Kyle’s Thoughts

This week’s Supergirl saw the Daxamite invasion take place. It wasn’t hard to see what Rhea (Mon-El’s mom) had in store. The show did little to build suspense, but “City of Lost Children” did an okay job of setting up Supergirl for its season finale. The Daxam War is a snooze fest.

At the heart of the Daxam conflict rests the Mon-Kara melodrama. Supergirl is the latest in a long line of CW shows to suffer from over-romance. This network insists on every story turning into a hackneyed star-crossed lovers story, and Mon-Kara is the most obvious Romeo and Juliet rip-off. Enough with CW-brand romance.

The Daxam invasion has played out like the Kryptonian one last season so the idea of an alien race of superbeings taking over Earth is old news. The one plus—and it’s not too big of a plus—is that Supergirl remains more focused right now than Arrow or Flash. But it wasn’t always the case, and again, this goes back to Mon-Kara. CW romances don’t work.

Unlike other CW romances, Supergirl took the time to develop Mon-Kara (in the most annoying way possible by backloading episodes with romance) and the big-bad, Mon-El’s mom and the Daxams, didn’t reveal themselves until after the mid-season break. I would’ve been happy with Mama Luthor—who has more of a footprint in Superman-Supergirl lore—and Cadmus as this season’s big-bad, and they were discarded midway through the season. The season became a scattered mess. The more Mon-Kara took a starring role, the more scattered the season became until Rhea announced herself. By then I started losing interest. I’ve lost interest the more Supergirl has gone down the Mon-Kara rabbit hole. The show is on the verge of going full CW.

The other half of “City of Lost Children” dealt with Jimmy Olsen as Guardian. (Groan.) Jimmy has an image problem. He hasn’t become the symbol of hope he wished he’d be. I don’t like Jimmy as a hero but this part of the episode worked better than the ongoing melodrama. That doesn’t mean it didn’t have gaping flaws. Not the least of which is suspension of disbelief.

A Phorian boy with telepathic and telekinetic powers bonds with Jimmy, after his mother goes missing. That could happen, I guess.

He bonds with Jimmy because Jimmy’s a misunderstood hero. This eight-year-old kid wouldn’t know much of Jimmy’s backstory without keeping up with the news. So that’s less believable.

The Phorian boy also shares more in common with J’onn J’onnz than he does with Jimmy. Supergirl does explain that it’s the person inside that matters, not the fact that Jimmy and the boy share dark skin. I call bull crap.

The image crisis Jimmy happens to be facing this second doesn’t compare to a kid who’s had to planet hop his entire life because he’s viewed as a threat. It also doesn’t cancel the fact that J’onn and the boy have a lot in common. Both are orphans of a dead planet, have telepathic powers, had to hide who/what they were for years, and hello, are aliens. Heck, this alien kid has more similarities with Kara (another alien from a dead planet who hides who or what they are from the world). Jimmy’s an emo Batman. An alien kid would never gravitate to Batman if Martian Manhunter or Superman were around, not even if Batman was more emo.

Jimmy’s part of the story gave him something to do as Guardian. Heck, it showcased his ability to relate to people—no matter how far-fetched—and that was good to see. Despite the huge leap of disbelief, I’m half-tempted to give this part of the show a pass, except that the Phorians are the obvious key to beating the Daxamites. There are more Phorians on Earth than the kid and his mother, conveniently enough to take down a Daxamite fleet. Do I even need to see the final few episodes?

Supergirl will go on autopilot to the finale, and I’m not sure how interested I’ll be in watching the series next season.

Thanks for reading.