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"Supergirl" Series Finale Review
SPOILER WARNING
The heavily hyped two-hour series finale of "Supergirl" aired last night on the CW officially bringing an end to six seasons of the less-than-stellar series.
The series originally premiered on July 8th, 2015 on CBS and showed promise throughout the first season with interesting storylines and an initial main cast featuring Melissa Benoist in the title role as well as Mehcad Brooks as James Olsen, Chyler Leigh as Alex Danvers, Jeremy Jordan as Winslow "Winn" Schott, Jr., David Harewood as J'onn J'onzz / Martian Manhunter and Hank Henshaw, and Calista Flockhart as Cat Grant.
However, following a permanent move to the CW with season two, the series began taking more of a "politically correct" standpoint with all of its storylines and added so many new characters that it became more of a soap opera as opposed to an action-heavy comic book series in the vein of "The Flash" or "Arrow".
With that said, the series finale did manage to be somewhat entertaining with the return of several cast member & characters from the past six season and a pretty impressive (if not chaotic) fight between the Super Friends and the villianous duo of the fifth-dimensional Nyxly (Peta Sergeant) and Lex Luther (Jon Cryer) aided by Earth-X's Overgirl, Red Tornado, Metallo, the Parasite, the Nightmare Monster and the Kryptonian Dragon which Nyxly had summoned earlier in the season.
While entertaining, the battle between the heroes and villains was immensely anticlimactic and full of shoddy CGI which the series has sadly become been known for over the years. In a nutshell, each returning villain was defeated rather easily while Nyxly and Lex were whisked away to the Phantom Zone after Lex unleashed the Phantoms who, expecting them to go after the Super Friends, instead attacked him and Nyxly due to their fear disguised as hubris (excessive pride & self-confidence).
The battle, however, would not be the true ending of the series as that would be set aside for the long-awaited marriage of Alex Danvers (Chyler Leigh) and Kelly Olsen (Azie Tesfai) which is preceeded by the Super Friends gathering together to bury William Dey (Staz Nair) who was killed by Lex in the first hour of the finale. It is also revealed that the government has decided to reinstate the DEO, a new school of journalism is erected in William's name by Lena Luthor (Katie McGrath) and Dreamer (Nicole Maines) begins her own LGBTQ+ charity.
Flash forwarding to three weeks later, the day of Alex and Kelly's wedding has arrived where J'onn officiates while the two exchange heartfelt vows. Kara, following a overly sappy "Be all that you can be" speech which has inspired people to the point that Supergirl is no longer needed as much as before, is questioning her life spent hiding behind the glasses. However, after having a heart to heart talk with Lena about living her own true life and how empowering that is, Kara takes off her glasses and sets them aside while she watches Kelly and Alex fly off in their car in easily the worst bit of special effects ever seen on the series.
In an added twist, Kara receives a unexpected call from Cat Grant (Calista Flockhart) who reveals that she has bought back CatCo and wants Kara to be the new Editor in Chief. It is also revealed that Cat has known for years that Kara was Supergirl stating, "Those spectacles disguised you as a much as Groucho Marx glasses, you should have just added the busy eyebrows and mustache" and that she has always believed in Kara and always has.
The series finally comes to an end at Kara's apartment where she reminisces with her friends during their regular game night about the past six years saying, "The last six years with all of you have been the greatest adventure I've ever could have imagined, I can't wait for the next one." Meanwhile, video monitors across National City begin broadcasting a landmark Catco news story featuring Cat Grant and Kara revealing her true identity as Supergirl to the world at long last.
All-in-all, the finale continued to be plagued by the same drawbacks that it has suffered over the past several seasons of poor storytelling, horrible special effects, throw away plotlines, and an excessive amount of political correctness. Every time it seemed like there may be an intriguing bit of the story to watch like the Super Friends vs Super Villains showdown, the sequence would devolve into a mediocre mess of dialog and acting before, thankfully, coming to an abrupt end.
As stated earlier, "Supergirl" had the potential to be another hit superhero series for the CW back in 2015 and the casting of Benoist in the lead role was also well received. Ultimately though, a lack of good storytelling and some episode topics that were not always very well received resulted in average viewership dropping from 9.81 million in season 1 to just 1.58 million doomed the series to an early end. Thankfully, the spin-off series, "Superman & Lois" has been a breath of fresh air on the CW with fans actually looking forward to the Season 2 premiere on January 11th, 2022.
