Living the Romantic Comedy: It's a Girl, It's an Icon, It's...

There's good buzz on the extended trailer for the CBS Fall series Supergirl, and for good reason: The vibe around this Daily Planet office is sort of "The Whedon Wears Prada," as the show features the usual superhero fireball pyrotechnics plus Calista Flockhart gone full Streep and what looks to be neat casting all around (the camera likes Melissa Benoist). It's especially appealing as a sort of synchronistic response to the recent SNL "Ultron as Rom-Com" parody (see post below), suggesting that a girl in a caped costume doesn't have to sit on her couch eating a tub of ice cream or singing into a hairbrush while she pines for a super-Mr. Right.

"We can’t name her that! Shouldn’t she be called Superwoman?" asks Kara-in-secret-identity of her boss, who responds: “What do you think is so bad about ‘girl’? I’m a girl, and your boss, and powerful, and rich, and hot, and smart. So if you perceive Supergirl as anything less than excellent, isn’t the real problem you?” To which Living RomCom can only say: You go, major network! We'll tune in.

Comments

So, the SNL parody wasn't predictive, but it wasn't that far off the mark either. "A female super hero? Add some rom-com elements!"

(And I'm sure that some Brits will be confused by the tagline "It's not a bird!")

Posted by: Rob in L.A. | May 13, 2015 at 08:28 PM

I like it.

I loved the SNL parody and I think I'll like Supergirl. I think it's perfectly fine to have Supergirl wanting to be normal and super at the same time.

If Marvel had done that with Black Widow, there'd be a problem. Supergirl wasn't raised an orphan in assassin school, was she?

There's plenty of room in the superhero genre for different types of characters, stories, and portrayals. Daredevil on Netflix is pretty brutal and NOT funny compared to movie Marvel.

BTW, I also detected a little Greatest American Hero in the Supergirl trailer. Good times. ;)

Posted by: Roland Denzel | May 16, 2015 at 12:24 PM