Stargirl: Stars & S.T.R.I.P.E. Part Two
August 11, 2020 6:34 PM - Season 1, Episode 13 - Subscribe

 
Shade and Eclipso for next season. Bring them on! Actually, I have no idea why the movie universe went with the New Gods when Eclipso was sitting right there.

I think the AV Club recap is pretty spot on: Justin was wasted, Barbara needed a beefier role, and the ISA went down way to easily to an untrained group of teenagers. Yes, they suffered from infighting, but still, it all seemed a bit pat.

Dumping a death on Yolanda was also not really fair, and I'm not sure what it's going to mean for her character, although given this show, I'd guess nothing major. They'll just paper over it. Beth is also a character that I think got pretty short-changed.

It looks like the classic car count is going up one, that is if Sylvester gets more than a cameo next season. At least the cars look good, which is more than I can say for the CGI. Grundy was kind of a soft blobby mess.

Mike's future is still open. Maybe he'll take on more of a non-powered sidekick role. At least he's now in on the family secret.

It's funny, even though this is Courtney's show, I never really have much I want to say about the character. I don't know if that's because of the writing or the actor portraying her or a combination of both factors.
posted by sardonyx at 7:02 PM on August 11, 2020


Now Playing
The
Haunted Tank

In a contemporary context, The Haunted Tank suffers from J.E.B. Stuart and damned confederate iconography. But it's still nice to see a little easter egg to the G.I. Combat and along with "The Unknown Soldier" poster. The could have gone with Sgt. Rock.

[Many Things Happen]

Yolanda crosses a line.

Looks like Pat's Grundy-Buster Armor needs a v2.0.

Oh, noes, not Dr. Mid-nite's AI!

And they would have gotten away with it too, if not for those meddling kids.

Jordan: ( monologuing... ) blah, blah, crazytalk. And you can help, and Courtney. We can go somewhere, start anew...

Barbara: You are out of your damn mind.

Cue boss fight

Rick discovers his humanity -- and Grundy's...

Boss Fight ending, that was satisfying. Mike got to participate!

Sir Justin didn't slay The Dragon. But there are others... And he's going to find his horse, and -- I guess - 6 other soldiers of victory.

6 weeks later. Aw, Christmas.. Snow. Peanut Butter Cookies... And she's still wearing those stupid workout clothes...

WHAT. THE. FUCK.

And finally, kudos to the musical director. They've been on point the entire season.
posted by mikelieman at 10:00 AM on August 12, 2020


Now Playing
The
Haunted Tank

In a contemporary context, The Haunted Tank suffers from J.E.B. Stuart and damned confederate iconography. But it's still nice to see a little easter egg to the G.I. Combat and along with "The Unknown Soldier" poster. The could have gone with Sgt. Rock.


The other movie poster was for PREZ.

Beth's reaction to losing Chuck broke my heart.

My girlfriend is convinced that Principal Bowin isn't really dead, that her appearance in front of Tigress and Sportsmaster (or, as we call him around here, "Casey Jones") was illusionary.
posted by hanov3r at 11:39 AM on August 12, 2020 [1 favorite]


A mostly satisfying conclusion to a good season. Brainwave being killed off came as no surprise and, even though Jordan was a much more compelling character, it wasn't much of a shock that Icicle also met his demise. Having Mike kill him and treating it as a joke was a little disturbing.

Ahh, the forest and mountains of Nebraska!

Isn't Chuck on a mainframe at JSA headquarters? The glasses were just the interface between him and Beth.

Can't wait to see if or how Cindy builds a new teen ISA and whether they will team up with Shade and Eclipso.
posted by plastic_animals at 5:38 PM on August 12, 2020 [1 favorite]


Personally, I'm kinda hoping that Sportsmaster and Tigress show up at Parent-Teacher Night, acting as if nothing ever happened. After all, Artemis still has her high-school career to finish.
posted by happyroach at 12:32 AM on August 13, 2020 [3 favorites]


When Icicle was making his pitch to Barbara I felt she missed an opportunity to ask what I feel is a fairly obvious question:

If his group and their intentions are so good, could they not have come up with a less suspicious name than the INJUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA?
posted by Parasite Unseen at 9:29 PM on August 13, 2020


I too went Yay, Haunted Tank! Oh, wait, hell no.
Also the Prez Rickard reference has me torn between a Sandman reread and a Wild in the Streets rewatch.

Posited: in Earth-Stargirl's universe, the G.I. Combat comics / movies fill the media space of superhero stuff?
(Although they're missing out on Sgt. Rock, and Sgt. (Nick) Fury and the Howling Commandos. They're Marvel.)

As I look around Blue Valley, Nebraska, one of the things I find most refreshing is its small town attitude towards daylight manslaughter. None of this pearl-clutching 'omg, your 13 year old just killed a guy with a truck in front of city hall' - instead it's 'hey, the dog came too!'.
It's comforting. Sets a tone.

So who'd we lose? Both Brainwaves are saw-the-body dead, right?
And I don't recall Icicle as a T2 melt-back-together type, so he's out.
His kid the dreamy painter is still around.
Mme. Fiddler is still there, and her kid just had his first anger management incident.
Gambler skipped town, but will likely be back for his money.
Grundy probably slunk off back to Slaughter Swamp; maybe we'll see that CGI again if/when they do Dr. Fate?
Did we see a dead Dragon King? I got up for a soda.

We lost Chuck the AI. Or were the goggles just a display, and there's a mainframe somewhere?
Justin will be back with horse and armor, and some of the 7 Soldiers? A teenage Wing would fit in with the lunch table, and you can do what you want with Crimson Avenger. But what will they do for archers?
posted by bartleby at 1:18 AM on August 14, 2020


(Although they're missing out on Sgt. Rock, and Sgt. (Nick) Fury and the Howling Commandos. They're Marvel.)

Sgt. Rock is DC to his core.

Mme. Fiddler is still there

Mme. Fiddler took a crossbow bolt to the chest, and a pool of spreading blood was seen, so she SEEMS probably dead. But, my girlfriend thinks that was all illusion.

Did we see a dead Dragon King?

We saw Dragon King get a blade through his chest, back to front, but we did not specifically see a corpse later.
posted by hanov3r at 7:51 AM on August 14, 2020 [2 favorites]


Dragon King will be back, of this I have no doubt. Icicle Jr. will be a thing, because of his grandparents if nothing else. Sylvester may not be Sylvester, though that is just a speculation on my part.

The ISA was dedicated to fighting what they saw as fundamental injustices in American society. They were not fight for justice, but against injustice. To fight for justice would not have allowed a 25% casualty rate, but to fight against an inherently unjust and non-repairable society, that rate is just the cost of getting to the goal. Without the ISA's intervention those casualties would not die but then no one would ever know justice. Everyone is the hero of their own story and the means can be justified if they are the only way to the ends.

I largely enjoyed the series but I could not help but think of how white and middle-class the whole thing was. The whole thing just drove home how far from the roots of heroes fighting for the little guy and against oppression super-heroes have come. The whole series was about blandly similar versions of an idealized middle-America that has never been. Though one of them would have no doubt adopted a very strenuous Mental Hygiene Department.

Season 2 should be fun.
posted by Ignorantsavage at 5:36 PM on August 15, 2020 [2 favorites]


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