'Supergirl' Week 2 Review: Still Flying High

Ken Tucker
·Critic-at-Large, Yahoo Entertainment
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It would have been understandable if Supergirl pulled back on the world-building and the special-effects in its second episode, airing Monday night. Instead, the show just gets more entertainingly complex and energetic. The episode is titled “Stronger Together,” supposedly a Kryptonian slogan, says Melissa Benoist’s Supergirl this evening, but really a theme for the entire hour, as her Kara Zor-El learns to control her powers with help from pals James Olsen and Winn Schott, and becomes closer with her sister Alex.

The episode take place a week after last week’s premiere, and it’s fun to watch Supergirl struggle to gain mastery over her super-powers, flubbing a few rescue attempts. (“Maybe I put the ‘S’ on too soon,” says a discouraged Supergirl, a phrase that also would have made a good episode title.)

I like the way Cat Grant continues her obsession with beating the Daily Planet as a media competitor, although it requires super-hearing to tell whether she denounces the “hags” or the “hacks” at the competing website. I’m also relieved that the writers’ insistence on disallowing any character to utter the word “Superman” is reversed somewhat this week — those “your friend in blue” sorts of euphemisms are irritating. There’s a discussion of Superman’s Fortress of Solitude (not that anyone calls it that) and how its contents include a hologram-like message from Laura Benanti’s Alura Zor-El to her daughter. (Can the Bottle City of Kandor be more than an episode or two away?)

The episode also clears space for Benanti’s Astra to establish herself as Supergirl’s most formidable foe. This is perhaps the TV show’s best new notion. Having Kara/Supergirl battle her evil Aunt Astra, who’s a twin of her mother, is a nicely tense situation. And it’s easy to tell Astra and Alura apart: Alura’s the one who never uses contractions (“I am not programmed to do that”).

All this, plus — spoiler alert! — a cameo by Perd Hapley. It makes you want to set a season pass for Supergirl.

Supergirl airs Mondays at 8 p.m. on CBS.