Supergirl: Fight or Flight
November 10, 2015 9:59 AM - Season 1, Episode 3 - Subscribe
An enemy of Superman named Reactron targets Supergirl, testing her powers; Cat plans to run a revealing article on Supergirl.
I found myself inordinately distracted by Kara's earrings throughout this episode. Are they all meant to be clip-ons? They didn't look very clip-on-y, but then she would have had to have gotten her ears pierced on Krypton, and it just seems so un-Kryptonian. As funny as Winn's reaction to hearing Clark Kent is Superman was, really hard to buy Olsen would let something as important as that slip out by accident. And disappointed that they chose "Homeland" as the show Kara wants to watch.
Other than that, another enjoyable episode. Hope that lead bust she melted wasn't too old & important a museum piece.
posted by oh yeah! at 10:14 AM on November 10, 2015 [2 favorites]
Other than that, another enjoyable episode. Hope that lead bust she melted wasn't too old & important a museum piece.
posted by oh yeah! at 10:14 AM on November 10, 2015 [2 favorites]
Really wish they had made Kara slip the Clark reveal. Jimmy Olsen has a lot of practice and I don't think he would have made that mistake.
They had to address the looming Superman issue at some point. I'm actually glad they got it out of the way sooner rather than later. We now have a (somewhat) good reason why Superman doesn't show up every episode and clean house.
The fight choreography and CGI were pretty good for TV. We now have another player on the board with the billionaire tech genius, Lord. And his first name is Maxwell, not something like Lucas or Levi, so he is clearly NOT Supergirl's Lex Luthor.
Chatting with Superman about superhero problems while using their real names has to come back and bite them, right?
posted by 2ht at 10:29 AM on November 10, 2015 [2 favorites]
They had to address the looming Superman issue at some point. I'm actually glad they got it out of the way sooner rather than later. We now have a (somewhat) good reason why Superman doesn't show up every episode and clean house.
The fight choreography and CGI were pretty good for TV. We now have another player on the board with the billionaire tech genius, Lord. And his first name is Maxwell, not something like Lucas or Levi, so he is clearly NOT Supergirl's Lex Luthor.
Chatting with Superman about superhero problems while using their real names has to come back and bite them, right?
posted by 2ht at 10:29 AM on November 10, 2015 [2 favorites]
We now have another player on the board with the billionaire tech genius, Lord. And his first name is Maxwell, not something like Lucas or Levi, so he is clearly NOT Supergirl's Lex Luthor.
Maxwell Lord has a long and complicated past vis-a-vis hero/villain status.
posted by Etrigan at 10:33 AM on November 10, 2015 [2 favorites]
Maxwell Lord has a long and complicated past vis-a-vis hero/villain status.
posted by Etrigan at 10:33 AM on November 10, 2015 [2 favorites]
Mostly liked this, for the same reason I mostly like The Flash - despite being flawed in a number of important ways, it's nice to see a show about a hero who's generally upbeat, enjoys having powers and wants to help people instead of angsting all the time. I'm hoping it continues to get less clunky.
Other random, disorganized thoughts:
* Jimmy letting Clark's identity slip and the IM chat both bothered me too, especially because I doubt either one will lead to serious consequences.
* I can see Kara still being a little confused about Grant doing a hatchet job on her. It's in keeping with her 'think the best of everyone' thing a bit. (I think she does still look up to Cat Grant a little, too.)
* I'm very curious if they're going to go the comics route with Hank Henshaw, or what.
posted by mordax at 10:42 AM on November 10, 2015
Other random, disorganized thoughts:
* Jimmy letting Clark's identity slip and the IM chat both bothered me too, especially because I doubt either one will lead to serious consequences.
* I can see Kara still being a little confused about Grant doing a hatchet job on her. It's in keeping with her 'think the best of everyone' thing a bit. (I think she does still look up to Cat Grant a little, too.)
* I'm very curious if they're going to go the comics route with Hank Henshaw, or what.
posted by mordax at 10:42 AM on November 10, 2015
Cowritten by my old friend Rachel Shukert. So, you know, I'm gonna take some credit, undeservedly.
posted by maxsparber at 11:38 AM on November 10, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by maxsparber at 11:38 AM on November 10, 2015 [3 favorites]
I like seeing Kara as a regular person who does regular person things.
I have a hard time picturing Superman hanging out in PJs eating ice cream and watching Homeland. What does he do for fun? Judging by the last few films probably he practices staring off into the distance gloomily.
posted by Justinian at 11:47 AM on November 10, 2015 [1 favorite]
I have a hard time picturing Superman hanging out in PJs eating ice cream and watching Homeland. What does he do for fun? Judging by the last few films probably he practices staring off into the distance gloomily.
posted by Justinian at 11:47 AM on November 10, 2015 [1 favorite]
What does he do for fun?
Going by this show, he studies angles of the sun so he always knows where to stand for maximum glare.
posted by Etrigan at 11:57 AM on November 10, 2015 [10 favorites]
Going by this show, he studies angles of the sun so he always knows where to stand for maximum glare.
posted by Etrigan at 11:57 AM on November 10, 2015 [10 favorites]
Jimmy Olsen is getting kind of depressing. I feel that there is a writer on that show who got the job based on a "Jimmy Olsen - Introspection" one person show they did at the UCB or something. There's a lot of Olsen Thoughts crammed awkwardly into the script ("I'm only known for being a Friend." / "This watch is my fear.") and it'd be nice for him to cast of the Metropolis Mopes and lighten up a bit.
