Supergirl (TV Series) Triggers (2017) User Reviews

Supergirl - S03E02 Triggers

[j_forbesy · 7/10 · 18 October 2017]

After a solid premiere last week, I was looking forward to seeing how Supergirl would follow it up in it's second week. Last season, the opening few episode were amazing so I was hoping that this season could produce a similar thing.

The start of this episode had me fairly concerned. A problem I see a fair bit with these CW superhero shows is that they often will recycle some plot points that the other shows have already done. With Psi this episode, I thought we were going to get a point for point retelling for Flash against Top. They even had it down to the, "I was off guard, I'll be ready next time" moment. However, they did shake it off bit and went more into the psychological side of Psi's abilities, and I the end I thought she was a decent villain of the week.

Staying a bit towards the negatives, the biggest problem I did have with this episode was how they took out Psi. They spent all episode showing how strong she was mentally, and in what seemed like a 30 second flip, Supergirl went from not being able to stand while being influences, to being able to walk straight up to her without the slightest struggle. I think this ties back to a larger problem I have with this series where they overpower Kara more than they should. In the other shows, while we have our main character, usually they need the input of a few character to take down the villain of the week, but this week. 

Into some positives, there were a fair few things that I thought were solid this week. The first was the realistic approach they took to Lena joining Catco. I like how she turned heel for a bit and played the boss card to Kara because I feel like this show has really struggled to find a good balance between Kara as Supergirl and Kara as a reporter. In the past, Supergirl always came first and she never really faced any consequences because of it.

While it is still early, I am liking the introduction of Samantha Arias into the show. According to the Arrowverse Wiki they have confirmed her as Reign which is a character I don't know too much about but in many ways seems like she could be the Supergirl equivalent to Reverse Flash or Prometheus. With that I like how they are building her relationship with the main cast and setting up an interesting plot line with her daughter.

The final thing that I thought was a good tip for the coming weeks was the ending with the martians. Seeing Miss Martian is always great because I enjoyed her presences last season and seeing her with J'onn is even better. I hope they spend a bit of time fleshing out that plot line and not make it a side adventure we forget is going on.

Overall, a fairly solid episode following up last week. While not perfect in anyway, nothing overall big stood out to annoy me which is a massive plus considering where the show was at the back end of last season.

7.5/10

what makes a great heroine?

[RavenGlamDVDCollector · 6/10 · 12 September 2019]

I disagree with reviewer Luvnit. Supergirl appears weak and whiny? No.

I am reminded of the old adage of the mighty oak tree. Is that tree the symbol of power as it stands valiantly enduring the ravages of winter? No, it is it's delicate white blossoms that dare to lift up their little faces into the icy wind.

Come on, guys, Supergirl has laser eyes and freeze breath and she can fly, so if she's beating up bank robbers, well, she CAN do so EASILY. Hey, if the rest of the world were little ants, we could all be heroes, but we'd really be big bullies revelling in our good fortune. So, turn the tables on Supergirl, make it a whole lot more interesting. Now that's real courage, overcoming fear. +Looks cute when she's in real trouble for a change, and all the better to root for.

Enter Samantha...

[hawkins_saints_rock · 8/10 · 17 October 2017]

OK so episode 2 is in the books. Overall a solid episode, not as good as last week but no where near some of the poor episodes this show has given us in the past.

The villain this week (Psi) was interesting, but felt like a mixture of two relatively well known DC villains, that being Top (from The Flash) and Scarecrow. Psi induced fear in her opponents, and the way her opponents reacted (Kara in particular) looked exactly like the way Barry and Jessie Quick reacted when Top did her stuff on those two. Psi was very powerful and it took Kara getting over her fear of Mon-el being dead for her to defeat Psi. The thing that annoyed me about the villain this week, is how easily she took down J'onn. J'onn's powers are constantly underpowered, which is really disappointing as he's so powerful, hopefully the writers fix the feeling of him being a poor superhero.

Two more things that annoyed me this week, were Lena and Ruby. I've loved Lena as a character but tonight was the first time where I found myself disliking the scenes she was in, especially with her attitude towards James, which was uncalled for. Now on to Ruby, I know she's a kid, but her whole plan of putting herself at risk so her mother would "save her" was just utterly ridiculous.

