10 times ‘Supergirl’ was a total letdown in Season 1

Supergirl was a chance for the entertainment industry to prove that shows about powerful women can succeed. It was a perfect opportunity to showcase female strength, promote equality and illustrate that female lead characters don’t have to be any different than male lead characters.

But instead of a superhero show that just happens to feature a woman instead of a man, we’ve been given a boring program that blatantly waves stereotypical feminist phrases in people’s faces, simultaneously turning off both non-feminist and feminist viewers in one fell swoop.

For example, in Episode 3, the dialogue insulted fans by rubbing their noses in hot-button phrases that echo contemporary movements like Ask Her More. Supergirl gets bent out of shape when Cat asks her if she “plans on starting a family” during an exclusive interview and quips back, “No one asks my cousin those questions.” We’re also given the gem, “She’s not a consolation prize. She is every bit the hero he is; she just needs the chance to prove it.”

It’s not that these movements and phrases are not something to get behind; it just seems like the show is insulting fans’ intelligence by spelling out the feminist theme instead of assuming they are smart enough to pick up on the female empowerment vibe.

And then there’s the fact that there are the typical blatantly sexist themes sprinkled throughout the episode, as well — like when Cat wants all of the hostesses at her launch party dressed up in cute little Supergirl costumes.

CBS, are you for real with this villain?

The Red Tornado was reminscent of a costume I might have made for myself in elementary school with some red pancake makeup and a cardboard box. Sure, it’s a nod to the comic version, but it seems like they could have done a little something more with this — especially since their budget is rumored to be huge.

Yes, I love Melissa Benoist’s girlish charm and she really is lovely, but by Episode 7, her immature behavior was starting to grate on fans’ nerves.

The problem is, the material Benoist is given to work with is better suited to an adolescent character instead of a 24-year-old professional woman who also happens to have superpowers. Episode 7 just highlighted the huge gaping problem with the program: For a show that spends so much time filling its dialogue with over-the-top feminist quips, Supergirl doesn’t really paint its heroine in a positive light. Kara tantrums, she pines and she behaves like a child when she has to live like a regular person for one day.

In fact, if you strip away Supergirl’s powers, instead of an empowered young woman, in her place all you would have is a wimpy girl with a crush.

Though the name Superman is not even really uttered on the show until the very end of Season 1, his presence is constantly felt through Kara mentioning her cousin or other references from James, Cat or Winn. There’s even a point early in the season where Superman shows up, flies over Supergirl, steals her thunder and literally casts a shadow over her as she fends off a villain. 

When Episode 19 rolled around, and we actually thought we might see the face of Superman and it didn’t happen — it left a bitter taste in fans’ mouths, and they pretty much demanded that the show cast an actor to play Clark Kent.

Either bring Superman into the plot or leave him out, because his looming over Kara’s shoulder seems demeaning.

In Episode 10, Winn finally comes clean and admits that he’s in love with Kara. After she gently rebuffs him, he got, well, a little creepy, and fans felt the writing of the episode was socially irresponsible.

Some thought Winn’s speech about not wanting to keep his feelings bottled up in fear it could turn him murderous was an inappropriate response to the situation and seemed vaguely threatening. After the episode, many viewers hypothesized that the event would later come back as Winn’s reason to turn villainous. The implication that being shot down by a crush is a valid excuse to turn into a murderer seems dangerous. 

“If Winn needs to unbottle his feelings to keep from becoming mass murderer, he needs a therapist, not to blame #Supergirl for not loving him,” tweeted @grevgrevgrev.

Speaking of Winn, it was also during Episode 19 that fans began to become very vocal about being totally over the soapy love triangle subplot with Winn, Kara and James Olsen.

“Did winn really kiss kara? that’s my cue to stop watching supergirl. i was really trying to ignore all the flaws and enjoy all the other good things but enough is enough,” tweeted @bisexualcisco, while @teresaIisbon added, “Why do we have this love triangle if KARA isn’t even attracted to winn?”

Clearly, fans are into the show for action sequences and female empowerment, not soapy hookup subplots.

In Season 1, Episode 12, Maxwell Lord orders Bizarro to go after people Supergirl loves. But instead of going after someone truly important in Kara’s life, Bizarro goes after James — who Kara is infatuated with, but has never publicly declared her love for. How would Bizarro even know that James is someone Supergirl cares about? Bizarro’s attack on James was more of a plot hole than a plot point and didn’t make sense.

What makes this even more strange is the fact that Bizarro was created by Lord, who just one episode before discovered that Alex and Kara are sisters. Why wouldn’t he put his minion on Alex, or even Adam, since he is at least dating Kara?

Up until Episode 14, the rivalry between Cat and Kara had been forgivable — there has to be some tension in the show, and Cat provides some well-placed comic relief — but things had gone too far with the arrival of “assistant No. 1” Siobhan Smythe on the scene.

And not only did Siobhan create more tension between Cat and Kara, but she pitted herself directly against Kara as well by outperforming her, talking down to her and attempting to swoop in on James.

Siobhan’s entrance just made it more evident that the show is forcing complicated female relationships throughout many of the plotlines.

And in the same episode, we were also treated to an equally degrading subplot in which Lucy becomes jealous when she discovers James has gained knowledge about the DEO through Supergirl. As James gives the age-old excuse, “Lucy, it’s complicated,” she angrily fires back, “How close are you two? Are you as close with her as you are with him?”

The implication that Lucy — an extremely intelligent, ambitious and beautiful woman — would reduce herself to becoming green with envy over the possibility that her boyfriend has been working with, or even just talking to, another female is insulting.

And while we are on the topic of Lucy…

James always acted kind of weird when it came to his supposed love. He didn’t seem supportive of her career, and he obviously was never fully honest with her about his feelings for Kara.

In Episode 15, instead of being an adult and opening up about his situation, he just pushed Lucy to the point of dumping him so he could pursue a relationship with Kara.

It’s not just James treating Lucy like shit, it’s the Supergirl writers. They did a bang-up job of using James to reduce Lucy to a cheap plot device to create more sexual tension between Kara and James. Sexual tension that nobody even cares about or wants to be part of Kara’s story.

Boo.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m totally down for an occasional real-world reference wittily slipped into a fictional universe, but Episode 18 was filled with so many pop culture references, it made the show seem desperate. From Beyoncé to Taylor Swift’s squad and back to Mariah Carey and Ramona Singer, it was just too much.

And in Episode 19, Cat went all Inception on us when she mentioned Harrison Ford and his wife, who is Calista Flockhart — the actress who plays Cat. 

The references went overboard and made it seem like the show was trying too hard to be clever.