Episode Title: Pilot part 2
Original Airdate: 1-28-2016
After getting over some of the exposition moments of the first half of the pilot, the second half left room for all the rest of the action and coming together as a team. There was one semi-spoiler moment that shouldn’t really be too surprising if you’ve been paying attention to all the marketing materials for the show. But in general, it seems like it’s bringing together some of the best parts of both Arrow and Flash using none of their major characters. Which is really an impressive feat once you think about it. There were a few roadbumps, especially if you start comparing it to other superhero properties, but overall it’s working for me.
The episode starts off with a really great action sequence following a great moment from Professor Stein. He is quickly becoming my favorite character of the group followed closely behind by Snart. Stein just has the best sense of humor, which is odd considering the type of character that he is: an arrogant, highly intelligent scientist. But Victor Garber really makes this character work for him instead of against him. And Snart has always been a pretty great character from the Flash, now he gets to show a bit more of his… I won’t say softer side, but he eventually starts to fit in with the group. There’s a nice bit of rivalry with Atom during a mini heist, but they also end that moment by coming to an understanding without drawing it out into overly sappy territory. While I’m at it, I might as well go through the rest of the characters in terms of how well they work for me, and Atom comes right along next. Brandon Routh really plays into this happy go lucky character that’s highly intelligent, but also incredibly naive while he also feels the need for acceptance without coming off as being annoyingly needy. Jackson, the other half of Firestorm helps bring a bit of the heart as well as some skepticism to the group. White Canary is one that’s still fairly new to me, but she seems to be showcased the most in the action scenes in a great way. And rounding out the rest of the team are Hawkgirl who has been slightly underdeveloped since she is still new to the whole memories of multiple lifetimes thing, Heatwave who is mostly just Snart’s sidekick with an accent, and Hawkman who is just there to push Hawkgirl into dating him.
It shouldn’t have come as much of a surprise that someone got killed off, and it should have been even less of a surprise that it was Hawkman who drew the short end of the stick. He’s barely been in any of the early marketing materials, he really has been the weakest character in the group, and just like the Avengers, the team needed that extra push to fully come together. It felt a little bit more forced and rushed here, even Snart mentions that he barely knew the guy from Adam, but he was a member of his crew so somehow that made him all in for going against Vandal Savage. I also haven’t mentioned Savage as a villain much yet. The actor, Casper Crump does a decent enough job of playing him, but I never really got a handle on him as a villain. The only other thing I’ve seen him in was the animated film Justice League: Doom, and I didn’t care much for that film largely because I didn’t care for Savage as a villain. He’s just an immortal with an overwhelming desire to take over the world. The whole connection between him and the Hawk couple makes things a little more interesting, but also rather convoluted and confusing, especially when it comes to how he must ultimately be defeated. Basically, we’re given the entire arc of the show based on this set up. Since Savage can only be truly defeated by one of the Hawks, wielding one their weapons, we know that this show will basically revolve around Hawkgirl gaining confidence and training as a superhero until she is finally strong enough to defeat Savage in the final episode. Probably. As it is, it has a lot of fun playing around with the timeline, and it also has just enough of the surroundings to help sell the time period. It’s fun so far even if I’m pretty sure I know where it will be going. I just hope that they have enough of a budget to keep the action on par with the pilot.
Channel: Superhero 