David McDonald and Tehani Wessely have been squeeing about the new Supergirl television show for months, so they decided to take time each week to discuss the new episodes as they air. They may occasionally rope in their friends to get excited too.

Supergirl – Episode 4, “How does she do it?”

TEHANI: Please, PLEASE don’t let this turn into a show that is ONLY about boyfriends and girlfriends! I don’t mind it occasionally, but we need to see Kara as more than just a love interest or thwarted love interest or part of a love triangle… She’s freaking Supergirl for goodness sake—there is more to her than boys!

DAVID: I do wonder whether that is something that might be more appealing to the demographic they are targeting, though. I mean, all the relationships stuff isn’t something that really interests me, but I doubt that I would have been invited to their focus groups. So, is it a reasonable thing for them to be doing given the audience they are aiming at?

TEHANI: That’s not an unreasonable assumption, BUT… Why do all teen shows have to focus on the relationships? Can we not expect something more of these shows? Because you know, I reckon there are a whole heap of discerning young viewers who would be MORE THAN HAPPY to see people doing things and interacting without lots of love-triangley stuff getting in the way. You know, like real life…

DAVID: I am curious as to your thoughts on the whole “friendzone” discussion. It’s usually a term applied to men, and often has some unpleasant baggage attached.

TEHANI: Yeah, that made me cringe a bit. I get what they were trying to shorthand it to, but it is a bit off, considering the problematic connotations it has.

I do wish this had been aired in the order it should have been though, because there are some important relationship changes that make more sense having seen this episode prior to “Livewire”.

DAVID: I can certainly understand why they rescheduled it, the climax on the train was more than a little disturbing simply in itself. But, there are a few things that would have shed light on the events of the next episode—especially Lucy and James suddenly being back together, and Kara’s seeming acceptance of it.

TEHANI: This is probably more a personal thing, but I really liked the theme of this episode, which basically was (for me, at least) about women and the myth of “having it all”. Supergirl pointing out that she can’t be in two places at once, Cat thinking she will miss out on collecting her award because she has no one to watch her son, all those things. And as usual, my favourite parts of the episode were Cat Grant speaking truth…

Cat: “How do you juggle it all? You learn, that’s how. You start with two balls before adding another. I figured out how to be brilliant in business and THEN I added being a brilliant mother. Far too many women burn out trying to do too much before they’re ready.”

Kara: “So you can have it all?”

Cat: Of course! Just not all at once and not right away.”

DAVID: I think that Cat perhaps suffers the most from the missing episode. We see a much more sympathetic side to her in this episode, and I wonder how much more forgiving I would have been of her treatment of Livewire if I’d seen this episode first. Is this the most human aspect of Cat we have seen so far?

TEHANI: Carter was also pretty awesome. I liked Cat’s relationship with her son, and I liked the way Kara got him to open up a bit. It was also interesting to see Carter used to make a point about Winn’s character (which helps us realise one of the reasons why Kara probably isn’t interested in him—he’s just a big kid!). Although it was a bit creepy that Kara was fishing for Supergirl compliments from him—even my 10 year old picked up on that and went “ew”!

DAVID: There was lots to like about Carter—but also a lot of pandering to the viewers. As his mother said, nerds can win in the end (and I’d argue that we have when you look at the current state of pop culture). I don’t like preachy TV, but I do like it when shows have a good message and I think that they are providing some good role models in this show. Role model might not be quite the right, but I am sure that plenty of tweens or young teens would identify with Carter and there were some good messages in there.

I think poor old Winn is getting a bit of the rough end of the stick here. As we see, James has far more flaws when it comes to being boyfriend material. Collecting figurines seems pretty mild in comparison to being a superhero groupie!

Perhaps I am too naive, but I didn’t get a creepy vibe from Kara with the fishing for compliments, it was pretty innocent stuff. I think it was more just wanting a bit of egoboo given that she was feeling inadequate in a number of ways, especially when it came to measuring up to Lucy. Plus, you have to remember that, chronologically anyway, it was only last episode that everyone was saying how useless and what a menace Supergirl was, so I am sure she was happy to hear that isn’t a universal opinion.

TEHANI: Fair enough, from that point of view. Also creepy though? Lucy basically saying Jimmy/James was obsessed with Superman and that “This hero wears a skirt. How am I supposed to compete with that?” So she thinks that James is just projecting onto Supergirl and would become involved with her simply because she’s a female version of his hero? Double ew…

DAVID: Yeah, there is a whole lot of wrong there. Of course, Lucy may be wrong about that, but the whole quasi incestuous nature of the relationships is bordering on weird. Basically Kara is chasing the guy who is going out with the sister of her cousin’s romantic interest!

TEHANI: While I would like to say I was surprised by the ending, I don’t think I was at all—Maxwell Lord was a very generic setup for a bad guy… Though I do wonder what has happened to Astra—are we not getting her as the big bad this season?

DAVID: There is so much baggage attached to the character due to his history in comics that it is almost impossible to be surprised that he would have sinister motivations. It’s like how in Smallville, no matter how friendly he was, you were always waiting for Lex Luthor to turn. I’s be surprised if we don’t see Astra pop up again, though—perhaps a Zod/Luthor type alliance a la Superman II?

TEHANI: Again, this is me not being familiar with the source material! On the other hand, I’m interested in what’s happening with Henshaw. As you know, David, I also don’t know the canon on this one, and am resolutely not looking it up! But he was prepared to risk his life (and/or exposing himself) to save Alex and all the people at the airport, so I’m coming down on the side of good for him!

DAVID: Pretty cavalier bomb disposal practices though—waving it over his head, and then just dumping it in the lab for Alex to discover it wasn’t a dummy WHILE TAKING IT APART! I want to see where they go with Henshaw too, he certainly isn’t a one dimensional character in the comics. They have a lot to work with there.

TEHANI: Good to know!

Previously, in “Squeeing over Supergirl”…

Episode One, “Pilot”
Episode Two, “Stronger Together”
Episode Three, “Fight or Flight”
Episode Five, “Livewire”