LANTERNS Season 1 Premiere: True Detectives

If there’s one thing Lanterns‘ first episode is obvious with, it’s the western tone with a sci-fi spit shine that the entire episode is selling. In that tone, the show’s hook beyond “Green Lantern is cool” comes from its investigation into an alien-involved shooting in Rushville, Nebraska. It’s not a bad pitch, whether you’re a new fan or a comic reader, a slightly older Hal Jordan training John Stewart to be his replacement as a Green Lantern while investigating like the space cops they are provides an interesting dynamic to the series.

The show takes a slower pace with its first episode, allowing viewers to get used to its odd couple dynamic as Hal and John investigate a lead provided to Hal by a backup version of himself stored within his ring. The “Halogram,” as John Stewart calls it, is a slightly different character than Hal, given the ten-year time difference.

Aged down with special effects, Halogram is more invested in doing things by the book and even shows disappointment in his future self for not teaching Stewart about the ring properly. This contrast makes Hal seem like a more layered character, showing the difference between who he was and who he is in 2016 when he’s training John.

There is quite a bit of green in this particular Lantern, and nothing looks cheap or phoned in with the special effects department. Hal Jordan uses the ring for just about every convenience, such as creating a dollar for a jukebox or a bottle opener for a beer, even while telling John Stewart how dangerous of a weapon the ring is. The different CGI constructs we see in the first episode look like physical objects in the scene as the characters physically interact with them in a way that feels more like superpowers than a magical spell.

Both in how they are portrayed and how they are written, Kyle Chandler’s aging Hal Jordan feels ripped from some unpublished comic sitting on one of DC’s shelves full of incredible ideas. As for Aaron Pierre’s John Stewart, the first episode of Lanterns spends a lot of its subtler scenes slowly enriching Stewart’s stoic character in the shadow of Jordan’s extroverted western persona.

Kyle Chandler and Aaron Pierre are both a force in their respective roles. Chandler’s Hal is a seasoned veteran but still reckless like his comics counterpart. Chandler plays into the role with his mannerisms and facial expressions. Pierre’s John Stewart, on the other hand, is stoic and observant. The way the actors portray their character’s traits is visible throughout the episode. Hal Jordan is relaxed and smiling and delivers his lines as offhand remarks, while Pierre is slower, his posture is rigid like fans would expect from John Stewart, and the character speaks at a slower cadence than his trainer.

Capturing the personality of a character for a TV series that has existed in comic books for decades is not an easy task, and the writing does a lot of work to make these two iconic characters flow. Hal Jordan is intelligent in his own brash, witty way that throws a few loops into the story. Hal is written to be an off-the-cuff, grizzled veteran who improvises every solution. John Stewart, on the other hand, has a quieter analytical perspective, one the first episode goes out of its way to show us first-hand as we see what Pierre’s Stewart visualizes during part of the initial investigation.