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TV REVIEWS: FTN Reviews The Stargirl Season 1 Finale

August 12th, 2020 by Todd Black Comments

And here we here are, the end of the first season of Stargirl, and I have to say…it ended just like I thought it would. Strong at points, messy in others, and a lot of stupidity in regards to the villains.

I’ve noted since basically the first episode that the strongest characters in the show were the ISA and Pat Dugan. Because unlike some villains we’ve seen in the past, they were not only smart, but menacing and fierce and they showed definitively that they could get the job done. Again, they killed the JSA in the first scene!

Fast forward to now, and the ISA is ripped apart at the seams in ways that were lame, stupid, convenient, and stupid. And yes, stupid twice, it matters in this case.

Now, on one hand, I did appreciate the fight scene between them as short as it was. There were a lot of elements going on here and it was appreciated…to a point. But then in quick succession the ISA was defeated in ways that literally had me shouting at my TV.

Dragon King? Despite Pat LITERALLY saying he “probably can’t die” he gets killed by a shiv to from his daughter. Really? Tigress and Sportsmaster? They’re owned by Courtney in seconds flat despite beating her easily multiple times beforehand. Brainwave? He for reasons unknown to science decided to slow burn a death and do mind torture (something we’ve NEVER seen him do before) and gets killed from a single shot by Yolanda. Solomon Grundy gets beaten to a pulp and then shown mercy by Rick, and then my personal least favorite, Icicle gets literally run over and shattered by Mike in a truck.

In the words of Batman, “If I had a week I couldn’t list all the reasons that won’t work”.

Not the least of which was that Icicle got hit by Hourman full-force with a punch and he was only stunned, yet getting by a car shatters him into a million pieces? HOURMAN HITS WITH THE FORCE OF MANY CARS!!!!

But sadly, that wasn’t the worst part about Icicle, because his desire to someone get Barbara to his side was equal parts weird and creepy. He was hugging her as if they were already together and their relationship up to that point was anything but. It was so dumb. They should’ve just let them be friends, but of course, you can’t do that in a superhero show.

Now, that’s not to say there wasn’t some good points in the episode. The fight scene I mentioned wasn’t too bad (should’ve been longer and focused more though). Beth stepping up in the clutch to help free Pat and Justin was nice. Though her character still needs a lot of work. Pat vs. Courtney was also nice, as was Courtney FINALLY admitting she needed Pat as her dad, and that stopping the spell for a while. The Christmas seem might have seemed hokey but it was honestly rather wholesome in the large scale because after all they did, it was needed to show that they can get a happy ending.

Also, the two of the “end credits” sequences weren’t too bad. Shade arriving was a nice touch (after being mentioned in an earlier episode as betraying the ISA) and Eclipso being name dropped by Shiv was a curious thing. Starman being alive though? Not so much. That’s a “too soon” kind of thing.

And while some things were too soon, others were far too late. Yolanda and Rick’s talk about killing Grundy should’ve been done episodes ago, but because they’re so underdeveloped, they had to do it here. Which led to Yolanda killing Brainwave (which was again dumb) feel odd as well as Rick sparing him.

Plus, don’t forget that the “fallout” of the ISA attack wasn’t discussed. Gambler was gone, that’s fine. But what happened to Tigress and Sportsmaster? Where did Grundy go? And where did Shiv go to get the Eclipso crystal? Let’s of questions that honestly should’ve been answered.

Look, I know that Stargirl is designed to be more of a “kids superhero show” than Arrow, Titans, Batwoman, etc. But that doesn’t mean you skimp on good characters in the clutch to help “clear the board”. The ISA went from champs to chumps in record time and that’s not good character development, that’s just bad writing.

In the end, the season finale did some things right, but still did many things wrong and prevented the season finale from rising about what the rest of the season was…mediocre.

Todd Black is reader of comics, a watch of TV (a LOT of TV), and a writer of many different mediums. He's written teleplays, fan-fictions, and currently writes a comic book called Guardians (guardians-comic.com). He dreams of working at Nintendo, writing a SHAZAM! TV series, and working on Guardians for a very long time!