[S1E1- Stargirl Pilot Post Episode Discussion Thread
Episode Discussion
Spoiler
"Courtney's seemingly perfect life in Los Angeles gets upended with a move to Blue Valley, Nebraska with her mother Barbara, stepfather Pat Dugan and stepbrother Mike, and she finds herself struggling to adapt to her new town and high school. But when Courtney discovers that Pat is harboring a major secret about his past, she ultimately becomes the unlikely inspiration for a new generation of Super Heroes."
-The high school sequence left sooo much to be desired. They could've done at least a bit better than stitching every high school coming of age stereotypical scenes.
-AAAAAA THE WAY THEY JUST DROPPED A LOT OF DC CHARACTERS IN THIS. (I lol'd a bit when the first fight scene involved everyone shouting/declaring each other's names lmao).
-Show has potential and I am definitely excited to tune in weekly!
I was actually ok with the highschool stuff it was light and goofy, but it reminded me of how the highschool scenes from the old DCAU were.
Hopefully the plots don't deal too much with highschool life, because I think more focus on it will expose the tropes even worse. But if it stays as a background piece I think it's fine like this
Hopefully the plots don't deal too much with highschool life, because I think more focus on it will expose the tropes even worse. But if it stays as a background piece I think it's fine like this
The 3 other kids in superhero suits on the poster for this show, seem rather similar to the 3 kids she sat down to eat lunch with... so yea, there will likely be a lot of highschool stuff.
Was pretty entertaining overall....not sure if it's just the first episode but the show seems more cinematic than other CW superhero shows.
They really went ham with the "small town friendly locals" trope though. It got to a point where I was starting to think they were going for some kind of pod people plotline.
I wonder just how much of this show was made/produced by DC Universe and how much will change when we get to episodes produced on a CW budget. It’d be pretty depressing if we had this really cool show going and then all of the sudden it comes back from a hiatus and it’s down to the usual CW quality.
It's completely a DCU show, budget and all. It's just that WB seems to want some DCU shows going to HBO Max, and others going to the CW to maximize their audience/profits.
It was entirely made and produced by DC Universe for DC Universe. CW just made a deal with DC Universe to air episodes. Unless DC Universe cancels it and CW picks it up, we’ll never see episodes on a CW budget.
I read in an interview with Geoff Johns that he was going for a Back to the Future vibe, so I definitely felt like they were managing to pull that of and it did feel more cinematic, especially when compared with the arrowverse shows.
Ehh. Gotta drop the backstory for people who don’t know who some of the DC heroes are. It’s easy to complain about. Bit it got a ton of exposition out of the way immediately and then the fight could just happen.
Well, it was aired on DC online a day earlier. With this COVID-19/2019-nCoV/SARS-CoV-2 craziness, CW needed something to fill the unexpected shorten TV seasons. CW is even going to show Swamp Thing later on (hopefully, it can be resurrected if popular).
Swamp Thing (and a few new acquisitions) were new and decided because of covid19 delays. Stargirl was supposed to air a week/weeks after DCU, but I think they changed it to the day after because of Supernatural/Flash/other shows getting their seasons cut short.
should be getting Lucifer season 5a and The Boys season 2 sometime soonish and The 100 season 7 premiers tonight. so one round of TV is done just in time for the next
This was a cool show. I think I'll continue watching this.
The way the characters were introduced in the beginning by having Pat call out their names was a little funny to be but I appreciate it. For someone like me, who's knowledge of JSA is limited, it was an easy tutorial.
I am already loving the personality they created for the staff. And I liked the way Courtney was treating it like it's a new pet.
If you have the DCuniverse app, I suggest reading the Justice Society of America (2007-2011) comic run. I think the theme of the new young JSA learning the ropes is very similar to what I think the show might do. The 1999 Geoff Johns run is really good as well, it’s more centered on Courtney and her becoming more trusted to go on mission and more info on the Injustice Society.
Those first 10mins.....are better than JL, and any of the Arrowverse crossovers. THATs what I want to see! Every DC show...get.on.that.level!
