Supergirl, Season 1, Episode 8: Hostile Takeover
So finally we reach the mid-season finale. We have Supergirl facing off against both her past and nominal Big Bad of the season, Astra, while Kara has to deal with someone hacking Cat Grant's emails. Which... compared to all the bullshit slice-of-life tropey girl-show plot is actually not a disagreeable choice. We even get some espionage moments from the Kara/James/Winnslow trio and a bit of a resolution to the friendzone love triangle dilemma that doesn't involve unnecessary drama.
The Cat Grant email bit is a fair bit more appealing than most, if not all, of the CatCo scenes that they did this season. Which is a shame because, well, the villain turned out to be a gigantic douchebag called "walking personification of white male privilege". Holy fuck, show. Just what.
We get a couple of decent, if uninteresting, series of fun-ish scenes with the CatCo trio, and by the end of this Cat Grant deduces that Kara is Supergirl. Because anyone in Cat Grant's position with half a brain would've figured it out, especially after her truly obvious slip near the end of this episode. Cat's pretty cool in this episode, with some pretty awesome lines that make the groan-worthy extended screentime in CatCo almost worth it.
We also discover that among Cat's many mysterious emails is sending funds to a certain Adam Foster... who, it appears, is adapted from Cat's comic-canon son, Adam Morgan/Grant. I thought it was weird that they changed the name when Cat's kid showed up in episode 4, but hey. Adam Grant is well known for... being a rich bratty twat. That's the extent of his characterization before the original Toyman (Winslow Schott Sr.) kidnaps and ends up killing him, a story during that period when DC Comics is trying to be edgy and shit and Toyman goes from a toy-gimmick villain who doesn't hurt children to... a creepy child-serial-killer using toys. Yeah. Not the best move there. And hopefully this show's Winslow can avoid that.
Winslow is still boring, by the way, being passive-aggressive at James, who is also boring. The two make up at the end and James tells Winslow to grow some balls and ask Supergirl out. Lucy does... stuff.
We get another cliched "oh no, main villain wanted to be caught" plot, though it's honestly not the worst thing about Astra. Also apparently Astra has developed technology to shield herself from Kryptonite, rendering the whole weakness thing moot. I am honestly confused why J'onn was so flustered over Astra having a Kryptonite dagger when they clearly have enough Kryptonite to power up Kara's training room.
Speaking of training room, let's talk about the action scenes in this episode, because they alternate very quickly between being impressive and horrible. Some scenes are really obviously just the actresses for Supergirl and Astra being hung with wires photoshopped out while a fan blows their hair around. Some scenes look like they belong in a high-budget movie. And it's just jarring how the effects are just really good in one scene and horrible in the next. The battle does get a couple of nice shot-for-shot homages to Man of Steel, with explody buildings (why didn't we get the media-hate-Supergirl plot here?) right up to the end... though Supergirl doesn't go for the same neck-snap that MoS!Superman did.
The whole Astra thing, of course, is a distraction for the more militant Non (who is a prominent Phantom Zone villain you might recognize from one of the earlier Superman movies... whose role is basically similar to what Astra's is in the flashbacks), who also happens to be Astra's husband and second-in-command, to charge into Lord Industries and do some shifty villain stuff. Maxwell Lord gets to be a dick and melt some poor dude's face with a plastic grenade blob launcher, but Non zips in, threatens to snap Lord's neck.. and proceeds to throw the dude non-fatally when DEO troopers come in. Yeah. Non, you dumb.
We get a couple of cool-looking non-Kryptonian aliens while the Kryptonians zip around like annoying little mosquitoes. We've got this girl that can breathe out acidic gas, and this dude that has this cool 'rip apart and create a clone of myself' power. J'onn battles against a Kryptonian while displaying his Martian strength. Non faces off against Supergirl before the end. Hopefully Non makes good on his promise to actually deliver a fight, maybe forcing Supergirl to get help from J'onn? Also, J'onn in this universe can't mind-read Kryptonians, a problem he doesn't really have in the comics.
Maxwell Lord is still a tool. I honestly hoped Non kills him. He's got nothing on Luthor.
We get a couple of other nice shout-outs to Opal City, Rao, as well as characters like Non, Dirk Armstrong and Adam Morgan.
This episode and the previous one really shows that Supergirl can actually try to be a decent superhero show starring a woman instead of this uncomfortable niche where it tries to be ultra-super-duper-girl-power-feminist but really isn't. Supergirl otherwise really is a sub-par show, and I stand by that decision. It's not even so hilariously bad that it's fun to plop in and watch like Gotham is, and it certainly has what is easily the worst set of starting episodes among the modern superhero shows. But it's definitely improving. We get some pretty decent backstory, a confrontation, some plot development on the alien front, Cat's character development and... well, we needed something to fill a crapton of airtime, so you have the hacking nonsense. Well. I did say 'try to be a decent show'...
