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u/mxraider2000 WHEN'S MAHVEL 10h ago
I'm not a big green lantern mark, so I enjoyed it a helluva lot even though in retrospect it definitely shows its budget at times.
Despite that it's also very satisfying when a superhero tv show isn't afraid to show restraint. Wandavision was like this until the last episode suddenly turned into a big cgi fight. Meanwhile Lanterns managed to make John just awkwardly flying away at the end a really great payoff to cap things off.
I think my only gripe is that John's parents really shouldn't have been cut some slack by the end. That conversation John has in the car about how he realized he had his own programming was wonderful and it kinda undermined it for him to hug it out with the very people responsible for his programming.
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u/MrSuitMan 9h ago
Despite that it's also very satisfying when a superhero tv show isn't afraid to show restraint
Yeah I quite loved that the climax of the finale was basically just a really tense conversation in a car ride. I thought the dialogue was well written and performed, and I genuinely cared for both characters.
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u/masterchiefs 4h ago
What they managed to do with Noah within 3 episodes was IMO tremendous, the perfect and quite refreshing conclusion to the show's nature vs nuture theme, and I really love that John's decision to spare Kerry and Noah was made on his own volition and a belief that a machine can grow into a well adjusted human like himself, instead of a methodical maneuver made by a soldier.
It's also crazy to see how loved Kerry was throughout the season then suddenly people turn on her because she capped Hal. I did find the scene itself a bit awkward in execution, but the way she acted made perfect sense for a woman who used to be on the run, was close to death's door, gave up a finger, began a second life in peace, just for everything to come crashing down because the man she loved was adamant on this life being unsalvagable and she needs to start another one.
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u/MrSuitMan 1h ago
On one hand, I do agree and love Kerry's character arc and thought the reveal and character motivations all made sense.
On the other hand, it's still quite funny to doom and shitpost about a cop yet again getting away with domestic violence/murder.
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u/Grimbledorf 1h ago
I thought it was pretty brave of the show to have her look directly at the camera and wink when John let her go.
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u/masterchiefs 59m ago
stay true to real life then /s
Part of me wish she shot Hal in the heart instead of his head, him just sitting down looked kinda funny and it would have tied to the heart motif surrounding Manhunters.
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u/LLCoolZJ 1h ago
John did give himself distance with his parents between 2016 and 2026. Thats enough time for both parties to contemplate what was done and have regrets. Other people would just cut their parents out completely and would be right to do so, but for John's story he found the strength where they can't hurt him anymore so he's willing to put the ball in his parents' court so that their family can have peace for once.
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u/irregularcog 48m ago
The deep regretful look on his mom's face at the end when she hugs him was a >!good endcap to the themes and the conversation that John had with Noah, where mothers can do fucked up things
What John's parents did and how they raised him was messed up but at the same time they do love him but they also questioned if they were making him a monster, and John himself questions whether he has any control over who he is as well, but since it was indoctrination from birth he doesn't know anything else, similar to Noah<!
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u/Clean_Agency 11h ago
I enjoyed it. Do I wish there was more Green in my Green Lantern show? Yeah, but I think the show succeeded in what it set out to do and the cast was great.
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u/Dry-Advance-6945 9h ago
I liked it, but I think I know just enough Green lantern stuff to scratch my head a little, surely the White Martians would've been a better pick for the advanced shape shifting alien race, I get the thematic tie in though with John and his parents, and the Guardians creating the Manhunters though.
Also it's funny that the finale tries to portray Guy as being a lap dog, that man broke international laws, and his oath to straight up do the right thing and smashed up an army, he can hawk his shitty energy drinks all he likes, he's also at least trying to be nice with the Rushville citizens even if they hate what he stands for, between this and Human target Tom King has it out for Guy.
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u/Apprehensive_Mix4658 5h ago
Didn't watch, but have seen "me and mogo stood right there" memes, so the show must have done well
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u/cannibalgentleman Read Conan the Barbarian 4h ago
19 million viewers on average for every episode. It's massive.
