[TV] Supergirl (Spoilers)

[Khime]

it actually doesnt have anything to do with copyright, dc/warner bros owns the rights to there characters, theyre purposefully limiting who can and cannot show up because they think audiences will be "confused"

I guess they think the average movie-goer is Robin DeSanto: http://www.shortpacked.com/index.php?id=1877

[Gemini Soul]

Just watched the pilot and the first thing that came to my mind...They know the prisoners are there but they never told Superman about it, because the guy in charge doesn't trust aliens, yet he will trust her who is a noob in the hero business. Then a black Jimmy Olsen, whats worst is the actor they got to play him. Jimmy Olsen is a small geeky type of person, not tall, muscular and confident. The guy they got to play Toyman/Winslow "Winn" Schott that they show she works with that hit on her a few times, is more Jimmy Olsen than who they have now.

Also going to go out on a limb and say that at the end the the main girl villian they showed talking on the scree, wouldn't be surprised if shes Faora.

[Immitis]

Just watched the pilot and the first thing that came to my mind...They know the prisoners are there but they never told Superman about it, because the guy in charge doesn't trust aliens, yet he will trust her who is a noob in the hero business. Then a black Jimmy Olsen, whats worst is the actor they got to play him. Jimmy Olsen is a small geeky type of person, not tall, muscular and confident. The guy they got to play Toyman/Winslow "Winn" Schott that they show she works with that hit on her a few times, is more Jimmy Olsen than who they have now.

Also going to go out on a limb and say that at the end the the main girl villian they showed talking on the scree, wouldn't be surprised if shes Faora.

superman can never appear on the show and after the pilot references to him will start to become nonexist as they phase him out. the only reason they included him is because it was the only way to get cbs to greenlight a female led show

[Gemini Soul]

I was actually having this discussion with a friend of mine and had something of a moment of clarity, not just about Supergirl but about ALL these comic shows.

I don't care that Jimmy is black, his race isn't really that important to his character overall. What I dislike about the casting is that they decided to make him a super cool, handsome 6'+ ripped guy. Jimmy has ALWAYS been a nerd, he's superman's dorky little sidekick.

Then it struck me, when was the last time you saw a black nerd in a comic show? They think they're being so progressive and inclusive to make Jimmy black but they're not, they're actually furthering a stereotype. Look at the selection we have:

Arrow:
Diggle. Tall, Ripped, fairly cool, the "Calm head" of the team.

Flash:
Detective West. Tall, not ripped, but in shape, Great father and cop, took in Barry when he had no real need to and raised him like a son.

Agents of SHIELD.
Trip. Tall, Cool, Ripped.
Mack. Tall, Cool, built like a brick shithout. Fairly clever, but as a mechanic, not an Engineer, not the one that requires a degree, the one that requires muscles and overalls.

It's no better in the movies. We've got Fury, Tall, Cool, strong. Then soon we'll have the "New" Human Torch and T'Challa who I'm betting will both be tall, Ripped, cool guys...

Are you starting to see my point . What is this unwritten rule against having black nerds? I would be 100% behind this Jimmy Olsen character if he'd been black, but had kept the fundamental core of Jimmy Olsen, namely, been a giant nerd.

I agree 100%, I would be fine with a black Jimmy Olsen and black Johnny Storm. But don't DESTROY what makes them who they are. Jimmy is geek hands down!

Johnny Storm and Susan Storm are suppose to be brother and sister, her being older and Reed Richards slightly older. Look at them the actor they got playing Johnny Storm looks older than Susan and Reed, not to mention the whole "adopted" thing. They should of casted black actors for both siblings and kept true to the lore of them being siblings by blood, not a white girl adopted by a black family.


As to the black nerds thing, last one i seen on TV was Steve Urkel on Family Matters https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family_Matters

[Ebalina]

I agree 100%, I would be fine with a black Jimmy Olsen and black Johnny Storm. But don't DESTROY what makes them who they are. Jimmy is geek hands down!

Johnny Storm and Susan Storm are suppose to be brother and sister, her being older and Reed Richards slightly older. Look at them the actor they got playing Johnny Storm looks older than Susan and Reed, not to mention the whole "adopted" thing. They should of casted black actors for both siblings and kept true to the lore of them being siblings by blood, not a white girl adopted by a black family.


