Supergirl Season 3: Up, Up and Speculate Away!

[Kromm]

Speculation, but targeted specifically for Season 3. I recall that some show forums do this and then merge it back into the general spec topic when the season starts. So I hope this is okay in this forum, given that frequent precedent.

I'll go first.

Mon-El's portal trip takes him to the 31st Century. He comes back early in Season 3 very different. A lot more mature, with a costume, and lots of secrets. Foremost among them that he knows the future and can't talk about it.

Yes, he's been away with The Legion of Superheroes. Whether or not any of that is shown on-screen via Flashback, via some important cross-over episode later in the season, or not at all, is not something I've thought all the way through. They could do it any of those ways.

Edited July 26, 2017 by The Crazed Spruce
Added "no spoiler" tag

[LolaRuns]

I'm betting at the very least we'll get the Legion for the big crossover event. 

[StaceyNotStacie]

I just hope that the entire Supergirl cast gets to participate in the crossover. It seems like the crossovers start in the last few minutes of Supergirl and finish on the other shows. 

Also, if they do a Legends crossover, they need to work in a scene with Brandon Routh, Tyler and Dean Cain all in the same scene together. 

[stealinghome]

Quote

I just hope that the entire Supergirl cast gets to participate in the crossover. It seems like the crossovers start in the last few minutes of Supergirl and finish on the other shows. 

THIS. I'm hopeful that the crossovers will be true crossovers next season--I think Kreisberg said in some interview that the faux-crossovers on Supergirl this season were due in part to the logistics of moving the show from CBS to the CW. Now that they have the time to properly plan, here's hoping that the supporting cast really gets to participate.

[KirkB]

One issue I see with putting Kara and her show into the crossover mix is if you have a threat big enough to have Supergirl, Martian Manhunter, the Flash, and the super-powered members of the Legends being seriously threatened, people like the Green Arrow and Alex are likely to be left standing around with little to do. Or else ducking for cover.

That said, rather than a bunch of nameless Dominators who just exist to be punched into submission, I'd like to see somebody with personality and powers, maybe an interdimensional bounty hunter or something, who comes after Kara on her show, and drops his list when he leaves so Kara sees he's going after Barry, Oliver and the others.

And I'm willing to bet whatever was in that other ship from Krypton turns out to be Kara's version of Doomsday. They've already given her Bizarro and the Black Mercy, so why not the thing that nearly kills her?

Edited May 23, 2017 by KirkB
Punctuation is important.

[tofutan]

I read some interesting speculation about the new scheduling. Since it is supposed to be 

MONDAY
8-9 PM — Supergirl
9-10 PM — VALOR

TUESDAY
8-9 PM — The Flash
9-10 PM — DC’S Legends of Tomorrow

WEDNESDAY
8-9 PM — Riverdale (New Night)
9-10 PM — DYNASTY

THURSDAY
8-9 PM — Supernatural
9-10 PM — Arrow (New Night)

That would mean that the crossover would skip Wednesday. So one person on youtube was speculating that rather than having the action go Supergirl -> Flash -> Legends and then you have an awkward break and the big finale is on Arrow, they might do Arrow (teaser) -> Supergirl -> Flash -> Legends. 

[legaleagle53]

21 hours ago, tofutan said:

I read some interesting speculation about the new scheduling. Since it is supposed to be 

MONDAY
8-9 PM — Supergirl
9-10 PM — VALOR

Hold it -- "Valor"?  That's what Mon-El calls himself in the comics, at least following the 1986 reboot of the DC Universe.  Is he getting a spin-off?

[stealinghome]

I wish! No, Valor is a military drama (description here). It'll be interesting to see how the show does on the CW; apparently the network head has been bullish on getting a military drama for a while, but it just seems like such an odd fit on a network that has invested so heavily in genre programming and straight-up soap. I mean, I'm sure that Valor will be soap packaged as a military drama, but that's just not the kind of thing the CW is really known for.

Edited May 26, 2017 by stealinghome

[JapMo]

I'd like to see Kara/Supergirl totally changed when the new season comes.  A more bitter, angry Supergirl and tougher Kara, who won't take any crap from anyone.  At Catco Kara is quickly moving up the ranks with powerful investigative pieces that are winning awards and Snapper's admiration.  As Supergirl she kicks ass first and asks questions later.  She acts like she's fine with Mon-El being gone and tells Alex rather early in the season that she's already moved on, and to prove it she starts going out on dates.  Lena's friendship with Kara is kaput, as Kara will not forgive Lena for making the invention that forced Mon-El off the planet.  But as Supergirl Kara has to keep her personal feelings out of it.  So when Lena finds out they are one and the same, she feels humiliated, especially when she finds out Lillian already knew.  Because of that Lena feels she can trust no one.  That is until Winn tries to keep her from going bad, and in the process a kooky romance develops.  As far as Mon-El, I hope they show what's going on with him while they are apart.  If he's not coming back 100% until mid-season, then I hope at the end of each show we see 5 minutes of what's going on with him.  And then when they are ready to bring him back, he can't wait to see Kara and rushes to her apartment, only to find her in the arms of another guy.  So of course they have to find a way back to each other.

