Lanterns Episode 1 Review

[00:00:00] Lanterns on TV Podcast Industries. We're back with a brand new show, DC's Lanterns on HBO Max. We're talking about Episode 1, Pilots. Am I dead? What? You're wearing my ring. Is that supposed to be funny? Hey, did I do something to piss you off? Because if I did, I'm sorry. You, Hal Jordan, sorry. That's right. I must have a concussion.

[00:00:25] Wait a sec. Let me start at the beginning. Who are you and why are you wearing my ring? I'm Jon Stewart, your trainee. Lanterns don't have trainees from their own sector. They do now.

[00:01:03] Welcome, fellow Lanterns. This is TV Podcast Industries. We're back with the first episode of Lanterns on HBO Max, the episode titled Pilot. I am one of your hosts, Derek. Hello there. Yes, fellow Lanterns. I was hoping to say Gothamites because it is in the DC universe, but I'll go with either. So yes, welcome, fellow Lanterns, and welcome back to the back, fellow Gothamites. If you're joining us, I am one of your other hosts, Jon. I kept thinking

[00:01:32] this should be called Pilots because you've got Hal Jordan and Jon Stewart. Not that Jon Stewart. No, a different Jon Stewart. Yes, exactly. So yeah, really great to be back in the DC universe. It is. It's been quite a while and this is our first show, as far as I'm aware, that doesn't contain any connections to Batman. No, none whatsoever. Our last outing was Penguin, really. Yeah.

[00:02:01] A great TV show. And at least for me, you know, straight off the bat, I probably say this all the time, and with the exception of anything to do with Doctor Strange or the magical world of Marvel. But yeah, for me, Lanterns would really be low on my radar of comics. Sure, if they were in adjacent comics or they were involved in big crossovers or whatever,

[00:02:30] then yes, I would obviously have some knowledge of the Lanterns. But I'm really intrigued by this because other than watching kind of a little sort of warmer in the form of one of the cartoons for the Green Lanterns that has Jon Stewart in it. That's right. One of the 2022 animated movie. Yes, the animated movie. Then that was a nice little primer, nice little warmer for this.

[00:03:00] And I'm kind of an open book, really. So yeah, really pleased to be getting into this show. Absolutely. And if you're joining us for the first time on TV Podcast Industry, we have been podcasting about TV for 11 years now. And it started with our Gotham podcast on the DC podcast, effectively. We have been podcasting about loads of other shows. John mentioned some of the Marvel shows that we've been podcasting.

[00:03:24] But generally, we've kind of stuck around on the DC side, around the Batman universe with Pennyworth and with all the movies that featured Batman and were connected to Batman. We haven't done much in the new James Gunn, Peter Saffron universe of the DC. So this will be our first kind of dip into that. And I'm kind of excited about it. You know, there are reasons which we'll talk about as we get more in depth into this as to why this is the show that we picked to have a look at. Some connections to other shows that we've covered in the past.

[00:03:53] But very excited from the beginning. I think we saw the first five minutes of the episode a couple of weeks ago and went, right, this is definitely one that we want to put everything aside and try and cover every week as it comes out. Yeah, definitely. I mean, look, spoilers for my thoughts, but I really enjoyed this first episode of Lanterns and really wanted to go straight into episode two. But I'm glad that they are keeping it purely episodic.

[00:04:22] This does. It reminds me of sort of watching X-Files or different shows in the sort of late 90s. I mean, even Star Trek Next Generation where you'd be left with what's going to happen next week. Really intriguing. Sort of excited. It was always the buzz in school or at uni. Absolutely. And again, here. And work. Well, yeah. And then work. I do not want to say the water cooler moment. Never had one of those. Thank God. We were smokers. So it was the smoking room moment.

[00:04:52] Well, that's true. But for sure, I just like the fact that it just keeps the conversation going across the week. And I really enjoyed that. I think it's a really social way of having TV. And so, yeah, I kind of liked the whole sort of cliffhanger at the end. Getting me absolutely excited for the next episode. So that's my spoilers on that.

[00:05:22] Absolutely. And obviously, we do need to remind everybody this is our first episode of a brand new show. So if you haven't subscribed to the podcast, pop on over to our website at tvpodcastindustries.com. You can also leave voicemails over there. You can contact us through any of our channels over there. You can subscribe to any podcast player of your choice through the website at TV Podcast Industries. This will be going out on our former Gotham feed because that's been quite silent for quite a while. So you'll get it on there.

[00:05:46] But you'll also get it on our main feed, our TV Podcast Industries feed, where we've podcasted for over a thousand episodes of great TV and some fantastic movies over the course of the last 11 years. We also want to hear your thoughts on each episode of the show as they come out. We're hoping to record every Tuesday night so you'll have a bit of time to get your feedback in before we start recording. You can email us to feedback at tvpodcastindustries.com. Hop on over to our Facebook group at facebook.com slash groups slash tvpodcastindustries.

[00:06:13] Or join us on our Discord, the details of which are in the show notes right here. Or just search for TV Podcast Industries. Yes, absolutely. I think without any further ado, I should also announce, fellow Lanterns, that we will be having a pub quiz for this series of Lanterns. In fact, dare I say it, it will be the Redneck Rushville Bar Quiz. Has to be.

[00:06:38] Has to be, after seeing the shenanigans in Rushville with Hal Jordan. So yes, we will have a Redneck Bar Quiz as well. So, as we usually do, it will be one question per episode. Send your answers into feedback at tvpodcastindustries.com. At the end of the season, all eight answers and send them in.

[00:07:03] And they will be drawn in our wrap-up episode of Lanterns Season 1. Yeah. And you'll be in a chance to win some goodies if you are drawn from the tombola. That's it. Well done, John. That's very impressive. Off the bat. Well remembered. Good stuff. So let's get into our chat. All about the first episode of Lanterns Season 1 Episode 1. Pilot. Yes. Yes. Derek, who gave us what, where, when and how? Well, the showrunners for the show, there's three of them here.

[00:07:33] We've got Chris Mundy, Damon Lindelof and Tom King. Chris Mundy was an executive producer on True Detective. And those are two of our favourite drama shows out there. Tom King, very well known as a comic book writer from DC. So bringing on board a comic book writer for a comic book TV show, can't go wrong, can you? No. Damon Lindelof, probably the most well-known name in there. He has an amazing track record for shows beginning with L.

[00:07:55] He was involved in The Incredible Lost and The Phenomenal Leftovers, another two of the greatest TV shows of all time. Last time he was working in the DC University, he led the brilliant writer's room for Watchmen. Still one of our top five shows, really, isn't it? So here's hoping that Lanterns will be as good as that one. Absolutely, yeah. Always a big Damon Lindelof fan, to be honest.

[00:08:20] I think we interviewed him at New York Comic Con. Was it Damon Lindelof or was it? No, it wasn't Damon Lindelof. I'm trying to wrap my brains. No, I can't remember then who it was. It was the showrunner of Krypton and very well known from lots and lots of comic book properties. And name just to skip mine. Absolutely. I'll have to look it up if we have a second and we might come back on it next week. Excellent. And who directed this episode?

