Supergirl Things they can/should improve on for season 2

[famicommander]

Working under the assumption that Supergirl will return for a second season, what do you think they can improve upon from season 1? Or, what do you want them to improve upon?

Here are my top 3 things

1. Improve the stunt coordination/fight scenes

Most of the action/fighting sequences that were done with stunts rather than CG this season looked awkward compared to the other Arrowverse shows. This seems like something they could improve upon without too much cost or effort. Just hire a better stunt coordinator. It's a shame this show is shot in LA instead of Vancouver like all the other Arrowverse shows.

2. Resolve the Superman thing

We saw it all year. They need to decide what they're doing with Superman, and stick with it. If they can/want to use him fully, they need to do so. Cast an actor and have him appear regularly instead of in blur-o-vison, via text, or slightly out of frame. It's really distracting and annoying. And if they can't/won't fully use Superman, write him out of the show. Kill him off, send him on a mission off planet, de-power him, something. His shadow hangs over this show constantly and it brings focus to an aspect of its universe that they can't/won't fully explore.

3. Come up with a menacing villain

The first season sort of shifted from Alura to Non as the main villain midway through and neither were really established or developed fully. Arrow and Flash both nailed this in their first seasons with Merlyn and Reverse Flash respectively. I thought they were both much more threatening than Non, and also had their motivations and personalities explored much better.

 

[Zarex]

Dump both James and Winn. And you can solve #2 and #3 by having young Kal-el emerge from the pod in the finale. Who is the imposter pretending to be her cousin? I'm going with Braniac.

 

[Primal Slayer]

They need to up the ante. I need to feel the urgency if the world is coming to an end, if Kara is locked in a battle, I need to see her get dirty and not come out completely clean.

 

[X Knight]

Working under the assumption that Supergirl will return for a second season, what do you think they can improve upon from season 1? Or, what do you want them to improve upon?

Here are my top 3 things

1. Improve the stunt coordination/fight scenes

Most of the action/fighting sequences that were done with stunts rather than CG this season looked awkward compared to the other Arrowverse shows. This seems like something they could improve upon without too much cost or effort. Just hire a better stunt coordinator. It's a shame this show is shot in LA instead of Vancouver like all the other Arrowverse shows.

2. Resolve the Superman thing

We saw it all year. They need to decide what they're doing with Superman, and stick with it. If they can/want to use him fully, they need to do so. Cast an actor and have him appear regularly instead of in blur-o-vison, via text, or slightly out of frame. It's really distracting and annoying. And if they can't/won't fully use Superman, write him out of the show. Kill him off, send him on a mission off planet, de-power him, something. His shadow hangs over this show constantly and it brings focus to an aspect of its universe that they can't/won't fully explore.

3. Come up with a menacing villain

The first season sort of shifted from Alura to Non as the main villain midway through and neither were really established or developed fully. Arrow and Flash both nailed this in their first seasons with Merlyn and Reverse Flash respectively. I thought they were both much more threatening than Non, and also had their motivations and personalities explored much better.

I agree completely with #2.

as I said in the Finale Thread, the Superman issue is the biggest problem I have with the show, and the finale merely highlighted that issue.

 

[haephestus]

I agree with the OP's #2 and #3. I think the fight scenes are something that will naturally improve over the life of the series.

"Superman" is the biggest issue I have with this series. It's clear that they either can't include or don't want to include Superman on a regular basis. So, just address this problem up-front by having Superman permanently leave on an off-world peacekeeping mission, travel to the 31st century on a super heroic mission, die (which would open up all sorts of interesting story developments as Kara must deal with Superman's killer and her feelings of vengeance, the responsibility of being the sole "super" hero on Earth, etc) or permanently de-powered / retired from super heroics (whether due to gold kryptonite, kryptonite poisoning or some other McGuffin).

