Lanterns Premiere… James Gunn’s D.C. is Not Out of the Doghouse Yet!

The much anticipated first streaming show of the James Gunn era has finally arrived with Lanterns. Considered by many to be a Canary in the coal mines for D.C.'s survival considering the failure of Supergirl and lack of anticipation for Clayface outside of hard core comic book readers.

As lanterns has become the proverbial success/failure litmus test, my viewing of the premiere episode wasn’t enough to convince me either way, but it was able to create a couple of compelling mysteries wrapped in convincing characters that have convinced me I need to come back for week 2. That said, I will be doing it without my kids, which I had hoped to enjoy the show with due to approximately 40 F-bombs and a highly suggestive sex act, although no nudity.

In the premiere episode, we get multiple time jumps and the development of the relationship between Green Lantern Hal Jordan and his trainee John Stewart. They find themselves in small town middle America chasing down a mystery that seems to connect across many years. Kyle Chandler is a compelling and comics accurate Hal Jordan and Aaron Pierre could have been a comic book cut out of John Stewart. What’s even better is the actors have good chemistry right away.

Shoe-horned into this relationship is Sheriff Kerry, played by Kelly Macdonald, who you might remember played Carla Jean Moss in No Country for Old Men. The episode synopsis is below.

The show is written by co-creators Chris Mundy (Ozark), Damon Lindelof (Lost) and Tom King (Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow). You can watch new episodes of the 8 season series of Lanterns every Sunday at 6 PM PST on HBO Max. 

SPOILERS AND SHOW SYNOPSIS BELOW 

(1996)

The episode begins with young John Stewart and his brothers watching a 60 Minutes interview in which Hal Jordan publicly reveals himself as Earth’s first Green Lantern, a former test pilot chosen for having “no fear,” who acts as an intergalactic space cop protecting his sector. Their father (a military man) returns home, takes young John outside, places an apple on his head, asks if he is afraid (John replies “No, sir”), and shoots the apple off without the boy flinching.

(2016)

The next scene is adult John (a former Marine sniper) waiting for Hal, who arrives late and hungover after dealing with an alien world. Hal is reluctant about training John (whom the Guardians of the Universe have designated as his backup/replacement) and is suspicious that John is there to take his place. Hal tests John by putting the Green Lantern ring on the dashboard of a speeding car, telling him to meet at a taco stand, and jumping out as the car goes over a cliff. John survives (using the ring off-screen). A holographic “Sentry” backup of a younger Hal’s consciousness (Hal-O-Gram) activates from the ring, fails to recognize John or the year, and delivers the coded message: “There’s hail in Rushville, Nebraska.” Hal understands the reference (tied to the crash site where he originally received the ring from a dying alien Lantern) and flies off, leaving John to catch up by conventional means.

In Rushville, Nebraska, Sheriff Kerry (Kelly Macdonald) is investigating what looks like a mass shooting of “visiting team fans” at a high school football game/field. Hal is already there and argues the victims were extraterrestrials in disguise, pointing out inconsistencies; Kerry is skeptical and initially blocks him from questioning a suspect. Hal uses unorthodox methods to get to the suspect by  picking a bar fight by repeatedly playing a song on the jukebox to get arrested and gain access to him. 

Local power broker/ranch tycoon William Macon (Garret Dillahunt) and his wife Zoe (Poorna Jagannathan) are introduced. The night before, John has a sexual encounter with Zoe without knowing she is married. Macon gets him access to interrogate the suspect, who reveals himself as an alien on Earth for vengeance, mocks Hal, and detonates a biometric bomb built into his body. Hal contains the explosion with a green energy construct/bubble, protecting the town.

The episode emphasizes the friction between the cocky, celebrity-enjoying veteran Hal and the more reserved, duty-focused John.  Hal explains how he was chosen (waking in a green bubble, asked if he was afraid, taken to the dying Green Lantern less than 20 miles from where the town they are currently in. 

(2026)

The episode ends by jumping a decade into the future. John arrives in snowy Rushville and meets Kerry again at the same football field. They find Hal’s body frozen solid in the bleachers, with what appears to be a bullet wound to the forehead and notably without his ring. This reframes the 2016 events as the start of a larger multi-decade mystery.

The show seems to be set up to bounce back and forth between the events of 2016 and 2026 as though Hal Jordan seems to be dead in 2026, Kyle Chandler is expected to be in every episode of the show according to IMDB.

Check back here later for updates and please comment below!