It was a pleasure to wake up at 8 am this wonderful Saturday morning (and not sleep in till 10 like yesterday) to find that the 'Supergirl' pilot had leaked online. Now after watching that 6 minute 'trailer', I was not at all impressed-the music made it feel just...blurgh, like 'Dramedy Show Directed At Females No. 73', and...yeah. Was not impressed. Therefore when I discovered the pilot had leaked, I was more going to watch it just to satisfy a lingering piece of curiosity that I had yet to quash.
And I'm glad I did.
Before I get onto the characters (due to 'flow' they lead pretty well into SPOILER territory, which I want to leave till the end) I will say that the CGI is fantastic and definitely finished. Blue heat vision was an interesting touch, and her impacts look real. The falling plane near the beginning of the episode looks believable, and her flying is done in such a way that works for TV-sure certain shots (moreso 'hovering' ones) make the wirework very obvious and they do closeups on Kara to save time and money, but it generally looks quite good.
Melissa Benoist does a good job. The other day I saw 'Whiplash' for the first time (FANTASTIC movie!) and didn't even realise that all-too-brief girlfriend was actually her until I looked the film up on IMDB. That was how much of an impression she left on me in that movie. Here though, she is great. Kara is vulnerable, innocent, and unsure of herself-to be honest, it was a welcome change from the 'I'm automatically confident and heroic' first outings of Berlanti's other heroes (granted, Oliver spent 5 years 'around' doing 'things', but still). I was impressed that they didn't mess around either-within the first ten minutes (roughly) she was saving a plane and showing herself off to the world. It didn't take her TEN GODDAMN YEARS like her cousin *cough* Smallville *cough*.
Chyler Leigh as Alexandra 'Alex' Danvers was...interesting. Initially just Kara's mysterious adoptive sister, she is eventually revealed to be working for the Department of Extranormal Operations (D.E.O.-and I'll come back to that). She is supportive of her sister but at the same time she is somewhat manipulative and secretive, though she later admits that she was jealous of Kara's gifts and the fact that it drew all attention away from her. She's a hard to read character-however, it is easy to determine what destiny they are telegraphing for her. Brilliant scientist working with alien stuff; red-tinged hair; initially a very close ally to out 'Super' protagonist; ner name is 'Alex'. Despite the fact that Superman and, presumably, Lex Luthor do exist in this universe, I could easily see the series pulling the same trick as 'Superman: Earth One-Volume 3' and giving us what is essentially a female Lex.
Let's talk about the rest of the cast. Winslow 'Winn' Schott does his job. He's a techie at CatCo that sits across from Kara (for some reason) that is clearly interested in her. I don't really know why he is the first person she tells about her powers-I mean presumably they're friends, but it just kind of comes out on the fly, as if she were just so bustling with excitement that she had to tell SOMEONE. To be honest...he kinda acts like more like the 'gay best friend' than the tech support, helping her choose her uniform and whatnot, but oh well. No Toyman telegraphing yet, but I'm sure we'll get it eventually.
I was surprisingly okay with Mehcad Brooks as James Olsen. Usually race change (i.e. making a white character black) is a big initial turnoff for me that usually surprises me, and here it also does so. This is obviously a more mature and confident Jimmy than we're used to, which makes sense given the show's timeline, and he pulled it off very well. I DID like the fact that while he was inevitably portrayed as the 'male specimen' (this Jimmy is BUFF) he was not turned into a love interest for Kara because frankly, if he was, it wouldn't have worked. I much prefer 'Buff Guardian James Olsen' to 'Buff Lover James Olsen'. His relationship with Kara may change throughout the show, but right now I'm fine with it.
Calista Flockhart was overall 'meh' as Cat Grant. The 'icy bitch boss' trope is a familiar one and her character is given no depth outside of that cutout; I know her character from the comics is just as self-absorbed, so I didn't really expect anything less. She serves well enough. That 'girl' exchange with Kara from the trailer still remains soul crushing however. David Harewood is fine as Hank Henshaw, the director of the D.E.O. that Alex works for. He is the show's resident hardass and fills the role perfectly fine. They have yet to telegraph his future fate as (Black) Cyborg Superman but I assume it will have something to do with all the wonderful alien tech they have. Owain Yeoman was fine as Vartox, a decent initial obstacle for Kara to overcome with a wicked axe. Nothing like his comic book character, but still good enough. Also, he commits suicide by piece-of-axe if you were wondering. Lastly, it was nice to briefly see Dean Cain and Helen Slater in yet another 'Super show as Fred and Sylvia Danvers.
Now into SPOILER territory.
So basically the reason Kara was well behind little Kal-El on the trip to Earth is because she got stuck in the Phantom Zone. That little nugget got me excited. The exposition we are so helpfully provided by Harewood's Hank Henshaw is that when Kara's ship came through roughly...12 years prior to the show, she brought 'Fort Rozz', a Kryptonian prison, through with her. Most of the aliens imprisoned there (such as Vartox) escaped, but have mostly been quiet for the last decade-the D.E.O.'s job is to investigate these aliens. It is mentioned that Alura In-Ze, Kara's mother, was the jailer for Fort Rozz, and now these alien criminals want revenge the only way they can-on Kara.
Now this repurposing of Alura initially struck me as odd-I thought it would make more sense to focus on Zor-El and connect to the El clan hamfistedly. Alura was the main focus of Kara's pre-journey sequence, reassuring her daughter and giving the viewer a clear look at the face of the actress portraying her, Laura Benanti. Later in the episode, when Kara just happened to need some moral support, Alex shows her a hologram message from her mother taken from part of her ship-again showing us Benanti.
Early in the episode, Vartox converses with Faran Tahir's 'Commander' via some video message thingy, and the Commander mentions 'The General's arrival is imminent'. Now that plus the Phantom Zone thing and the presence of alien criminals pointed me to one thing-General Zod. They've interchanged Jor-El and Alura for the purposes of the show, Zod wants revenge on Supergirl yada yada. I was hyped. We get to the final scene, with the Commander talking to what we are lead to believe is the as-yet unnamed General...played by Laura Benanti with a streak of grey in her hair. She talks about wanting to 'lead Krypton into tomorrow' (or something) and orders the Commander to have Kara, her 'niece', killed. As we get a good look at her uniform it contains a diagonal zip/thin stripe very reminiscent of Zod (or just Kryptonian military uniform).
It then hits me-we have a female Zod (not sure they will call her Zod for fear of...fanboy repercussions) now connected by blood to Kara. A very personal feud. Now if this is in fact 'Zod In-Ze' then I'll be somewhat irked by the fact that a) one of Superman's three most famous villains has been stolen just so they can use him/her on the show and b) HE'S A SHE! If however they choose to make the character not-Zod, it will feel like the buildup was cheap and we are merely getting an invented substitute. While the stakes have been raised and the season will obviously contain an excitingly personal villain, I can't help but see a no-win scenario here in terms of pleasing the fans. Maybe others feel differently, but that's my take on it.
All in all, the episode is mostly solid and sets up an interesting season with potentially very interesting destinies for some of our characters. Berlanti has used Superman's mythos to create something new and different such that 'Supergirl' isn't just 'using' Superman's characters, but is doing so inventively.
7/10