On to the good stuff for this episode. The new character, who we finally have a name for, Samantha, was really impressive this week. And the reveal near the end of the episode of her working at CatCo was great which means we will see more of who Samantha is as a person. Now we know that eventually she will develop into the villain of the season, but compared to the first two seasons, we're actually getting to know who Samantha is, which feels like the writers are trying to make us connect with her before she becomes the villain. And I think it's working.

So a decent episode this week but nothing too special. Hoping for a rise in quality next week. 7.8/10

Mind Over Matter

[ThomasDrufke · 5/10 · 16 October 2017]

It happens every now and then, but this episode felt the most CW-ish out of any Supergirl episode in quite some time. Everything from the very clichéd mother-daughter conflict with the new character of Samantha, to the unbelievably cheesy songs to begin and end the episode. If there was ever an episode I would NOT show to someone starting out this show, it may be this one.

That's not to say it's the worst episode, season 1 had probably 10 worse than this one, but I don't feel like it was a good follow up to last week's solid debut. CW has a tendency to create superficial conflicts or as I like to call forced conflicts just to keep the series going. And that's certainly the nature of serialized television. With that said, I haven't been impressed with the direction they are taking Kara and the unnecessary inner conflicts she is having.

I also don't approve of the inevitable break-up of Alex and Maggie. They continue to have silly arguments over nothing, and it's inevitably going to lead to a break-up. I understand Floriana Lima is only supposed to appear a few times this year, but if they have them break-up for some silly reason, then I will be extremely disappointed.

Speaking of romance, James and Lena almost seemed destined to pursue romantic opportunities with each other as the professional tensions between them seem to rise. It seems entirely cliché, but that's the type of thing CW does, so I expect it to happen.

The villain this week was the one and only, Psi, a mind controlling freak who implements your worst fear in your mind upon attack. Sound a whole lot like another famous DC villain? Well it should. Ahem, Scarecrow. She served a purpose and did it somewhat effectively, but she will ultimately fall in the same list as the rest of Arrowverse's forgettable villains. Overall, I wasn't a huge fan of this week's episode as it felt like a prototypical CW episode that didn't progress the plot in any interesting way at all.

5.7/10

Slightly More Super...

[lassegalsgaard · 4/10 · 24 April 2018]

One of the biggest problems that I have with these shows especially are the lengthy storylines that just seems to be wasting precious time for real things to happen with the characters. It can always be hard to come up with something new, so it makes sense that the showrunners would want a narrative thread that takes up a lot of time. I also sometimes complain that a specific storyline is too rushed, which is the very opposite of my first problem, so I am a very hard man to please. I just love good storytelling, and these shows are consistantly using these long narratives that leads to nothing, and when they finally have something good, they rush over it. This weeks episode of "Supergirl" was a tiny bit better than last week, but overall it was another big disappointment, mostly because of one specific things that is really getting on my nerve. There are some things about this episode that was really good. One of the major positives for me was the development of Samantha Arias, who will become the villain Reign with time. She was introduced in the previous episode in a very smart way, so I was excited to see what they would do with her in this episode, and I was very satisfied with how they treated her. The relationship she has with her daughter is very sweet, and her daughter is obsessed with the thought that her mom might have superpowers. I thought that entire story was very sweet, even though the third act part that it had, was very stupid and very predictable. I also enjoy the new role that Lena Luthor is playing in the show. I never knew where her character stood throughout the majority of Season 2, but it seems like she has found her footing, and the way they are including her in the season is very clever, and I am very excited to see where it leads. It also seems like the showrunners are setting some kind of romantic relationship between her and James, which would actually be a big service to both characters, as they are two of those characters that need a little bit more to there story, so maybe this is it. I will also praise the performances, especially Melissa Benoist, who has constantly impressed me as Kara. She had a very emotional performance in this episode, and she got to show some range, even though her character in the episode was reduced to a weak crybaby that had some very stupid dialogue. And thereby ends my positives, because this is another episode like the first one that has bad writing and a horrible villain. First of all: the thing that I don't like, and I haven't liked it since Season 2, is the big part that Mon-El is suddenly playing in Kara's life. He wasn't one of the great characters of Season 2, nor was he the most memorable. The way they are trying to give him some character (even though he wasn't in the episode) is very cheap and it doesn't feel deserved. I think the writers are cheating their audiences and they should drop that. The dialogue in the episode, is extremely chingeworthy most of the time. Kara has a scene where she just shouts out how lost she is and how she doesn't know what to do. It really sounded like the writers had gone to the "George Lucas School of Screenwriting," which is not a place you want to attend today if you want to write some powerful and emotional dialogue that doesn't sound like "Romeo and Juliet." Even though the novel was shown in the episode, so maybe it was a choice they made knowingly, which still makes it stupid and cringeworthy. I also really hated the villain. Once again, this is a very weak villain of the week with some weird powers that I couldn't get to make sense in my head. I will also call bulls**t on the fact that she was able to defeat both Kara and J'onn, almost without even breaking a sweat. If you can't get a villain that is up to the task, then don't even try. Don't try to make a villain more powerful than they should be, and definitely don't try to sell us on a weak character that you are trying to make cool.