Then we don't have to deal with seeing evidence of their incredibly awkward relationship on-screen, including Superman sending his "pal" Jimmy Olsen to mentor Kara (instead of being a mentor himself), Superman supposedly going off-world and letting Kelex know, but not bother to even send Kara a text and Superman doing everything possible to avoid ever having to speak to Kara in-person.

I also agree that the villains were somewhat weak. But, I'm not sure that every super hero series needs a season long villain / mystery to drive the story. I'd be happier with smaller 3 to 4 episode story-arcs dealing with new alien arrivals, wayward aliens, assorted metahuman threats and incidents and regular human problems. Sometimes the season long story arcs can work really well, but I still think it's a bit hit or miss, especially when the story doesn't warrant being dragged out over 20 or more episodes.

One of my other main issues would be Kara and Jimmy's romance. If they're going to have them together, then just let it be without putting all sorts of obstacles in their way or having constant relationship dramas or introducing another love triangle / square / hexagon / whatever. It would be great to see them in a stable, supportive relationship that is presented naturally, with the odd conflict as would arise in any relationship.

My final main issue would be Kara's story. It's great that they're trying to do something with her civilian life, but I just hope that it is interesting and fitting for the character. It was getting increasingly difficult to suspend disbelief that Cat Grant would tolerate an assistant who was continually absent on mysterious errands at all times, day and night. It would be great if Kara could find a job which is challenging and rewarding, which also offers up some interesting story possibilities and provides a great "cover" for her regular absences (i.e. not a 9 to 5 office job).

 

[ZIPBAGS]

Stop the Jimmy/Kara relationship. Just see no chemistry between them.

Regarding Superman. Just cast an actor to play him and he can appear every so often. No big deal.

 

[Thriller]

1) Slow down the pace of the episodes. Some storylines were so rushed earlier into the season. Potentially great plots were damaged because everything had to be crammed into one episode.

2) Stronger writing, e.g. Supergirl can defeat a super powered being like Non but had so much trouble with Master Jailer and Toyman, or Myriad overload at 90% , everyone is on the floor about to have their heads popped yet at the same time Alex was able to have a conversation with Supergirl, then fly a pod that is from a different planet, that had not been used in years, and with no apparent training in flight or space travel.

3) Give James something worthwhile to do! Get him back on the streets as a photographer or something. Lets see him have more of a character.

4) Another crossover with Flash hopefully! Or a female superhero from Arrow.

5) Either show Superman or dump him. This idea of corresponding with his cousin by text only is bordering on ridiculous. He could fly to National City in minutes probably.

6) Whoever is in that pod, don't let it be some silly dog!

 

[El Seven]

The Superman thing is my biggest hang-up, too. I vote for just calling him "Super Wilson" from now on and having them cast an actor who only speaks to Kara from behind a fence.

Honestly, why the show even bothered to acknowledge him is baffling. It's the story of an alien who just happens to look Caucasian and can fly and shoot fire from her eyes, it would be nothing to state that her ship veered into a wormhole and landed on a different Earth where Kal's ship never arrived. You'd still preserve Superman on "Earth" prime while allowing her to be lone Kryptonian on her world.

 

[BH/HHH]

The Superman thing I was fine with until they started having little digs and constantly trying to big Kara up by saying she could do stuff he couldn't. But the finale is the thing that really butchered it for me, Kelex said he was off world. Why not just leave him off world for the whole finale? They really dropped the ball there.

I'm still of the belief that WBs won't let them use Superman fully at least not right now. They're gonna have to do something about that in S2.

 

[metaphysician]

1. Figure a solution to the Superman problem. Either write him out of the show entirely, or add him as an actual character with an actual actor. Pick one, and do it.

2. More heroes in the world. Show that there actually are more superheroes on the planet than just Superman, even if all the non-alien supers are either non-powered, tech based, or fairly low level. This doesn't need to be a constant presence, just something you drop in a couple times over the season.

3. Make clear that Cadmus and its affiliates are actually a *lot* more evil than the rest of the government realizes or intends. Retcon things if necessary, but one way or another, ditch the "government as hotbed of murderous anti-alien sentiment".

