TV Review: Stargirl Season 1 Episode 4

Stargirl Season 1 Episode 4 “Wildcat”

Director: Rob Hardy

Starring: Brec Bassinger, Yvette Monreal, Anjelika Washington, Cameron Gellman, Trae Romano, Jake Austin Walker, Christopher James Baker, Amy Smart, Luke Wilson, Neil Jackson

Rating: TV-PG

Runtime: 45 minutes

Stargirl is a very cheesy show.  Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.  Good superhero stories often make purposeful use of cheesy elements as part of the fun of the genre, to the point where some might argue the genre itself is inherently cheesy.  Personally I don’t believe that but the vast majority of entries in the genre do have cheesy elements.  There are a couple of different ways to handle them.  Some stories choose to draw attention to their own cheesiness, often for comedic purposes.  Others limit their use of the genre’s cheesiest elements, such as particularly outlandish costumes, characters, or superpowers, so that the few instances in which they are used are more impactful.  And still, others throw caution to the wind, presenting even these elements in an unironic, awed manner.  Stargirl, which opened with a CGI-heavy battle royale between a fully powered and costumed superhero team and their equally garish rivals, is very much an example of the latter approach.  But said approach is arguably the hardest to pull off because it relies so heavily on the superhero-centric elements being so well-executed that viewers are wowed, rather than taken aback by the craziness of what they’re being shown.  In its fourth episode, the show demonstrates how severely the quality of such a whole-heartedly comic book adaptation can drop when the comic book elements don’t work.

“Wildcat”, of course, focuses on the titular character’s origin story as Yolanda becomes the first recruit to join Courtney’s fledgling JSA.  The backstory given to the character is the episode’s one highlight.  Months ago, Yolanda was one of the most popular kids in Blue Valley, happily dating Henry and running for student body president.  But, as happens all too often to adolescents, particularly girls, an invasion of her privacy radically altered her life.  When Henry asks her to send nude photos she obliges against her better judgment but rival candidate Cindy (who was also jealous of Yolanda’s relationship with Henry), gets her hands on his phone and sends them out to the whole school, just as Yolanda is set to make a campaign speech.  It’s a sad, unfortunately, realistic story, and Yvette Monreal does an excellent job of portraying the anguish Yolanda goes through every waking moment since.  The contrast between the opening montage of Yolanda’s happy life before the incident and what we’ve seen of her school life previously and the cruel condemnation from her parents is some of the show’s strongest storytelling so far.  It’s easy to see why Yolanda would quickly become eager to become the new Wildcat, despite her initial discomfort with Courtney’s pushy, persistent attempts to befriend/recruit her.  Yolanda desperately needs something good in her life and the sense of purpose given by joining the JSA and Courtney’s faith in her make becoming Wildcat immensely inviting.  Still, in a sign of her maturity, Yolanda recognizes that she should try to more directly address her personal problems before turning to superheroing as an outlet.  But when her parents respond to her impassioned plea for forgiveness and acceptance with more cruel dismissal Wildcat is all she has left.

Unfortunately, none of the rest of the episode’s material is nearly as compelling Yolanda’s personal storyline and that includes her first outings as Wildcat, making her debut less exciting and powerful than it should be.  For the first time, Stargirl completely drops the ball on the superhero spectacle and the results are some cringe-inducing sequences.  First of all, the Wildcat suit just doesn’t translate to live-action nearly as well as the Stargirl one does.  The combination of the mask’s large, cat-like cheeks and Yolanda’s long hair behind them looks goofy here (I’d argue it does in the comic books as well) and between the suit’s retractable claws built into its fingers, ability to change its shape, and tendency to glow with purple energy it winds up looking like a bad Black Panther imitation.  The low-stakes plot, in which Courtney and Yolanda stake out Brainwave’s hospital room to see if any ISA members visit him also doesn’t offer many opportunities for the suit and Yolanda’s abilities to be highlighted in fun ways, even if she does use her claws to climb a wall in a very Spider-Man-esque scene.  The thin plot also often results in Courtney coming across as downright dumb, rather than charmingly naïve as she usually does.  Courtney telling Yolanda “You’re such a natural at this!” after she simply came up with the basic intuitive idea to stake out Brainwave and having to be reminded by the staff and Yolanda that cutting the power to a hospital would probably seriously harm and or kill a lot of people are meant to be moments highlighting Yolanda’s heroic potential but all she’s doing is showing a little common sense and the scenes instead make Courtney seem dangerously irresponsible and incompetent.

Which was already a problem given the basic premise of the episode and how it follows up on or fails to, really, the major developments and ideas of the last installment.  As awkward and dull as it is, the biggest problem with “Wildcat” is actually the lack of meaningful fallout from Joey’s death.  Yes, Joey’s grieving mother Denise (Cynthia Evans) decides without her son or husband there’s no reason to stay in Blue Valley and makes an ill-fated attempt to skip town, but that’s a peripheral storyline really only meant to contribute to Pat’s suspicions (more on this in a bit).  Joey’s death doesn’t appear to have any meaningful impact on the more central characters, especially not Courtney, who again comes off very poorly given her choice to bring more classmates into her crusade after one was just killed.  It served a decent purpose in highlighting Icicle’s brutality but it really seems like Joey’s death, or at least the choice to have it come when it did, were mistakes, given how they have shined a spotlight on a major flaw with the show’s central premise.

The material for the supporting characters isn’t much better than Courtney’s and suffers from the same lazy plotting that characterizes the rest of the episode.  Pat continues to wander aimlessly through his investigating the ISA storyline and rather than highlighting his intelligence by having him do some real detective work the show has a major lead fall into his lap.  Denise comes to his garage for help with a car problem and tells him of her plans to leave town, delivering a vague warning about the dangers in Blue Valley.  Pat’s suspicions are furthered when he sees her car openly abandoned in the junkyard the next day.  Set-up for the next new JSA recruit similarly relies on coincidence, with Beth just happening to be exiting the hospital in time to see Courtney and Yolanda fly away on the staff, not to mention the fact that she can somehow hear them clearly enough to make out their names despite how high up they are.  This kind of problematic episode plotting isn’t necessarily a huge deal in the long run but it exemplifies the show’s complacent approach to most of the material not relating directly to Courtney’s crime-fighting, her and Pat’s relationship, or the scheming of the ISA, which is only going to cause more problems for the show if it doesn’t put more effort in soon.

Yolanda’s character development is strong but the haphazard approach to pretty much everything else makes “Wildcat” the show’s first bad episode, one that unfortunately casts a lot of doubt on its quality going forward.

Notes:

•  Weirdly enough, despite otherwise being full of weak writing for Courtney, the episode does contain the first instance of her making a legitimate point in an argument with Pat when she points out that turning the ISA probably won’t work because they may very well be the authorities.
• They make for compelling drama for Yolanda but the characterization of her parents furthers the stereotype of Latinos being extremely religious and socially conservative.
•  Jordan meets with fellow ISA member Dr. Ito/Dragon King (Nelson Lee), who served as the main villain in the original Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E. comic.  The depiction of the character is pretty much 100% comic book accurate and gets a much more impressive debut than the new Wildcat.
• Mike asks to have his friend Jakeem over for dinner, setting up Jakeem Thunder to arrive sooner than later.
•  During his intro scene, Ito namedrops The Shade as a former member of the ISA who betrayed Icicle which should thrill fans of James Robinson’s Starman.