Lanterns is the latest superhero TV show to grace our screens and so far, I kind of like it. The HBO series is split between two different time periods:
- 2016 where Hal Jordan and his successor John Stewart encounter an alien conspiracy embedded in Rushville, Nebraska.
- And 2026 where John is investigating Hal’s murder which apparently just so happened to take place in Rushville (assuming Hal’s body wasn’t moved after he was killed of course).
It’s a much grittier take on the Green Lantern mythos that has served as a turn off for some fans. This is the same franchise about intergalactic space cops. For years, the rings belonging to the members of the Green Lantern Corps couldn’t affect anything that was colored yellow due to a bug in their power battery. The energy constructs can be pretty fantastical, with the user making anything from giant boxing gloves to a merry-go-round. But the comics are, at their core, a sci-fi drama with Lanterns choosing to lean in that direction.
The Gritty Tone Reflects Where These Characters Are
Kyle Chandler gives us a Hal Jordan that’s been reimagined as a bitter, arrogant jackass. He takes a half-assed approach to training his successor John Stewart played by Aaron Pierre. Hal doesn’t even try to hide his disdain towards the Guardians of the Universe personally chose John to be Hal’s backup when the rings traditionally pick a successor automatically following a user’s death.
John has his own issues. While he’s far more personable than Hal, it’s only because he’s holding a lot in. You can see the barely contained anger the younger Lantern-in-training has towards his mentor over how he’s treated. Yet John swallows his true feelings due to his respect for authority, and partly because it’s just easier to keep it to himself. His behavior is shaped by the abuse he suffered from his father, who would punish his son by shooting an apple off of John’s head when he was a child!
So yeah… a grounded tone does a better job of complementing the dark place the characters are in.
It makes the sci-fi premise feel real
One thing I like about Lanterns is that the show feels realistic despite its premise. It does a good job of giving us a glimpse into what our world would look like if aliens exist.
One of the creators of Lanterns comes from Damon Lindelof, who worked on Watchmen, a famous deconstruction of classic superhero tropes. Showrunner Chris Mundy worked on crime dramas like Ozark and True Detective, and you can feel those influences pop up in the show. Writer Tom King is known for his work in DC Comics. Together, this creative team has brought us a world that’s fleshed out and lived in.
A murder investigation leads into a conspiracy of aliens targeting the small town of Rushville. The show plays it with the same procedural rhythm as a crime drama rather than a superhero blockbuster. The Green Lantern might be one an odd choice to put through this kind of treatment, but the show makes it work.
The realism should be seen as a strength, not a downside
I’d be more concerned if after eight episodes, Lanterns never allows itself to get a little weird at times. A huge part of what makes Green Lantern fun is that these characters exist inside an absurd and imaginative universe. But the first season doesn’t need to show all of that right away.
Using a gritty and sometimes bleak tone to reflect where Hal and John are as people, isn’t something to write off just because it’s not what some fans expected. Having a dark, grounded tone doesn’t mean the show has abandoned what made these characters interesting in the first place. If anything, Lanterns is expecting audiences to want to understand why these characters are broken, and how it colors their perception of the world they live in.
Whether that gamble will be worth the risk is still up for debate. The more grounded this show is now, the bigger the impact when the show finally shows just how weird the world of the Green Lantern can really be.
New episodes of Lanterns air every Sunday night on HBO and HBO Max at 9:00pm ET/6:00pm PT.
