DC Studios’ Lanterns opens with a hell of a pilot. Funny, gripping, and twist-filled, the new HBO drama immediately drops the viewer into the grim expanses of rural Nebraska, where some unexplained deaths need investigation. Green Lantern space cop Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler) has brought his “backup trainee” John Stewart (Aaron Pierre) to the small town of Rushville, because he’s pretty sure a space crime of some sort is involved. What the pair stumble on together is far bigger than they can imagine, though.
Initial Impressions
From the first teaser, which featured Hal and John riding in a car sparring with each other, Lanterns has been drawing True Detective comparisons. That ends up being pretty close to the reality of the series, from the heavy emphasis on location to its odd couple central pairing — something you can easily credit to showrunner Chris Mundy, whose previous credits include crime dramas Ozark, Bloodline, Criminal Minds, and oh, what’s this? True Detective Season 4!
Hal and John both swear plenty and don’t hold back on the violence. The show is also not chaste or free of nudity (though those elements are never exploitative in their execution, and the nudity is largely dudes). In short, Lanterns has all the external trappings of an HBO crime drama, one so grounded that at times it’s disconcerting to hear a character casually mention growing up in Gotham (you know, where Batman lives) versus Chicago or New York.
Story and Characters
This means Lanterns, part of this still-young era of DC Comics on screen, does not feel entirely defined by DC Studios head James Gunn’s very distinct voice, even though he is an executive producer. Instead, beyond the True Detective comparisons, there are points that feel more spiritually connected to the HBO’s 2019 Watchmen, another adult take on a classic DC title that just so happened to also be the work of Lanterns co-creator Damon Lindelof. This series isn’t as cohesive as the egg-obsessed Regina King limited series, but you can still feel Lindelof’s contributions to the story.
Really, there’s definitely a sense of two different stories being told: The gritty HBO drama, and the weirder tale of aliens on Earth. It creates a restless quality here that actively rejects any adherence to a status quo — not just because Hal and John do take us to some strange places across the first seven episodes. Really, the issue is the frequent flashbacks and flashforwards. While they offer up valuable information and plot developments, they contribute to a disjointed vibe that makes it hard to get a grasp on what Lanterns is trying to be.
Cast and Performances
In terms of the cast, Chandler’s rarely been better, bringing a shit-kicker grin to his take on Hal that still manages to be reverent to the character’s core values. Pierre, by contrast, does elegant work evolving John’s tightly-wound nature as flashbacks reveal how certain life events formed him. The toxic dynamic of Hal and John’s mentor-mentee relationship fuels a lot of the show’s action, but the way these two actors play off each other keeps it from feeling too reductive. There are layers of complexity to their relationship that could easily fuel multiple seasons, should the show continue.
Kelly Macdonald also stars as the Rushville sheriff, who immediately finds herself at odds with Hal due to Hal’s general… Hal-ness. She’s always been a quiet yet captivating presence on screen, and the series pulls a remarkable range of emotions out of her. Also, the way Lanterns pays off the electric chemistry between Chandler and Macdonald is one of the more surprising developments.
The supporting cast features plenty of TV favorites, including the always welcome Garrett Dillahunt, as well as Poorna Jagannathan of Never Have I Ever giving a warm and fierce performance so good she might honestly steal the show at a few points. Additionally, Laura Linney’s appearance as a Guardian inspires a certain kind of giddy glee, thanks to the wild edge she brings to playing an alien in human form. With the exception of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows, Linney doesn’t do a lot of genre stuff, and it’s a thrill to see her level of commitment here.
Production and Conclusion
The production values are stellar — as fun as the CW’s DC series were, you could always sense how limited the budgets were, and the execution of comic book action on a proper HBO scale makes multiple sequences here thrilling. There’s also real weight to that action, with serious consequences playing out in big ways for these characters.
Lanterns exists in that nebulous state a lot of first-season shows do these days — the potential for future seasons is real, but it’s only one part of the first “chapter” of DC Studios’s connected universe of movies and films. In the world of corporate-driven storytelling, everything from box office flops to pending mergers can impact whether we do get a second season, one that might more successfully marry both sides of the equation. In the meantime, there’s still some glorious weirdness here to enjoy. We’ll always have the twinkle in Kyle Chandler’s eye, as he drops an F-bomb before flying into the sky.
Lanterns premieres Sunday, August 16th on HBO and HBO Max.
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