[Jacks-Son]

On 5/26/2017 at 6:01 PM, JapMo said:

I'd like to see Kara/Supergirl totally changed when the new season comes.  A more bitter, angry Supergirl and tougher Kara, who won't take any crap from anyone.  At Catco Kara is quickly moving up the ranks with powerful investigative pieces that are winning awards and Snapper's admiration.  As Supergirl she kicks ass first and asks questions later.

Sounds like a bleak picture to me. Anyway, there will be some changes. The CW announced today, that Maggie (Floriana Lima) will no longer be a regular and will appear in only a few episodes. Same with Cat. (Calista Flockhart) So, the sisters will be without their S.O's.  This makes me question why they had Alex propose to Maggie in the first place. It can't be homophobia by the advertisers, as most CW shows have an LGBT character. They sort put out a press release that Lima is signing onto bigger projects.

[tofutan]

I think the idea that the CW as a network is homophobic is pretty ridiculous, especially considering they seemed to be superproud to show off their new female/female (Life Sentence) and male/male (Dallas) kiss/sex scenes during the upfronts. Not to mention the looooooooooooooooooooooong loooooooooooooooooong list of out gay actors currently working for the CW. Whatever it is, I'm pretty sure homophobia on part of the CW has nothing to do with it. In fact, judging by those upfronts, they seem to be quite eager for more LGBT content. 

It's probably just short sightedness that they didn't nail her down for a longer commitment. Or maybe she's another person who doesn't appreciate the long commute. 

[Featherhat]

16 hours ago, Jacks-Son said:

Sounds like a bleak picture to me. Anyway, there will be some changes. The CW announced today, that Maggie (Floriana Lima) will no longer be a regular and will appear in only a few episodes. Same with Cat. (Calista Flockhart) So, the sisters will be without their S.O's.  This makes me question why they had Alex propose to Maggie in the first place. It can't be homophobia by the advertisers, as most CW shows have an LGBT character. They sort put out a press release that Lima is signing onto bigger projects.

How many couples that propose on TV actually make it down the aisle, at least the firs time? How many of those that do end up stable for more than 1 season? Even if they knew they were going to break up in ep 2 (no spoilers or spec just an example) they might well have had Alex propose for the drama of it.

I can't get a real read on Lima's contract, she seems to say that it was only ever for one year, other sources claim 3 years. But even if it was more than one year if she asked to be let out of her regular contract to pursue other roles, she's a relatively minor character to let go, especially if they can keep the relationship going with a planned out arc (not actually holding my breath).

I predict Mon-El will be back on the show in some capacity within 1-3 episodes and definitely back on Earth way before mid season. I don't think Kara will change over much, although she be angry for a couple of eps over what happened in the finale. Last season we were promised Kara finding out who Kara Danvers really was and that was a complete bust and as Supergirl she was more of the same with less Alex and J'onn and more continual "Mentoring" of ME

[BooBear]

1 hour ago, Featherhat said:

I can't get a real read on Lima's contract, she seems to say that it was only ever for one year, other sources claim 3 years. But even if it was more than one year if she asked to be let out of her regular contract to pursue other roles, she's a relatively minor character to let go, especially if they can keep the relationship going with a planned out arc (not actually holding my breath).

Lima is really hot right now, she is also on Lethal Weapon, so I don't begrudge them letting her go.  She should just get like a big opportunity in Washington and only be back from time to time. 

[Jacks-Son]

13 hours ago, tofutan said:

I think the idea that the CW as a network is homophobic is pretty ridiculous, especially considering they seemed to be superproud to show off their new female/female (Life Sentence) and male/male (Dallas) kiss/sex scenes during the upfronts. Not to mention the looooooooooooooooooooooong loooooooooooooooooong list of out gay actors currently working for the CW. Whatever it is, I'm pretty sure homophobia on part of the CW has nothing to do with it. In fact, judging by those upfronts, they seem to be quite eager for more LGBT content. 

I hope this comment was to simply backup what I had already said. I said it CAN'T be homophobia by the network or the advertisers because The CW has many characters in their shows that are LGBT.  Additionally, I mentioned that Lima was looking at bigger projects.

[tofutan]

I was just confirming/underlining your POV. Whatever the backstory is, it's definitely not due the CW having problems with LGBT content or actors (it's just something I've heard people speculate about in other context, like real person shippers putting out conspiracy theories about actors being gay and being forced by the network to stay in the closet and I just really disagree with it). I'm sure there might be creators who work for the CW who might make questionable choices (I think Riverdale used a girl on girl kiss for promotion with no intention of ever following up on it) but I'm fairly confident that whatever they do isn't because the CW mandates it. The CW seems to be cool with LGBT content that shows suggest and even comes across like they are actively seeking it out. 

