PILOT REVIEW: Black Lightning

BLACK LIGHTNING

Starring: Cress Williams, China Anne McClain, Nafessa Williams, Christine Adams, Marvin "Krondon" Jones III, Damon Gupton, and James Remar

Based on Characters Created for DC by Tony Isabella with Trevor Von Eeden
Developed by Salim Akil
Written by Salim Akil, Directed by Salim Akil

THE PREMISE
Black Lightning is the latest entry to the CW collection of DC Comics shows. The Black Lightning story isn't one of the more generally known comics. I don't claim to know a lot about the comic world, but this was not one I had even heard of before it was put into development last year. It centers on Jefferson Pierce (Cress Williams) who gave up the Black Lighting persona nine years earlier and took a job as a principal at a charter high school. Despite ending his marriage with Lynn (Christine Adams), Jefferson is thrust back into action as Black Lightning when his daughters, Jennifer and Anissa (China Anne McClain and Nafessa Williams) get caught up in the troubled overrun of the city by a gang called The 100. Rounding out the main cast is the leader of The 100, Tobias (Marvin "Krondon" Jones III), Detective William Henderson (Damon Gupton), and advisor to Jefferson (and one who knows about his alter ego), Peter Gambi (James Remar).

THE REVIEW
Forgive me again for being so ignorant about the comic book world, but I don't know if the comic has race relations as a major theme or not. This show certainly does and it was interesting to see a Black Lives Matter theme meet a superhero show. All in all, it was an enjoyable and slickly produced pilot that had something to say. Not surprisingly, I was far more interested in the family and community dynamics than the superhero stuff and to my surprise, that was the vast majority of the pilot. Precious little time was devoted to Black Lightning doing "superhero stuff." I am curious what kind of show this is going to be on a weekly basis and if it will focus as much on community and family storylines as it does on heroes and villains.

A lot of the credit for the pilot's strength should go to Cress Williams, who I also enjoyed immensely on Friday Night Lights. He is a commanding and interesting presence. He has made Jefferson Pierce a character to sympathize with and root for. The rest of the cast was serviceable too but so much of the pilot rested on Williams' shoulders and he was absolutely up for the challenge. I liked his dynamics with his on screen daughters and ex-wife. I also believe Damon Gupton and James Remar can do good things but they were pretty limited in the pilot.

Where the pilot lost me was in the superhero storyline. And I'll fully admit that it is not my thing. There are tons of superhero TV shows and movies and I don't watch any of them. But I also felt like it made this show just seem like all the others when he was dangling a bad guy over a hotel room balcony. It was anything I probably could have seen on The Gifted most recently or probably any of the other CW superhero shows (though I don't watch any of them). I get that is the whole point of this show but that was where it seemed like the next entry in a factory of CW DC shows whereas the family and community scenes gave me hope it could be something more.

WILL I WATCH IT AGAIN?
Yes I'll probably give it one more episode but if I'm being honest, I'm very unlikely to stick with it. That's not an indictment of the show itself, which is interesting. It's just a personal taste issue.