TV REVIEWS: FTN Reviews Stargirl Season 1 Episode 6: The Justice Society

Stargirl continues to be a dichotomy of potential…and frustration. While “The Justice Society” was better than most episodes of the season so far, it continues to make decisions that are weird and point out the key flaws in the concept of the series.

Let’s start with the positive, the Injustice Society of America continues to shine. Which is hilariously ironic given that usually in these kinds of shows, the villains are basic or have only some levels. And yet, with Icicle, Dragon King (the little we’ve seen of him), and now Sportsmaster and Tigress, we see that there is a lot here that makes them special.

Seeing Sportsmaster and Tigress be incredibly overprotective of their daughter Artemis (which will ring a bell for many comics and Young Justice fans…) was nice. Granted, they had to go infinitely tropey with that player being misogynistic in order to get them to interfere (and the timing of that particular player doing so was not good given what’s going on in the world…) and that sucked. But everything that followed? Was fun for them. Including their “date night speech” to their daughter and the epic fight these two gave the “new kids on the block.

What? You want me to call them the JSA? Don’t hold your breath, they have to earn that name.

It also was interesting to see the problems that the ISA have with each other. Though that is also kind of a negative because we’ve already seen that they’re willing to kill one another (as proven by The Wizard) and betray one another (as proven by Shade). So…how exactly did they last this long? It couldn’t have been out of fear, so they must REALLY think this plan is going to work.

Which is more than we can say for Courtney and her plans. Because they FINALLY had the confrontation between Pat and Courtney, which was long overdue. I’m glad they let Pat give Courtney the riot act because he’s done nothing but try and help and she’s ignored him at every turn.

But even then, this led to another tropey thing where Pat was like, “You need to get the gear back!” and you KNEW that this wasn’t going to happen, and they hammed it up with Yolanda watching Youtube videos of #NotMyWildcat (you heard me!) and Beth wearing Dr. Mid-Nite’s goggles IN A LIBRARY and talking to him like NO ONE is going to notice her. Right…

Then there’s Rick, who continued down the “I Want Revenge!!!” path. Which was stupid, and frustrating. Sure, they did start to hint at him and Pat having a possible connection, which is what I WANT, but some of the stuff he said was just too over the top.

As for the fight against Sportsmaster and Tigress, it was both awesome, yet very telling. These two non-powered people (more or less) took on Stargirl, Hourman, Wildcat and Dr. Mid-Nite and barely broke a sweat. Icicle has proven to be a literal stone cold killer (pun intended) and the Fiddler can control minds. Oh, and did we forget about Solomon Grundy?

And as if that wasn’t enough, the ISA has actual experience against the ACTUAL JSA, which Sportsmaster proved in that bit with Hourman and the car. Now that they know who’s around, they could easily kill them, probably without much effort, even with Stripe around to back the kids up.

Sure, Pat says they need training, but who’s going to train them? And will it honestly matter in cases like Beth who almost literally an exposition/support staff member via what they’ve shown so far?

The next two episodes are reportedly going to be a turning point for the team, but we’ll see. Because they have a long way to go before they make me, and others, believe that they’re worthy of the JSA name.