Is Supergirl bipolar around her own kind? No wonder Clark keeps his distance.
ReplyDeleteOne of the selling points that's pitched about the show is Supergirl is the kinder, friendlier version of the Superman mythos compared to the versions we've been shown lately. Less Chris Nolan, more Chris Reeve. And they've stuck with that in general, like her having the "we don't have to do this" moment before every battle. Kara comes off as a bit of a Pollyanna, but at least its consistent. Not so with Astra. "We're done with fair!" "Let her rot!" "You're going to wish I died with the rest of them!" I mean, badass comments to be sure, but it kind of comes out of nowhere...I mean besides that scene where she was punching a car and having a fit over not having found true love at 24 years old. (Seriously?)
During this episode, are they trying to suggest that Kara didn't KNOW why she was sent to Earth, or more to the point why her and Kal were sent to Earth? The general mythos is the rest of Krypton (besides the House of El, apparently) didn't believe Krypton was going to go kablooey, so at the last minute Kal and Kara are sent to Earth as a last act of love from their parents.
But the way Kara's acting, its like they're hinting that Kara didn't know this. Why would she be mad at her mother for capturing Astra who was a terrorist, after all? "Was she right?!" Kara screams. Well, duh, Astra was right, thats obvious. The bigger question would be is it worth being a terrorist and killing (apparently) innocent people to save a planet. You would think Kara would consider this, but the script is so badly written, its not clear what Kara knows or why she's acting like she is.
Why rant about this? Because this is an example of a problem this show has that I haven't seen in other comic book shows. The other shows like Flash, Arrow, and even SHIELD, like them or not, stand on their own merits. Supergirl has this underlying context of piggybacking on an undeveloped, unseen Superman mythos that, in my opinion, the writers are leaning on WAY too much, and in a very sloppy way.
Also, since I'm in a CinemaSins kind of mood, can I just bring up how silly it is to have Supergirl and Astra straight up fight in the middle of the day over National City, knocking off parts of buildings, and throwing cars around. And then when the fights over, and Astra is put away, its immediately right back to Cat's hacking story? I mean, shouldn't this be a big deal at CatCo itself?? It IS a media company, and I would think two Kryptonians fighting over their own freakin' building would be, I dunno, kind of big. For crying out loud, WHAT WORLD ARE THEY LIVING IN?! Are superpowered fights a common sight or not? Does the general public know about aliens or not?
At least the scene with Cat guessing Kara's identity was pretty good, if a bit obvious. Not that it matters because.....
(To Be continued)
PS: On a happier note, you're posts have made me want to watch the Constantine show. Was a big reader of "Hellblazer" back in the day.
She’s not so much bipolar that she’s a victim of bad writing. To be honest I could see where the writers were going with her being a jerk to Astra – she is still hurting over the betrayal that her aunt, in her eyes, betrayed Kara’s trust and all that despite being a criminal, so she’s doing what some people do in that situation, which is to push the other party away as far and as hard as you can. The problem is, well, other than the flashbacks there really aren’t anything to put two and two together, and the poor quality of Supergirl’s writing in general makes it no wonder that some people think that this is even parody.
DeleteAnd again, well, the bad writing gets in the way of Kara actually exploring just, well, everything about Astra and any purpose (beyond saving their kids, honestly) at sending Kal and Kara to Earth. We could’ve had a nice introspective moment – or even a tantrum, if written well – of Kara considering Astra’s intentions at being a terrorist and whether the fact that she was right all along justifies her being a terrorist. Except that the gray-and-gray setting doesn’t work since the writers write Supergirl in a decidedly black-and-white manner. And is more concerned about giving her the most banal and obvious love triangle bullshit ever instead of properly utilizing her interesting backstory as character development material.
And while most of the other superhero shows have had their ‘what is this moment’ (Arrow’s late season three was horrendously haphazard, the first half of Agents of SHIELD’s season two is best left unmentioned) they generally have more or less consistent writing and acting that’s just fumbled by bad plotting.
Do agree about the whole ‘why isn’t CatCo covering the alien fight story’ thing, though honestly I barely pay attention during the hacking plot anyway, so I didn’t put too much thought into it.
I’ve never read Hellblazer, but Constantine the TV show is certainly nice! It’s got its problems, of course, as I have talked about in their respective episodes, and sadly it’s cancelled (though apparently there are rumours that Mark Ryan may or may not be approached as Constantine for the upcoming WB movie Justice League Dark, which may or may not be a thing) but it definitely has its good moments.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete