5 Reasons Why ’Supergirl’ Should Be Renewed

A week ago today, we saw the season finale to the 1st season of CBS’ DC Comics drama, Supergirl, the story of Kara Zor-El (Melissa Benoist), the Girl of Steel who stepped out of the shadows and became National City’s own guardian angel. Fans of the show have since the start of this year waited to find out whether CBS will renew Supergirl for a second season as this is the only DC TV show that hasn’t been renewed yet. The ratings has slipped throughout the first season, but still remained at decent numbers even though CBS were probably expecting higher, given how much resources this show requires in terms of special effects and more.

In addition, the L+3 DVR numbers also rounds it up to pretty good numbers in the end and even without DVR numbers, Supergirl is the comic book TV show with the highest ratings when you compare the numbers to what the shows on the other networks gets. Maybe there is no reason to be worried as CBS has yet to renew any of their new shows from this TV season. Who knows, maybe a renewal is coming this afternoon, this week or we are just simply having to wait till May 18 which is when CBS will be holding their Upfront. But in today’s television industry, anything can literally happen to our favorite TV shows because of how much TV viewing has changed. However, Supergirl is a show that should without doubt be renewed for a second season and today I’m giving my five reasons for why CBS should continue Kara’s adventures on the screen.

5: The Sisterhood

One of the most powerful things that executive producer Greg Berlanti has established through his DC shows is strong relationships, like on The Flash, Legends of Tomorrow and Supergirl. On this TV show, we have seen some of the strongest and most well-portrayed bonds ever, in particularly the beautiful sisterhood between Kara and Alex Danvers (Chyler Leigh). It’s quite empowering actually that the strongest relationship in this particular superhero show isn’t a romantic one, but the bond between two sisters. They may not be biological related, but blood isn’t the only way that you can be family. Alex was one of the biggest surprises for me at the start of the show because I thought they were going in a different direction with her. Instead, they created a phenomenal strong woman that is, in her own way, a supergirl as well. Sometimes, just seeing these women watching their favorite TV shows and eating food, was a highlight of itself in an episode rather than action scenes or mystery solving. It would be a shame to lose such a well portrayed sisterhood so soon because it’s not something that I get a lot of in the TV shows that I watch.

4: Martian Manhunter

I’ll be quite honest: I wasn’t thrilled about the character of Hank Henshaw that we got in the pilot because his personality towards Kara is something I think would have dragged down the show quite a lot. So it was the most epic surprise ever when we discovered that David Harewood, who is all sorts of phenomenal, was actually playing fan-favorite J’onn J’onzz a.k.a. the Martian Manhunter who is without doubt my favorite male character on the show. While this show is called Supergirl and should always make sure main focus is on Kara, the addition of J’onn was an appreciated layer without him stealing the spotlight from our heroine. Not only does Harewood nail his portrayal of J’onn, but he also provides as a strong father figure for Alex and Kara. In addition to that, he is a fellow alien to Kara and while they may be from different planets, at least Kara isn’t the only alien in this cast. J’onn is one of the heroes that we have on TV right now that is of color and with someone as extremely talented as Harewood behind the role, it would be disappointing to lose him as well if the show didn’t come back.

3: The Adventures

For the first season, the show was able to do a lot in terms of Kara’s adventures each week from having to deal with her Kryptonian aunt and uncle, Livewire, Indigo, Bizarro-Girl, Red Tornado to Reactron. Supergirl, just like The Flash, embraced the comic book aspect to itself which was one of the main reasons why the show came out so strong. It also proved many times that Supergirl is a character who can stand on her own rather than just be a supporting player to Superman. While the show borrowed a few Superman storylines throughout the first season and adapted them to fit Kara, it worked out really well. There is now a great mythology that the TV show has created for itself where you can tell strong stories for multiple seasons. Kara’s story is really just beginning and to not get to see more of it, would be disappointing. In addition, we totally need to find out who the mysterious person was that arrived in the Kryptonian pod in the finale and we need more adorkable crossovers with The Flash – just watch “Worlds Finest” if you haven’t and you will see why. Overall, there is so much potential with what this show can do for many seasons to come.

2: The Women

Besides Kara and Alex, this show has some outstanding female characters that make the show so enjoyable. Calista Flockhart as Cat Grant is one of the MVPs of the season for new characters as her wit, charm and powerful personality, has me smiling, crying and laughing all at once each time she is on screen. I have even lost count of all the great one-liners that this woman has given us. They also spend the season developing Lucy Lane who didn’t start out too well at first, but came around and is now a very enjoyable character, especially now that she in on Kara’s side and  the director of the D.E.O. The female villains that this show introduced, like Livewire, Silver Banshee, Maxima, were also strong portrayals and a nice change as we don’t get a lot of female villains on some of these shows. Don’t get me wrong, I do love the male characters too with J’onn, James and Winn, but the female characters are the ones that stand out a lot. They are strong, compelling and fun to watch and the show has to potential to bring in even more iconic female characters from the DC Universe, which can only strengthen Supergirl as a TV show.

1: TV Needs Shows Like Supergirl

We currently have The Flash, Legends of Tomorrow, Gotham, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Arrow, Lucifer, iZombie and Agent Carter (whose future is also unknown at this point), along with Supergirl. Out of these shows, six of them are led by males with only few women on the main cast. Gotham, for example, has fifteen series regulars where eleven of them are men, Legends of Tomorrow where six out of eight are males and so on. Out of these nine shows, only three are led by females, and only iZombie has been renewed for another season so far. As much as I love most of these shows, it’s an extreme problem that we are living in a golden age of comic book adaptations on both film and TV, but only three of these eight shows are female led. Losing a show like Supergirl would be not just a loss to the comic book TV genre, but also television as a whole.

I’m a male viewer and even I’m getting tired of the sausage fest because there are so many rich female heroes (and villains too!) that would make for excellent TV shows and Kara Zor-El is one that should be on air for as long as possible. Supergirl is, in my opinion, the show that will and can push for more female superhero shows to pop up on other networks as well. The show had to find itself and yes, while ratings is, in the end, the number one thing that networks look at the most, there is a fanbase and a strong one too for that matter. While I’m not too worried about Supergirl’s chances of being renewed, again, anything can literally happen in today’s television industry. But I strongly believe that the Girl of Steel be flying back to our screens this fall and hopefully CBS will be delivering that piece of good news very soon.

Andy Behbakht

Andy Behbakht

Andy Behbakht is an online entertainment journalist who has been covering television and movies since 2010. In addition, he is also a podcast producer.