** This review contains spoilers**
A very uneven show that makes some important course corrections early, but never truly finds its footing. The season started with a poor setup. While the Supergirl character was always going to work, everything else seemed like it was bound to fail. The icy boss, the best friend who may become a super villain, evil twins and the mysterious evil military commander all looked to be boring stereotypes.
However, as the season moved on, the characters became much more layered. Once Calista Flockhart’s Cat Grant began bonding with Kara and revealing her vulnerable side, she became much more real, although she still retained quite a few cliqued character traits. I don’t know if they ever really planned on turning Jeremy Jordan’s Winslow Schott into The Toyman, but keeping him as Kara’s friend and confidant and making his father The Toyman worked out much better. The biggest character transformation was making David Harewood’s Hank Henshaw a disguised Martian Manhunter instead of being the villainous Cyborg. Unfortunately, the evil twin Astra never seems to work, and her bland husband Non is even less interesting.
When nothing else clicks, Mellissa Benois always does. She moves between her sweetly dorky work persona, the confident Supergirl and her textured private self while keeping you emotionally invested in what happens to her. Her acting keeps you empathetic to her, and you feel the highs and lows that she endures.
The shows plot is all over. The main story about Astra and her attempts to help Earth by conquering it is too vague early on and never really gets much better after it’s all revealed. Most of the villains of the week are forgettable, and Maxwell Lord is turned too much into a Lex Luther rip-off. The show begins to work in more storylines from Superman comics, and most of these work out pretty well. The crossover with The Flash was a fun episode, but it was a bit rushed.
One thing that constantly holds the show back is Superman himself. He’s mentioned one way or another, in almost every episode, but is never really shown. It becomes almost comical. A flash of his cape, a silhouette, or even just his feet are all that we see. It may have been better having him dead or missing.
**1/2 out of *****