D.C.'s Supergirl (tv series)

[Angelus Lupus]

Sorry, but do we really need another 'waagh SJW!' and 'waagh, gays!' post from Neil? It's like he wants to be annoyed by the show just so he can come here and complain (over and over)

Me? I'm loving Alex's storyline, it's beautifully handled and very touching. Not that interested ion the whole 'Guardian' thing though.

 

[firesprite]

I don't have any problem with Alex's coming out. They haven't hinted at who she's attracted to prior, so it doesn't feel like a conflict at all. I liked how it was handled as well. It was nice seeing Alex be something other than the bossy, overly protective big sister and it gave Kara a great chance to be supportive of her.

Also, I kind of agree... if you don't dig the show, that's fine. I'm frankly getting a little tired of the constant use of SJW as some kind of pejorative whenever something hits on something people disagree with.

 

[cboath]

Hell, i had to look up SJW and it made me do a massive eyeroll.

Pretty much any story line of that is going to feel out of place to a lot of people watching TV. Why? It's rarely portrayed on TV. Hell, up until what? 20 years ago it probably would've gotten blocked by censors being on at the 8pm so-called 'family hour'.

For crying out loud, people threw massive national hissy fits 15-20 years ago when NYPD blue wanted to say a-hole and show a butt on tv after 10pm. The horror!! There was a show on NBC that lasted maybe 2-3 episodes about a gay group or family or something. I don't know i never saw it. Point being there was a massive campaign to get it tossed BEFORE IT AIRED because people were to cowardly to tolerate it. It really is as simple as 'if you don't like it, don't watch it'. But they were organizing boycotts of the program, network and sponsors and this wasn't very long ago at all. Because it was a show about gay people. Get a life already (them, not anyone here). The point remains, most networks are scared to put that kind of thing in a show due to backlash, so, yeah, it does stick out at people when it happens. That's the way things are.

That said, every show using a story line like that isn't crusading for something. I know it's not popular with a lot of people (frankly, including me) that movies and shows are being cast with diversity being a high requirement. Sometimes it's the best people for the job and sometimes it's not. Where that line is can be hard to tell. Best you can do is see how it plays.

This is playing out really well. I'd wager someone out for social justice would have written this very differently - no heartbreak, happy from start to finish etc. This seems to be playing out well and is fleshing out a character as well. Doesn't feel forced to me at all.

In this day and age though, i'd say get used to it. You're going to see more characters going that route as time goes by.

 

[Laspector]

All I want to know is why was Alex scanning Kara with a barcode scanner? Seriously, I have the exact same one in my office.

 

[KrangPrime]

H Get a life already (them, not anyone here). The point remains, most networks are scared to put that kind of thing in a show due to backlash, so, yeah, it does stick out at people when it happens. That's the way things are.

Yep, understood.

My problem wasn't that it was a gay character. I have no problem with Captain Sing on Flash. Or the other villain on flash who turned hero later on (whose name i forget at the moment). My problem is that it feels like they completely blindsided us with it. good writing, to me, comes with setups or hints. even if it's not obvious later. Not that I Was looking for them, so granted i may have missed them if they where there, but I recalled Danvers either having previously dated, or flirting with the evil tech guy from last season.

Then this comes in and it felt like a ret con going from memory.

Now that I've done a little research on it, I've reversed my stance on it since apparently this character has been that way from the start, so this is how she SHOULD be portrayed. It just would have been nice if they had made a tiny throw away mention of it in the first episode, and then bring it up a few episodes later. For those of us who are comics illiterate in knowledge. saving it now for a giant plot point just seems kind of corny for some reason.

I was also a bit surprised by the mon el sex in a closet scene too. But then i read they went from a PG rating to a TV14 rating, so maybe they want to up the romance a little.

shrug.
oh well. to me, and i felt this way from season one on, which is why i saved up about 10 episodes and binge watched 'em...the writing on this show isn't there yet.. so i think it's an easy give up for me. compared to flash it just seems more of a chore to get through.

- - - Updated - - -

I didn't even bring up Cool Jimmy Going all ninja on an emey that Kara had trouble with, and taking him down in about 5 seconds. ugh.
that's not who the old jimmy is.

 

[firesprite]

A guy with no powers, that uses armor and gadgets is literally the PERFECT guy to go against Parasite, considering it feeds off of super-human abilities.

