Supergirl Pilot Review

Boy, I haven't been this worried about Rustling Jimmies since the RWBY Vol. 2 review...

Greetings Ladies and Gents! It is I, The Shaman of Animation back again with a new review! Tonight saw a new heroine making her way to the small screen. That heroine is none other than Supergirl. And Tonight, we take a look at the pilot to Supergirl!

Synopsis: Supergirl is the story of Kara Zor-El, the cousin of Superman. After years of being on the planet Earth and feeling like she's wasting her potential, she decides to become a superhero: dubbed by the public as Supergirl.

The Good: One of the biggest hurdles I felt that Supergirl had to jump over was distinguishing itself from Smallville, which ended over four years ago, and ending ran for a decade. I think it accomplishes that. The Clark Kent from Smallville and the Kara in Supergirl in their respective pilots have different problems, different goals, and the environment feels different. It also helps that Kara has her suit and is flying in the first episode while Smallville took till the very last episode to do the same for Clark.

Now let's talk about our heroine of the series: Supergirl, or Kara Zor-El. I really enjoyed the performance given by Melissa Benoist here. She's very quirky in a likable way, but at the same time does a great job of  playing the role of the hero. She wants to get out, be her own hero Her character is that's very easy to get behind. Another positive of this pilot was the overall tone of it. With DC Comics wanting to be edgier and more grim in live action, it's good to see more shows being bright and hopeful, with the goal of wanting to inspire its audience. Also, for T.V. the effects look spectacular. When Kara's taking flight or taking on her enemies in battle, the series is looking great.

And finally for the good, I think the big bad that was introduced should provide for very interesting television. I don't know a lot about Supergirl, her mother, or her villains (If she has any), so I don't know what to expect exactly from this storyline involving this major villain of the show, but it does have me interested.

The Bad: There were a few characters introduced in this pilot that...let's just say, I wasn't exactly a big fan of. The first being Calista Flockhart as Cat Grant 

Excuse the failure of description on my part here, but I think you'll see what I mean when you watch it. But the way this character was portrayed in this pilot is heavily cliche in my opinion. It may be ignorance on my part I admit, but I don't see any woman in 2015 acting the way that Cat does; and I just know, I'm going to be annoyed with her character as the series rolls on.

Another character, I have issues with is Jimmy--wait, I'm sorry, James Olsen, portrayed by Mehcad Brooks. For what the show is going for, Brooks does a fine job with his performance, but nothing about his performance screams "Jimmy Olsen" to me.

Now, for the part of the review that I'm scared will make a certain crowd angry: that is the "Girl Power" message that the show tries to sell to the audience. Now before, this review reaches Tumblr and people call me a no-life douchebag that deserves to die the worst possible death, let's get something straight. I have no problem with any show, book, or movie wanting to show that women are just as powerful as men. But the pilot to this episode is doing it the wrong way. These are some lines paraphrased from the episode:

"Cat Grant: The most powerful woman in the city." (It's really more the delivery of this line that irked me than the actual line itself).

"She can't win.

"Why, because she's a girl?"

If you want to show that women can be powerful, then just show it. Have Cat Grant showing how great she is as she's making big moves in her company and causing her employees to shake in their boots. Have Kara kicking ass as Supergirl and show her inspiring others because of what's she doing as a hero. Lines like the ones I showed up above is nothing but cheap lip service and it doesn't help your theme.

Part of the reason male led shows have been as prevalent as they've been is because the audience sees the character do cool stuff and say: "Hey! That guy's awesome! I want to be like him!!" It's not rocket science, if you want your show to display that women can be powerful, and shouldn't be seen as jokes, then have your female characters do things that reflect such. There's no need for forced dialogue like that.

Conclusion: While having a few bumps in the road, Supergirl's pilot is one that shows promise just from its leading character alone. The show seems to be taking a monster of the week formula early on, so we'll see how it is as the weeks go on by. But as far as this pilot goes, it gets the job done.

Till Next time folks, I'm The Shaman of Animation, and the pronunciation of Kara's name in this series is gonna bug the hell out of me.

I blame the way the DCAU series from back in the day pronounced her name...

Take Care...