Edited May 28, 2017 by tofutan

[secnarf]

Taking the statement at face value, I don't think Floriana Lima's role reduction to recurring has anything to do with homophobia by the network, if it really was her choice.

I am, however, concerned about how the show will handle this. I have noticed with the 'bury your gays' trope that whenever a gay character is killed off, the show seems to think that their case is special and so the death is justified/unrelated to the character's sexuality. More often than not, I disagree. In this case in particular, there are a number of ways of dealing with this situation that do not involve killing off Maggie.

[Jacks-Son]

1 hour ago, tofutan said:

I was just confirming/underlining your POV. Whatever the backstory is, it's definitely not due the CW having problems with LGBT content or actors

Cool, we agree. However, I am just as curious as @secnarf with how the show will handle this in the future. Didn't Alex and Maggie just exchange ILY's on the show.  It seems odd that this exchange is followed by Maggie's reduced role. I too hope that they do not kill off Maggie and I would hope that those fans who are sensitive to LGBT issues with regard to deaths, not revive that silly notion that they were killed off because they were LGBT. This is the same sort of silliness that is uttered whenever a minority (usually African-American) dies in a show. I'm straight AND Hispanic/African-American and I think that people who constantly see these incidents as race-related are just too sensitive. Not to imply that such cases do not exist.

[Oreo2234]

I don't think if they killed Maggie off it would be because she is gay but I think it would be an unwise decision because she could easily be written off many other ways and it wouldn't seem to fit the tone and message of he story they have been telling. 

Edited May 29, 2017 by Oreo2234

[stealinghome]

Yeah, I don't think it would be because Maggie is gay, but that also doesn't mean that would make the writers somehow exempt from the BYG trope, as @secnarf points out. Way too many showrunners kill a gay character and then are like "but REALLY, it doesn't contribute to the trope," and that's bull. To quote B99, cool motive, still BYG.

If I had to bet right now, I'd guess they'll write Maggie off at the end of this season, but it will be in an open-ended way that would allow them to bring her back if they wanted. Like a transfer to Gotham or something.

[Trini]

How soon do we think Mon-El will be back? I'm guessing mid-season. Maybe the crossover? How would they solve the problem of him being allergic to Earth, though.

[tofutan]

Most people seem to think that they will just tech-tech it that the Legion ring will make him immune. I was watching a lot of those comic book speculation videos and youtube and I was quite surprised that a lot of them talked about how they wanted to at least see some updates (like maybe along the lines of how we saw mysterious cuts towards Mon-El's parents before the showed up? Rather than us having no idea where he is the entire time and suddenly *wham* Legion). 

I'm also curious whether they'll just write it as Team Super accepting that he's gone without investigating. Like it's one thing that he can never return to earth and lead a normal life again. But one would think that if he's leaving in a ship he would go ... somewhere. So they put him on a ship and never check where he's going? It would be one thing if they like had him walk through a portal and nobody knows where that leads to. But a ship in space you can track. Like will we get a scene like "we were tracking Mon-El's ship and suddenly it vanished without a trace" or "Alex programmed it to go to place X, but he never arrived there". 

Edited May 29, 2017 by tofutan

[Artsda]

55 minutes ago, Trini said:

How soon do we think Mon-El will be back? I'm guessing mid-season. Maybe the crossover? How would they solve the problem of him being allergic to Earth, though.

He is a series regular, so I'm thinking pretty soon unless he's not contracted to be in all the episodes per season.

[tofutan]

The crossover is supposed to be pretty early in the season, right? I would expect him to at least be revealed around cross over time. 

[MarkHB]

So far as Floriana's departure goes, I don't think they need to kill Maggie off at all.  We went all of Season 1 without once seeing Alex's apartment, after all, and personally I have zero interest in the show sidetracking into a bunch of wedding-prep hijinks.  Allude to Maggie as needed (we didn't see many cops in S1 either), have her appear when she's available, call it good.

Actually, now that I think of it, I think it would fit the characters to elope to Vegas and skip all the wedding crazy.  Or maybe they'll do the wedding in Kara's loft during the Thanksgiving episode when Helen and Dean are likely to be on-set anyway.

[legaleagle53]

2 hours ago, Trini said:

How soon do we think Mon-El will be back? I'm guessing mid-season. Maybe the crossover? How would they solve the problem of him being allergic to Earth, though.

Mon-El isn't allergic to Earth itself. He's allergic to the lead particles that were released into Earth's atmosphere in order to stop Queen Rhea and the Daxamite invasion. And if the storyline follows the comics,

Spoiler

a cure for his lead poisoning will be discovered after he encounters the Legion of Super-Heroes in the 30th/31st Century.  Moreover the cure will actually make him more powerful than Supergirl, since one of its side effects is that it allows him to retain his powers even on worlds that do not have a yellow sun.