4. Pick a single, central villain to define the overall season arc, make them good, and make them completely unconnected to Krypton. They can be human, alien, weird science, mystic, New Gods, whatever, just so long as they aren't from, and never particularly visited, Krypton.

 

[TheFirstAvenger]

-Better villains
-Less James/Kara drama
-Make James useful
-Get rid of Superman or actually use him
-Open up the World. Bring in more cities, heroes, villains etc.

 

[Kelly]

I've really enjoyed the stunt work actually....

I wouldn't mind James and Kara as a couple, IF THEY GIVE JAMES SOMETHING TO DO OTHER THAN be Kara's boyfriend.
I would like to see Kara fight more crime on the normal level, not necessarily have a BIG villain every week, just things helping the police here and there.
As much as I love the IMs between Kara and Clark, if canning those and not talking about Superman would shut up the whining I would be more than happy to give them up.

Things I do not want them to mess with...
Alex/Kara relationship
Alex/Hank relationship
Hank/Kara relationship
Cat, don't mess with Cat at all

 

[Mysteryman]

Judging from the last part of that list, sounds like they did a good job with Kat.

 

[Kelly]

Judging from the last part of that list, sounds like they did a good job with Kat.

She has hit a homerun every episode....except maybe the pilot, but that was only because I didn't like the character, Calista was perfect. haha

This series is full of subtle, little, things that the actors do that just slam the ball out of the park. One of those things was the hug between Kara and Cat on the balcony in "Myriad" and Cat just gives the slightest squeeze as she hugs Kara and it blew me away because you knew that Cat realized what this young woman had in front of her and it was a crisis that may end her life. It was so small, yet HUGE in emotion.

 

[super85]

A) make Cat less of a cartoon. They have taken a few steps with that, so it now actually comes across as little bit of an actual character/real person, but work on that.

B) Write more natural dialogue please. Especially the romance stuff has come across as vomit on a plate.

C) get rid of those awful pop songs and classic pop song covers. I would rather eat paint than hear that *****e .

D) Its fine if you are not using Superman. But please stop having him guest star as a useless cgi cartoon, or have his legs show up in an episode. Ok if you refer to the charater, that makes sense, and the other part would actually have him be in an episode. But the last "apperances" of him have just been lame.

 

[Kelly]

Totally disagree with A and C....Cat AND the music is some of the really enjoyable parts of the show for me.

As far as B, sure work on the romance stuff, but I have loved the writing as far as Kara with Alex, Cat, Winn and Hank....but James is a character that they need to flesh out more and give him something to do.

As far as D, the Superman man stuff has not bothered me in the least, and I could probably say for a good portion of the General Audience that are not Comic Book fans, but hey if it will make the CB fans stop whining about it, BY ALL MEANS, fix it.

 

[super85]

Yeah I doubt that more than 5-10% procent of all the people watching the show read or ever have read comicbooks. I just find that approach they have taken , dumb. Therefore I would prefer them to try a different approach.

And on a note regarding the general audience, a female friend of mine who watches the show semi-regulary. who I don't think has ever read comics ( i do know she has watched the animated series as a kid) said to me the other day "isn't it a bit weird that they keep mentioning her cousin Superman in the opening credits and like in the show, but that guy almost never shows up to help?, maybe Henry Cavill is too expensive?"

So i doubt that its cmb-fans "whining" every time. People are in general quite familiar with DCs characters (at least Superman and Batman) since they have been around for so long on both TV and movies.

Music is a taste issue. I "hate" all of the stuff they have played on the show. But I generally dislike pop-music in television shows.

"the romance stuff" is often written quite bad in all of the Berlanti produced "DC shows", it very seldom comes across as real, it comes often across that characters are immature or shallow. Or both.

 

[Kelly]

Honestly, I have no clue why they don't use Superman, if they could use Cavill, YES...I am sure he would be quite expensive....but if their are legal issues at the moment, who knows. IF they can bring him on a couple of times a season, then I see no problem with it, and continue the IMs which I love...but sure 2x full on Superman no problem with that....

