"An American Alien" – Supergirl S04E01 Review

Well, with "An American Alien" we get the season premiere of Supergirl. Not sure if I'm going to review every episode. For one thing, I don't find the show that interesting. They never quite land the villains, do they? The strength of the show lies more in the characterization and the emotional drama. The acting is good, the emotional drama is good, and the characterization is good.

For another, I find the near-continual social commentary grating. "Ooh, look, America is swept by hatred after the 2016 elections". Trump's election has been very very good for Hollywood. Even then, Supergirl sends mixed messages. The hatred is implied to be alt-right, but Marsdin (Lynda Carter) is (presumably) a Democrat U.S. President. So bits like last year's comments about how everyone thinks all Mexicans are criminals are a little weird. We don't even know if Trump ran against Marsdin, so why base a subplot on a comment he may or may not have made in the Supergirl universe? Maybe Bruce Boxleitner, announced as the Vice President on Supergirl, will be a Trump-like compromise vice president who is much harsher and alt-right-ish than Marsdin. Never mind that the vice-presidency hasn't worked that way since at least Clinton/Gore.

It seems a thankless role for Boxleitner, but all God's children needs work, don't they? But why would a VP need to take over for the President? Let's recap and find out.

It's three months after season 3's season finale, and there's no mention of Reign or the earth-shattering cataclysm she was creating. Which were caused by a Kryptonian cult, but sshh, let's not mention that, either. Superman has gone to Argo for some unspecified reason, so Supergirl (Melissa Benoist) is flying around the planet saving pretty much everyone and doing everything except getting cats down from trees. She does rescue a little girl's balloon, so there's that.

Everyone seems to have moved on with their lives in the off-screen three months. Hank (David Harewood) is still retired, James (Mehcad Brooks) is still running CatCo and has Lena Luthor (Katie McGrath) as his girlfriend. Alex (Chyler Leigh) is stepping into her duties as director of the DEO since Hank retired, and there's some friction between Brainiac-5 (Jesse Rath) who has taken Winn's place as DEO tech guy, and Alex. Comedy ahoy!

Everything is going well, and everything goes even better when James puts Kara in charge of the cub reporters. Including Mia Mal (Nicole Amber Maines), who is all Kara-y when Kara was Cat Grant's assistant. And Kara becomes all Cat Grant-y, in one of the more entertaining parts of the episode as James calls Kara on it.

But a brother-and-sister team of anti-alien activists (AAAers), Mercy and Otis Graves (Rhona Mitra and Robert Brewster) attack an alien scientist who is part of an alien support group Hank belongs to. The Graves steal an EMP and take out Supergirl when she tries to intervene. Hank thinks the attack is AAA motivated, and Supergirl (rightly) say the fact Vose is an alien is just happenstance. Later, Supergirl asks Hank to help her to fight the AAAers, but he's sworn to follow the path of peace. Which seems like it'll make Hank a bit of a nag without contributing anything useful to the stories. We'll see.

James is being indicted for his vigilante activities as Guardian. I'm not sure entirely how that works: he worked with DEO quite a bit, Supergirl is a vigilante of sorts and works with the DEO. Guardian dealt more with street crime, but shouldn't they both be under the same prosecution? I guess people just like Supergirl more and granted, trying to prosecute a world-saving savior would be tough. Wish they had made that clearer, though.

Anyhoo, James asks Lena not to pull any strings for him in the mayor's office. However, she's visiting her mother Lillian (Brenda Strong) , and gets some information on one of Lex's old "business associates". Lillian claims she's trying to reform and also provides Supergirl with the Graves siblings' probable location. Supergirl flies there and finds dark web chatrooms filled with AAA hatred expressed by the members.

Marsdin is celebrating the second anniversary of the Alien Amnesty Act at Camp David, and Supergirl learns the Groves are going to attack there using the EMP. Supergirl and the DEO stop the attack. Mercy shoots Otis, forcing Supergirl to rescue him, only to learn that it's a trick.

Alex and Brainiac-5 resolve their differences, after another entertaining bit where B5 tries to be more like Winn by buying the same kind of toys and wearing the same cardigan sweater. And we find out the Graves' attack on Camp David was intended to reveal Marsdin is an alien. Which explains why a VP might be taking over and they need Boxleitner. And I'm kind of on-board with public hostility after learning the President is not who she claimed that she is. If a transmission signal was interrupted and it turned out Trump was one of the aliens from the movie They Live, a lot of people would be offended. Unsurprised, but still offended. Substitute Obama, or Bush, or Clinton, and you'd get the same reaction.

Lena uses the information she got from Lillian to get the charges dropped against James. But lies to him and claims she didn't interfere, just like asked. Lillian in prison realizes Lena played her to get the information. Because, you know, secrets and lies! That's what makes the Arrowverse go round.

Nia is really enthusiastic about a story she wants to do on the fashion district. Another reporter pitches her version of the story and Nia backs down. Kara notices and tells her to make waves. We never do find out if Nia gets the story.

We've seen in an earlier scene the Graves siblings are working with some creepy-looking masked guy who I realized looks like the robot Adam Link from an original Outer Limits episode. The guy kills an alien he's captured and declares himself "an agent of liberty" (Sam Witwer).

Also, we get a shot of the evil Reign-like Kara pounding on a tunnel wall beneath a train that Supergirl rescued earlier.

"An American Alien" did what most season premieres of returning shows do these days. It caught us up to speed on what has happened to the characters over the summer. It introduces the new main stars and explains what happened to the old ones: we get a bit of Lena telling Kara about what Sam and her daughter Ruby are doing after leaving National City. It sets up the theme of the coming season: humans hate aliens who don't wear S's on their chests and we're going to get clubbed over the head with that bludgeon. How the evil Kara ties in with that isn't clear and if it wasn't for the little bit at the end showing evil Kara beating up a rock wall, we'd barely remember her.

There are also some minor plots that look promising: Kara as Cat Grant 2.0 isn't bad, Nicole Amber Maines seems harmless, Sam Witwer looks threatening despite his rather goofy-looking armor. Jesse Rath promises to deliver the fish-out-of-water and super genius who doesn't "get" normal-intelligence customs, and I liked Rath in Defiance. I'm not sure what they're going to do with James since the episode ends with the DA saying if he goes back to being a vigilante, they'll file new charges against him. But they always seem to find something for him to do.

Overall, "An American Alien" did what Supergirl usually does. It gives us emotion, it gives us characterization, it gives us mildly unbelievable villains. There weren't any major shifts in the creative team: a few co-producers got promoted, a new story editor or two was brought in. It doesn't seem like the show is going anywhere, and its main female leads and anti-alt-right stance probably helps that it won't get cancelled. If The CW took it off the air they'd be accused of being anti-female and pro-hatred.

So if you liked Supergirl before, nothing here is going to change your opinion. Season 4 doesn't seem to be designed to bring in many new viewers. It's got its current audience, and doggone it, people like it.

But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong. What do you think?