Supergirl: Season 1 [Blu-ray]

The first season of Supergirl served as an origin story for Kara Danvers (Kara Zor El) played by Glee’s Melissa Benoist. Kara’s backstory was told in the first few minutes of the series premiere, and then during the opening credits for pretty much every episode thereafter. She was a pre-teen on Krypton when she was sent on a separate ship to Earth, with the expectation that she would protect Kal-EL, who would, of course, grow up to become Superman. Her ship was blown off course and got stuck in the Phantom Zone, and by the time she reached Earth (still as a pre-teen), Kal had grown up and was living as Clark Kent and Superman. Kara was sent to live with the Danvers family in National City, which includes her sister Alex (played by Chyler Leigh) and mother Eliza (played by Helen Slater, who played the first live-action version of Supergirl in the 1980s), and a missing father who worked for the same government organization that Alex new works for Department of Extranormal Operations (DEO), under the leadership of Hank Henshaw (played by Homeland’s David Harewood) that tracks alien activity on Earth.

Adult Kara works at Catco worldwide media which is run by Cat Grant (played by Calista Flockhart) as a lacky/flunky/assistant for the overbearing Grant. She is joined by Jimmy Olson (played by Mechad Brooks) who in this version knows the identity of Superman and that Kara has powers, and Winslow “Winn” Schott (played by Jeremy Jordan). In the first episode, an event that somewhat plays homage to the original Superman movie as well as a scene in Superman Returns) occurs, which requires Kara to reveal the presence of another Kryptonian on Earth, but she is able to maintain her secret identity as Kara Danvers. From there, the show becomes a “freak-of-the-week” procedural, much like the show Smallville, with Kara having to track down wayward aliens who had escaped from the Phantom Zone. Intertwined with the procedural stories was a larger arc that involved the character Maxwell Lord, played by Twilight’s Peter Facinelli who was a Lex Luthor-type foil to Supergirl.

For those who get the Blu-Ray set, the A/V quality is very good, which is not surprising given that the show was shot on digital and had a big enough effects budget that the CGI looked nearly movie-quality. The extras include 15 minutes of deleted scenes, a 15-minute portion of the Comic-Con panel, a featurette on one of the characters that kind of acts as a spoiler as the identity of the character is not revealed right away, a 10-minute featurette on the look of Krypton on the show, and a short gag reel. Not a ton of extras, but what was included is good.

Overall, the show is very good. Benoist does a great job as the series lead portraying Kara/Supergirl as idealistic even if somewhat naive. The first season of the show did have a bit of a different feel in season one than it would have for the rest of its run because it aired on CBS and was shot in Hollywood as opposed to the other Arrowverse shows that aired on The CW and shot in Canada. The show was confirmed to be in the Arrowverse, on a different Earth, when Grant Gustin (from The Flash) made a guest appearance partway through the season. The first season had a good run of guest stars, that included stars from both Smallville and Lois and Clark. Some of the guest stars included Laura Benanti, Jenna Dewan, Brit Morgan, Italia Ricci, Laura Vandervoort (who played Supergirl on Smallville), Emma Caulfield (from Buffy), and more. Benoist’s Husband (at the time) also appeared in a guest starring role, which is a bit creepy to watch now given what has come out about their relationship since then. The season ends on a pretty big cliffhanger that sets up the season two storyline (which was not a guarantee the series was going to get at the time the season finale aired) while leaving some story arcs unresolved. If you are a fan of the other Superhero shows, especially The Flash, then you will probably like Supergirl, as it has a fairly similar tone to The Flash. The writing is mostly good but can get a bit soap-opera-like at times. It is definitely worth watching.

Supergirl gets everything right that awful Man of Steel and it’s even worst sequel Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice gets wrong about Supergirl and by extension Superman. The characters are hopeful but not naive, they are flawed but overcome those flaws and most importantly that Supergirl and Superman are symbols of hope and not fear and they inspire us to be better than we think can be.

The show is fun without being stupid, the characters are well written and acted, the superheroes look like they stepped out of the comics and most importantly they act like superheroes not those sick depressing violent sociopaths from the god awful DCEU movies.

This is easily my favorite live action DC TV show in the universe that also includes Arrow, The Flash, and DC’s Legends of Tomorrow.

