CT: Black Lightning
Well hey there readers! Little C and I are changing up our schedules this week because I wanted to write about Black Lightning today and Cait is going to cover Wayward Sisters on Friday. It is Very Exciting TV Times, my friends. Very exciting indeed.
So here's the thing- we have been super looking forward to Black Lightning which made me really hesitant about it coming out. I feel like the more hyped I am about something, the more likely it is that it finally premieres and it's mediocre and I cry forever. Which is why I am so, so thrilled to say that I really liked the Black Lightning pilot and I can't wait to see where the series goes from here.
There are a lot of things that work really well in this pilot, but the primary one is the tone. For now, at least, the CW has decided to keep Black Lightning separate from their larger DC Arrow-verse. Which is a brilliant move, because it lets this show maintain its own tone. We mostly love the other CW DC shows, but they thrive on not being grounded in any sense of reality. Arrow does a lot of scowling and fighting ninjas, The Flash and Legends of Tomorrow do more time-traveling reality bending than anything else, and Supergirl is literally fighting aliens. And believe me, we love all of those things.
But Black Lightning is a superhero show about police and gang violence, race, and family. It's a show concerned with where our responsibilities and our families and our abilities intersect, and how we fit into a community that's in crisis. This isn't an origin story about a 20-something discovering their powers. Jefferson Pierce is retired from the superhero life. He's a high school principal with one adult daughter and one teen daughter. Now, they hint that we'll be getting the origin story with Jefferson's daughters as they discover and develop their own abilities, but for now it is so refreshing to see a superhero story without a training montage.
I keep hearing that Black Lightning is a step above CW's programming, but I have to say that I disagree. For me, this feels more like a step forward for the network. The script is tighter than most of their pilots, the cinematography is gorgeous (although that's not as new- CW has had increasingly great visuals lately), and the performances are incredible. In the pilot, Cress Williams is fantastic (but isn't he always?), and both Nafessa Williams and China Ann McClain gave awesome performances. That bit with Anissa at the end of the pilot- I'm trying desperately not to be spoilery here- was just so great.
And needless to say, it is really really cool to see a superhero show with a 98% black cast. To have this and Black Panther come out back to back is awesome.
Honestly, there were a few things I didn't love about the pilot but they were technical issues, not story issues and I'm more than willing to overlook those things because there was so much here that I just loved. Not that Little C and I need more TV shows to keep up with. But this is so, so worth it.
Happy watching!
CT
So here's the thing- we have been super looking forward to Black Lightning which made me really hesitant about it coming out. I feel like the more hyped I am about something, the more likely it is that it finally premieres and it's mediocre and I cry forever. Which is why I am so, so thrilled to say that I really liked the Black Lightning pilot and I can't wait to see where the series goes from here.
 |
| Image from IMDb |
But Black Lightning is a superhero show about police and gang violence, race, and family. It's a show concerned with where our responsibilities and our families and our abilities intersect, and how we fit into a community that's in crisis. This isn't an origin story about a 20-something discovering their powers. Jefferson Pierce is retired from the superhero life. He's a high school principal with one adult daughter and one teen daughter. Now, they hint that we'll be getting the origin story with Jefferson's daughters as they discover and develop their own abilities, but for now it is so refreshing to see a superhero story without a training montage.
 |
| Image from IMDb |
 |
| Image from IMDb |
Honestly, there were a few things I didn't love about the pilot but they were technical issues, not story issues and I'm more than willing to overlook those things because there was so much here that I just loved. Not that Little C and I need more TV shows to keep up with. But this is so, so worth it.
Happy watching!
CT
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