarking on Cat and Adam's love life and "walking around the building that I own" and being hilariously, terrifyingly nice to Kara. (I love how MB took the coffee like it was a bomb.) But the Kara/Adam stuff was just silly, and the music in the kiss scene was HILARIOUS in the worst possible way.

"The DEO can't arrest people"...so Alex goes rogue and takes Max Lord in. LOVE IT. It was so satisfying when she slammed him on the desk! Remind me why they let him out again? And ouch, Alex, low blow when she told Hank he should understand protecting secrets! PS, people, use some logic, if they're a Super Sekkrit organization, they're THE BEST people to disappear someone. I mean, really. Relatedly, the DEO should charge rent for long-term stays in their cells. First Astra, then Lord; Lord, at least, could certainly afford it. Though why did Alex de-hood him in the CONTROL CENTER? The hell?

I hate the term "Friend Zone," but I find it bizarre that WINN of all people was the voice of reason when it came to James/Lucy/Kara. I forgot we had James saying "I love her" so early...that makes it even worse that he kept stringing Lucy along for several episodes. For literally no reason other than writers' fiat. Bah. Winn and James are best as Kara's little gossip squad.

"I don't know what this stuff is gonna do to you if I hit you"--didn't they just ~Science at us that it should make Supergirl stronger? Why does no one consider that the blue reverse-Kryptonite could be a Super-booster?

I love how Kara's reaction to a SUPER CREEPY FLOWER-LOOKING THING is to approach and touch. It's like she's learned nothing! Or never watched Alien...I'll show myself out now.

 

I do think around now is when it REALLY began to be obvious that Supergirl was burning through way too much plot way too quickly, and forcing in emotional beats that weren't earned/were premature because they were racing through plot. James' "I love you" and Max Lord knowing everything/locking him up are prime examples--12 episodes in is WAY too early for all that.

[Kendra]

I have loved Melissa and Blake since their glee days so as a fan it was really enjoyable to watch them on screen together again. But I do agree that his role as Adam was a bit meaningless. I still strongly feel that they ended up getting shafted on Glee after Cory Monteith passed and their characters dumped with pretty much zero resolution. It still remains as one of the weirdest and laziest write-outs of major characters I've ever watched. LOL. So it was nice to get these episodes on Supergirl and that's honestly why I think they cast him for the role. It was just a fun thing for fans (and for Melissa) to enjoy. The fact that they threw it in during the front 13 (before they knew they were getting a back episode order) makes me think it was done just as fan service and something they rushed to check off the show's to-do list in case it was cancelled. 

But in hindsight, I REALLY wish that they had saved Blake for another role at a later point in the show. One that's a little more juicy and would allow him to return a few more times throughout the series. I don't think we will ever see Adam again, especially now that Calista won't be around as much. I think it would have been more fun to see him play a cool villain or someone that could pop in once a season as a fun guest star. 

I thought 1x11 was one of the stronger episodes of the season. But then 1x12 happened, and it was one of the weakest. I totally agree that they threw WAAAAAY too much into the show way too quickly. I only assume it's because they were afraid of cancellation so they wanted to make sure they got in as much as possible?? Bizarro is a such a cool concept from the comics, and I'm still bitter they wasted it on ONE episode that really wasn't very good. 

[BkWurm1]

One thing in general that I've been surprised over is how much I've been enjoying the rewatch.  The early fighting sequences for SG were still laughable but over all I think the episodes and the acting were better than I remembered.  It probably helps that I know where the show is NOT going so I don't have the same kind of disappointment over Cat being so easily put off on knowing Kara's secret.  I'd also forgotten how cute Kara and James were at first. 

I think I agree that they should have just let Kara and James have a really long slow burn friendship rather than doing the triangle thing.  It was fine that Kara was about to ask him out but once Lucy showed up, they should have dropped both of them thinking of each other that way...or sent Lucy home to stay really quickly. They just hadn't invested enough time in the characters for them to have the kind of emotional reactions they are having.  It doesn't ring true.  The romantic beats are rushed.

Quote

And this episode finally succeeded at giving Winn some depth--but then totally undid all the good it did by having him be not particularly good to Kara at the end. Dude, she's made it clear she's just not that into you. You don't want to bottle your feelings up anymore? I totally get that. But then go hire a therapist (in fact, your daddy issues suggest that you have a MAJOR need for therapy in general). Don't put your feelings on Kara when she's made it clear she's not comfortable hearing it/doesn't want to.

I think the point was that HE couldn't go back to pretending he didn't have these feelings and that meant that HE couldn't go back to acting like everything was fine between them.  It was IMO not so much of him pushing his feelings at Kara as it was him needing time away from their friendship to get to a place where he could again be just her friend.  Before he would have pretended or bottled up his feelings to make her feel immediately comfortable but now he needed the time to work through them.  I liked Winn so much more after he came to terms with his feelings AND that they were not going to be returned. 

I remember thinking by the end of the season that I liked Winn better than James.  Curious if I have that impression at the end of the rewatch.   

Edited September 6, 2016 by BkWurm1

[stealinghome]

Quote

I think the point was that HE couldn't go back to pretending he didn't have these feelings and that meant that HE couldn't go back to acting like everything was fine between them.  It was IMO not so much of him pushing his feelings at Kara as it was him needing time away from their friendship to get to a place where he could again be just her friend.  Before he would have pretended or bottled up his feelings to make her feel immediately comfortable but now he needed the time to work through them.  I liked Winn so much more after he came to terms with his feelings AND that they were not going to be returned. 

Oh, I agree that the point was that Winn couldn't unring the bell and go back to acting like everything was fine. I respect that he took time away from Kara to handle his feelings (it's one of the few mature adult things this show had its characters doing), though iirc he phrased it poorly at the end of the Toyman episode, because I recall thinking it sounded more like an ultimatum there, whereas that wasn't really how the show portrayed his attitude subsequently. I wish he'd said more explicitly "we're still friends but I need some time"--though then I suppose we wouldn't have had the "cliffhanger" of their relationship (yawn).

But where Winn irritated me was having to give his grand declaration of love to Kara before saying that things couldn't be the same. To me, that's where he needlessly put his own feelings on Kara. I mean, she's oblivious, but I'm pretty sure after he kissed her she figured out that Winn has a thing for her. Did he really have to make her feel 500x worse by dropping the l-word (that he didn't even really truly feel anyway)? Couldn't he just have said "I need some time but we're still friends"? Perhaps it's a bit hair-splitty, or perhaps it irritates me more than it usually would because it's Winn--or perhaps, as someone above said, the emotional beats the show tried to play in the whole quadrangle were all rushed and unearned, so I couldn't buy in--but imo that felt self-indulgent at the cost of Kara's feelings. Winn clearly needs a therapist, so hire one and say these things to someone who will not feel super bad about not returning your feelings!

