Spoilers through Supergirl Season 1, Episode 20, “Better Angels.”
Last night the season finale of Supergirl, “Better Angels” aired, and despite all the internet chatter we still have no word if CBS plans to renew the show. That, my friends, is a damn Greek tragedy because the show has only gotten better the longer it has gone on and we NEED Supergirl in our lives.
I’ve made no secret of my love for the girl of super. I’ve even compared her to one of my all-time favorites, Xena. I have deep feelings for this show and it’s so much more than just vagina loyalty.
The final episode began with the worst premise for a fight ever: one between Supergirl and a mind-controlled Alex. Okay, maybe it was the worst because that’s the one fight I never want to see because I love the two of them so so so much. It was tense there for a few moments, but like many tense moments on Supergirl, it was over before I was too concerned about any real danger happening. After the quick battle and some magic speech from Mama Danvers, Supergirl gets on camera to talk about hope and love and love and hope to inspire the residents of National City to not be controlled by Myriad. The inspirational music picks up and hooray! Supergirl is victorious!
But Non and Indigo don’t give up that easily and decide that if they can’t control humans, they’ll just kill them all, so they set the Myriad destruction levels to “MIGRAINE” and prepare to leave Earth. Supergirl and J’onn fight the evil duo to the death and Supergirl flies a million ton jail into space to save the planet. Alex then saves Kara and yay! Happy ending and promotions for everyone. Even with the cliffhanger of a ending, the dinner scene was like being hugged by my television. Why wouldn’t we want a second season of this beautiful, happy-go-lucky show?
Supergirl isn’t without its failings, of course. It’s a cheese factory that clearly panders to more of a family audience. The finale laid it on thick with all the inspirational speeches and happy moments, but that’s okay. Supergirl is meant to be cheesy and awkward and full of hope and all that nonsense that makes your cynicism dry right up. We didn’t need another comic book hero season ending with a tragic death or hard fought battle that ended in disaster. Those endings work and are expected for some shows like Arrow but Supergirl is more wholesome.
It’s not without plot holes and leaps of logic that leave you scratching your head. After the fight with Non, Kara isn’t weakened at all and goes on to lift the entirety of Fort Rozz without even Martian Manhunter’s aid. It’s a suicidal effort because Alex tells Kara she can’t survive in space, even though in the previous episode, Superman was conducting superhero business off-world. Granted, in the comics, the Kryptonians don’t know at first that they can breathe in space so they just stop breathing altogether, so maybe it’s a little of that in this situation, but the execution of it is lacking. And the worst part of it all was the hurried and almost silly rescue of Supergirl by Alex at the last minute using Kara’s broken pod. I’ve spoken of my deep love for these two sisters but even I had to pause and utter “wut” during the scene.
But I accept all of those flaws because I know what I’m getting week to week with Supergirl. A strong female superhero who doesn’t rely on Superman to save her. It’s over-the-top, feel good television at its finest. Many shows turn dark for the sake of staying edgy and to keep their viewers on their toes, but Supergirl doesn’t need to do that to keep us enthralled. It’s the beautiful characters and their ray of sunshine relationships that keep us hooked. It’s J’onn protecting the Danvers girls; it’s Alex and Kara hugging every episode; it’s Maxwell Lord proving he’s not a complete douche nugget; it’s Cat Grant finally calling Kara by her real name. We love this show because it makes us happy.
Please, CBS, do the right thing. Renew Supergirl for season 2.
Yes CBS do the right thing renew supergirl please?