something pleasant

omggggg this introduction scene! I love the shortcuts writers take when they're smart in terms of setting up backstory with material that has so much backstory needed and also has a built in audience who knows it. instead of trying to give us the whole origin story once again as though we're NOT the intended audience -- by we here I mean the built in audience who knows the material and signs up to watch because we already know it! -- Lanterns starts off with the first line being a newscast interview with Hal Jordan where he talks about being the Green Lantern, and we get a lot of his history in just a few scenes -- all while little John Stewart is watching the newscast interview as a kid. this is such a perfect introduction to me! we get Hal, we get John, we get the world known who the Green Lantern is, we get stakes for both Hal as hinted in the newscast interview and for John sneaking around to secretly watch Hal's broadcast. even the audiences who don't know who Hal or John are, or don't know anything about Green Lantern, are getting a ton of exposition while also actually seeing a real plot unfold with needed action and no wasted dialogue. it's so refreshing to have good writing in superhero tv again!

John Stewart going full renaissance artist in his little doodle pad while watching Hal interrogate an alien lmaooo

omggggg this introduction scene! I love the shortcuts writers take when they're smart in terms of setting up backstory with material that has so much backstory needed and also has a built in audience who knows it. instead of trying to give us the whole origin story once again as though we're NOT the intended audience -- by we here I mean the built in audience who knows the material and signs up to watch because we already know it! -- Lanterns starts off with the first line being a newscast interview with Hal Jordan where he talks about being the Green Lantern, and we get a lot of his history in just a few scenes -- all while little John Stewart is watching the newscast interview as a kid. this is such a perfect introduction to me! we get Hal, we get John, we get the world known who the Green Lantern is, we get stakes for both Hal as hinted in the newscast interview and for John sneaking around to secretly watch Hal's broadcast. even the audiences who don't know who Hal or John are, or don't know anything about Green Lantern, are getting a ton of exposition while also actually seeing a real plot unfold with needed action and no wasted dialogue. it's so refreshing to have good writing in superhero tv again!

lanterns makes one of the best cases for weekly episodic television that we’ve had in some time. an incredible first episode that includes nothing but set up and exposition and ends with an inciting incident that makes you want, if not need, to tune in next week. i don’t think this pilot would have had the reception or impact had the season been dropped all at once. wonderful stuff.