It is far from easy to adapt superheroes for the small screen and turn them into a successful series. On the one hand, the starting point is promising, with familiar characters capable of generating interest and attracting large audiences. In an industry that has developed a dependence on intellectual property, or IP in Hollywood parlance, comic-book companies Marvel and DC Comics are blessed with an array of brands such as Spider-Man, Batman, Wonder Woman, Captain America and others. All of these provide a huge advantage, relying on fans' existing knowledge and even encouraging them to subscribe to the relevant streaming service — Disney+ in Marvel's case, HBO Max in DC Comics' case.
But the greater the promise, the greater the challenge. While movie theaters give audiences roughly two hours of films packed with the instant gratification of explosions and spaceships on the big screen, television creators have to develop plots capable of sustaining eight episodes, while delving into original and compelling backstories for beloved, familiar characters. Less spectacle, more complexity, nuance and drama.
Complexity, nuance, drama and, perhaps most importantly, mystery. These are the minimum requirements for any television adaptation of a superhero IP, a genre that is essentially action and science fiction on the surface but can be filled with deeper, even political or philosophical messages, either hidden or overt, for those willing to look for them. It is no simple task, but producer Greg Berlanti decided to take it on, with the blessing of Warner Bros. executives, in an effort to bring Hal Jordan, aka Green Lantern, back into the public consciousness. Jordan is the commander of the Earth sector in the intergalactic police force charged with maintaining law and order across the universe.
Since the series was announced in 2019, the production has gone through numerous incarnations, including several reversals, amid the COVID-19 pandemic and changes in the leadership of DC Comics. In the meantime, Berlanti was pushed aside and Chris Mundy was appointed showrunner, alongside Damon Lindelof and Tom King. Together, they completely reworked the plot and its characters in an attempt to create an effective blend of drama, mystery and action.
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Without Ryan Reynolds, but also without terrible CGI. From Lanterns
(Photo: Courtesy of HBO Max)
The result is the new series Lanterns, whose first episode premiered this week, and judging by what we have seen so far, it is a disappointment. Unlike the excessively dizzying 2011 film Green Lantern, starring Ryan Reynolds, which was packed with aircraft and people flying in and out of Earth's atmosphere, the current series is grounded — and rooted in reality.
As defined by the pilot, the story's boundaries are fairly narrow, spanning the past three decades (between 1996 and 2026) in a remote area of Nebraska. According to the creators, the script was inspired by True Detective, in an attempt to give the series a serious dimension that is more in tune with contemporary reality on Earth than the adventures of Green Lantern on the big screen, starring Reynolds as a cocky, unrestrained version of the character. Kyle Chandler plays an older version of him here, while instead of the sizzling Blake Lively, who was cast in the film and later became romantically involved with the man who went on to play Deadpool for Marvel, we get Aaron Pierre as his partner.
Green Lantern has many superpowers, but stopping time is not one of them. In our case, Hal Jordan is old and bitter, hardly the energetic and inspirational Peter Pan he once was. Nevertheless, he remains committed to his duty and to the green ring that gave him his powers. He is somewhat less committed to the man assigned to him as a trainee, John Stewart (Pierre), a candidate chosen by the Intergalactic Council of Commissioners to succeed him. Jordan is an older white man, cynical and experienced, while Stewart is young, Black and highly motivated.
Their common denominator is that neither is afraid. In Jordan's case, this manifests itself as excessive self-confidence, complacency and recklessness. That's not exactly recommended behavior for law enforcement officers, and more than once it seems that Stewart is trying to learn from his mentor what not to do rather than follow his example, as Jordan struggles to prove to everyone that he still has what it takes — and that his ring still has power.
Not exactly a role model. From Lanterns
(Photo: Courtesy of HBO Max)
The relationship between the mentor and the rookie is the dramatic and comedic heart of the series. More than Batman and Robin (or Rust Cohle and Marty Hart in the first season of True Detective), they operate like Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, except that in this case it turns out the windmills really do need to be fought and are not fictional at all. A message from the future leads the two to the town of Ranshaw, Nebraska, where a mass shooting has taken place.
Contrary to the opinion of the local police chief (Kelly Macdonald), the intergalactic detective Jordan suspects it was an alien attack, and even acts outside his authority to expose one of them, a humanoid. This is the first clue meant to set up the mystery that our detective duo will be asked to solve in order to prevent a crime against humanity. Their investigation takes them into the local community, which also includes an armed militia preparing for an alien invasion — or, alternatively, a government raid. In a world of conspiracy theories, it is difficult to distinguish between the two, both in the series and in the real world.
It would be unfair to judge the entire series based on a slowly paced pilot episode that lacks thrilling action, insightful musings or sophisticated humor. But it is fair to say that it offers few hooks to pull viewers into the world of the Lanterns. As an opening chapter, it does little to generate curiosity about what comes next.
Even the trailer creates more mystery than the episode does, along with plenty of action. It promises an epic clash between worlds and an impending assault by shape-shifting Manhunters, as well as conflict between the various rival factions within the divided Lantern leadership, including the scheming Sinestro and Guy Gardner, played by Nathan Fillion, whom we met in the film Superman.
To each his own lantern. From Lanterns
(Photo: Courtesy of HBO Max)
There also appears to be a struggle between Jordan and the man destined to eventually succeed him, even though he was not naturally chosen by the ring but selected at the discretion of his superiors. There is plenty here to work with: engines of drama, a convoluted mystery and complicated relationships between characters that range from backstabbing to sharp-witted jokes. None of these promises is fulfilled in the first episode.
Nevertheless, it is worth giving the series a chance beyond the first episode, if only because of Damon Lindelof's presence on the writing team. The screenwriter has done it before, on a grand scale, with the television masterpiece The Leftovers (and some would say Lost qualifies as one too). He surpassed even himself with Watchmen, brilliantly combining the superheroes from Alan Moore's comic book and Zack Snyder's 2009 film with political ideas drawn from America's present and past.
One can hope that under his guidance and direction, his writing partners Mundy and King have managed to move beyond the characters' personal spheres toward a fusion of our real world with the existential threat facing humanity in the series — a tangle of intrigue and geopolitical schemes intertwined with conspiracies on a galactopolitical scale. That was achieved to rare and remarkable effect in Watchmen, which was also produced by HBO. It is hard to believe the feat can be replicated in Lanterns, but the ambition alone is enough to warrant some patience and sticking with it for now.