Edited May 29, 2017 by legaleagle53

[StarBrand]

I'd like it if S3 featured a slightly bitter, angry Kara. Much was made of her simmering anger in Season 1-I thought "Falling" was one of the best episodes of S1, because when Kara got under the influence of Red Kryptonite, her id ran loose-she let out every single insecurity, resentment, and acted out on almost everybody-James, J'honn, even tearing Alex to shreads, and that left it's mark for a while. If Kara acts anywhere close to that-without Red Krypto-that would be scary to watch...

[Lady Calypso]

I think that many shows do go for the death route when it comes to getting rid of characters, most likely because they believe it's good storytelling. Personally, I think it's not only an easy route to go for writers to not put that much effort in telling a story, but it's also a cop-out way to get rid of characters for good (well, until they want the actor/actress back and then have to come up with some implausible reason for them to not be dead). Which is why I appreciate more when shows write characters off in a more uncommon way (aka, anything but death). 

So, despite them having Maggie/Alex declare that they are thinking long-term of their future, there are ways to have Maggie makes less appearances without killing her off once her episode contract for the season is up. I assume that Maggie won't accept the proposal, only because she might say that it's too fast. Or, maybe the show will have them get engaged, and then show them in more fights throughout the season before they decide to call the engagement off. It could go either way. I am not sure if they'd want to marry them off in season 3.

I don't think they'll kill Maggie off either. It would be nice if they had Alex/Maggie elope during the crossover or they can have a three-fer wedding with the other main couples on Arrow and The Flash, but I highly doubt that'll happen. Plus, I'm not sure if they want to have Alex settle down right away with the first girl she started dating less than a year ago. They may want to give her another love interest so they might just have Maggie get another job somewhere else, in order to break them up. I like Alex/Maggie, but I also wouldn't mind seeing Alex dating a little bit more. 

[tofutan]

I don't think that they will go for death for a variety of other reasons. As others have said, there are definitely other options, such as Alex and Maggie being happy on the backburner (the way it's on Arrow with Diggle or Legends with Stein). They could break up and Maggie could move to a different city, leaving Alex to date other people for a while. They could even have a separation that isn't necessarily a beak up (job offer in another city and long distance relationships, witness protection program). 

[Jacks-Son]

We should acknowledge that there is a big difference between the "Supergirl" TV show on CBS and the one on The CW.  The two networks do have a different perspective on how the series should flow. CBS focused more on domestic and intergalactic challenges for Kara without too much interpersonal drama. The CW tends to focus more on interpersonal drama with a dollop of intergalactic challenges and a dash of domestic incidents. Other superhero shows on The CW also have a lot of personal drama between the characters. The "Flash" focused it's entire season on saving Iris West, Barry Allen's love interest. On "Arrow", every single character was undergoing some personal crisis with their S.O.'s.  "Legends" had their own mix of issues not strictly related to the arc of the season.

Now, I'm not saying that the way CBS handled their version of "Supergirl" was any better or worse than the version on The CW.  Viewers have their own preference.

[nightwing877]

5 hours ago, Jacks-Son said:

We should acknowledge that there is a big difference between the "Supergirl" TV show on CBS and the one on The CW.  The two networks do have a different perspective on how the series should flow. CBS focused more on domestic and intergalactic challenges for Kara without too much interpersonal drama. The CW tends to focus more on interpersonal drama with a dollop of intergalactic challenges and a dash of domestic incidents. Other superhero shows on The CW also have a lot of personal drama between the characters. The "Flash" focused it's entire season on saving Iris West, Barry Allen's love interest. On "Arrow", every single character was undergoing some personal crisis with their S.O.'s.  "Legends" had their own mix of issues not strictly related to the arc of the season.

Now, I'm not saying that the way CBS handled their version of "Supergirl" was any better or worse than the version on The CW.  Viewers have their own preference.

I am maybe the only person who actually loved season 1 and CBS's version, so many online knock me back and think I am crazy. I am not saying they were fantastic, but CW's season 2 has so many more problems than what CBS did. 

I have to admit CW's DC shows all follow the same pattern. I am so over the over crowded teams and base of operations. What I liked about season 1 of SG, is Kara had a sense of identity away from the DEO/Superhero, and Catco served a purpose, if they want to dump Catco fine, but I really liked seeing Kara balance a normal working life with her superhero/DEO life. Something lacking on Arrow and Flash, since they barely touch on this subject with Oliver and Barry in depth. 

Here is hoping Black Lightning won't follow the same pattern and have a base of operations and a team of 3 or 4 and a hacker. I won't invest in this new show if it is a carbon copy of the others. 

[Jacks-Son]

1 hour ago, nightwing877 said:

Here is hoping Black Lightning won't follow the same pattern and have a base of operations and a team of 3 or 4 and a hacker. I won't invest in this new show if it is a carbon copy of the others.

