Kara Zor El, “Supergirl,” has been spread thin over the past few weeks. The hero is juggling an adopted family as well as blood relatives. Kara has more to worry about thAn family drama, as a full-time secretary job at The Daily Planet overlaps with her time as “Supergirl” working with the Department of Extra Normal Operations.
While “Supergirl” premiered with high ratings, outlets like Zap2it and Variety have noted subsequent drops in viewership according to prominent network ratings.
On Nov. 30, The Hollywood Reporter announced that CBS is picking up “Supergirl” for an expanded season. Nearly doubling the original episode count from 13 to 20, meaning that “Supergirl” has to be elastic in the storytelling expressed with Kara each week.
“Supergirl” has decided to stuff supporting cast members into the different roles, hogging up the screen time in the episodes and taking them away from Kara’s own adventures.
Cat Grant, Kara’s boss, is running her Supergirl expose, her peer Jimmy Olsen is dealing with an old flame from the past, and Hank Henshaw, D.E.O boss is hiding a potentially deadly secret from Kara.
“Supergirl” has deviated from the formula set by producer, Greg Berlanti’s other television shows such as “The Flash” and “Arrow.” The show does not currently have one concrete villain five episodes into the season. On the other side of the television network fence, “The Flash” and “Arrow” are both dealing with their perspective season-long villains.
The focus on different villains leads towards middling results. Without the backstory of Kara being personally invested in tracking them down, it is hard to find a reason to invest in the freak-of-the-week aspects built into the premise.
The romances are already developing, especially in the last few installments. These elements should appeal to the wide female demographic to which the show appeals, but it does not seem that Kara is ready to settle down just yet.
With the “Supergirl” creative team finally aware of the expanded episode count, the show will hopefully focus on more in-depth content within upcoming installments. At the moment, watching “Supergirl” lack a clear, concise direction is frustrating. It is still commendable to have a superhero show reach out to a demographic of younger viewers and females.
With an avalanche of content currently on the air from expanding networks and outlets, “Supergirl” is a good distraction. With the expanded episode count, “Supergirl” still has time to improve.
