SUPERGIRL
Power to the girls
Look! Up in the sky! Oh, alright. Down on the page. Pedant.
on 21 January, Supergirl star Melissa Benoist posted an Instagram photo of herself taking part in the Women’s March waving a Trump-baiting sign (“Hey Donald, don’t try to grab my pussy – it’s made of steel”). A few weeks later, an episode aired in which she wore a jumper that said “Power to the girls”. Talk about art imitating life. And if ever there was a show that lived up to these feminist messages, it’s Supergirl. From day one, the showrunners have given us well-rounded, likeable, loveable and, most importantly, powerful female characters, all of whom are an absolute joy to watch.
In season two Supergirl does lose one of its best examples, thanks to Calista Flockhart making the decision not to move from Los Angeles to Vancouver along with the show’s production (a move that has also resulted in the show losing some of its sunny feel, as Canada’s rainy weather inevitably damps things down a bit). While Cat Grant’s loss is strongly felt at times, Supergirl makes up for it on two fronts: firstly by giving Kara’s wisecracking best friend Winn even more funny lines to replace the humour hole left by Cat; and, more importantly, gifting Kara’s sister Alex with an emotional – and surprisingly convincing – arcplot in which she comes to realise that she’s gay. Alex and police detective Maggie’s growing romance is handled brilliantly; now we can only hope the writers don’t bow to cliché and kill Maggie off, seeing as there’s rarely a happy ending for a lesbian relationship on US TV. At the time of writing however, the couple are alive, well and happy. Long may it continue.
Elsewhere, Supergirl’s second year has given James Olsen a superhero persona of his own as the Guardian, although the fact that he keeps this secret from Kara is a little tiresome. You also have to wonder at how the hell he – a mere human – fights crime
Few shows are this inclusive, friendly and fun
at night and runs CatCo during the day without having a nervous breakdown (although Bruce Wayne seems to manage a similar workload...). A plotline about Red and Green Martians overstays its welcome, mainly because the CGI Martians look a bit crap on a TV budget, but the wonderful David Harewood gets a lot of emotional drama, so that’s good. And Superman, in the shape of Teen Wolf’s Tyler Hoechlin, stops by for a visit, lets you bask in his charm and then leaves after a cursory fight or two. Looking back, it’s hard to remember exactly what he did do except make us smile – something you could never say about Henry Cavill’s Man of Steel.
Of course, this has always been Supergirl’s biggest problem – its characters are way more interesting than the storylines they appear in. Watching Supergirl battling CGI beasties is nowhere near as fun as her verbal sparring with the newly-arrived Daxomite Mon-El (Chris Wood, who seems to be channelling Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool, but without any of the smut). That said, her fights are always superbly choreographed, and some episodes – such as the off-world slavery tale “Supergirl Lives” – are absolute crackers from beginning to end.
When the show does manage to merge plot and characters into a cohesive whole, it becomes a genuine delight; and even when it doesn’t, who cares? We could watch Kara, Alex and their friends go grocery shopping and still have a good time. Few shows can claim to be this inclusive, friendly and fun, and the fact that its headlining star marches for women’s rights in the real world just makes us love it all the more. Jayne Nelson