What I’m Watching: Stargirl (Season Premiere)

Stargirl: Season 2, Episode 1 “Summer School: Chapter One” (B-)

This is a show that I started watching when it premiered early on in the pandemic, and now that it’s officially airing episodes exclusively on the CW, I feel like it might be a good fit to join the other programming I’ve been watching on that network. That said, I’m not always sold on those shows these days either, and this opening installment did not get me too invigorated. Part of the problem, I think, is that I’ve been watching a lot of “The Boys” recently in my annual Emmy catch-up period, and for a moment I thought I was tuning in to watch Starlight rather than Stargirl, and the former is probably the show I’d rather watch right now, even though this one is sometimes just as dark if considerably less gory due to the network it now calls home. The boredom of Courtney having to research long-dormant villains to prepare for whatever threat might arise led to a slow start here, but the introduction of Green Lantern’s daughter should make things more interesting since she’s theoretically a solid new teammate for Courtney who might be a bit more eager to get into the supervillain fighting than the rest of the group. Chuck rebooting but not knowing Beth was odd, though not quite as unnerving as the creepy introduction, which I did not like at all. Summer school won’t likely be that thrilling, but Cindy’s return and her readiness to recruit new members of the ISA could keep things exciting since she’s always been a good nemesis for Courtney. I was also excited to see Alicia Witt as a waitress with an apparent connection to a very much alive Starman. I’m willing to give it some time to see if season two sufficiently intrigues.