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u/Pyotr_WrangeI 11h ago
Liked it but didn't love it. Overall the story and especially characters were good, but it often felt like setups had wrong payoffs and I really don't vibe with the actual moral of the story, as well as handling of some of the characters. In particular i disagree with the decision of showing us Hal Jordan at his lowest for the whole season and never showing us how he got to this point. I really thought we would get an extended look at how 2006 Hal became 2016 Hal and looked forward to it, but i guess not, maybe in season 2.
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u/Individual-Rip-2366 11h ago
I’m hoping those flashbacks and reveals will be in a Parrallax based season
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u/NorysStorys The British ARE Watching 10h ago
I think its almost a given we're getting Parallax Hal considering what Sinestro is up to.
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u/Garlic-Cheese-Chips 10h ago
Really enjoyed it. Hal and John were excellent, they bounced off each other brilliantly.
A somewhat grounded start was needed to ease people in. Given the amount of Lantern Corps and the amount of out there characters within those corps, they may have alienated viewers if they threw too much weirdness at the wall like Dex Starr, Medphyll etc.
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u/tronz_13 11h ago
What confuses me is the marketing for the show was very upfront what kind of show this would be. It never promised to be a space opera. It was advertised as a grounded earth based show that would basically serve as a John Stewart origin story.
Which is exactly what it was and it succeeded despite its small budget with great writing and great performances.
And all accounts the show was a great success for DC. Critically acclaimed. Big viewership numbers.
And it left things set up where they can go in a number of directions with the lore and they can ij theory both stay grounded with John and do space based stuff with Guy.
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u/NorysStorys The British ARE Watching 10h ago
I think the show did a very good job doing what it needed to do. It introduced us to Hal, John, Sinestro and the wider intrigue about the Green Lantern corp without going balls to the wall space opera on us. We now have protagonists we actually know and like and from that they can jump off into space, sinestro war, potentially emerald twilight and even Blackest night down the road with a firm foundation in the characters.
Green Lantern is very much a comic fans comic and it has not translated well into live action in part because unlike bats, supes, wonderman, its a much more nuanced series in general and not as much of a clean cut paragon of virtue series even if the lanterns themselves are generally along those lines.
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u/tronz_13 8h ago
I am very interested in this version of Stewart, he has been set up really well, looking forward to more of him.
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u/Individual-Rip-2366 12h ago
John making nice with his abusive parents and torturing sinestro was quite the reminder that Tom King can’t help himself. Can’t wait to see Pierre (and potentially Chandler) continue their excellent performances not written by that self-pitying asshole
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u/thejuce22 12h ago
Why does everyone hate Tom King im very unfamiliar with him. Im not much of a comic person.
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u/Individual-Rip-2366 11h ago
He’s a basically competent comic writer who’s biggest problem is the reuse of the same themes related to his GWOT CIA activities, regardless of their fit with the given book he’s writing. It’s just all war crimes and guilt with him, whether it’s Adam Strange, or Batman, or Wonder Woman, or Kyle Rayner.
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u/Hobbes314 I like Batman The Widening Gyre 11h ago
He joined the CIA during his 20’s after 9/11
He once made a joke that torture doesn’t work during a Batman panel and people have taken that as gospel he was waterboarding Iraqis
He is a bit repetitive in his writing styles and will usually write pocket continuity stories that will mold characters to fit the story he’s telling
And the greatest sin of all he wrote a mediocre Batman run
So unfortunately it’s a mix of legitimate grievances where it’d be completely understandable why one would not want to support a certain creator and also he played with my toys the wrong way and because it’s the internet, there can be no nuance
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u/Individual-Rip-2366 11h ago
The problem with his Batman wasn’t that it was mid, it’s that it was mid and loooooooooooooong.
And it killed Alfred and put the kibosh on the Batman/Catwoman relationship for the foreseeable future.
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u/Miningapple-100 10h ago
I will say that killing Alfred has given us some interesting developments. And it’s kind of nice that they’ve stuck with it so far even if he will one day come back.
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u/Hobbes314 I like Batman The Widening Gyre 11h ago
But how much of that is editorial and DiDio puttin their thumb on the scale and making King the ax man? Cause as far as everything else Bat related he probably would’ve married them and we know he wasn’t going to kill Alfred
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u/Individual-Rip-2366 11h ago
That’s fair, I just hated how long he got. He ran that book for longer than almost anyone ever has.