[quarks]

I was anti-Kara/Winn until after he stopped having feelings for her, and then I was like, ok, now I can kinda see it/live with it. 

Kinda the direct opposite of what I think the show intended me to feel.

[Trini]

On 9/5/2016 at 10:34 PM, stealinghome said:

I do think around now is when it REALLY began to be obvious that Supergirl was burning through way too much plot way too quickly, and forcing in emotional beats that weren't earned/were premature because they were racing through plot. James' "I love you" and Max Lord knowing everything/locking him up are prime examples--12 episodes in is WAY too early for all that.

I also thought the romantic relationships/emotional beats were rushed; but I thought Kara did have good chemistry with Adam. I wouldn't mind him showing up again.

[Last Time Lord]

Just finished Season 1 on Netflix. Really wised Indigo was introduced sooner and replaced Astra as the big bad as soon as the latter was killed off. Indigo was fun, and Non was just so boring.

[alexvillage]

Watched two episodes just for fun, which did happen, but not sure if it is something I want to follow.

Huge peeve: timeline. She left her planet  when she was 13, but was trapped in some non-time zone for 24 years. When she landed on Earth, she was still 13. I get that part.

The peeve is that superman did arrive as an infant, became superman and met his cousin when HE was 24. His timeline is fine. But time has passes since then, let's say 10 years. Kara is 23, Superman is 34.

So they did not leave Krypton "24 years ago" as she says in the opening of the first episode. They left 34 years ago. Which is his age, in the present time. If she were telling the story from the time she landed, than it would have been 24 years ago.

[legaleagle53]

2 hours ago, alexvillage said:

Watched two episodes just for fun, which did happen, but not sure if it is something I want to follow.

Huge peeve: timeline. She left her planet  when she was 13, but was trapped in some non-time zone for 24 years. When she landed on Earth, she was still 13. I get that part.

The peeve is that superman did arrive as an infant, became superman and met his cousin when HE was 24. His timeline is fine. But time has passes since then, let's say 10 years. Kara is 23, Superman is 34.

So they did not leave Krypton "24 years ago" as she says in the opening of the first episode. They left 34 years ago. Which is his age, in the present time. If she were telling the story from the time she landed, than it would have been 24 years ago.

Here's the actual timeline:

1.  Kara and Kal actually leave Krypton at the same time (in fact, she leaves just a few minutes after he does) because the intent is for her to serve as his guardian until he is an adult.  She is 13 and he is about a year old at most.

2.   Kal heads directly to Earth as planned, but Kara gets waylaid in the Phantom Zone for 24 years due to an accident.  She does not age during that time, however, because time does not pass in the Phantom Zone the way it does on Earth.

3.  Kara finally lands on Earth 24 years after she left Krypton.  Because she did not age in the Phantom Zone, she is still biologically 13, even though she is now chronologically 37.  Kal, on the other hand, has been aging normally since arriving on Earth 24 years earlier, and is therefore both biologically and chronologically 25.

4.  After being raised by the Danverses in secret for 12 years, Kara's existence and her Kryptonian heritage are finally revealed to the world. Kara is now biologically 25 (since she began aging normally after her arrival on Earth) and chronologically 49.  Kal, meanwhile is now biologically and chronologically 37.  The same 12-year chronological age difference exists that existed before they left Krypton, that is, she is still 12 years older than he is chronologically.  Biologically, they are also about 12 years apart, but the age difference is reversed with him now being 12 years older than she is biologically.

Edited September 11, 2016 by legaleagle53

[alexvillage]

1 hour ago, legaleagle53 said:

Here's the actual timeline:

1.  Kara and Kal actually leave Krypton at the same time (in fact, she leaves just a few minutes after he did) because the intent is for her to serve as his guardian until he is an adult.  She is 12 and he is about a year old at most.

2.   Kal heads directly to Earth as planned, but Kara gets waylaid in the Phantom Zone for 24 years due to an accident.  She does not age during that time, however, because time does not pass in the Phantom Zone the way it does on Earth.

3.  Kara finally lands on Earth 24 years after she left Krypton.  Because she did not age in the Phantom Zone, she is still biologically 12, even though she is now chronologically 37.  Kal, on the other hand, has been aging normally since arriving on Earth 24 years earlier, and is therefore both biologically and chronologically 25.

4.  After being raised by the Danverses in secret for 12 years, Kara's existence and her Kryptonian heritage are finally revealed to the world. Kara is now biologically 24 (since she began aging normally after her arrival on Earth) and chronologically 49.  Kal, meanwhile is now biologically and chronologically 37.  The same 12-year chronological age difference exists that existed before they left Krypton, that is, she is still 12 years older than he is chronologically.  Biologically, they are also about 12-13 years apart, but the age difference is reversed with him now being 12-13 years older than she is biologically.

In the opening she says she was 13 when she left Krypton (and when she landed on Earth). 

I still think the writers could have done a better job with her opening monologue because she left Krypton 37 years ago, not 24. 

[stealinghome]

1x13 is another mixed episode for me, because while I think it's a pretty good episode as-is, I also think it's an episode that could have been MORE. First of all, the complete de-professionalization of Alex continues. Bringing James and Winn to the DEO (side note, "You don't know them like I do"--has Alex had more than two conversations with either Winn or James??) and flying off the handle at Max like that? C'mon, Alex loves her sister, but this just makes her look terrible. Second, Krypton wasn't nearly as interesting or alluring as it should have been. They wasted too much time having Kara remember Earth at the start, only to forget, only to remember again--I wish we'd just seen Kara's ideal life from the start and then seen reality creep in (also I wanted a better mental map of Kara's unconscious!). I think the show has been pretty consistent in showing that Kryptonians were as a rule more reserved than humans, but Kara's family still just didn't feel warm or comfortable or anything along those lines. Though I did like the detail that Alex's gun became a phaser in Kara's head. Third, J'onn-as-Kara should have been funnier than it was. Something about the subplot just didn't click. Fourth, I understand the RL reasons why, but Astra's death was still so damn premature. There was SO MUCH MORE STORY there to plumb, and Astra is infinitely more interesting than Non. Fifth, how was Jimmy going to stop a bunch of armed people from pulling Alex out from her VR-dream thing if they really wanted to?

