Blogcritics The critical lens on today's culture & entertainment
Written by Shawn Bourdo
I have a confession. On the surface it won’t be like I’m confessing a love for Two Broke Girls; it’s a superhero show after all. With all the options out there on the networks, including the strong lineup on Netflix, it might be a surprise that I have a crush on Supergirl. That would be an easy statement if we were just talking about Melissa Benoist who plays Kara Danvers – Supergirl. That’s not even fair. There isn’t an ugly character on this whole show. Have you seen James (Mehcad Brooks) this season? No, I’m in love with this series and I need to tell you all about it in order to figure out how this happened.
Supergirl started on CBS last season. I started watching it out of curiosity. The trend over the past couple years had been darker and darker. Fox had let Gotham explore some very dark themes, Daredevil sets new records each episode for death counts, and even Arrow had lost the humor that attracted me the first couple seasons. I enjoyed the light themes, classic TV newspaper (now news organization) setting and standalone series. The continuity heavy series like Arrow / Flash and Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. required lots of attention. Here was a show that I didn’t have to watch the “Previously on…” just to remember the key details for the next episode. CBS had a good show that just didn’t live up to the super crazy ratings that CBS shows are expected to garner. I was skeptical of the move to The CW only in that I feared it being rolled into the CW DC Universe and losing some of its charm. Except for the half-season ending crossover, that hasn’t been the case.
Season Two quickly put the first season of news channel-themed stories to bed. It was fun to create a Mary Tyler Moore Show-style setting to tell superhero stories. The new hero in the big city was limiting after one season. This season, the journalism-related stories are merely a backdrop and a convenient place to gather where our heroes can be privy to crimes immediately. That’s always a key to superheroes, right? You have to have access to crime info either through contact with the police station, tapping the police radios, or working at a newspaper. This freedom has allowed the show to have a comfort level of exploring more complex themes built around the supporting characters without becoming a super dark show.
What really hits me this season is the subtle way we have explored Kara’s psychological journey. That feeling of being an alien in an alien world, being from a planet that was destroyed and being invulnerable is a constant in most Superman comics and movies. This season, Kara has accepted a larger responsibility in fighting crime and saving the world. Operating on that level has isolated her to the point during the most recent “The Martian Chronicles” where she is literally alone. Even what seemed like a budding love story with Mon-El has abandoned her
