Supergirl Season 2 Episode 11
“The Martian Chronicles” was kind of an uneven episode, but as with virtually every episode of every CW superhero show of the 2016-2017 season, it’s tough to really come down too hard on it. I’ve been having this ongoing mental contest where I try and figure out which of these shows is the “most improved” from last year. The vast majority of the first half of this Supergirl season was astoundingly good. The Flash has rebounded in a tremendous way from the missteps of last year. I haven’t enjoyed Arrow this much since the first half of season three. Legends of Tomorrow threw its old formula out the window and is a better show for it. But here we are, with a season that has been so strong that an otherwise good episode feels like a step backwards. I’ve just been getting used to exceptional episodes of Supergirl, and I don’t think “The Martian Chronicles” quite gets there. This should have been the hardest sci-fi episode of a season that has gone all out with these elements with every installment. It’s not that there’s no place for Kara and Alex’s heart-to-hearts or Kara’s “evolving” relationship with Mon-El, but it all felt shoehorned in with this one. Kara bearing her soul to what turned out to be a disguised White Martian didn’t sit well with me, as the moment didn’t seem right, especially since I saw the big reveal coming a mile away. And having Alex “kind of” remembering their talk afterwards because of fuzzy Martian telepathic logic felt like a cheat. I should be clear, I’m not trying to be some jackass who doesn’t think feelings have a place here, I just thought this was a clumsy way to handle an important talk between Kara and Alex. It all felt a little too on-the-nose with this one. On the other hand, when “The Martian Chronicles” was cooking, it was really cooking. The little tribute to John Carpenter’s The Thing when everyone was playing “Martian roulette” was a lot of fun. What’s more, you would never associate a show like Supergirl with the “trapped inside with an unseen enemy” format (if anyone was gonna do this, wouldn’t you think Legends would have been the one to go for it?) and I love that it flipped expectations around like that. Considering that this was probably the most genuine alien screen time we’ve ever had in the show, it’s a good thing that the special effects were solid, too. I never really expected to get the full “J’onn and M’gann take on Armek” experience on my TV, but here we are. And I’d have to be completely heartless if M’gann showing up as backup to help J’onn didn’t move me a little.
Kryptonian Memory Crystals
– I think this marked the most explicit they’ve gone with J’onn’s fear of fire, right? It’s more than just a comic book “weakness” like Kryptonite, it goes much deeper, and it was well played. – I might have deducted a half a star because of the Barenaked Ladies. Not really. Maybe I did, though. – Armek first appeared in the first story arc of Grant Morrison and Howard Porter’s excellent arc on JLA. If you haven’t read that, please do. It’s good comics and a classic Justice League story.
