I Watch TV: Supergirl

Supergirl

The end of the previous season of Supergirl was cut short by covid. They move quickly to resolve the dangling plotlines, defeating Lex Luthor in the first episode at the cost of Supergirl being banished to the Phantom Zone. The first half of the season involves her efforts to survive and the people she meets in the Zone (including her father and Nyxly, a princess from the fifth dimension) while her pals on Earth attempt to rescue her without unleashing the phantoms.

Eventually they succeed, though Nyxly also escapes. She attempts to get back her magic so she can return in triumph and conquer the fifth dimension; this brings her into conflict with the Super-Friends. Eventually she settles on hunting down a set of magic totems, and the rest of the season involves the race for each team to find them, leading to a big fight in the finale.

And finale is the word, as this is the end of Supergirl, which poses a question for the other shows in the shared universe. [SPOILERS] Supergirl does not retire, doesn’t vanish into the timestream (see, retiring characters with world-altering powers in The Flash or Legends Of Tomorrow) doesn’t die (Arrow). She’s still out there saving the world on a weekly basis. Of course Supergirl was in its own universe until Crisis On Infinite Earths and there’s been no crossovers* since then (thanks covid) so they could just ignore it. Which would be a pity.

Anyway there’s some bits on family and legacy. Alex (Supergirl’s sister) and Kelly (Jimmy Olson's sister) adopt an alien child, Kelly becoming the focus of the slightly stilted attempts to ask the questions of if a superhero should defend the status quo, stick to rescue and protection, or maybe improve people’s lives? Lena Luthor learns about her birth mother, and has some final confrontations with her adoptive mother and of course her adoptive brother Lex Luthor. Supergirl, as noted, connects with her father briefly.

So what is to be made of Supergirl in the end? It generally had a good balance between problem of the week and ongoing storyline. Some of the effects and fights were good, and others a bit ropy. Did it have something to say about family, and double lives, and maybe even queerness? Yes, though nothing ground-breaking, because after all it was a weekly show partly for kids.

And maybe that’s why I’m left a bit blank by it. Did I not respond because it was for teens and kids, people like me being an afterthought? Perhaps that’s it.

Watch This: Supergirl’s most interesting problems come when she needed to trust people or people needed to trust her and the show kept that from start to finish
Don’t Watch This: Supergirl’s least interesting problems came when she needed to punch something, but a bit harder than she could or wanted to and the show kept doing that too.

* John Diggle made a tour through the shows, calling in to say hi while working with ARGUS, offering a bit of wisdom and a new perspective (both here and in Batwoman to black characters having a moment of estrangement from their white team mates)