As far as the romance stuff, if they put James and Kara together, which I have no problem with....I hope that their relationship is one that is missing from most of television and that is a "nice, comfortable relationship that is strong at its core and doesn't fall into the trap of pettiness, jealousy, etc." Then I want to see James taking more chances as a reporter, and in some cases he gets himself out of whatever he got himself into, and then at times Kara has to go save his butt....hahaha. But, I want him to be more than her romance, he just doesn't seem to have a job within her group. As I've stated before....

Her protector/Hero is Alex...
Her equal is Jonn...
Her tech, go to, genius and BFF is Winn...
Her inspiration is Cat...
James just doesn't seem to have a place, something that he does...except be a "mansel in distress", and I don't like that anymore than I do "damsels in distress" all the time.

 

[super85]

Cavill would probably do it for free or like for a tiny sum of money, The guy really loves the character. it is more the case of Warner Brothers clearly not wanting to mix movies with TV and talking about their Multiverse. It's the same thing as back when Smallville was on people kept talking about Bruce Wayne but every year the producers said that WB and DC don't want that, and Batman is for the movies. There are exceptions to those rules, but I don't know how much you keep up with the CW shows, "Arrow" for example have gotten a set of restrictions now becouse WB are making a "Suicide Squad" film. As we know, there is a different guy playing Flash in the movies than the show etc.

What I meant more was, I prefer Superman getting mentioned, but not the "here is this weeks intro mentioning! and he might show up as a cartoon for two seconds" I just dislike that. Feels a bit cheap and awkward.

I'm fine with the texting scenes between Supergirl and Clark. That is just a bit cute, and makes sense.

oh, regarding James, my friend, she also thought he is "Just as useless as women usually are on TV shows" .

 

[Kelly]

Cavill would probably do it for free or like for a tiny sum of money, The guy really loves the character. it is more the case of Warner Brothers clearly not wanting to mix movies with TV and talking about their Multiverse. It's the same thing as back when Smallville was on people kept talking about Bruce Wayne but every year the producers said that WB and DC don't want that, and Batman is for the movies.

Oh definitely, I was just stating that as if "there were a chance" I think DC has made a grave mistake in not mixing movies and TV, and I think they will realize that with Flash and a possible Supergirl movie down the line. When you have characters that are AS POPULAR as these two actors are in their roles, there is going to be some major blow back from that decision.

What I meant more was, I prefer Superman getting mentioned, but not the "here is this weeks intro mentioning and he might show up as a cartoon for two seconds" I just dislike that.

I'm fine with the texting.

Gotcha....

oh, regarding James, my friend, she also thought he is "Just as useless as women usually are on TV shows" .

He is, he is everything right now that I despise in many "hero type shows" where there is a "Girl Friday" that does nothing except get in trouble so they can be rescued. Which I hate, because I actually really like Mehcad Brooks in the role. PERFECT EXAMPLE: "Scorpion" and Katherine McPhee's character Paige...what the hell does she do? She gives advice on how the heroes can be more human, and gets rescued a lot and is the maybe....ooooooh maybe not love interest of Walter. Same exact scenario....

 

[famicommander]

Oh definitely, I was just stating that as if "there were a chance" I think DC has made a grave mistake in not mixing movies and TV, and I think they will realize that with Flash and a possible Supergirl movie down the line. When you have characters that are AS POPULAR as these two actors are in their roles, there is going to be some major blow back from that decision.

I'm going to have to strongily disagree here.

Having the TV and films connected sounds like a good idea on the surface, but in practice it only severely limits the television shows.

It's exactly what has happened with the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The TV/Netflix shows are bound to the canon of the films, but the films rarely if ever acknowledge the events of the shows. The result is the shows being very hamstrung with regards to what they can do, with no payoff in the other direction.

The differing production schedules and creative teams make it extremely difficult for things to line up.

