TV REVIEWS: FTN Reviews Stargirl Season 1 Episode 5: Hourman and Dr. Mid-Nite

I really want to give Stargirl a chance to be better, I really do, but with almost every single episode there is a fundamental problem with things going on either with the heroes or the overall plot that just makes me wish they were taking a different angle with this.

“Hourman and Dr. Mid-Nite” focused on…wait for it…the successors to Hourman and Dr. Mid-Nite. Shocker, I know. But in a fun twist, one of the “recruits” that we met isn’t just a random person like Yolanda was with the Wildcat choosing (which I’m still mad about for the record in regards to the powers and things I revealed last week).

The intro into the death of Rex Tyler and how that left his son Rick was infinitely fascinating. The show might have more merit if it dives into the lives of the JSA pre-Stargirl pilot. We knew that Rex had died, but this was different. Solomon Grundy had killed him and his wife, leaving Rick to his uncle.

This fun twist in the storyline was welcome, but GOSH DANG IT they went and made it tropey again! Because of COURSE his uncle is a jerk who turned Rick into an angry teen who wants “to push something all the time”. They had the breadcrumbs of a strong character with him wanting to rebuild his car for his dad, they could’ve had him and Pat connect on some level, the tree bits were nice. But him lashing out like he did, him saying, “I want revenge” after learning how his parents died, it was all so terribly cliche. And you know his attitude is going to clash with the others when they team up next week.

As for Dr. Midnite…I just can’t. I’m sorry. Beth Chapel is an ok character overall, but they literally turned the Dr. Midnite character into an exposition machine via those googles. Which of course brings up the question of how Dr. Midnite had a hacking AI that knows EVERYTHING…in 2011? Granted this is Earth-2 and weirder things are around, but it still feels out of place.

And unlike Yolanda, and even Rick, Beth seems the LEAST likely character to be an “on the front lines” hero. An Oracle/Felicity type character? Sure, she’d probably love that! But to be Dr. Mid-Nite? I don’t think so.

Also, once again, the VILLAINS are the more compelling characters! The Fiddler, Sportsmaster, they had minimal scenes here and yet they came out MUCH stronger than the heroes who dominated the screentime.

And if you’re wondering why I’m not complaining about Courtney and the various things she did in the episode…I’m running out of energy.

Was this the worst episode of Stargirl? No. It did have some strong points and they are building to something, but the next episode with the first teamup of the “JSA” is going to be crucial to selling how this team can take down the ISA. Because if they can’t? And they can’t do it BELIEVABLY? I don’t think the series will recover.