Cast: Melissa Benoist, Mehcad Brooks
Creators: Ali Adler, Greg Berlanti, and Andrew
Kreisberg
968 minutes (12) 2016-7
Widescreen ratio 16:9
Warner blu-ray region B
Rating: 7/10
Review by Richard Bowden
“In order to live, we must keep daring,” Kat Grant
advises her protégé Kara Danvers. Unlike DC’s other TV shows, troubled by the muddled
plotting of Arrow and soapy skiffy of
The Flash, the debut season of Supergirl presented a witty balance of
super-heroics and office sit-com. Like Buffy during the 1990s, Supergirl is presented
as a role model, but also now a feminist media icon for 21st century TV, and
this is tremendous fun, boasting innate charm and genre humour to spare. Some
of that goes on in Supergirl: The Complete Second Season,
as when departing guest Superman says “to be continued,” and gets away with it.
The show delivers topical and relevant stories, while avoiding a blatantly campy
attitude towards often light-hearted material.
The kryptonite powered cyborg Metallo is
particularly trying challenge for the high-flying heroine. Meanwhile,
influenced by her visitor Clark Kent, Kara opts to become a reporter for CatCo magazine,
working for news-room editor Snapper Carr, a grouchy kind of Lou Grant as a stickler
for top quality journalism, and staunch defender of the Fourth Estate. In the
absence of Calista Flockhart’s corporate diva Cat Grant, it’s this revisionist
version of Snapper Carr (winningly portrayed by Ian Gomez) who becomes the
heart of maturity offering an intelligent perspective for the second season. Despite
his on-screen presence in only eight episodes, his grumpy charisma overshadows
most of the office scenes, even when he’s off-stage. “A half-truth is a whole
lie.”
Welcome To
Earth features ex-Wonder Woman Lynda Carter as
the President, offering an ‘alien amnesty act’ to calm immigration problems,
while several new ETs appear, with or without any dramatic space-ship arrival
events. There are cage fights for alien gladiators, cop cars in orbit, and yet
more sci-fi weapons alongside references to the climate change debate, lesbian
angst, and questions of moral prejudice or social responsibility, producing unhappy
lives with brave smiles.
Contending with a monster called Parasite, Martian
mutation, a theft of Kryptonian blood, deportation instead of execution, while alien
bounty-hunters are after Supergirl - wanted: dead or alive, our supreme young
super-heroine tackles mightier menaces that her lesser costumed colleagues - in
TV shows Arrow, and The Flash, are simply unable to
overcome.
The cross-over event for this year is the
Dominators alien-invaders storyline that’s out on standalone DVD as Invasion.
The show’s mix of sci-fi themes also has medical a nano-tech
manifestation that becomes a weaponised swarm, while guest star appearances as
familiar DC characters bring unexpected returns for apparent betrayal, predictable
farewells for the common good, and extra-legal shenanigans, in contrast with the
dos & don’ts for rom-com dates. Supergirl and some DEO agents confront
insidious villainy from the Cadmus cabal that’s led by Lillian Luthor (Brenda
Strong). Teri Hatcher and Kevin Sorbo play alien parents, the Queen and King of
planet Daxam. Unfortunately, there is more dreary soap opera instead of appealing
sitcom routines this season, and Supergirl
slips down the rating chart. While this remains a better show than Arrow and The Flash, DC comics on TV is now easily dominated by its breakaway adventure series Legends Of Tomorrow.
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