Casting. Melissa Benoist, 27, does a remarkable job of inhabiting the lead role - not just in the cape-related flying and fighting scenes, but also in a role that requires her to become a new kind of secret-identity nerd, who is less likely to keep her powers hidden from her trusted friends.
Easy-breezy feminism. Benoist's Kara may toil and fetch lattes as an assistant to the demanding, Devil Wears Prada-style media magnate Cat Grant (Calista Flockhart), but she seems to have the full force of Twitter-era, post-grrrl feminism at the ready. Kara protests Cat's top-down decision, in the Daily Tribune stylebook, to refer to National City's mysterious new flying hero as Supergirl (instead of Superwoman), but acquiesces when Cat gives a succinct argument that "girls" (of any age) can be indomitable.
Still, it turns out that Supergirl's strongest asset is not the fact that she's female, it's that she's young.
Millennial wish fulfillment! Supergirl' is one of the few shows on TV that seems to effortlessly embrace both the inhibitions and independence of someone who is proudly and uninhibitedly young, without a single scene that involves texting etiquette, swiping or whining about how hard her life is compared to everyone else's.
In her secret identity, Kara masterfully and capably navigates the workplace. She doesn't toy with the lovesick IT guy who has a crush on her; instead she co-opts him into helping her design Supergirl's costume and launch her crime-fighting debut. She may have X-ray eyes for the handsome new art director, but, since he's a friend of her famous cousin, she also welcomes his advice on how Supergirl should demonstrate her might.
Supergirl' is a reminder of how little TV audiences get to purely idealise a young woman and root for her amazing abilities, instead of joining her for a wallow in self-absorbed millennial misery and relationship mistakes.
Whether or not actual millennials, who tend to avoid broadcast TV like the plague, will respond to this aspect of Supergirl is unknown. Kara's biggest and most relatable vulnerability is that she worries that she's somehow not living up to her potential.
"You want to help?" snarls the head of the government's Department of Extranormal Operations, who is none too pleased to see Supergirl's brash arrival on the scene. "Go back to getting someone's coffee." There you have the one sentiment that millennials say they most despise: Being told to wait their turn. Supergirl very clearly and without a hint of cross-generational acrimony says: Move over and make some room.
