My Review of Lanterns: "Pilot"

 

Written by Chris Mundy And Damon Lindelof And Tom King

Directed by James Hawes

Hal: "There's only one question. Are you afraid?"

We've been on a journey to get a Green Lantern show and now that it's finally here, I still can't believe it's actually here. This was quite the opening episode.

It opened with a much younger John Stewart watching Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler) on television where the latter talked about being a member of the Green Lantern Corps. Then there was that William Tell moment between John and his father (J. Alphonse Nicholson) and that was pretty messed up scene to watch.

Cut to twenty years later where a grown up John (Aaron Pierre) has actually joined the Corps and Hal's his mentor. Hal's methods are just as volatile and it's pretty clear that while Hal might like/respect John on some level, he's not totally keen on training up his successor either.

Anyways the main action of this episode had both Hal and John ending up in Nebraska where a murder had taken place. It was one with alien involvement and Sheriff Kerry Kane (Kelly Macdonald) wasn't totally happy with the Green Lanterns investigating on her turf.

In fact, both Hal and John kind of botched up her investigation into the unusual Waylon Sanders (Chris Coy). Hal's way of exposing Waylon as an alien was certainly reckless but it did manage to get results. It also didn't take long for both Hal and John to start getting involved in Kerry's family life.

I found it interesting Kerry's husband Billy Macon (Jason Ritter) and the latter's father, William (Garrett Dillahunt) immediately ingratiated themselves into Hal's orbit. William in particular was a bit of a fanatic, so there's definitely a future clash between him and Hal waiting in the wings.

Then there's John's involvement in the Macon family. He unwittingly slept with William's wife Zoe (Poorna Jagannathan) and William knew about it. Do William and Zoe have an open marriage or died William have a future revenge lined up for John? It was definitely one of the stranger moments from the pilot.

As for the central mystery - let's jump to a decade where a bearded John reunited with Kerry and it was revealed that Hal was dead and his ring was missing. Is Hal really dead? I'd say it's 50/50 at the moment. I'm not entirely convinced he is, at least not for now.

- Things we saw the ring being used for included bubble wrap, counterfeit money and a bottle opener.

- The title sequence was a pretty modest one. Nice but nothing to write home about.

- Kerry and Billy's son, Noah (Cary Christopher) also appeared briefly in the episode. John doesn't eat meat or drink.

- Does Hal really believe there's 22 Harry Potter movies? He must have been joking about that one.

- Standout music: KC And The Sunshine Band's Boogie Shoes.

- Chronology: Took in the years 1996, 2016 and 2026. Mostly in Rushville, Nebraska. Hal became a Green Lantern in 1986.

The Pilot opened the show on a good note. There's an instant and classic buddy cop chemistry between Aaron Pierre and Kyle Chandler. I can see why they were cast as their respective characters and the main mystery has promise.

Rating: 8 out of 10