Stargirl

Just watched the pilot and have to say that I loved it! I wont go into much detail on the actual plot. Its an origin story and sets up Courtney becoming Stargirl as well as moving into a new town and school.

I will say that we start off with an action packed Justice Society America (JSA) fight with the Injustice Society set 10 years in the past. They show us the 4 members who will eventually get 'new' replacements in future episodes as well as the sidekick of Starman - Stripesy (and Courtney's stepdad).

The dialogue throughout is great. It feels natural and is also very funny at times (Joel McHale was very good!), you wont be able to stop yourself smiling as you watch it.

Also, great special effects, from the opening (and closing) fights, to Courtney's training montage with the Cosmic Staff.

As well as the 4 main family leads, we get introduced to a lot of potential friends and rivals at school. We get the mean popular girl and her '2nd' in command - both were very funny. Then we get the over the top mean jocks (hey, you need the small time school villains to counter the actual supervillains - so I gave it a pass) - and then we get a hilarious bit at the 'singles' table. Beth was great here, as was Yolanda's subtle glare at being called one of the losers.

Also, it has to be said, this feels like it was made pre 2015 (in a very good way!) - which means there is no heavy handed identity politics, social justice or man hating, its just a fun story that's well acted and highly entertaining.

If you thought about giving it a miss because you are over the DC CW, this doesn't feel like one of those shows at all. Its its own thing.

I highly recommend it

** Now I just need my fav JSA'er Sanderson Hawkins (Sand) to make an appearance ;)

I don't think we've ever seen a series like this before. DC's Stargirl is pure, contagious joy, as Courtney gets acquainted with her inanimate-yet-animated staff and all the tricks she can do with it.

Whilst Courtney (Bassinger) is the main focus of the series, she has an excellent co-anchor in Pat (Wilson). There is an arc to their relationship as she learns to accept him as her step-father and comes to grips with his secret life as Stripsey. Bassinger and Wilson have the beginnings of some great chemistry.

From a production standpoint, DC's Stargirl has some truly cinematic imagery which is accented by an impressive level of visual effects. Those concerned about the integration of the S.T.R.I.P.E. robot need not worry, this the production team are using their budget wisely.

Fun, engaging and laced with a gleeful sense of adventure, DC's Stargirl is definitely a show you're going to want to watch.

I didn't hold out much hope for Stargirl, mainly because it's a DCEU series, but season 1 surprised me. I really enjoyed watching the main characters get into their stride and the villains, while being a little corny weren't too corny. But then season 2 came along and the moment I saw it was subtitled 'Summer Camp' I knew it was going to go downhill. And boy, has it gone downhill. It feels like the story could have wrapped up in four episodes but has been spread out to breaking point. Like The Hobbit trilogy. Which is a pity because the baddie, Eclipso, had the potential to be a really good villain and brought some dark moments.

I'm going to stick with it but I'm not holding out much hope.

Season 1 overall was fantastic and fresh with most episodes averaging a rating of 8 in my opinion better than all the other CW shows I had watched in the past, season 2 is just different and feels like a completely different and childish show, reminds me more of 90s power rangers than a young adult superhero series. I'm writing this after season 2 episode 9, and the last 4 episodes have been painfully bad.

And no, I don't mean uplifting and comical. I mean solid, well-crafted, narrative and visually pleasing. This episode has a cinematography that could very well be featured in a movie. Still too early to tell anything about the plot, but I can already see which characters are going to be relevant based solely on the way they're framed when they show up. That's the director stating "Hey! Pay attention! This guy is about to do something!" Hard to tell if they used a double for the acrobatics, but if they didn't and that's actually the actress, then she an extra mark for that. The only "but" I give it, is that they essentially rebooted the JSA we've seen in Legends, Arrow and Flash, which opens the possibility of introducing a new Arrow, a new Flash, and new *everyone else*s, which is not something you do when you have another version of the same character already developed. A JSA show set in the 1960's would have been ten times better, without the plot devices of modern shows.