It's going to be weird seeing Cress Williams as Black Lightning. Especially without that silly hat he always wore on "Hart of Dixie".  I hope the show can survive and prosper. I'll give it a good look. Speaking of carbon copies, FOX will air a new series in the Fall called, "The Gifted". It's in the mold of the latest trend of shows, mentally  powered people. It does offer a new vehicle for one of my favorite stars, Amy Acker (Root "Person of Interest", Winifred Burkle "Angel").  

[stealinghome]

1 hour ago, nightwing877 said:

I am maybe the only person who actually loved season 1 and CBS's version, so many online knock me back and think I am crazy. I am not saying they were fantastic, but CW's season 2 has so many more problems than what CBS did.

I think the best way to describe S1 and S2 relative to each other is that S2 improved on a lot of the things that S1 did poorly, but S2 also broke a lot of the things that S1 did perfectly. S1 was rougher but had more heart and a MUCH better journey for Kara; S2 was more polished but imo there wasn't nearly as much "there" there. The best comment I read about the seasons--I can't remember where it was now--was that it felt like in S1, the writers knew what they wanted to do but didn't know how to do it, whereas in S2 the writers had learned how to do things but didn't know what they wanted to do. I think that's really true. Another way of saying this is that generally, S1 got better as it went along, and the last quarter of the season was quite strong. S2, otoh, was strong at the start but really foundered down the stretch, with 2A significantly stronger than 2B.

I think what we have to hope for in S3 is that the show course-corrects and finds a middle ground, integrating the strengths of both S1 and S2. Sadly, I don't think that's going to happen. I said it before this season started and I'm saying it again now: increasingly I see this show going the OUAT route, where it has a great premise, generally charming characters and relationships, and fantastic actors, but such bad writing that what could have been a truly quality show becomes...distinctly less than it could have been.

Edited May 30, 2017 by stealinghome

[nightwing877]

34 minutes ago, stealinghome said:

I think the best way to describe S1 and S2 relative to each other is that S2 improved on a lot of the things that S1 did poorly, but S2 also broke a lot of the things that S1 did perfectly. S1 was rougher but had more heart and a MUCH better journey for Kara; S2 was more polished but imo there wasn't nearly as much "there" there. The best comment I read about the seasons--I can't remember where it was now--was that it felt like in S1, the writers knew what they wanted to do but didn't know how to do it, whereas in S2 the writers had learned how to do things but didn't know what they wanted to do. I think that's really true. Another way of saying this is that generally, S1 got better as it went along, and the last quarter of the season was quite strong. S2, otoh, was strong at the start but really foundered down the stretch, with 2A significantly stronger than 2B.

I think what we have to hope for in S3 is that the show course-corrects and finds a middle ground, integrating the strengths of both S1 and S2. Sadly, I don't think that's going to happen. I said it before this season started and I'm saying it again now: increasingly I see this show going the OUAT route, where it has a great premise, generally charming characters and relationships, and fantastic actors, but such bad writing that what could have been a truly quality show becomes...distinctly less than it could have been.

Yeah S1 got really good as it got going, when I did a re-watch of the entire season last year on blu ray before s2 started. I loved the season as a whole and the journey. Now I am excited to see how I feel about season 2 when I rewatch it through. 

Yeah I have hope it will get better. But I just hope it won't turn the way of OUAT. Sometimes I wonder how much influence CW has truly with some of the direction and writing. It is why I am really excited for the Titans series on this DC online streaming service. If a 13-episode run might work well, since it is still by the crew that does the CW shows, but how different will it be on a streaming service vs. CW. 

59 minutes ago, Jacks-Son said:

It's going to be weird seeing Cress Williams as Black Lightning. Especially without that silly hat he always wore on "Hart of Dixie".  I hope the show can survive and prosper. I'll give it a good look. Speaking of carbon copies, FOX will air a new series in the Fall called, "The Gifted". It's in the mold of the latest trend of shows, mentally  powered people. It does offer a new vehicle for one of my favorite stars, Amy Acker (Root "Person of Interest", Winifred Burkle "Angel").  

Having seen Cress Williams playing a murderer on Prison Break years ago, playing someone's dad on Veronica Mars and what I heard about Hart of Dixie. Seeing him as Black Lightning will be middle ground for him. 

The Gifted just reminds me of the failed show No Ordinary Family which had super powered people and a family. I love Amy Acker, but how long can this show last before it gets old and the stories start to get dull. 

[stealinghome]

The Gifted has the advantage of being set in the X-men universe, though, which opens up a number of storytelling possibilities and could really add to its longevity. Obviously the quality of the show itself will ultimately determine its fate, but somewhat like Supergirl, I expect it to open to solid numbers (or solid numbers for Fox-sans-Empire, at least!); people will tune in for at least the pilot to see how good it is. Much like Supergirl, too, putting it up against DWTS and The Voice gives it a tough road to hoe, but the hope is obviously that it will be good counter-programming.