* I'm very curious if they're going to go the comics route with Hank Henshaw, or what.
Do you think they could get Bruce McCulloch to play one of the other Supermen?
posted by robocop is bleeding at 12:41 PM on November 10, 2015
* I'm very curious if they're going to go the comics route with Hank Henshaw, or what.
Do you think they could get Bruce McCulloch to play one of the other Supermen?
posted by robocop is bleeding at 12:41 PM on November 10, 2015
There's a lot of Olsen Thoughts crammed awkwardly into the script ("I'm only known for being a Friend." / "This watch is my fear.") and it'd be nice for him to cast of the Metropolis Mopes and lighten up a bit.
The AV Club recap pointed out that it looks like they're trying to get a lot of "Well, we have to do this at some point..." stuff out of the way early, and I think the "Jimmy Olsen, Superman's Pal" takedown is part of that.
posted by Etrigan at 12:47 PM on November 10, 2015
The AV Club recap pointed out that it looks like they're trying to get a lot of "Well, we have to do this at some point..." stuff out of the way early, and I think the "Jimmy Olsen, Superman's Pal" takedown is part of that.
posted by Etrigan at 12:47 PM on November 10, 2015
Superman must not be very bright if he never thought of the whole "rip the giant glowing circle thing out of Reactron's chest".
posted by Justinian at 1:51 PM on November 10, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by Justinian at 1:51 PM on November 10, 2015 [2 favorites]
I love that Superman uses smilies in his text messages.
posted by sevenyearlurk at 4:04 PM on November 10, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by sevenyearlurk at 4:04 PM on November 10, 2015 [2 favorites]
Of course Superman uses smilies in his text messages.
He has also never used an ironic emoji in his life.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 5:37 PM on November 10, 2015 [4 favorites]
He has also never used an ironic emoji in his life.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 5:37 PM on November 10, 2015 [4 favorites]
I love that Superman uses smilies in his text messages.
Of course Superman uses smilies in his text messages.
He has also never used an ironic emoji in his life.
We can only hope this means he's more Big Blue Boy Scout than Man of Steel.
posted by Etrigan at 5:56 PM on November 10, 2015
Of course Superman uses smilies in his text messages.
He has also never used an ironic emoji in his life.
We can only hope this means he's more Big Blue Boy Scout than Man of Steel.
posted by Etrigan at 5:56 PM on November 10, 2015
Has there been any official word on how this show relates to the other DC TV and film continuities? It seems to be set up to at the very least not have any major continuity conflicts with Man of Steel, but then there's that whole Arrow/Flash/Constantine thing going on as well which I understand is an explicitly separate universe from the movies (and also Gotham, but I'm pretty sure that's gone way too far into crazy town to have crossovers with anything else.)
posted by jordemort at 9:51 AM on November 11, 2015
posted by jordemort at 9:51 AM on November 11, 2015
The Flash explicitly introduces the multiverse, so theoretically it can all be one continuity that involves parallel worlds.
I liked this episode more than the first two; the show seems to be finding itself.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 8:07 PM on November 11, 2015
I liked this episode more than the first two; the show seems to be finding itself.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 8:07 PM on November 11, 2015
Has there been any official word on how this show relates to the other DC TV and film continuities?
I think "no connection" is the official word, mostly because different networks. This was being discussed in one of last season's Flash or Arrow Fanfares, and I did some poking around (see here, for example), and while some of the producers/creators of Arrow/Flash are also working on Supergirl which led to rumors that they'd all be connected, eventually it was explicitly stated that DC wasn't going to be connecting fictional universes across networks or over to film. The Constantine cameo in Arrow was just a neat one-time thing that could only (legally/contractually) happen after NBC cancelled Constantine and freed up the rights to the character.
posted by soundguy99 at 9:44 PM on November 11, 2015
I think "no connection" is the official word, mostly because different networks. This was being discussed in one of last season's Flash or Arrow Fanfares, and I did some poking around (see here, for example), and while some of the producers/creators of Arrow/Flash are also working on Supergirl which led to rumors that they'd all be connected, eventually it was explicitly stated that DC wasn't going to be connecting fictional universes across networks or over to film. The Constantine cameo in Arrow was just a neat one-time thing that could only (legally/contractually) happen after NBC cancelled Constantine and freed up the rights to the character.
posted by soundguy99 at 9:44 PM on November 11, 2015
I found myself inordinately distracted by Kara's earrings throughout this episode. Are they all meant to be clip-ons?
Or magnets?
posted by janepanic at 6:02 PM on December 8, 2015
Or magnets?
posted by janepanic at 6:02 PM on December 8, 2015
I was somewhat perturbed by Kara insisting on taking on Reactron without Superman's help, while in the previous episode she gave that whole speech to James about the El's house logo means "stronger together". And THEN Astra, who also used that phrase with her fellow escapees, decided to take on Supergirl by herself.
Like this whole family has no idea what "together" means.
posted by numaner at 9:59 PM on February 3, 2016 [1 favorite]
Like this whole family has no idea what "together" means.
posted by numaner at 9:59 PM on February 3, 2016 [1 favorite]
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I didn't think much of Kara in this episode -- she has to understand that Cat's article isn't going to be a fawning hagiography, and also that she wouldn't be able to do anything about it. (Not to mention that she's discussing being Supergirl with "Clark" over IM, and the accidental reveal to Winn was ugggh...)
But the villain was good-enough, and Benoist is as charming as ever, and the supporting cast is gelling nicely. Solid B-plus episode.
posted by Etrigan at 10:09 AM on November 10, 2015