TV Show Review

TV Review: SUPERGIRL: Season 1, Episode 5: How Does She Do It? [CBS]

Peter Facinelli Chyler Leigh Melissa Benoist Supergirl How Does She Do It?

CBS’s Supergirl How Does She Do It? TV Show Review. Supergirl Season 1, Episode 5: How Does She Do It? had to be one of those episodes that didn’t really fit into the narrative of the season. Maybe it had to do with the episode being pulled last week, causing the stories to go out of order. Unfortunately, this wasn’t Supergirl’s best episode to date in the series so far.

There was a lot going on in the episode and yet nothing was interesting to be invested in. Cat Grant (Calista Flockhart) was underutilized in the episode, only appearing in the first 10 minutes and then towards the end of the hour. What happened was that she ends up winning an award over her arch rival Lois Lane, but she must head over to Metropolis for the awards function so she leaves her son Carter (Levi Miller) in Kara’s (Melissa Benoist) care. We get to see Cat her most vulnerable state when she has to deal with her overbearing mother whose just as tough as she is and talking with her receptive son. We don’t get to see any more of that when she leaves the screen for most of the episode.

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With Kara, she struggles with balancing her work life and being Supergirl. One of the highlights of the episode was her interaction with Cat where she learns an important life lesson about balancing what’s going on in her life. Getting your priorities straight is something Kara still needs work with her work at the office, the DEO, and as National City’s protector. What really stood out in Kara’s story was her relationship with Carter, who apparently has a crush on Supergirl. It’s adorable to see that Kara has a fan as she has faced some difficulties trying to gain the trust of the public.

The show does a good job setting up the stage for Supergirl, but this episode was much like last week where she gets too much responsible on her shoulders and not being able to show off her magic. We really don’t get to see how Kara is feeling on the stuff she has been doing lately and the reasons behind them. Benoist still has so much more to offer to her character, but the show doesn’t allow her to show viewers what she can do.

Most of her focus was more towards James Olsen (Mehcad Brooks) and Lucy Lane (Jenna Dewan-Tatum), whose reunion was bittersweet. The story started off well with the return of James ex-girlfriend to complicate Kara’s love life. However, there was nothing new offered on the table with this love triangle with all three characters. We never got a chance to see James and Kara’s relationship start to blossom after all that they went through with Reactron. Bringing in another woman to the equation was rash since we don’t know much on Lucy Lane and her past with James. We haven’t been invested in these relationships, and it’s wasting too much time on story.

The development of the villain could’ve been better also. We have a mad bomber in the city with some connection with Maxwell Lord (Peter Facinelli). The bomber turned out to have a sick daughter that he wants to save, but Supergirl tries to save everyone from the bombs that are planted in National City. The pacing felt rushed and the action scenes didn’t feel as exciting. The final scene on the train lost its momentum and the stakes weren’t high enough.

Facinelli’s role as Maxwell Lord left a lot to be desired. Even the big reveal of him being the mastermind behind the bombs didn’t leave much of a mark on this Lex Luthor wannabe. Kara did show her confidence in her confrontation with Lord, showing the star power that Benoist has on screen. Lord’s scenes with Alex (Chyler Leigh) didn’t fare better. There wasn’t enough fire between these two when they were engaged into a somewhat flirtatious dialogue where they each admired their knowledge of science and mechanics.

We are slowly getting deeper into what Hank Henshaw (David Harewood) is up to, which the show does really well by teasing us with it. We even got to see what he’s capable of with his powers without any explanation. It’s one part of the mystery of this show that’s intriguing. Henshaw may turn out to be one of the characters that fans may enjoy in the long run.

The episode ‘How Does She Do It?’ wasn’t a great episode to begin with, and even Benoist’s acting wasn’t able to salvage it. There was too much going on with the characters and not enough time to invest in them to make them appealing. The storylines weren’t strong and the action wasn’t top-notch. The show has reached a low point with this episode, but hopefully we have some high ones in the near future.

Leave your thoughts on this review and this episode of Supergirl in the comments section below. For more Supergirl photos, videos, and news, visit our Supergirl Page, subscribe to us by Email, “follow” us on Twitter, Tumblr, Google+ or “like” us on Facebook.

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Mufsin Mahbub

**Fired from FilmBook for Plagiarism** Mufsin is a freelance writer from New York who has a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism at Long Island University. He has written for publications like HollywoodLife, Clubplanet, and Heavy. He is an avid lover for everything related to TV and film. He has gone to dozens of film screenings, press events, and loves to attend New York Comic Con every year. He gives an honest opinion on every TV show or film that people are going to be talking about.
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