First, the comic is canceled. It is hard to know when or if a new book will make its way to the racks.
And now we learn that the show has been held back until the midseason of 2021. Here is a link:
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/cw-holds-new-returning-series-january-launch-sets-corona-proof-fall-schedule-1294594
The new season of Supergirl will be held for whenever midseason 2021 is for The CW and will film after star Melissa Benoist returns from maternity leave.
This is hard.
Obviously, the show is dealing with the COVID pandemic and the ability to film as well as Melissa Benoist's maternity leave. You can't really rush either of those concerns. So no new material until spring I guess.
I wish The CW would put together a mini-season of animated Supergirl material, something which can be done remotely by the actors including Benoist, to keep people interested. Even if not on the main screen, put it on CW Seed.
The question then is how long will season 6 be? Will it be 10 or 12 episodes? According to some, it will be a full season, although how can you fit in 19 episodes as a latter half midseason replacement?
If true, will the short season make it more like a continuation of season 5? Will it have its own storyline.
It really feels like 2020 is just a bad year to be a Supergirl fan in general.
14 comments:
They should go ahead without Benoist, find some creative way to bring in a substitute. Who doesn’t want to see peak Power Girl on screen? Or a live action Kara In-Zee. Maybe Laurel Gand?
Get using those parallel worlds!
Hello from a french fan of supergirl,
Thanks your Anj for you review of supergirl tv.I can't sse episode in France.
The ggod new with the season delayed is that supergirl will not be pregnant on her show. I 'am glad they didn't integrate a supergirl pregnancy .. magic pregnancies are too horrible in comics.
Anj, you forgort dc super hero girls, it's the only show with supergirl and there are comic.
Yeah this is a sad time for Cousin Kara and likely to get sadder...but insofar as the show is concerned I'm seeing this delay as being driven by a good thing (MB's gonna be a Mom) and a bad thing (Covid-19) both of them are relatively unforeseen events. I am sure the show will be back, I can't imagine anyone else as Supergirl at this point given MB's charisma...
Maybe some animated palaver might be a fun idea, set in HS (Kara dresses up as a knock off Supergirl for Halloween and she and Alex get wrapped up in some shenanigans....this could be funny)
Hang in there Anj...
JF
A contrarian opinion:
CW is delaying all the other DC TV shows and in fact the rest of their standard schedule until January. And then restarting them all at once. I see this as only good, because Melissa will be back from maternity leave and the shows will all be able to fire on all cylinders.
I don't see this as bad news for Supergirl TV fans the way the comic has been terribly treated the last two years.
The show quality will likely only be the better for the delay.
T.N.
Maybe they should have incorporated Melissa Benoist's pregnancy into the show. Hey, if Lucy and Desi could do it...
If the pandemic hadn't happened, the theme of the new season (or at least the first half) could have been "The Search for Supergirl". Kara is missing and Alex, J'onn and the others set out to find her, carrying the show until Benoist is able to get back to work.
But seriously, I'm more concerned with the future of the comicbook Supergirl. The TV show is just a victim of circumstance, and we can look forward to new episodes down the line. But right now, there's no light at the end of the tunnel where the comic is concerned. Even if a new series was announced, could DC be trusted not to mess things up again?
Meanwhile, in the absence of new Supergirl TV episodes, Stargirl looks like it's going to be a show well worth watching, judging by the first two episodes. And someone has GOT to do an action figure of the STRIPE robot.
Yeah "Stargirl" is an excellent palliative at the moment, I see a light of Merry Mischief in Brec Bassinger's eyes. A quality she shares with MB, THAT is the team up we need soonest to soothe our troubled souls.
JF
It is sad, but if they keep the writers writing we could get a high quality script with considerable time and effort plowed into it. I am happy to wait if the time is spent writing.
But I would love if they didn't wait and instead gave us a Midvale season with Izabela Whatshername. Then let Melissa jump in the next season when she is back.
Oh and Stargirl is amazing. Cortney has the benefit of having Geoff still in the business so that show should be protected from the dark powers that be.
I'm sad about the comic state of Supergirl. It was so unnecessary to turn her comic from light to what is bordering on being a mental abuse story of a 16 year old.
But as someone mentioned. There is solace to seek in DC Super Hero Girls. While it is more Powergirl than Supergirl nowadays, at least it isn't brainwashed-fetish-girl which is what the main office are giving us. Lauren's take is fun even if it's not really Kara.
"The question then is how long will season 6 be?"
It'll be a FULL season, according to The CW head Mark Pedowitz. There's probably an unsaid health concern reason why both Supergirl and Riverdale got pushed back to mid-season, since IIRC, the first reported positive case of COVID-19 at the Vancouver studios came from Riverdale's production office...which coincidentally, is the same building in which the Supergirl production office is also located.
BTW, the network has been toying with the idea of eliminating 'rerun season' during the summer for a few years now. Seems like the pandemic may be putting that idea into full deployment now, what with DC Stargirl launching this month. There is a certain amount of revenue flexibility to the idea, since The CW relies more on streaming alternatives for its overall attractiveness anyway.