 

[The Mad Professor]

For crying out loud, people threw massive national hissy fits 15-20 years ago when NYPD blue wanted to say a-hole and show a butt on tv after 10pm. The horror!! There was a show on NBC that lasted maybe 2-3 episodes about a gay group or family or something. I don't know i never saw it. Point being there was a massive campaign to get it tossed BEFORE IT AIRED because people were to cowardly to tolerate it.

Correction: They were perfectly willing to watch it... provided the token gay character was an extremely effeminate male or a very butch female. They were oddly comforted by that particular portrayal because it was readily identifiable. Nobody wanted to see a normal, everyday, average person who happened to be gay because it was scary to think "Wow, they can look just like us!" It would force a lot of people to look in the mirror at themselves. Fun fact: In my experience, the most openly homophobic people I've ever met more often than not turned out to be gay themselves.

All I want to know is why was Alex scanning Kara with a barcode scanner? Seriously, I have the exact same one in my office.

Well, at least you have the prop available, or can get one pretty easily...

but I recalled Danvers either having previously dated, or flirting with the evil tech guy from last season.

To be fair, she was exploiting his ego and his obvious attraction to her in order to do her job. I have a hard time believing, even if she were actually straight, that she would in any way be attracted to the man who has openly declared war on her sister and has actually tried to both discredit and kill her multiple times.

 

[cboath]

Yeah, he had hit on her numerous times in that and preceding episodes and she took him up on it to get info.

As for the out of the blue notion - they pretty clearly explained it. She wasn't aware of it herself until just recently. The mind can try and block things it doesn't understand or doesn't want to admit. That was also used in there as well.

25ish episodes in and to our knowledge she's never had an actual date that the viewer is aware of, or even had a crush on anyone. It's not exactly like they pulled a 180 or anything. You could very much argue it was the plan all along as there's been nothing to contradict it.

 

[Angelus Lupus]

Look, it's simple: pervasive assumed heteronormativity: Basically, most straight people will assume that all TV characters are also straight because society has made that the default. So when one of them isn't straight you'll get people who are confused. They're so stuck in the 'presumed straight' mindset that they'll think they've seen a change from 'straight character' to '***** character' when all they've seen is 'not explicitly defined' to 'I think I'm a lesbian' In this case, even Alex Danvers was so trapped by the idea of 'straight by default' that she buried any feelings to the contrary.
"But they didn't say the character was gay!" No... and they didn't say they were straight, you just assumed because society has made straight 'normal' and anything else 'other'. It's wrong and it's thankfully changing and scenes like Alex's go a long way toward helping people understand.

 

[KrangPrime]

I don't know. it just seems like a jump the shark type moment to me.
If you're going to be brave enough to do it, do it in the first episode with a throw away mention and then move on.
then it becomes a natural feeling part of the show. here, to me, it just seems like they thought it up on a whim for season 2
plot lines, with the cover of 'we where going to in season 1 but didn't have the time'. at the very least, that sounds like bad show planning.
Most of us casual viewers don't know this is how it was supposed to be in the comics.

this is almost the opposite of what the new knight rider did. they had a short scene in the pilot as a throw away joke.
and then it was never brought up again :/.

oh well, I appear to be in the minority on this one, but that's how it came across to me.

 

[ObiWan_Knievil]

I agree, a jump the shark moment... Or at worse it's pandering. I've noticed this show start taking a very preachy turn to the left. First it was the tease last year about a gay character, I'm fine with that. But then the push with the female President and her amnesty for aliens, and now the whole diatribe about "Climate Change Denyers", this show is losing me fast.

-OWK

 

[Angelus Lupus]

I don't know. it just seems like a jump the shark type moment to me.
...do it in the first episode with a throw away mention and then move on.
..knight rider.. had a short scene in the pilot as a throw away joke.

NO
The brave coming out of a character IS NOT and never should be a 'throw away joke'. Please take this disgusting opinion elsewhere. If gay characters (and women) offend you so much STOP WATCHING

 

[CessnaDriver]

I agree, a jump the shark moment... Or at worse it's pandering. I've noticed this show start taking a very preachy turn to the left. First it was the tease last year about a gay character, I'm fine with that. But then the push with the female President and her amnesty for aliens, and now the whole diatribe about "Climate Change Denyers", this show is losing me fast.

