So, Stargirl Season 2 started this week with Episode 1 "Summer School, Part 1."
And although I am happy to say this series continues to be lots of pure escapist fun (without any injected 'biases') unfortunately there's not a lot to report about Episode 1, it's so slow and so little happens that it's almost like you could skip it and not miss anything. Brec looks gorgeous and cute as usual, but she's only in the costume for a couple minutes right at the beginning. Wildcat actress Yvette Monreal is also very cute, but again, not much happens with her.
Instead of a lot of action, what we get is character development, with each young hero/heroine going through their own emotional arc (Rick Tyler / Hourman's being the weakest and least understandable of the four). Despite being supervised by Geoff Johns, the writing here seems very teenage-level like a typical non-superhero CW show - maybe that's the intention because they want to retain a younger viewing demographic.
We meet Jade as Green Lantern's daughter, but you already knew that from the trailer, and there is no costume yet (let's cross our fingers and hope there will be: Jade is hot in the comics). You also knew from last season's finale that Cindy would become Eclipso, and that thread doesn't really progress any further in Episode 1. Cindy doesn't transform yet, or wear any kind of costume. So, I would skip straight to Episode 2 unless you have the time. The best thing I can say is that it's really fun watching Brec onscreen.
For those who did watch it, I do have some questions about the writing though. It suddenly seems rather inconsistent, and not particularly well thought-out.
- Why would a teenager like Courtney be so overwhelmingly obsessive about being a superhero to the point of patrolling
when everything is deadly quiet? Wouldn't she have other interests? Like friends, boys, video games, movies, the internet?
- Rick goes looking for a creature in the forest...but where is there a forest in Nebraska? With hills, no less? I thought it was
all flat and fields of corn? I've looked at a few photos of the "Nebraska National Forest" and it's pretty sparse - it doesn't look
anything like the forests of British Columbia where this show is being shot.
- It also looks like Rick cheats on his final test..but how did he do that? Where did he suddenly get all the answers from? And if he
did indeed cheat, why was he stupid enough to get every question right, instead of getting a few wrong to throw the teacher off the scent? Rick's character just really seems like a dumb lunkhead - it's hard to care about him.
- If Pat is going on vacation for two weeks, why doesn't he LOCK the back room where the robot is?
- What is the real point of Yolanda's emotional breakdown in a church? Are they really going to follow up on that in terms of
dealing with her Catholicism, or including the priest in a future episode? If not, the scene seemed kind of pointless. She doesn't
even do a confession, which is what usually happens in a scene like that.
- I thought Courtney was a smart girl. Even if she did stay up til 4 am, why did she *fail* both History and English?
That just seems out of character for her. She seems like an achiever, not a slacker to the extent of getting a couple of Fs.