So I watched the leaked pilot.
Urg.
I'll say this for it, it's not nearly as bad as that initial trailer made it look. The music is wonderfully heroic and swelling. I don't MIND the outfit...but it could have been a chance to make it different and fresh, and more like the New52 SG outfit (which is more sensible than a skirt), that's a nitpick tho.
Issues:
- So far I think Melissa Benoist is miscast as Kara and Supergirl. I don't buy her as Kara (who's should be FAR more self-assured and not a bumbling Devil Wears Prada Get-Girl as she's portrayed) and winced at a LOT of her delivery. Her emotional scenes are abhorrently poorly acted...Grant Gustin has more dramatic emotion acting stored up in his pinky finger (honestly the first time Barry broke down on THE FLASH and cried to his father in like episode 2 or 3 it hit me like a tonne of bricks) than Benoist can seem to conjure. Her Supergirl persona is a tad better...but when a gov't secret project commander says she should go back to "getting people coffee" and she turns away, head down and goes off to be upset I was like "No! Supergirl does not sulk. She also doesn't take shit. FROM Anyone." I'm not feeling that much either.
- The pronunciation of her name by her character. Kara with a long A sound...is wrong. It should be Kara with a short A sound...and this is further exemplified when Cat Grant mispronounces it
CORRECTLY in the pilot three times. So her narration feels WELL off as a result.
- The action sequences, while cool and done decently enough, are not even a shadow of the action sequences on FLASH and ARROW. In the scene where she walks up to bullets hitting her looked ridiculous.
- I don't need Chyler Leigh's sister (who is magically working for the secret gov't alien watchers project) character at all. She's irritating not because of performance, but because a part of what makes SG so interesting is her finding out how to live life here alone, and stumbling along the way.
- You can tell the writers are different, and the production is different. It may be a Berlanti/Kriesberg joint...but you can fully tell this is CBS and not the CW. So while it SHOULD feel like ARROW and FLASH, it doens't. And the comparisons will come fast and furious once this comes out for real.
- Jimmmy Olsen I also feel is miscast. I simply can't buy him as the buff, charming love interest they've painted him on Supergirl as. He should be at least a skinny, moderately nerdy guy. This show needs a Cisco/Felicity character...and no one has popped up to fill that role yet, neither Olsen, or the friend who helps her make her outfit ect. fill this role. The result is no charisma in the secondary characters.
- Calista Flockart's Cat Grant is WAY way way over the top. She's closing in on Fish Mooney-overacting territory in that pilot.
Basically this pilot isn't even close to the FLASH pilot for me (or my wife, who was excited about SUPERGIRL...but found the pilot boring and rarely exciting) and that's unfortunately what this show is going to get compared to.
I'm fully willing to hold out judgement until it airs and I've seen a few more episodes...but if you were expecting something like FLASH or ARROW with a popular female DC hero...you might be sad when you see this.
Also: The BEST Supergirl has been on TV yet is STILL Laura Vandervoort on SMALLVILLE. Every episodes she was on of that SOLD that character on the small screen. Those were some hefty shoes to fill, and Benoist has an uphill battle to fill them. She also looked the part WAY more.
"When the last tree has fallen, and the rivers are poisoned, you cannot eat money, oh no." ~Aurora
“Someone will always try to sell you despair, just so they don't feel alone.” ~Ursula Vernon