As to the black nerds thing, last one i seen on TV was Steve Urkel on Family Matters https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family_Matters

So what you are saying that Fit tall guys of any color cant be nerds?
Do you understand how world works?

There far more nerdy ripped and fit guys today then 20y's ago mate.
Break the stupid stereotype.

The actor is fine we've seen 1 episode that was leaked do you even know how its gonna end up?
Presumptions ...

[eschatological]

The dude has won a Pulitizer for photo journalism in the one episode we've seen. I don't know if you know any serious investigative photo-journalists, but "cool" isn't the word I'd use to describe them. Annoying, stubborn, highly intelligent, those are words I'd use to describe them. Plus, there was a micro-conversation about how Supes basically gave Jimmy the confidence to pursue that kind of work.

[Jotaux]

I think her dorky friend makes a better jimmy. But seriously I am a bit dissapointed in myself as I cannot even imagine what a nerdy black guy would look like. The last one I saw on tv would be... Carlton from fresh prince? And even then I think he was in fairly good shape, they just dressed him up to hide it. I guess there's Urkel from family matters.

[Immitis]

if you want to know what a nerdy black guy is like watch the fades

[Blur4stuff]

i enjoyed it enough to see what comes next. seems safe enough to watch with others/kids in the room.

my young niece loved the hell out of it. i streamed it to the tv for her and she was incredibly sad when i told her it was the only one so far.

mmoc may not be the target audience for this, but someone else is i promise

[Kalcheus]

The first episode was a little "slick", but I dug the second fight scene. I'm on board for now.

[eschatological]

Is it the same pilot that was leaked months ago? Cause that was trash.

The promos made it look like the same pilot.

[Kalcheus]

Is it the same pilot that was leaked months ago? Cause that was trash.

The promos made it look like the same pilot.

I didn't watch the original so I can't say for sure, but I expect so.

[Gallahadd]

I didn't watch the original so I can't say for sure, but I expect so.

Was it the first episode, where she rescues the plane, gets into a moderately badass flight and meets someone pretending to be Jimmy?

[Dasffion]

It wasn't fantastic but it wasn't bad either

[oplawlz]

It wasn't fantastic but it wasn't bad either

I strongly disagree. Considering the potential of the material, this garbage deserves every ounce of criticism that can be piled on it.

[ravenmoon]

I first started watching it, it was looking good, and getting better and better, the whole set up, the chic girl, the office, even Ally Macbeal /Brothers & Sisters actress, the vibe was good, and the highest moment was when I saw that hunky handsome black guy it seemed like it was a great move, an exciting choice too.. until he said he was Jimmy Olsen...and I was ... like WHAT !1

What a waste, firstly Jimmy Olsen is a geeky white dude.. I don't mind him being black ... but hunky? They had a chance to spin a dynamic new character- why'd they have to spoil it and make him Jimmy Olsen huh? Disappointing, especially when that calibre of guy could be something special more like Ward or Hunter of SHIELD... and it obviously made it quite clear that Supergirl was in a different continuity which I was disappointed with.

It got really cheesy after that sadly. I feel they rushed her "coming out" - i'm relieved it was for something serious like the plane going down, but a bit disappointed because it seemed "typical" we saw a similar thing in the recent superman movie, and in a market that is OVER-saturated with this sort of thing, you need to be a lot more creative.

Again, her coming out was a bit rushed.. okay the sister being involved in a top secret organisation seemed badly put together, the confrontation and mystery of her annoyance with her sister could have been played out much better and longer before finally revealing that the sister was working with secret organisation too. Could have played us into thinking it was just petty sibling jealously and eventually reveal it was much more than that, she was genuinely looking forward too.

Also it would have been better if they made it really hard on supergirl to be a hero morally - the family angle could have been less pleasant or turned out less pleasant attacking her morale for fighting to save people or do any good..she would obviously triumph over that, but it would clearly be the deeper struggle, the harder struggle than fighting physical things like falling planes, missiles or super bad guys.

I also find the over arching super baddy plot seemed forced too, also a bit too early, where's the mystery? where's the baiting us a bit? it all came out far too quickly and not very well. The baddies yes a super bad, but they don't seem that scary, -- making them super powerful and threatening to destroy or rule the world doesn't make them scary if it's done poorly.. it seemd something better suited to the power rangers than a prime time 2015 show hoping to compete with shows like Empire, NCIS, SHIELD, Scandal, GoT etc.

