Supergirl - season 4 (The CW) (1 Viewer)

[Adam Lenhardt]

I continue to have serious problems with this show, but I do appreciate that they set up a premise, and they're seeing it through. It's a startling cynical view of humanity that the show is putting forth, but it does provide a crucible by which Supergirl can become a less naive but more inspiring hero.

One of the innovations of this show that has unsettled me from the beginning, and especially since the jump to The CW and the backburner-ing of Kara's civilian life, is that Supergirl is a DEO asset. It felt a bit too much like Superman as Reagan's lackey in The Dark Knight Returns. Here, the president's decision to terminate her employment in order to placate his donors sympathetic to Lockwood's cause technically makes Supergirl a vigilante now, but it also frees her up to follow her own conscience.

With regard to that final scene:

Spoiler

The various DC shows have been very contradictory about the nature of the multiverse. There have been multiple mentions of there being 52 Earths (plus Earth-X) in the past, but there have also been mentions of infinite earths.

The existence of Earth-90 would seem to point to the latter conception. Can we assume based on seeing John Wesley Shipp as Barry Allen in that costume that Earth-90 is the Earth that the 1990 "Flash" series was set on?

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

I continue to miss the optimism and grounded qualities of the first season on CBS. But this season is an improvement on the previous two seasons for me because the conflicts they set up have real consequences.

Given how lax Kara was about mixing her two lives on DEO premises, it's probably a little low that less than a dozen agents knew about her secret identity.

It also doesn't speak well of the DEO's capabilities that its director has an adopted sister who happens to look exactly like Supergirl, only with glasses, and none of their highly trained agents or billion-dollar technology can make the connection.

But having Alex forget that Kara is Supergirl is a pretty big deal. Not just in terms of the sisterly relationship, but also in terms of Alex's identity. She became a DEO agent as a response to spending her teenage years living with an alien. The majority of her memories since the age of fourteen are going to be swiss-cheesed.

The military exercise with Red Daughter Kara in the cold open was well done. I'm glad they're checking in with that plot thread every now and again, to remind us it's still brewing on the other side of the world.

EDIT: Forgot to add, a promotional photo has been released of Nia in her upcoming superhero costume:

 

[tempest21]

I continue to miss the optimism and grounded qualities of the first season on CBS.

I have to agree with you on that point. I actually stopped watching Supergirl after the first season because I didn't like the direction the show was going. It lost the quality that I loved about the show. Outside the annual crossover episode with Flash, I just don't watch the series anymore. I actually stopped watching Arrow because of the same reason but the one thing that annoyed me about Arrow was its overuse of flashbacks, flashforwards, flash-sideways or whatever they try to rename them. I grew tired of that type of television production with LOST. I'm all for it with using that type of television production if it serves a purpose, but, "flashback sequences" tend to be used too much and far too frequently in which they distract from the main plot of the episode/series.

It's what I call "the Abrams Virus". While he's a name brand in Hollywood, I think it distracts from telling a story and that it's used far too much simply because it's there as a tool, or a story-aid. I saw this infection during the heydey about ten years ago when every movie studio wanted to release every movie under their production umbrella in the 3D format. Back then, it was James Cameron venting against any company who used the 3D format. These days, it seems to be movie production techniques like lens flares or flashbacks.

 

[Sam Favate]

Renewed for season 5.

http://www.ksitetv.com/green-arrow/the-cw-renews-10-series-for-the-2019-2020-tv-season/188361/

 

[Kevin Hewell]

Cool! I love me some Supergirl!!

 

[Garysb]

Supergirl and Mon-El are engaged. In real life.

https://people.com/tv/supergirl-melissa-benoist-engaged-chris-wood/

 

[Kevin Hewell]

That is one nice ring.

 

[NeilO]

The whole Claymore satellite project sure didn't ring close to reality. You can't get a satellite designed, tested and ready to launch in the short amount of time shown on the program. It would probably have taken even more time than shown to just approve the $2B budget for it.

