Review: Supergirl Season 1 Ep 2 “Stronger Together”

After revealing herself to the world as a hero, Kara Danvers aka Supergirl is having some trouble in her new role as a hero.  She has begun to doubt herself as it seems she is doing more harm than good with each time ending in a potential disaster.

The Positive

Superhero work is hard.  Kara is still learning her powers and how to help the people of National City.  She dives right into the hero work in the week following her defeat of Vartox, but clearly she has a lot to learn including physics.  She doesn’t put a lot of thought into her actions, and it quickly shows.

After a disastrous attempt at saving an oil tanker and seeing the people turn against her, she takes the advice of her friends and works to become a better hero.  It’s refreshing to see her quickly admit her shortcomings and seek the help of others.  The focus of this episode is that she realizes she can not approach things like Superman does, she is a stronger hero with help from her friends and the DEO.

Family is looking to be a big part of the show.  Astra steps out of the shadows and reveals herself to Supergirl.  Kara is forced to choose between her Kryptonian blood or her adopted human family.  Astra is a formidable opponent but has underestimated the people of Earth and Supergirl.

The Negative

The villain of the week is a Hellgrammite who really doesn’t do much except killing and injuring some nameless DEO troopers.  He’s mostly there as a way to get Astra to confront Supergirl, and he’s pretty easily dispatched.

During the show, there are several moments where it’s painfully obvious the show is working on a budget.  While not distracting from the story you can clearly see them reusing sets for different rooms at the DEO base.  Astra and Supergirl take to the skies, or at least the upper areas of the warehouse while fighting with some questionable wire work and visual effects.

The Verdict

Episode 2 corrects some of the issues from the pilot episode giving us more action and more super-heroics.  The show continues to avoid some overused tropes and provides us with a hero with a strong clear message.