In its first season on CBS, SUPERGIRL was a light and airy show that featured lots of “Girl Power!” that was a nice alternative to the more testosterone heavy fare on the other DC shows that were airing on Fox and The CW. With the move to The CW in its 2nd season I was pretty excited since that meant crossovers with ARROW, THE FLASH AND LEGENDS OF TOMORROW would be much easier to get done than they were when SUPERGIRL was on another network. And that was proven by just how enjoyable the “Invasion” crossover turned out to be. But aside from that blip of awesome, the 2nd season of SUPERGIRL has been a chore to get through and since I am the type of guy who likes to share my opinion…click onward to find out exactly why SUPERGIRL really does suck now.
What Do You Do With A Problem Like Mon-el?
First an admission, I like Chris Woods. The guy is a very charismatic actor and I have liked him on all of the other shows on The CW network I have seen him on. I even liked him in certain situations on SUPERGIRL (mostly when he was playing the meathead buddy to Wynn’s nerd) early on in the season. But everyone and their mother knew that the sole purpose for Chris Woods and Mon-el being brought on this show was to become the new love interest for Kara/Supergirl and it is that role that has resulted in most of the problems with this show.
I’ll get into how terrible the break-up of James and Kara was handled a little later but that is one of the earliest examples that Season 2 was going to be a bit of a shit show. The general problem with Mon-El as a character though is that his introduction resulted in other characters being damaged. Just Mon-el’s presence alone has harmed James, Lena Luthor, J’onn J’onnz and worst of all Kara Danvers/Supergirl herself. On a show that was about the inner workings of Kara and her relationships with the people around her while she tried to find herself as a super-hero and as a woman, we now have a show about an intergalactic frat boy and what makes him tick while Supergirl has been lessened.
And just to get to the matter of individual taste: I think that Mon-el and Kara are an awful pairing. Sure they look like an ad for fall fashions from American Eagle Outfitters but aside from being an aesthetically pleasing pairing the two of them lack any romantic chemistry and the show has yet to provide a proper explanation as to why Kara would be in a relationship with this guy.
On the plus side the introduction of Mon-el’s parents has given the show the best villain it has ever had in the form of Rhea, Mon-el’s mom (played with delicious evil glee by Teri Hatcher) but one awesome villain doesn’t make up for all the awful that Mon-el has brought to this show.
Crustula 
While I disagree with a few of these points (mainly the Sanvers ones), for the most part, this is all accurate. Season 2 has been pretty bad, and almost all its faults are due to Mon-El. It’s really unfortunate because the show was breaking barriers when it started, and it was really good, but now it’s just a mess. Hopefully the writers get their act together and listen to the feedback and make S3 better.
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Its like the insertion of Mon-el removed all the heart and originality from the show and now it is just another CW show. And not a particularly good one.
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I agree with almost every point here and i’m glad I’m not the only one who’s getting increasingly annoyed with this show. The only thing I really disagree with is the idea of Rhea being a good villain. She’s just another infuriating, overbearing mother villain, an overused trope, really. The worst part about it is it never is even a good villain. They’re almost always nothing more than heels as opposed to being actual villains, using the same lines (always along the same vein as, “I know what’s best next for you,(insert offspring name)”). It’s boring, overused, and simply is an easy way to piss off the audience. That’s why the mother villain types are heels. All they’re capable of doing is angering the audience. They’re not clever or even remotely smart or appealing. A good villain is one you can almost agree with and see their point of view or one that pops up suddenly during a well concealed twist, but from the get-go Rhea was pretty much introduced to be another psycho-mom.
I’m sorry about the rant here, I just had to endure another episode on the cw website and I just really can’t stand the show, but I’m forced to watch it because, as is the case with comic books, themselves, you gotta keep up with it for the sake of crossovers. I swear, I’d stop watching forever if I knew they’d never do another crossover involving this show.
I also gotta thank you for pointing out the problem with the Maggie/Alex relationship. It always felt off, and I never knew why until I read what you wrote, so thank you! Very insightful.
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It is possible I just enjoy Teri Hatcher going full board in the role and am comparing her favorably to Mama Luthor who was a really weak villain and basically the same character: evil overbearing mother.
Thanks for commenting btw!
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I quit the show because of Mon el.
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I think I might be doing the same if he sticks around as a full cast member next season.
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And I because of the über annoying Alex/Maggie thing.
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Story line is full of left wing cliche’s and it sucks bad. The commentary on US politics presented in the most recent episode – alien invasion and “the resistance” – give me a break with this garbage.
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They have been pretty heavy-handed with it and even then they lost control of whatever narrative they were going for as the Daxamite invasion kinda proved Mama Luthor right that aliens are a pretty big threat if left unchecked.
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Weedy supergirl , not enough flying scenes & stupid looking aliens that all look like humans with a bad mask. Also they need to make their mind up when it comes to Kara fighting, someone who is so fast always gets hit & punches so slowly that she often misses the target.
She is able to lift a million tons but gets knocked to the ground by every opponent.
The scripts are complete Crap. Shame as in 2018 it should be Fab !!
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Your comments posted here nearly 2 years ago led to babies in cages, and hundreds who will never be reunited with their parents because they aren’t old enough to know their names. Uhhh… congratulations?
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I agree wholheartedly with your observations and analysis. The whole Alex/Maggie dynamic is contrived at best….. Unbelievable in !
