‘Supergirl’ Season Premiere: Superman to the Rescue?

Supergirl flies over to the CW starting Monday night, with some extra help: Superman, heretofore referred to primarily as Jimmy — excuse me, James — Olsen’s pal, has been seen only in silhouette, but not tonight. Tyler Hoechlin (Teen Wolf) deploys his dramatically winglike eyebrows in the service of truth, justice and the American way. “Hey, coz!” is Kara’s greeting — that Melissa Benoist, she really knows how to sell the folksiness of her character. Hoechlin’s Superman is a bit reserved, polite and rather paternalistic toward his cousin — more super-Clark Kent than full-on Superman. WARNING: MILD SPOILERS AHEAD.

The new season picks up pretty much where the previous season ended, although you’ll notice a few changes. The most obvious one is a “new” location for the Department of Extranormal Operations (DEO) headquarters — a throwaway line attempts to gloss over it with a joke in that fans know that the change was probably made when the show’s production moved from Los Angeles to Vancouver, British Columbia, and a different DEO set was built. There are new characters as well, most intriguingly Lex Luthor’s adopted sister Lena (Katie McGrath), and, at the very end of the hour, a villain who will be familiar to anyone who has read DC Comics and who knows who the character John Corben (Frederick Schmidt) really is.

Near the end of the episode, Kara Danvers states what I assume will be one of the season’s running themes: “Last year was all about figuring out how to be Supergirl; now it’s time I figure out how to be Kara.” This gets to the crux of the series: Does moving Supergirl to the CW signal a refocusing of the show onto the plucky Kara as opposed to her supersecret identity? After all, Kara is more in line with other female lead characters on CW shows, such as the acclaimed shows Jane the Virgin and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. However, Supergirl as a superhero protagonist is a smooth fit with the CW’s bigger hits, The Flash and Arrow. The season premiere leaves that question of balance hovering in the air … somewhere to the left of Superman, I think.

Supergirl airs Mondays at 8 p.m. on the CW.