Supergirl Girl of Steel Television 

Five Thoughts on Supergirl‘s “Girl of Steel”

By | October 10th, 2017
Posted in Television | % Comments

Welcome one, welcome all to the third season of Supergirl. After a (rough) second season, we return to the bright and cheerful National City, home to the equally… broody Supergirl? Well, that’s not off to a promising start.

1. I’m Batman

Why, oh why, does the CW think that broody = good TV? Every one of their CW superhero shows does this, during their third seasons no less, and it’s really frustrating. Just because Batman broods (sometimes) doesn’t mean every DC hero has to. Sadness, I get. This angry, spiteful rage that Kara subscribes to, I do not. Thankfully, that’s all resolved by the end of the episode (I hope) and she finally starts to deal with the loss of Mon-El.

2. Mon-El’s shadow

Last season ended things with Mon-El finally stepping up to be the hero that Kara had been training him to be and, if I’m being frank, finally becoming a character that I cared about. Mon-El putzed around for most of that season and was just kind of a giant jerk whose arc could have been so much better were he not suddenly placed into an on again, off again relationship with Kara so I wasn’t too sad to see him go…which is why I’m so baffled by Kara’s strong reaction to his sacrifice.

It’s implied that she’s been angsty for months, MONTHS. It feels so out of character, like the writers needed some way to deal with the giant (apparently bigger than Cat Grant) hole left in the team and Kara’s life. Again, months. She should not still be this angry or angry at all (like, what is she even angry at? That he finally did something truly noble?) and no one has done or said anything to her. It’s taken them this long to get fed up? Man, I would have been done with her pushing everyone away at the end of month 1.

3. “Kara Danvers was a mistake”

Y’all, I can’t believe I’m saying this but there were moments when the dialogue was on par with Gotham this week (maybe it’s because I watched them back to back). Seriously. The sentence above was said at least three times and every other sentence out of a character’s mouth was either a well-trod cliché or techno-babble. There were a smattering of good lines (mostly from Winn though J’onn gets a couple to bookend the episode) but for the most part, it was painful to sit through.

4. Everyone talks. Nothing is said.

That being said, there is a good episode here, peaking out between the cracks and trying to force its way through the reams and reams of dialogue. The roof scene, which I’m dubbing the “Do you dream about them?” scene, was one of those scenes. It starts with generic pep dialogue followed by ‘grr, Mon-El is gone. Grr.’ (at which point I was starting to check out) But then J’onn says something that gets Kara to let her guard down and she tells him about the dreams she’s been having. Then she asks, “Do you dream about them?”

Were this not prefaced by thirty-five minutes of angsty Kara (and were this a stronger script), this could have been the emotional crux of the episode. It opens up such an interesting conversation and comparison for Kara and J’onn. Kara is haunted by the dreams of Mon-El and she is finally reaching out to the other person she knows who has suffered the loss of a great love (though Kara literally lost her entire planet and family before this but convenient forgetting is convenient).

5. Angsty. Kara.

I know I’m harping on this but I think the roots of this episode’s issues lie in this one decision (and, again, the dialogue but that’s just standard CW fare). All of the scenes I had problems with dealt with the other characters reacting to, or trying to deal with, Kara’s angsty outbursts. Were she not so angry, her recurring dreams could have been talked about with multiple people and we could have seen her getting over the loss of Mon-El.

She could have talked out her feelings, the conflicts, and the tension between being Kara Danvers and Supergirl. Instead, we just get her being angry towards Alex, Winn, J’onn and Jimmy, making stupid decisions that all work themselves out by the end of the episode. If you’re going to make this a drama, double down on that. Don’t have all the complicated superhero side-plots, just have this episode be fallout from the season finale for Kara. Have more scenes of her being vulnerable, allow for the silent moments, leave things unsaid and let us infer from the acting for god’s sake!

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Play up the emotions and the conflicting feelings she has over Mon-El’s decision instead of reducing it down to a directionless anger that gets resolved within 40 minutes.

Bonus thought!

I miss Cat Grant. She was the best part of season one and each episode she was in in season two was a joy. She set the tone for the show almost as much as Supergirl did and they’ve never been able to fill her shoes. Her loss is felt every time I see her on the screens and every time Kara does something stupid as a journalist (She quits her freaking job! Sure, it’s for set up with Lena later but still!)

It just feels like when the show lost Cat, it also lost its direction. It doesn’t know what it wants to be and it better find it fast or we’re in for another rough season. I have hope but then again, I watched season 2 of Revolution and Wayward Pines.


//TAGS | Supergirl

Elias Rosner

Elias is a lover of stories who, when he isn't writing reviews for Mulitversity, is hiding in the stacks of his library. Co-host of Make Mine Multiversity, a Marvel podcast, after winning the no-prize from the former hosts, co-editor of The Webcomics Weekly, and writer of the Worthy column, he can be found on Twitter (for mostly comics stuff) here and has finally updated his profile photo again.

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