It will be interesting to watch Supergirl and The Gifted back-to-back, since the tone of The Gifted seems like it will be much more serious and adult than Supergirl's. It's like the DCEU and MCU have switched tones for their TV properties!

[Jacks-Son]

1 hour ago, nightwing877 said:

The Gifted just reminds me of the failed show No Ordinary Family which had super powered people and a family. I love Amy Acker, but how long can this show last before it gets old and the stories start to get dull. 

Hey, I liked "No Ordinary Family".  It starred another fan favorite of mine, Julie Benz (Darla "Buffy, the Vampire Slayer", "Angel"). Too bad they ended it after the first season; on a cliffhanger too.

You're right, though, these types of shows either grow old fast or are not given enough time to work out the kinks. (I'm thinking of you, FOX)

 

1 hour ago, stealinghome said:

The Gifted has the advantage of being set in the X-men universe, though, which opens up a number of storytelling possibilities and could really add to its longevity. Obviously the quality of the show itself will ultimately determine its fate, but somewhat like Supergirl, I expect it to open to solid numbers (or solid numbers for Fox-sans-Empire, at least!); people will tune in for at least the pilot to see how good it is. Much like Supergirl, too, putting it up against DWTS and The Voice gives it a tough road to hoe, but the hope is obviously that it will be good counter-programming.

It will be interesting to watch Supergirl and The Gifted back-to-back, since the tone of The Gifted seems like it will be much more serious and adult than Supergirl's. It's like the DCEU and MCU have switched tones for their TV properties!

I didn't realize that "The Gifted" is set in the X-Men Universe; isn't "Legion" also set in the X-Men Universe?

Okay, now I'm confused about your comment of "SG" & "The Gifted" airing back-to-back. That's means you're changing channels from The CW to FOX and you're somehow skipping FOX's best show in a couple of years, "Lucifer".  :-(

[Starfish35]

I just found out Sharon Leal was in a pilot for CBS that didn't get picked up.  I guess that's probably why they wrote her out for awhile.  So maybe we'll see more of M'gann this next season?  

Re:  Sanvers future - I'm going to put my bets on them breaking up.  I'm pretty confident they won't kill Maggie off, but I could see them breaking up and Alex dating other people for awhile. 

Re: Mon-El - I think @Kromm's guess about him being sent to the future is highly likely.  These shows like to take shortcuts, and that's a good one - it ticks the comic canon box, and gives them a fully formed superhero without having to spend another season on his development.  

As far as my personal wishes, I think I'm in a small minority here (possibly of one), but I wish they'd drop CatCo and the journalism angle altogether.  CatCo really only worked with Cat there IMO, and while I'm all for giving Kara a life outside the costume, I'm so tired of cringing over their clumsy hamhanded efforts to make Kara a reporter.  These guys don't do journalism well.  They haven't with Iris on Flash and the less said about Susan on Arrow the better (ugh).  I'm over it.  I don't care if she's a barista - I'm just sick of the journalism angle.  But I know they're not going to drop it so.....*sigh*

We probably won't be see much of Snapper next season though, since Ian Gomez's pilot did get picked up.  That probably means yet another new mentor for Kara.

Edited May 30, 2017 by Starfish35

[GHScorpiosRule]

I don't know. Based on what I've seen so far, Kreisberg The Hack, likes to just steal lift Superman plots* and just make up stuff and not follow comic cannon** for the characters. And being brought down to recurring doesn't rally mean anything to me, since we saw regular cast members such as David Harewood and Mechad Brooks get the shaft. Even as a regular, was Lima in every episode?

Just keep her in the background and bring her out when needed.

*See season one.

**See how Kreisberg FUCKED UP AND OVER Barry Allen?Yeah, I'm still pissed and bitter.

[Starfish35]

Quote

Just keep her in the background and bring her out when needed.

They could do that, absolutely.  But since AK made such a point about FL looking for other opportunities, I'll bet she gets written out.  *shrug* Guess we'll see.

Edited May 30, 2017 by Starfish35

[tofutan]

I dunno, considering how many seasons OUAT got, I think there's definitely worse examples to look up to. I guess I just think that if a show runs for a while, going soapy is a fairly normal direction for it to take. 

I could maybe see how one might argue that OUAT might have worked better and been more interesting as a mini series, but Supergirl? They are based on comics so it's basically wired into their DNA that they should go on forever and have ridiculous and over the top plots. Especially if you look at Supergirl as being a female companion to all these male superhero shows like Arrow or Smallville (which I think one should, it's pretty insulting if all those male superhero shoes go on forever and go soapy, but no, the female superhero show can only be a more limited run). I personally never watched OUAT, but I think it's a fairly big compliment to the show that it went on for that long while being centered around an (action-y) female hero. 

