SUPERGIRL - PILOT REVIEW - She Has Her Work Cut Out For Her

Though I was never a comic book nerd, I was a SuperFriends nerd.  Growing up, it was one of my favorite cartoons, though in retrospect, seeing some of the episodes now makes me cringe.  Nevertheless, Supergirl is finally here.  After months of build-up, reviews that bordered on good and not-so-good, the pilot aired last night on CBS.  And let me tell you, it needs a lot of work.

Melissa Benoist as Supergirl

The good news is that a pilot is rarely the best episode of a series.  It's the introduction to the possibilities; there are plenty of them with this start, but there are also plenty of questions that were left and openings unfilled.

First off, the cast.

Really, it's a great group of (mostly) new faces.  Melissa Benoist (Kara Danvers/Supergirl) has nailed the character in the best way possible for this show to be a success.  She's a terrific mix of awkward, cute, uncertain and determined, and she's able to pull these traits out of her acting hat at a moments notice.  She's politically naive, as a protected girl would have been, and she's also an ebullient teen in some ways, finally using her gifts and being astounded by them at the same time.  There have been reviews and corresponding message boards asking why on earth would Supergirl be afraid of anything?  Or why would she be uncertain?  Um, hello, that's the human part of her.  That's what makes her interesting, and what makes her likable.  Yes, men want a bad-ass woman superhero -- but all bad-ass and no vulnerability gives you a robot.  And nobody loves a robot -- just ask the Terminator.  Benoist is a perfect cast.

The rest of the cast is interesting, particularly Mehcad Brooks as James Olsen.  He's left the 'Jimmy' moniker behind in Metropolis and Brooks is playing it that way: assured, confident, the guy who knows a lot more than everyone else.  And it works.  It's a nice reversal, in the sense that James doesn't need saving.  He's not a clumsy photographer stumbling into dangerous scenario after dangerous scenario so Supergirl can save him.  At the same time, it also might feel a tad sexist, as who could ever imagine they'd have written Jimmy Olsen this way if the hero was a man, right?  Nevertheless, Kara will need her allies, particularly at work where her naive mouth tends to blurt out things that will get her into trouble.

Calista Flockhart works as Cat Grant, but so far she has had little to do but sit behind a desk and be powerful.  She's a nice foil, and certainly plays the hard-as-nails, magazine mogul with a streak of sexiness well.  For what little scene work she had, she made the most of it.

Jeremy Jordan, a relative newcomer who has had guest appearances on other series, plays Kara's techno-nerd, co-worker, Winn Schott, the guy who Kara sees as a friend but clearly has a crush on her.  He becomes her original confidant, that is, only until she realizes James Olsen knows everything (all within forty minutes).  How he'll fit in is questionable. Will he become her nemesis eventually because he knows her secret?  Turns out a lot of people know her secret.

The Second attempt at a costume for Kara.

Chyler Leigh does a nice job with Kara's sister Alex, though she's a little too quick to offer up the jealousy she's held of her sibling all her life when Kara suddenly needs inspiration.  That's not the actor's fault so much as the script's, and Chyler holds a delicate balance between hard-nosed operative and protective/worried big sister who knows the world better than her sibling.  She is unable to hold it at the moment she finds out none of her credentials as a biologist mattered to the DEO.  Her reaction was odd, played almost as if she were happy to hear the news instead of stunned, belittled and expendable.

David Harewood rounds out the cast as Hank Henshaw, as a hardened, ex-military type running the underground operations of DEO - Department of Extra-normal Operations.

Faran Tahir, who you will recognize from the film IRONMAN, plays the Commander, and his role isn't really fleshed out in this pilot -- a disappointment to say the least.  Here's to hoping he really gets a lot more time on screen.

Where this pilot episode goes awry is that the time spent trying develop Kara and the world around her is so rushed the viewer has no real sense of things.  Very quickly we find out that not only is Kara aware of her powers but that for some reason she and her family decided she should just stay as 'normal' as possible.  Even though Superman exists in nearby Metropolis, in National City, Kara's home (hmm looks just like Los Angeles), she's just an assistant.  That word in Hollywood and Los Angeles carries with it such dead weight, but with the rest of the world, I'm not sure it rings as true.  She's not a garbage man for crying out loud.  She's like 23, and attached to one of the biggest executives in her city.  Not too shabby actually, but like most 20-somethings, because she's fetching coffee, she's clearly meant for more.  As fast as we're introduced to her normalcy -- a cyber-date gone wrong -- she's forced into action when Alex's plane suffers engine problems.

Amazingly, even after saving the plane by helping it crash land in the bay and climbing up on the wing,  NO ONE on the plane, cell phones clicking and all, could get a clear picture out of their wet windows.  Alex is angered by Kara's desire to expose herself to the world, and Kara seeks out co-worker Winn to help her get ready.  By get ready, Kara and Winn mean to create an outfit.  After a few quick incarnations (overly slutty first try Halloween costume geared towards males, cape issues) Winn gets the costume right, including a cape made of a polymer that won't shred.  How he has access to this and yet has or bought a sewing machine for his same apartment does make him fit the kind of guy few women would date certainly, but just who is he any person with a brain will wonder?

