‘Supergirl’ season 2 premiere review: Hello Superman — and Metallo

Tonight, “Supergirl” season 2 came on the air hoping to justify not only its renewal, but also its move to The CW. What we got as a result was a premiere episode that, while entertaining at times, continued to struggle in a few key departments.

Let’s start with what the show does wrong before ultimately shifting over to what it does right. In the villain department, it still does not have its Eobard Thawne or a Malcolm Merlyn. The majority of the adversaries are either rather boring or toothless compared to the heroes, and despite all of the resources we saw tonight, we still definitely felt that. There was no reason to be afraid or intimidated that our heroes were going to fall because of a series of attacks being made primarily against Lena Luthor, Lex’s sister and a woman desperate to try and restore the good name of her family after Lex basically trampled on it before being locked up.

Meanwhile, the relationship subplot with James and Kara felt somewhat forced, mostly because she went from being sure she wanted to be with him to unsure in just a matter of days if you’re looking at this real-time. Rather than going in a contrived direction, we’d wish that the show would either pair them up or go about things in a different way.

Now that we’ve gotten all of that out of the way … let’s talk positives. Having Superman around proved to be tremendous entertainment, especially since he was such a likable, super-smart guy who has a history of fighting crime. Also, he has a history with many of the other characters, where it be Cat Grant (who was great in this episode) or of course James. It was nice to have a face with a name rather than keeping him as some sort of nameless entity.

Also, Winn’s got a new job over at the DEO — and that should lead to some fun possibilities in the future. It’s a fun show, and he’s a heart of it! “Supergirl” remains at its best when it remains a light, breezy superhero romp, and struggles at times when it gets weighty and sentimental. Pairing it with other CW superhero shows will help to make it a larger part of the universe, and we’ll see how that plays out in the future. Episode Grade: B-.

A few other odds and ends…

-Mon-El (Chris Wood) made a brief appearance at the start of the episode, but it feels like his story after crashing in the pod is a slow burn.

-Project Cadmus basically birthed out Metallo in the closing minutes, and maybe he’ll be that worthy villain we’re looking for — at least for now.

Next week – Project Cadmus is going to make its next move, while the relationship between Hank and the DEO will be further explored. Find out more over at this link. (Photo: The CW.)