Spoilers Stargirl - Season One Discussion Thread

[FPAlpha]

Are they going to have to bring in a whole new set of villains for season 2 since everyone currently knows who everyone is?

To be honest it would have been a stretch even for comic book adaptations if the villains couldn't figure out who their enemies were - a bunch of teenager with a, shall we say, "inexperienced" teenage girl as a Leader and a few sidekick adults.

The miracle though is that these teenagers are still alive - very little skill, coordination and discipline vs. a team of adult Supervillains who are in complete control of their powers, have years or decades of experience and have already taken out the previous Superhero team.

However i still like the show, flaws and all, for some reason and i have axed shows that had equally implausible premises and situations for the very reason (Supergirl for example.. very likeable lead but the show was so dumb at times it really got on my nerves). I actually can't explain why

 

[Christopher]

I know it's probably realistic for a 15-year-old, but I get tired of how impulsive and unthinking Courtney is. Believing the Staff abandoned her because "it realized" she wasn't Starman's daughter was deeply solipsistic, assuming that just because she lost that delusion, it means the staff realized it at the same time. Moreover, she's forgetting the original sequence of events. The Staff picked her before she knew anything about Starman or concocted the belief that she was his daughter. So there's no reason her changed perception of herself should affect the Staff's perception of her. I kept waiting for Pat to point that out.

Still, I liked how subtly they handled the bit with the locket. When her real dad told her he wanted to sell the lockets for money, you could see the heartbreak on her face as she realized he hadn't really come for her, that it was just an excuse to get his hands on the locket. We didn't need to hear her say that to know she realized it, because you could see her disappointment. She didn't give him the locket because she fell for his story, but because she'd suddenly realized he wasn't worth having a sentimental attachment to, so the locket didn't matter to her anymore. I respect the show for leaving that all unsaid, conveying it all through subtext and performance.

Although I have to admit, I was convinced it was going to turn out that the locket was what the Cosmic Staff reacted to, that the grandmother who gave them the lockets, or the artisan who made them, would turn out to have some connection to Starman or to the Staff's origins. After all, Real Dad said the lockets were made by a jeweler "to the stars," so I figured he misunderstood when he thought it meant celebrities. And it was after she took off the locket she always wore that the Staff stopped responding. I thought Courtney would end up getting both lockets and that it would give her some power-up going into the 2-part finale.

Are they going to have to bring in a whole new set of villains for season 2 since everyone currently knows who everyone is?

Bringing in new villains each season has been the norm for superhero and action shows since Buffy the Vampire Slayer, so yeah, probably.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

The scene with the staff looks really good in HDR. Nice to see Pat getting some moxie and in with Courtney though he really needs to do a solid with Mike who I suspect will have a moment before the season’s over.

 

[Christopher]

The scene with the staff looks really good in HDR.

When I saw the light from the staff shining through Courtney's hands as she held it, and the lighting on the actors in the scene, I realized (from behind-the-scenes videos I've seen of other recent productions) that she must actually have been holding some kind of LED rod for the interactive lighting, and the staff was entirely digital in those shots. Apparently it's easier and/or more convincing to do it that way than to fake the interactive lighting digitally.

 

[Kirk Prime]

Although I have to admit, I was convinced it was going to turn out that the locket was what the Cosmic Staff reacted to, that the grandmother who gave them the lockets, or the artisan who made them, would turn out to have some connection to Starman or to the Staff's origins. After all, Real Dad said the lockets were made by a jeweler "to the stars," so I figured he misunderstood when he thought it meant celebrities. And it was after she took off the locket she always wore that the Staff stopped responding. I thought Courtney would end up getting both lockets and that it would give her some power-up going into the 2-part finale.

I had the exact same thinking about the locket, but I'm glad that wasn't the case. I would like to learn more about the cosmic staff--maybe get an origin story. Is it science? Is it magic? The staff seems to have some sentience, so magic makes some sense. And while the daughter connection makes some logical sense, it was still only an assumption and not a rule. Besides the Knights used the staff and Sylvester wasn't related to them.

Maybe the staff is a little like Thor's hammer, but with different standards.

The disappointment I had this week was that the episode was called The Shining Knight, and they didn't really develop him.

Why is he messed up? Did Brainwave do something to him? Why is he 1000 years old? I was hoping this would be the week they deal with that.

And yes, the acting in the scene with the father asking for the locket was terrific as was the writing.

 

[FPAlpha]

When I saw the light from the staff shining through Courtney's hands as she held it, and the lighting on the actors in the scene, I realized (from behind-the-scenes videos I've seen of other recent productions) that she must actually have been holding some kind of LED rod for the interactive lighting, and the staff was entirely digital in those shots. Apparently it's easier and/or more convincing to do it that way than to fake the interactive lighting digitally.

Sometimes practical effects stll beat out digital wizardry.

Back then i nearly lost my mind when they made the LotR movies and used perspective vision (or whatever they called it) - basically they set the Hobbit actors further away than regular human characters so they'd appear smaller and filmed it at an angle so it wouldn't be noticeable (the furniture was also specially constructed to make this possible).

 

[Christopher]

Sometimes practical effects stll beat out digital wizardry.

Well, it would've involved a digital effect either way, it's just a question of which part to do practically and which to do digitally. A lot of FX these days combine both digital and practical elements, and I've seen a number of instances with digital replacement of LED rigs as I described above (e.g. Iron Fist with Danny's glowing fist).

