Distributor: Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.
Episodes: 13
Duration: 40 min (per episode)
Stargirl: Season 1 (DVD) – Movie Review
DC has gained a lot of attention again during these last few weeks with the release of the Snyder Cut of Justice League. Nonetheless, their series have been going strong in the background as well, with many new entries, such as Doom Patrol, Titans, Pennyworth and the new Superman & Lois series. Now, however, we arrive at a somewhat lesser-known character for the mainstream audience, namely Stargirl. In this fairly new DC series, we get to see how teenager Courtney Whitmore wields the Cosmic Staff, becoming Stargirl.
At the beginning of Stargirl, we see a massive battle unfold between the Justice Society of America and the Injustice Society of America. The names speak for themselves as the JSA are the good guys and the ISA represents the villains. Sadly, in this scenario, the JSA gets wiped out, with only a few sidekicks not kicking the bucket. This brings us to Pat Dugan (Luke Wilson), once the sidekick of Starman (Joel McHale). Now, however, he is diving into ‘blended’ family life. He is now living together with his son Mike (Trae Romano), his new partner Barbara Whitmore (Amy Smart), and her daughter Courtney (Brec Bassinger). The latter stumbles upon a large crate Pat has brought to the new house in Blue Valley after she had a rough first day in her new school. In this crate, she finds a glowing staff that is clearly a sentient being but only seems to respond to her. She connects with the powerful item and learns that it grants her many new abilities. Courtney wants to ‘prank’ the teenager who has bullied her on her first day, only to have the staff blow up his car. When later on we learn that the car actually belonged to Brainwave (Christopher James Baker), a member of the ISA that took an active part in killing the members of the JSA, the cycle seems to repeat itself. Not only will the battle once again commence, but the ISA has not disappeared into the shadows and is actually working on something big to have the entire country fall in line.
Stargirl’s first season does not follow the same flow and pacing of series such as The Flash, Supergirl, or Arrow and instead builds towards a bigger story, rather than present a new case each episode with a subtle red thread running through it. This approach was actually quite nice, and it deters filler content, making sure things don’t get slow and boring. While the series has its fair share of cheesy moments, it all comes together as an interesting whole, only held back by somewhat childish acting.
Acting performances are fairly okayish, but it’s clear that the main cast members, safe for Luke Wilson and Amy Smart, have very little experience under their belts. True, some characters have starred in different bigger productions, but often performing smaller parts. The younger actors – in this scenario the ragtag team of heroes – all have a limited portfolio backing them up. That being said, the acting quality is not bad per se, it just shows that these young actors are still learning and perfecting their craft. As they are playing somewhat whimsical teenagers at times, it does mix well with their experience, allowing you to embrace the somewhat cheesy scenes that play out. Brec Bassinger plays a very likable hero in this first season, however.
The DC series have been coming with a lot fewer special features on their physical editions. We have seen the same feature reappear for many different series, and sometimes the additional content was just very short in duration. That being said, Stargirl comes with absolutely no extra features. We were somewhat disappointed to have nothing added to the purchase of a physical copy of the series. We would have loved to learn more about how the series was made or more about the source material. We hope the DVD version of season two fixes this mistake, as we expect a bit more bang for our buck.
Conclusion
Stargirl: Season 1 is an enjoyable new entry in the ever-expanding library of series in the DC Universe. While we have had many interesting new shows over the last years, including Doom Patrol, Titans, or even Pennyworth, Stargirl is one of the more teen-friendly ones. The aforementioned series do have a lot more violence (and gore) in them, compared to Stargirl. Even though there are a few more graphic scenes in this season, we do believe that this is a nice superhero series to watch with friends and/or family.
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