Season 1 recap

I know it was suggested elsewhere that we might review the older episodes during the long hiatus, but I cannot find the thread. Thus this new one. Apologies.

During this interminable break, I have been feasting on earlier episodes and have just completed Season 1. A thoroughly enjoyable experience. As usual for me, I noticed more the second-time round, and picked up a few themes (overwhelmingly positive, but a few negatives).

Positives first:
-the construction of Supergirl’s character. There is real depth to her story. A beautiful woman with superpowers yes, but more significantly for me, real emotional depth and an awe-inspiring sense of hope and belief. While I have enjoyed a few superhero movies, I have never been invested in them as “people” too. Supergirl has changed that.
-the masterstroke of giving Kara a sister. An excellent mechanism for highlighting more of her challenges and struggles. Aside from that, as I think everyone acknowledges, the Kara/Alex scenes are among the best in the whole show.
-Melissa is spell binding as Kara Danvers, Kara Zor el, and Supergirl. It surprises me how differently she plays them (I will try to analyse the differences as I go on to binge Season 2!). Although she was excellent from the start, it is satisfying to see her develop even further as the season proceeds (and by now I consider her outstanding). She is the main reason Supergirl remains my favourite TV show. (I could keep singing Melissa’s praises, but embarrassingly I look back and find I do that a lot!)

Some negatives:
-constant references back to Superman. Once maybe, but was it necessary to keep mentioning him every single week?! Sorry, not interested, and only marginally relevant to my mind.
-my most cringeworthy scene of all was in the pilot, when Cat referred to herself as a “girl,” to justify “Supergirl”. Cat was many positive things, but by no imagination a girl. To be clear, I fully support the feminism angle (which Melissa encouragingly seems to carry over into her personal life) but this artificial construct just did not ring true to me.
-James was for me the weakest of the main characters. It may be that part of this was because he was there as a means of keep harking back to Superman. He had some strong episodes (Human for a day) but often seemed like a spare part. (I have tried to exclude from my assessment that my wife thinks he is gorgeous!).

Some in-betweens:
-through my ignorance, many of the popular culture references went over my head, though when I got them, I thought they were good. (My granddaughter couldn’t believe that I didn’t know the Khardashians!)
-the overtly political references (again my distance means that I didn’t pick them all up) seemed too contrived sometimes. As someone from foreign shores, I have no locus or interest in taking sides, but to my mind subtlety is often more effective than brute force.

Now I start Season 2, although only 2 weeks until Supergirl returns here!