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u/MetalJrock A Hopeless Sonic/Spider-Man Fanboy 11h ago
I think Wonder Woman overtook his Batman. People seem to at least tolerate everything up to the wedding, War of Jokes and Riddles aside.
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u/Hobbes314 I like Batman The Widening Gyre 11h ago edited 4h ago
Yeah but boring to bad Wonder Woman is the DC status quo. It’s an anomaly when Diana is having above a 6/10 run
People care about what happens in a Batman run, the last time people cared about a Diana run would be….i guess Azzerallo but that still made people mad, so roll it back to Simone? No people don’t like her now cause she wrote a mediocre X-Title…so first time Rucka?
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u/Pyotr_WrangeI 12h ago edited 11h ago
He is single handedly responsible for war with Iraq and that is still better than his handling of Wonder Woman
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u/Only-Distribution628 11h ago
Yeah man, a 22 year old intern started the entire war with Iraq. I disliked the guy, but could we please not fucking lie
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u/GoneRampant1 WOKE UP TO JUSTICE... and insatiable bug fetishes 1h ago
He was part of the CIA during the invasion of Iraq and has flip-flopped on what that meant, (he's said that both he played a role of some kind but also that he was a glorified pencil pusher) but it's very obvious that a lot of what he has written since is about him processing that as public opinion towards the invasion has become increasingly hostile. Pretty much all of his major comic runs will crowbar their lead into a role of "someone with a lot of guilt and trauma for doing a bad thing and processing it while insisting that they had to do it."
Vision, Wonder Woman, his Batman run, Lanterns, a lot of them draw from that well so alongside it coming off as him trying to absolve himself of guilt.
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u/Sloth_Senpai 2h ago
Man loves torture and praising the US invasion of Iraq. Episode one features an illegal alien infiltrating America to blow himself up who gets caught because foreigners can never truly assimilate.
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u/Halcyons_Dazed 10h ago
Hard agree on the parents but the sinestro thing felt in line with a former Navy Seal tbh
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u/Individual-Rip-2366 7h ago
He wasn’t a SEAL. He was a Marine sniper who quit and went to art school.
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u/Thugnifizent NANOMACHINES 8h ago
John Stewart wasn't always a Marine, and keeping that bit of his backstory (and spending like, a 10th of the show on it) is still a decision one could reasonably blame Tom King for--the torture is just sorta the logical conclusion of that.
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u/LLCoolZJ 47m ago
I think it's interesting to keep it and rectify it with the architect background. Most people know John from his appearances in the Justice League cartoon which invented him being a marine. Serviceman turned artist is kind of a no brainer character for King to work with.
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u/MetalJrock A Hopeless Sonic/Spider-Man Fanboy 11h ago
Bad Green Lantern show, but a decent detective show that would’ve better fitted someone like Martian Manhunter considering the threat and scale.
They say they’re keeping things grounded next season and unless Kilowog gets to be a campy Star Wars practical character instead of a disguised human, I might tap out cause this show isn’t what I wanted out of Green Lantern.
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u/evilton-chin I Promise Nothing And Deliver Less 10h ago
Kilowog is gonna be a big bald white guy and you know it.
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u/LLCoolZJ 58m ago
If this was a Batman show with the same amount of emphasis on mystery and character drama and de-emphasis on action and gimmicks it would be hailed as an all time Batman show focusing on an overlooked aspect of Batman stories. I don't know why Green Lantern show can only be one thing but Batman can be more versatile.
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u/MetalJrock A Hopeless Sonic/Spider-Man Fanboy 41m ago edited 27m ago
Batman basically has infinite chances to thrive. I have my own issues with him being one thing at the moment but I can at least count on some version of him fulfilling my own wants out of Batman. And it helps that Batman is a powerless vigilante so less compromises would inherently be taken with him to keep things grounded.
This is all Green Lantern is getting outside his comics aside from team-up films. And it omits 90% of Green Lantern’s lore and scope aside from namedrops. No Corps, no aliens, no constructs, no rogues gallery, the show seemed barely interested in Sinestro as is.
