Supergirl Pilot Thread (and reaction)

I hope one day, it well be real.

I suppose we will have to endure a bunch of reviews like this from The Daily Beast:

www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/05/1...ss-of-superhero.html

Where I can, I'm adding positive comments to reviews. A battle will be fought in social/news media over this, so every voice can make a difference. We aren't many, but we can be loud.

Shadar

lfan wrote:

shadar wrote: I suppose we will have to endure a bunch of reviews like this from The Daily Beast:

www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/05/1...ss-of-superhero.html

Where I can, I'm adding positive comments to reviews. A battle will be fought in social/news media over this, so every voice can make a difference. We aren't many, but we can be loud.

Shadar

Her opening complaint:
"She’s a sweet-hearted single gal who’s a klutz around men, hides behind a sensible ponytail and glasses, and can’t quite figure out how to make the most of her potential"

Very non-empowering and pathetic is right....sounds a little like Clark Kent....

Exactly... why is it OK for Clark to act this way but not Kara? That's feminism speaking. I figured show show would be on safe ground by dumping more than her fair share of Clarkisms into the story, but apparently not for some.

However, I think this will play just fine with the audience that's likely to watch the show.

Shadar

Woodclaw wrote:

shadar wrote: There are some points I don't like... for one, when she's talking to Alexa and she says she can lift a bus and is bulletproof and "I can fly... I think" was a problem for me. Not a problem with the shows drama or storyline or characters and actors, but its premise.

Its the idea that she's never tried out her Kryptonian abilities. Totally implausible.

She knows her history and origin, she certain sees and hears about her cousin all the time, but she's never tried to fly? How could anyone growing up on Earth with those astounding abilities never even try to use them. That's insane. Or at the very least, totally implausible. Any teenage girl (if not younger) will explore her limits.

But it's a premise of the show that will quickly be behind us, and most comic books have bizarre premises and backstories. But this one is weak. If she was so traumatized by Krypton's destruction and so smothered in her foster home as to not even try out her abilities, then she'd be a very scarred, screwed-up young woman. Instead, she seems quite together.

Further, once she does try to fly (a few awkward bounces along a dark alleyway) she suddenly is so good at it that she can lift a crashing airliner over a bridge and everything else. I know, its a comic book, but still.

Clark's inability to fly in Smallville was also bizarre, but plausible. He simply didn't believe he could do it. He tried and failed all the time. Kara in Supergirl, in contrast, believes she can, but she just hasn't bothered to try until her sister is in trouble.

Try to put yourself in her place. If you were Kryptonian, would you grow up into your mid-twenties without even TRYING to use your birth abilities? It's inconceivable.

Anyway, this is a comics-inspired show, so these kinds of nonsensical things will necesssarily be part of it. But I hope they come up with a better explanation for her restraint than we've seen so far.

Shadar

I'm going into this from a slightly different perspective Shadar. In many modern retolds of Superman's story ever since the original Crisis the assumption is that flight is one of the last, if not the last ability that a Kryptonian develops under a yellow sun. As such we can assume that Kara had tried in the past, but failed because he cells weren't charged enough. She knows she should be able to fly because Clark flies, but she hasn't been able to do it yet. She knows she has other abilities because she had tested her limits before -- as you suggest -- but flight is still an unknown quantity for her.
On the subejct of her being able to master her powers in a matter of minutes ... this is unfortunately very in line with the source material. As far as I remember the only time someone remembered that there should be difficulties for a Kryptonian, other than Clark, to master his extra powers was in "Man of Steel".

You've just provided a plausible explanation, Woodclaw. She simply hasn't been able to, but when her sister is in danger, she makes a breakthrough. That works. There are other ways to do that as well. But the trailers didn't address it. Whether the show will, or whether they'll just blow past it, is an open question.

When I try to look at this logically (always a challenge with comic book characters), flight would seem to be something that would take a LOT of practice to get right. All the reflexes that we use to walk around are suddenly wrong. Hell, even birds have to learn now to fly, and are not skillful for some time. Something I enjoy watching every Spring.

Kryptonians didn't fly on their home planet, so they've got to learn.

Anyway, its something I think Smallville handled fairly well, but so far, Supergirl does not. Not exactly a nit, but not a deal breaker.

And don't forget, Smallville established the stated premise that Kryptonian girls mature faster than boys, which is why Smallville's Kara could fly with great skill when Clark could only crash.