[00:08:49] Well, they wrote this episode, the showrunners, all three of them involved in the writing for the first episode. And the episode was directed by James Hawes. He's recently been hiding away on Apple TV directing episodes of Slow Horses. But he has done loads of shows that we absolutely love, like Black Mirror. And he directed five episodes in season one and two of Penny Dreadful. Oh, wow. Which we covered right here on this podcast. He certainly did on our Dreadful podcast. That's right. That's right. Yeah, James Hawes, really, really well experienced director. He's done loads of shows.

[00:09:16] But yeah, he's on board here for these first two episodes of Lanterns. Yes. Excellent. So, John, do you want to tell us what they gave us with your synopsis for the first episode of Lanterns? Pilot. Sure. In 1996, the young John Stewart and his brothers watch on as Earth's only ever Green Lantern reveals his identity to the world.

[00:09:38] He is Hal Jordan, and he was chosen as the successor of Green Lantern Abin Sur after he crashed his ship and died. He just had to answer one question. Is he afraid? When John's father arrives home, he asks the same question of his son while shooting an apple off his head. Twenty years later, in 2016, John Stewart is now supposedly being mentored by Hal Jordan to become the next Green Lantern.

[00:10:06] When John receives a cryptic message from a holographic projection of a kinda younger Hal from inside the Green Lantern ring, it sends the duo to Rushville, Nebraska. With little support from Hal, John helps the town sheriff, Kerry Kane, to capture a suspect involved in a mass shooting at their town's football stadium. But Sheriff Kane forbids Hal from joining the investigation, believing the case has no extraterrestrial connection.

[00:10:35] Trying to get close to the suspect, Hal gets himself arrested for a bar fight, but the sheriff keeps him separated in jail until he is bailed out by lawyer and Kerry's husband, Billy Macon. In return, Hal agrees to meet Kerry's father-in-law, William Macon Sr., who arranges for Hal to interrogate the suspect, Waylon Sanders. During the interrogation, Hal exposes Sanders as an alien.

[00:11:02] In retaliation, the alien detonates a bomb in his body, but Hal uses the last of his ring's power to contain the damage. Ten years further on, in 2026, John Stewart returns to Rushville, where the Macon farm has fallen to rack and ruin. Meanwhile, back at the town's football stadium, Sheriff Kerry Kane shows him a dead and frozen Hal Jordan. And John notices something on his hand. He's missing his Green Lantern ring.

[00:11:33] The big mystery set-up for the season, really, isn't it? Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah, loved the pattern of this. I loved the little 1996 to 2026, sorry, through 2016. 2016 being the main portion of this episode.

[00:11:52] But yeah, really where you get to meet Hal Jordan, John Stewart, and certainly some of the key players at this moment in Rushville, Nebraska. So yeah, really, really kind of enjoyed the pattern of this opening episode. Yeah, and you just get the suspicion when you get to the end and it skips to 2026. You go, hang on a second, I'm going to see any of those characters again? Have I just taken all my notes for nothing?

[00:12:20] I'm sure we'll see all of them again in some form over the next, of course, the next couple of weeks. I love the idea that we could be spreading it over those three time periods and more as well. There's a couple other time periods mentioned as well in the first episode. But what we're going to do, we're going to talk about our top three moments from the episode. We always have a little twist on our top three points. We're calling them this time, instead of power points, we're calling them power ring points for the episode.

[00:12:47] So let's get on with our first power ring point, number one. Is that a golf swing? It does sound like it at the end, doesn't it? No, that's the ring of power or the power ring that Hal uses as he conjures the bottle opener. So the bottle opener arriving right at the end. But it does sound like a golf swing. It's not the lighter. No, no.

[00:13:14] No, that wouldn't have made the same or a similar noise. So I'm going to use that as our indication of the points, John. Excellent. So we're going to start off with our setup for the episode, 1996 to 2016. So the initial opening of the episode, again, this was released a couple of weeks ago as the kind of teaser or taster for the episode.

[00:13:36] And the setting of it really is in John Stewart's home with his brothers while they're sitting down in front of the TV to a 60 minutes interview with Hal Jordan announcing to the world who he is. We hear a little bit of the backstory about who he is, where he comes from, what he is. But there seems to be something kind of mysterious going on in the background with John Stewart's family, isn't it? The kids seem to be really, really nervous about watching this program or is it watching TV at all when their dad's not at home? Yeah, definitely.

[00:14:06] I mean, I think that's it. The kind of the interview with Hal Jordan is kind of, you know, it's kind of par for the course almost. And, you know, it's asking, you know, he was asked, are you afraid? And he says, no, because anyone that's seen their father die and no longer has anything to be afraid or any of their parents, you know?

[00:14:28] And you but you see his brothers being all really nervous and then that his father arrives back home. So you think immediately that this is almost an abusive relationship here because they're all on edge. You know, his his brothers are telling him, you know, turn off the TV. And one brother even turns it off before it gets to, you know, the big reveal of who Hal Jordan is.

[00:14:52] Yeah, exactly. So it's really intriguing because, I mean, ultimately, then we get this William Tell moment where his dad takes him out, puts an apple on his head and fires his hand revolver at his at the apple. Takes it off and says, are you afraid? And he's like, no. His dad as such isn't really angry. He's just very matter of fact about the whole thing. And once he's done, he goes, well, let's go get a burger.

[00:15:22] And so it's it's a really weird setup. You're like, OK, he's not being violent towards them. But at the same time, he's literally just pointed a gun at his son and fired his apple. So he must be very sure of his ability to do that. I do like the fact that behind the young Jon Stewart, there are loads of bullet holes that look like, you know, the height indicators that people draw on the door frames as their kids grow up.

[00:15:51] And you're like, you know, this is the kid is four foot, four foot one, four foot two, whatever. And so as he's gotten older, so this is something that has been happening for quite a while. And so actually, the young Jon Stewart would be quite OK with this to some degree or experience. Definitely. So it's a really interesting kind of opener because I was like, what is going on here? Absolutely.

[00:16:20] It was something that you pointed that out when we were watching the episode, the bullet holes behind kind of growing with them. And, you know, again, watching it again after you pointed it out, it is interesting that it does seem to be bullet holes with Jon's growth because they're going along with Jon. The other two kids are one's a bit taller and one's a bit shorter than him. So it does seem to be Jon is the one that's taken outside. So, again, we don't know a huge amount about it. This is the only scene we see in the past. And then when we do jump to 2016, we see that Jon is now in training beside Hal.

[00:16:50] So he's standing beside Hal as his apprentice almost. So it feels like this is setting up the fact that Jon is being trained by his father to become a Green Lantern. That's why he's asking that question of, are you afraid? To Jon, exactly the same question that Hal Jordan was asked and the only question he was asked to get the Green Lantern ring. So there's some intrigue there that hopefully we'll see a bit more of in the future as to why his father knows the question to ask, as to why he's prepping Jon for this role in 2016 and onwards.

