The Complete Third Season of Supergirl was recently released to Blu-ray and DVD, and KryptonSite has been provided with a copy of the set to review! What did we think? Read on!
The Episodes: When viewed individually, there are some aspects of Supergirl Season 3 that didn’t totally hit the mark, though the story narrative was likely intentional. A lot of the characters were put through the wringer, and it seemed like they weren’t getting their total happiness. Mon-El being sent off to who knows where and (spoiler alert) coming back married was no fun for Kara, and the dissolution of Alex’s relationship with Maggie seemed a sudden redirect caused by actor availability that left no one happy.
J’Onn got his father back, though there was a lot of drama and sadness involved there. We met a great new character in Samantha Arias (the delightful Odette Annable), but she, too, had a dark side that brought her down, with her alter ego of Reign. I know this is a drama, but can some people get some “wins” already?
I guess there was the “Lena and James” thing, but that’s almost as boring as “Kara and James” was, and Lena is still being held to double standards from being a Luthor. So, meh.
There is some cool stuff within, however. We get to see the Legion of Super-Heroes with its dark colors and brunette Saturn Girl (meh). Brainiac 5, despite a somewhat weird makeup job, is played so well by Jesse Rath, that I would consider his charming addition a good thing. Mon-El ultimately gets a costume reminiscent of the one from the comics, and I like that a lot.
Season 3 of Supergirl also features one of my favorite episodes of the whole series in “Midvale,” which is as close to a Smallville tribute as one can get, and I loved every second of it. (Was also happy to see Erica Durance appearing in Season 3 – between her, Betty Buckley, Sarah Douglas, Laurie Metcalf, Carl Lumbly, and other great guests, the season was filled with guest stars that I really liked). Unfortunately, the Smallville reminders made me not as fond as, say, the episode(s) with a cult, as it made me think of the Allison Mack situation. (Yuck.) Also unfortunate is that we barely see Cat Grant and this year, there’s no Superman.
I feel Season 3 of Supergirl was a “dark period” for the show that will hopefully get light again for Season 4. It was well done TV; just the downers weren’t as much fun as I’d want from a show like this. And for all that’s holy, bring back the real theme music (which is thankfully on the menus here).
The Extras: The other crossover episodes are present as is a featurette about Reign. The crossover extras seen on the other sets are also represented here. There are some deleted scenes, and early on at least, almost all of the deleted scenes seem to be “Sanvers” (Alex/Maggie scenes), which, again, they had a huge fan base and if they only had Floriana Lima for so many episodes, the fans should have gotten all of these scenes when the episodes actually aired.
There’s a blooper reel that is actually funny and has an opening edited to look like the Friends opening credits. Sadly, without the actual Friends theme… I wonder if it actually had it when it was shown at a wrap party.
Annoyingly, you have to go through multiple discs to see all of the extras, which usually are bunched on to the last disc. Not in this case. I also wish there was a “View All” feature for the deleted scenes.
Packaging & Design: The art used on the Blu-ray set is fantastic. No complaints there.
Graphics & Sound: Again, Supergirl looks fantastic on Blu-ray… even better than on TV, where it already looked good to begin with. The show has some great directors and design.
Is It Worth It? I’d still recommend Season 1 first to someone completely new to Supergirl, but a die-hard fan would like it if only for the upgraded picture, the extra features, and deleted scenes. And if you order it from Amazon.com through KryptonSite’s link, we get credit, so thank you!