For what its worth...

Shadar

lfan wrote:

shadar wrote: I suppose we will have to endure a bunch of reviews like this from The Daily Beast:

www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/05/1...ss-of-superhero.html

Where I can, I'm adding positive comments to reviews. A battle will be fought in social/news media over this, so every voice can make a difference. We aren't many, but we can be loud.

Shadar

Her opening complaint:
"She’s a sweet-hearted single gal who’s a klutz around men, hides behind a sensible ponytail and glasses, and can’t quite figure out how to make the most of her potential"

Very non-empowering and pathetic is right....sounds a little like Clark Kent....

Almost ALL of the comments are "this review is bad", "hey, that sounds like Clark Kent", etc. A few people didn't like the trailer -- but almost none of them walked away with the opinion of the article. The negative comments (on Supergirl) were a tiny minority and a LOT of people took offense with the tone of the article.

TwiceOnThursdays wrote:

lfan wrote:

shadar wrote: I suppose we will have to endure a bunch of reviews like this from The Daily Beast:

www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/05/1...ss-of-superhero.html

Where I can, I'm adding positive comments to reviews. A battle will be fought in social/news media over this, so every voice can make a difference. We aren't many, but we can be loud.

Shadar

Her opening complaint:
"She’s a sweet-hearted single gal who’s a klutz around men, hides behind a sensible ponytail and glasses, and can’t quite figure out how to make the most of her potential"

Very non-empowering and pathetic is right....sounds a little like Clark Kent....

Almost ALL of the comments are "this review is bad", "hey, that sounds like Clark Kent", etc. A few people didn't like the trailer -- but almost none of them walked away with the opinion of the article. The negative comments (on Supergirl) were a tiny minority and a LOT of people took offense with the tone of the article.

Based on the comments (presumably) Daily Beast changed the headline for the article on their main page, where it had high billing. Instead of "Awful" they changed it to "supercliched". Title on the article itself didn't change though.

What that says is that their editor saw and responded to the comments and the tone of the article. That was good.

Usually comments are a waste on News sites, but if you get in with a well-written, sane comment when there are less than 50 or so of them, you sometimes can influence things. DC/Warner/CBS or their agents mine information from social, entertainment and news media and put together presentations to the decision makers about what viewers think. It would be interesting to see how they organize and categorize them.

The best you can hope for is to post an early comment that is written well enough that portions of it might be quoted in their reports to illustrate what some groups of people are saying.

Shadar

Well, my wife loved it as well. Starting as a shy, clumbsy nerd is not all bad. Hopefully we will get a chance to watch her tgrow into being a confident, skilled young lady, a transition that I will enjoy watching.

3.5 million hits as of now.

ace191 wrote: 3.5 million hits as of now.

I may be responsible for about 0.005 of a million of that These new trailers are absolutely awesome

TwiceOnThursdays wrote: I have to say the music is the weakest part of this. Better choices and this would have knocked itself even higher (but make it makes it score better with the target demo).

And it seems REALLY odd that Superman would send James Olson to give her his baby blanket as a cape, and tell her what he things. It seems very ... cold. He's literally the only tie she has to her ENTIRE HOMEWARD, and he sends a messenger boy? I guess there is a them "Superman is a dick", but I don't think this is the message they were trying to send.

I also hope they explore a bit about her being really alien, far more than Clark is. In a very real sense Clark was born on Earth. Kara was born on Krypton. I could see her burying that part of her thru trauma. And now she'll be dealing with some of that, and that could make some interesting stories. I suspect that they'll make ti seem all good. I hope not, I hope for something more than just some angsty "My planet blew up" but some real indication of what it's like, and how she had to learn to cope. Still the tone is light, so it's also a thing we should only see in more quiet moments, little beats to show that her being positive and happy is a sign of great emotional strength.

It's also something that when she's being positive and happy, a character filled with light, that when she meets some of the more... angsty fellows and they take her for some bubblehead cheerleader, she can slap them down. "Oh, boo hoo. Your parents were shot in an alley and you saw it. I saw my ENTIRE PLANET explode."

Well you know, i think we may get some of the alien trauma stuff-but probabbly not in the first episode. That something they can explore in latter episodes. Give it some time to breath.

