Stargirl

I didn't hold out much hope for Stargirl, mainly because it's a DCEU series, but season 1 surprised me. I really enjoyed watching the main characters get into their stride and the villains, while being a little corny weren't too corny. But then season 2 came along and the moment I saw it was subtitled 'Summer Camp' I knew it was going to go downhill. And boy, has it gone downhill. It feels like the story could have wrapped up in four episodes but has been spread out to breaking point. Like The Hobbit trilogy. Which is a pity because the baddie, Eclipso, had the potential to be a really good villain and brought some dark moments.

I'm going to stick with it but I'm not holding out much hope.

Season 1 was something new. It was something that I thought would be the beginning of a new superhero franchise.

It was fun and the actors were fun and its was as corny as you'd expect it to be. And it didn't apologise for its corniness because it actually added flavour.

Season 2 however, needs to apologise. Its so obvious that the writer's room or whatever had a few people scared of backlash. Making a show with fear in mind makes it so safe its boring.

It feels like a teenage Disney sitcom that's trying to be edgy. But they're scared of getting even remotely close to the edge.

I feel embarrassed while I'm watching it. Like only a fool would fall for this show Maybe the target audience are pre-teens? That could explain it.

But in my opinion, there was nothing wrong with Season 1. Pre-teens could have watched it without getting nightmares.

Its a damn shame that so many shows are scared of letting their creativity flow. Or maybe something else is going on thats holding them back.

Bottom line is that the second season makes me sad that I enjoyed the first season.

Season 1 overall was fantastic and fresh with most episodes averaging a rating of 8 in my opinion better than all the other CW shows I had watched in the past, season 2 is just different and feels like a completely different and childish show, reminds me more of 90s power rangers than a young adult superhero series. I'm writing this after season 2 episode 9, and the last 4 episodes have been painfully bad.

Just watched the pilot and have to say that I loved it! I wont go into much detail on the actual plot. Its an origin story and sets up Courtney becoming Stargirl as well as moving into a new town and school.

I will say that we start off with an action packed Justice Society America (JSA) fight with the Injustice Society set 10 years in the past. They show us the 4 members who will eventually get 'new' replacements in future episodes as well as the sidekick of Starman - Stripesy (and Courtney's stepdad).

The dialogue throughout is great. It feels natural and is also very funny at times (Joel McHale was very good!), you wont be able to stop yourself smiling as you watch it.

Also, great special effects, from the opening (and closing) fights, to Courtney's training montage with the Cosmic Staff.

As well as the 4 main family leads, we get introduced to a lot of potential friends and rivals at school. We get the mean popular girl and her '2nd' in command - both were very funny. Then we get the over the top mean jocks (hey, you need the small time school villains to counter the actual supervillains - so I gave it a pass) - and then we get a hilarious bit at the 'singles' table. Beth was great here, as was Yolanda's subtle glare at being called one of the losers.

Also, it has to be said, this feels like it was made pre 2015 (in a very good way!) - which means there is no heavy handed identity politics, social justice or man hating, its just a fun story that's well acted and highly entertaining.

If you thought about giving it a miss because you are over the DC CW, this doesn't feel like one of those shows at all. Its its own thing.

I highly recommend it

** Now I just need my fav JSA'er Sanderson Hawkins (Sand) to make an appearance ;)

And no, I don't mean uplifting and comical. I mean solid, well-crafted, narrative and visually pleasing. This episode has a cinematography that could very well be featured in a movie. Still too early to tell anything about the plot, but I can already see which characters are going to be relevant based solely on the way they're framed when they show up. That's the director stating "Hey! Pay attention! This guy is about to do something!" Hard to tell if they used a double for the acrobatics, but if they didn't and that's actually the actress, then she an extra mark for that. The only "but" I give it, is that they essentially rebooted the JSA we've seen in Legends, Arrow and Flash, which opens the possibility of introducing a new Arrow, a new Flash, and new *everyone else*s, which is not something you do when you have another version of the same character already developed. A JSA show set in the 1960's would have been ten times better, without the plot devices of modern shows.