TV Review: Black Lightning Season 3 Episode 1

Black Lightning Season 3 Episode 1 “The Book of Occupation: Chapter One: Birth of the Blackbird”

Director: Salim Akil

Starring: Cress Williams, China Anne McClain, Nafessa Williams, Christine Adams, Marvin ‘Krondon’ Jones III, Damon Gupton, Jordan Calloway, James Remar, Bill Duke, William Catlett, Clifton Powell, Zoe Renee, Myles Truitt, Warren Snipe, Adetinpo Thomas

Rating: TV-14

Runtime: 42 minutes

Black Lightning offers an interesting case study in the pros and cons of seriality in action-adventure series.  During its stellar first season and the beginning of its second, the show was praised for how its heavily serialized plot differentiated it from other network superhero shows, such as by excluding “villain-of-the-week” episodes and allowing Tobias Whale’s reign as the main villain to continue beyond the first season.  But as the second season progressed the Tobias plotline, if not Marvin “Krondon” Jones III’s gloriously hammy performance, wore out its welcome as the villain’s continued success made the heroes seem ineffective.  That was far from the only problem with the latter second season and as the show comes out of that sophomore slump I can’t be the only viewer who thinks the show would benefit from the kind of hard reset that its CW superhero sibling series can implement after a messy run.  But Black Lightning doesn’t have that luxury.  The Season 2 finale launched the show right into the thick of a new story arc as Agent Odell (Bill Duke) forcibly recruited the Pierce family (whose superhuman abilities and secret identities he knows all about) to battle the threat of rogue nation Markovia, which has sent an invasion force to Freeland to take advantage of the bountiful amount of metahumans in the city.  Season 3, for better or worse, has no choice but to follow up on that promise, even if starting with a clean slate might have been helpful to make the story and character beats more clear and powerful.

To be fair, the Markovian storyline results in the best part of the season premiere, namely its renewed focus on politically relevant storytelling.  Black Lightning never stopped being a political show, really, but the narrative confusion and general strangeness of season 2 (remember when Jeff and Anissa wound up in that town ruled by the vampire meta lady where the people were essentially reenacting Romeo and Juliet? Like I said, weird) made it hard to discern, what, if any political or social points it was trying to make.  The Season 3 premiere does do a good job of reversing this fault in the recent storytelling by diving deep into topics that are at the center of American discourse today.  “The Book of Occupation Chapter One: Birth of the Blackbird” quickly and efficiently establishes that in the time since season 2 ended (which in the show is less than 40 days) Freeland has been turned into a totalitarian state.  The government used the Markovian “invasion” as a pretense to declare martial law and seal the city off from the rest of the country, and the ASA is now in charge of the Pierce’s hometown, despite the best efforts of Chief Henderson (Damon Gupton).  People, including children, are being locked in cages as the ASA scours the city testing for metahumans (who are supposedly the Markovians’ targets).  It’s a dystopian nightmare that’s all the more terrifying because of how similar it is to real-world events, with the only things setting Freeland apart from real American border towns being the idea of superpowers, of course, and the apparent attacks on an American city by a para-military force sanctioned by a foreign government.  It’s striking use of allegorical storytelling that will hopefully cause viewers to think about how awful our current reality is an act to remedy it and credit must be given to the creators for including this angle in the story.

Unfortunately, the Markovian threat and the ensuing crisis in Freeland are not as helpful for the show’s personal storylines.  A lot of that comes down to the fact that this is an odd time in the show’s history to do a full-on dystopia storyline.  While the serious real-world topics the show addresses mean the heroes of Black Lightning shouldn’t be depicted as totally victorious in the way other comic book heroes on other shows can be, the defeat of Tobias Whale and the fact that it came without Jeff (Cress Williams), Jennifer (China Anne McClain), or anyone else killing the former is a big personal win for the whole family.  But rather than allow this to briefly shift the show to a lighter tone before gradually introducing new challenges the Season 2 cliffhanger gives the creators no choice but to dive right into the deep end of the Markovian war story.  This is quite frustrating as it makes it feel like the protagonists, and by extension, the show, haven’t really accomplished anything.  Jeff is once again barely hanging onto hope and his and Lynn’s (Christine Adams) captivity looks set to put renewed strain on their relationship.  Jennifer is still struggling to control her powers, which has now been her defining arc for the majority of the series.  The only character who has a beat that truly feels like it enters new territory is when Anissa (Nafessa Williams) admits to being lonely.  The biggest problem with the “Book of Occupation: Chapter One” is that it treats its characters the same way Odell does, like chess pieces, rather than people, doing things and being forced into situations not out of discernible human motivations, but in order to facilitate the political drama.

Another problematic result of the show’s heavy serialization is that the plot is now too labyrinthine and complicated.  While Odell and the Markovians are clearly the biggest threats at the current moment the episode also feels the need to check in on Tobias briefly, implying that his prison stint won’t last long even when the show really could use a break from him to give Jeff’s victory at least some weight.  And I can’t be the only one who was more annoyed than shocked when it was revealed that LaLa has been revived yet again.

Ultimately, “The Book of Occupation: Chapter One” winds up not being that enjoyable because of how defeatist it is.  Again, the show does a good job reflecting the harsh realities facing black people and immigrants in our current political moment and the sad truth is those realities likely aren’t changing any time soon.  But for a series that is at least partially meant to be escapist, adventurous entertainment there needs to be some sense that things are going to get better and this premiere fails to offer that.

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