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Supergirl: Mr. & Mrs. Mxyzptlk

“I can show you the world…”

This week, Mxyzptlk, a fifth dimensional being, invades Kara's life because he has fallen in love with her by watching her from afar. We’ve all been there, Mxy.

This brings him into immediate conflict with “tall, dark, and blandsome” Mon-El. As Mxy struggles to win Kara’s heart, Mon-El becomes increasingly protective of Kara. Eventually Kara manages to trick Mxy into saying (or, rather, writing) his name backwards which sends him back to his own world. Meanwhile, Alex and Maggie come into conflict over how to celebrate Valentine’s Day. Unsurprisingly, this was my favorite part of the episode. Alex is trying to connect to Maggie unaware that Maggie has lied to her to try to protect her. Maggie’s story of being forced out of the closet was both heartbreaking and utterly believable. The two finally come together at the end as they create their own special day free from Maggie’s past. Aw.

That was sweet and I have to admit that Mxy was fun. Even if it is really weird how he pretended to be Superman to attempt to win Kara’s heart. Like…she’s supposed to be attracted to someone pretending to be her cousin? That’s weird and borderline creepy. I like the way they showed Mxy’s antics as a combination of fun (fills Kara’s apartment with roses and poofs her into a wedding dress!) and seriously dangerous (brings Parasite back to life!). It was also cute, if a little obvious, the way Kara tricked him.

What wasn’t cute was Mon-El’s behavior throughout the episode. I’m sorry, I know he has fans among our readers and if you want to stop reading this review right here that’s fine but there’s nothing romantic or attractive about Mon-El’s possessiveness over Kara. He was worried and that’s fine but his worry manifested itself as controlling behavior. Their fight in the DEO wasn’t cute it was horrifying, the way he thinks he should have control over Kara’s actions. I can’t express how much I hate the way he’s been written in the show. This is supposed to be a show about Supergirl. About a sunny, happy girl who just so happens to have superpowers that let her save the day and rescue everyone in the end. Instead it’s become about Supergirl’s relationship with a hard-partying, womanizing, LITERAL SLAVE OWNER who thinks that “Things were easier on Daxam when I objectified women and didn't care about anyone.” WHAT IS WRONG WITH THIS SHOW?!

Okay. Okay, calming down. This is a hard review to write because I know a lot of you are going to disagree with me and if we’re being honest that’s a huge part of the reason I’ve put this off for a week. But I can’t help it. I hate Mon-El. Or, rather, I hate the direction the writers chose to take the show. I’m not trying to tell you that if you don’t hate Mon-El you’re wrong. Chris Wood is an attractive human and I’m not going to deny the fact that he has chemistry with Melissa Benoist or a certain charm but the message this show is sending is, in my opinion, a bad one, and they should stop. From here on in, I’m going to stop complaining about Mon-El and his relationship with Kara. In future reviews, I will try to contain myself. I know from experience how annoying it is to keep seeing your favorite character bashed week after week by some anonymous reviewer on the internet. The review for this week’s episode, which I should have done hopefully some time this week will be much more focused on what is actually happening in the show and less on my own salty opinions. While we’re at it, I’d like to apologize for having these reviews be so late recently. I’ve started grad school and I’m having trouble keeping up with everything plus my life plus my reviewing duties. I’m going to try to do better.

Bits and Pieces

How beautiful did Kara look in that wedding dress?

J’onn sent M'gann a valentine!!

Is this our first “Look up in the sky?”

Whatever this episodes flaws, it gets major points for the Hamilton references.

Quotes

Kara: “What kind of stuff does she like”
Alex: “I don’t know, guns?”

Kara: “…Anything else?”

Mxyzptlk: “Don’t throw away your shot.”

Kara: “Love is putting someone else’s needs above your own.”

three? out of four awesome Hamilton references
---
sunbunny

6 comments:

  1. I understand your concerns about Mon-El, though I am not bothered by him to the extent you are. Honestly, what bothered me WAY more about this episode was the ick-factor of Mxy and the fact that he totally ignored consent on every level. I realize that he was portrayed as the "bad-guy" but it was presented as disturbingly cutesy for my taste, with Kara reacting way too flattered and unconcerned until it put other people in danger. As I write this, I realize that my issues with Mxy are very parallel to your issues with Mon-El. Not sure what that means about the writing, but maybe worth thinking about.

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  2. I was happy to get twice the Mon-El this week, since he was over on Vampire Diaries exuding pure evil. :) Sunbunny, don't apologize -- if you don't like Mon-El, you don't like Mon-El. Is he popular or un in Supergirl fandom, anyone know?

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  3. Mon el is disliked for the same reason as Bellamy is disliked on the 100..He is in the way of the SuperCorp ship.
    It does not help that Supergirl writes its men horribly except for Winn(who did not have a great start either). The shows feminist message is excellent but alot of the time all the male characters exhibit the worst stereotypical male tendencies..Mon el being the prime example.
    The writing for Mon el as a guy is the same as writing that all females should be in the kitchen and submissive to the man.
    Its annoying because it was a good episode and the conflict was good but it's being lazily done because they are being lazy with Mon el.

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  4. Elissa - Mxy didn't bother me as much because he was portrayed as the villain and his wanting to possess Kara wasn't shown in a positive light. Maybe it was a bit cutesy in the beginning. But I think it was very telling that he couldn't make her love him, make her marry him, or make her drink orange juice (which she showed up to the "wedding" drinking). There were limits to his power which fortunately stopped it from going someplace really Jessica Jones-creepy.

    Billie and Anon - I'm very active in the Supergirl fandom on Tumblr and at least from what I see daily a lot of people hate Mon-El and Karamel but not because of Supercorp. They just have the same view of the relationship as I do or worse. It is true a lot of the Sanvers (Maggie x Alex) shippers are upset that Karamel is getting so much screen time at the expense of their ship and the Karolsen (Kara x James) shippers are upset that their ship got scuttled in favor of this.

    Anon - I don't think it's fair to say that Supergirl writes bad male characters. The writing this season in general has taken a huge nosedive. I don't see anything wrong with the way James, J'onn, or (this season) Winn are being written. It's just Mon-El and, lately, Kara imo.

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  5. My loathing for Mon El has nothing to do with ships (I don't really ship anything on Supergirl) The writers expect us to find his antics endearing because he's not from Earth and "doesn't understand" bu he just comes across as obnoxious and annoying.

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  6. Between this episode of Supergirl and Sleepy Hollow I think I need to do some research on Hamilton so those references don't fly over my head all the time. :P

    I think Supergirl is still experiencing growing pains thanks to the move to Canada. James Olsen is suspicioulsy absent from so many episodes (and some of his scenes are outsourced to a guy in a face covered costume) that I fear he might be written out by the end of the season.

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