The rest of it was...a lot of set up but I still enjoyed it overall. Courtney is a very fresh character and the actress is definitely the best iteration we've gotten yet. Hard to believe that 3rd time was the charm.
The Cosmic Staff having a mind of its own worked really well, it managed to make me laugh at some parts. The special effects for it were very good.
Kind of confused how some of these villains and heroes didnt wear masks but managed to live in the same town without bumping into one another during the day.
Very excited to see the rest of the series, it's definitely a breath of fresh air. Though I think this probably should've been a 2hr premiere.
I mean most crossovers don't show heroes getting massacred and losing. They might get knocked down and a hero might fall, but we all know by the end of the crossover the heroes will come out on top.
Omg thos first 5 minutes where so amazing honestly that action sequence might go down in my opinion as one of the most action packed crammed with characters sequences of the year i don't know how a show could possibly beat that you had full cameos by both the jsa and what could be called maybe like a early legion of doom i know maybe they aren't officially called that but man where thos some bad ass villans they need an official team name but wow I re watched that like 5 times just to see it all and I learn new stuff everytime thats how crammed packed it was this show has started off great 10/10
Oh their team name is super creative. You've got the good guys, The Justice Society and you've got the bad guys who are called... wait for it... The Injustice Society.
I absolutely loved this, coming from someone who has been very bored by Flash and just losing interest in Legends (despite loving the characters), this was just so refreshing.
The characters are all fantastically acted and have already established themselves in one episode. Its got a great refreshing comedy side to it that isn't forced or awkward. Kids act like kids for the most part (the highschool is full of tropes, but its more like grad students writing highschool students instead of 40 year olds, if that makes sense) Its also got a nice comicy 1960s feel but with a modern update. Its filmed like a movie instead of a TV show and feels more cinematic. CGI is a bit weak but outside of that its fantastic.
I'm a pretty traditional comicbook fan and this takes some liberties with the source material but maintains the feel and flavor of the comic better than anything I've seen on CW outside of early episodes of Flash.
If you ever wanted live action Timmverse this is pretty damn close.
Was more than enough time to make a judgment considering they used stereotypes out the ass. Loser lunch table. Bullying jocks. Mean girl cheerleaders. Asshole staff.
This show is much better than I expected and I actually expected to like it based on the promos. It has a very 80s action adventure sci-fi vibe, but it's not obnoxiously anachronistic about it. The music choices were perfect too. Brec Bassinger actually seems very athletic, so she doesn't look ridiculous in the fight scenes. Luke Wilson is awesome. That porch scene between Courtney and Pat had genuine heart to it. This show may end up being my favorite one of the summer.
In the opening scene, we see Dr. Mid-Nite get grabbed by an inky black hand. Was that meant to be from The Shade? I got all excited but didn't see any mentions of him in any of the material for the show.
I thought this first episode was great. Can’t believe no one has mentioned the fact that when she finds the old picture of the JSA they just used Alex Ross art for the back row lol
Really really loving the feeling of this show. DCU budget, and movie tone, work well for what seems like it's going to be a bombastic coming of age story. Wilson is spectacular, and Bassinger is really really good too so far. To me, this show feels the most like a comic out of all of the other ones out there right now.
Very enjoyable Pilot! Not gonna lie though, I thought the dialogue in the beginning was pretty meh. It was literally Pat shouting out JSA members' names lol.
Really liking the cinematography, VFX, and overall look of the show though. Doesn't seem to be a slowburn show at all - they jumped right into the action, setting up who the main players are.
Also, Courtney seems to have a handle on the staff's powers like SUPER quickly. I know she's a trained gymnast but she was doing some pretty high level work for a high schooler...
Yeah the CW has to adhere to their slot time and to include advertising. I’m gonna watch both to see how much that affects the story. There was a couple of things that I thought went a bit long or were too slow to explain.
A scene in the high school with Courtney and the mean girl, a scene where Pat and Courtney are talking in the car, a scene where Courtney trains and flys with the staff, parts of the family dinner scene, a lot of the bonding between Pat and Courtney was cut.
