March Makeovers: What should ‘Supergirl’ do before season 2 to shake things up?
We are only two epsodes away from the end of “Supergirl” season 1, and this has absolutely been an interesting experiment both for CBS and for the entire comic-book genre. There have not been many successful superhero shows with female leads, and this one is at present angling to get that renewal as of this writing. It’s done a lot right, and has improved dramatically as time has went on; however, there are still some issues that need to be worked on.
In this particular entry in our March Makeovers series, we’re going to look further at some of these issues, and analyze precisely what it is that the show needs to do in order to shake things up moving further into the future.
What’s not working – The biggest issue with the show was made apparent from the moment the first trailer was released: It felt a little too much like a romantic comedy. While we like both Winn and James, the show spent the vast majority of season 1 focusing on matters of the heart when there are so many other life issues out there.
Also, it did tend to go towards corny and heavy-handed often, especially when it comes to dealing with moral issues. Cat Grant is still too much of Meryl Streep from “The Devil Wears Prada,” and we wish that there was more of a consistent narrative featuring a week-to-week villain as opposed to Non or previously Astra popping up here and there.
How to fix it – The first way to make “Supergirl” an even better show is just by minimizing some of the romance, and having Kara in a stable place whether she is with someone or not. From there, give her a villain that can stick around for the majority of the season, and challenge her on both a physical and intellectual level. Give her some real stakes that force her to improve how she handles her abilities.
Also, how about finding ways to make Cat vulnerable that don’t just involve her being almost killed? We know that the show wants it to seem like she doesn’t need anyone in her life to make her happy, but she is a case of a love interest being useful to add some more comedy.
One more thing that we’ll suggest? Other crossovers. While the “Flash” one had a number of little holes in logic, the concept and execution was for the most part a blast.
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