‘Lanterns’ Lights Up HBO

For decades, superheroes like the Green Lantern were powerful supporting characters relegated to mostly supporting roles and the second tier of pop-culture awareness. To the casual viewer raised on Super Friends reruns or still recovering from the infamous 2011 Ryan Reynolds Green Lantern movie — a misfire that has deservedly become a multi-decade running joke even for Reynolds himself — the Green Lantern was simply a guy who flies around with the Justice League using his willpower-driven emerald ring to manifest ridiculous objects like enormous green boxing gloves.

Yet, comic purists, including Green Lantern fanatic and cultural icon The Big Bang Theory’s Sheldon Cooper, have always known that concept-wise, power-wise, and aesthetically the coolest DC character design was always that intergalactic cop, the Green Lantern.

In Lanterns, the premium network HBO’s new eight-part series, co-creators Chris Mundy (Ozark), Damon Lindelof (Lost, Watchmen), and star DC Comics writer Tom King take another run at trying to tap into that “In Brightest Day, In Blackest Night” magic. With its initial focus on a strange, seemingly earthbound murder mystery, troubled investigative leads, and neo-noir-like stylings, Lanterns actively invites comparisons to the moody and masterful first season of True Detective. Its creators are trying to reenvisage the superhero genre. There’s not a lot of spandex in the first two episodes.

Kyle Chandler (Friday Night Lights) capably anchors the series as Hal Jordan, “the Greatest of All Green Lanterns.” In this iteration, Chandler’s Jordan is crinkly, gruff, and suffering from perpetual bedhead. The former test pilot is having trouble facing up to the fact his time as Earth’s Green Lantern may be drawing to a close. For a man defined by his job, this is not a welcome prospect. No surprise then Jordan turns out to be a less than ideal mentor to John Stewart (Aaron Pierre) his intense, inward-looking backup and ultimate replacement.

An easy take would be to present Jordan as just another aging white male who has to learn to get out of the way — gracefully or otherwise. But to its credit, Lanterns is smarter than that and subverts expectations on just how this sort of narrative should evolve, without ignoring the issue of privilege.

These two central characters demonstrate a chemistry that engages and even periodically surprises the viewer. This is where the comparisons to the first season of True Detective really come in. That series pivoted on the deep and earned emotional resonance between lead characters Rust Cohle (Matthew McConaughey) and Marty Hart (Woody Harrelson). It’s still early days for Lanterns, but the two main characters are on the right path.

Another strong character is Sheriff Kerry Kane (Kelly Macdonald). She is the town’s sheriff and the daughter-in-law of one of the Lanterns’ chief antagonists, gun-loving militia leader William Macon (Garret Dillahunt). Macdonald’s unique voice and cadence — familiar to film fans from her unforgettable turn as Carla Jean Moss in No Country for Old Men— brings a  grounded gravity to the local law enforcement side of the mystery.

The rest of the performances are uniformly plausible for their DC world with its Gotham and Coast City standing in for our New York and San Francisco. The world-building is clear and rewards fans with numerous Easter eggs — mentions of Sinestro, the mysterious robotic Manhunters, and scenes with Earl Jordan, Hal’s pet flesh-eating plant.

The series is not perfect. In parts, the plot line is more Men in Black films than True Detective. Lanterns is trying to breathe new life into the old theme of aliens among us. Although an interrogation scene featuring Hal Jordan giving the third degree to a suspected alien and tripping them up with a slight variation of a World War II film cliche strains credulity. Aliens can cross the galaxy and perfectly mimic human biology but get tripped up by a trivia question on Barack Obama?

On the cinematography front Lanterns suffers from noticeable visual discontinuity late in the second episode when the story shifts from earthbound scenes to Jordan streaking across the stars to land on alien worlds. It’s a small sample size because these are the first truly sci-fi elements introduced into the series. However, it feels as though they were hurried through production by a visual effects team working entirely separately from the rest of the production. The resulting abrupt shift in color temperature, exposure, and shadow density between the scenes is jarring. The lovely, high-contrast shadow work of the Nebraska plains suddenly gives way to flatly lit bright green-screen interstellar environments.

Ultimately, these minor logic gaps and visual hiccups do not derail the experience. Lanterns is a deeply respectful, smart adaptation of a complex mythos. In an era of assembly-line content that leaves audiences feeling “meh,” this show’s willingness to build a slow, character-driven world is a massive victory. DC and HBO placed a huge bet on this series, and, two episodes in, it is clear they have found something special.