Friday, October 9, 2015

NYCC ’15 WBTV Preview Night Screenings


As is the tradition, Warner Brothers treated us to sneak peeks of some of their upcoming shows. The shows listed were Supergirl, Containment, and Legends of Tomorrow, but instead of Legends, we were given Lucifer. We saw full episodes of Supergirl and Lucifer and the first half of Containment. Here are my thoughts on the shows.

Supergirl

Kara Danvers/Zor-El is bubbly, awkward, and desperately wants to help people. Her sister, Alex, thinks Kara should keep her powers under wraps, but an incident forces Kara’s hand and she becomes Supergirl. 

Tonally, Supergirl is closer to the Flash than Arrow, which is probably for the best. Kara screams bright colors. 

We’re introduced to Kara/Supergirl (Melissa Benoist), James Olsen (Mehcad Brooks), Winn Schott (Jeremy Jordan), Alex Danvers (Chyler Leigh), Hank Henshaw (David Harewood), and Cat Grant (Calista Flockhart). The relationships are fairly strong and well-developed. You believe Kara and Alex are sisters, Winn is Kara’s best friend, who has a massive crush on her, Henshaw is Alex’s tough boss, and Cat Grant is Kara’s boss and the Miranda Priestly/Perry White of National City.

The pilot is strong, but at the same time, I worry the show may be a little too bubbly. Kara’s perkiness occasionally borders a little close to being obnoxious. I hope I’m not wrong. I want Supergirl to succeed, because we need more strong female roles models like her, and the show seems like it will be a lot of fun.

Lucifer

Oh boy. Lucifer is going to be all kinds of trouble, and in the very best way. The gist of the story is Lucifer decided to take a “vacation” from Hell and now runs a nightclub with his trusty side-demon, Mazikeen, by his side. He lives a live of careless, reckless debauchery, but all that changes when a friend of his is murdered. Lucifer wants justice, so he teams up with LAPD Detective Chloe Decker to help solve the case. 

Tom Ellis as Lucifer is just… oofta. I can’t think of a better person to play this version of Lucifer (and I’m a huge fan of Mark Pellegrino’s version on Supernatural). He’s smarmy, charming, funny, a little repulsive, scary, and so damn magnetic you’ll want to sell your soul to him. 

I’m not sure how I feel about Chloe Decker. She’s a detective with a chip on her shoulder, and is somehow immune to Lucifer’s trick of getting people to tell him their deepest desires. She’s not a bad character, but she seems very stiff. I can’t tell if it’s the actress or the character. 

A fun surprise for me was DB Woodside. He plays Amenadiel, one of Lucifer’s angelic brethren, who’s been given the task to bring Lucifer back to Hell. He’s dark, broody, and seems to have a stick up his ass. I’m a big fan of DB, so yay! His chemistry with Lucifer is potent. They’re a powder keg ready to explode. I cannot stress how excited I am for this show. 

Containment


I hate to end this on a downer, but I don’t think this one is going to make it. Basically, an epidemic breaks out in Atlanta, and part of the city is quarantined. Families and friends are torn apart, people are dying left and right, there's rioting, and it’s your typical “what do you do in a crisis?” story. It’s not bad, but there’s nothing screaming “watch me.” If anything, Wilderowens and I couldn’t stop laughing at how many times the police/national guard/officials kept yelling “4-6 feet!” That’s how far the quarantined characters had to stay from people and the giant erected fence. It bordered on silly, and while I saw a few characters who might have been interesting, I’m writing this shortly after seeing it, and I can’t remember who anyone is. Here’s hoping the episodes get better as the show progresses, otherwise, it’s going to get cancelled. 

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