"Obviously, the show is dealing with the COVID pandemic and the ability to film as well as Melissa Benoist's maternity leave."
...which is another reason why production is getting a later start date. The studio and network are honoring her original leave request, which doesn't really take off until other productions resume filming as usual. It's kind of a labor agreement contingency thing. :)
"They should go ahead without Benoist..."
LOL, not gonna happen. Melissa's still under contract, and she still wants to work (when she's physically able to). Not even in the same ballpark as the Ruby Rose/Batwoman situation.
"It really feels like 2020 is just a bad year to be a Supergirl fan in general."
The character's had ups and downs before; it's never been a straight line trajectory for Supergirl acceptance. However, Season 5 DVD set still releases in September, which should contain all parts of the Crisis On Infinite Earths crossover on it.
Besides, this could inadvertently turn out to be a sort of 'silver lining' for Supergirl's exposure, because as the saying goes, "absence makes the heart grow fonder". Time will tell.
KET
Ah if only Supergirl was still as perfectly delightful as the Stargirl pilot. (I didn't see the second episode yet but I hear good things.) So awesome to find the old JSA photos. Awesome to watch her discover the staff and start to use it.
I think Supergirl was also perfectly delightful once. And still can be - occasionally. It's gotten increasingly bogged down with too much Flash-like babble. Q-waves and associated gadgets and ancient spaceships and non nocere and immortality by injecting oneself into computers and the ability to reverse that computer code so that it can make the gods mortal? Seriously? I had trouble getting invested in this material or even following it.
If people reading this had to make a choice, which would you prefer: A good Supergirl comic, or a good Supergirl TV show?
Either of them, of course, can be poorly written. In both cases, let's assume they are at least decent. Then, make a choice.
I'd be surprised if the answer is not comic book.
For that matter, choose between an average Supergirl comic vs. a really good TV show. That still may take some careful thought.
And what about a lousy comic vs. an average TV show? I don't mind the TV delay, but am furious about the comic cancellation and even more upset about the insulting digital conclusion to the series. A comic book is at least in theory never more than one writer or one editorial decision away from greatness. It can change course a lot faster than a TV show.
T.N.
A couple of replies:
"Ah if only Supergirl was still as perfectly delightful as the Stargirl pilot."
Wasn't originally going to comment on the latter, but it's been pretty much an exercise on revisionist nostalgia so far, which is creator Geoff Johns' comfort zone. Makes perfect sense now why this series is taking place on Earth 2 and not the Arrowverse's Earth 1.
By contrast, the Supergirl TV series has always had more sweeping cultural ambitions than merely sticking to its assumed genre.
"If people reading this had to make a choice, which would you prefer: A good Supergirl comic, or a good Supergirl TV show?"
I don't think there needs to be a binary choice with a multi-media trademark that's often aimed at different receptive demographics anyway.
KET
I want BOTH a great comic and a great TV show, each supporting the other in some ineffable sense. And its perfectly possible as well, its just that DC the comic book publisher has this lingering Fanboy snob Byrne Doctrine dislike for the character. The Friction' Metal Men have a floppy and Supergirl is exiled to digital, what does that tell you??
JF
Don't know if you will see this, KET, but:
"By contrast, the Supergirl TV series has always had more sweeping cultural ambitions than merely sticking to its assumed genre."
Maybe not always, but you are right -- often true. And sometimes some felt it got too preachy, while sometimes it's had a lighter touch.
Cultural and political commentary is fine, and I've enjoyed the metaphors. It doesn't have to come with as much science-y babble. There are many scenes where I can read the emotions, the urgency of the moment, etc., and believe that the actors are doing their best to convey those, while having no better idea than I what they are talking about. There are hours that are wall-to-wall MacGuffins. That's what I object to. I feel like I have to stop trying and just shut my brain off, and try to enjoy the heart of it.
It's not the themes, it's the scripts, the execution. And I think this season was overwritten.
I wish we had more karaoke! Maybe next year.
T.N.
"Wasn't originally going to comment on the latter, but it's been pretty much an exercise on revisionist nostalgia so far, which is creator Geoff Johns' comfort zone. Makes perfect sense now why this series is taking place on Earth 2 and not the Arrowverse's Earth 1.
By contrast, the Supergirl TV series has always had more sweeping cultural ambitions than merely sticking to its assumed genre."
Except that neither Stargirl is an "exercise of revisionist nostalgia" (seriously what does ever that sentence mean?) nor Supergirl has had sweeping cultural ambitions whatsoever (once again, what does "sweeping cultural ambitions" even mean?)
You're just putting Stargirl down in order to make your favorite show look good.
"It's not the themes, it's the scripts, the execution. And I think this season was overwritten."
I agree.
To be honest, I lost interest in the Supergirl show long ago because is NOT a Supergirl show. It's a Superman show where Clark Kent happens to be a woman called Kara Danvers. The showmakers don't care for Supergirl at all.
At the very least, that obnoxious, hateful troll who harassed Anj with his "All of you are bigots" nonsensical bile during the fouth season has seemingly disappeared.
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