"Supergirl" Season Three Talkback (Spoilers)

[The Penguin]

Supergirl: Homecoming! Tonight at 8 p.m. ET on The CW.

"Midvale"
Monday, November 13, 2017 @ 8 p.m. ET/7 CT on The CW
Kara and Alex head home to Midvale for a little R&R.

 

[hobbyfan]

Backdoor pilot for a spinoff, anyone?

No, seriously. The adventures of Alex & Kara as juveniles has potential----if you turn it into an animated series.

Otherwise, this has a few predictable tropes. The sheriff is a little dirty 'cause he needs the extra cheddar. Jock has a drug problem that otherwise could kick him off the team. We meet what would've been Kara's 1st crush, only he gets whacked after nearly kissing Kara. J'onn gets in a cameo.

And, in the wake of last week's Flash, Kara goes the entire episode out of costume. Nice.

Anyone not get the Smallville link? Chloe (Sullivan) was Clark's confidante on that show for much of the run.

 

[Fone Bone]

Supergirl "Midvale"

This is the second amazing episode of the season. What is significant about that to me is that season 2 contained zero amazing episodes. And we're on Season 3, episode 6 right now. To say I have high hopes for the rest of the season is an understatement.

I hate television. Usually. But one of the things I love about modern television is that whenever they cast a kid to play a younger version of the character, they always make sure the kid looks and acts exactly like the older actor. TV didn't used to bother to do that. But Kara's younger actress is SO close to Melissa Benoist and Alex's kid is even closer, and I thought maybe it was Chyler Leigh de-aged using CGI. But no, they got a kid so close to her it's eerie.

The Erica Durance thing made no sense until it was revealed at the end of the scene that it was J'onn the whole time.

Shout-outs for both Chloe and the Wall of Weird. "What does that even mean?" Tell me about it. I could listen to people bash how dumb Smallville was all day.

I love that Kara is a bad driver. That makes me happy for some reason.

I think my favorite thing in the episode was Kara pulling out of the kiss with Kenny. I fell in love with the character all over again. Her performance is so subtle, but most girls who would have pulled out of that kiss would have made Kenny feel less-than. "I like you as a friend but that's it." It would be an outright rejection for most girls pulling out of kiss. But Kara is so amazing that she kind of subtly makes it seem like the kiss is just a bad idea in general and not personally, and then validates that Kenny is her closest friend. She's saying that even if she isn't into it, Kenny was not overstepping his bounds, and that she still really likes him. And I see why she did that. Because at the end of the episode it's revealed she DID like Kenny that way too, and just pulled out of the kiss due to panic, and would have kissed him if she got a do-over. I wish more people panicked like Kara seems to. That is one put together kid.

What a fabulous episode. *****.

 

[Road to Gotham]

1st episode I like this season.
The Actresses playing teen Alex and Kara were spot on to their grown ups.
Great Casting by the casting department.

 

[The Penguin]

"Wake Up"
Monday, November 20, 2017 @ 8 p.m. ET/7 CT on The CW
When Winn and the team discover an alien ship has crash landed deep underwater beneath National City, Kara/Supergirl is called in to investigate.

 

[hobbyfan]

1. Mon-El is back. Seems the black hole took him to the 31st century. You know what that means.

2. Imra (Saturn Girl) was a blonde in the books. She's dark haired here so she's not to be confused with Kara? Excuse me?

3. Samantha becomes Reign, and discovers the truth about her origins. Oh, boy.

I wonder how they'll pull a cheat with the crossover like they did last season?

 

[Fone Bone]

Supergirl "Wake Up"

Hate the Reign stuff. But we'll get to that.

I knew exactly what was going on with Mon-El the entire time, just because The Legion Of Super Heroes and time travel explained all of his weird behavior. What I don't understand is why Kara doesn't. Yeah, she doesn't know anything about the comic or cartoon Legion. But she does know Mon-El pretty well. How is she shocked after all he did and risked to protect that specific pod that Imra was actually his wife? I don't know much about the comics, or if he and Saturn Girl being married there is a thing, but even if it isn't, it's pretty clear he is no longer Kara's, and hasn't been since they've been reunited. She says he's been "distant". That is an understatement.

What I like about Winn deciding to help him is what I like about Winn in general. He puts an insane amount of trust in people he simply likes. He is a man of pure faith. Ironically, this has usually not burned him too badly. He's either been very lucky or is secretly a great judge of character. I think it's most likely the former.