And as popular as Flash is as a television show, the film will likely generate as much revenue in a month at the box office as the show will in its entire run. The reality is that most people who go to see the film will likely have little or no familiarity with the show.

So if you do want them connected, you really have only two options:
1. Bog down film-goers with four seasons (plus crossovers) worth of pre-established history
or
2. Ignore or retcon events of the series to make the film more accessible

The solution is already built into the DC canon, and it's pretty annoying that they don't fully utilize it -- the multiverse. They should simply let each shared universe -- the DCEU, the Arrowverse, the Animated Original Movie universe, the Batman Unlimited universe, etc -- have free reign to use any characters or storylines that they want. The multiverse concept is tied directly into the modern history of DC Comics, and especially so with characters like Flash (hello Flash of Two Worlds) and Supergirl (Power Girl, anyone?).

 

[Primal Slayer]

As far as D, the Superman man stuff has not bothered me in the least, and I could probably say for a good portion of the General Audience that are not Comic Book fans, but hey if it will make the CB fans stop whining about it, BY ALL MEANS, fix it.

The general audience may not be comic book fans but they do know Superman which means they could be saying the same thing. Obviously something connects with fans that ratings rise whenever The Flash shows up. It's like having a carrot dangled in front of your face constantly with no pay off. Either send him off world having disappeared or show his face and be an actual character in her life.

Though I highly suspect they are allowed to allude to Superman but aren't able to go any further then a blurry cameo and text message.

 

[Kelly]

I'm going to have to strongily disagree here.

Having the TV and films connected sounds like a good idea on the surface, but in practice it only severely limits the television shows.

It's exactly what has happened with the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The TV/Netflix shows are bound to the canon of the films, but the films rarely if ever acknowledge the events of the shows. The result is the shows being very hamstrung with regards to what they can do, with no payoff in the other direction.

The differing production schedules and creative teams make it extremely difficult for things to line up.

And as popular as Flash is as a television show, the film will likely generate as much revenue in a month at the box office as the show will in its entire run. The reality is that most people who go to see the film will likely have little or no familiarity with the show.

So if you do want them connected, you really have only two options:
1. Bog down film-goers with four seasons (plus crossovers) worth of pre-established history
or
2. Ignore or retcon events of the series to make the film more accessible

The solution is already built into the DC canon, and it's pretty annoying that they don't fully utilize it -- the multiverse. They should simply let each shared universe -- the DCEU, the Arrowverse, the Animated Original Movie universe, the Batman Unlimited universe, etc -- have free reign to use any characters or storylines that they want. The multiverse concept is tied directly into the modern history of DC Comics, and especially so with characters like Flash (hello Flash of Two Worlds) and Supergirl (Power Girl, anyone?).

This one is being talked about..for Flash.

Well, we will see soon enough as far as The Flash movie....if I'm wrong, I'm wrong....if I'm right, I'm right, not really a big deal to me either way.

 

[Super0000]

After the first 3-4 episode this show is a lot better than Arrow and at level of The Flash, hope they will be renewed

 

[Havok83]

Get rid of the D.E.O. I hate the idea of Supergirl working for some government agenecy. Yeah she doesnt get a W2, but she's working under them. The organization is shady also and I was hoping the end of season 1 would see the end of it, but its still around. I feel it only exists to give Hank and Alex something to do and give them a stronger tie to the show outside of simply Kara. I wish they would do something else for that though. I doubt it but I hope it implodes on itself or Kara gets fed up and decides to break out on her own away from them.

IA, with the first comment on her getting a good vilian. She needs a "big bad" so to speak for season 2. I loved Allura but found her a bit too sympathetic. I even felt for Non. Both werent really evil to me and didnt come across as big enough threats.

Im not even sure how to handle Superman without casting him. They really should and just have him be a guest character. He doesnt need to be there all the time but a handful of episodes a season is enough to suffice. Or they could just "kill him off". Maybe his body goes into a deep coma and he's kept in the Fortress of Solitude as Kara vows to find a way to revive him. I dont know.