Monsters of Television

“Your will is the core my very being.“

This episode concludes what is essentially an hour-long premiere (which is how it aired as a tease late last year). As is often the case with two-parters, the second half is a more enjoyable time since there’s less need for setting everything up. It is, however, to the show’s benefit that the first part ended not only with a fine set piece, but a clear path forward to the next part, something I feel shows don’t always achieve.

But I feel that this episode is also stronger since it provides a nice and compelling surprise by the episode’s end, one that I genuinely was not expecting the show to do, but found it delightful (and sad, of course). And the episode, like the one before, also sets up the on-going concern of what to do with a problem like Razer, someone who doesn’t necessarily seem irredeemable, and what that rehabilitation process may look like is fairly promising.

What I do like best, thus far, is that Green Lantern: TAS is already putting a moral complication in the works. The Guardians are not telling the whole truth, as they themselves admit to each other, and they may have potentially demolished an entire planet, spurring Atrocitius to seek his “righteous vengeance.” I’m sure the actual story will be a bit more complicated than that, but that this is being introduced so early indicates that the show isn’t going to shy away from a light gray universe.

Which leads to Shyir’s death. Shyir’s death is actually fairly surprising, but I like the show decided to push that envelope. His death makes room for Razer on the team (it’d be too crowded on that ship otherwise right now), but it didn’t feel like the show had forced the character out. The writers could have easily reunited him with his family and kept as a recurring Lantern patrolling the frontier. Instead, the show provides a sense of stakes and real danger, something that often gets loss or sanitized in programming aimed at kids, and I’m happy that Green Lantern doesn’t do that here.

On top of that, Kurtwood Smith’s all-to-brief turn as Shyir Rev is a good one, and Smith’s casting helps elevate the character beyond being a memorable guest spot. He gives Shyir the necessary gravitas and weariness that should come with a frontier Lantern, and it helps sell the character’s sacrifice by the end of the episode.

Razer’s potential reform also demonstrates the nice potential for moral layering the show is beginning to engage with. He’s not all evil, and it just seems like he fell in with the wrong crowd. What the show’s use of Razer sets up, as well as the Red Lanterns as a larger organization, is a nice companion with Star Wars: The Clone Wars and its warriors for good and bad with an impressionable and erratic youth caught in the middle. Whether this was deliberate or not, I don’t know, but I think it’s an interesting coincidence to note and keep track of.

So with the foundation laid, it’ll be interesting to see where Green Lantern: TAS goes from here, but I’m a little more optimistic about the series based on this episode than on the first part.

FINAL THOUGHTS

• “Let’s postpone my lynching…” WORD CHOICE, WRITERS. Seriously. No one on this show is ever going to get lynched, least of all the nice looking white guy with the power ring.
• “I make hammers.”
• I dug folks mocking Hal’s use of a mask. John Stewart never used a mask, Hal! “Talk to me when your planet invents paparazzi and the 24-hour news cycle.”
• “You have minutes to reach a safe orbital distance.”
• “I’ll have the choir scream his praises at the rage ceremony.”
• If I have a fairly sizable issue about the show, and it’s one I’d like the show to address soon, it’s the lack of female Lanterns around. I know, I know. It’s only been two episodes and these two episodes are about introducing us to the world, etc. etc., but I do hope there are plans to introduce some. Off the top of my head, given her prominence in Green Lantern: Emerald Knights, it makes sense to have Arisia be recurring. There’s also Katma Tui, seen in Justice League, and given the Red Lanterns, I could see the show working in Laira somehow as well. More than just boys like superheroes, and your characters should reflect that.
• DC Nation Short: “New Teen Titans” short in which Beast Boy washes Robin’s utility belt in the laundry and replaces it with another belt filled with random items, including a Frisbee, a banana, and tofu. It’s an amusing enough short, and I’m happy to have the Teen Titans aesthetic and voice talent back on screen, but the tofu joke seems a little dated this day in age. (Also to note: Batman’s batarang “really does work.” I’ll be curious if any of these little gadget tests ever not work.)