Kara Danvers should not have been an audience-surrogate.
One of the grander issues of Supergirl was its rather incoherent philosophy. It was an openly political show that had no idea how to address political topics with any depth or consistency, a progressive show that somehow perpetuated as many harmful stereotypes and misconceptions as it attempted to critique. One of the greater problems that caused this, in my opinion, wasn't the pressure of making politics palatable to network television or even a fundamental lack of understanding of the issues at hand (though both were true), but the consistent and somewhat lazy usage of Kara as an audience-surrogate.
On the one hand, it makes sense. Kara is the main character. She is young and generally inexperienced-- a large amount of her story is dedicated to being a fish out of water. So of course, it makes sense to have Kara receive the "message of the day", often sitting comfortably on her couch, reflecting on the week's events with her sister, and delivering a nice, summary lesson to the audience of presumably young teen girls.
On the other hand, Are You Out Of Your Fucking Mind?
Kara is the last person on that show who should be used as an audience surrogate for the VAST majority of situations on it. She is an alien, raised on an alien planet, with alien habits, language, and beliefs. Using her to substitute for the audience who is expected to lack scientific education, emotional maturity, and an understanding of the alien experience is fucking bananas. I think a lot of people complained when it happened about the incredibly awkward moment where Brainy had to explain to Kara why it would be bad if the polar ice caps were melted by a giant laser. (Which. They simply did Not need to explain that.) But this problems worms its way into SO MANY different aspects of the politics of Supergirl (and is part of why Kara is so infantilized imo).
@moistvonlipwig has this really great breakdown of Cat and her flaws as the "mean boss" archetype (I personally did actually enjoy Cat and find her funny [most of the time] but I do admit I agree with almost every point they make.) there's this bit they bring up about the flawed politics of CWSG and its very shallow take on feminism that I believe is connected to this. In particular, it's the "why shouldn't we call her Supergirl. Do you think girls are bad?" bit. This exists to talk to the audience. And it is directed at Kara because Kara is the audience.
It fundamentally kneecaps any argument made in the show because if the main character is the primary recipient of The Message(tm) and the main character is an audience insert, then the message cannot account for any kind of human complexity. Over and over again CWSG supplies hamfisted and overly reductive hallmark card messages like Racism is Bad!, You Should Be Nice To People!, and of course, Hashtag Feminism!
It also introduces a lot of really awkward accidental messaging. There are a lot of weird moments where characters say "being human" as shorthand for being compassionate or empathetic, which can be a very interesting dissection of what assimilation means to Kara and Alex and how they have internalized that, but frequently isn't done with any deeper intent, and results in moments like before the first Reign fight where Alex tells her (kryptonian) sister to "be kryptonian", as in, ignore the collateral damage and innocent people, be selfish, be cold, and survive. Those are not traits that I think Kara or Alex would necessarily associate with the Kryptonian people. Astra may have not cared about collateral damage, but she could not be accused of being dispassionate. Let's not even touch on what that continued rhetoric imparts on show's series-long immigration metaphor.
This is a part of the strangeness of Season 1 DEO, where Kara seems to care less than James that the DEO is essentially "alien gitmo". Why are we explaining to Kara why she should hate the DEO? Shouldn't Kara be slightly more worried about what the DEO will do to her specifically? Shouldn't Kara's choice to work with them be a result of her own choices and weighing the options? A major theme of S1 was necessary but ugly things: Maxwell Lord and the DEO are both objectively cruel and in a better world, an enemy to be removed, and yet in the context of alien invasions, they are ultimately a necessity. Actually utilizing Kara's alien status would have done a great deal to meaningfully interrogate these issues, and frankly it would have doubled the efficacy of the Jeremiah reveal if Kara had actually grown to be tentatively trusting of the organization.
Kara-as-audience cannot be blamed for every poor message of the show (Winn's incel episode proves that. And um. That episode where J'onn talks about being proud of being a black man when he is wearing the face of a black man he killed and replaced.) but it exacerbates every problem they have by simplifying it.
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