When J'onn starts talking about brown water I am immediately transported back to the best era of David Letterman: Campaign 2000. Holy CRAP was that a couple of amazing years in late night television. Nothing has come close since. During the heart surgery era, he had an on-screen logo and songs describing his new prescribed diet: "Decaffeinated Coffee! It's what they're drinking in Hell!" and "Decaffeinated Coffee! It's muddy warm brown water!" Hearing coffee being called brown water tickles me so.

Couple of thoughts about Papa Martian: First, he is temporary. He's gonna get killed sooner rather than later, simply because DC would never tolerate there being TWO last Martians. It took them decades to allow Supergirl to actually survive in any continuity, they ain't gonna do it for a character that I'm pretty sure is mostly central to this show only. The second thing is that I have the same concern about him that Winn does. He still thinks he's a slave. He can turn Hank's observation around that Hank is a slave to his work, but he actually stopped pooping and peeing for three weeks and four days, and only was able to do it again so long as Winn gave him permission ahead of time. I see exactly why Winn is so distressed, especially since Papa Martian has taken on an African human form. That's got to be extra jarring. I'm not even sure if Winn completely understands exactly what level of disturbing that actually is, but good for him in at least being able to instantly recognize it was messed up in the first place.

And finally we get to the part of the episode I dislike: Reign. The Arrowverse has an incredibly disturbing trend of introducing characters as likable heroes who were villains in the comics, and then slowly turning them evil so that the audience is equally as devastated by the eventual betrayal as Supergirl and Flash are going to be. I want to know exactly what possessed them to do that. I want to someday ask Berlanti to his face to name a SINGLE superhero TV franchise that was better for doing that specific thing. And if he brings up Smallville, I'll point out that Smallville's Lex is one of the worst interpretations of the character ever. Granted, with Jessie Eisenberg and Kevin Spacey out there, there aren't a ton of great live-action Lexes, but Smallville is NOT the show to be going to for pointers in doing the superhero origin.

Am I the only one intrigued to learn that Luthorcorp still exists 400 years in the future?

What purpose did it serve making Reign a single mother who I sympathized with? She apparently no longer loves or remembers her love for her daughter, so what good did that serve anybody? This specific trope is one of those overused tropes like mind control and love triangles, that are overused simply because every other show has used them, and the new show thinks that must mean they are good and popular ideas. They aren't. They all suck. The audience hates all three tropes, and every show is worse off for them. So I do not get why every show keeps going back to them. What is especially frustrating about "good guy turning into bad guy" thing is that this specific trope only seems to effect DC Superhero shows. It's not like mind control or love triangles and endemic to genre and all television, respectively. It's like DC is constantly ripping off the absolute worst part of itself. I would like to state for the record, this is stupid. It is bad storytelling. I do not enjoy it. At all. I do not enjoy characters I like turning evil and betraying their friends. It adds nothing to the show, and simply makes everything worse and makes everybody, including the viewer, feel bad. And I feel mind control and love triangles got the foothold they did in genre because nobody ever complained before. This DC trend seems to still be in the early stages, and hasn't effected all genre yet. I just want to state my displeasure at it for the record this early on.

Everything but the Reign stuff was good. But I'm knocking a star and a half off for Reign. ***1/2.

 

[Otaku-sempai]

Well, Fone, the erasing of Samantha's memories and personality might not be as thorough or as permanent as it is supposed to be. This might be set up as the key to defeating her (which itself might be seen as predictable and derivative, but if it's well-written, I could forgive that).

I don't particularly care for Kevin Spacey's Luthor but, to be fair, he is no worse than the version played by Gene Hackman.

I think you should give Kara more of a break; she did not realize that Mon-El had had so much time to put their relationship behind him and move on. Seven years vs. seven months is pretty significant.

 

[hobbyfan]

Ok, I missed the part about Imra being married to Mon-El. Sorry, but in the comics, as memory serves me, Saturn Girl (Imra) was, IIRC, wed not to Mon-El, but to Lightning Lad. Another epic screw-up due to lack of appropriate research by the writers.

 

[Otaku-sempai]

Ok, I missed the part about Imra being married to Mon-El. Sorry, but in the comics, as memory serves me, Saturn Girl (Imra) was, IIRC, wed not to Mon-El, but to Lightning Lad. Another epic screw-up due to lack of appropriate research by the writers.