If anything I think the mistake was right in season 1 when they decided against going the Smallville route and started Kara off with all of her powers and already a clear picture of where she wanted to be superhero-wise. I can sort of see where people think that okay, she is already mostly formed as a superhero, she can have all her progression in her civilian job. But as others have pointed out, the DC superhero shoes have never actually been good at that part of the story and I think it's fairly natural that there are many casual viewers out there to whom civilian job is always gonna be less interesting than the superhero angle of it. 

I guess I think it's fairly natural that when a show starts everything is shiny and new and with endless space for people to project themselves into and hopes to put into the show and the longer a show goes down the more hokey it gets and the more of those "directions it could have gone into" get cut off. Particularly how Supergirl went "wide" as in giving characters like Alex or Winn or even James with Guardian their own stories makes a lot of sense to me, since that is a lot easier to write for, especially for a show you intend to ideally be around for many seasons. It just broadens the scope of stories they can write. 

I'm definitely very interested in where Black Lightning goes, because with the superhero being older and having a family it's bound to be different. At least I hope that that means that they won't be able to just do the standard CW love triangle or even if they do, the vibe is gonna be very different. But I also worry it might just be an experiment and not last long (then again there's plenty of shows like The Game that went on a lot longer than everybody expected,, so maybe there's hope). 

Edited May 31, 2017 by tofutan

[Xander]

I think Maggie will be written out. I think Mon-El will be back in Episode 1. He might not be back on Earth but we'll probably see him because as mentioned, he's a series regular. 

[KirkB]

I didn't even realize Maggie WAS a regular this season. She wasn't really in that many episodes. So even if she is around and she and Alex are still together her being just recurring shouldn't make that much of a difference.

I imagine we will SEE Mon-El in the season premiere, even if he doesn't return to Earth for a few episodes.

[Lazlo]

2 hours ago, KirkB said:

I didn't even realize Maggie WAS a regular this season. She wasn't really in that many episodes. So even if she is around and she and Alex are still together her being just recurring shouldn't make that much of a difference.

I imagine we will SEE Mon-El in the season premiere, even if he doesn't return to Earth for a few episodes.

I also had no idea she was a regular.

I'm a big fan of Parks and Recreation and that show had one of the main cast marry a character played by Lucy Lawless, who clearly wasn't going to show up every week so I think Alex and Maggie marrying with only every so often appearances by Lima could work. Just have Alex mention Maggie a few times in episodes when she isn't physically around.

[Xander]

Maggie was in 18 episodes and I think that's more than James was in. But as Alex's girlfriend, she generally didn't contribute much to the 'A' plot which is why many people didn't realize that she was a regular. Moving on to something else isn't the worst move for her career. 

[VCRTracking]

Seeing Diana and Steve Trevor in the WONDER WOMAN movie I realized the main reason I didn't like the Kara/Mon-El  relationship was Mon El was the one frustrating and driving Kara crazy. That's wrong. Any romance with Kara, it should be the other way around.

Edited June 7, 2017 by VCRTracking

[stealinghome]

Just now, VCRTracking said:

Seeing Diana and Steve Trevor in the WONDER WOMAN movie I realized the main reason I didn't like the Kara/Mon-El  relationship was Mon El was the one frustrating and driving Kara crazy. That's wrong. Any romance with Kara, it should be the other way around.

Oh man, so much this. Seeing Wonder Woman really underlined to me how crappy Kara/Mon-El is. Steve Trevor is everything Mon-El should be and isn't. In fact, WW in general highlighted a lot of this show's flaws wrt Kara. Let's hope the writers take note for S3, but I'm not holding my breath.

[LolaRuns]

See one of the central similarities I saw that maybe Wonderwoman shows that when it comes to pairing up super powerful women like Wonder Woman and Supergirl the way to go is to mix humor with pathos and to have the love interest have his own involvement in the fights. 

Not to mention, just because a certain dynamic works for a few hours in a movie doesn't mean that it wouldn't get annoying if stretched out over a season. In the end it's a question of who is out point of view character on the long run. 

Edited June 8, 2017 by LolaRuns

[tofutan]

On 7.6.2017 at 5:26 PM, VCRTracking said:

Seeing Diana and Steve Trevor in the WONDER WOMAN movie I realized the main reason I didn't like the Kara/Mon-El  relationship was Mon El was the one frustrating and driving Kara crazy. That's wrong. Any romance with Kara, it should be the other way around.

Kara being frustrated makes her a subject. People being frustrated with Kara makes her the object (of their frustration). Particularly in the Steve Trevor way, where he's the one providing the outsider, normal person perspective and is awed by strange, mysterious Wonder Woman and her ways. Because it suggests that Wonder Woman is still considered not to be inherently relate-able as a character and the audience has to approach her from afar and be brought close to her, through the point of view of normal, straight, white dude. It suggests that that is the audience the movie is considering and who has to be brought closer to Wonder Woman, he takes the journey of starting to like her as a representative of the audience, from the outside point of view. 

