The long-awaited series premiere of Supergirl airs tonight (October 26) at 8:30PM ET/PT on CBS. As a longtime fan of Super-things on television, I’m quite excited to have something to look forward to every week.
Melissa Benoist plays the title role of Kara Danvers, the young woman the world will get to know as Supergirl, cousin of Superman. I thought Melissa was one of the best additions to Glee in its later years, and she puts forth a likability that is inherent to playing a Kryptonian. She also does the dorky “Clark Kent” thing pretty well in her scenes at CatCo, and I love that her character has such enthusiasm after saving the lives of people in a plane.
The show comes from Executive Producers Greg Berlanti, Andrew Kreisberg, Allison Adler, and Sarah Schechter, and unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve surely loved some other TV projects these people have worked on. Directing the Supergirl pilot is Glen Winter, who got his start directing another superhero (and at some points, even another Supergirl) for Smallville.
Chances are some of you have already seen the pilot through illegal means… we did watch it legally, and here’s what we thought.
The Good:
- First off, let’s get the “Devil Wears Prada/Black Widow SNL parody” jokes out of the way. So Kara has issues with her boss, and there are men who get her attention. It’s kind of sexist to reduce Supergirl to those tropes when Clark Kent in the classic and beloved Superman movies was the exact same way, trying to impress his boss Perry White and getting all goofy nervous around Lois. The only thing different here is gender. If it’s okay for Clark Kent, it’s okay for his cousin. Next!
I love seeing former Superman Dean Cain and Supergirl Helen Slater in roles, and I really hope to see them again.- I really enjoy that Kara is a character that young girls, especially, can look up to. It feels like it’s been a while since there was a good, strong heroine on TV who was not overly sexualized. But here she is: Just as good as her cousin, with a cooler looking “S” at that!
- Yes, I love the costume designed by Colleen Atwood. When recently watching the Superman Lives: What Happened? documentary I saw that she had almost designed a Superman costume for that movie. While she didn’t then, I’m glad she gets to design an “S” now… and the emblem looks perfect.
- Though “it stands for hope” was one of my favorite moments in Man of Steel, I’m glad the “S” is referred to as the symbol of the House of El here. Really, I was just a giddy geek hearing the words “House of El” on TV.
- Calista Flockhart as Cat Grant surprised me. Not that she’s ever lacked in talent, but I worried that such a familiar face playing Cat would distract. But, no. She was great, and her scenes with Melissa are priceless.
- Jeremy Jordan as Winn Schott is likable and I’m going to be sad if he becomes a Toyman someday.
- Kara’s sister on Earth, Alex, has a “L-E-X” in her name. I’m taking this as a hint, even if the producers deny it. Also, more Chyler Leigh please, because I like her performance a lot.
- Hank Henshaw! Uh-oh! Authoritative performance by David Harewood.
Props for casting diversity when getting Jimmy — err, James Olsen. I’m also really curious about his history with Superman.- Did I already mention that Kara’s excitement is infectious? Well, I am again.
- The plane rescue scene is VERY impressive.
- I loved seeing Kara trying out new costumes, which reminded me of a similar sequence I loved in the Lois & Clark pilot.
- In many cases, Supergirl looks more like a movie than a TV show.
- Even though earlier cuts didn’t use it, we do indeed hear the name “Superman” in the pilot…. not just “the big guy” or nicknames like that.
- Yes, flights! Yes, tights!
The… meh:
- Like I said: I’m going to be really upset if Winn ends up becoming a bad guy.
- There’s a moment in the pilot intended to shock the viewer in the ways that the Moira Queen and Harrison Wells tags did for Arrow or Flash, but I just left it confused.
- Owain Yeoman is a great actor, and Vartox is a great character, but I feel like we didn’t really get to see him develop in this pilot.
It will still take some getting used to for me that Supergirl turns the clock back on some innovations that Smallville put through. Specifically, heat vision again looks like laser vision, and X-ray vision is more see-through vision again. I assumed we moved past that with Smallville, but I respect and understand that this is a different show and going more with what is traditionally known for the characters.- No Flash or Arrow crossovers. Sure, being in the same universe when those shows haven’t mentioned Superman might be problematic, but that might be cool.
- I’ve still got to warm up to Melissa Benoist’s voiceovers. To be fair, Stephen Amell’s early voiceovers aren’t much fun to hear now that Arrow has evolved, but Grant Gustin had it down perfectly from the Flash pilot, and people like Kristen Bell or her soundalike Rose McIver have done so well with it. Here, it really felt like there were times where it sounded like she was just reading off of cue cards, without much emotion to it, and at times it felt like she was speeding up to get everything said in an allotted amount of time. Hopefully this will improve with time.
- The last fly-to-the-screen shot with “I’m Supergirl” looks and sounds awkward. Really wish they had reshot it.
- I’ve got to wait another week for Episode Two?!?!?!!
All in all, despite a few things that I’m “wait and see” on as you saw above, I’m very curious about Supergirl and can’t wait to see more. As it stands, it’s a “must see” show, and I am sure it will bring some greatness to the TV landscape.
So, yes, Supergirl flies. And I am totally confident that with this creative team and this cast, Supergirl will also soar.
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