It seems Supergirl will stay in National City at least a little while longer, thanks to CBS recently ordering a full season for the female-led superhero series.
CBS announced that it put in an order for 20 episodes for the show, after reporting that ratings for the network's time period on Monday nights improved 46 percent with viewers aged 18-49 from last year, all thanks to Kara Zor-El (Melissa Benoist).
The show's premiere in October nearly set it up as an instant hit, with 13 million viewers: it tied with NBC's Blindspot as the biggest fall premiere of the year. Although the numbers have dropped since then, it's still doing well, giving the network a much-needed shot in the arm with genre audiences.
Supergirl follows Kara as a young woman as she embraces her powers as a superhero, all the while struggling with the same problems that many young women have, including juggling a career with a very demanding boss and romance. The series is one of the first female-led superhero series on TV in a long time, and set an important precedent because of that. The series also sends a strong message of female empowerment.
"I think the metaphor of Kara hiding her powers for so long mimics what so many women and girls do to themselves," said actress Laura Benanti, who portrays Kara's mother and aunt on the series, to Tech Times. "We tend to subjugate and hide what makes us special in order to seem nice' or 'palatable' to others. I hope that watching Kara become more and more herself inspires women (and men!) to step into their own power."
Meanwhile, another female-led superhero series, Jessica Jones, debuted a few weeks ago on Netflix. Although critics like to compare the two series, they're very different. Both are successful, though, which will, hopefully, lead to more female-led superhero TV series and movies. Plans are already in the works for a standalone Wonder Woman film, as well as a Captain Marvel movie.
In the meantime, Supergirl continues to redefine what the word "girl" means in today's vocabulary.
"I think with any word that people have assigned a derogatory value to, the idea of being able to redefine that is incredibly exciting and valuable," said Supergirl executive producer Sarah Schechter to Bio. "Beyoncé has done it. There's a lot of examples of it. I think as Cat Grant says, 'There's nothing wrong with being a girl.' I think that's an important message for girls and boys."
Supergirl airs on CBS on Mondays.
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