Kris and Annie chat about the first season of CBS/The CW’s Supergirl. The series follows Kara Danvers, an alien from the planet Krypton, as she learns to become a superhero with the help of her friends and family. We discuss why we love it and why Annie wasn’t so sure about it at first.

What It’s About

• Based on the DC Comics character
• Our main character is Kara, who was sent to earth to protect her cousin Kal-El (AKA Superman). Instead, she gets sent off course and gets to earth decades after he does. She gets placed with the Danvers family, including her adopted sister Alex.
• Alex works for the DEO (Department of Extra-Normal Operations), a secret government organization that protects the earth from alien threats.
• Kara works at CatCo, a multimedia company owned by Cat Grant (played by Calista Flockhart).
• The series follows Kara as she becomes Supergirl and learns how to be a superhero.

Annie’s Opinion

Caution: SPOILERS

• It took me a few episodes to get into, but I really like Supergirl as a series with a lot of wholesome charm and lightness, compared to a lot of ‘darker’ series out there.
• The series did start with a few too many one-off stories in my opinion, with the ‘this is what we learned from this ep’ kind of neat, tidy wrap up. But the characters built up nicely as the season continued.
• The strength of the series is the Danvers’ sisters relationship and Kara’s relationships with Winn and James as they balance her human life versus the learning curve of what it means to be a superhero.
• Cat also grew on me as she has her own unique, almost passive-aggressive way of supporting Supergirl and Kara as an assistant. And I really like how Hank grew as a character, from what seemed like a cardboard cutout government DEO agent, to being revealed as J’onn J’onzz and a father figure who would do anything to protect Kara and Alex.
• Some of the villains are really too silly looking for me (Silver Banshee, the parasitic alien in 1×13), and I find Maxwell Lord’s constant hubris annoying.
• But to balance those quibbles, there are some emotional, heartbreaking moments I really loved, such as Winn confessing he loves Kara, Alex sobbing in Kara’s arms when she confesses she killed Astra and the storyline of Kara being affected by the red Kryptonite.
• Overall, I enjoyed the series as it progressed, picked up steam, and am looking forward to the second season.

Kris’s Opinion

• Full disclosure: I went into this series wanting to like it. But I didn’t love the first episode. Unlike most of my friends, I found Cat grating and just wasn’t sure what to make of the show. But I liked it well enough and was optimistic that it would improve and/or grow on me. And it did.
• For me, superhero stories should be about hope and optimism, and those have been rare lately. But this series revolves around them. They are what Kara is all about. This isn’t to say that the show ignores darker things — it’s about using hope to fight against them.
• Also! The most important thing in the show is the bond between Kara and Alex, and I’m all about that.

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