I just wish people got to see that Green Lantern has so much cooler and more interesting material than two basically normal guys in a rural town cause now people see basic elements like the costume and Kilowog as “key-jingling pandering” for “slop brained viewers”. Now people want GL to be this one thing that can’t be as versatile as Batman anyway.
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u/LLCoolZJ 23m ago
For a first entry in a Lantern adaptation there was plenty of talk about the Corps and aliens and actually a decent amount of constructs shown. We got Sinestro and Manhunters two foundational GL antagonists so we don't need to shout out I don't know Fatality. Things are admittedly talked about more than shown but it helps add mystery to a mystery show. Again to use Batman as an example this would be a respectable first step to take him without overwhelming audiences with so much lore and flash from the start. Not every GL story has to be like Johns' epic space opera, this actually feels like a nice throw back to Hal's team-ups with Green Arrow in the 70s.
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u/MetalJrock A Hopeless Sonic/Spider-Man Fanboy 15m ago edited 12m ago
This would work for Batman… because Batman is a powerless detective and this is on the assumption it’s about his cast and rogues gallery in Gotham City too. Riots would definitely be had if DCU Batman was about him fighting new villains in Utah and his crime-fighting in Gotham with his traditional cast was reduced to references without any chance of seeing him there.
I’m not asking for a space opera or a full-on Emotional Spectrum War, just some actual Green Lantern material. Have Hal and John solve a case involving a superpowered Hector Hammond and Goldface, or Sinestro as the one and only Yellow Lantern for now and build off his ring into the Sinestro Corps later, or even Manhunters that are actual killer death robots instead of normal people.
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u/LLCoolZJ 4m ago
A season centered on Hammond and Goldface sounds way less interesting than what we got, we did get the beginnings of Sinestro harnessing the power of fear even if we haven't seen first hand what a threat he is yet, and Manhunters basically being Terminators wrecking shop every episode sounds like a more expensive, less intriguing premise.
Really what makes you so sure we won't get "real" Lantern elements in future seasons and movies? The show did well with critics and viewing numbers so the budget will go up.
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u/The-Toxic-Korgi Kinect Hates Black People 4h ago
"Surf Dracula" is just a lazier Glup Shitto, people should be able to criticize media without needing to resort to empty buzzwords.
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u/nugood2do 11h ago
I enjoyed the series, but I felt like the ending wrapped everything up too nicely.
Im not saying it should have ended with Sinestro creating the yellow lantern or Kilowog being sent to Earth to deal with an independent Green Lantern, but I kinda felt a hint of what's to come would have been in the ending somewhere, because a lot of stuff has been set up that could easily be problems in the future.
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u/Johnny-Hollywood YOU DIDN'T WIN. 9h ago
They did set up the first point, he already made a lantern where he was, it was tainted yellow, and he’s said Fear is more powerful than Will, plus he said he could resurrect Hal for real, so his plans are fairly clear. Yellow lantern Hal in s2, here we come.
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u/ZealousidealBig7714 She/It/Ze This makes my penis the big penis 11h ago
Surf Dracula didn’t even pick up the fucking board.
I do like the ‘That’s the breadth of your opinion’ meme tho, that’s a good one.
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u/Yhendrix49 11h ago
Except they were doing Lantern stuff the whole series; "Surf Dracula 1" was training "Surf Dracula 2" the entire show.
Karate Kid isn't a Surf Dracula because he spends most of the movie training and only does actual karate at the end.
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u/Ayyyyynah 10h ago
The show never pretended to be a space opera and was always showing powers throughout albeit not in big green screen fashion. It's a very unorthodox approach sure but I could easily picture a lot of the story and it's beats as a one shot / mini series.
I personally felt that if we saw the powers willy nilly then they would have eventually just been glorified background. Hell characters like Sinestro got some small but really impactful screen time. Felt very respectful.
The surf Dracula meme has really hurt discourse about shows trying to reinterpret or give a different approach to things.