On the flip side, this was a great showcase for Alex's love for Kara and their bond. Alex's confessional to holo-Alura was good, and Alex's big scene begging Kara to come back was actually better this time than the first time I watched the ep. The writing is still too overwrought and it goes on a tad too long, but Chyler Leigh's acting covered over a LOT of the writing's sins there. I also thought CL was really good when Alex went after James when she thought they all pulled her out, but her best scene was in Kara's apartment on the end, when she was holding onto the Astra's death secret. I also enjoyed Alex and Astra in the apartment talking about Kara--I so wish Astra had lived so we could have seen her become a gray character/frienemy. (Also, she and Alex had some FoeYay...just saying.) This time around, it struck me that they really needed an episode and a half, or even two episodes, to really effectively plumb all the ideas they shoved into this ep. I think BOTH the Black Mercy hallucination and Astra's death got shortchanged because of it.

Melissa Benoist just KILLED it when Kara came back from being under the Black Mercy's thrall.

"Kara's taking it hard"...so the next scene is Kara having a party at home and seeming totally unaffected by Astra's death and laughing with her friends? Bwuh? Who did quality control on this scripts? Also, does anyone NOT understand why Kara would be fantasizing about Krypton???? I don't really know why she felt the need to apologize/explain to her friends. Frankly, I would think Kara is a psychopath if her dream WASN'T of Krypton.

"But I am a professional. I do not do upset!" "But by all means, take the day off, because I canNOT stomach looking at you any longer!" And then I go off and hire Assistant #1. Yeah, Cat, you're not mad/hurt at all...mmmmmhm. Whatever helps you slep at night. I did cackle at "Remind them I am still holding onto their Hamilton tickets!" Now THAT is a big threat!

In retrospect, I kind of wish that the show had used Astra's death PLUS Kara losing Krypton all over again via the Black Mercy to really delve into Kara's psyche and show her really, truly at the end of her rope. I just don't feel that the show really did that. It's not a problem, per se, but perhaps a bit of a missed opportunity.

 

1x14--sadly, this episode is a bit of a dud with plodding pacing and a fundamentally unengaging storyline, though I did enjoy Kara crushing the phone, heh. Siobhan is not particularly interesting and James advocating for the release of Max Lord when he knows the dude's a killer/attempted killer is making me side-eye him. I totally understand what he's saying--but at the same time, there is a legitimate argument that Max Lord is way too dangerous to be allowed out. There is a moral event horizon and when you become a supervillain, you cross it, and the normal rules stop applying. Isn't the DEO culpable the next time Lord kills someone, causes mass property damage, etc, now? And in terms of their relationship, James lecturing Kara did NOT do him any favors as a character, nor did him demanding that Lucy be let in on Kara's Supergirl secret because he can't man up and break up with Lucy; it's like someone had to hold the Ass Ball, and it was Winn in the season's first half and then he passed it to James in the second half. For the main plot, the plot The Master Jailer storyline took too long to get where it was going (I think they let us in on his game too early), and there were also a couple of writing moments that could've been much better, Like, when Alex says "Prisoner 2445" and then the Master Jailer lands in front of the guy and says "Prisoner 2445"? They should've cut from "The next target will be" to the Master Jailer landing. Much more effective! This was just a weak episode, and poor midseason premiere/follow-up to 1x13. I think a lot of people agreed too--the ratings nosedove pretty quickly after this one.

As odd as it is, the standout scene in this one might have been Cat and James talking. I think I said this before, but I actually think they have an interesting relationship. Cat is a mentor, but in a very different way than she is to Kara; Cat and James are more senior and junior colleague than boss/employee, and come off as equals/peers. And it was nice to see them BOTH have moments of being unsure/rueful, since both are so often used to voice Certainty and Wisdom in different ways.

If Non apparently knows where Kara lives, why doesn't he just take her out at any time AFTER the 2 weeks of mourning?

The MJ was hitting Kara's mommy issues HARD. I hope next season continues to feature Kara's mixed feelings about Alura given everything she discovered in S1.

I do love that Alex's signature badass move has become rappelling in from above!

[BkWurm1]

Quote

And in terms of their relationship, James lecturing Kara did NOT do him any favors as a character, nor did him demanding that Lucy be let in on Kara's Supergirl secret because he can't man up and break up with Lucy;

Yeah, really didn't love that Jimmy is pressuring Kara to let him tell Lucy her secret identity.  Why does he have to tell Lucy about her alter ego to tell her that yes, he does help Supergirl?  She's not going to be happy anyway.  Why would knowing who Kara really is make it better?  Kara has no reason to want Lucy to know.  I mean, Lois has apparently refused to let Lucy in on Clark's secret (hey, if Jimmy knows Clark's secret, Lois does) why should Kara trust her? 

As the season goes on it just reminds me of how badly I want Lucy gone and how much I hate that she transitioned over to the DEO.  Her character just doesn't work on the show.  No matter what they do with her, I find her annoying.  Her presence on the show is forced with the triangle and absurd when she suddenly takes over the DEO.  The show is working way to hard to make her relevant only proving how very not relevant her character is. 

[GHScorpiosRule]

Okay, I am TOTALLY lost after rewatching and watching episodes I missed the first time around. All these years, I've read and seen that it was Jor-El who knew Krypton was dying and it was Zod who had committed treason and sentenced to the Phantom Zone. But apparently, in this show, Alura was the leader and her twin Astra the criminal? No mention of Jor-El or Zod?

Will the show just ignore this when Clark/Superman shows up this season? His house was the leader of their planet, not Kara's. Or was I misled or didn't get the memo all these years?????

Edited September 14, 2016 by GHScorpiosRule
Because Jor-El was Clark's father! Stupid autocorrect!

[Bruinsfan]

I like the job Melissa and Chyler are doing to sell the sisterly bond, and David is great in most of his scenes. But Mehcad is lukewarm to me and I cringe at every word out of Calista and Jeremy's mouths. (It does not help that Preppy Cisco is a stock character archetype that I'm sick to death of, the babblemouth nerd hacker.)

[MarkHB]

4 hours ago, GHScorpiosRule said:

Okay, I am TOTALLY lost after rewatching and watching episodes I missed the first time around. All these years, I've read and seen that it was Zor-El who knew Krypton was dying and it was Zod who had committed treason and sentenced to the Phantom Zone. But apparently, in this show, Alura was the leader and her twin Astra the criminal? No mention of Zor-El or Zod?