For those that don’t know Supergirl (aka Kara Zor-El aka Kara Danvers) is the first cousin of Superman. In this series she and baby Kal-El were sent to Earth but the Krypton’s explosion blew Kara’s escape pod off course into the Phantom Zone a region where time doesn’t exist and where the Krytonains built Fort Rozz a maximum security prison that houses some of the galaxy’s most dangerous criminals. When Indigo (a blue female version Brainaic) uses her powers to use Kara’s rocket to escape the Phantom Zone and both Kara’s pod and Fort Rozz crashed landed on Earth. The now adult Superman (who is shown only in silhouette and body parts) finds his 12 year cousin and sets her up with Danvers Jeremiah, Eliza (played by former Superman Dean Cain and former Supergirl Helen Slater) and their daughter Alex.

Believing that the world doesn’t need another superhero Kara goes to work as an assistant for Cat Grant a powerful woman who has built a multimedia empire whose new art director is James Olsen who Kara develops a crush on. When the engine of a plane with Alex on it explodes and crashes Kara rescues the plane and exposes herself. Alex tells her not to be a superhero, but Kara feeling that she is meant for this tells Winn, best friend at work (and he is a super hacker and the son of Superman’s enemy Toyman) that she is Supergirl. Winn helps her design her costume and then she shot by DEO a secret government agency that is charged with protecting the world against aliens namely the ones that have escaped from Fort Rozz all under the leadership of Astra the twin sister of Supergirl’s mother determined to rule the Earth. The second-in-command of the DEO is Alex. Eventually Supergirl reluctantly teams up with the DEO and is put through training by Hank Henshaw the head of the DEO, who tuns out to be another superhero.

Melissa Benosit is perfect as Supergirl/Kara Danvers she looks like an adorable dork as Kara and like an angel as Supergirl. Claista Flockheart steals every scene she’s in as Cat Grant a character whose storyline shows how Supergirl and Superman should be presented. This series is the perfect rebuttal to those piece of shit abominations known as Man of Steel and Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice.

This series has been picked up for a season 2 on the CW joining the network’s other superhero shows: DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, The Flash, and Arrow and like them there are plenty of Easter eggs and shout outs to various creators. I often believe that first seasons are like rough drafts they tend to be hit-and-miss but there are a few that nail it and this is one of those few that absolutely nails it. I LOVE this show. I honestly can’t think anything that it does wrong. The writing is top notch and the music is basically an homage to John Williams iconic score to Superman: The Movie.

If Superman: The Movie made you believe that a man can fly then Supergirl: The Complete First Season will make you believe in hope again. I can’t recommend this series high enough I’m giving Supergirl: Season One an ultra rare 5 out of 5.

Pourquoi j’aime cette série ?

Bien sûr, c’est une série de super-héros en costumes de couleurs fortes et complémentaires, rappelant probablement plus en cela des maillots d’équipes sportives que des habits décents.
Sans compter que, concernant, par exemple, Supergirl, les couleurs en question participent de celles du drapeau des Etats-Unis.
Et que, dès lors que les couleurs rappellent le drapeau des Etats-Unis, lorsqu’il s’agit de s’adresser tout d’abord au public des Etats-Unis, et bien, il faut faire très, très attention. Relooker Batman, les X-men ou, au hasard, Mars Man-Hunter, c’est déjà là un sujet bien moins sensible. Parce qu’eux n’arborent pas les couleurs du drapeau des Etats-Unis.
Certes.

Mais on s’y habitue et puis, les costumes sont tout de même sacrément retravaillés par rapport aux comics d’origine, ce dont on est profondément et éternellement reconnaissant à l’équipe de réalisation.

Et puis, il y a les incohérences habituelles. Pouf ! Je me suis changée ! Mais où donc avais-je rangé la cape, la petite jupe et les hautes bottes écarlates auparavant ? Il y a des questions qu’il vaut mieux ne pas poser…
Je vole à mach 2 mais je peine à rattraper un drone à hélices ; j’arrête un camion en me dressant dos à lui mais la semelle de mes bottines – par lesquelles je suis encrée au sol – n’est même pas froissée. Ah ! Mais c’est sûrement parce que, voyons, j’ai un uniforme kryptonien. L’origine extraterrestre des choses justifie tout. Sauf que même pas, en fait, parce que c’est un gentil geek terrien de mes amis qui me l’a gentiment fabriqué.
Je soutiens un avion de ligne (un petit 400 tonnes et des poussières, au décollage) en prenant appui sur sa carlingue mais celle-ci ne se déforme pas ou à peine, etc.
Par contre, quand je me prends un gnon qui m’envoie glisser sur cinquante mètres, j’explose bien la route sur toute la longueur de mon dérapage et sur 30 centimètres de profondeur.
Ceux qui ont des notions de physiques, aussi rudimentaires soient-elles, ont de quoi s’amuser.