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It really has not been very well written.
Thanks for commenting btw.
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The show gets more and more stupid the more I watch it. Horrible CGI and even worse the acting is bad. They cut Cat Grant out and that was
a blessing but only to add in more stupid action and off the wall decision making of Supergirl. They need to stop adding in side kicks and off the wall heroes like Guardian and Mon-El. Probably the biggest reason I quit watching Arrow was because of bad character development and lame action scenes. Half of the characters are lame.The CW really needs to quit sticking Flash in every season.
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The inconsistent characterization of Supergirl in S02 was a major issue fro me as well as the totally unnecessary inclusion of Mon-El.
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Supergirl scriptwriting has become atrocious. It’s extremely difficult to get through an episode with such crappy scripts. The actors are amazing but with poor scripts, they can only do so much. I’m ready to close supergirl FOREVER, please cancel before it gets any worse.
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I hate to agree because I was hoping the new season would have some changes for the better but 3 episodes in and I am just as dissatisfied with the show now as I was when I wrote this article.
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It’s definitely a depressing thought, we all contemplated how a nice entertaining show went completely bad.
I was a very intense fan when the show was on it’s first season, now I can’t even bring myself to watch the new episodes.
That new character, the Mon-el kid, was the beginning of the big fall that surely the show will never recover from.
In my opinion he is one of the worst things that happened, he took away the superhero and as you just said made her a supergirlfriend. It’s ridiculous and really upsetting, probably the channel will keep renewing it, but I doubt the show will ever recover. To me it is cancelled anyway.
Thank you for this article, I was looking for opinions to know if others feel as I do, it’s quite a relief to know they do, and judging by the latest ratings, we’re a lot of people.
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I am not feeling confidence in the show getting back to form based on the first few episodes of this season but I hope I am wrong. I am at least going to give it till the crossover before I decide whether to remove Supergirl from my DVR or not.
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I think the problem is unfortunately the show runners and writers are just not very good. You focused on what Mon El did to Supergirl, but I also think they made him too puppy dog good too soon also. He went from “frat boy” to angel just way too fast.
I was way on board with deep sixing the chemistry free romance between James ad Kara, although it was ham-fisted the way they broke them up. They simply had no chemistry and I really think the James character was miscast. He plays the character just “too adult” and Benoist plays Kara as almost an innocent. (she asks Mon El if he “liked, liked” her..what woman over the age of 20 still talks like that?) It was a bad match.
But also, the villains (all except Reign, and it might be too little too late) have been awful, the plot holes are immense, they do not handle tone very well and seem to have really no plan for the characters. (the extreme left wing politics certainly did it no favors in the rating either) Maybe CBS could have saved this, but I am thinking if any DC show gets the ax on the CW, it might be this one. Unlike the “Flash” and the other shows, Supergirl actually seems to be shrinking in the face of lower rating expectations. It is playing down to lower expectations and doing it badly
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All valid points and it would be sad if the show were to die because nobody behind the scenes recognized that the current showrunners don’t have the talent to make an entertaining show that doesn’t insult the intelligence of the viewers.
Thanks for posting and happy holidays!
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What started well got CW’d and frankly the story, action, lame acting, and character neutering, makes me want to barf.
I figured the super hero roll model show would end once everyone realized super girl was in super xxx rated videos…but wait let’s set her sister up as a lesbian!
All sale – no substance. The worst show getting worse. Cancel or move to Netflixs for some real T & A scenes at least.
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Supergirl does indeed suck. And some of the reasons not mentioned: 1. Alex was never meant to be a lesbian. The CW feels that there must be a gay/lesbian character on every show. It would be a marvel if Supergirl did not have a gay or lesbian character. 2. J’onn is not Kara’s and Alex’s father. Jeremiah Danvers is. 3. J’onn should be in superhero mode, not trying to raise someone else’s grown adult children. 4. Sick and tired of the Alex Danvers as the Atomic Brunette. Totally unstoppable against anyone, alien or human. It’s BS at its core. 5. Finally, Kara Danvers is not Supergirl material. Laura Vandevoort’s Smallville Supergirl fits the bill here…………
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Hope you found a life after posting this.
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What sucks about it mostly is the stupid forced romances. I started recording it and then editing out all the stupid scenes. The remaining 33 minutes or so is much better, and you do not lose any of the story except for Alex’s gay love scenes and Brainy and the TG being stupid.
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Haha! I agree with a lot of this. I really enjoyed this show at the beginning. I liked Calista as Cat and thought James Olsen was a great character. I didn’t hate Mon-El at first (although I too, felt they still should have had Jimmy more; he is one of the few good actors on the show who was totally underused!) Honestly, I miss Winn and thought most of the villains were laughable. Other than Lena Luthor, who is also one of the few believable actors, the show has gotten so bad, I no longer bother watching it. Every time I try, I end up changing the station! I am a huge Arrow fan and have come to like Flash and Legends, too.
But I’m afraid Melissa Benoist has possibly done for Supergirl what she did to Glee. Her character in that show was also a catalyst for its doom. It’s a real shame. I did love the musical crossover with Flash. The two former Glee kids sang really well together. And Grant was amazing! My lack of background knowledge of what’s going on in Supergirl is luckily not that much of a problem for the Crisis. I almost wish I had read a little less Shakespeare as a teen and had actually read some of these stories! Kevin Smith is hilarious in his recaps!
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