[00:17:20] Well, and the interesting thing is, is then when it cuts to 2016, where you suddenly have the older Jon Stewart getting picked up by Hal as now his trainee, as his apprentice, his sidekick, however you want to describe it. You do have a lovely moment where he's like, I'm late. And he's like, are you angry? And he's like, no, sir. Are you a little perturbed? And he's like, no, sir.

[00:17:49] And he says, the more you say, sir, the more it sounds like F you. So immediately, this is a great adult show for sure. But interestingly, as they're driving along, you have a bit of tension between these two. It's like two months and I still haven't worn the ring.

[00:18:10] And so he takes off the ring, puts it on the counter and sort of barrel rolls out the car as the car heads over and down the ravine where Jon Stewart is having to grab the ring and bring forth some kind of protection. Yes. And he does that. But he does call his dad afterwards. And this is where you see that he is. So his dad is still around. And he's like, I've just survived a car crash. You tried to kill me.

[00:18:40] And, you know, he's like, he's just trying. His dad is just saying he's just trying to put you on tilt. You need to be cool. You know, stay the course and the job is yours. So, again, it's like back even in 1996, his dad saw an opportunity of him maybe to train him with the characteristics as for being chosen as a green mountain.

[00:19:10] But equally at the moment, maybe technically he's not. He is, yes, being trained. Yes, certainly in that extreme situation, he wore the green ring and he used it. It is seemingly that he has been chosen as a successor by the Green Lanterns, if I understand that. The Guardians of the Universe are the people that choose the lanterns. He says it.

[00:19:39] And, again, we have to kind of take it at face value for the moment because of these time shifts. We'll probably see a bit more of that in the future. But that's a really good point that you bring up because the interview on TV is a live interview on 60 Minutes where Hal is talking about his experience and saying he was only asked one question. So likely that John's father had access to the debrief that happened at some point with Hal before then because he was Green Lantern for about 10 years, it says, in that initial conversation.

[00:20:05] So he probably knows the background to it and has been preparing his kid to grow up to become the Green Lantern in case the opportunity comes up in the future. But one other quick thing that I want to bring up that you kind of mentioned there, when Hal arrives and he keeps pressuring John to find out whether he's angry or not, I thought that was quite interesting given the show itself and given the lanterns and all of them being connected to moods.

[00:20:28] And the angry mood is the yellow ring, which are traditionally the yellow lanterns, which are foes of the Green Lanterns. It's like Sinestro. Yeah. So, yeah. So, it's all. Yeah. Again, very, very basic knowledge of this. And don't cry. If you want to send in your thoughts, of course, our wonderful listeners, please help us out with piecing these things together. Indeed. I just found it interesting that Hal was pushing John towards being angry at him.

[00:20:54] You know, he tells him, you know, I'd be pretty angry if I left you on your own for two weeks without any information at all as to where I was. Turned up a little hungover this morning because I prevented a civil war. And John's asking him, how did you do that? And he goes, oh, the usual. Well, you know how it is. A little diplomacy, a little punching. And John's kind of going, I don't know how it is because you haven't told me anything about that at all. We're off to a flying lesson, which is probably the first real lesson you're about to give him. And the flying lesson turns out to be him in a car flying off the edge of a cliff and having to work out a way out of the car.

[00:21:24] I love the fact that he's like, there's a taco stand three kilometers up the road. I'll see you there. And he just barrel rolls out. And, I mean, you're right. I think actually all the way through this, despite all his best efforts, you see how trying to rile up John Stewart. And actually, John Stewart is relatively chilled around him. Like there's moments where... No, it's not that he loses his cool. Yeah, no, he is. But that's what I mean.

[00:21:53] He's quite deliberate about how he responds to Hal Jordan. Because he understands the difference of this, you know, deliberate intention to rile him up. The time where he needs his father to calm down, and it might be the reason why he calls him, is where he survives the car crash. And he shouts it at Hal's face. You know, you tried to kill me. What are you doing?

[00:22:23] John Stewart certainly is very measured with Hal Jordan. I think, you know, there are moments where... I think it's in Rushville where he's asked, do you respect him? Do you respect someone like that who literally just got handed something? No training, like you're having to go through. None of this. Suddenly it just falls in his lap. And look at him. Look how he treats you. Do you respect someone like that?

[00:22:51] And he's like, well, yeah, I do actually. You know, he's got a resolve about him. And so I do think it's kind of an interesting relationship. It's almost... It's that apprenticeship where you might not actually like your boss, but you realize you're going to get a good job out of it. And you're going to get trained in the skills.

[00:23:17] Except the thing is, the training that John Stewart is getting is with a very grumpy Hal, as we see in this opening sequence.

[00:23:29] And this becomes very apparent with John Stewart, because you get Hal Jordan's backup consciousness suddenly materializing on the road as John Stewart's trying to get to the taco stand. And I do like the fact that holographic Hal Jordan is like, wouldn't I have trained you on this? And he's like... You've played there, yeah. Yeah.

[00:23:58] It's like, well, no, you haven't. Yeah. Oh, and what do you mean you don't know this? Wouldn't I have trained you on this? Or told you about that? And all that. I kind of like that. And then it's like, when were you last backed up? We're supposed to do it once a week, but this is from 10 years ago. Exactly. From 1996. So you're kind of like going, you know, this is... You can imagine this... Sorry, that's my 10 years. Yes. You can really imagine this sort of testing.

[00:24:28] John Stewart, who, looking back, has been trained since he was a young kid with his dad shooting apples off his head. And here's someone who's like, yeah, you know, he's just suddenly realized he's supposed to sort of keep his record once a week and hasn't done it for the last 10 years. But he comes with then this message. Yeah. Yeah. But it's so interesting seeing this other version of Hal.

[00:24:55] And I think that version would have got on really well with John Stewart. You know, he would have trained him well. He would have set everything up. You know, again, interesting that you point out. And don't want to miss it in the shuffle of everything else that's going on in the episode. John says to him he should have been backed up every week in case anything happens. Because, again, the premise of the whole Green Lantern story is the initial lantern for that sector came to Earth, handed over his ring to an Earthling who's not supposed to be the Green Lantern in the sector.

[00:25:24] But he was chosen Hal Jordan. And then eventually Hal Jordan will die and will pass on to somebody else. That's built in. That's baked into the whole story of the Green Lanterns. And this older version of John Stewart knew that. This current version of John Stewart in 2016 thinks he's going to live forever and says there's no chance you're taking over from me. I'm not dying anytime soon, basically. That's why he's not training John Stewart. So that's really interesting.

[00:25:48] And also another little touch there from Hal, this older version of Hal who appears as the hologram, as brilliantly named by John. He says it's not normal for a lantern to be training a trainee from their own sector either. So you don't train the person that's coming up to take on the job from you in the future. You maybe train someone from another sector to take on the lantern position over there, but you don't do that.

[00:26:16] And John here has been chosen to take over from him. Yeah, I like the interaction here where it's like holographic Hal is, well, how do I know I can trust you? And he's like, do we get along? And you just have John Stewart going, we get on great. And you just, the face on it is really good. But with that, he does get this message.