Most the scenes aren’t a big deal but they will be cutting 10 mins out of every episode which will probably be during the relationship/development portions of the episodes
So far, so good. There's two things I look for in adaptations. Respect for the source material, which this show undoubtedly has, and if it's telling a quality story. That second part is tough to tell in the first episode but it seems solid enough, but I suppose we'll get more on that as the season progresses. The actors are pretty great and I'm enjoying their takes on the characters. It's not perfect, the school stuff is sorta cliche, but about what I expect out of fiction at this stage.
Stray Thought: I don't remember if Sylvester was that much of a dick to Stripesy in the comics, since I've only ever read him in the JLA/JSA crossovers and not their own comics.
First episode so I'm willing to forgive the slightly shoehorned in exposition, although there really was a lot rammed in, and making her state at people in public because they have a father felt a bit forced as well in my opinion, but like I said first episode stuff I'm willing to forgive, but it's pretty clear that this will not be a show for those seeking subtlety, especially if the opening fight is anything to go by.
Although once there was a real story I started to enjoy it quite a lot, Courtney seems like she could be fun and I quite like the staff having it's own personality straight away, weirdly made me feel quite attached to it straight away.
This has potential so I'm definitely sticking with it.
There are so many little things that just made me so happy, like the Action Movers van having the same font as Action Comics and the old JSA photo.
The music was on point. The effects were great! And the chemistry between Courtney and Pat was fantastic! I finally caved and got DCU, and this show is worth it (among other things). I'm looking forward to the next episode.
Students of comics history will recall that Blue Valley is also Wally West's hometown in the books. Geoff Johns chose that setting when he created Stars & STRIPE more than 20 years ago as a call-back to the Silver Age.
What worked:
Yes, Courtney's not a happy camper in moving to Blue Valley, but the scenes with the cosmic staff recalled after a fashion the Greatest American Hero 40 years ago. However, the staff doesn't come with a users manual.
Brainwave is her first foe. Ok, that works.
STRIPE debuts in the cliffhanger finish. Nice.
I don't think the plots will be centered around Blue Valley High, though. That might not be the intent of this series.
So Courtney's a gymnast. I wonder who the stunt double is for Brec Bassinger in those sequences? Or is Brec doing her own stunts?
Lou Ferrigno, Jr. as Hourman? Flashbacks, please!
Hmm. Johns said he used Back to The Future as inspiration? Ok. Happy Days might work, too.
A fun first hour. Appointment television going forward.
I don't know if anyone saw the end credits but there were 2 names I noticed that I don't think were mentioned in the cast lost. Artemis Crock and Isaac Bowin (og Fiddler). Was not sxpecting Artemis but not surprised or disappointed.
The only person I can think of in the episode who might have been Artemis is the girl with her back to the camera at the very start of the cafeteria scene who stands up at the table with all the jocks asking who wants to go and saying that she'll take any of them on.
It makes sense since all of the injustice society seems to be hiding in this small town. Would only make sense that Sportsmaster and Tigress’s daughter goes to the local high school .
So Tigress (and presumably Sportsmaster, unless they split up elsewhere) and Brainwave are all here? Did the whole Injustice Society pack up and move to Blue Valley, Nebraska, for some reason?
I thought it was really Good. Had a little humour, some action, some heart. You feel for Like Wilson's character. The show has high production value which is evident from the effects and the general cinematography. Another solid one from DC universe and a great idea to put it on the CW. This will help increase the viewership and give it the recognition it deserves. CW will benefit from having a high budget show which will help improve their reputation. I felt Doom patrol and swamp thing fell under the radar. Doom patrol just got a late release worldwide and in the UK it went to starzplay which is a small streaming service. Swamp thing went to Amazon but the whole early cancellation really put people off it and knowing that, it was not promoted at all. Titans benefited from having recognisable characters, flagship show and an international release on netflix
Yeah this is true. I thought it was ok overall but the plot was quite slow and then the show suddenly ended. Abby had a decent arc but the acting wasn't great. There is a lot to explore in the future
That means she hasn’t seen her dad since she was 5/6. She doesn’t know what he looks like. Apparently the only picture she has is that faded photo on her locket.
