Supergirl

[Cassandra]

So you think Flockhart's refusal to work in Vancouver was just a smoke screen for refusing to take a pay cut from the CW?

 

I hadn't considered the move to Vancouver.  

[Pattern Ghost]

I still say they'd be better off replacing the director than the writers. Strip the scene with the helmet gizmo down to the dialog, and it's hard to blame the writers.

 

The director could have staged the scene in a lot more believable way without changing a word of the dialog, which is the bulk of the writer's contribution. For one, the director could have staged the thugs in a way that makes it harder for Supergirl to employ her known powers to safely rescue Mon El. For another, the director could have put Cyborg Hank in the scene to prevent Supergirl from getting any stupid ideas. Instead, we get Supergirl released from her cage with nobody even covering Mon El with a firearm. That's on the director.

 

I'm not saying the writers are innocent, because there are plenty of times when the show suffers from conveniently forgetting Supergirls' powers, but not all of the tactical blunders are on the writers' side. And even if the writers turned in such a detailed script, the director has a responsibility to make it look right during shooting.

[bigdamnhero]

The in-camera talent is always many, many times more expensive than any other production cost, including the vfx in an "effects-heavy" show.

Given CW's preference for hiring near-unknowns, I have no idea how much of their budget goes to actor salaries but I'm guessing it's a much lower percentage than effects-lite shows. From the network's perspective, two shows that pull X million viewers are both going to get handled comparable budgets, whether they have to spend a bunch of it on vfx or not. So if your show does have those vfx costs, what are you willing to cut to make the books balance? Frankly I think the only reason CW shows get as much money as they do is because their demographic shews younger and thus more marketable than average. Which again, drives who the shows are aimed at, hence all the teen soap opera.

 

I hadn't considered the move to Vancouver.  

That was Flockhart's stated reason, since the move to CW was first a rumor.

 

The director could have staged the scene in a lot more believable way without changing a word of the dialog, which is the bulk of the writer's contribution.

I agree with the rest of your post, but the bolded portion is a bit of a misconception. If you read film & TV scripts, they're typically less than half dialogue compared to action/description. (Except for maybe sitcoms and such that are essentially stand-up comedy.) They don't normally block out details like who's standing where - you're right that's on the Director - but especially for staff writers on established shows they go into more description than you might think. But yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if whoever wrote that scene wasn't thrilled with the way it was staged either. For that matter there's always behind-the-scenes stuff like the Hank Henshaw actor wasn't available that day or got left off the sheet or something and they didn't have time to go back and re-film it.

[Pattern Ghost]

I agree with the rest of your post, but the bolded portion is a bit of a misconception. If you read film & TV scripts, they're typically less than half dialogue compared to action/description. (Except for maybe sitcoms and such that are essentially stand-up comedy.) They don't normally block out details like who's standing where - you're right that's on the Director - but especially for staff writers on established shows they go into more description than you might think. But yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if whoever wrote that scene wasn't thrilled with the way it was staged either. For that matter there's always behind-the-scenes stuff like the Hank Henshaw actor wasn't available that day or got left off the sheet or something and they didn't have time to go back and re-film it.

 

Oh, I understand this and agree with it. But the director should be acting as a filter for what makes it to the screen. If the scene is illogical as written, the director should spot it.

[zslane]

Directors aren't hired to decide how the plot for an episode unfolds, even in its details. If Supergirl needs to lose a battle, the writers will decide how. The directors merely put those plot elements into frame and helps the actors convey the appropriate emotional content through their performance. For instance, deciding that Supergirl could not knock out all the guards was in the hands of the writer(s) of that episode, not the director's. Or deciding that Cadmus had a device that could perfectly absorb Supergirl's "solar flare" heat vision release, without giving a moment's thought to the consequences of that technological development, was in the hands of the writer(s) and the show runner, not any directors.

 

When an actor gives a flawed performance, or a complex action scene becomes a visual mess, you blame the director. When the events of the story unfold in a way that is stupid, you blame the writers.

