CBS’s New ‘Supergirl’ Show Looks Awful: Women Deserve a Better Class of Superhero
The primetime network unveiled a trailer for their new female superhero series Supergirl during Upfronts to a resounding WTF.
Bonnie Osborne/CBS
Meet your new Supergirl.
She’s a sweet-hearted single gal who’s a klutz around men, hides behind a sensible ponytail and glasses, and can’t quite figure out how to make the most of her potential. Not that she’ll let anything in the big bad city get her down!
She is the Unbreakable Kara Zor-El.
A new extended peek at CBS’s Fall Supergirl series, from the producers of Arrow, has the bubblegum snap of a tame CW teen show—a far cry across Metropolis from WB’s dark and gritty Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice gloom. At least its star, Glee and Whiplash’s Melissa Benoist, is effervescent enough to make her superheroine with superconfidence issues almost endearing.
What’s most amazing is how uncannily reminiscent the cliché-ridden Supergirl trailer is of SNL’s Black Widow trailer parody, in which the lone lady Avenger finally gets her own Marvel standalone in the tragic tradition of Katherine Heigl, the resident grand diva of rom-com hell.
But before you call Supergirl out for pandering to the female demo with what network suits must think women want, here’s Calista Flockhart as Kara’s “powerful and rich and hot and smart” Devil Wears Prada-esque boss to preemptively set us straight on Supergirl’s brand of superhero feminism:
“What do you think is so bad about ‘girl?’” she growls at the mousy Kara, who’s clearly not a girl, not yet a Superwoman. “[If] you perceive Supergirl as anything less than excellent, isn’t the real problem… you?”