Not an ask, but just HOW freaking Fantastic was that episode.
Anónimo ha comentado a thatsjustsupergirl: What was your general opinion on the episode? I just really want to hear from the sane portion of the fandom, not the people who throw hissy fits over every tiny little thing…
There were lots of things I liked! There were also a few major things I did not like, and they came from the same problem the show’s always had of wanting to be Meaningful but Not Thinking It Through. Honestly it feels like trying to advise a clueless student by shouting from across the Grand Canyon, but there’s been progress since S1, and there’s also been a consistent willingness to make it, so I will take that and continue to see where it goes.
tl;dr I agree with AV Club’s take: this episode was a bit more ambitious than it had time or space (pun!) to be.
all of the comedic moments meant to break up the intense stuff
Space Dad & Space Daughter going on interplanetary adventures
“Careful with the leather, there, Supergirl!”
literally every word out of Kara’s mouth when she rolled up in J’onn’s car playing the tacky American tourist
“Kill me now” re: all those effing terrible party games
Winn and James giving Alex shit, #fam
someone whose musical orientation is lyrics made good choices
J’onn: MY LOVE ISN’T THE KIND THAT FOLDS
Alex: YOU GO YOUR WAY, I’LL GO MINE / AND WE’LL SEE NEXT TIME
also “30th century” reference implied so A+ bonus hint
Kara: MY LONELINESS IS KILLING ME
Eliza Danvers remains a stellar example of humanity
um I LOVE CARL LUMBLY AND I HAVE MISSED HIS FACE ON MY TV?
when he was poking at that plant at the end of the episode I had to restrain myself from screaming “IT’S ALL GREEN!” ala Elphaba in Wicked (eyyyyy, another Wizard of Oz reference)
M’gann deserves her own spinoff or at least a six-episode short about the Martian rebellion, and I deserve this as well.
PEOPLE WHO CAN ACT WERE ALLOWED TO ACT??????
Things That Gave Me Forehead Crinkle:
M’gann was primarily a plot device for introducing M’yrnn
There was so, so much exposition – necessary, given the time constraints, but this episode was trying to cram in way too much history about multiple characters all at once
Kara using the sacred Martian relic as a weapon when she was the only a) non-Martian and b) white person there was … symbolically awkward
Was Kara actually killing the White Martians or not? I couldn’t tell from my first watch, but that’s … a thing that shouldn’t be tossed out so casually.
Why did anyone feel compelled to give Maggie’s father an accent when his backstory involved him moving here as a child???
Similarly, while I appreciate that they tried to give a deeper context to his reasoning, you can’t just throw out a single opinion on a hot-button topic when you’re representing a minority culture. That is one thing Glee did right re: Santana, and One Day At a Time got it right as well.
This is related to the “trying to do too much in one episode” problem. (And the “you should have developed this character more last year” problem. And the “we don’t really acknowledge how color or ethnic heritage impact our characters’ lives except via occasional one-liners” problem.)
Also dear show: no more awkward social justice buzzwords, ever. I appreciate the explicit change to Kara’s opening monologue identifying her as a refugee, but the whole immigration tangent out nowhere when we haven’t heard or seen a word about human politics on that front was … cringe-worthy.
