I was wondering whether or not to write this post. At first I thought they were my imaginations, but as the chapters go by, it becomes clearer and clearer: The CW's Black Lightning series is a real pot life. What do you want to achieve with this character?
It's not that The CW doesn't know how to produce superhero or "meta-human" series. There's Arrow, The Flash, Supergirl, and Legends of Tomorrow. Each with its pluses and minuses, but quite faithful to the spirit of DC comics within its own limitations. We could say that with The Flash they hit the nail on the head, although the 4th season is proving a bit bland. But Black Lightning plays in a completely different league - and dodgy.
On the one hand, it looks like just another superhero series, but let's say it pretends to be something like Marvel's Luke Cage. A tough guy who fights injustice in a predominantly African American environment. In Luke Cage's case it's Harlem, in Jefferson Pierce's (aka Black Lightning) it's Freetown. And so far the similarities.
The series tells the story of Pierce, a high school director who has the love and respect of the African-American community in a town plagued by gangs, shenanigans and reckoning. Pierce is the voice of sanity that encourages kids to focus on their studies and become people of benefit. Why? Because if you don't end up selling drugs on a street corner, doing evil, or worse, the evil white man will come and take everything from you.
Director of institute by day, vigilante tempered by nightAt first it seems that we are facing a somewhat racist series, this time with a perspective seen "from the other side" of the scale. But as the chapters go by you realize that it is not that.
At night Jefferson Pierce dons the Black Lightning suit and lashes out with quite a few regrets at anyone who gets in his way. Suffice it to say that the first encounter with his daughter, who has just discovered her powers, results in a beautiful fraternal fight.
Daughters aren't much better either. The youngest, Jennifer, the first thing she does when she sees her boyfriend become a paraplegic victim of a stray bullet, is to abandon him. And Anissa, the older sister, uses her powers for the first time to reduce to rubble a statue she was protesting against and deal a couple of punches here and there in the process.
He looks like a cyclist who has crossed the line with accessoriesBlack Lightning is cruel to his daughters, he treats his ex-wife as he likes a little, and she also does not believe that he is much better with the 2 daughters they have in common. Deep down they are supposed to do it for the good of the family, but the only thing that remains in the eyes of the viewer is a rather funny atmosphere. What is the moral of this series? What are the writers trying to convey to us?
In the end the objective is to end the band of Los 100, where one of the final bosses It's Tobias Whale, a black albino. Do you get that fine irony? Well, maybe it is not so fine ... The point is that we could be facing a great series of superheroes with a lot black power and a lot of flow, but the way to face many of the situations that arise end up taking you out of history.
The Tobias comics looks more like a Mr. Potato melted in the sun for 20 years in a toy store window.It is clear that it is not easy to work on current and interesting topics such as "Black lives matter" and the problematic "Black on Black violence", but it is not something that can be solved by putting 2 evil white policemen and some arguments and stories where the powers of the protagonist is the least shocking of the whole show.
The truth is that it is a fun series to watch, thanks to all the clichés, rather crappy costumes and stereotypical characters that make up the series. Of course, it is still a guilty pleasure. Because folks, this series is fucking bad. Do not lose sight of it!
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