Stargirl Season 2 (2021) TV Show Review

 Hey everyone! How were your weekends? Mine was pretty good. Kind of. It was snowing all weekend, and is STILL snowing today. Which is why I'm here to talk about season 2 of Stargirl. I finished watching it while I ate lunch. There will be spoilers because there's so much I want to talk about and I can't do it spoiler free. So if you haven't seen season 2 yet and you watch the show, please watch the season before reading this review. Let's get into it.

While season 1 introduced the characters, season 2 expanded on them and really made them into something unique among the CW DC Comics based shows. I'll be honest, even before I'd seen the first season, I knew that Stargirl had moved to The CW for the second season, and so going into the season I was concerned that the quality of the writing would drop with it becoming a CW show, same as what happened with Supergirl in its second season. So I was a bit hesitant to go into season 2 even though I loved season 1 alot. But, I was surprised to find that, the quality of the writing did not drop. In fact it got even better.

One of the things I loved about this season is that it was a slow burn. But it wasn't a slow burn in a bad way like it was on the Arrowverse shows. It's a slow burn so that we, as the audience can spend more time with the characters before Eclipso escapes from the Black Diamond that we saw Cindy retrieve at the end of the season 1 finale. As I said in my review of season 1, Geoff Johns and his writers understand that it's the characters, not the powers or the big battles, that make a superhero TV show or movie work, because they write some great characters, both on the hero side and the villain side. I have never been a fan of supervillains. Especially in the present day where they actually do more than simply rob a bank with tricks and gimmicks, and I don't think anyone should idolize characters like the Joker, Lex Luthor, or any other villains. However, the villains on Stargirl are some of the most layered, most fascinating villain characters I have ever seen in a comic book based TV show, even beating out Michael Rosenbaum's portrayal of Lex Luthor on Smallville. Especially Larry Crock/Sportsmaster and Paula Brooks/Tigress. Those two are also alot of fun to watch everytime they're on screen.

Of course my favourite character, Yolanda Montez/Wildcat, had so much more going on with her this season, which is great. One of the things that bothered me about the Arrowverse shows, particularly Arrow, The Flash, and Legends of Tomorrow, is that whenever a hero character killed a villain, they would either brush it off within an episode or two, or agonize over it and then never do anything about it until they had to kill another villain. But here, on Stargirl, it was tearing Yolanda up inside for most of the season, to the point where she quit being Wildcat temporarily, even returning the Wildcat suit to Courtney until the season finale. She eventually forgave herself for having to kill Brainwave last season, but it wasn't a quick fix. She also didn't drown in her sorrows until Eclipso tried to tear her, Beth, and Rick apart with their own fears. In Yolanda's case, it worked. Briefly.

Speaking of Eclipso, he was absolutely terrifying. The Crocks and the other members of the ISA were delights to watch on screen because, they weren't super evil. Oh sure, the Dragon King was just insane, and Jordan Mahkent/Icicle had good intentions, he just went about them the wrong way. But Eclipso? He was pure evil. I don't have any experience with the character in the comics, but, I am familiar with the name because of the ads for the 1992 miniseries/crossover event, Eclipso: The Darkness Within, which were in issues of various DC titles that I have from that year. But, holy crap, this guy was extremely powerful. He was even able to take Rick out while Rick was within his hour of strength from the hourglass that he wears as Hourman. He was also stronger than Cindy Burman/Shiv. And Cindy was the best fighter in the ISA, aside from the Crocks. He also looked like a Skrull from the MCU or an Orc or any number of evil, mystical, creatures in a high fantasy movie or TV show.

I really enjoyed the Shade and seeing Jennie-Lynn Hayden/Jade, the daughter of the original, Golden Age, Green Lantern, Alan Scott. Shade was just so much fun, because you didn't know whether he was on the JSA's side or if he was the villain of the season, aside from Cindy and Eclipso. And it wasn't like he was evil or anything. He was just delightfully bad. And having Jade on the show is the closest we've come to having a Green Lantern on a CW DC Comics based show, despite Berlanti and Co. teasing John Diggle as a Green Lantern ever since season 4 of Arrow back in 2015. 

There wasn't a single storyline this season that I didn't like or that was bad. Even Cindy, who didn't have much of a storyline this time around, wasn't bad. Meg DeLacy has continued to play Cindy extremely well, and is always a delight on screen, but the writers have continued to write her well too, which isn't always the case with the second seasons of these shows. I do have to say though that I thought that Thunderbolt's introduction episode, which was Episode 3, was a bit on the weak side. Not BAD, just it wasn't as strong an introduction to the character as we'd had with other characters in these first two seasons. Jim Gaffigan voices him this season, but apparently he was replaced by Seth Green in season 3, so THAT will be interesting because I love Seth Green as an actor and have ever since I saw him in the Austin Powers movies in the early 2000s. 

Like with the Blu-ray for season 1, Stargirl: The Complete Second Season consists of three discs, with four episodes on Disc 1, five on Disc 2, and four on Disc 3. However, unlike the The Complete First Season, there is a full bonus feature besides a State of Georgia featurette and the gag reel. It's a 20 minute documentary called Never Alone: Heroes and Allies. It focuses on the heroes and supporting characters of The Flash, Superman & Lois, Batwoman, DC's Legends of Tomorrow, and Stargirl. Arrow, Titans, Doom Patrol, Supergirl, Peacemaker, and Black Lightning aren't mentioned as Titans, Doom Patrol, and Peacemaker don't air on The CW and Arrow, Supergirl, and Black Lightning had already ended by the time this set was put together, and Legends of Tomorrow and Batwoman are shown because neither show had been canceled yet when this documentary was put together. It's a decent set, though I do wish there were more Stargirl centric bonus features on it. Neither season has a behind the scenes documentary or a season specific Making Of documentary either. Which is disappointing as I would've loved to have gotten cast reactions to being on the show.

Overall season 2 of Stargirl was even better than season 1. Like I said, it has a slower pace that allowed us to spend more time with each character before everything went to hell. As Geoff Johns said in the Heroes and Allies documentary, the reason he introduced Beth, Yolanda, and Rick the way he did back in season 1 was so we, as the audience, could get to know them before they got their costumes and abilities, so that when stuff did happen we could feel a connection to them, not their powers and costumes. Which is what I've been saying about comic book based and superhero shows and movies all along. It's the characters that matter, not the costumes or the powers. Which is why we have Peter Parker taking the Spider-Man mask off constantly in every Spider-Man movie we've ever had, and why we spent so much time with Peter Parker in the Sam Raimi movies, particularly Spider-Man 2 (2004). It's why Grant Gustin only puts on the Flash mask as Barry Allen when there's a fight scene on The Flash (2014-2023). It's why I have my problems with the Batman and Superman movies as they tend to focus more on Batman and Superman, not on Bruce Wayne and Clark Kent. It's why I didn't care that they took forever to get Clark into the Superman suit on Smallville. 

So I definitely highly recommend season 2 of Stargirl. Especially if you watched and enjoyed season 1. It's still alot of fun to watch, even though it does go a little bit darker than season 1 did, simply because of the things Eclipso made our heroes see when he attacked their minds with his powers. So check it out if you're interested in it.

And that my friends is it for me for now. I'll be back soon though with my review of the 1991 Star Trek: The Next Generation novel, Q-in-Law by Peter David. So until then have a wonderful night and I will talk to you all later. Take care.