Family Friendly Supergirl Trailer Wows at CBS Upfronts

Posted on May 14, 2015

Supergirl has landed at CBS just in time for the 2015 fall schedule premieres. Melissa Benoist stars as Kara Danvers/Supergirl. She is Superman's younger cousin who was born on their home planet of Krypton. Her real name is Kara Zor-El and she's been on Earth for 12 years.

Now she's 24 years old and uses her super powers to help her in her job as a lowly assistant at a media company. She works for Cat Grant, a Miranda Priestly type boss played brilliantly by Calista Flockhart. In fact, Calista easily steals every scene she's in. Kara gets coffee and does menial jobs. She's bored.

But things change when Kara figures out how to fly and saves an airliner with her sister on it. The plane would have crashed if she had not intervened and suddenly everyone knows there's a new superhero in town. Her boss dubs the new hero Supergirl, which leads Kara to to ask, "Shouldn't be called Superwoman?" Cat has an answer for that, but it's a fair question. The answer is that a) that's her name in the comics and it's not going to be changed and b) CBS is marketing this as a family show that will appeal to kids. It's looking for merchandising money and so Supergirl it is.

Kara's activities get her noticed by the Department of Extra Normal Operations. The DEO protects Earth from extra-terrestrials blows off Kara initially, but eventually allows her to help out. So, the lead is good and Calista is great. What about the rest of the cast? Well, Jimmy Olsen has been hitting the gym -- he is buffed, which was a bit of a shocker. But Mehcad Brooks (True Blood) is a good actor and he bonds with Kara.

As family friendly fare, it looks great. Supergirl will be a good role model for girls. She's not Black Widow. Although, to be honest, the first time we watched this trailer we couldn't help but think of SNL's hilarious Black Widow rom com. At least Supergirl gets to actually save people. And she hasn't obsessed over a boy even once. Let's hope she keeps her focus on her job. Her real job. Take a look:

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