This week’s episode, Shiv Part One, is directed by Lea Thompson (Back to the Future, Howard the Duck). I wasn’t familiar with Shiv prior to the show, but she is apparently one of Stargirl’s enemies in the comics so her emergence as a character will be less of a surprise for people who read the source material.
After last week’s rollicking action packed episode, Shiv Part One slows back down and moves the focus to another one of Courtney’s (Brec Bassinger) high school classmates. I’ve been wondering “What’s the deal with mean girl Cindy?” and this episode finally answers that question. In doing so, this episode skews heavily towards the ‘high school drama’ side of the series. We also get a peek into how Mike is handling his dad (Luke Wilson) working closely with Courtney. Mike still dances the line between funny and annoying, but I suppose that’s what little brother characters are supposed to do. Finally, we learn a bit more about the mysterious/creepy janitor guy. Again, kudos to the writers for laying groundwork for the character early on. I have a theory as to who he is, but I don’t want to spoil anything by guessing here. You’ll just have to trust me if I tell you I’m right!
Speaking of laying groundwork, Barbara is given a work assignment that hopefully will result in something interesting for Amy Smart to do. Fun Amy Smart fact: Amy Smart starred in The Butterfly Effect, which tells me that I should not try to go back in time to give Barbara a big role because it could have unintended side effects. Joking aside, Stargirl has done an excellent job of introducing characters and slowly bringing them into the story, which is preferable to the “Nikki and Paulo” on Lost situation where new characters are just thrown in haphazardly.
Stargirl continues to have great special effects and fight choreography. There is a pretty awesome fight sequence in the final third of the show, but this episode definitely feels like it is setting up bigger things for Part Two. Now that the characters are becoming more developed, I’m looking forward to the inevitable crossover with the other Arrowverse shows.
This episode will debut on Monday, June 29nd
Check back next week for my thoughts on the 8th episode of the series.
Are you enjoying the season so far? Feel free to chat with me on Twitter or leave a comment below!