[00:26:43] There's hail in Rushville, Nebraska, which back at the taco stand, despite being swamped by fans in the...

[00:26:53] And I like the fact that you've got a little moment where Hal approaches, you know, the tight suit that would be reminiscent of the comics and why he's not in some very tight-fitting, very revealing leotard. I know he's an older Hal Jordan, but he says, well, I completely get him with the tie analogy.

[00:27:22] He says, you know, when you're young, you need to prove yourself. So you put on a tie because you think people will respect you more. You know, you'll dress up smart. As you get older, as you get wiser, you realize that ties just don't prove anything. And that's all in response to being asked by the owner of the stand, how come you don't wear the suit anymore? Why don't you wear the leotard, the green leotard?

[00:27:47] This is a disenchanted and a disenfranchised version of Hal Jordan that we're seeing here. You know, his explanation that he's got here doesn't really ring true. He can create whatever type of suit he wants to create. That's the perp. That's the ability he has with the lantern. You can create anything within your imagination. So he could just create a suit that fit better than he liked wearing. Right. No, agreed. But he's saying, I don't need to prove myself because everywhere I go, everybody knows who I am. And I'm kind of tired of doing it almost is the feeling.

[00:28:16] But I do wonder just a little bit of speculation again on why Jon Stewart is being trained by Hal or put in the position to be trained by Hal. And I do wonder if the armed forces, whoever it is that his father works for, are concerned about Hal Jordan, the untrained person with no abilities other than being someone that doesn't have fear and was a former test pilot, getting the abilities of the Green Lantern.

[00:28:43] And they're trying to push Jon Stewart in the position to take over from him before they take out Hal Jordan. Yeah, that's an interesting point. And Jon, a person trained in the army. What do they say? Is he a former Air Force pilot or is he? Yeah, certainly his father was in Marines. So he's military. Yeah, he's certainly military. But I'm wondering whether they were trying to push Jon Stewart as a controlled person in the position of Hal Jordan, who isn't controllable, as we see throughout this episode as well. Absolutely.

[00:29:12] And there's actually quite a lot of those kind of touch points in this episode, like in the court scene in Rushville, where it's like, well, what agency are you from? And you have it with Sheriff Kerry Kane, where she's like, well, this is my jurisdiction. You only deal with extraterrestrials. And this is by definition is a terrestrial incident. It's happening here on Earth. So that's kind of it, isn't it? Like, he doesn't represent any agency.

[00:29:41] He is the agency responsible for dealing with any extraterrestrial threats. It looks like he's gotten the jurisdiction to deal with anything as long as it is extraterrestrial. I love that conversation with Kerry Kane, where she's saying, look, everybody knows who you are. And the minute you're involved in this, if you go in front of a TV camera, then this becomes aliens intent. I know all these people. This will ruin their lives or change their lives forever. Can I just get on with my investigation? And then if it does turn out to be in your jurisdiction, then you can have it. But it's not going to. This is just a simple situation.

[00:30:12] No, agreed. I mean, and I think in amongst kind of a lot of this, like at the taco stand as well, you know, he does get told this message from the 10-year-old Hal from Jon Stewart. And he's like, pay the check. And he just takes off flying. And I have to say, I love this little montage. I think this is what is really kind of great about this episode. You have him taking off.

[00:30:41] And then you just have this montage of Jon Stewart having to get in a car, go to the airport, get the security on the flight, back in the car. And it's like six hours plus to get to Rushville, where he's then, you know, on a football field, being treated sort of on the sidelines in the stand with the other shyser head.

[00:31:06] And effectively, as Kerry Kane says, I love that little moment of her conversation with her deputy. And it just not another one. Not another one. You know, really like that they're still processing the scene. But I love then that you have them both off the field of play, sort of benched, if you were, in the stand by the sheriff of Rushville. Because you don't have jurisdiction here.

[00:31:35] And, you know, I kind of like then how that sets up how this plays out, to be honest, on the football field. Because I do think it's really good. I just like the touches that come through this of actually sort of the slightly younger, more impulsive Jon Stewart.

[00:31:57] But maybe the more nuanced, actually, the wiser Hal Jordan, who realizes a lot of the same stuff that actually Sheriff Kerry Kane also realizes. And this notion that just because other people aren't Green Lanterns doesn't mean to say that they're not good enforcers. And I loved how that played out just here in this stadium. Yeah, it's a great lesson to learn, isn't it? That the people around you can teach you a lot just by their experience.

[00:32:26] And there's definitely a reason why the Green Lantern who flew here from another state has sat there for six hours respecting what the law enforcement officer was saying. And Jon takes it that he's just not respecting the chain of command. So he needs to tell her all the information that he has in his head. And he does. And it turns out, well, she knew all that all along. And now he's royally screwed up. You know, so it's a good lesson to learn. I really like that.

[00:32:51] We'll move on to that a bit more in our next major point because that is the next major point of the episode. But I just want to talk about a couple of little things on the setup as well. Last couple of things on the setup. Because one of the big things for the show is going to be how they use the ring. And I'll say for myself, I'm a big comic book fan, big fan of the animated shows of all comic book types.

[00:33:12] And one of the things that's always stood out to me about the Green Lantern stuff is the character himself, his power is that he has the power to use his lantern to create anything. And I always find I butt up against when they put him in a cartoon. And most of the time it's just a green light. And it's like a hammer. Yeah, but it's just very rare that the animators. Maybe it's very complex, of course, because you can do anything. But it's very rare the animators in the past have chosen something really interesting to do with the character.

[00:33:40] And it feels like you've got the entire imagination of everything available to you. And they tend to just have the Green Lantern holding people back with a big green ball. Yeah. So or a hammer to attack. Or a hammer. Or a big revolver. Yeah, but again, there's a couple of things. But it seems to go into those two or three options. But he can do absolutely anything. So it felt like in the show here we've only seen him use it a few times.

[00:34:05] We hear mention that Jon Stewart used it to create a bubble wrap for himself to stop himself from being hurt. We see him using the big green ball to stop an explosion later on. But interestingly, we also see him creating a $20 bill to use on a jukebox, which is very funny and called out immediately by Jon Stewart. Hang on a second. You can't create legal tender using it. I can create whatever I want to, which is really good.

[00:34:30] And also a bit of a chat up moment with even though he knows that the sheriff is married, a bit of a chat up moment with Sheriff Kane when he arrives at the beer, gives it to her and then goes and then goes and creates the bottle opener with it. Well, I think as well, the context of that from at the football stadium where you have Jon Stewart says, I think she hates your guts. And he's like, Hal Jordan's like, yeah, but it's the way she hates them.

[00:34:59] He really likes it. And so then you have this bottle opener moment where even when he gets rid of the bottle opener, he blows it as though it's dust. And it's like, she's like, how cool am I? He's so good. He's so good. A huge compliments for Kyle Chandler here playing Hal Jordan. I've loved him for years from back in the day when he was in Early Edition, which is a TV show that is out of most people's memory by this stage.

