While the first few episodes of Supergirl show Kara as little more than a young girl struggling to break free of the shadow created by her more popular and polished cousin Superman (who we never see), what evolves is an intelligent, reflective, and caring young girl. Yes, she spends a lot of time pining over her crush, but since she’s 24, that makes her seem more normal.
the series is built around a well-known origin story. Kara Zor-El was sent to Earth at age 12 by her parents to be a protector for baby Kal-El (that’s Superman for those not in the know). However, her spaceship gets caught in The Phantom Zone, meaning she doesn’t make it to Earth for years. While she hasn’t aged at all, Superman is all grown up, and no longer needs her help. He gives her to the Danvers family (in a cool bit of ‘stunt casting’ her parents are played by 1984’s Supergirl Helen Slater and Lois & Clark’s Superman, Dean Cain) to raise.
Now a young woman, Kara works as an assistant to Cat Grant (Calista Flockhart) the bitchy owner of CatCo Worldwide Media. Insufferably mean at first, producers soften Cat a bit as the series progresses. Kara’s co-workers include an IT genius named Winn (Jeremy Jordan), and familiar name from Metropolis: James (don’t call him ‘Jimmy’) Olsen (Mehcad Brooks). Kara also has an older sister, Alex Danvers (Chyler Leigh), whom she saves from a plane crash in the first episode. That also happens to be her first heroic act, which doesn’t go over as well as she had hoped. Shortly after that, Kara learns that her sister has secretly been working for The Department of Extra-Normal Operations (or DEO), a government agency assigned to keep track of all extraterrestrial beings that have arrived on Earth. The sisters soon learn that Alex’s boss, Hank Henshaw (David Harewood), has a few secrets of his own.
The first half of the season is standard ‘villain of the week” stuff. As Kara/Supergirl is working out her powers, she faces off with various baddies, and has to figure out how to harness her abilities with the help of the DEO, to get the job done. These episodes are predictable, but still a fun watch.
By the second half of the season the writers began to take more chances, even mining the DC Comics archives to come up with stories. Episode 18, ‘World’s Finest’, features a crossover, as fellow TV superhero The Flash teams up with Supergirl. Given the series talent cast and the fact that the writers and producers seemed to really get a sense of where they wanted to take the characters, it will be fascinating to see how Supergirl evolves in its second season.
Presented in the 1.78:1 aspect ratio, Supergirl looks fabulous in 1080p. while it doesn’t quite hit reference quality status, colors are bright, and vivid throughout. The image looks very good, but there is a slight motion blur during flying sequences, and blacks aren’t as inky as they could be. Despite those small issues, fans should be quite pleased with this transfer.
The 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio is quite good. Dialogue is clean and clear throughput. Overall, the track isn’t particularly immersive, with much of the activity coming from the front and center channels. There is more involvement during moments of heavier effects, but it’s not maintained consistently. There’s some LFE use as well, but that to, is a bit inconsistent. Directionality is particularly apparent during more active flying sequences.
English SDH, French, Dutch, Spanish (Latin), Portuguese, Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, and Swedish subtitles are included.
The following extras are available:
Disc One:
- Deleted Scenes (HD, 1:41) Two deleted scenes for “Red Faced”
Disc Two:
- Deleted Scenes (HD, 6:26) One deleted scene from “Hostile Takeover,” four deleted scenes from “Blood Bonds,” one deleted scene from “Strange Visitor from Another Planet,” and one deleted scene from “For the Girl Who Has Everything.”
Disc Three:
- Deleted Scenes (HD, 8:19) Four deleted scenes from “Solitude,” one deleted scene from “Falling,” one deleted scene from “Manhunter,” and one deleted scene from “World’s Finest.”
- Supergirl: 2015 San Diego Comic-Con Panel (HD, 14:51) Panelists include: creators and executive producers Ali Adler, Greg Berlanti, and Andrew Kreisberg, executive producer Sarah Schechter, DC Comics Chief Creative Officer Geoff Johns, and cast members Melissa Benoist, Mehcad Brooks, Chyler Leigh, Jeremy Jordan, David Harewood, and Peter Facinelli.
- The Man from Mars (HD, 9:37) Cast and crew discuss the character of the Martian Manhunter, a.k.a. J’onn J’onzz (David Harewood).
- A World Left Behind: Krypton (HD, 10:41) A look at how Kara’s home planet Krypton is portrayed on the series.
- Gag Reel (HD, 4:06)
- UltraViolet Copy.
*” Warner Bros. Home Entertainment provided me with a free copy of the Blu-ray I reviewed in this post. The opinions I share are my own.”