Ceci dit…

Avouons-le : Supergirl vaux bien mieux que cela et ce serait terriblement réducteur de s’arrêter à des considérations aussi superficielles (quoique fort divertissantes).

Déjà, c’est une série consacrée à une super-héroïne.

On aurait donc pu la craindre, comme on craint parfois – quoique de moins en moins – les histoires mettant en scène des héroïnes.

On est en effet un peu trop habitué à traquer la faiblesse, la faillite de la super-héroïne, cette faiblesse trop longtemps indéracinablement reliée à l’idée de féminité et trop longtemps érigée en dogme inexpugnable, indispensable à revigorer le si sensible et si fragile égo mâle, cette faiblesse qui s’exerçait à point nommé pour qu’une main secourable et dûment testostéronée puisse se tendre pour aider la pauvre mignonne vulnérable à se relever.

Heureusement, les mâles ont évolué, les femmes aussi, les premiers plus enclins aujourd’hui à accorder le rôle majeur à des héroïnes, les secondes, plus libérées et plus enclines à saisir leur force bien réelle et à la revendiquer, à goûter à l’occasion des récits mettant en scènes des héroïnes puissantes, volontaires, capables et, surtout, autonomes.

Si la seconde partie du vingtième siècle a été celle du réveil des femmes, le vingt et unième sera l’ère de leur accession à l’égalité pleine et entière ou ne sera pas.
(Ouf ! Celle-là, il fallait l’écrire ! Même s’il y a encore du chemin à faire…)

Une bienheureuse évolution pour tout le monde, on s’en réjouit chaque jour !

Alors bon, Kara Zor-El, la cousine de Superman telle que présentée ici incarne bien cela.

Elle est altruiste, empathique, généreuse, bienveillante, extrêmement puissante et pourtant étonnamment humble et attachante. Mais sa sensibilité, son humanisme, pourrait-on dire, si on l’ose d’une kryptonienne, ne l’affaiblit pas pour autant.

Difficile de ne pas s’y attacher.

Très agréablement incarnée par Melissa Benoist dans un rôle d’actrice sans doute pas des plus difficiles, sans doute pas de ceux qui mènent à des oscars, mais réussi, qui s’approprie parfaitement cette Supergirl 2.0.

“Supergirl” nous livre donc ici une super-héroïne, égal féminin de Superman mais indépendante de celui-ci, vivant ses propres aventures, protégeant sa propre ville et ça décoiffe !

Les héros secondaires sont bien pensés, bien introduits, bien soutenus, Supergirl, quoiqu’étant le fer de lance de la défense de la ville n’est pas isolée pour autant.
Elle s’épanouit au contraire dans l’action collective sans que cela se ressente au détriment de sa puissance : elle est soutenue et soutien, en interaction constante avec son monde, ses alliés, ses amis, ce qui valorise, crédibilise et justifie pleinement son altruisme et ses autres qualités.

On pourrait même aller plus loin.
On pourrait dire que la série se bâti et s’articule largement autour des valeurs de Supergirl qui jouent un rôle central.
En particulier, précisément, de son altruisme et de son ouverture à l’autre. C’est peut-être là la force essentielle de la série : cette mayonnaise prend. C’est un peu comme si Kara tirait ses super pouvoirs de cette osmose, qu’ils en découlaient en un prolongement quasi-naturel de son être.

La série est donc bien conçue, sympathique, agréable, roborative. Sans doute emplie de bons sentiments et alors ?
Qu’y a-t-il de mal à passer un bon moment, à espérer malgré les difficultés endurées par l’héroïne (voire les héroïnes, car la sœur adoptive de Supergirl en est aussi une, notamment) qu’elles vont s’en sortir, ce qu’elles font, et tant mieux ?

Au final, un divertissement chaleureux qui passe bien, que l’on peut sans réserve conseiller à toute personne qui souhaite en profiter.

La saison 2 qui passe actuellement à la télévision ne déçoit pas : souhaitons que la magie se poursuive durant la saison suivante.

Longue vie à Supergirl !