[00:35:27] But also he's in Friday Night Lights is probably where he's most well known, but he's been in loads and loads of projects. But you see the real charming version of the character in the, I suppose, the flashback version of Hal Jordan. You see this real grumpy older version of him here. And he just plays all of those different versions of himself really, really good. And up against him with Aaron Pierre as Jon Stewart. They work so well. And Kelly MacDonald here is really, really good.

[00:35:54] I loved, I just loved her perspective. I loved how she butted up against Hal Jordan and sort of questioned why Jon Stewart was with him in a sense. I just thought it was really, really good. Great. Yeah. The use of the ring so far is good. And I know it's a green ball, but actually it's just a dampening field. Well, yes. In a sense.

[00:36:20] Yeah, I was just trying to say that they do in the animated movies, they've always used kind of a green ball, a green glowing thing to stop it. And that's kind of, okay, use a bit more of your imagination because you can do anything with this ring. So hopefully we'll see loads of interesting stuff throughout the series. Or will we? Anything else about the setup, Jon, for the episode that we should talk about in that first ring point? Our first power point. Power ring point. I forgot already.

[00:36:46] I think the main one is we do have a really awkward situation, which is also hilarious. And again, I'm just so glad they did this. And it's done in a good way. Where in the bar you have Hal Jordan wanting to get arrested. He's angling for a fight. He's designing it and setting it up by putting on the same tune so it annoys the locals.

[00:37:16] And you have this lady at the bar. You're kind of questioning her motives because she's asking a few. She's just asking a lot of questions of Jon Stewart. How did you get to become a space cop? He's a space cop. You must be a space cop. She's also kind of there next to them both whilst you really get Hal Jordan's backstory here.

[00:37:44] You hear about him being handed this title of Green Lantern for this sector by Abin Sur. I think it's sector 2814 after he's kind of crashed.

[00:38:01] And because he was a fighter pilot, he kind of understood the bearing and the speed where he was taken to, which was just outside of this town in Rushville in Nebraska. Yeah. That's the reason why we're here. 20 miles outside the town, roughly. So you have a lot of information being done right in earshot of her.

[00:38:23] And he goes over then to sort of really get his plan into action to get arrested so he can sort of spend time in the jailhouse with the redneck from the football stadium. So they have their conversation and it finishes with, my name is Jon. And she goes, well, will you escort me to my car?

[00:38:44] And they have this one night stand out in the car where he does a great thing with the ring where he uses it as a lighter, which I never thought I would see. So again, another good use of the ring. I see.

[00:38:57] But effectively later at the McCann family farm or ranch, he's helping Kelly's Sheriff, Kerry Kane's son to sort of throw his American football. And then he gets introduced to the kid's granny, who is this same lady. So we do have a gilf, I guess.

[00:39:25] Or a ghlf, I guess, because I wouldn't be that interested. But yes. But yes, Zoe, Macon. I know it's really tempting when we see that word written down, Jon, to pronounce it in a kind of a French or Canadian way. But they are proper Dan home American. It's the Macons. Yeah. So really good, really interesting one.

[00:39:47] But I do wonder, I know the tropes would say that when he returns to town, 10 years later, Jon now has a son by the granny here in the house. But I doubt that's going to happen. I do wonder about that. And will that play into the story about the fact that he slept with the mother-in-law of the sheriff? Because there is a moment with Willie, with William Sr., where we realize that he knows about the fact that they slept together.

[00:40:15] So yeah, it's going to be an interesting one. And what an interesting moment as well. So quickly, William Macon, he does say there's nothing better than eating off another man's grill to Jon Stewart. Yes, he does. In terms of letting him know that he knows that he has had a one-night stand with his wife.

[00:40:39] And I do like Hal's response where he's like, what was all that about? Did you sleep with that? And he's like, yeah, I kind of. And then he's like, I definitely slept with his wife. And he's like, Jesus, I'm impressed. We've only been here 24 hours. How do you do that? Going into a town that you don't know anybody in. You know, they even point out a small town. Everybody here is connected. You don't go into town and sleep with somebody you don't know.

[00:41:06] And then especially if you're going to be investigating the town of population 50 probably. And so maybe a bit more than that. But yeah, really, really bad idea. So that probably will have. As you can in those kind of situations. It probably will have some implications. That'll be lasting. Let's get on to our second power ring point. Power ring point number two. Four.

[00:41:36] I might take off that last little bit. So it doesn't sound so much like a golf ball being struck. Because it probably was. It was probably the foley people designing that sound going. That sounds like the appearance of something out of nowhere. A golf ball being struck. Anyway, our second point is the alien invasion. Because that is the body of the episode. So the big central piece of the episode is they go to Macon Ranch. John Stewart and Hal Jordan.

[00:42:03] Kind of under the premise of chatting with the person that bailed Hal out. But there's some big discussions going on here. That we really should be focusing on. I think from this episode. Again, we're only seeing this episode just like everybody else. We're not looking at previews. So we don't know what's happening in the series itself. But we know that the people that are on the ranch seem kind of militia-like. They're all in training with their weapons. I don't think this is what happens in every single ranch in America.

[00:42:32] So it seems like they are focused on something here. And the conversation with William Macon Sr. Seems to indicate that they have a similar perspective. Or at least they think they do. To Hal Jordan about the presence of aliens on Earth. Played wonderfully here by Garrett Elhant from Fear the Walking Dead. One of the best characters on that show. Who chose to go out of there as quickly as he could. Well, before it went to really bad. How about that?

[00:43:02] He was there for about five seasons. Yeah, absolutely. But he's great here as the kind of leader of this group. But interestingly, he says that the ranch that's there. He's the caretaker of the ranch. Not the owner of the ranch. Yeah, I mean, all of this is really interesting. It was really intriguing as they drive up to the Macon family ranch. You know, it's heavily fortified. Lots of guns around. This kind of militia in training type of thing.

[00:43:31] You know, so immediately it's just like certainly in maybe the current circumstances. You're like going, okay, what's going on here? I mean, I do like that you have William Macon kind of saying, you know, I'm not a wackadoo isolationist. As he quotes, this isn't about having a beef with the feds. It is about the aliens.

[00:43:55] And, you know, he gives that sort of moment where he says, you know, no matter which size you're on, colonizing is ugly from any angle. But particularly bleak if you're the one being colonized.

[00:44:09] So, you know, making huge reference here to, you know, the indigenous American population to the white colonialism of the USA, of Spain, of Britain, of France, in North America. And, you know, but this is about aliens. We've suddenly become, you know, it's that classic with the bugs on their shoes. We're the outposts. And actually, you've heard this from Hal earlier in.

[00:44:39] This is like some kind of backwater of the galaxy. Yeah, Earth, yes.

[00:45:12] Some kind of force to stop a potential attack from happening. And as he said, well, then why do we need space cops? He also says, you know, I think our interests align because he believes that this redneck that was caught at the football stadium is also an alien. And, of course, he can't say anything because he has this NDA and it comes out in a really nice little moment where, you know, he's telling Hal.

