Comic book fans are hesitant about embracing CBS' foray into superhero television with the network's upcoming Supergirl series, but it seems that the character is in very good hands.
CBS entertainment chairman Nina Tassler recently spoke about the series and not only talked about female empowerment, but also stated that the series' creators are "big feminists."
The concept behind the series, though, is that the comic book version of Supergirl, aka Kara Zor-El, is already an interesting female character and the network hopes to expand that to her television series.
First, Tassler mentioned that the series will follow a lot of CBS' standard fare, which is the crime procedural drama. And although Supergirl will have that, it will also be serialized into longer story arcs, so that the show isn't just a "crime of the week" series. In other words, this won't be CSI (fortunately). But Supergirl will solve crimes and get the bad guy, because that's what she does.
But there's more to Supergirl than crime-solving, and the series will show us a lot of Kara's personal story, too, as a young woman becoming an adult.
"[She's] a very strong, independent young woman," said Tassler to Entertainment Weekly. "She's coming into her own. She's dealing with family issues. She's dealing with work issues. It's a female empowerment story."
That sounds good to us, so far. Tassler compared Supergirl to other series on the network with strong female leads, including Good Wife and Madame Secretary.
The network has not yet decided on an actress for the role, but they're looking for someone new, a fresh face, to fill Kara's shoes. Although it's important that the young woman cast as Kara have "terrific" acting skills, she also has to be an "every woman," a woman that other young women can identify with.
"So I think in this case, , it's looking for someone who embodies both the freshness and the exuberance of being a young woman in today's challenging climate and being someone who can carry this kind of series on her shoulders," says Tassler. "It's a big, big show."
Tassler also mentioned Supergirl's costume is "awesome." That makes sense since Colleen Atwood designed it: she also does costumes for both Flash and Arrow.
So we've got a series about a female superhero that's a strong, independent character. In a sea of male superhero shows, Supergirl is sure to please those of us who want to see more superheroines on-screen. A lot is riding on this series, because if it succeeds, other female superheroine TV series will follow. But if it fails, we may not see another female superhero on TV for a very long time.