-OWK

I have to agree they are injecting some agendas into a fantasy show and that will
impact broader appeal. I think few people tune in to a show called "Supergirl" to get coming out stories
and demonizing skeptics of climate alarmism.
I'm also not really thrilled with the "Alien Nation" vibe the show is
going down right now either. That was another show. If the writers want to write a show about celebrating diversity and
climate change, go do that. I want Supergirl stories in a show about Supergirl.
I will keep watching if they get it back on track. Otherwise if it turns into the social commentary message
of the week show that's not what I want from a Supergirl series. Rod Serling they are not.

 

[cboath]

I don't get people hating the idea of climate change and claiming hoax. The absolute worst case scenario of accepting it and working against it is the world is made a better/cleaner place. The horror, right?

People hating a female president? really? It WILL happen. Because it hasn't yet doesn't mean you can't have it on a show.

Watching the show, you'd think 20 percent of the country is from another planet lately. I don't know the comics at all so I try not to read anything into it because the comics are that way. Clark was supposedly the 'last son of krypton', except for zod and pals, and then the group of what? 20? that were the bad guys last year. You want to say it's celebrating diversity, however, with the way that president was portrayed - she could be an evil alien who's trying to take over which would kind of flip the script.

The show does seem to take on more social aspects than flash or arrow, but legends has hit on things as well. And speaking of those aspects. Interesting that if we had this same tech 150 years ago that people would flip out - royally - over the portrayal of africans as equals, or god forbid the head of something like the DEO, or president of the country. LoT went into a bid of the sordid details of slavery, which, at that time was not looked back on as anything but 'the norm' to a large part of the country.

Point is, things change. Supergirl could be ahead of the curve. It could be backing the wrong horse, too. Challenging the status quo is hard for some people, and usually winds up hurting you from an entertainment perspective. To do it these days actually takes some stones.

If you can't get out of your comfort zone and look at something from the other perspective, we're doomed. It can't relate to a perspective aside from your own, things will only become more and more divided.

 

[CessnaDriver]

I don't think Supergirl writers are challenging the status quo at all, they are indulging themselves rather IN the PC status quo which is boring
to some of us because frankly these political debates are to be found easily and everywhere.
Because one is tired of the usual PC messages shoe horned in, does not mean one isn't challenging themselves.

I'm still watching for now.

 

[KrangPrime]

Got around to watching the last part of the episode.

The entire thing felt like filler.

You'd think Super girl battling alien high tech weaponry and introducing cadmus and it's head (why not amanda waller, BTW?) would be enough for one episode. Nope. we had to introduce jimmy as a black belt, that could cold cock a villain kara had trouble with in two seconds (yet still not defeat him) and have a sub plot of lena luthor saving the day, that had no setup what soever that i recall either.

Add to that, a fan fictiony groan worthy moment of the head of cadmus being Lena's apparently real mother. The moment was SO corny, that I expected a simpsons type moment with the camera zooming into each others eyes and dramatic music flowing us out. as it is, we got one bit of overly loud dramatic music playing and that was it.

It's those type of moments that just seem like weird fan fictiony writing to me for some reason. the last bit was the martian being suddenly accepted at the DEO at the end of season 1.

For me, I would have cut out the discovery stuff, I would have cut out the olsen stuff. I would have cut out the lena stuff. In fact, i wouldn't have made her lex's adopted sister at all, since most of us don't know he even had one. just her being a head of a luthor division would have been enough to bring home the point that lex knew of super girl and was trying to deal with her too.. I would have just focused the episode on supergirl, cadmus, and the alien weapons. this episode/show feels bogged down with alot of extra stuff.

 

[Laspector]

Maybe it's just the dirty old man in me, but I would have rather Supergirl turn gay than Alex. I'd be full on board with that!!

 

[Angelus Lupus]

Maybe it's just the dirty old man in me, but I would have rather Supergirl turn gay than Alex. I'd be full on board with that!!

Ugh! :facepalm Listen: no-one 'turned' gay; Alex came to terms with feelings she'd been hiding all her life, even from herself.
As to why you'd be happier if the younger, blonde, 'perky' sister was gay? Yes, that is definitely, the 'dirty old man' in you. Please stop fetishising lesbians.

 

[Laspector]

Okay sorry, didn't mean to offend anyone. I might've had a little too much to drink yesterday.

 

[vader1974]

Did Supergirl drop a BATMAN reference on us tonight?