[00:45:42] Well, Kerry will grant you access to the suspect now that our interests are aligned. And he says, but what are your interests? Because I don't know. And, you know, it's like he said to his son, to Billy McCann. My con is like normally when people give me lots of money, such as the 200,000 bail, they're normally the bad guys.

[00:46:07] So, I mean, maybe this is just pure flagging that these are bad guys. Maybe. And even you have, as they arrive at the ranch and you have moments with Kerry Kane where, you know, you've got, well, my father-in-law has paper on you and he's not a man that you want to owe.

[00:46:32] I do like Hal's sort of bite back to her where he goes, that sounds like a woman in debt. Yes. Such great. That's a really nice bit of writing for me. It is, yeah. Love that. Even like when she says to him, you know, we're at the moment where you can turn back. Every moment from this moment onwards is the point where you're stuck here. You're in the situation. Yeah. But from now on, from here back, you can turn around and go and leave. But you will question why you ever came here. And we'll see later on. Maybe he does.

[00:47:02] So, you know, this is all really massively intriguing. Ultimately, seemingly aligned with Hal Jordan, but also really murky with the NDA. Yeah. And even whilst they seem to be enjoying one another's company at this barbecue.

[00:47:24] But again, there's also, you know, a bit of ownership here with the fact that, yeah, because everyone knows everyone. So Hal has actually, before he's even gone to this barbecue, has interacted with the daughter-in-law, the son, who's the lawyer. And has been bailed out by this guy who has a lot of guns on his ranch and absolutely believes in aliens.

[00:47:48] And that there are issues for this area that Hal also believes in and is the reason why he's there. So this is, I really enjoyed this. And like I was saying before, where he tells the story of how he was brought around 20 miles away from Rushville by Abin Sur when he was made his replacement as the Green Lantern for this sector. Yes.

[00:48:16] And that's why he's always had this holographic reminder, effectively. There's hail in Rushville. Well, yes. Yes. It's like a monitor in case someone, something happens here. Because as he says, it's a really good location for an alien spacecraft to crash because nobody noticed it when he, when it crashed back then. So they may not notice another one. So maybe it'd be a good place for an invasion to, to begin as well.

[00:48:46] So, um, right. So let's talk a little bit about that itself, the alien invasion. So, um, as you say, Hal's granted access to talk to, um, this, uh, alien known as Waylon, uh, who's, who's in there. He's given the opportunity to have, uh, to have a discussion or an interrogation with him, but is told he can't use any of his powers on him. He's not allowed to punch him. He's not allowed to hit him. Uh, he's not allowed to do anything to him. And he says, well, I'll make him confess in just five minutes, basically. Uh, we hear a little bit of the story as well.

[00:49:14] And I'm not really too sure whether I get exactly what happened. It sounds like there was a, uh, a football match going on. Some, um, rival teams were involved. The local town team were there. Some of the rival, uh, rivals went onto the pitch and all died in a shootout. Um, but was it at the hands of this guy, Waylon? Did he shoot the people that were there or not? I'm not sure whether that was the case. Like John Stewart's asked to kind of describe the scene by how, you know, what happens.

[00:49:42] And so you have this kind of, it's almost like forensic procedural that John Stewart gets into. It's very cool. Yeah. Where he says, um, you know, it looks like Rushville who are placing, uh, who are playing against Kimball, um, a rival team from two hours away. Um, they scored a late winner.

[00:50:04] And the crowd swelled and went onto the pitch and members of Kimball's, uh, away or traveling fans also went on. Yeah. And that this then ended up with a number of them being shot. Yeah. And the redneck here changed out his Kimball t-shirt. Um, and I'm suspecting it's coming from the Macan militia in some respect.

[00:50:28] If he believes that that man is an alien, maybe he also knew something around why and why he killed these people. Maybe. Yeah, maybe. Because they were also aliens. Yeah. Because what we do find out here is that there's about, what, 14 alien species that can't be identified as alien from medical tests on Earth. Yeah.

[00:50:52] And so, um, this Waylon looks absolutely like a regular human being. Interesting. Certainly starts out like that. Um, Kerry Kane certainly thinks Hal's got the wrong end of the stick here. Mm. Um, she, you know. But it's a great little moment that they point out that nobody in town knows who any of the dead people are. Yes. Um, nobody recognizes them. I think Hal says it's very mellow for a mass shooting, isn't it?

[00:51:20] Yeah, so it's only members of the, uh, the supporters for the other team. But even the other team don't know who the people were. Yeah, exactly. The people are coming to support them at this, at this town two hours away, which is just really interesting. So, so Hal sets about interrogating the way he does to find out whether he's an alien or not, because he's not really that interested in the shooting. Can I just say about the initial set up there? Oh, sure, yeah, of course. Um, because I do like the fact that, you know, classic softening him up in terms of that good cop where he offers him a coffee.

[00:51:50] Mm-hmm. Um, but he, he says, I imagine you want to phone home. Mm-hmm. I mean, get home, I mean. But I love that little E.T. reference right off the bat. Mm-hmm. Um, you know, and then after that, he starts quizzing him about his love of football. Yeah. U.S. presidents, Harry Potter, uh, you name it, um, as, uh, you know, he's trying to sort of really make the point that, yes, you know a lot about football. Mm-hmm.

[00:52:20] Um, but you seemingly are relatively nonchalant around Barrack of Boama for someone from, uh, small town Nebraska. Absolutely. Um, where the president has got some kind of, um, you know, controversy over his passport. Yeah. And, well, look, Harry Potter was the boy wizard, you idiot. Like, so I, I kind of like how it plays out. Yeah. Yeah. And I'm very smart of HBO to mention Harry Potter, their upcoming TV show. Yeah, exactly.

[00:52:49] Of course, on HBO, uh, next year. So everybody should know about that character, of course. Yeah. But I, like, I like that. That's, that's the point, isn't it? He, uh, he's finding out that this alien has been able to learn a ton of stuff about the thing that he's supposed to be focused on. Because those are the kind of questions you'll be asked about the truck that you came there in, about the town that you're from, about the distance between the two of them, about football. Oh, you're a football fan that traveled to a, to a minor league game or a college football game.

[00:53:17] Well, then you must know loads about NFL as well as college football games. Tell us all about it. Right. Um, so that's really smart. And then the twist is he doesn't know anything about the standard stuff that every average American would know about pop culture. Uh, and he gives them a couple of opportunities exactly to say, not only is it about Harry Potter, because not everybody would know about Harry Potter, but people would know about the president in 2016. They would know a lot more detail than he had some kind of issues with his, with his birth certificate. And they'd have an opinion about it. Not only that. Exactly.

[00:53:47] Exactly. And I love as well that whilst this is playing out, the opinions are very much coming from Kerry, Sheriff Kerry Kane in, in, in the little booth, uh, who's just in awe about how full of himself Hal is. And she's like, this is where she, she questions John Stewart about, you know, well, does, um, he respects him? And he's like, yes, I do. He's fearless. And she's like, he's not fearless. He's lonely. You know?

