Superhero Weekly: For Good, Book of Burial and Shrunk Team Flash

This is a bit of a weird week.

In order of pwnage, Supergirl is really tied with Black Lightning this week and The Flash is a very, very distant third. It’s a close call between the leads, but there were a few things this week that just stalled them both. I’m afraid The Flash is going to be sticking with third place for a while, specially with a story about shrinking people. Ok, let’s go.

Supergirl leads with For Good. Barely.

• Literally, the show was pursuing a few things but the one extraordinary diamond in the rough that shines true was Katie McGrath playing Lena Luthor. The character has sort of an ambiguous aspect that always seems to be one step from the dark destiny of her family. It’s seeing Lena balance her act between accepting who she is and deciding who she wants to be that made the show for me and gives it the first place this week.
• I wanted to feel for Samantha. However, I didn’t feel this character has actually had a lot of scenes with the rest of the cast for them to bond. It really feels a bit forced. Plus the fact that the show had to recall that Alex has a medical background (which I had to check, yes it was there) to have her scan Samantha at LexCorp Labs. Something just didn’t work with that scene.
• The other one is the hallmark moment of Kara, Alex and Lena supporting Samantha. I like Samantha’s character because she’s complex, but the whole “BFFs” feels a little too naive for a buildup that is definitely going to hurt. Perhaps that’s the whole message, but this is looking a little too Disney right now.
• Morgan Edge and Lillian Luthor are back. And they’re out. Their only good scenes were both of them confronting Lena Luthor. Also, one extra point for the scene in which Lena confesses to Kara that she tried to kill Edge, a moment that plays with Kara and the audience until we realize she’s talking about that time she went after him in a previous episode. That had us going for a moment.

Perhaps Black Lightning should’ve taken it this week with Lawanda: Book of Burial.

• Jefferson Pierce continues to be the most interesting character in the show. That being said, and I’m definitely nitpicking here I’m not sure how are we going to balance the realism that permeates the city of Freeland with the superhero aspect. Are we going for full dark and sinister? Are we going to be a little lighter sometimes enough to believe there’s hope? Right now, we don’t know the show so without compromise we’re not seeing neither good nor evil get the upper hand yet.
• There’s interesting dynamics never before explored here. Inspector Henderson (Damon Gupton) representing the underpaid and overworked civil servant versus Reverend Jeremiah Holt (Clifton Powell) who lives from his congregation. I do have my reservations on whether the police inspector is dirty or not though…
• The rising story is Anissa Pierce developing her powers and ending her relationship with Chenoa after flirting with newcomer Grace Choi (Chantal Thuy). Whether Anissa will become Thunder or Grace exhibit any of her comics’ counterpart meta-human abilities remains to be seen.
• We also get another plot concerning Jennifer and her blossoming romance with Khalil. The fact that she’s planning to have sex and sharing this information with her parents is something new. However, Jefferson’s interaction with Khalil was just awkward and unnecessary.
• The villains are definitely still at comic-book level. Seems even Tobias Whale (Marvin Jones the Third) must answer to a higher power. We meet Lady Eve (Jill Scott) who seems to be the only one able to challenge him. I know this is a superhero show and all, but switching from real community problems to James-Bond-esque villains chewing the scenery is a bit of a contrast.

And finally, The Flash lags behind with Honey, I Shrunk Team Flash.

• I didn’t like when Arrow threw in shrinking with The Atom and I don’t think I liked it any better in this week’s episode. The baddie of the week is capable of shrinking objects and people in a way-too-convenient fashion. Again, I know this is a superhero universe but to blatantly ignore the law of the conservation of mass is something I can’t suspend my disbelief over. For me, it’s like if Star Wars’ R2-D2 was able to fly all this time.
• Cecille can read minds now. No, I don’t buy it as a coincidence of her pregnancy. It has to be related to something else. If this is really random then… It’s really random. And lazy.
• The one entertaining bit at the end was the warden discovering Barry and hauling him off to what looks like a meta-containment facility. Seems the warden is in cahoots with Amonet Black (Katee Sackhoff) aka the least convincing villain in the show. The fact that we’ll have Sackhoff doing her cringy evil-lyn act already anticipates the show ending in third place yet again. On the other hand, that also might mean some Killer Frost time.

That will do for now.