I can’t say I am much of a fan of the character of Supergirl. It always struck me as a little ridiculous that Krypton exploded and somehow the only two survivors happened to be close relatives. Sure, these days it makes more sense as Superman’s father just shared the data with his brother and that Kara Zor-El was even supposed to arrive first to protect her infant cousin on Earth but there was a sci-fi explanation for how he was actually younger but looked older, but the point stands. Regardless, CBS gave the Girl of Steel her own live action series in 2015 before sending it off to the CW for its second season after the show proved too expensive to keep on CBS. The CW knows how to stretch a low budget in a lot of ways anyway.
The series drew to a close with its sixth and final season, and while I will be the first to admit I haven’t seen every episode–I think I watched two when it was on CBS–I saw enough to feel confident enough to review it.
Supergirl followed the ongoing adventures of Kara Zor-El (Melissa Benoist), also known as Kara Danvers. Living in National City, she first took to the skies as Superman’s cousin Supergirl to save a plane crash that had, among its passengers, her adopted sister Alex (Chyler Leigh) on board. Alex, it turned out, worked for the Department of Extranormal Affairs, a secret government agency that monitored weird stuff and handled problems too dangerous for ordinary mortals, and with Kara now out as a superhero, she could help them in this task by continuing to save lives. Along the way, Kara would make friends with Alex’s DEO superior Hank Henshaw (David Harewood) who turned out to be longtime DC hero the Martian Manhunter in disguise, as well as Superman’s pal Jimmy Olsen (Mechad Brooks) and Winn Schott (Jeremy Jordan). She even eventually made friends with Lena Luthor (Katie McGrath), sister to Superman’s own archenemy Lex Luthor. As a hero, Supergirl was an inspiration to all, and after the move to the CW, her series eventually became part of the much-larger “Arrowverse” alongside shows like Arrow and The Flash.
That’s a good, basic premise. Much of Supergirl’s ongoing adventures were somewhat serialized. There would be a problem for a particular episode that she would, more often than not, take care of while some bigger plot moved in the background, led by some archvillain that Kara would need to defeat at the end of the season. That was more or less in-line with how the Arrowverse as a whole worked. True, the budget cut after the move to the CW did have some obvious effects. Actress Calista Flockhart went from a regular Kara’s boss at a big media company to an occasional guest star who often, even when she did appear on the show as she did for the series finale, didn’t even seem to appear in the same shots as any of her co-stars, and the sets and CGI effects were scaled back a bit–I largely have enjoyed the CW’s superhero stuff despite low quality CGI–but by and large, the series kept chugging along with Supergirl facing off with various threats and always coming out on top with her chipper attitude largely intact.
However, I would be lying if I said this was appointment television for me. By now, I mostly watch new episodes of The Flash out of habit and when even the goofy zaniness of Legends of Tomorrow started to reach a point where I didn’t care if I missed an episode, then what chance did something like Supergirl stand? It was, oddly enough, also the most politically-minded of the various Arrowverse shows, even moreso than Arrow, the series where the main character was actually known in various comics as a big time liberal. The problem for Supergirl, though, was the show wasn’t subtle about it, recasting aliens from various worlds as immigrants and having two different villains-of-the-week actually just call her a “nasty woman”. Given his politics, I wasn’t surprised when Dean Cain, who played Kara’s adopted father Jeremiah, had his character just get killed off somewhere off-screen between episodes when he wasn’t appearing all that often anyway. I don’t mind political stuff in my media, but I’d like them to at least try and be subtle about it. Factor in then the usual superhero drama, like when Lena learned Kara and Supergirl were the same person, and it got a bit tired in many ways, and this is a universe where most non-superhero problems can be solved when two random characters have a one-scene conversation.
That said, Benoist was an incredibly winning lead actress. It takes a special talent to play a character like Kara without making her seem stupid. Kara was idealistic, always glad to lend a hand, and generally glad to see anyone she considered a friend or part of her extended family. There was very little dark about this character, and it reflected the series well. Considering how much more dour the spin-off series Superman and Lois is, and I greatly enjoyed that show’s first season, to have a more optimistic hero from the planet Krypton is very refreshing. Most of the cast was always at the top of their game, even if I thought a Shakespearean trained actor like Harewood seemed a bit out of place, and they even managed to have a great Lex Luthor when he finally appeared in the form of Jon Cryer (the sort of Luthor where you can both be glad to see a real villain on the show as well as wanting someone to pop him one). The biggest problem for Supergirl, and The Flash for that matter, is the show was on the air so long, it lost whatever freshness it had. That the CW moved its timeslot around wasn’t very helpful. Shorter seasons probably would have helped, but in the end, it had the right actress in the lead role, and while I may not be a Supergirl fan, I can say I found this one entertaining more often than not.
Grade for the series: B-
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