Will the show just ignore this when Clark/Superman shows up this season? His house was the leader of their planet, not Kara's. Or was I misled or didn't get the memo all these years?????

In the original Silver Age comics continuity, Kal's father Jor-El was the Cassandra crying that the planet was doomed; he was a member of the Science Council but not the sole authority.  I believe his brother Zor-El was instrumental in building whatever it was that preserved Argo City (which was ejected intact with an air bubble around it), but when Argo started turning to kryptonite he sent Kara to Earth.  I've never read the post-Crisis versions with "real" Kara (not the Matrix Supergirl) so I can't comment on those.  But the fact that Alura was shown to be a leader (judge, it seems) and Astra and her husband were eco-terrorists doesn't mean, at least to me, that Jor-El, Zor-El and Zod couldn't have had something like their familiar backstories; the show just focused on the female relationships instead.

[GHScorpiosRule]

D"OH! I meant JOR-EL in my original post. But Kara's backstory just implied it was HER house who knew about this and her mom who was sending criminals to their zone.

[BkWurm1]

17 hours ago, GHScorpiosRule said:

Okay, I am TOTALLY lost after rewatching and watching episodes I missed the first time around. All these years, I've read and seen that it was Jor-El who knew Krypton was dying and it was Zod who had committed treason and sentenced to the Phantom Zone. But apparently, in this show, Alura was the leader and her twin Astra the criminal? No mention of Jor-El or Zod?

Will the show just ignore this when Clark/Superman shows up this season? His house was the leader of their planet, not Kara's. Or was I misled or didn't get the memo all these years?????

Does it help that Non, Astra's husband is the same guy that Zod had as his grunting brute squad?  ;P

 

12 hours ago, GHScorpiosRule said:

D"OH! I meant JOR-EL in my original post. But Kara's backstory just implied it was HER house who knew about this and her mom who was sending criminals to their zone.

Technically, it's the same house.  The house of El.  Both Jor-El and Zor-El in this show sent their children to earth because they knew Krypton was going to be destroyed.  We know that Allura also knew that what Astra was saying was true, but it was her methods that she couldn't support, hence being sentenced to Ft Roz.  That the prison got stuck in the Phantom Zone was a side effect of Krypton's explosion, not the place that she was sentenced to.  Zod was sentenced directly to the Phantom Zone, so that's still a different story to be told.

12 hours ago, MarkHB said:

In the original Silver Age comics continuity, Kal's father Jor-El was the Cassandra crying that the planet was doomed; he was a member of the Science Council but not the sole authority.  I believe his brother Zor-El was instrumental in building whatever it was that preserved Argo City (which was ejected intact with an air bubble around it), but when Argo started turning to kryptonite he sent Kara to Earth.  I've never read the post-Crisis versions with "real" Kara (not the Matrix Supergirl) so I can't comment on those.  But the fact that Alura was shown to be a leader (judge, it seems) and Astra and her husband were eco-terrorists doesn't mean, at least to me, that Jor-El, Zor-El and Zod couldn't have had something like their familiar backstories; the show just focused on the female relationships instead.

Exactly.  Both can exist concurrently with a tweak here and there.  There's no reason to think all of Superman's history that we know of didn't also happen, it's just not important to the story we are currently being told.  Allura as a judge that puts criminals away in the Ft Roz (including her sister and brother in law) doesn't mean that Jor-El can't be some kind of prominent member of society that testified against Zod and his soldiers so that they are sent to the PZ. 

Also while Astra was trying to save the planet by extreme methods, wasn't Zod the one that really caused it's destruction?  So while it seems like a repeated storyline, there are key differences that allow both narratives to co-exist.  It's just that we have no need to also hear about Zod and Jor-El's battles. At least not right now. 

Edited September 15, 2016 by BkWurm1

[Perfect Xero]

I think that Superman the Movie made Jor El look like a government leader more than he was in the comics.

In either event, by the time Astra would have been fighting to save the planet Jor El would have been stripped on any real position and power because of his crackpot theories that Krypton was in danger and he's not the sort who is going to kill people to try to save more people.

Zod's motivation for his coup is usually shown to be much less benevolent than Astra's, he's simply making a grab for power and trying to set himself up as a dictator and it usually isn't tied into Jor El's predictions. He doesn't cause Krypton's destruction though.

Edited September 16, 2016 by Perfect Xero
Zod

[phoenics]

I'm only up to episode 13 For the Girl who Has Everything (not even through the episode, but pretty sure at how this will go - ETA: Aaaand I was right - her fight with Non was same as Superman and Mongul), but man this show just takes Superman canon and applies it directly to Kara.  The pilot, imo, was lackluster, clunky and rushed and I almost gave up on it.  Cat Grant was about the only thing that kept me watching - and even though the clunkiness has lessened, the plots are all very much Superman-reduxes.  Even the title "For the Girl who has everything" is a direct ripoff of an episode of Justice League where Superman gets smacked with the same weird plant-thing that attacked Kara.

Even Astra and Non's storyline was just a Zod redux.  Allura at least was kinda original, but I found myself upset that they didn't go with the whole Kandor backstory instead to keep Kara more original.

Max Lord is simply Lex Luthor - and specifically the Lex Luthor from Lois & Clark.  The thing where he tested Kara was directly from an episode of Lois and Clark. Even how he created "Bizarro" was just like Lex cloning Superman on Lois & Clark.

I'm sticking with it for now but this show feels like all of the A writers are on The Flash and all of the C & D writers are on Arrow and Supergirl.  And I no longer watch Arrow and always was ticked off that they ripped off Batman, but they did it SO much better than Supergirl is ripping off Superman.  At least they could have done GALATEA instead of Bizarro!  I mean - that should have been simple - it's like the show can't decide if it's gonna be a Superman clone or a show that "makes it on its own".  It clearly does the former and claims the latter.  I know many folks don't know all of Superman canon but even if you've just watched a few shows with Superman, you've seen this mixed bag.

The only reason I stuck it out was I really liked MB as Kara, CF as Cat and MB as Jimmy.  That Winn (?) guy gets on my last nerve with his NiceGuyTM stuff.  And his mannerisms are a bit off-putting if we're supposed to read him as not gay.  Although the way he moved in to kiss Kara a few eps back was slightly steamy - he grates on my nerves but I almost wished she didn't push him away.

I do like the J'on Jones stuff, and REALLY glad they cut back on the "feminism" being pushed so much it was like having anvils dropped on my head (and I'm all about girl power).  It just felt like the show had writers who didn't understand "feminism" or girl power or even how to write women.