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u/Johnny-Hollywood YOU DIDN'T WIN. 9h ago
I’ve been a huge GL mark since the spectrum got expanded in the Geoff Johns run, all the way through brightest day and a bit after. I loved the show, it’s got great writing. I particularly love the new version of the oath, and the dynamics between Hal and John are compelling.
“I love you too, Junior.”
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u/onceuponawholock 9h ago
I liked it, liked the detective vibe to it. Husband and I both enjoyed it and we're not huge on GL
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u/Thugnifizent NANOMACHINES 9h ago
I fucking love Sinestro in this. His performance could go either way, but he's like, just red enough that he looks like every old white guy in Florida instead of a space alien. The sunburnt Florida man (powered by fear!) basically going on about '''''replacement''''' is really meaningful. There's a lot of good subtextual stuff in that vein in the show.
I don't particularly give a fuck about Green Lantern lore, so I really liked the detective angle. A bit conflicted on if I'd enjoy a season 2, since it can't really justifiably have the same tone and lack of powers in it.
Also looks a whole order of magnitude better than most superhero shows, and honestly looks better than some of the movies too. Everyone in this is fucking acting, and it was really nice surprise to actually enjoy the show.
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u/LLCoolZJ 53m ago
I love the temptuous Hannibal Lecter angle they took with Sinestro and hope he continues that role with John.
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u/irregularcog 41m ago
The actor is a great Villain in the tv show "Banshee", he's an ex-amish gangster
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u/CrazysaurusRex Pargon Pargon Pargon Pargon Pargon 10h ago
I liked it a lot. Could it have been more Lanterny? Yep, wouldnt have to change the script much, just have Hal fly around more and wear the suit, show some aliens. But what we got was good and compelling.
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u/BreadTheSpino He/Him 8h ago
I liked it. Hal’s last words were so tragic I feel so bad for the guy.
I understand a lot of people don’t like the direction they took Hal’s character but to be honest I don’t have a problem with the changes. If I want classic Hal I’ll read the comics. I always find it interesting in adaptations seeing how different creatives take characters and adapt them for the story they are trying to tell. I feel this adaptation had the spirit of Hal, just turned up the Tom King writing by 100%
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u/KoshiLowell 10h ago
I agree with people when they say it's an amazing show but a mediocre lantern show
I know surf dracula's mostly a meme but this is a really strong example of it
But it's always been upfront about what it is so it doesn't annoy me
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u/SometimesWill see you at evo 9h ago
I liked it overall, the ending though felt very lackluster. I think I have three major problems though
1 John’s parents do not deserve forgiveness. They deserve a prison sentence if anything.
2 I feel like I can’t truly judge how I feel about it until I see more from John. Hopefully he gets an appearance in man of tomorrow, like one full on fight scene that could possible start at hinting of a Justice League setup.
3 The TV-MA rating felt totally unnecessary. It basically exists so they can drop a bunch of f bombs. We don’t need to see a corpses junk or see a single scene of gore.
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u/Royal-Comparison-270 Strongest Shermie x Shingo shipper 7h ago
I FUCKING LOVE THE SHOW!!!
I would unironically die for Lanterns Hal Jordon (I fuckin hate the guy but also love him) and John was pretty damn funny at times to. I really like how their dynamic somewhat changed for the better when Halo-gram and John at that final talk.
Also Guy Gardner being in the show bumped it up from a 7 to an 8 (I love Nathan's Guy Gardner ngl).
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u/Dirty-Glasses He/Him 11h ago
Incredible show and everyone complaining about it is wrong. Just because it wasn’t a CGI laser fightfest full of References™️ doesn’t mean it was bad.
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u/MetalJrock A Hopeless Sonic/Spider-Man Fanboy 11h ago
There were a lot of references in the show though.
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u/Dirty-Glasses He/Him 11h ago
Sorry, not references, cameos. People are genuinely upset that characters like Kilowog and Atrocitus didn’t show up even though that’s not what the show was supposed to be about.
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u/MetalJrock A Hopeless Sonic/Spider-Man Fanboy 10h ago edited 7h ago
The show already did that with Carol and Hector. They might as well have included the one GL Corps mainstay.