And It suprising. CBS made a big deal that there getting Bradley Cooper to do a reacuring guest star in there Limitless show. Hes a bigger actor then Henry Cavil. I suspect they may save him for the season finale or something...or just not have him in here.

Supergirls problem from day one was she was always described as a character in Supermans shadow...but they seemed the very concious choice to have him be the character in the shadows here...not what i would have done, but welst such is life.

And i think no chance of any refrence to batman. Hes going agianst her in the timeslot:)

Wow, i have seen some bile-driven tearing aparts of the trailer/show on some blogs. This is going to be a very divisive show i think. Negativity breeds easier than hope, so staying positive is the best way to go.

I've only just managed to watch all the trailers now and wow. Just... Wow. The action is what I've been dreaming about since 1984.

Melissa is absolutely perfect both in and out of costume. I'm not sure about the cat grant stuff but frankly I'm in this for supergirl being super and that side of things has supassed my already quite high hopes.

So excited!

Really excited.
Thank you to all SWM crisis-team for their very good job huntig news and trailers.

SHTL.

5.3 million now on the first trailer. That is a lot of buzz for free for CBS. I would suggest that we all share that link with our friends and family and get the word out. Any guesses on how many hits there will be in the first month?

mikeyfreedom wrote: Wow, i have seen some bile-driven tearing aparts of the trailer/show on some blogs. This is going to be a very divisive show i think. Negativity breeds easier than hope, so staying positive is the best way to go.

Wellst i think there was always going to be a cntingent of people who weren't going to like it for the "hey we changed her story!! (which they WOULD NEVER DO Io Supergirl), and yeah a contingent of JimmyOlLsen hes black!!!

But looking at mainstream sites(was looking at slate and said), i think a lot is has been said. The Action great(Which for a TV show is a hard thing). The kinda generic Womans life stuff to a lot of movies, and yeah the age of ultron spoof- Ehhh.

It does seem kinda of generic and i think a lot of Female critics in particuarl have read have kinda suggested its a pandery and boring. Which is something you know is maybe true.

But i will say this: Action is fairly easy to show in a 5 minute trailer.

The normal day stuff a little less so... the Newspaper depends on a lot of little beats and tics, interplay at the office, how people react with each other. I have been hard on the Sister stuff, and that doesn't look good to me..but you know maybe i'm wrong

and to be honest-one hour maybe not enough time. This after all a pilot, so what can they do for 24 weeks with this material? I have kinda thought that part of the problem is that both The Olsen and her sister plotlines seem as if they have kinda of gone all they can go...but well agian see what they can do. There is a long history of TV Shows with workbased plots, family based plots etc. they could do stuff with this. And well you need her to do stuff out of the costume and be a normal people each week-hope they do a good job of it.

lfan wrote:

mikeyfreedom wrote: Wow, i have seen some bile-driven tearing aparts of the trailer/show on some blogs. This is going to be a very divisive show i think. Negativity breeds easier than hope, so staying positive is the best way to go.

Comic book adaptations are always polarising on the forums. Similarly, bloggers always are always writing click bait articles for the sake of controversy (see the latest Whedon/BW controversy).

Superman is too dark, Supergirl is too light....we need a female superhero film that girls and women will like, this show is crap and only appeals to females.....etc. You can't completely please any group of more then 3 people with anything, I swear!

That said, the positive reactions -- including the "pleasantly surprised" crowd -- definitely outweigh the negatives, as I've combed several comic forums as well as more mainstream sites like EW and screenrant.

I think the second trailer which is more action-based and less "chick-flicky" definitely helped with some people....

ElF

The second trailer definitely helped with me. Hopefully the show will be more action based like that.

However, I cannot get the first part of the first trailer out of my head. It was definitely horrendous timing to release that first trailer just a week after the Black Widow SNL skit everyone just saw. I mean, that was the first thing that went through my head when I was watching the SG trailer: "OMG, this is almost exactly like that Black Widow parody. I can see this having some sort of backlash." Sure enough, other people noticed, like the article above, and have commented.

To be clear, I really want the show to do well and plan to tune in as much as possible, despite my reservations. I have no desire to add to the drumbeat of negativity that most comic book properties (especially WB/DC) seem to get. That would be a waste of time of which I do not have a lot to spare.

I wonder if we will see a temporary shared power transfer similar to Lana in Wrath or UltraWoman with a girl colleague at work or with her sister? Getting way ahead of myself...Calm down Monty!