Worst Episode

[LuvnIt · 1/10 · 19 October 2017]

This was the worst most annoying episode ever! No Super in Supergirl, just annoying & whiny. Everything in this episode was enough to turn us off from watching the series. We used to look forward to the next episode but after this, we don't care about watching any future ones. So awful!!

Slightly More Super...

[lassegalsgaard-45284 · 4/10 · 16 January 2018]

One of the biggest problems that I have with these shows especially are the lengthy storylines that just seems to be wasting precious time for real things to happen with the characters. It can always be hard to come up with something new, so it makes sense that the showrunners would want a narrative thread that takes up a lot of time. I also sometimes complain that a specific storyline is too rushed, which is the very opposite of my first problem, so I am a very hard man to please. I just love good storytelling, and these shows are consistantly using these long narratives that leads to nothing, and when they finally have something good, they rush over it. This weeks episode of "Supergirl" was a tiny bit better than last week, but overall it was another big disappointment, mostly because of one specific things that is really getting on my nerve. There are some things about this episode that was really good. One of the major positives for me was the development of Samantha Arias, who will become the villain Reign with time. She was introduced in the previous episode in a very smart way, so I was excited to see what they would do with her in this episode, and I was very satisfied with how they treated her. The relationship she has with her daughter is very sweet, and her daughter is obsessed with the thought that her mom might have superpowers. I thought that entire story was very sweet, even though the third act part that it had, was very stupid and very predictable. I also enjoy the new role that Lena Luthor is playing in the show. I never knew where her character stood throughout the majority of Season 2, but it seems like she has found her footing, and the way they are including her in the season is very clever, and I am very excited to see where it leads. It also seems like the showrunners are setting some kind of romantic relationship between her and James, which would actually be a big service to both characters, as they are two of those characters that need a little bit more to there story, so maybe this is it. I will also praise the performances, especially Melissa Benoist, who has constantly impressed me as Kara. She had a very emotional performance in this episode, and she got to show some range, even though her character in the episode was reduced to a weak crybaby that had some very stupid dialogue. And thereby ends my positives, because this is another episode like the first one that has bad writing and a horrible villain. First of all: the thing that I don't like, and I haven't liked it since Season 2, is the big part that Mon-El is suddenly playing in Kara's life. He wasn't one of the great characters of Season 2, nor was he the most memorable. The way they are trying to give him some character (even though he wasn't in the episode) is very cheap and it doesn't feel deserved. I think the writers are cheating their audiences and they should drop that. The dialogue in the episode, is extremely chingeworthy most of the time. Kara has a scene where she just shouts out how lost she is and how she doesn't know what to do. It really sounded like the writers had gone to the "George Lucas School of Screenwriting," which is not a place you want to attend today if you want to write some powerful and emotional dialogue that doesn't sound like "Romeo and Juliet." Even though the novel was shown in the episode, so maybe it was a choice they made knowingly, which still makes it stupid and cringeworthy. I also really hated the villain. Once again, this is a very weak villain of the week with some weird powers that I couldn't get to make sense in my head. I will also call bulls**t on the fact that she was able to defeat both Kara and J'onn, almost without even breaking a sweat. If you can't get a villain that is up to the task, then don't even try. Don't try to make a villain more powerful than they should be, and definitely don't try to sell us on a weak character that you are trying to make cool.