[00:54:16] Um, so I, I like that there's a lot of opinions coming from the booth that, uh, Hal isn't aware of as well. Absolutely. And it's not, it's not just lonely. He doesn't care about anybody. If you cared about one person, you would have fear that that person would be gone. Yeah. That's the way that she describes it. So that's really interesting, but it turns out he's right. And the conversation is really interesting from, from this Waylon alien, uh, who's basically saying, well, what if I am? Yeah. I love the fact that he's, yeah.

[00:54:45] As you say, it's like, what if hypothetically I am an alien? And he just starts reeling off the hypotheticals. I love this. Exactly. Well, I wouldn't be here for peace because, well, you're the peace protectors of the galaxy. So I'd want to avoid being anywhere around you. So I'm there maybe, maybe for the opposite of peace, namely war. I'm here for vengeance. Um, really, really interesting. So did he kill, as you had speculated earlier on, the other people that were on the pitch? Are they aliens?

[00:55:13] And he was out to kill them so that they didn't reveal the plot of the potential war that's coming. Is there a potential war coming even, you know, just what's the speculation here? But it all turns into a moment of, effectively, he's got a weapon of mass destruction, um, attached to his bones, attached to his skeleton. He's got a biometric neutron device, which he can control with his mind. Uh, but can't stop the beeping. Are we talking or exploding? Because it's, it's close to lunchtime. Yes.

[00:55:41] But he can't stop the beeping, uh, like it would have in any kind of bomb at all. And that's the indication, because beeping's really bad, um, that he's about to explode. So Hal's able to contain him using the powers of, uh, of his green lantern ring. Um, just an interesting question that was, that I, that I had after this. In the conversation between Waylon and Hal, when Hal's saying, well, if you explode, I'll just continue with the ring, with the power of my ring. Uh, he says, well, you've been here a couple of days. Did you bring your lantern with you to charge up the ring? Yeah.

[00:56:10] And I'm not sure what Hal's reaction to that was, whether he does have the lantern. Was he handed over the lantern when he got the power from Ebunsur? Or is this the first time he's heard about the lantern? Uh, but maybe not because he's traveled to space. So I'm sure he has. Yeah, and it's over 10 years. But has he, you know, he basically jumped up from that table at the opening of the episode, flew across state lines to get here because of the warning that he got. Didn't bring anything with him. So. Yeah, but it's 20 years, in fact. Yeah. No, I mean, did he.

[00:56:39] Arrive there without the lantern to power himself up. Maybe. You know, so if anything had gone really badly here, this could have been the last thing that he is able to do there by protecting the town from this explosion that could have wiped out the whole town is the speculation, at least that's that Whalen is saying. So Hal was kind of, what would be the word? He was kind of pretty, pretty risky to go to the town in case he needed a bit more power. Yeah, I mean. Without his lantern. Yeah.

[00:57:09] I suspect it's a good battery life on the charge up, but I don't know. That's the thing. Yeah. I don't know if I need to know. I think it's just every so often. Yes. It's a good reminder because he does need to get the charge up from the lantern. Yeah. Yeah. In the same way that you have the setup for Superman can do absolutely anything unless there's kryptonite around. The setup here for the lanterns is they could do absolutely anything in their imagination, but it is powered and does need to be recharged. Exactly.

[00:57:40] With the lantern, but and Hal didn't bring it with him, which is the interesting part there as well. Yeah. So we will see how that plays out. Well, in fact, we haven't seen the lantern at all. We haven't. In this show so far. And we also didn't hear the oath of the lanterns until it was spoken by Waylon here in a really jokey kind of way. Well, the wind up way. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. I was saying to John, one of the things that I'm sure lanterns fans wanted to hear in

[00:58:09] a TV show and they want to hear in the movie is the oath being spoken by the characters because it's so central to the characters that they say this oath before doing a massive act. And here it's spoken by the bad guy of the episode in a really disparaging way. And I'm really glad that they chose that as the way to deliver it for the first time, to deliver the lantern oath, because it can seem really odd when not in the comic book.

[00:58:37] When it's in the comic book, you read it whatever way you read it. You read through it. You know what it is the minute it starts. So you can just pass over it. You know what they're going to say, basically. But that's it. Whereas they have to deliver it in a TV show and choosing to deliver it through Waylon effectively taking the piss out of Hal Jordan worked really well for me. I think the context of it at the end of his hypothetical statement, in a sense, to Hal

[00:59:04] Jordan is really good because, like you say, he's talking about the exact opposite of it. He says, you know, what if I am an alien? What if I am an alien that has studied all the arcane rules of football that captivates everyone on this world more than their deteriorating atmosphere or the hungry of this world? You know, if I've gone to such lengths to hide myself, if I'm hypothetically an alien,

[00:59:31] you know, it's for a very important and sensitive reason and goal to keep hidden from a galactic organization like yours that's intent on peace as it concerns the opposite of that being war. And it says, you know, with Hal, why are you here? Why else? Vengeance. And then you have the opposite of that, which is this proposition that the Guardians have,

[00:59:59] you know, their mission and being recounted to them by this guy who's basically saying, I am the opposite of what you are. So it is. I think it's just a really, it's just a fresh way of doing it and it puts it into a more sinister context. Exactly. And I think that's really good. Yeah, exactly. That's kind of the majority of the alien invasion part of this episode. I'm sure that's going to be one of the big things that will play out for the rest of the season.

[01:00:28] But let's go on to our powering point number three for our final big moments. It's a three word. So the episode ends in 2026. So our final point is the mystery. John Stewart is called back to the town of Rushville. We see him going, driving through past the former Macon Ranch. It's fallen to complete rack and ruin, hasn't it?

[01:00:57] Yeah, it's really interesting. I mean, one of the things that we were saying as they are approached for the barbecue was, oh, what's above the gate? Yeah. And I think, you know, we kind of thought it said study the past. That's absolutely what it says, I'm sure. Yeah. On the gate. Yeah. So it would be interesting if that has any sort of meaning for any of this. But yeah, the mystery side of this, even just the atmosphere of, you know,

[01:01:25] John Stewart driving to Rushville in the snow, going past this desolate sort of gatehouse that had been there previously as he meets, you know, the sheriff in town. But it feels really atmospheric. It's at night. You know, you have the snow coming down and so on. So I really kind of like this sort of introduction to the present day. Yeah. Within this episode. And the big moment, really.

[01:01:52] It's back in the same football stand that they were in back in 2016. There's definitely a moment between Sheriff Kane and John Stewart. You know, they haven't seen each other in a while, but they're friends now after what happened back in 2016, definitely. But maybe another couple of moments over the course of the last couple of years. And he's been called because Hal Jordan's body has been found pretty much in the same place he was back in 2016. The only person that knows about it is the caretaker.

[01:02:20] But he's there with a bullet hole in his head and the body is dead. Yeah. And seemingly frozen. It's covered in snow. Yeah. As you say, just the sort of the dried, frozen blood on his head. But importantly, there is no ring on his finger. Yes. The Green Lantern ring is not anywhere to be seen here. And two important things about that.