Screw-up or intentional change? Not that it couldn't be both.

 

[hobbyfan]

Right now, hard to tell, IMPO.

 

[The Penguin]

It begins on Supergirl! Tonight at 8 p.m. ET (followed by an all-new Arrow).

"Crisis on Earth-X, Part 1"
Monday, November 27, 2017 @ 8 p.m. ET/7 CT on The CW
Barry and Iris’s wedding brings the gang together, but things go awry when villains from Earth-X attack the ceremony.

 

[hobbyfan]

Earth-X, as any comics fan worth his salt knows, would birth the Freedom Fighters (i.e. Phantom Lady, The Ray, The Human Bomb, etc.). Not sure if the end game of this 4-parter leads to that here, but it'd be nice.

Points to ponder:

Alex rebounds with.....Sara?! Should we be surprised? Naaah.

Cheap shot at Marvel with Martin explaining to Jefferson how he'd gain Spider-Man's powers with a serum. Indirect reference to Miles Morales.

Only Sara, Mick, Jefferson, & Martin represent the Legends? At least for now......

And Mon-El gets left behind. I guess Kara's still steamed that he "left" her for Imra.......

 

[Otaku-sempai]

Earth-X, as any comics fan worth his salt knows, would birth the Freedom Fighters (i.e. Phantom Lady, The Ray, The Human Bomb, etc.). Not sure if the end game of this 4-parter leads to that here, but it'd be nice.

Perhaps you missed the bit of news that...

Spoiler

...this crossover ties into the animated series The Ray and the Freedom Fighters soon to appear on CW Seed.

 

[hobbyfan]

So I did. Thanks.

 

[Otaku-sempai]

So, easter eggs: Does anyone else think that the girl with the sparkling water was Barry and Iris' daughter Dawn Allen from the future?

 

[Fone Bone]

Supergirl "Crisis On Earth X: Part 1"

I don't think there could possibly be an iller wedding omen than upon the priest asking if there would be any objections, him getting vaporized.

Rory stole the episode in my mind. He usually does, but this was multiplied by like a factor of ten. I have to wonder what on Earth was going through Captain Singh's mind. He knows who he is, and he knows he's a wanted criminal. And yet, everybody is treating him as a normal wedding guest. He can't just get up and arrest him. Can he?

I love that he sleeps through the ceremony (loudly snoring) and states he's a guest of the bride because he's tried to kill the groom twice. And he asks Caitlin if he ever tried to kidnap her because she looks familiar from that specific scenario. It's that kind of wedding.

Here's a question: Why is Singh on the Bride Guests side of the room? Didn't fit.

I groaned at Alex and Sara hooking up. How hard did you work at THAT pairing, Berlanti? The only two lesbians in the episode. Have I mentioned before that I hate television? This is why.

I liked the next day scene with Sara, Alex, and Kara though. Because Sara does not seem to understand what a huge deal it is for Alex, and assumes it's just a wedding hook-up to talk about casually. Sara is only the second woman Alex has ever slept with, and the first she wasn't in love with. Alex is still quite confused by her sexuality. Sara is being way more open about what just happened than what she is comfortable with.

LOL at Felicity rejecting Oliver's marriage proposal. I will concede he was being a bit of a noodge, but there is something quite endearing in "I cannot think of anything else I want to talk about right now." The desperation makes it cute.

Great first parter. If this turns out to be Victor Garber's exit from Legends, he's have chosen to go out on a high note. *****.

 

[hobbyfan]

I get that the whole Alex-Sara thing was predictable, but it's the pushing of the LGBT agenda that has people on Yahoo! hating on Supergirl. I think the commentators there know Berlanti himself is gay, and those who don't know have been told by others.

No one's commented on Kara's rendition of "Running Home To You". Brilliantly done.

 

[Fone Bone]

I get that the whole Alex-Sara thing was predictable, but it's the pushing of the LGBT agenda that has people on Yahoo! hating on Supergirl. I think the commentators there know Berlanti himself is gay, and those who don't know have been told by others.
.

I don't think acknowledging gay people exist and that they struggle with it is pushing an agenda.

 

[hobbyfan]

It's the perception people have that they are pushing an agenda. Like you, I don't see anything wrong with it, as this is just a case of how Hollywood is acknowledging how society has moved forward in recent times. There are too many people with hard hearts who don't want it included with genre shows like Supergirl, but in the 21st century, that's what we have, and that's how it is.