[Pattern Ghost]

I blame you. Yes, zslane, it's all your fault. Get over to CW and get them to fix things.

[Bazza]

I blame you. Yes, zslane, it's all your fault. Get over to CW and get them to fix things.

Exactly right.

[zslane]

I blame you. Yes, zslane, it's all your fault. Get over to CW and get them to fix things.

 

They couldn't afford me. 

[Bazza]

Please, one date with Melissa and you'd work for free.

[zslane]

A night with Melissa and I'd work for peanuts. A night with Melissa and Chyler (together) and I'd work for free. I'd even spring for breakfast the next morning.

[bigdamnhero]

Hell, one smile from Melissa and I'd work for peanuts...

[Bazza]

To be continued on The Flash! ⚡️

[Clonus]

So much for the 4 show crossover.  The big riddle though is this. Why didn't anyone ask why humans are immune to Medusa?  

[Lord Liaden]

I'm a little disappointed that J'onn J'onzz transformation dilemma got wrapped up so quickly and neatly. It looked like it could be an interesting story arc.

[sinanju]

So much for the 4 show crossover.  The big riddle though is this. Why didn't anyone ask why humans are immune to Medusa?  

 

Yeah. I'm feeling ripped off by the "four night event" crossover. That was a real bait-and-switch.

 

And also, yes. Humans are ALIENS to Kryptonians, so why doesn't the virus kill humans too?

[Cassandra]

Regarding last nights show.

 

Literally no surprises except the convenience of solving J'onn J'onzz problem. 

 

And having Hank Henshaw as the Cyborg Superman not only using the comic book character, but allows the show to use the same actor saving money.

[zslane]

What I loved:

• Kara
• Alex

What I was disappointed by:

• Lack of any connection to the Heroes v. Aliens crossover storyline.
• Insta-cure for J'onn's transformation dilemma.
• Unearned insta-cure/solution to the Medusa virus, a biological weapon designed by ostensibly Krypton's finest scientist(s).
• Virus that kills in seconds. Biological agents don't work like that; chemical agents can. Medusa should have been a chemical weapon.
• Virus that can (lethally) target multiple alien species, while remaining inert to only one (or two).

Viruses that can function as an extinction event do so through a pandemic vector, in which new infections occur faster than quarantine and treatment. It works when symptoms are slow to manifest and hard to detect, so that it spreads uncontrollably. A virus that is only delivered in a single aerosolic event, and which kills its host in mere seconds allows for very effective control measures and almost guarantees it will be easily contained. Medusa, as presented, was a potentially interesting instrument of propaganda and terror, but useless as a weapon of genocide.

 

If the writers wanted to invent a microscopically small killing agent, they should have just come up with an entirely new (Kryptonian) technology, rather than using words like "virus" and "infection" which have established meanings, and which simply don't work the way the writers wanted/needed them to.

[Ranxerox]

So much for the 4 show crossover.  The big riddle though is this. Why didn't anyone ask why humans are immune to Medusa?  

 

Humans were immune to Medusa because they altered Medusa to make human immune to it before they synthesized it.  They had all the research that went into making it and obviously they didn't want kill every person in it.  Medusa itself is presumably omnicidal targeting biological processes that are going to be present in pretty much everything.  After all, how else could it kill every type of alien. So the trick is to make it selectively ignore Kryptonian both humanoid and animals even though they would have the same biological processes that Medusa targets in other organism.  They would need to pick some protein sequence that is ubiquitous in Kryptonian life but not common elsewhere and key that as an off switch to Medusa.  All Cadmus had to do is find a similarly ubiquitous terrestrial protein sequence and add that as a second off switch, or sole off switch if they are able to remove the Kryptonian off switch.

 

Yes, I know that I almost certainly just gave this more thought than the writers of the show.  However, I'm sure if you asked them they would say that Cadmus tinkered with Medusa to make humans immune.

