Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Black Lightning’, A CW Superhero Series That Doubles As A Drama About Being Black in 2018

While The CW’s superhero shows have all been hits and pretty good shows to boot, they’re not exactly prestige dramas. But what if Greg Berlanti and company created one that was deadly serious? That’s what we see in Black Lightning, based on a DC character created in the mid-’70s. Will it be part of the Arrowverse or stand on its own?

BLACK LIGHTNING: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: A shot of a police station, where Jefferson Pierce (Cress Williams) and his younger daughter Jennifer (China Anne McClain) are waiting for his older daughter Anissa (Nafessa Williams) to be released after she was arrested during a protest. A news report about yet another shooting in Freeland involving gang members from The One Hundred plays in the background.

The Gist: Freeland is a disaster, with The One Hundred running rampant, murders on the rise, corruption everywhere, and a police force with a fundamental distrust of African-Americans.

Pierce used to help clean things up in the city as the vigilante hero Black Lightning, harnessing his powers to fight The One Hundred’s boss Tobias Wale (Marvin Jones III) and bring some semblance of peace to the city. But the cost was that he would come back to his family beaten and bleeding, and ultimately not able to care for his wife and daughters. He promises to hang up the suit for his family’s sake, but it takes his wife Lynn (Christine Adams) leaving him for him to finally quit being Black Lightning for good.

Or so Jefferson thought. Nine years later, he’s the principal of a charter school that has an impressive graduation rate and a reputation for putting troubled students on the right track. But when high-schooler Jennifer runs afoul of The One Hundred at a gang-owned club, his anger brings his lightning-throwing powers back to life.

Actually, earlier that night, when some racist cops handcuff him basically because he’s Black stoked that anger. He goes to his “tailor”/mentor, Peter Gambi (James Remar), who encourages Jefferson to bring back Black Lightning. But Jefferson just can’t do it when he’s close to getting Lynn back. When One Hundred gang members invade his school and kidnap Jennifer and Anissa (a med student who teaches at the school), both he and Lynn know that his alter ego has to return.

Our Take: While Black Lightning is on The CW and produced by Greg Berlanti and Marc Guggenheim, co-creator Salim Akil recently told TV critics that the show is not part of the network’s “Arrowverse,” which consists of Arrow, The Flash, Supergirl and Legends of Tomorrow. After watching the pilot, it’s easy to figure out why.

This is a different show than the other four. It’s dead serious in tone, for one thing, with no banter or comic asides or will-they-won’t-they plotlines like the other shows have. For another thing, Black Lightning is the CW’s first middle-aged superhero, who is at least ten years older than any hero in the Arrowverse, and whose conflict over being Black Lightning is much deeper than even Stephen Amell can muster.

But the biggest reason why Black Lightning isn’t — and can’t — be part of the Arrowverse is that, aside from Jefferson Pierce’s powers, the show and the city of Freeland is much more grounded in the reality of 2018 than any of the CW’s other superhero shows. While it may not be quite as realistic as The Chi, for instance, the show is serious about how racism, crime and corruption in a major city can get out of control, even in 2018. The series doesn’t try to trivialize police brutality against blacks, or make it just another villain to be defeated. It’s ongoing and pervasive, and Jefferson knows he won’t solve it as Black Lightning. “I’ve saved more lives as a high school principal than as Black Lightning,” he says.

What’s intriguing, though, is that he brings Black Lighning back when the pervasive violence starts getting personal. He has tried to keep the peace with The One Hundred via a deal with local kingpin Lala (William Catlett), a former student of his, but that’s shaky at best. And, as he’s going to find out, Tobias Wale is still running the show. Exploring all of these angles will be fun to watch in the coming weeks. Akil has said there won’t be a “monster/alien/villain of the week” on this show, which means we’ll actually be taking a deep dive into the character’s backstories, a welcome notion when the characters are drawn so well in the pilot.

Sex and Skin: Nothing. All busines here.

Parting Shot: Anissa goes to the bathroom and looks in the mirror, angry as hell about almost being killed by The One Hundred. She gets so angry, her hands start to glow and she breaks the sink via surprise super strength. We know what this means: her anger has brought out powers inherited from her father.

Sleeper Star: Williams shines as the defiant Anissa, who her sister says “is trying to be Harriet Tubman.” What she’ll do with her newfound powers is going to be interesting to watch. And McClain does a good job as the somewhat rebellious high schooler Jennifer.

Most Pilot-y Line: “I’m sure the description was: ‘A black man, dressed in a suit and tie. Getaway car a midsized Volvo wagon!'” Jefferson yells to the cop who pulled him over, who cuffed him and showed him to a couple whose store got robbed. A true line that’s a bit over the top, but delivered well by Williams, who does a great job throughout the pilot.

Our Call: Stream It. Black Lightning feels like a prestige drama as much as a superhero show, with a bunch of kick-ass action baked in. What’s not to like?

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, VanityFair.com, Playboy.com, Fast Company’s Co.Create and elsewhere.