LANTERNS Premiere Review

To say that Green Lantern has consistently struggled in live-action would be an understatement. Since its initial announcement, HBO's Lanterns has done everything to make it clear that this ain't your CGI-laden comedian's take on the hero. No, get ready for a True Detective-esque take on the Lantern Corps. Mind you, there comes a time when you have to show your work but, thankfully, tonight's premiere did just that.

Immediately, Lanterns establishes that it will play across decades. The premiere gives us moments in 1996, 2016, and 2026. While the inciting incident of the show's murder mystery is established in the present, it's evident that the decades that came before a witnessless murder will be essential to the show's protagonists finding justice for the victim.

The first episode introduces us to a contrasting pair. Kyle Chandler's Hal Jordan isn't the quippy, often hilarious younger take on the character. He's much farther on his journey, sitting squarely in his fifties and shouldering a lifetime of disenchantment with whatever system ground the humor out of him over time. (Don't worry, the snark's still there.) Meanwhile, Aaron Pierre's John Stewart is cool, calm and collected (at least on the outside) and has seemingly trained his whole life to become the next Green Lantern. Thing is, Hal doesn't intend to give up the ring anytime soon and, like Highlander, there can only be one Green Lantern. The older hero might have been tasked with training the new recruit, but he's not looking to give up his spot anytime soon. Hal's going to have to find a way to work with John sooner rather than later, though — there's a new alien threat, and it's touched down in the exact spot where Hal initially inherited Green Lantern's ring.

A show's pilot has a lot of work to do. On the one hand, its singular job is to hook the audience enough that they stick around for the full season. On the other, that "hook" takes a lot more than you might think. You have to illustrate that you've got an exciting narrative in mind, establish key players, show what you're able to pull of visually with the budget that you've been offered and end on a note that makes your new show "can't miss" in the coming weeks. Lanterns succeeds in all of those respects, but its most important trick is immediately showcasing the chemistry between Pierre and Chandler.

Though their relationship through much of the premiere is contentious, the rapport of the two actors is essential to Lanterns' success. Hal brings out John's spark, pushing the otherwise stoic man to irritation repeatedly. Conversely, John's contrast to Hal's inherent hot shot nature ends up being essential to their extra terrestrial investigation.

Jurisdiction isn't a problem, of course. Lanterns makes it clear form the jump that Green Lantern is widely beloved and can broadly do whatever whenever he likes. That is, unless what he wants to do is investigate a school shooting in Rushville, Nebraska. The small town sheriff immediately takes umbrage with the presence of a Lantern and Lantern-in-training, insisting that the townsfolk can accept the idea of aliens in concept through the basic understanding of what the Green Lantern protects them from, but that they wouldn't be able to stomach the idea that an alien entity is actually in their town. Also, she kinda thinks Hal Jordan's a moron. (I love her.)

Sheriff Kerry (Kelly Macdonald) is a fun foil to Hal and John, but the mystery deepens when we learn her familial ties to William Macon (Garret Dillahunt) and the fear she seems to have of the apparently charming but slightly ominous town benefactor. We also meet her kind yet oafish lawyer of a husband, Billy (Jason Ritter), and Will's wife Zoe (Poorna Jagannathan). The nature of the series' ongoing mystery means that each player will play some sort of essential role in what's to come, but what those roles may be remains as much of a mystery as what led to the premiere's final moments.

Lantern's second essential trick is establishing that the story will be grounded (at least for a time). One of the many reasons previous adaptations have failed is that when you are met with an object that is essentially limitless, it's difficult to edit yourself and avoid getting lost in the cosmos of endless possibility. The premiere has both feet firmly placed on the ground, offering a grittiness that isn't tied to the series taking itself too seriously. That said, Lanterns' grounded approach means that it could very much run the risk of an overly serious take on a hero rooted entirely in imagination and willpower. We do get a couple moments where the writing seems to acknowledge that risk and poke fun at itself (and John's limited imagination in 2016), but if I had an overarching worry for the show early on, this would be it.

That worry aside, Lanterns' premiere is a well-made look at what might be in store for the Lantern corps in DC's ongoing cinematic journey. If they're able to maintain a similar level of quality throughout the rest of the season, we could be looking at the most exciting live-action look at the hero yet (nevermind that bar being in hell). If they don't? Well, I'm still excited to see what Pierre's going to do with John Stewart and I gotta know when Chandler's Hal Jordan got that stick up his ass.

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