I don’t think it’s all that weird to ask for Green Lantern characters in the Green Lantern show considering Lanterns already treats the established comic cast as cameo fodder for you to point at your screen at.
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u/darkwint3r 11h ago
I don't see how wanting your Green Lantern show to have their powers actually being used is a bad thing. Like you could have the most well written Spider-Man show, but if Peter barely uses his web shooters and never wears the costume I'm gonna walk away disappointed.
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u/Ayyyyynah 11h ago
Their powers were used. Just not a massive CGI Fest. Every time they were used felt impactful. It's a much more grounded story. It suits its needs.
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u/gothamsteel He/Him 10h ago
If this is the discourse for the show, just shoot me now.
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u/Dirty-Glasses He/Him 10h ago
People are So Mad that the grounded buddy cop dramedy (what it was pitched and presented as) wasn’t an action-packed Space Battle Epic™️ (what it was not pitched or presented as)
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u/Salty_Log_8930 10h ago
Why do you keep add a TM emoji to complaints you don't think are valid? Is this some weird injoke I'm missing?
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u/rednaxthecreature 9h ago
No one sane wanted a space CGI battle they wanted actually good writing that wasn't just exposition heavy dialogue and off screen character devolpment.
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u/Dirty-Glasses He/Him 9h ago
It… was full of good writing, though?
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u/rednaxthecreature 8h ago
A lot of the writing falls apart if you think about it more then two seconds. As I said lots of character development happens off screen and the dialogue was exposition heavy. You argument of 'but it was good tho' is not that compelling.
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u/Sloth_Senpai 1h ago
A lot of people want hollywood to greenlight original ideas instead of endless adaptations, and also want "Blue the Show" to be blue.
If you do want original ideas, ending the cycle of creators having to package unrelated shows as pre-existing franchises is a big push. If you like Green Lantern, yeah you're going to be mad if the show isn't Green Lantern.
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u/irregularcog 44m ago
I liked it
I will say that if John's underground panic area for cities proposal really did get axed because he missed the meeting, that will actually kill more people than he will save, because James Gunn loves a kaiju monster climax in his movies
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u/astronautbdelue 10h ago
I didn't like at all, there was no heroism just horrible people getting everything they ever wanted without consequences.
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u/Seiryu99 7h ago edited 7h ago
I thought it was pretty solid. As someone who didnt keep up with any of the discourse or drama that surrounds the show online, I thought it was weird how every hero and character was basically a piece of shit and acted like a villian lmao. Many times me and the fam were saying "this is a super hero show right?". Even Peacemaker felt and acted more like a hero in his series.
The weird episode with John's childhood backstory was kind of fucking weird though with how insane the mom was, bitch a group of intergalactic blue aliens dont give a fuck about your skin color or problems and had alot of "those" moments that felt shoved in for a single episode and then never talked about again.
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u/rustymcbadbat31 Stylin' and Profilin'. 4h ago
Its a lot like Peacemaker Season 2 for me where I like a good amount of the elements established for the story going forward but the quality of it as just a season of TV is kind of mid. I knew the big twist of the finale pretty much three episodes prior. The finale itself felt like it was answering questions we already knew the answer to.
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u/BrainInATupperware 2h ago
a just okay mystery show. insane budget for what we got out of it (someone at HBO definitely pocketed that cash), and the pacing was kind of bad, but its an average tv show overall with a few good moments and some decent chemistry between its actors. at least it wasn't as bad as true detective night country?
i don't know why you would ever adapt a hero like Green Lantern whose powers scream BIG SFX BUDGET to do a grounded, earthbound mystery show that is about characters dealing with generational trauma and being conditioned and programmed. felt like a show that was embarrassed of being a superhero show.
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u/GoneRampant1 WOKE UP TO JUSTICE... and insatiable bug fetishes 1h ago
Good for what it was, a bit meh as an actual Lantern show. They were upfront about it, but it was a bit of a Surf Dracula show. Glad that the DCU bounced back after Supergirl, excited for Clayface now.
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u/KF-Sigurd It takes courage to be a coward 11h ago
We wasted like 10+ fucking years on Snyderverse while Kyle Chandler just aged.