As this makes clear (and one of the commenters points out) the main reason people (including many feminists, I believe) don’t like the Supergirl trailer is that the hero is female.
BTW, there is just as much “bubbly nonsense” in male superhero shows but that gets a pass because it’s ok then.
Men won’t like the show because it’s got a female lead and because she’s not there to be eye candy.
Feminists will torch the show because it doesn’t hit every feminist talking point, and because it’s not dark and brooding, and because the character is realistically awkward and not some insta-badass.
A character that is sincere, thoughtful, femme, bubbly and not quite comfortable in her own skin? Yes, please. (I suspect a lot of feminists also dislike her because she is in fact very feminine. Internalized misogyny is pervasive.)
The show will last one season, I predict.
I read the parts the fan cut as her Clark Kent persona and I found it super funny that her boss was Calista Flockhart. My impression is that there’s a distinct lack of brooding and angst in the Superman universe that gets to movies and tv. I’m actually surprised there isn’t more of an environmental bent to Superman in those franchises considering.
I think the environmental would be a good angle, but that’d be de facto too anti-corporate by necessity to make it on TV. Advertisers would rebel. Maybe if it’d been produced by Netflix, perhaps.
I think other than the hero being female many of the objections stem from the lack of gloom. The trailer feels “out of its time” which is why I like it, and why I hope it succeeds. But items out of their time rarely do, unless times are changing of which I see no real signs.
You’re probably right about an environmental angle or a vein being considered anti-corporate when major networks are running “fracking is wonderful” commercials. But it’s not like Superman or Supergirl could save every person from all of the earthquakes or fires or floods, let alone every person from such a disaster if it were big enough (disclaimer:not a Superman- verse nerd). It makes more sense as a limitation that the deus ex machina that’s kryptonite.
Have you ever seen
Superdickery?
I’d seen some of that on Reddit, but didn’t know where they were from.
Having superpowers like that, being so absurdly powerful, how would you decide who to save? What’s worth doing? I’d either be paralyzed by indecision or work myself to death (because I think even they get tired in that mythos).
Of course in reality governments of the countries in which they are resident would be conspiring to kill them no matter their goodness or beneficence because if Supergirl existed in the real world she could take over the whole country in a day, if she wanted to.
The potential of using her for realpolitik advantage would be far outweighed by the threat of her (and her cousin’s) out-of-bounds power.