My superhero saturation initially put me off any new superhero shows, but the early reviews of ‘Lanterns’ were very good, and when I looked into the cast I was mildly shocked to discover that Kyle Chandler the guy who plays Hal Jordan (the Green Lantern’s not so secret identity) was born in Buffalo. So I gave it a shot. And I was reminded that HBO knows what it’s doing.

In ‘Lanterns’ Hal Jordan is portrayed as a well-meaning, and highly capable but reckless and somewhat unprofessional jerk. He’s abrasive to the point that people are actively upset when he’s right about things. This is a great thing for the show because it means that one of our two protagonists has a legitimately textured character. He’s smart and decisive, but short-sighted and crass. He knows what he’s doing, but repeatedly does it in a way that makes life more difficult for the people around him.

Our other protagonist is his trainee, John Stewart (played by Aarone Pierre). Stewart’s father was one of the original candidates to be Green Lantern but got passed over in favor of Hal because had the right answer to the question one and only interview question “are you afraid?”, specifically ‘no.’ John’s parents raise him to be fearless so that he can get the job when Hal retires or dies. Ergo, he doesn’t get a real childhood. He doesn’t seem to resent this, which strains credulity, but it does justify his somewhat wooden character. He’s supposed to be that way. But he’s not completely wooden. He loves his family, he gets appropriately angry whenever Jordan screws around and makes things more difficult, and he’s fallible enough to miss the occasional detail and fall for a honey trap. If he has a flaw that makes him interesting, it’s his casual assurance in his own superiority. I’m hoping this arrogance will cost him at some point so he can learn from it. 4 episodes into this 8-episode season I was wondering if this show would remember that protagonists need an arc. After episode 5, I felt a lot better. Episode 5 is the turning point for both protagonists. Hal has long since realized that Stewart is meant to be his replacement and crosses some lines to prevent that from happening. Jordan’s parents finally unmask themselves (over the phone) as feeling entitled to their son’s success because of what they ‘sacrificed’ for him. And Stewart, after much suffering, finally realizes that being Green Lantern isn’t necessarily something that a sane person should want.  

The show also makes a point of demonstrating that asking a privileged, arrogant, childless white man “are you afraid” is very different than asking a black man with a family if he is afraid. And they do it without getting preachy. There’s a good scene where one of the Guardians (the Green Lantern corps bosses) played by Laura Linney flat out admits they never considered that possibility. It gets a blunt and frank discussion…and then they move on.

The show is also pretty restrained about Green Lantern using his powers. You see it once or twice per episode, and usually not in over the top ways. The ring is a plot device, and the show remains the story of these two men; their personality clashes and working relationship. It’s the opposite of what George Lucas did with lightsabers in the Star Wars prequels. I also liked that the ring isn’t infallible or all powerful. If it were then there’d be no tension and the villains wouldn’t constitute a threat.

The show also seems to understand what supporting characters are supposed to do. They provide a reason for the protagonists to do interesting things and reflect on their situation. Supporting characters can and should get some screen time to themselves so that we care about them and find them interesting. But they shouldn’t take on an extensive life of their own that isn’t tied directly to the core plot and the protagonists. This is one of the very few mistakes HBO made with the show Task. As I mentioned in that review, the subplot about Tom Brandis’s daughters was too disconnected from the core plot, and consequently it dragged out and killed the story’s momentum.

But we don’t get any of that here. The supporting characters provide the connective tissue that knits the plot together and builds the world in which the protagonists complete their arcs. They are the scaffolding of the story.

I have only 2 complaints so far: Spoilers ahead. First; the scale of the emergency in this story is huge, but only two people are trying to stop it. I realize this is necessary or the emergency wouldn’t be an emergency, but it still stuck out to me. The second issue is a huge inconsistency vis-a-vie the main villain. The villain is a synthetic life form called a ‘Manhunter’, and we learn that the Manhunters were the Guardian’s galactic police before the Lanterns. They went rogue and started wiping out entire civilizations on the logic that all evil comes from organic life etc… you’ve heard this plot before. This creates a problem with how the Manhunter dies. By the arbitrary rules of this TV universe, we are told that since the manhunter has taken human form they can be killed like a human. So the logic here is that in exchange for disappearing into the crowd, the manhunter had to become vulnerable. Then, to protect herself in this vulnerable form, she bribes an entire town into fanatical loyalty and seduces a couple of important men as well. The end result of which is that (again, spoilers) the fearsome, world-killing manhunter ends up getting killed with a single bullet through the head. Stewart does it with a sniper rifle from unnecessarily long distance, just in time to save Hal’s life, so that the show can bookend an earlier scene in which Hal ruins an assassination mission Stewart is on by recklessly intervening. But even though the show took the trouble to establish her vulnerability, and did something narratively appropriate with the scene, this was still pretty deflating. Apparently anyone could’ve killed the Manhunter.

But there is a good reason to excuse this: The show isn’t called “Manhunters”, it’s called “Lanterns.” It’s a story about two radically different men at different places in their lives, clashing over how to responsibly use power. And in that, this story is a huge success.