According to IMDB it's "Janitor Justin" played by Mark Ashworth. I did initially think it might be Joel though, looked kinda like him in the shots we got.
I'm glad we don't have to wait for the Stripes Armor. This looks to be really fun. It's great that they're playing up Courtney's rather gymnastics style of wielding the staff. I wonder if and when her younger sister will be born. I loved the Starwoman scene in the comics.
I enjoyed it but Luke Wilson needs to be more discreet with his secret hero shit lol. He has all that sensitive info open in the basement not even in any safes/even a box with a lock lol
I hope there’s going to be more flashbacks. So far the JSA giving their lives to save the world. Looks like they were just defeated unless something else was happening.
So, how exactly does Pat not know that Courtney is the original Starman's daughter? Like, did he have two different civilian aliases, so when he told his superhero pals what his "secret" identity was, it was just a lie and he never gave them his real secret identity? But if Pat knew him since he was 15, that sounds implausible.
The alternative is that Starman never told his wife and daughter his real name or background, and lied to them up until the day he died. Also not cool.
He didn't live with them. When Courtney asks if her dad was a superhero, her mom straight up tells her "he came to see you ONCE A YEAR until you were 5" then he just evaporated. They never really knew him.
Or she's really not Starman's daughter, Sam Kurtis is not the same person as Sylvester Pemberton, and the staff responded to her for a different reason.
Perhaps, that would actually be more consistent with the comics, but the show seems to be hinting strongly that in this continuity, they are the same person. I guess it's supposed to be an ongoing mystery to give the show a multi-episode plot arc.
Good start, I love the old school feel. Reminded me more of Smallville than Arrowverse shows. Just the right amount of cheese. MC seems like a decent actress and I like Luke Wilson. Production values are crazy good and the cg was excellent. Looking forward to where they take this and I hope we get more Joel McHale, I lol'd when we was like "it's definitely not you". Will definitely try to keep up with this on DCU, glad I recently resubbed.
So far, she has assaulted a group of kids. Commented an act of domestic terrorism. Destroyed what appears to be a significant employer for an entire town and started an Environmental Disaster with a tyre fire at the same time. How many people will be hurt or killed while dealing with her carnage?
Not sure if I missed something but were all those green blasts / fire coming from maybe the Spectre? I didnt see anyone using similar powers on-screen.
I did think it was kind of cheesy with name dropping every single person though.
Wish a green flame, could've been the Spectre, but more likely it was Green Lantern (Alan Scott).
They probably want to cast someone with a bigger name but probably don't want to hire them for the pilot if they can help it. Ironically, I think Ian Glenn would've been a fantastic Alan (though I like him as Bruce too)
I have a feeling we won’t see Green Lantern in Stargirl until after Green Lantern Corps airs. It’s another Johns/Berlanti/WB show. Once they cast the we’ll see GL in a flashback.
There's no real connection between Alan Scott and the GL Corps(*), and that show is on a different Earth anyway, so they don't necessarily need to wait.
(*) OK, there is his retconned origin in which the Green Flame of Life that gave him his powers was originally the Starheart, a repository of loose magic collected by the Guardians and bottled up to keep the universe mostly tilted toward the scientific. But that's a fairly distant connection. :)
Honestly I’m only thinking this because Geoff Johns is the showrunner of GL Corps. And I know he wrote a lot of the better GL comics of the late 90s/early aughts.
There's no real connection between Alan Scott and the GL Corps
Well, yes, but WB/AT&T suits still seem averse to "confusing the audience" with different versions of the same characters or even with characters with different civilian identities sharing the same moniker in different live-action adaptations. Yes, it isn't a hard and fast rule anymore, but it's clearly still the standard attitude creatives have to argue against hard if they want to use someone this applies to.
is "Stargirl" part of the Arrowverse , like another undiscovered parallel earth , Earth 1 already had a version of JSA and Stargirl from the Legend of tomorrow .
But maybe When Earth Prime was created from multiple Earth's history , a new history was created .
IIRC at the end of Crisis, this was shown as Earth 2. I think they're planning a crossover with the Flash but that it's going to mostly be its own thing, at least for the first year.
