Stargirl (DC Universe) S01: A

Let's just start by sayin wow!

This series was the ray of light that 2020 needed. Yes Courtney Whitmore (played by Brec Bassinger) might be white, blonde all American privileged girl, whose alter ego Stargirl dresses up in a blue, red and white superhero uniform full of stars. If we can put all of the political correctness aside for a moment and just enjoy the charisma with which Brec lights up the screen, we have a huge win for DC comics on our hands.

Courtney is your California girl that moves from Los Angeles to Blue Valley so that her mother Barbara (played by Amy Smart) can pursue a job at her hometown. Courtney's stepdad Pat Dugan (played by Luke Wilson) and her step brother Mike (played by Trae Romano), let's just say that her relationship with them is not the ideal, although in television history we've seen worst than that.

While moving into her new home Courtney discovers among Pat's things a cosmic staff that used to belong to Starman (played by Joel McHale) and like a good curious teenager she discovers that her stepdad was a superhero sidekick back in the day. The staff comes to life and chooses her to be the new Stargirl, after a history lesson from Pat she discovers that the Injustice Society of America are still operating in new valley, she takes the mission to find some new team members to form a new Justice Society of America, to fight them.

The JSA was killed by the ISA in one of the most epic battles in television history during the opening sequence of the first episode of Stargirl. Let me say that sequence alone set the bar very high for this series, and for future DC projects like the Green Lantern that would debut sometime in 2021, hopefully over at HBO max. Not even the crossovers at the Arrowverse had this level of wow so far. And let me tell you the crossovers always manage to wow me.

Yes the series toned it down after that, but things escalate quickly for our superhero wannabe and a couple of episodes have very dark moments compared to the ray of sunshine that Courtney is. Where is Oliver Queen when needed? At least Supergirl! I'm dying to see a crossover between Supergirl and Stargirl and while nothing is impossible in the Arrowverse after the Infinite Crisis crossover they showed us that this new superhero in town is actually in Earth 2 while our beloved super cousin is at Earth Prime. Leaving us with no foreseeable crossovers in the near future. But wouldn't that be great?

The only crossover that Stargirl did on her first season was from networks. DC Universe green lighted the project and earlier in 2020, before the pandemic was around the CW decided they wanted in on the fun and rolled the episode a day after it was available at the streaming platform. This move made me feel uncertain about Batwoman's future that wasn't doing very good at the time. Last June the CW decided to renew the series for a season 2, I'm talking about Stargirl, Batwoman was also renewed by the network with a cast shake up. But the CW decided to keep Courtney all to themselves moving the series from DC Universe to the CW for the next season. I hope they give them the budget they need to keep things as good as the first season and also very important that keep it at 13 episodes or under! not the 22 mark that the CW still loves.

The cast is superb you can feel the chemistry among them Amy Smart is so good as Courtney's mom and along with Luke Wilson they bring this maturity to the show. The roll call of villains is amazing The Flash wishes they've been this smart when choosing a villain for the scarlet speedster, because they do have them but somehow Geoff Johns and Greg Berlanti, who also produce The Flash did it much better for Stargirl.

It is an origin story and that may scare you away, but trust me when I tell you things move much faster than in any of the other shows at the Arrowverse we have not only Stargirl but a whole new Justice Society of America fighting together by the season finale. While this took a couple of seasons to happen in Arrow, The Flash, or Supergirl. Their teams took some more time to work together and I don't even mention Batwoman whose team took what seemed forever to form, and we don't even know what season 2 might bring with all Ruby Rose's drama.

Yvette Monreal plays Yolanda Montez she takes over Wildcat mantle, Anjelika Washington plays Beth Chapel who takes over Dr. Mid-Nite role and Cameron Gellman as Rick Tyler one of our legacies as his father was the original Hourman in the JSA and now he takes over his role. They all have great chemistry together but I do need to see them more! Of course the downside of having only 13 episodes is that you don't get to expand more other storylines, but that doesn't mean is impossible to happen, and this rooster of superheroes have plenty of drama of their own to spice up future seasons of the series.

And I'm not even mentioning other legacies the show has that might end up on the wrong side of justice, or would they not follow their parents foot steps? The best of them all is of course Meg DeLacy who plays Cindy Burman daughter of Dragon King, she is one of the most complicated characters in the show and of course one of my favorites. She is superb on the role and is very well written.

I love superhero stories and this one did not disappointed me, and while its not perfect and it does have room for improvement I fully believe in this show.