Spoiler

And he dies at the end because he has fulfilled his role of bringing the audience closer to Diana and making the audience fall in love with her, telling the audience how they should feel about her in case anybody is still unsure. This arc doesn't make as much sense on a tv show where we should be relating to the main character anyway and even if a journey like this was required that was already achieved in season 1. 

Arguably the episodes where Kara is annoyed with Mon-El and tries to teach him the earth ways or is upset that he's a Daxamite were much stronger and meatier in Kara characterization because it also showed us new things about Kara. 

[VCRTracking]

2 hours ago, tofutan said:

Kara being frustrated makes her a subject. People being frustrated with Kara makes her the object (of their frustration). Particularly in the Steve Trevor way, where he's the one providing the outsider, normal person perspective and is awed by strange, mysterious Wonder Woman and her ways. Because it suggests that Wonder Woman is still considered not to be inherently relate-able as a character and the audience has to approach her from afar and be brought close to her, through the point of view of normal, straight, white dude. It suggests that that is the audience the movie is considering and who has to be brought closer to Wonder Woman, he takes the journey of starting to like her as a representative of the audience, from the outside point of view. 

I can understand that , but I think the Wonder Woman movie avoids it by showing her as a child in the beginning and watching her grow up. She may be an Amazon in this strange society but she's relatable as a little girl who is forbidden to do things by her overprotective mother and being read stories before she goes to bed. Then Trevor shows up on the island. We see Trevor's outsider's perspective on Diana and Themyscira and when they go to London  but it never stops being her story. When they go to the front we see the war for the first time through her eyes.  In the 1978 Superman movie they show Superman growing up as Clark Kent Then when he appears as Superman in Metropolis you see him more from Lois' POV.

2 hours ago, tofutan said:

Arguably the episodes where Kara is annoyed with Mon-El and tries to teach him the earth ways or is upset that he's a Daxamite were much stronger and meatier in Kara characterization because it also showed us new things about Kara.

That she could put up with a lot? Seriously you are right. I didn't care for the romance but I liked Kara was  with someone who didn't get an inferiority complex being with her. I think the fans who rabidly hated Mon El couldn't clearly see that it was destined to end. Each episode of the arc was like one step closer to their tragic parting of ways. This is why I don't like shipping because you become irrational about these things.

Edited June 9, 2017 by VCRTracking

[tofutan]

I agree that the movie found a way to do it, but it still shows that it felt that just showing it from her POV wasn't considered enough. The movie felt you still needed a normal person/white guy perspective to explain to people how to feel. That's why Steve is a perfect introduction type character. If he was actually a regular love interest, like on a tv show where he shows up each episode, I'm sure their dynamic would have to be tweaked quite a bit.  So to me it seems a lot of the people who go on about how much they like Diana/Steve in comparison just seem to overlap a lot with the people who really don't want any love interest at all (since to me Steve again clearly is an example of a character who doesn't actually fit permanently into Wonder Woman's life). Which okay, everybody can have their preferences. But don't claim you are genuinely comparing two relationships, when one had clearly extremely different preconditions (like being in 2,5 hour movie versus being a tv show regular and ending as soon as it started). 

Frustrated Kara had her address her feelings about not getting to mentor Clark, it gave us a really cool sister scene where Alex talked about how in her childhood she tried to get Kara to like and do everything Alex liked before she learned to step back (which told us tons of things about what Alex and Kara liked as teenagers), imo hearing about the Daxamite/Krypton conflict was interesting and it would have been interesting to see it fleshed out even more.  Kara frustrated leading to Kara exploring why she is frustrated and changing that is absolutely a sensible character arc. Even in the Jeremiah episode, it set up how emotionally tied Kara is Jeremiah when she's willing to have such a big blind spot and it set up her grief over him betraying everybody. We also had the opposite, Mon-El awed by all the crazy amazing things Kara can do or being upset with her. To me the ones where Kara is doing the reacting felt more personal where Kara is concerned. 

Edited June 11, 2017 by tofutan

[VCRTracking]

All good points. I was just talking about the romance. I think Kara should be frustrated and react to other things.

The big complaints over on the Flash board is that the show is too centered on Barry. Yes, he's the star but it seems that all the other characters(particularly the West family) solely revolve around Barry. With Supergirl it's the opposite. All the other characters are leading their own lives, Alex, J'onn, Jimmy, Winn and even when she's in a relationship, it's Mon-El's arc. Fans complain that Kara seems like a supporting character in her own show.   I think it all had to do with each shows' main villain. All 3 main villains the Flash had so far, were obsessed with Barry for different reasons. The threat from them dominated his personal life because not only he was in danger but his loved ones as well. Oliver Queen had main villains with a personal vendetta against him too but they were 2 out of 5 seasons. So far Kara's main villains had their own agenda(Non and Rhea wanted to take over the Earth, Lillian wanted to get rid of all aliens on it). They had personal connections to her, sure but ultimately she was just an obstacle to their plans.

Edited June 12, 2017 by VCRTracking