Supergirl: The Complete Sixth and Final Season - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Supergirl: The Complete Sixth and Final Season



Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:


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Movie
After a much longer hiatus than the other Arroverse shows suffered from, Supergirl FINALLY gets it’s sixth and final season release on Blu-ray. After 6 years of Melissa Benoist playing the titular character, the suits and Melissa decided to wrap up the series due to the fact that Melissa wanted to raise her child at home instead of commuting all the time, and the series HAD sort of gotten long in the tooth. The only one of the Arroverse shows to not start out on The CW, Supergirl has had sort of a tumultuous run. The first couple of seasons were actually REALLY good, and were a different change of pace over Arrow, The Flash and others of it’s ilk. However, over the years it sort of got a little overly preachy and the cheeky girl power shower sort of devolved into filler and more filler. Superman showing up to spice things up could only go so far, but it was actually Jon Cryer coming in during the latter half of season 4 that kept things interesting. This season was probably about on par with season 5, which really just means it’s semi interesting, but never that good.

Lex Luthor (Jon Cryer) continues to be a thorn in the side of Supergirl and her friends. After losing out in Crisis on Infinite Earths, Lex decides to do what the Anti-Monitor COULDN’T do. That is, fix humanity and all of the other worlds in the galaxy. Uhhhhh, huh. You guessed it, before long Luthor has gone full insano by unleashing phantoms from the Phantom zone, as well as an imp named Nyxly (another fifth dimensional being like Mr. Mxyzptlk) who has more than a few ulterior motives. You see, Kara’s father and brother banished Nyxly to the Phantom Zone for a good reason. When Kara gets trapped there, Nyxly takes the chance to escape and team up with Lex Luthor to try and basically rule the world (you know, basic super villain stuff).

One thing that the Arrowverse shows are infamous for is becoming more and more bogged down with “team insert superhero here” problems. As the seasons go on, the show tends to get loaded down with more and more super friends to the point where the main character is barely the focus anymore, as the show ties to juggle a billion different team mates. Supergirl seemed to balance this sort of conundrum quite handily the first few seasons, relying on a team from the get go, but as the series has progressed Supergirl’s cadre of friends pretty much dwarf her own participation. However, there’s been some WEIRD progressions in the show this season, with one of the most puzzling ones being turning Lena Luthor into a witch, and the show still has a problem with only included THREE of the Legion of Super Heroes at any one time (budgetary concerns).

Like usual, the show has really REALLY gone forward with tackling women’s rights, equality, race relations, LGBTQ+ people, and other obvious socio-political issues that we are dealing with today. However, the show has never had the subtlety or tact to handle the issues reasonably, instead cheerfully beating the audience over the head with excessive preachiness, and yelling “DO YOU GET WHAT WE’RE TRYING TO DO?!!!” at the audience like we’re stupid. Many a show has tackled these subjects over the year, but the writing team just doesn’t have the ability to handle these like an adult, and instead preaches to the choir to one group of people, and alienates the other with their bludgeoning tactics.

Season 6 is fairly “meh”, and really only saved by Jon Cryer’s over the top portrayal as Lex. He was good in season 4, great in season 5, but he’s COMPLETELY psychotic in this season, and Cryer just eats up the scenery like you wouldn’t believe. He’s easily my favorite Lex since the animated series, and does a fantastic job at hamming up the lunatic side of Superman’s arch nemesis, while still being smooth and likable enough to come across as the man who could possibly become his friend some day (depending on what comic universe we’re in at the time). The villain of Nyxly is pretty solid, but the show still suffers from super hero team mate fatigue, and the excessive preachiness is simply exhausting. Luckily there’s not AS much filler episodes this year, and the send off for Kara Zor-El works well for fans of the show.




Rating:

Rated TV-PG by the MPAA




Video:

The same high standards that the show has had (except for the artifact wriddent season 2) are replicated here. The show's a crowd pleaser with near reference quality video, and a really glossly looking digital look. The characters getting more and more costumed works well to add color and spice to the show (well, outside of Brainy's horrid green face paint that looks like a toddler plastered it on), and the black levels are deep and inky. I did notice a bit of a dulled look in the Phantom Zone (kind of to be expected), where shadows and fine details suffered, but other than taht the only problems are the cheapish CGI that the Arrowverse shows are known for. Good as it can get, the series is one of the better looking seasons, and should impress most people.






Audio:

JThe show has always had a great 5.1 DTS-HD MA mix, and this season is no different. I know I may sound like a broken record here, but there IS a sense of basic stability and consistency across the seasons in terms of sound mixing, and very little changes from year to year. Martian Manhunter's beams sizzle with energy, Kara slams into things with loud aplomb, and the high energy theme song blasts from all angels. The series can be very dialog intensive at times, with strong center support, but the show's copious action scenes keeps the sound stage nimble and active as characters zoom around on screen and use their powers. Bass is punchy and powerful, and once more, this is a NEAR reference level mix.







Extras:

• Deleted Scenes
• A Farewell Tribute to Supergirl

Final Score: ​

Like season 5, season 6 of Supergirl is more of the same fare that we’ve enjoyed (or not so much) over the last 2 years. There’s some good storytelling arcs that included Luthor and Nyxly, but the shows problematic issue of turning every side character into a superhero (something the Arrowverse has suffered with for years) can be a bit overwhelming. Simply put, if you enjoyed the last couple of seasons, you should enjoy this one reasonably well. It’s not as good as when it started, but we’re still not at Batwoman level yet, so the show goes out with a modicum of clapping and a reasonably satisfying ending. The Blu-ray set is quite nice, as is the norm for WB CW shows, and fans of the show should have nothing to complain about besides the very skimpy extras.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Melissa Benoist, Mehcad Brooks, Chyler Leigh
Created by: Greg Berlanti, Ali Adler, Andrew Kreisberg
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 AVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 5.1
Subtitles: English SDH
Studio: Warner
Rated: TV-PG
Runtime: 846 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: March 8th, 2022

Recommendation: Fan Watch