TV REVIEWS: FTN Reviews The Stargirl Series Finale!

And so…another series from DC Comics comes to an end. I appreciate the team having the foresight to make the “happy ending.” That way it wouldn’t go the path of LOT and Batwoman (though Batwoman is apparently in the final season of The Flash…we’ll see how that goes…) So what can I say about the ending to Stargirl via “The Reckoning”? Well, it was as basic as everything this season, and once again made leaps to get to where they wanted it to be.

I’ll start with the positive. I like that we actually had a bunch of action in this episode, and the first 30 minutes were almost a continuous fight scene. I can’t say it was a budget issue, but it would make sense, given the lack of fighting in a LOT of these episodes. So given that, having the finale be so action-focused was nice.

I also enjoyed some of the mini-beats of the fights like Cameron choosing Courtney over his father, the grandfather refusing to fight anymore, and Pat beating up “Starman.” Oh, and the grandmother dying as she did? Yeah, that was dumb, but she was so evil it felt cathartic so I’ll call it a positive.

The scene with Pat, Barbara and Mike at the diner visiting Mike’s mom was a nice touch too. I only wish that Mike had been that good throughout the whole series, and especially this season, instead of the idiot/jerk that we had instead.

Oh, and Stargirl finding Becky and fulfilling her promise to find The Gambler’s daughter and give her the note from the father? I honestly had forgotten about that, so I’m glad they fulfilled it.

And while it was corny as all get out, doing the “10 Years Later” bit with Shade was a nice touch to show that the legacy of the team (#StillNotMyJSA) lived on, and they expanded their ranks and found new relationships to enjoy. Rick and Beth? Didn’t see that coming.

So, what didn’t work? Pretty much everything else. Especially since they had to rush the endings on multiple storylines without much of a payoff. Pat was alive because of a ‘trick’ Sylvester taught him (we also saw that trick on Arrow if you recall) so that was nice, but it was really done that he won the fight with “Starman” because of a rock (which apparently made The Ultra Humanite braindead…in one shot…from Pat…) and not by Stripe. It would’ve been more satisfying in my mind to see his “hero form” win and not the man. The man had already won by defying death, again.

This brings me to the staff. The reason that “Starman” could use it was because Courtney believed he could? What? How does that make sense based on what we saw? In fact, a later scene showed the sentience of the staff, and remember that she summoned it from Starman during the Shade fight, but it couldn’t sense that Starman “wasn’t right” or resist him when he was doing things like trying to kill Pat? That just didn’t make sense.

Moving onto Rick, his “recovery” was shoehorned and that was disappointing. As was Yolanda’s reconciliation with her mother. We don’t even know if she told her the truth and worked everything out! Meanwhile, The Icicle survived…as a cloud…only to be hunted down by Artemis and burned alive…? And she still joined the JSA in spite of that…? Ok…

Just as confusing, the Jakeem wish to get rid of Ultra-Humanite/Dragon King was…weird, to say the least. And if it was that easy to wish that thing away…how could the JSA not beat Ultra-Humanite before? Very conflicting.

Same with Sylvester’s brain being kept alive because…reasons? And whose mountain base was that? And was that Jay Garrick the one from that world, or the one from the Flash’s world? It’s implied it’s the former but…why did he only show up in the future and somehow know Courtney Whitmore?

I know what they were trying to do with “The Reckoning” to get the “happy ending” thing going, but as this show is a bit notorious for, it came at the cost of logic and making the heroes seem capable beyond dumb luck.

Stargirl’s run is over, and it should be happy with the three seasons it got. But for me? It’s a series that constantly battled itself when it came to achieving its true potential. As such, the final review score is honestly indicative of the series as a whole…not bad…but hardly great…

3/5