Superhero saturation point has to be close now, what with all the different masked vigilantes doing the rounds on TV nowadays. Ultimately, this only made it all the more gratifying to see Supergirl swoop in and inject some much-needed optimism and positive thinking into the scene.
Taking place in a world where a young Kara Zor-El (Melissa Benoist) crash-lands on Earth a substantial amount of time after her more famous cousin, she must balance her duties as a superhero alongside working with her adopted sister Alex (Chyler Leigh) at defence organisation DEA and her civilian identity at media conglomerate CatCo. It’s Lois & Clark meets Ally McBeal – which is especially fitting considering that Calista Flockhart stars here as the Miranda Priestley-esque Cat Grant.
Ostensibly using the monster-of-the-week trope as a backdrop, there’s quite a lot going on. For one thing, there’s a love quadrangle of sorts with Kara, James Olsen (Mehcad Brooks), Lucy ‘Lois’s sister’ Lane (Jenna Dewan-Tatum) and arch friend-zoner Winn (Jeremy Jordan); then there’s the whole mystery of exactly what is going on with Alex’s boss Hank (David Harewood); the sinister machinations of stranded Kryptonians, and the meddling of clearly sinister tech mogul Maxwell Lord (Peter Facinelli).
At 20 episodes long there’s always the risk of filler instalments, but the show uses the time as an excuse for levity, with ‘Human For A Day’ and The Flash crossover ‘Worlds Finest’ being notable highlights. Not all the cast are on the same wavelength (Winn and Olsen need to up their game), but this is more than made up for by the tour de force that is Cat Grant. Biting, razor-sharp a, yet sympathetic.
So all in all, it’s a solid first outing for Supergirl, and with the series’ future now in the hands of The CW, the future looks suitably optimistic.