FakeKaraJonJones vs Cat is hilarious though.

I do think the show is finding some kind of stride - although based on the few posts above me I worry the show might have fallen off a cliff?  Guess I'll find out.

Edited September 19, 2016 by phoenics

[phoenics]

Just finished the episode where Supergirl/Kara was affected by the Kryptonite and Melissa Benoist was fan-freakin-tastic.  She reminds me of a younger Blake Lively - she totally could have been Blake's younger sister - but she manages to play both scathingly hot temptress and arrogant B and the sweetest nice girl around.  And I loved her "new style" as RedKara - man that pink/green/black outfit - I totally need to find that for myself, lol.

She and Mehcad and Calista and the girl who plays Kara's sister are the main reasons I watch.  Oh and Hank/MM.  I also liked Lucy and the other Shavonne who got fired.

This show has grown on me - and I'm obsessed with the decor of Cat's office.  Just tried to mimic it in my office, but it's supposed to be a guestroom too, so I couldn't make the arrangement fit.  Bummer.

I'm kinda amazed at how this show has drawn me in - the red kryptonite episode had a lot of heart.  And now I'm excitedly awaiting the Barry crossover episode - I think it's the episode after this one?

[stealinghome]

1x15 was another relatively weak episode. It just dragged on and on—the pacing was soooo slow, they never really cultivated the proper sense of urgency/stakes, and Indigo just kind of irritates me. I find her quite annoying, but in a “get off my screen” kind of way, not in a way where I want to see her get beaten or anything. BUT the end scene when Alex confesses to Kara made up for the rest of the episode’s blahness. Maybe the best scene of the whole season. IT WAS SO GOOD. Kara/Alex/J’onn is so my platonic OT3. ALEX AND KARA JUST LOVE EACH OTHER SO MUCH. WITH THEIR GRUMPY SPACE DAD. Awwwww. I love how Alex was so emotional because she loves Kara so much, and Kara just couldn't walk away because she loves Alex too much. Heart.

Though before that, I forgot how AWKWARD it was that the show had Alex monologuing at length at J’onn about how they should just tell Kara the truth instead of…you know…just doing it. It's not like she really needed permission. I mean, I totally get what they were going for, but the repeated long monologues were painfully awkward. As with so many things in this show, right idea, poorly executed. That said, I DID absolutely feel for Kara and her inability to go back to the DEO. That was one of the show’s more authentic, earned emotional beats all season. If anything, I wish they’d had Kara be more overtly grieving Astra, especially in 1x14.

The makeup on Indigo was kind of terrible. The way she was femme fatale-ing Non was also a little OTT. Does anyone else wonder what, exactly, Non and Astra’s marriage looked like?

James trying to get Kara to tell Lucy her secret continued to be SO bad (and it pisses me off that Kara agreed for basically no good reason), and Lucy, girl, all episode I was screaming at you to get some self-respect and dump James, since he so clearly wasn’t into you. Glad she finally listened to me, lol. I usually think Melissa Benoist’s quite good, but her delivery of “I’m not alone…I’m with you” to James in the FoS was underwhelming. But even worse was Kara waxing lyrical about James and his awesomeness TO LUCY, which was cringeworthy—not because of MB’s acting, but the whole setup. Girl who knows she has a crush rhapsodizes over dude to his girlfriend? Who does that? It felt like something out of a preteen romance novel or something. I mean, that was painful. The writers really need to realize that romance is what they’re LEAST adept at, and adjust accordingly. PS, they’re still throwing the l word around way too casually when it comes to Kara and James.

The first scene’s music was so blah.

I missed a good chunk of the middle of the episode because my CW affiliate switched to some random program and then kept flipping through the same commercial cycle. This is not the first time they have had technical difficulties. I am NOT impressed. They better have this ironed out by the time the season starts.

Winn’s deus ex machina “oh, I happen to have an awful virus in my back pocket” was such lazy writing. Not even “glorified Windows Vista,” which made me laugh, could redeem the authorial laziness there.

If Kara can break the sound barrier, Kara really should not have a problem catching up to a nuke and punching some numbers into a keypad, right?

Also, are we supposed to care all that much that Indigo was the one who got Kara out of the Phantom Zone? They framed it like it was some big huge revelation or something, or it should make Kara rethink beating Indigo, and I was like…so what?

 

1x16, on the other hand, was one of the stronger eps, with snappier dialogue, and had the BEST intro all season, lol. We couldn’t have known this at the time, but it also did a really good job of setting up the rest of the season (and even next season) with J’onn revealing himself—which led to Jeremiah backstory—Siobhan’s firing, etc. I think it might have been the best ep of the season after the episode where Kara lost her powers, and I think it’s not a coincidence that both of those episodes shook up Kara’s status quo like whoa.

I loved that this episode gave Melissa Benoist a chance to do something outside of Kara’s norm and show her acting chops. She did a nice job of initially playing Red K Kara as Kara with anger issues dialed up, instead of making it so OTT that you thought the other characters were blinding for missing that there was something obviously wrong with Kara. Like, you could understand why initially, people were side-eyeing her, but also why people weren’t immediately like “okay, something is seriously wrong, get her to the DEO for tests.” Though I don’t love how one of this episode’s messages ended up being “sexually assertive woman=bad,” even if I’m sure that that wasn’t the writers’ intent.

Kara’s showdowns with Cat (on the balcony, pre-toss) and Alex were really, genuinely engrossing. Her showdown with Cat was electrifying and was so good at showing how dangerous Kara really could be if she wanted to be; it also had some good things to say about types of power and who wields them. But it was the confrontation with Alex that was the emotional heart of this one. On the heels of Kara and Alex’s reconciliation last episode, this episode did a great job of playing up the tension in the Kara/Alex relationship. Again I say, the Danvers sisters are SO compelling when the show delves into their issues, peels back the layers of their relationship, instead of making everything “I love you”/“no, I love you more” (even if that is, of course, an important part of their relationship). It's possible to love someone to pieces and still have a really complicated relationship with them.

I also like that the show didn’t gloss over that Kara has to live with the aftereffects of what happened, even if it wasn’t her fault (which is so a metaphor for other sorts of violations). Kara broke my heart when she woke up and was so distraught and apologizing to Alex. And Alex saying that they need to work on their issues? MY HEART. I like that Alex had the emotional maturity to acknowledge that not everything Kara said was off-base, and that they do have stuff to work on. On the other hand, I thought James came off as a tool when he told Kara they weren’t okay. Somehow, Alex did a much better job of making that same point--far more compassionate and caring. And the end scene, with Cat and Kara on the balcony, was really great. THAT is why Supergirl—and Kara—needs Cat. “I base-jumped Mount Kilimanjaro” also made me lol.

