movies/tv Just watched a Supergirl episode; Severely Underwhelming

[Buck Testa 5,505]

So I have this housemate whom likes to watch television, and at times she likes to get people to watch it with her. I'm not really into tv and haven't been for years save for certain programming I look up online, but when she brought up that this relatively new Supergirl show was on I decided to give it a try. 

 

See movies and live action shows/movies have a really hard time writing superheroes that happen to be female. Instead of focusing on who the character is they try to say "Look she's a woman! Isn't that great!" 

 

I was hoping Supergirl would be able to rise above that, but alas no it was as openly generic and as much of a cookie cuter of the Superman formula as anyone could possibly stomach. It wasn't bad in the traditional sense of the word. It was worse

 

It was Mediocre 

 

If there is anything shows like My Little Pony have shown, its that you can make a female character that is MORE than their gender. Good male characters don't parade the fact they are a man, if they did they would all be Duke Nukem and that would get old really fast. Being Male is not a valid crutch for characterization. Nor is being Female. Our pony show doesn't use that crutch, and its supposedly a show for little girls, so why is it that a Super hero show which is supposedly aimed at adults leaning on it?

 

I'm not imagining this either; They have Supergirl working in a News reporting establishment that's in competition with the Daily Planet, they have a female version of the Daily Planet ceo, she's walking about with Glasses acting all awkward, has a romance with one of her co-workers, and goes about superheroing in pretty much the same way. They constantly reference superman, they constantly compare her to superman, and they pretty much sampled straight from his formula. 

 

They could of worked her character in any number of different angles, something to make her her own person, her own character, instead she is just a mere genderswap of another character. They've been able to expand her character before in the comics and the animated movies 

 

Look at this version of Super Girl, just this scene, nothing else, with her barely talking, still comes off as a more interesting than what this episode put out 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALCkGgTuIQg

 

Its not because its a fight scene or anything like that, its because she looks like she is determined, that she is invested, that she knows what stakes comes with her powers. The one from this live action show for "adults" was so predictable and by the numbers you might as well of just laid out the bullet points of what the episode was about and save everyone the trouble of slogging through it. 

 

It could of been so much better, so much more than some cookie cutter superman knockoff; She was working for some secret government facility for example, why the hell does she also work at this journalist building as well then? Why does she have a secret identity at all? Just because Superman does it doesn't mean She has to as well. Its a ton of wasted potential and it makes me sad and frustrated, especially in a day and age where superheroes are finally earning some respect and recognition. Supergirl deserved better than this phoned in script, not because she is female, but because she has the potential to be a great character, just like the characters of My little pony all have the potential to be great characters in their own right. 

 

[cider float 2,539]

What do you expect from a character that is a copy paste of an already known superhero. I really don't like how DC Comics has to make a similar character of an already existing one over and over again. Like the multiple Green Lanterns, Superman/Superboy/Supergirl/Power Girl/Superwoman, Batman/Robin/Batgirl/Nightwing. 

 

They should just make a whole different character. 

 

Also you're comparing a cartoon with live action. In real life people can't act as good as cartoon characters not to mention they can't do stunts as well as cartoon characters. CGI doesn't help much in the way of covering up how well they act in a fight since CGI is a bit lifeless and dead. Also that cartoon fight scene seems heavily anime inspired, anime is even harder to emulate in real life and doubt anyone in a western crew would understand it as much.

Edited November 3, 2015 by cider float