And of course, when you launch a satellite, it is not ready for operations right away.

Oh, well.

 

[Sam Favate]

I finally caught up with last week's episode, which I liked.

But, please, PLEASE, stop with the lens flares. So much of the episode - especially at the Fortress - was unwatchable. I can't imagine anyone thinks this is a good technique for filming a show or giving a presentation of anything.

 

[Kevin Hewell]

I blame JJ Abrams

 

[Sam Favate]

This week's episode was even worse in terms of lens flares.

 

[NeilO]

One thing about this week's episode - maybe I was seeing things, but it seemed that Supergirl revealed her identity to Menagerie and then deposited her with the DEO. She was just standing there out of costume saying that she was searching for Manchester, while Nia is in costume.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

One thing about this week's episode - maybe I was seeing things, but it seemed that Supergirl revealed her identity to Menagerie and then deposited her with the DEO. She was just standing there out of costume saying that she was searching for Manchester, while Nia is in costume.

Since the jump from CBS to The CW, Kara has been incredibly sloppy about protecting her secret identity. It's one of those things the writers don't seem to care about or pay attention to. "The Flash" is also really guilty of this. Arrow, before Oliver revealed himself to the world, took it much more seriously. "Black Lightning" is like Superman: he hasn't slipped up with the costume, but it should still be incredibly easy for the rest of Freeland to put two and two together. On "Legends of Tomorrow", the Legends themselves don't seem to care about secret identities. Sometimes they suit up, and sometimes they don't. They hardly ever using their superhero names, even out in the field.

 

[NeilO]

Since the jump from CBS to The CW, Kara has been incredibly sloppy about protecting her secret identity. It's one of those things the writers don't seem to care about or pay attention to.

It wouldn't matter as much if they didn't have episodes devoted to her protecting her identity from the new management at the DEO.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

It's amazing how a show that gets so many fundamentals wrong always seems to knock it out of the park when it comes to the Superman canon.

There's no way Jon Cryer is plausible as 7-10 years older than Lena, especially if Lena's supposed to be 26. But setting that continuity issue aside, he makes a great Lex Luthor. And the writing supports that, making him far smarter and far more unapologetically evil than any of the main "Supergirl" characters are allowed to be.

The reveal that Otis is that Otis (and alive!) and Eve Teschmacher has been that Miss Teschmacher all along was a surprising and satisfying reveal. And Lex's escape was just absolutely delicious.

Jimmy Olsen's sister Kelly is obviously being brought in to be Alex's new love interest. The actress has already been made a series regular for next season. I don't know that the show really needs another cast member to add to its already bloated cast.

 

[NeilO]

Yes, quite a good episode. I was skeptical about Jon Cryer being cast as Luthor, but he really did pull it off.

I was disappointed that there were several scenes in the preview for the episode that appear to be in later episodes or were cut.

 

[Garysb]

Yes, quite a good episode. I was skeptical about Jon Cryer being cast as Luthor, but he really did pull it off.

I was disappointed that there were several scenes in the preview for the episode that appear to be in later episodes or were cut.

They included scenes with Superman in some online preview for yesterday's episode but announced before the episode aired that Tyler Hoechlin would not be on the show again this season. So false advertising or just hype to get people to tune in.

 

[Kevin Hewell]

I want to know what the effect of that experimental drug will have on James and Lex.

 

[MishaLauenstein]

I want to know what the effect of that experimental drug will have on James and Lex.

After being told previously that Lena is the smarter sibling, there is no way I can believe that she fell for Lex's very obvious ploy. I can only assume that she gave him fake schematics for the drug and that she will reveal in a future episode that he is now reliant on a regular 'refresher' drug that only she can provide him.

 

[Garysb]

Excellent episode tonight. Got a kick out of the Red Daughter using a brown wig and the name Linda Lee when she visited National City. Great tribute to the Silver Age Supergirl.