I thought there were a lot of really nice lighter character beats in this ep, too. Kara accidentally getting an eyeful of Winn and Siobhan was HILARIOUS! I actually wish they would do more with Kara’s powers on an everyday level. She must hear/see/smell ALL SORTS of things she doesn’t want to on a daily basis...how does she deal with that? And as opposed to Nice Guy Winn earlier this season, she was really chill about Winn hooking up with her mortal enemy. Kara and Alex talking about James also made me laugh. SUCH a sister moment. “Name one rebound relationship that worked.” “Kim and Kanye!” “…I am embarrassed you even know that.”

Senator Crane’s huge crush on “Hank” was hilarious, cute, and super creepy all at once.

Shallowly, that navy with pink and green dress was BEAUTIFUL on MB. Goodness, she rocked that outfit. (“Any Republicans?” “2 reformed.” “Excellent!” also made me cackle.)

I love how Cat’s little honeymoon period with Siobhan was officially over in this ep, and it was back to being clear that really the apple of her eye is Kara. Heh. Are we supposed to feel bad for Siobhan? ‘Cause I don’t really. If they wanted her to be sympathetic, they should have given her some redeeming qualities in any of the episodes leading up to now.

“No, Cat has nine lives, she’s fine”—I did laugh at that, but the Max Lord stuff was so clunky and so underplayed. Like, why was he there? The episode literally did not need him. He should have been SO glad it was Kara who stumbled on the Red K, not the already-murderous Non. But really, why was he in this episode?

I liked the music that played while Cat denounced Supergirl—it was quite stirring. Though I’m surprised Red K Kara didn’t go back and ACTUALLY throw her off a balcony after/for that.

Red K Kara dressing like Astra was scary, and obviously a way to mark Teh Evul, but also kind of sad. A nice, somewhat subtle way of showing that she's not over it.

[phoenics]

Finished the Season.  I will definitely be back next season.  I'm glad I gave the show a chance - but I am bummed we won't see as much of Cat.

[BkWurm1]

Yeah, Kara's Red K episode was really strong but did still have it's plot holes.  Why they weren't trying to take her down with GreenK first so they could shoot her with the antidote still confuses me.  Also not sure why J'onn couldn't have made it look like Kara snatched Hank up and few him off and then once out of sight he could have shifted and had the fight, fixed her and flown off only to pretend that Hank had been left on the top of some building (he's a 1000 year old alien, you would think he'd have had time to have thought through all kinds of scenarios)  I get why he turns himself in but it still bugs that he didn't try at all to be sneaky when he revealed himself. 

MB's crying when she wakes up and realized what she'd done was just a kick in the gut.

  I agree that James came off badly. I get it taking time for him to get past but Kara was waaaay more personal and brutal to Alex.  And she purposely terrorized Cat into thinking she was going to die.   Jimmy was dragged to a dance floor, told he was wanted repeatedly, had to listen to his ex get insulted and probably put up with less manhandling than most women do just walking across the dance floor of a club.   I just don't quite understand what was so personally offensive to him that he out of all them couldn't forgive? 

Somehow both times I've seen it, my first instinct was that he's ego was bruised and he was upset that he got treated like man candy, not that he was upset about the insults to Lucy.  Kind of came off like a pouting dick. 

[stealinghome]

I forgot how mostly really good 1x17 was, Lucy’s rather contrived involvement in the DEO investigation aside. I think this was the episode that made it clear they really didn’t know what to do with Lucy; the whole episode was so convoluted to shove her in—and how, if Alex passed the lie detector test, can Lucy just DECIDE that Alex is lying and cart her off???? That literally makes.no.sense.at.all. There MUST have been a deleted scene, right? RIGHT? Because that just makes less than no sense.

But all the flashbacks in this episode were EXCELLENT, and the episode in general was very tense. I’m glad the show waited until almost the end of the season to do all the flashbacks we saw here. Waiting made them much more poignant, now that we know where everyone ends up relationship-wise. And it was exactly the right moment in the season for a breather/emotionally-charged episode, one that reminds us that we care about these people in large measure because they care about each other. The Kara/Alex, Alex/J’onn, and Kara/Cat relationships in particular, I was just like d’awwwwwww, baby them! Now we know where they came from! It also confirmed for me that those 4 are the core of the show, and everyone else is window dressing. Kara and Winn's first meeting was fine but so superficial and rote--it added nothing--and I didn't miss James in the flashbacks at all.

What exactly did Hank save Alex from, some terrible hair? I love how on Supergirl, "being bad” is drinking a bit too much and clubbing, and needing your life saved is just needing someone to tell you to tone it down a bit, lololol. But I love Alex's diehard loyalty to J'onn. Chyler Leigh just goes all in on it. The only person Alex is more loyal to at this point is Kara.

“So there IS life on Mars” was TOTALLY begging for a Bowie one-liner. That scene was so SAD, when J’onn explained that he’s the last son of Mars to Jeremiah! And making Daddy Danvers the accidental killer of the real Hank Henshaw was a bold move, I liked it, it’s too bad they then “killed” Jeremiah. But as we all know, #DaddyDanversAin’tDead!

Poor Winn. I’m not saying he needs to figure out what it is about him that seems to attract homicidal crazies, but.... The poor guy’s gonna (rightfully) get a complex about how many people close to him become supervillains.

Cat’s crack about getting a damehood was priceless. Siobhan was beyond dumb. I do love that Cat knew that the email didn’t come from Kara without even bringing it up to Kara. That was a nice beat, because you're all prepared for Cat to accuse Kara, and then the show does a full 180.

While I do think that the show fundamentally has/had no clue what to do with Lucy, I found her MUCH more engaging once she teamed up with Kara. Part of it is the Benoist Effect, but I also think part of it is that Lucy finally got to seem like a real person instead of just popping up to be inconvenient for Kara. I think I've said this before, but it's too bad that the character is going away just when she became somewhat interesting. Lucy was stuck in the thankless role of "blocking object for Kara" both personally and professionally, which never does a character any favors; I actually kind of feel like 1x17 marked the start of her journey, not its end. Also, is it just me or do Kara and Lucy have like 200% more chemistry than Kara and James? They were making serious hearteyes at each other at the end of the ep. I was expecting one of them to bust out with "You're the wind beneath my wings."