 

 

 

Viruses that can function as an extinction event do so through a pandemic vector, in which new infections occur faster than quarantine and treatment. It works when symptoms are slow to manifest and hard to detect, so that it spreads uncontrollably. A virus that is only delivered in a single aerosolic event, and which kills its host in mere seconds allows for very effective control measures and almost guarantees it will be easily contained. Medusa, as presented, was a potentially interesting instrument of propaganda and terror, but useless as a weapon of genocide.

 

If the writers wanted to invent a microscopically small killing agent, they should have just come up with an entirely new (Kryptonian) technology, rather than using words like "virus" and "infection" which have established meanings, and which simply don't work the way the writers wanted/needed them to.

 

The virus isn't intended to be some genocidal agent.  It is intended to protect Krypton not wipe out all non-Kryptonian life everywhere.  So making it act quickly and not spread person to person makes sense.  Kara's father wanted the ability to kill off an invading army not the home worlds which that army came from.

[zslane]

Well, I was presuming that any invading alien force will successfully occupy a target planet for some time before they are completely expelled. Invading a planet takes resources and armies of such magnitude that fast-acting, tactical weaponry isn't going to get the defensive job done. A biological weapon strikes me as a poor tool for front-line defense of an entire planet.

[Beast]

well that was a date issue
the Invasion is happening in the Flarrow universe ( if Flash was on monday nights no problems

it was only unearned for Supergirl
Lena had everything to loose that a connection was being made between her mother and Cadmus
and LL had the only MacGuffin to make it work
the government would have been so fast she would find herself dead(remember the prez is an alien)
so a Black Op takes her out and Lcorp gets absorbed into the US government

What I was disappointed by:

• Lack of any connection to the Heroes v. Aliens crossover storyline.
•  
• Unearned insta-cure/solution to the Medusa virus, a biological weapon designed by ostensibly Krypton's finest scientist(s).

[Beast]

it is called poisoning the well
if the place you want is trying to kill you why would you want to go there

 

Well, I was presuming that any invading alien force will successfully occupy a target planet for some time before they are completely expelled. Invading a planet takes resources and armies of such magnitude that fast-acting, tactical weaponry isn't going to get the defensive job done. A biological weapon strikes me as a poor tool for front-line defense of an entire planet.

[Ranxerox]

Well, I was presuming that any invading alien force will successfully occupy a target planet for some time before they are completely expelled. Invading a planet takes resources and armies of such magnitude that fast-acting, tactical weaponry isn't going to get the defensive job done. A biological weapon strikes me as a poor tool for front-line defense of an entire planet.

 

A fast-acting, tactical weapon that can kill your enemy by the thousands while leaving your own people unscathed even if they are standing right next to them is a game changer.  Normally when a conqueror occupies a city the citizens of that city become hostages of a sort.  With Medusa you can quickly kill the entire occupying force within a population center and leave the city residents unharmed.  Indeed the enemy are likely to die so fast that they don't even get a chance to report what killed them.

 

Also, why would you presume your enemies success?  If I was building a "defensive weapon"  I would want it to defend me so quickly that the enemy never establishes a foothold much less planetary occupation.  So a fast acting WMD that I can use without a fear of collateral damage to my own people would be just what the Dr Strangelove ordered. 

[bigdamnhero]

Humans were immune to Medusa because they altered Medusa to make human immune to it before they synthesized it.

That was my assumption as well. Might've been nice if they specifically called that out, but they were already trying to cram too much into one episode. Again. Minor eye roll, but nothing more than that for me. I was more disappointed that they jumped from "We have no cure!" to "Yay! Cure!" too easily. And yeah, "curing" Jonz' White Martian problem as a throwaway was a wasted opportunity too.

 

And yeah, I was disappointed that the Big Crossover was confined to the tag scene. Especially when they had Cyborg Hank say "Who's going to come save you?" and a portal opens up behind him...and the Flash doesn't come through to kick his ass? Seriously? Why even set that up if you're going to ignore it until after the A, B & C plots are all wrapped up?

[Bazza]

I for one am happy they moved on from the "white Martian

[mattingly]

What a shame Supergirl didn't bring any Medusa virus to Barry's Earth to stop the nonhuman non-Kryptonian aliens...