Surprised there’s no thread yet.
I will say I’m impressed. The best part is that they didn’t go over his origin and show him learning about his powers. They went right into the story and figured people would catch up.
I read the original comic and liked a lot about it, but this version is far better.
I liked it too. I never read Black Lightning as a kid but I knew about him and his history. I did like that they veered away from the typical CW-DC superhero mold with him. He’s not a young, good looking person with unlimited resources finding his or her way into the superhero biz. He’s an older, established guy with a history who is coming out of retirement. It feels different from the other shows, more personal or up close. Cress Williams looks good in the role and plays both the hero and the secret ID pretty well. For some reason James Remar is on board as his magical tailor and calming voice of reason guy; I’m not sure why he’s there but Remar’s a decent actor and it works so far.
I also enjoyed it. It felt real–well, as real as a show about a guy who shoots lightning bolts can be–in a way that many superhero shows don’t. Just about the only concession to standard superhero tropes is Jefferson’s friend with a secret hidden room in the basement of his shop. Other than that, the show feels very grounded.
Like other people have said, I like that he’s an older guy who already knows what he’s doing. That way, we won’t have the standard new-hero-flails-around-trying-to-figure-out-how-his-powers-work stuff that’s so typical of early episodes in superhero TV shows. Although we may get that anyway with the older daughter, who apparently has powers of her own. It’s interesting that his fighting style looks to be mostly street brawling, and he only breaks out the lightning when it’s really necessary.
I’m not clear whether this takes place in the same continuity as the other CW superhero shows. It doesn’t really feel like the same world. But there is the suggestion that there are other supers around, with the one talking head on the news complaining about how white people who do this are called heroes, but when it’s a black guy he’s a “vigilante.”
Somebody should tell that one guy that when your name is Latavius, calling yourself “Lala” immediately makes you like 50 times less intimidating. 
I know Black Lightning largely from the old Batman and the Outsiders comic series, and never read him in a series of his own, but I’m liking the show so far.
It’s supposed to be a different continuity, supposedly. Story-wise I don’t see any reason why it can’t be in the same universe as the others but reality-wise it’s filmed in Atlanta whereas the other shows are filmed in Canada. I can’t believe team ups would be ruled out entirely, but I think they want to see if it can stand on its own first.
Ok, I’m going by memory as it’s been like 40 years or more since I read the comics. A tailor designed an ‘electrical’ belt which provided Jefferson his powers, so I guess Remar is playing that character from the comics.
During a battle, the belt overloaded, exploded and activated Jefferson’s latent meta-gene giving him truly ‘lighting’ powers. I think the original series got up to 5 or 7 issues before it fell victim to the DC ‘implosion’ of the seventies.
I confess as a child of the seventies, I’m enjoying seeing these ‘b’ and ‘c’ list heroes come to the forefront. All I need now is Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu and some of the others, Werewolf by Night, The Living Mummy, Challengers of the Unknown, Doom Patrol, etc… and I will be a happy boomer.
That. Was. AMAZING!
As an old white guy who is a fairly strong supporter of Black Lives Matter, I thought they really over did the BLM support. Hopefully they tone that down a bit? But since the CW really is aiming for folks a lot younger than me, maybe it will play well with their target demographic, since the hero of the piece is a lot older than they usually cast (Blake Carrington notwithstanding) who is a high school principal by day.
And agree that LaLa is not an intimidating name to these honky ears- it sounds like the nickname his grandmother would have called him by.
heh I thought this would be the older static shock they teased in the batman beyond series …
Pretty sure I read something last week wherein Berlanti said it takes place on Green Arrow’s (and therefore the Flash’s, and the Legends’) Earth, and while he said there wouldn’t be any crossovers in the first season, he didn’t rule them out down the road.
Just a ripoff of Black Vulcan from the Superfriends.
I hated his costume when I first saw a promotional image, but it actually works OK in motion. (Not perfect - it seems to impair his movement, some - but good.)
Not that they had a surplus of choice (African-American albinos aren’t exactly lying thick on the ground), but I think they did well casting Whale, and definitely made the right choice not trying to make him look fatter - not only would that look terrible, it would invite comparisons to Kingpin. (Which would be accurate, AIUI…I’m pretty sure he was actually inspired by Fisk…)
[seanbaby]Hey man, it’s just VULCAN, all right?[\sb]
This show is a welcome addition to the CW lineup. I’ll run my colors up the flag pole for Marvel and Agents, but I think BL has raised the bar for the CW. Somethings were telegraphed, but at times I thought I was watching Shaft and that awesome music LaLa was listening too.
I’ll take Black Lightning for the heavy serious stuff, and Legends for the light hearted time romps.
I can seriously see that costume getting revamped next season.
Still liking the show.
The idea of a middle-aged superhero is very appealing, and various connections between characters is fascinating. I’m wondering what secrets Grandi and Evelyn have on each other.
The fight scene tonight took one of the words cliches of the genre – two superheroes meet for the first time and fight each other – and made it fresh with the twist that it wasn’t the first time (but neither knew that).
DC is rightly criticized because its movies are too dark. The show is dark, too – but they know that being dark works best when it’s not entirely bleak.
While the show might have light hearted moments, I don’t see this show working as anything but dark. Too many elements are in play that either mirror current headlines and past history, ala Gambi and I guess his version of the Tuskeegee airmen. Unlike Alfred, I don’t see Gambi as anything but a lab professor watching how his experiment plays out over time.
Just in case anyone missed this, it’s a whoosh, right?
I just started watching Black Lightning on Netflix and I have to say I’m generally pleased with it. It’s not quite as polished as Luke Cage, but it’s still pretty well done.
I do agree with the above comments that the Black Lightning costume is a tad silly looking. And I did do a BWAAAHH! when Black Lightning and his daughter failed to recognize each other because they had covered up the area just around their eyes.
I like that it’s taking seriously the issues of African-Americans in this country, and I like that it’s not (so far, anyway) focused on a saving-the-entire-universe-from-an-all-powerful-villain (yet).
If I have any complaint, it’s that I’m not quite happy with Cress Williams’s performance as Jefferson Pierce/Black Lightning. His face is not very expressive. And he has an oddly-shaped beard. Christine Adams as Lynn Pierce is also not a very expressive actor. But everyone else is good. Still, they’re only weak in comparison with Mike Colter and Rosario Dawson, who are among the best actors every on a superhero TV show.
Well, that’s not entirely how it played out: Jefferson didn’t recognize Anissa because he was jacked up on adrenaline, worried about Lynne’s safety, and didn’t take a close look at her until after she was incapacitated. And it had already been mentioned in a previous episode that Black Lightning (whether it was a natural ability, or an effect of his costume I don’t think was made clear) has the ability to obscure his face, so that people can’t look directly at it.