As soon as Kara is fully dressed, she's captured by the DEO using Kryptonite darts, fired with amazing accuracy from several hundred feet below her. She wakes up shackled to a table by low-grade Kryptonite cuffs, where Henshaw introduces her to her sister, the CIA operative. Cue powerful betrayal reveal music here. Turns out her normalcy, as encouraged by her sister Alex, was all about protecting her.

This is again where things start to go fuzzy.  It's explained that when Kara's pod escaped the phantom zone after 20-plus years, she dragged with her Fort Rahz (sp?), a galactic prison (overseen by Krypton we're going to have to assume) which crashed to earth, releasing all sorts of extra-terrestrial ilk on our planet in all directions, including this episodes nemesis, Vartok.  Of course, we have no idea what it is they're planning (Alex alludes to them like they're a group now), and Henshaw points out they've been emerging after having been quiet.  So, we're to assume that all these criminals ended up on earth but waited until the moment Kara grew up to suddenly move forward with their 'plans'?  Coincidentally, many of these criminals were put in jail by Kara's mother, Allura, who I suppose was some kind of inter-planetary cop?  So all of them have a natural chip on their shoulder to seek revenge on Allura's daughter.

While it also makes sense that Alex is part of the DEO (we find out throughout that anything assumed to be secret really isn't - a lot of people know about Kara) it seemed a little too pat.  Nearly as obvious as Kara making the connection that it was no coincidence that Alex's plane to Geneva had engine problems.  The reveal provided nice tension between the two siblings, and here's hoping that this relationship becomes more twisted and complicated.  Of course, why Vartok sabotaged the plane is never explained.  This assumes that the alien prisoners are all aware of the DEO, and what's more, they fear it even though they all aren't Kryptonian (my assumption here).  More bizarre still, Kara's aunt is one of the former prisoners who has come to earth and she's at the helm of this alien collective, intent on ruling earth.

This leaves the pilot rather bland, with Kara's climactic fight with Vartok hardly that.  It adds up to nothing, such that the writers had to add the end teaser of Allura's sister and the Commander, plotting Kara's death and the rise to power on earth.  Why this is all happening now is never even addressed.  And in the end, it's discovered the Alex was only brought to the DEO because of her relation to Kara, something that could set up some heavy resentment between these two siblings, but as yet, we are unsure how this will affect things.

Perhaps the best parts are Kara's scenes with Olsen, who has been sent to protect her.  For Kara to understand through Olsen that heroes are people who choose this sort of destiny on their own and not because they're supposed to cements their love interest in this episode (one of mixed race - holy color cross batman).  "It's what heroes do," he says to her assuredly.

The pilot could have used another half-hour, with less time catering to the teen demographic in the scene of Winn and Kara figuring out here 'outfit' and more time developing the deeper layers of what's intended to be an ongoing complicated plot.  It's as if the episode was shot while it was being written, the first half of which wanted to capture a younger audience, and the second half of which wanted to confront the conspiracies, lies and secrets of an alien plot slowly unfolding on earth.

The cast is good, and the creators have planted some decent seeds.  Now they really need to let go of the kitsch and let this character fly.  But that will only happen if they can decide what kind of series they want this to be. It's certainly not Smallville, which did away with any kitsch in an attempt to make things seem very real and very serious, and it's not Wonder Woman of the 1970's for lack of a better comparison.  It's more like a cross between Saved By the Bell meets Wonder Woman, with occasionally stilted dialogue, neat and quick scenes that provide plot movement but not so much depth, and some really nice moments that matter, with some undertones of darkness.

Executive Producer Greg Berlanti may have his greatest challenge on his hands making Supergirl work, particularly on a network like CBS.  Berlanti sowed his creative seeds in sentimental tween/young adult, female programming like Dawson's Creek and Everwood.  At times, you can feel some of that influence pushing itself into this show to make it play younger.  With the show already facing the stigmas of female superheroes not being strong enough to carry a show in a seemingly male-dominated targeted world of prime time television and yet teen friendly enough to be cool, hip and exciting, Berlanti has a delicate ocean to navigate.  CBS is too traditional to ever have made Supergirl the way Smallville was created, and you have to wonder if this show is misplaced here.  However, if anyone can pull it off, it may be Berlanti, who already has two superhero successes running in The Flash and Arrow.  However, just like Supergirl, he's got his work cut out for him.

PS - is it me, or does Benoist have a tattoo on her left thigh right above her knee high boots that they're trying to cover with the dark pantyhose?  I spotted what looked like one twice in the show and in some of the press as well.  Actors should note -- another reason you need to think about where you place tattoos before getting them.