Stargirl Recap: Season 2, Episode 1, “Summer School: Chapter One”

If you’re like me, you’ve probably spent the first five minutes tonight Star girl the season two premiere wondered if The CW was accidentally airing the wrong show. The Effectively Weird 1950s Horror Prologue Lasts So Long and Is So Different From Anything Star girl did before that, it’s really like the intro of a whole other series. Have no fear, however. Although Star girl possesses (type of) has jumped on the networks between seasons, its sunny superhero vibe is back and better than ever. While “Summer School: Chapter One” expands the world of the show in new and exciting ways, especially with this scary prologue – it also retains the optimistic and family-oriented core of what made the season one, such a fun addition to the ever-expanding television superhero canon.

This horror movie opening isn’t a complete non-sequence, either. As well as unraveling the mystery of the new villain Eclipso, it also introduces a major theme from this premiere: Things that look put together on the outside can be anything but underneath. Like many classic horror movies, Eclipso’s prologue locates the terror hidden under a perfect suburban facade. And Courtney Whitmore and her friends are going through something similar, although they still aren’t quite able to admit it out loud. On the outside, everything in their life looks great. They’ve come together as a team to take down Icicle, Dragon King, and Brainwave, stop Sportsmaster and Tigress, and drive out the rest of the Injustice Society. Blue Valley is officially safe. What more could a bunch of up-and-coming superheroes ask for?

It turns out a lot more, as this patiently character-centric premiere begins to reveal. “Chapter One” minimizes the action to to check where our heroes are their great victory in the first season finale. As a team leader, Courtney is the one whose struggles are most external. Although it had been months since no one saw the ISA, she became obsessed with finding ways in which their members could return. In fact, she was so distracted that she even failed two classes, forcing her to attend The dreaded summer school of the season’s subtitle (and setting aside a pretty fantastic family vacation in the process).

But all things considered, Courtney arguably handles things better than her fellow Justice Society cohorts. Although she has at least one supportive family to fall back on, Yolanda, Beth, and Rick all struggle with a sense of isolation. Yolanda is consumed with guilt for having killed Brainwave in cold blood. Beth grapples with the loneliness of losing her friend IA Chuck in addition to the pain of finding out that her parents are divorcing. And Rick tries to turn the page to find that not everyone is ready to give him a second chance. (He’s also apparently trying to bond with a mysterious creature who may or may not be Solomon Grundy, although that’s mostly just a match for now.)

While Star girl is probably still a Courtney-focused show first and foremost, so it’s nice that this premiere takes some time to set up individual arcs for Yolanda, Beth, and Rick too. Part of the problem with the endearing but overloaded first season of the show was that she had so many ideas she wanted to tackle and characters she wanted to serve. that his main hero set got a bit lost in the rework at times. “Chapter One” suggests that Star girl wants to put Yolanda, Beth, and Rick more prominently this season, which is a good starting point for laying the groundwork for the series’ second outing.

That’s not to say that “Chapter One” doesn’t have its fair share of new additions either. In fact, it would be easy to turn this whole review into an explanation of all of the intriguing new elements introduced in this episode, from the aforementioned intro to the eerie powers of Eclipso to the revelation that the last inherited member to have crossed paths with the JSA is none other than the daughter of Green Lantern (Ysa Penarejo). Joel McHale still floats as (possibly) Sylvester Pemberton, who ends up looking for Pat’s ex-wife, Maggie. And Cindy Burman returns to Blue Valley High to begin setting up a next-gen ISA made up of Artemis, Tigress and Sportsmaster’s daughter, Fiddler Isaac’s son, Icicle Cameron’s son and, most shockingly of all. , the sweet and sweet Mike.

While this premiere is relatively relaxed in its pace, it’s clear that Star girl has not lost its ambitious sense of reach. More importantly, however, he also hasn’t lost the sense of seriousness that made the first season so successful. Brec Bassinger continues to be an extremely charismatic anchor for the series. And his scenes with Luke Wilson are once again a highlight. Like her new sister series CW Superman and Lois, Girl of the stars is a superhero family drama that’s also rooted from the perspective of parents and kids. Like with so many high school athletes and theater geeks, Courtney feels like she’s found a lifelong vocation that should come first. But like many pragmatic parents, Pat and Barbara want their daughter to have convenient fallback options as well.

It’s a relevant core to anchor the craziness of the show’s golden age. Courtney believes she has the responsibility to use her Stargirl powers to save the world, while Pat feels like he is responsible for ensuring that his daughter has at least a semi-normal adolescence. As he gently reminds her: “The JSA is not the only team you are a part of. Our family is also a team, okay? “It’s a nice frame to anchor Star girlexpansive world-building and a sweet welcome message for the show’s unique tone.

Stray observations

• The opening prologue is clearly still supposed to be somewhat ambiguous at this point, but my reading is that we are watching the original Doctor Mid-Nite aka Charles McNider’s daughter as she is fascinated (and probably killed?) by Eclipso in the form of that creepy little boy, Bruce.
• This week Luke Wilson scene that I could watch for an hour: Pat’s sheer daddy’s joy to kick off this trip to Mike’s Lake House.
• Speaking of which, I really feel like this show is punishing me personally for my early complaints about Mike not fitting the tone of the show. Please don’t make him mean or kill him !! I want his sassy comment on The Paper Road to last forever!
• Yvette Monreal does a fantastic job in the scene where Yolanda barely holds up in the church confessional.
• That twisty jump move Courtney does in her fight with Green Lantern’s daughter looks like very cool.
• Courtney’s friendly new manager makes a good impression, especially in his refusal to accept Pat’s misguided “catfight” joke. I also love everything about the junkyard owner Zeke and his new commitment to being Pat’s friend, partner and flamethrower supplier: “Sometimes a man just needs a robot. . “