So yes, it was free fall. from the moment i found out cool guy was Jimmy Olsen.. Jimmy Olsen isn't "cool".. he's geeky/nerdy .. he's not a square jawed handsome hunk -- i would say keep the actor but use a very different role that fits his build.. and leave Jimmy Olsen completely out of it, you don't need to have one character from the old superman universe come in. okay, I wouldn't mind if he was more.. like we expected.

Saying that, it's only the first episode, let's see if they'll turn it around, it has a cheesy tone to it though, i'm not expecting much.

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if you want to know what a nerdy black guy is like watch the fades

yeah..a british show would never get it so wrong.. most american shows the nerds seem to be a bit too buff, but this was not nerdy at all, he is proper buff.. not like the guy in Psych

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i enjoyed it enough to see what comes next. seems safe enough to watch with others/kids in the room.

my young niece loved the hell out of it. i streamed it to the tv for her and she was incredibly sad when i told her it was the only one so far.

mmoc may not be the target audience for this, but someone else is i promise

totally agree... it seems for much younger audiences who haven't seen it all done to death before.. if this was your first show like this, you'd love it, i'd say it's in the 8-17 demography. The less you've seen, the better it would be.

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I'm sorry, that was not a well written pilot. I don't know how you judge writing, but you pointed out lots of cringe-y moments and still said it was well written. 8 out of 10? That's silly as hell. Furthermore, the characters didn't undermine traditional superhero tropes, it reinforced traditional girl-drama tropes. We get it, it's "refreshing" to not see a new grimdark superhero show, that doesn't automatically make it good. Flash undermines the whole grimdark aesthetic but does so in a well-written way. Meanwhile, it reinforces the old superhero (specifically Superman) tropes of "not being able to recognize a person without their glasses, and their hair down," and "not trusting a superhero who has only shown benevolence mainly because they're an alien," and "I have to be true to who I am." Those are much older tropes than the whole "brooding anti-hero" trope, which really has only been carried by Batman over the years, until this past decade.

Opinion is opinion, but the majority seem to think it wasn't well written.

gotta agree with you here, almost every aspect could have been written better..

given this introduction, I feel it may have been better if Supergirl had smallville like start too it, girl in high school with differences ofc, different dynamic too, but that may have worked better than this. But then this would have worked fine if it was better written. I feel like the writers took their audience for granted

[ItachiZaku]

I think her dorky friend makes a better jimmy. But seriously I am a bit dissapointed in myself as I cannot even imagine what a nerdy black guy would look like. The last one I saw on tv would be... Carlton from fresh prince? And even then I think he was in fairly good shape, they just dressed him up to hide it. I guess there's Urkel from family matters.

Anthony Anderson played a nerdy black guy in Transformers.

[Blur4stuff]

I don't have a problem with them completely changing Olsen. I know some folks hate change from source material, but if you want to see the same thing over and over again then just go read/watch the original content. The whole point of doing new shows about old characters is to have a fresh take on something we're familiar with. It would have been fine with me if supergirl wasn't a white blonde.

Same goes for body type and attitude. I consider myself to be fairly geeky, but i'm not a frail pimple faced dork with taped glasses. It's okay to change a character and it's time we realized stereotypes don't apply to everyone.

[Gallahadd]

Tbh if you want a nerdy black guy... Look to Arrow! They've just added a new character this season who would have been the perfect Jimmie Olsen...

[Ol Scratch]

It was the same episode that was leaked, and despite some nerdraging by people who's opinions are easy to ignore due to how meaningless and irrational they are, it wasn't a bad premiere at all. It had a few minor bumps, but nothing that won't be cleaned up as the series progressed.

If you like the tone and style of the Flash, you should like Supergirl. It's also nothing like Smallville, thank God. She gets her powers, her name, and her public recognition all in the first hour of the show.

The only thing that really bothered me was how they treated Superman. Not for how they actually treated him (it's great that they present him as the mythical figure the movies never will), but how they avoid using his name at every turn. I think he was referenced at least 20-30 times, but his name was only spoken once or twice. Otherwise it was "him" for the most part, and that got old really fast.