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Black Lightning 1.1 Review – “The Resurrection”
Loading...When I’m gearing up to review a new show, my habit is to read everything I can find on the subject. I buy comic books, talk to fans, and exhaust every link with ‘wiki’ in it. I need to know what’s up, and my presumption is that readers do to. This time though, I thought it might be more fun to experience Black Lightning without all the background info clouding my judgement of the show. Going in completely cold allowed me to see the show for itself, and not for what I suspect the fans wanted it to be. So far, so good. I dug the hell out of this premiere episode, which you should expect spoilers for in this review.
The series begins with a quote from the hero himself, “Justice, like lightning should ever appear–to some men like hope, and other men fear.” Justice is a good thing to good people, and a fearful thing to those who’ll get their comeuppance. This quote promises to become more and more poignant as we meet more characters and watch them develop.
Obviously, a debut episode is a time to introduce people and catch viewers up on what they need to know moving forward. Jefferson Pierce retired 9 years ago from being the hero/vigilante (more on this later) Black Lightning. BL has inherent powers that seem to be enhanced by his prop guy (like say, Q in James Bond), Gambi, who is played by James Remar. I know him best as Dexter’s enabler father—so he seems well suited to this. Pierce’s wife, Lynn, split with Jeff after he failed to keep his ‘I’ll stop risking my life repeatedly for other people’ promise years ago. They have daughters—the politically woke Anissa, and the more free-stylin’ Jennifer. The family as a whole is respected and respectable, so a lot is riding on keeping them that way.
Other characters include Inspector Henderson, played by the remarkable Damon Gupta. I’m tired of seeing him die on shows, so I’m pulling for him to make it through the whole season. Henderson clearly doesn’t know Jeff is Black Lightning, and is bound to be crushed when he (come on, it’s inevitable) finds out. Lynn, Jeff’s ex-wife, is an involved parent and clearly a woman of refinement. There’s also Ms. Fowdy, who we’re bound to see much more of. She seems to have an attraction to Jeff, and to be a badass woman in her own right. Senator Turner is someone else I imagine we’ll see more of. Even if we don’t, a strong black female state-senator is great optics.
On the criminal side of things, we have Will, a lowlife dirt bag who agrees to prostitute a minor he just met to appease his gangster boss. Said boss is one Latavious AKA “Lala,” who took over The 100 (the violent local gang) for Tobias, who went to the mattresses after being defeated by BL. There’s also Roland Martin, a newscaster who often comments on issues impacting the black community. It might be easy to call this a black show about black people problems—but it’s much more universal than that. I admit that some of the slang being used wasn’t familiar to me. I’m not sure what’s being implied when a woman refers to another’s “fast ass,” since it doesn’t appear to be about promiscuity, which is usually what calling someone ‘fast’ means. I do love that they mentioned Childish Gambino though. Love that guy. Anyway, it doesn’t appear that we’ll see any warring gang activity since The 100 seems to run everything.
Political talk — yeah, there is some. Early on we see white cops who are disrespectful, needlessly aggressive, and who don’t follow proper procedure. Anissa is arrested at a protest that turned violent, which we see in the news regularly. Watching the family trade quotes is inspiring, and watching the cops hassle them isn’t. Later, I was surprised to see cops reach for tasers instead of guns when going after Jeff. The portrayal of bad cops and Jeff’s reaction to them was truthfully portrayed without being over-emotional.
When Principal Pierce explains why he doesn’t want metal detectors in his school, we hear a very strong argument for dignity. Treat people with dignity, and they’ll behave in dignified ways. Treat them like criminals, and that’s what you’ll get. This is also why it’s important for police to be respectful in their encounters with citizens of color. People won’t respect the law when law enforcement disrespects them over and over. Via the magic of VHS, we’re shown people around town had better (or longer) lives thanks to Black Lightning.
Black Lightning does an excellent job of showing us pivotal moments that let us get to know these people. Lynn, Jeff’s ex, clearly still cares about her husband, and we see that she left him specifically because of his work as BL. So when she knows he’s gonna go do some BL stuff to get their daughter’s back from The 100, we see that her objection was not absolute. Is BL a vigilante when he gets his daughter’s back from the gangs? Is he a hero when he goes directly against what Henderson tells him to (not) do? Are there different rules for black heroes? These are tough questions that BL will no doubt visit again and again. Gambi has clearly known Jeff since childhood, and will probably be the guy who gives us all the character building info on Jeff’s life as the season progresses.
What do we get in “The Resurrection?” Aside from meeting our primary cast of characters, we’re given a few conflicts to deal with. There’s the low-key philosophical differences between Anissa and her dad, Anissa and Jennifer, and Lynn and Jefferson over sociopolitics. We’ve got Henderson, clearly a close friend of Jeff’s, but who doesn’t know about his powers or past. So that’s gonna be a problem later, if the Arrowverse is any indication. Then there’s Will, who might be dead, but if he’s alive he’s got a major grudge against the Pierce women—since they humiliated and shamed him publicly. That was pretty hilarious too. We’ve got the previously defeated Tobias, and middleman Lala all with their panties in a bunch over Black Lightning’s possible return. It was driving me crazy where I’d seen Lala before. He was in that Left 4 Dead fan movie, playing Louis.
Anissa is played by Nafessa Williams, and if you recognized her—it’s probably from Twin Peaks. What’s the deal with Marvin Krodon Jones, who plays Tobias? Is he an albino with black ancestry? Is he mixed race? I need to know what’s behind that unique and memorable look of his. Christine Adams is excellent as Lynn. I’ve also enjoyed her on Doctor Who, Terra Nova, Agents of SHIELD, and Pushing Daisies. All around, it looks like an exceptional cast. The daughters in particular have strong chemistry and fantastic timing—especially when they’re arguing.
After we get all the setup, we have to see a little heroic fighting. That comes when Jefferson has to head to the Seagate motel to rescue his daughters—who were kidnapped right from school. Gambi has a new suit for this, which seems odd since he didn’t know BL was about to come roaring back. Was he always ready for this? Gambi does seem to think it was just a matter of time until he started Black Lightning-ing again. The suit is smokin’. It’s visually stunning, stops bullets (we did learn from Luke Cage that nothing is more crowd pleasin’ than a bullet-proof black man), and may help focus his lightning powers. It also doesn’t look as Funkadelic as his original suit.
The suit needs a minute to “power up.” That gave us what was probably the coolest non-verbal moment in “The Resurrection.” Jeff did this incredible spin move, protecting himself from blows and gunfire while the suit powered up. As awesome as it was from a superhero perspective, how is it that Jeff was able to work so seamlessly with a new, untested suit? Is that bad writing? Were they counting on us to suspend our disbelief? Will we find out more about it later on? As this is the first episode, it’s impossible to tell.
If you didn’t know what was coming, and I didn’t, the last moments of “The Resurrection” are revelatory. In short, Anissa has powers. We don’t know if they’re lightning related, but she’s def got some Jessica Jones style strength. Well, if DC girls can get Marvel powers. LOL
Overall, I’m highly impressed with Black Lightning so far, and am pumped to see where it goes from here. This first season has 13-episodes, so plenty of time to make some stuff happen. What are you hoping to see this season?
See you’s next week!