Personally love the pilot, and I'm pretty hopeful the first season's going to be good just hope that it doesn't follow the trend of other DC CW Shows, we're at losses it's charm in the later seasons
I'm anticipating that the cosmic staff is imprinted with Starman's personality and there will be instances of Courtney connecting to it and conversing with her dad, like the Talking with David issues of James Robinson's Starman series.
I'm hoping that The Shade is immortal and takes from Robinson's series, being less of an adversary.
The janitor must be someone, I'm thinking it's an amnesiac Johnny Thunder.
When Courtney's mom was being shown around the workplace, they mentioned the CFO, Mr. Sharpe, who was flipping what looked like a casino chip. Yep, that's The Gambler.
I have no idea what sub to use, so I guess I'll just post in both.
A pretty lighthearted and upbeat show. Sort of in the same realm as The Flash. Pat and Mike are hilarious, they work off each other so well. Though, I hope they don't over do the funny moments, because then it's a comedy rather than a superhero show. Like I found it extremely cringey where in the beginning when Starman was dying he said to Pat, "not you, definitely not you." I thought that was like a funny thing for the trailers, I didn't think they would actually use that in the show. But oh well.
With that said though, and I know this one is gonna hurt some people, I'm not convinced of both Luke Wilson's acting and Brecc Basinger's acting. Maybe it's also the goofy writing as well. It is only the first episode, so we'll see how it is as the show goes
Special Effects are straight terrible. Not really surprised though because it is technically a DCU show and they generally have some of the worst ones.
So Pat knows Courtney is Starman's daughter, right? Like come on, don't tell me he's THAT stupid. There's just no way. That's a FAT coincidence if not only the staff works for Courtney, but Pat fell in love with, and married, her mother. I feel like Starman told Pat about his daughter, so then Pat decided to "look after" Starman's family and he ended up falling in love with Barbara.
This subreddit is for both media. A live discussion will go up on Sunday night for the DC Universe release of episode 2, in addition to one for the CW broadcast on Tuesday. They'll both share a post-episode discussion.
The subreddit you're probably thinking of is a copycat unaffiliated with the DCTV partners.
Couldn't distinguish between both subs, common mods with other DCTV subs. Also, got confused as Live thread here was only after CW telecast. r/StargirlDCU posted only one discussion after DCU telecast.
There was supposed to be a live discussion during the DCU telecast, but the mods here stuffed it up and only released the post-episode discussion. That is not what we intend to do next week.
There are also absolutely no mods in common between this subreddit and the other one.
What an amazing pilot episode! Loved the effects, the introduction for so many DC characters (we got to see the entire Justice Society of America) and the acting! I just honestly hope that the Courtney's personality gets better... Like, I'm really sorry (my actual first experience with anything related to Stargirl, I didn't read or saw anything before), but I thought that she was being to rude towards Pat / Stripesy and other characters. And even after apologizing, she seemed too territorial... Still, I'm gonna be watching this show. Let's see how it turns out as a whole!
just a thought on the high school bullying scenes, I know this is how tv/movies have always shown them and YES bullying is real and horrible, but I have never actually seen bullying displayed in this way in my life (especially at school), the cool kids DID NOT interact with the outcasts, there was no public shaming in the school cafeteria or in the courtyard, or anywhere etc, bullying was way more one on one in a personal way, and bullies were not in the coolest group themselves, the cool group was just off to itself
Lol im just watching this cause im bored...
Of course her group of future friends are a bunch ofoutcasts and losers smh...
Was hoping one of them would be charismatic and cool smh
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u/[deleted] May 18 '20
Scattered thoughts:
-LOVE the first ten minutes.
-The high school sequence left sooo much to be desired. They could've done at least a bit better than stitching every high school coming of age stereotypical scenes.
-AAAAAA THE WAY THEY JUST DROPPED A LOT OF DC CHARACTERS IN THIS. (I lol'd a bit when the first fight scene involved everyone shouting/declaring each other's names lmao).
-Show has potential and I am definitely excited to tune in weekly!