Lanterns Series Premiere Review - “Pilot”
Coming off of Supergirl – an entertaining film that failed to make its mark commercially – the DC Universe needed a win, and so far, Lanterns seems to be delivering one. Showrunner Chris Mundy has built something closer to True Detective than to conventional superhero fare: a grounded, stylized murder mystery set in the remote town of Rushville, Nebraska, in which the Green Lantern elements are present but deliberately downplayed. We rarely see Kyle Chandler’s Hal Jordan in costume. The show’s visual identity comes from atmosphere and character work rather than budget-busting spectacle. Purists hoping for unadulterated ring-slinging cosmic adventure will likely be disappointed. Everyone else may find something considerably more interesting.
What makes the premiere work is the dynamic between Chandler’s Hal and Aaron Pierre’s John Stewart, a Training Day-inflected relationship built on genuine friction rather than easy camaraderie. Hal has never been portrayed as the most well-adjusted member of the Justice League across DC media, but here he is downright hostile – a grizzled veteran suspicious that his own handlers are grooming his replacement. Chandler, an unconventional choice for the role, captures a Hal who has been doing this for decades and feels the weight of every one of them: exasperation, paranoia, and deep-seated overconfidence in roughly equal measure. Pierre, by contrast, brings a quiet, coiled charisma to John – a former Marine whose stoicism could easily read as dullness in lesser hands but instead comes across as a man burning with genuine desire for the ring, absorbing his superior’s nonsense because the alternative is walking away from something he has wanted his entire life. The show’s decision to explore John Stewart’s family background signals an interest in building something more layered than the standard superhero orphan narrative, and it is a promising sign for where the season intends to go.
But most of all, the premiere’s closing twist is exactly the kind of controversial, off-guard swing that suggests a series with considerably larger ambitions than its Nebraska setting initially implies. Lanterns proves something the DC Universe needed proving: that this cinematic universe can succeed with creative visions beyond James Gunn’s own. Chandler and Pierre make for a mighty, dysfunctional pairing, and seven more hours in their company is an easy commitment to make.