Back then i nearly lost my mind when they made the LotR movies and used perspective vision (or whatever they called it) - basically they set the Hobbit actors further away than regular human characters so they'd appear smaller and filmed it at an angle so it wouldn't be noticeable (the furniture was also specially constructed to make this possible).

Forced perspective. It's been used for ages to create giant/miniature effects. Hercules and Xena made excellent use of it in the '90s to do in-camera giant effects. They used a technique where you pivot the camera around the actual focal point of the light within the camera, so that the perspective doesn't shift and you can maintain the illusion without needing a static camera angle.

 

[JD]

Starman is Courtney's son from the future.

Is that from the comics?

Although I have to admit, I was convinced it was going to turn out that the locket was what the Cosmic Staff reacted to, that the grandmother who gave them the lockets, or the artisan who made them, would turn out to have some connection to Starman or to the Staff's origins. After all, Real Dad said the lockets were made by a jeweler "to the stars," so I figured he misunderstood when he thought it meant celebrities. And it was after she took off the locket she always wore that the Staff stopped responding. I thought Courtney would end up getting both lockets and that it would give her some power-up going into the 2-part finale.

I had the exact same thinking about the locket, but I'm glad that wasn't the case.

Yeah, my mom and I both had the same thought about the locket.

The disappointment I had this week was that the episode was called The Shining Knight, and they didn't really develop him.

Why is he messed up? Did Brainwave do something to him? Why is he 1000 years old? I was hoping this would be the week they deal with that.

Yeah, I was expecting a lot more Justin, since he was the title character. We did get some answers about him and his history, but I was expecting a lot more.
Poor Courtney, she went from her dad being a superhero, to her dad being an asshole. Even with that being the case, it was nice to finally get confirmation that Starman is not her dad.
So apparently the staff is telepathic, or something?
I hope the end means Mike is going to learn about Courtney being Stargirl, I felt a little bad this week that he was the only member of the family who doesn't know.

 

[Marc]

I felt a little bad this week that he was the only member of the family who doesn't know.

I don't.

Less mike, more of the dog.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Does the dog know?

 

[Guy Gardener]

Acute hearing.

Either it runs in fear from the hissing, popping, fizzing, squeeling haunted stick, or doggy has marked his territory.

 

[Morpheus 02]

Pat is just a great guy... i love how he has been written and acted. (I kinda relate -- at least the part about no one actually listening to him until it is kinda too late).

Can't believe the season is almost done already!

I think Mike will find out by sneaking around discovering it himself. (He also reminds me of Gabe from Good Luck Charlie)

I also hope Cameron will have known everything, and will help COurtney.


And regarding villains changing... Black Lightning hasn't gotten rid of Tobias WHale -- the actor does such an amazing job.

I hope Icicle stays -- too complex for me to just kill off. Bu they will need some reason to stay in Blue Valley (or at least have it as a home base).

 

[FormerLurker]

I just can't help wondering how many people have gone to watch this thinking it's the Grace Vanderwaal movie and gone , and how many have gone to watch the Grace Vanderwaal movie and found this, only to go .

 

[Romulan_spy]

So how late was Courtney to school? Courtney's mom says that she needs to get to school right away but Courtney agrees to a 30 mn breakfast with her dad. But the walk, the breakfast, the walk back and the talk with her dad, crying with Pat etc... it seems like a lot more time passed. And then we see Courtney in school in the cafeteria, seemingly around lunch time. So it seems like she probably missed half the morning at least with her dad.

 

[JD]

Does the dog know?

I actually had the same thought, but I can't remember if they've shown the dog seeing her in costume.

 

[JD]

I just double checked the synopsis of the last episode, and I got the person who came down the stairs at the end mixed up. For some reason, I was thinking it was Mike, but it was actually Justin.

 

[John Clark]

I just can't help wondering how many people have gone to watch this thinking it's the Grace Vanderwaal movie and gone , and how many have gone to watch the Grace Vanderwaal movie and found this, only to go .

Not while choosing which to watch, but looking for information on the music, yeah

 

[Aragorn]

Mike ignores what Pat is trying to say to him because he's too busy playing with a drill. Pat yells at him to pay attention, Mike yells back to tell Pat to stop treating him like a kid. I found that funny because, well, he was acting like a kid. Probably not what the show was going for though in that moment.

 

[Christopher]

I'm getting a little tired of stories where the villains are on the "good" side ideologically/politically but are using extreme and mass-murdery means to bring about reform by force. It sends kind of a mixed message. Plus, the Injustice Society is noticeably devoid of black members and idealizes a version of Americana that's stuck in 1950s suburbia, a social institution founded on racial segregation, so I have a hard time buying the premise that racial equality is a plank of their platform.

I could buy it, though, if it turns out that Jordan wrote the manifesto and the others are just using him to pursue a more malevolent agenda.

The most effective scene was the fight between Sportsmaster and Pat. The amiable banter between mortal enemies was some pretty good character work.

They were trying to invoke Ozymandias's "I did it thirty-five minutes ago" reveal at the climax there. I don't think it was quite as effective, though.

Okay, who else saw the mind-control machine and immediately asked, "Cerebro?" The ISA must be criminals -- they're guilty of patent infringement!

 

[FPAlpha]

Okay, who else saw the mind-control machine and immediately asked, "Cerebro?" The ISA must be criminals -- they're guilty of patent infringement!

*raises Hand*

I don't know if it was tongue in cheek or they simply didn't care about the similarities.

Well, they ramped it up and are now at the point where it seems the villains have won and the team of scrappy heroes are done Let's see how it plays out next week.