I have heard about the intention of making this series for quite some time and when they finally made it and the early rating was quite good, I became excited and wanted to see it immediately. However, I also heard that somewhere in the middle, the rating dropped and there maybe a chance the series would discontinue after only 1 season. Luckily, another TV network agreed to pick this series up from second season onwards and we will get to see it continued after all. Otherwise, I may not give it a chance if it was abruptly stopped after only 1 season. So what is the story all about? Let's find out, shall we?
Brief Story Line
The pilot episode showed the background story which I believe everyone is aware, about Krypton planet going to be destroyed and baby Kal-El was sent to earth. Apparently there was another pod to be sent together where 12 year old Kara Zor-El (Kal-El's cousin) was sent off by her mother Alura and her father. She was supposed to take care of Kal-El but due to explosion of the planet, her pod was thrown and stuck in phantom zone for > 20 years until it finally reached earth. At that point, Kal-El had become Superman and he brought Kara to a family consisted of Jeremiah Danver (Dean Cain), Eliza (Helen Slater), and 14 year old Alex. They promised Superman to take care of Kara.
More than 10 years later, Kara was already grown up (played by Melissa Benoist - Glee TV series) and worked as personal assistant for a media queen named Cat Grant (Callista Flockhart - Ally Mc Beal TV series). She had a best friend Winn (Jeremy Jordan) who worked in IT Dept. One day, a new guy was recruited as head of Art department and apparently he was Jimmy Olsen (Mehcad Brooks) who previously worked in Daily Planet and was a good friend of Superman. Kara had a huge crush on Jimmy who would rather be called James.
During one of her trips, Kara's sister Alex (Chyler Leigh) was on a plane that was having engine problem & on the verge of falling to National city. In that moment, Kara had to choose whether to hide her true powers or to save the plane with many people inside including her beloved sister. Kara ultimately helped to bring the plane safely to the waters and some passengers took pictures of her, but were all blurry. Alex really opposed to Kara's action as it would bring danger to her. Luckily nobody knew who she was. However, Kara who felt so good after saving the plane, could not wait to share it to her best friend Winn. He eventually helped Kara to create the suit. Meanwhile Cat Grant was very excited knowing there was a superhero in their city. She created the name SUPERGIRL for the superhero, without knowing that it was her assistant all along.
On the other hand, it turned out that Alex was actually working as agent in Department of Extra-normal Operation (DEO) whose purpose is to protect earth from possible aliens attack. The director was Hank Henshaw (David Harewood) who was very strict towards Alex and did not really trust Supergirl to be able to handle the pressure. We found out that when Kara's pod reached the earth, it also attracted Fort Rozz, the prison in phantom zone which held up the most dangerous criminals in Krypton. And when it landed to earth, all the prisoners escaped, bringing danger to earth. One of DEO's task was to apprehend all these criminals who had great powers on earth.
Apart from having to face villains, Supergirl also had the support of Martial Manhunter aka J'onn J'onzz and some other allies. Other noteworthy characters in season 1 included Maxwell Lord (Peter Facinelli), a wealthy billionaire who was skeptic about Supergirl and aliens on earth might be invading earth using their powers, Lucy Lane (Jenna Dewan-Tatum) the younger sister of Lois Lane and girlfriend of James Olsen, and of course Astra (Laura Benanti), the twin sister of Kara's mother with her husband Non (Chris Vance) who had the ambition to rule the whole planet.
The whole first season would show us the struggle of Kara becoming a superhero and how to juggle with her work as the PA to Cat Grant who was a great supporter of Supergirl but also suspicious of Kara as the alter ego. Supergirl also had to fight the criminals from phantom zone, and other super villains, even herself due to exposed by red kryptonite. So can Supergirl overcome all the challenges and become the good superhero like she wanted to be? Watch them all in this 20 episodes of 1st season with the season finale which would make us intrigued and cannot wait till the start of 2nd season.
End of Brief Story Line
Well I had quite fun watching this series. It really gave the feeling of comic book adaptation and the special effects were surprisingly good for TV series. There were also a lot of humorous scenes especially involving Winn and Kara's daily job at CatCo. However, I could not help to feel that the series was giving the aura of feminism coz it focused on Kara as super heroine, supported by kick-ass sister Alex Danver, and mentored by Cat Grant. Also the story focused quite a lot on their relationships and love triangles which made the series become even lighter.
I felt that the introduction of another superhero from DC comics added a nice element of fun in episode 18. There were also some DC villains such as Livewire, Silver Banshee, Indigo (Brainiac 8) and others. In addition, I think it's cool for the producer to cast some of actors/actresses that previously act in DC comic adaptations like Dean Cain (Superman in Lois & Clark TV series), Helen Slater (1984 Supergirl movie), even Laura Vandervort (Supergirl in Smallville TV series). Perhaps later they can cast Tom Welling? Who knows?
Anyway, if you are interested in watching light super heroine series and if you want to see later potentially Supergirl fight alongside other DC superheroes from the other shows playing in CW television network, such as Arrow and The Flash (Arrowverse), then this one would certainly suits you. I even heard that the second season would have Superman in it, which would certainly makes the series even more exciting.
Mike's movie moments rating: 4 out 5 stars
Note:
Arrowverse is the term used to represent the universe where certain DC comics characters can crossover such as Green Arrow, The Flash, Atom, and of course their villains as well.
No comments:
Post a Comment