I went back 15 pages in "Movies & TV" and didn't see a Season 6 Supergirl thread, so I started one. If one already exists, I apologize to whomever created it. But I had a lot of things I wanted to say before the show is gone.
Oh yeah, this is the last season. I thought that I should mention that, just in case anybody doesn't know it (which I doubt). The final episode is scheduled for Nov. 9. I expect that night will see the last two episodes, if my math is right. Also, Stargirl usually pairs with Supergirl on Tuesdays, as it does on Nov. 2 when the second season finale of Stargirl airs. Both Flash and Riverdale return on Tuesday, Nov. 16. So what fills the second CW hole on Tuesday, Nov. 9, when it's just Supergirl? Another Supergirl, of course.
I will miss the show in many ways, not the least of which is Melissa Benoist. She hit the perfect blend of selfless optimism and strong-minded determination, among her many other charms. She's just damn convincing as the person we all want Supergirl to be. (Comics writers, take note.)
That being said, Benoist just had a baby (in between Seasons 5 and 6), she's not in her 20s any more (she's 33), she's recently married (to the guy who played Mon-El), and she's probably damn tired of wire work. (Actually, she has said in public that she's damn tired of wire work.) I can see that she might be ready to hang up her cape.
I think the official reason the show is ending is ratings, but they really haven't changed that much, so I suspect it's because Benoist is done. If that's the case, I don't blame her. She might not want to continue being SuperGIRL when she's pushing 40, so now's the time to get out.
Robert Downey Jr. had the same attitude about playing Iron Man into his 60s -- i.e., he thought it would look silly -- so he asked to be written out. If Benoist thinks now is the time to turn in her Justice League card, I think she's right as well.
Still, she still has the looks for it. That can't be said for all the cast members. Like all long-running shows, the characters are frozen in amber, but the actors are not. And not all actors age well. It's tough to see some of them -- I won't name names -- still pretending to be in their 20s when they look 40-ish. There's a cognitive dissonance there, where your brain is telling you "that person is too old/mature to be saying and doing the young adult things they're saying and doing." I've hit that point with Supergirl.
Another nagging problem is that, as the show has aged, the writers have gotten bolder with their liberalism. I don't mind the attitude -- I pretty much agree with all their points -- but I don't like screeds. There was an episode recently ("Blind Spots") that was so damn preachy that my wife and I were both disgusted. It was so bad that my wife didn't want to watch Supergirl any more. I talked her out of it, but it's a good thing it's ending. I wouldn't have been able to talk her into Season 7 or 8.
Also, everybody in the episode except for Kelly Olsen (Azie Tesfai) had to carry the Idiot Ball. If you haven't heard the term, it's a TV writer's phrase for a character who has to act out of character for the plot to work. (Usually by being really stupid, even when the character is supposed to be smart.) In "Blind Spots," all the Super Friends had to ignore and shush Kelly when she was complaining about black people not being seen/heard.
Yes. In the show, a character is saying "you don't listen to me" and the other characters, literally, are all "I'm not listening to you."
Jesus H. Christ on a cracker! Sure, that probably happens. But on THIS show? Nonsense! Everybody on this show is so woke that they would probably have all argued with each other to see who could listen to Kelly the most! They would fallen over each other trying to help her. But no, they were all carrying the Idiot Ball.
Kelly, though, was absolutely right that people of color are often ignored or pushed out of the conversation. That is endemic in our society -- yes, it's part of institutionalized racism, whether you choose to believe that exists or not -- but THESE people wouldn't do it.
But they did. For example, Alex Danvers comes dangerously close to telling her girlfriend (Kelly) to shut up and sit down, when normally she fawns over her to the point that I start to feel diabetic. This was just bad writing, done to make a political point, and that's called a "soapbox." And that isn't good television.
I've also started feeling sorry for David Harewood, who plays Martian Manhunter. Not only are his super-powers always inadequate to the job -- Supergirl, after all, has to be the one to save the day -- but there was a flurry of B plots which made him look erratic and possibly demented.
Not any individual one, mind you. But in succession. One B plot had him overreacting to his girlfriend and overprotecting her, to the point where he ended up being a total d!ck. Then, in the next B plot, he was ignoring her to the point where he was once again a d!ck. But the two positions were diametrically opposed! Not only are both positions un-heroic, but taken together he looks like he can't behave like an adult.
And that wasn't all of them!
I understand B plots, and why they're necessary, and why they are forgotten as soon as they resolved. They're basically filler. But taken big picture, as if these were real people, J'onn J'onzz came off as the exact opposite of his stolid, dependable character. It looked like he was having some kind of breakdown.
And again, this is in conjunction with his constant failure as a superhero. Almost every time he leaps into the fray, he fails. He HAS to (just like Mon-El had to), in order for Supergirl to shine. Again, I get it. She's the headliner. We're watching Supergirl, not The Amazing Adventures of the Manhunter from Mars. But do they have to be so obvious about it? We're at the point that whenever Martian Manhunter succeeds at something, my wife says, "Oh, look, he didn't eff that up for a change."
Also, do this trick: Watch him, and just him, in almost any given episode. Almost every time he delivers a line, he strides purposefully past the camera. I know what he's doing: He's looking purposeful, but also getting out of the way of the actors who have the next line. (And he's often the director.) But here's what I love doing: I watch where he's going. He is striding purposefully ... to nowhere. He just gets to the end of the set, and turns around. (Sometimes he squints at a screen first. But then, when he has more dialogue, he turns around. And probably strides again.)
Every time he does it now, by wife and cheerfully shout, "Where are you going J'onn?" It's actually kind of fun.
One last thing, and this one is probably just me. But I wanted to ask, in case anybody else feels the same way. And it's this:
Does anybody else get their nose out of joint when Catco CEO Andrea Rojas (Julie Gonazalo) chews out William Dey (Staz Nair), or tells him how to do his job?
