TV Show Review: Supergirl - Season 1

Stars: 5 out of 5

Pros: Action with a charming superheroine

Cons: It’s a couple episodes before the show completely takes off

The Bottom Line:

Superhero show

Filled with charming characters

Plenty of action

Look, Up in the Sky It’s…a Girl!

Since I’ve become hooked on Arrow and The Flash, I knew I’d be watching Supergirl when it debuted last fall.  No, it wasn’t an official spin off of those two shows, but it was from the same creator/writer/producer team.  How could I pass that up?  And I’m not surprised at all that I found season 1, well, super.

This version of the character focuses on Kara Danvers (Melissa Benoist).  She was sent from Krypton as a young teen to watch over her famous cousin, but she got trapped in the prison Fort Rozz and arrived on Earth years later after Superman was well known.  She was taken in by the Danvers family and raised, hiding her powers.  She outs herself in the pilot when she rescues her sister Alex (Chyler Leigh) from a plane crash.

And suddenly Kara begins to take on the same struggle as her cousin.  She tries to balance her day job as assistant to media mogul Cat Grant (Calista Flockhart) with her new responsibilities of saving the world.  As Supergirl, she starts working with Alex, who works for a top secret government organization that fights aliens.  Their boss there is Hank Henshaw (David Harewood), a friend of their father.  Meanwhile, at CatCo, there is a new photographer, James Olsen (Mehcad Brooks).  Yes, THAT James Olsen, who not only knows Superman, but knows who he is.  Then there is tech guy Winn (Jeremy Jordan) who has had a crush on Kara for years.

Kara’s coming out has happened just as a bunch of the villains who had been trapped in the Fort Rozz with Kara begin to emerge and cause trouble.  Kara has been so used to hiding her powers that she doesn’t quite know how to use them all.  Plus, one of the villains she must face is her aunt Asta (Laura Benanti).  With larger dangers lurking, can Kara embrace her powers to save her home of National City?

I must admit this show didn’t grab me in the first couple of episodes like I expected it to.  The show seemed to take a couple of episodes to truly find its legs and to give up on the female empowerment speeches.  Yes, we have a female superhero who can do everything Superman can do.  We get it.   Just show us.  But once they did, I began to truly enjoy this show.

And once again, it is the characters that drew me in week after week.  Kara is the perfect mix of strong and vulnerable, and her friends truly do help her on her new missions.  I love that team work.  Having said that, the real heart of the show is Kara’s relationship with her sister.  The scenes between Kara and Alex are something special.  I did feel that Cat was a bit over the top for too long in her Devil Wears Prada persona, but that was a minor issue.

The villain of the week stories are a bit familiar, especially if you like the other shows.  We meet a villain when they cause problems.  Kara faces them and is defeated.  She and her team come up with a way to face the villain and track him or her down a second time to save the day.  And yet I keep watching because it still works.  This is a fun, light show, and I like that.

Plus there are several ongoing stories that kept me coming back week after week.  Yes, there is more than one season long arc weaving their way into and out of the episodes.  They aren’t all in every episode, and the show does a wonderful job of mixing them all together in a way that hooks the viewer without ever confusing us.  Trust me, you are in for some fun twists and surprises before the season is over.

Being Supergirl, this show requires a ton of special effects, more than on the other shows, and on a TV budget.  They absolutely work.  In fact, I never found anything to distract me from the fun of the show.

And the acting is top notch.  Everyone is clearly having fun working together, and it comes together in the performances.  It is a joy to watch this team in action each week.  Whether it is action, light comedy, or character scenes, the actors nail it each week.  I was especially happy to see Mehcad here.  I had liked him in Necessary Roughness even though I didn’t always like his character.  I really like seeing him here in a part I can get behind completely.  In the fun stunt casting department, Kara’s human parents are played by Dean Cain, Superman on the 90’s Lois and Clark, and Helen Slater, the star of the 80’s movie version of Supergirl.

This show aired on CBS for this season, yet there was still a crossover with The Flash which, like the rest of this DCverse, aired on the CW this season.  Sadly, they used the happenings on The Flash to establish that this was a different Earth than the one for that show.  Yet when Barry Allan appears on this show, it was wonderfully fun.  The show has been picked up by the CW for this season, and they are promising it will be included in a massive crossover event this upcoming season.  I can NOT wait!

Season one consisted of 20 episodes, and they are all here in this set in their native wide screen and full surround sound.  Extras include the ComicCon panel from 2015 that introduced the show and the actors, a look at one of the characters (I’m being vague to avoid spoilers), a look at Krypton, and the standard gag reel and deleted scenes.

Season 1 of Supergirl took a couple of episodes to truly find it’s rhythm, but once it did, it became a delightful part of my Monday nights.  If you missed it, use this set to fix that today so you are ready when season 2 rolls around.

Season 1 Episodes:

1. Pilot

2. Stronger Together

3. Fight of Flight

4. Livewire

5. How Does She Do It?

6. Red Faced

7. Human for a Day

8. Hostile Takeover

9. Blood Bonds

10. Childish Things

11. Strange Visitor From Another Planet

12. Bizarro

13. For the Girl Who Has Everything

14. Truth, Justice, and the American Way

15. Solitude

16. Falling

17. Manhunter

18. Worlds Finest

19. Myriad

20. Better Angels