I floved Vasquez coming through for Supergirl. All season, the Vasquez actress did quite a lot with very little actual material.

Kara and Alex’s goodbye was super emotional, but the effect is spoiled when you know Alex is back in like an episode. But still! Love that they continue to be the heart of the show.

*

1x18 was also quite strong, though a bit overstuffed; I wanted more Barry, less supervillain team-up, and while the whole "city rallies to protect Supergirl" thing was sweet, it also was a) uber-cheesy and b) just a little too much. In fact, can’t lie, I would have watched an entire episode of Barry and Kara being SUPER ADORBS together. We didn’t need a villain, or even really a plot. Just Kara and Barry wandering around town, chatting about their different earths, being adorable ("You're who now?" "The who now?" Sass master Kara in the house!). It’s too bad we can’t have him on permanent loan; Kara and Barry had better chemistry than Kara does with any of the other guy actors on the show. By a mile. Grant Gustin also has almost as much charisma as Melissa Benoist...just points out how boring Mehcad Brooks and Jeremy Jordan are. Also, Barry helped fill the void a bit, but this episode definitely missed Alex and J'onn.

The one-liners were on POINT this episode! I actually laughed out loud at “Last night I helped a family put its IKEA table together!” (part of it was Kara's exasperated delivery). But Cat was on fire: “Yes, I am making a parallel between this box of cupcakes and your nonexistent love life.” “The Lighthouse Technique…before you know it he’ll be docked at your port.” “I haven’t seen eyes that crazy since I had fondue with Ramona Singer.” “Strength in numbers? You should find Norma Rae and find out how it’s really done.” “Sounds like someone whose only superpower is jumping out of an alley in a trenchcoat.” “Boys, be gone. Girl, stay…. Lighthouse, keep it up.” “Tell Bernie Sanders I’m not interested in hot yoga.” Cat, don’t ever change. And come baaaaaaaack! (And confirm that you know Kara's Supergirl, because they couldn't have dropped more anvils in that last scene if they were actually a boat docking at a port.)

Winn became much more tolerable when Siobhan came around. I was kinda sorry to see her go for that reason, though Italia Ricci played a fun psycho. But it feels like Siobhan was a character they could have done more with...her arc felt rushed. Who designed the Silver Banshee costume, though? It was AWFUL. And does the DEO really just let people wander around to spy on prisoners being interrogated????

Speaking of Winn, he and James are actually oddly fun as bros. And Lucy and James have never been as likeable as this episode, when she delivered the postmortem on their relationship. I really enjoyed James being jealous of Barry...after he was such an ass where his love life was concerned this whole entire season, it's nice to see the shoe on the other foot.

The music really is SO BAD on this show.

This episode stalled out somewhat in terms of momentum for the end of the season, but it was so FUN that that can be forgiven. I honestly think that the show only really found its footing in the last quarter of the season--from the Red K episode on (actually from the last scene of 1x15 on), the quality just hiked dramatically relative to most of the first 15 episodes. Hopefully that continues into next season!

[MarkHB]

1 hour ago, stealinghome said:

Who designed the Silver Banshee costume, though? It was AWFUL.

I think the idea was that Siobhan saw the Banshee spirit in her dreams - they flashed by it in the early part of the episode, maybe the fortune teller sequence IIRC - and then tried to recreate it with makeup.  I remember thinking it looked awful in the promos, but forgave them when it turned out that it was supposed to look amateurish.

[Impish Dragon]

15 hours ago, stealinghome said:

*

1x18 was also quite strong, though a bit overstuffed; I wanted more Barry, less supervillain team-up, and while the whole "city rallies to protect Supergirl" thing was sweet, it also was a) uber-cheesy and b) just a little too much. In fact, can’t lie, I would have watched an entire episode of Barry and Kara being SUPER ADORBS together. We didn’t need a villain, or even really a plot. Just Kara and Barry wandering around town, chatting about their different earths, being adorable ("You're who now?" "The who now?" Sass master Kara in the house!). It’s too bad we can’t have him on permanent loan; Kara and Barry had better chemistry than Kara does with any of the other guy actors on the show. By a mile. Grant Gustin also has almost as much charisma as Melissa Benoist...just points out how boring Mehcad Brooks and Jeremy Jordan are. Also, Barry helped fill the void a bit, but this episode definitely missed Alex and J'onn.

 

I just rewatched this ep and even on second watch it really stands out how much more chemistry MB/Kara has with GG/Barry than with any other guy on the show.  I also think the opposite applies and GG/Barry has much better chemistry with MB/Kara than any love interest (including Iris) on his show. 

I am glad that Supergirl was able to get a second season.  For all it's faults, it's still a good show that really did pick up in the latter half.  I hope being on the CW doesn't screw it up.

[BkWurm1]

I was once again struck by how well they cast the young Alex and young Kara.  And the moment between little Kara and Jeremiah was sweetly done when him asking her to hide her powers could have been really heavy handed.  The "hey you're a little girl and that's all you need to be" is a lot better than "it's ok to just let people die" that we got in Man of Steel. 

That said yeah, there were some real clunkers in that episode.  The two that still stood out to me was first (of course) Lucy randomly deciding she was lying and having her carted away despite Alex passing the lie detector test (makes no sense) and second, J'onn "saving" Jeremiah from a deadly snake but showing one that even I recognized as a harmless pet. 

Here's a shot of perhaps the same snake with then 17 year old Bindi Irwin on Dancing with the Stars.  Quick J'onn, save her.

I've watched the Flash crossover four times now and I swear it gets cuter each time.  Even the blush inducing second hand embarrassment from the cheesy defeat of the bad guys by a crowd too dumb to run away and a fire hose gets easier to watch.  Makes me love Barry more than I do on his own show.  Pretty much the only reason I'm looking forward to the unwieldy 4 part crossover that is surely heading our way.  Even the kiss with James didn't seem as bad as I remembered it. 

[MarkHB]

I'll cut them some slack on the snake; it was big, it's scary-looking if you don't like snakes. I'm not going to expect the director to put them on a set with a black mamba or terciopelo for the sake of realism :)

[BkWurm1]

13 hours ago, MarkHB said:

I'll cut them some slack on the snake; it was big, it's scary-looking if you don't like snakes. I'm not going to expect the director to put them on a set with a black mamba or terciopelo for the sake of realism :)

What you say isn't that unreasonable, thing is, I don't consider myself anything close to a snake expert but the yellow white pattern really stands out and I swear I've seen that snake in a half dozen programs where people go out of the way to mention how gentle and harmless it is.  Just get a standard colored boa and I would have never thought twice.  This is why I shouldn't watch so much television.  ;)   

Edited October 3, 2016 by BkWurm1

[BkWurm1]

So Kelly, the office friend that we'd never met before she was about ready to jump off the balcony at Non's command, she was a red head.  Think that was the show runner's nod to the classic red shirt that dies? 

Edited October 4, 2016 by BkWurm1

[stealinghome]

I stand by my comment that Supergirl really hits its stride in the last quarter of the season—the upswing in quality was noticeable. The last two episodes still had their problems, but were also nonstop action and QUITE exhilarating. The character work done in 1x19 was excellent (anyone else want to bet that we would have seen Cat/Max VERY quickly in Season 2 had the show not moved and lost CF/PF?) and the different plot strands converging was very well done. The major problem with 1x19 was, of course, Hank and Alex’s boneheaded decision to let Alex come back with J’onn to National City. That irritates the hell of me simply because there were far easier ways to get Alex to National City that DIDN’T make her and J’onn look like total dumbasses. Have J’onn come back, drop Alex off with General Lane right outside the city limits, and then Non kidnaps her. FAR LESS DUMBASSERY.

But that aside, 1x19 was great, I think stronger than 1x20, actually. Kara/Max/Cat made for a surprisingly spark-y trio and Kara being torn between her Good and Bad Angels (see what I did there?) was highly compelling. Her and Cat’s talk on the balcony, when she talks about not repeating Alura’s mistakes, was definitely a highlight of the season. What a great showcase for Kara’s doubts and fears, but also strength of will. THAT is what makes her super.

Winn and James weren’t all that different from their normal selves as mindless drones…OH NO I DIDN’T. But really, this episode showed how absolutely superfluous those two are. Once Lucy went DEO, at least she had something to do as a DEO minion that we cared a little bit about. Winn and James are just window dressing about this show.

The crack about Harrison Ford cracked me up, but seriously, Cat being so oblivious to everyone’s drone-ing was the perfect comic touch in that moment. Well done, whoever wrote that episode.

 

 

1x20 was similarly quite good, but I think 1x19 was stronger overall. The pacing on this one was weird and I felt the Kara/Alex showdown probably should have been more of a thing, as it’s such an epic setup. Eliza randomly popping up to talk Alex down and beat Myriad with ~Love was, shall we say, contrived, and I thought the brief moment of normalcy/dropping Jeremiah’s non-death on Eliza (save it for S2!), and then the showdown with Non and Indigo before the REAL climax, just made the pacing a little funky. But the episode was still better than the majority of the season, even if it didn’t have the urgency/balls-to-the-wall action of the previous episode.

Kara’s goodbyes to everyone made me choke up, no lie. I think everyone who’s lost someone can relate to that feeling of wanting to make sure everything is said, and you let the people who matter know how much you love them. For me, the most emotional were J’onn and Alex. There was just something so poignant about the two last children of their planets sharing that moment of connection. And of course Kara and Alex are this show’s heart, by a country mile. Kara giving Alex her pendant=my feels working overtime. And then during their goodbye exchange? My allergies might have totally acted up. Sniff. Kara wanting Alex to get to have a normal life—feeling she deprived Alex of something by being her sister, when of course that’s not at ALL how ALEX sees it—tore my heart out. They really are each other’s Person. I kind of feel bad for whoever those two end up dating, simply because they’re always going to come second to the sisters. Floved Alex jury-rigging the pod to fly up to save Kara—as someone said earlier in the thread, such a nice inversion of the pilot.

Side note, every time J’onn talks about fathers and daughters, even if it’s with Lucy and Dumbass General Lane, I get a little weepy.

The sixsome of Max, J’onn, Cat, Kara, Alex, and Eliza at the start was oddly hilarious. Max and J’onn’s “A speech?” “Also about hope!” exchange with Cat and Alex’s offhand comments mixed in cracked me up, and Supergirl’s hope speech was just the right amount of cornball and heartfelt and gooey and feel-good and just utterly perfect for this show. Melissa Benoist delivered it pitch-perfectly, too. But I wish they hadn’t made Lord such a supervillain earlier in the season. He has/had potential as a frienemy and I really liked him in the last two episodes (his telling Kara she would probably die was a kindness, as weird as that is to say), but I can’t stop loathing him because of earlier this season, when they just made him so evil.

Hee, all the snarkiness about Gwenyth Paltrow, and “reject the latte.” I’m really going to miss Cat’s quips. There were some good comic moments in thus one to undercut the tension. “Fort Rozz? You just left it there?” actually made me guffaw. But really, NO ONE thought they’d be in there???

Cat promoting Kara was so sweet. Somewhat abrupt, but soooo sweet. Oh Cat, you love Kara/Supergirl, don’t deny it! Really edifying, and emotionally resonant. So good!

The song in the Kara/James kiss scene was so sappy, and WAY TOO LOUD. But I actually kind of liked them again in that scene. See, look, show, when you have them just be a normal, cute, friends-to-lovers, sweet couple, they have potential. I DO think if they backburner Kara/James for a bit, they can recover some of the spark if handled right. But they’d have to be handled very delicately.

It does crack me up that even the season finale ended on a cliffhanger. They sure did love their cliffhangers on this show!

 

 

Overall, I think my top 5 eps for the season were Kara loses her powers, Red K, 1x19/20 (I think of them as a package deal), 1x13, and the flashback episode. Honorable mention to Kara losing it at her mom’s hologram and J’onn’s backstory episode. Oh, and the Flash episode, though that seems like it shouldn’t quite count!

[BkWurm1]

I would like to just second everything you wrote.  :D 

I wonder if Berlanti's habit of basically doing multiple "finales" back to back actually dilutes the impact of the big endings.  He does it on his other shows and I know with Arrow by the last time the team had to go and stop the nukes and and save the world (three episodes in a row) I was kind of getting bored. 

[MarkHB]

On 10/3/2016 at 0:48 AM, BkWurm1 said:

What you say isn't that unreasonable, thing is, I don't consider myself anything close to a snake expert but the yellow white pattern really stands out and I swear I've seen that snake in a half dozen programs where people go out of the way to mention how gentle and harmless it is.  Just get a standard colored boa and I would have never thought twice.  This is why I shouldn't watch so much television.  ;)   

Incidentally, take a look at Ali Adler's Twitter profile pic...

[BkWurm1]

That's just too perfect, lol.  Yep such a scary snake.