Friday, October 23, 2015
CLEVELAND, Ohio – CBS is suffering from a severe case of superhero
envy. Other networks are thriving with series based on comic books, so
little wonder this has inspired the familiar programming cry of, "Hey,
we want one, too."
CBS, which specializes in forensic-heavy crime dramas, has more viewers than any other programming entity. They have more crime-solving detective heroes than you can shake a toe-tag at. You can't swing a body bag without hitting one of them at the No. 1 network.
But superheroes have been in short supply at CBS since the 1970s and the glory days of Lynda Carter's "Wonder Woman" and Bill Bixby's "The Incredible Hulk." This has left CBS programmers green with envy --- green as deadly kryptonite, green as the Arrow's costume, green as the Joker's hair.
So, "Supergirl" to the rescue? Maybe. Maybe not.
The pilot episode for CBS' "Supergirl," which airs at 8:30 p.m. Monday, Oct. 26, on WOIO Channel 19, does manage to get off the ground, yet it never really soars to the heights of the supercharged "Gotham" and "The Flash." Nor is it as immediately intriguing as those two DC-inspired shows.
Melissa Benoist ("Glee") is extremely likable as Kara Zor-El, the visitor from Krypton who becomes Supergirl. The supporting cast, for the most part, is likable. Indeed, it's all, well, likable.
But it's nothing to write home to Krypton about (if Krypton hadn't blown up, that is). There's nothing genuinely super about "Supergirl," which fields an uneven series opener that's a ragged mix of fun possibilities and annoying drawbacks.
While the potential is there, "Supergirl" will need to settle into a more consistent flight pattern when it glides into its regular 8-9 p.m. Monday time slot on Nov. 2. And the top priority on the agenda should be better scripts.
That's not out of the realm, since two of the executive producers, Greg Berlanti and Andrew Kreisberg, also are at the helm of "Arrow" and "The Flash." They know how to do this, so let's see if "Supergirl" can gain altitude now that all of the exposition is out of the way.
Monday's premiere explains how 12-year-old Kara Zor-El was sent by her parents from the doomed Krypton to protect her cousin, Kal-El. Her ship was thrown off course, however, and her arrival on Earth was delayed. By then, Kal-El was known as Superman, and there no longer was a reason for her mission.
She is taken in by the Danvers family, growing up in the shadow of her foster sister, Alex. After 12 years of keeping her powers a secret, Kara decides it's time to embrace her superpowers and her destiny. Of course, it's not easy.
Wearing glasses and assuming the mousy persona (sound familiar?) of Kara Danvers, she goes to work for incredibly tough media mogul Cat Grant (Calista Flockhart). Here, she finds friends and allies in IT technician Winslow "Winn" Schott (Jeremy Jordan) and anything-but-nerdy James Olsen (Mehcad Brooks), a rugged and famous photographer.
Soon after taking to the skies, Kara learns of a super-secret government agency headed by Hank Henshaw (David Harewood), and she learns that her foster sister (Chyler Leigh) is somehow involved.
It all leads to a new direction, a new costume, the inevitable showdown with a supervillain and the revelation of a must-have evil genius determined to destroy Supergirl. You're not quite certain who is scarier: this evil mastermind or the "Devil Wears Prada" boss played by Flockhart.
Lighter in tone than "Arrow" or "Gotham," "Supergirl" nonetheless laces the action with feminist themes that should pack more of a wallop. They're great messages, but they're badly delivered, clumsily dumped into poorly written exchanges in clunky and overt ways.
This is where a winning cast and what should be a winning concept are badly served. The dialogue is at times embarrassingly cheesy, and not in a playful way that slyly winks at the audience. The producers should glance over at the CW's "iZombie," another DC-based series, to see how this kind of thing can be done so wonderfully well.
Like Kara's ship, the pilot has an unfortunate tendency to stray off-course.
Still, despite the drippy and dreary dialogue, there are many glimmers of promise here. The relationship between Kara and Alex could prove to be one of the more compelling aspects of "Supergirl" (much more interesting than the same-old-same-old Kara and Kat exchanges). And playing James Olsen (no Jimmy, no bow tie) as a hunky and confident confidant is a refreshing twist.
First introduced in 1959, Supergirl is every bit as good a candidate for a contemporary prime-time makeover as the Flash or the Green Arrow. But "Supergirl" is facing two questions trickier than any supervillain. First, can the scripts improve? And second, even if they do, can a comic-book character survive in a CBS environment that's more typified by the initials "NCIS" than DC?