I get kinda angry -- and I don't even like the character! I wish they'd write him out! Too late for that, I guess, but if he's gonna be there ...
... I don't want Andrea slapping him around. Because this: According to the show, Dey is an award-winning journalist who has worked undercover with gangsters, terrorists and other dangerous types all over the world. He not only survived, somehow, but came out with award-winning stories.
Meanwhile, Andrea ... inherited the company from her father.
See my point? This woman has never done anything, succeeded at anything, achieved anything, on her own. And she's bossing around a guy who tricked terrorists into giving him information, at the peril of his life?
I DON'T THINK SO. It just ticks me off. Am I alone?
Replies
I've never seen the show, but Andrea Rojas was the Mexican super-hero Acrata in the comics. Is she Acrata here, too?
Thanks for fixing the oversight of a Season 6 thread for Supergirl.
I'm in it to the end, but I have to confess I haven't really enjoyed it for a long while, although I agree with pretty much everything you said. Melissa Benoist is a winner as Supergirl and as Kara, and that's what's keeping me coming back. The others? Not so much.
Like Catco CEO Andrea Rojas and William Dey. It's a little too close to home for me to see the owner who doesn't know anything about what she's doing boss around the peons who do. It's (cheap) conflict, but it's sadly all too realistic, that somebody in that position thinks their money gives them wisdom, and that making one right call makes them think they know everything ... even when every other call they make is wrong.*
Likewise, I have little patience for Nura Nal and Lena Luthor. Bo- ring.
And "Blind Spots" was objectively terrible, for exactly all the reasons described above. All that was missing was a "Very Special Episode" label.
* (For one sorry case in point, here's a litany of missteps by Dan Snyder, owner of the Washington Football Team: "Happy 20th Anniversary, Dan Snyder. Washington Fans Are Not Cheering.")**
** (This was written before Snyder had to eat his words and change the team name after bluntly declaring in 2013, "We’ll never change the name. It’s that simple. NEVER — you can use caps.”)***
*** (Also before the team was fined $10 million by the NFL for its toxic culture, which included things like pimping out the cheerleaders to big-money fans and secretly photographing and videotaping the cheerleaders in various states of undress when they posed for a calendar ... and compiling a video of the most salacious outtakes for Snyder's personal perusal.)
The Baron said:
She was, after a fashion. Details here from the Arrowverse Wiki: "Andrea Rojas"
Cool, thanks. I wonder why they switrched her from Mexican to Argentine.
ClarkKent_DC said:
I think the optimum number of super-hero TV shows I can watch is two. (That's why I dropped Legends and Black Lightning quite some time ago.) Lately it's been four (Supergirl, Flash, Batwoman and Superman & Lois), but they're staggered so I don't have to watch more than three at a time. Batwoman (my least favorite of the four) has been on the cusp of being dropped for some time now. I'm kind of glad one of them is going away; I don't even care that much which one it is.
Speaking of Superman & Lois, there have been lots of complaints that it isn't tied much to Supergirl, even though it's a spinoff from Supergirl. With the pending end of Supergirl, that strategy is looking more and more sensible.
On the other hand, per Deadline: "‘Superman & Lois’: Jenna Dewan to Reprise ‘Supergirl’s' Lucy Lane for CW Series’ Season 2"
This, I believe, will be the first time we've seen both of the Lane sisters together on any of the Arrowverse shows -- or, for that matter, in any live-action Superman story.
It won't be an extended visit, however. Also per Deadline: ""The Rookie’: Jenna Dewan Upped to Series Regular On ABC Series"
The final episode is scheduled for Nov. 9. I expect that night will see the last two episodes, if my math is right.
My DVR confirms this. The final two episodes are on Nov 9. Now that Stargirl's season is over they will use both time slots. (IMO, Stargirl is the best of the Greg Berlanti shows by far)
I generally agree with the comments above. The writing is ham-handed. I also agree with the attitudes expressed on the show, but they are pushed so hard as to be embarrassing.
I hadn't noticed David Harewood's purposeful striding, probably because I only half-watch the screen most of the time. I have noticed that he fails way too often. When I was reading the Martian Manhunter stories as a kid he could be beaten if someone lit a match.
The William Dey character finally walked away from his thankless job. With all of his talent and experience he should have done this much sooner.
I finally caught up with the show so I could respond to this thread. Still haven't watched the Nov 2 show.
Oh, man, I 100% agree with pretty much everything said about this latest Supergirl season. We're way behind -- our next episode will be Blind Spots, so, whee! -- but yeah. It's gotten preachier and preachier (and again, I agree, but tone it down!), Andrea Rojas is INSUFFERABLE, and the heroes are so damn gullible. Benoist is great -- and most of the others can be, when given the chance -- but too often they're not. I'm in it till the end, but I'll be fine when this shuts down, and we get fun guest appearances from the characters in other shows.
Anybody have thoughts on the Supergirl series finale? You know I do ... let me just dig into the Smilies Folder and throw this up:
* This joke lands only if you know Eliza's portrayer, Helen Slater, starred in the movie Supergirl back in the day. If you don't, it's clumsy and out of nowhere.
** There is a constituency that wanted Kara and Lena to become a couple and was angry that they didn't. C'est la'mour.
*** If Calista Flockhart had gone to Vancouver, she would have had to quarantine for two weeks and be tested for two days in a row before any day she actually worked.
**** Kara hasn't had the greatest success in that regard. There was Ron Troupe James (Not Jimmy) Olsen, Adam Foster (played by Melissa Benoist's then-husband Blake Jenner), Mon-El (played by Benoist's then-boyfriend now second husband Chris Wood) and William Dey.
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