[01:02:47] Number one, John Stewart drove into town and wasn't wearing the ring to come in here. He didn't fly in. And secondly, he doesn't have the ring. So the ring didn't go to John Stewart when Hal died, which was what you'd expect if Hal Jordan is there and he's been he's been killed. You'd expect his Green Lantern ring to disappear off to the next person chosen, which was supposed to be John Stewart. So why didn't it? Is this Hal Jordan's actual body?

[01:03:14] Is it an alien posing as the human Hal Jordan to say he's under threat in 2026? Maybe it's that. Maybe that's the mystery. I don't know. Is that the final time Cal Chandler is going to be appearing in the show and Hal Jordan won't be in the show at all? Maybe. Maybe. Will he be there as the hologram or as you've written down the halogram? I would think as John Stewart said it. I'm not going to take any credit for it. I missed that. I completely missed that.

[01:03:41] Maybe because it is such an awful thing. It's the moment in the bar when John Stewart asks him. So I had the hologram in front of me and Hal goes, that's really smart. He goes, thank you. He goes, not that smart. I missed that one. So I wonder, will we just see Cal Chandler in flashbacks and the setup to this? What happened between when he got the powers in the 80s up until 1996 around this town? Because that's where he got the powers. Is the whole season a flashback? I mean, is it ultimately going to lead to this point?

[01:04:10] We're being shown the end result of something. Or at least, you know, till maybe half the way or three quarters of the way through. And you then have the dealing with the consequences of finding Hal Jordan ringless and frozen and dead in a small town football stadium. Or, as I say, maybe because I literally just came up with that while we were sitting here.

[01:04:40] Or, as I say, will Hal Jordan arrive with his green lantern ring from outer space when he was off at another adventure and he's been around all the time? And this is an alien taking on his form. We know aliens can look like humans. Fourteen different species can cover themselves up like that. So maybe somebody's saying there's a threat in his life and we'll just see Cal Chandler next episode of Hal Jordan. We don't know because we have the next episode coming out next week. As the way all good TV shows do. Exactly.

[01:05:10] Is there any notes for the episode? Anything else you want to talk about about the episode that we didn't talk about in our major points, John? Main one for me is because he's getting everywhere at the moment. But we see Carrie Christopher here who plays the young Noah McCann and who introduces Jon Stewart to his granny. Yeah. And that he still hasn't. And, you know, he's unaware of the birds and the bees and what's been going on between the two of them. Uh-huh. So he's the sheriff's son.

[01:05:40] But, yeah, this to me is the weapons and the Green Lantern crossover and, indeed, the Spider Noir crossover that I didn't know I needed. And so it's been a really sort of big year for him being in these different properties. Yeah. And, you know, I'm sure unless, again, he's in flashback or they've given him a huge amount of growth hormone.

[01:06:29] Mm-hmm. I think you're right to point it out, though. Carrie Christopher, again, been in so many big projects. He was the lead kid in weapons. So he was in most scenes in that movie. And he was in Spider Noir. And we felt when we were covering Spider Noir, which was the last full show that we covered this year, we felt his role had been cut a bit from that show because he was in about two or three episodes in a bit of a supporting role. But you felt that there were definitely moments when you could have seen a lot more of the character.

[01:06:58] So, again, I think we will be spending time over three different timelines throughout the season. It's a very Damon Lindelof thing to do. It's a very true detective thing to do as well. It's a very HBO show thing to do. So we probably will see Carrie Christopher, you don't cast a young actor like that, who's been in all of these kind of shows and movies in just a role where he's on screen for 10 seconds. So I suspect we're going to see different timelines across the season. Yeah, absolutely.

[01:07:24] Actually, when you say true detective, the whole Jon Stewart driving to Nashville in the snow felt very true detective. Certainly from the last main series or season, I should say, that I watched. Yeah. Same with Jodie Foster. Yeah, with Jodie Foster. So, yeah, that was a nice little touch, nice little atmospheric touch about it.

[01:07:50] And that is the one that Chris Mundy worked on and was executive producer on and directed episodes of or wrote episodes of. Sorry. So, yeah. So he's probably taking a little bit of inspiration from his other major HBO show as well. Excellent stuff. Jon, that's it for our chat all about Lanterns episode one. Thanks so much to our wonderful fellow Guardians, Lanterns and Gothamites for joining us for this episode. Any final thoughts on the episode? What kind of rating would you give this opener? Well, I really enjoyed this.

[01:08:19] I would give it five gilfs out of five. I thought this was a really good opener. I wasn't prepared for that and I was drinking water, Jon. Excellent. I absolutely love this introduction to a character I only at a very sort of broad level know about. It possibly is related to comic issues that I haven't seen or whatever.

[01:08:47] But this to me was a really fresh take on this character. And, you know, I'm coming at it from crossovers, you know, big event series where you happen to see the Green Lanterns and the basic lore and backstory of Hal Jordan. Yeah. And that sort of lore on a very basic level.

[01:09:17] But for me... And we did see the Ryan Reynolds movie, of course. Well, that's what I mean. Quite a long time ago. It wasn't that great a movie. Exactly. But for me, you know, I just liked this as a non-Green Lantern fan in that sense. You know, this introduced the character, introduced the fact that there can be more than one of them because, you know, Abin Sur has passed it over to Hal Jordan. Here, you know, it looks like they're passing it over to Jon Stewart. Maybe.

[01:09:47] Maybe. You know, maybe. Exactly. We don't actually know. And I just think the dialogue was sharp. It was witty. It was funny. I love the intrigue of William McCann. I love the small town vibe of the rednecks. The small town, everyone knows one another. Again, you have the gilf.

[01:10:11] You have the fact that the sheriff is married to the defense lawyer and probably knows the judge, etc. You know, all of this stuff. So it's really, really good. And I love the pitter-patter between Hal Jordan and Jon Stewart. I loved Kelly MacDonald here as the sheriff. So for me, yeah, five gilfs out of five. Fantastic. You gave me a weird look earlier on when I pointed out that it shouldn't be gilf.

[01:10:41] It should be g-h-l-f because it's a grammar he'd like to f rather than a grammar I'd like to f. Well, no, that's true. But you're using the right terminology. Yes. I'm not making any judgment on whether I would or whether I think. I'm just taking it from American Pie. Yeah, exactly. Fantastic. Good stuff. Yeah, really, really good opening episode. I'm really intrigued to see what happens for the rest of this season.

[01:11:09] So once again, delighted that we started covering this show. But I do think we need to go down for a drink to the Redneck Bar, Jon. Yes, indeed. Yeah, fellow Lanterns, fellow Quizzers, fellow Gothamites, welcome to the Redneck Rushville Bar Quiz. We are on episode one. So, of course, we start off with question one, which is,

[01:11:33] what song does Hal Jordan play multiple times to get the attention of the local pub patrons? It's played about five times, isn't it? In that scene. It certainly is. Should we give the little clue for maybe some Europeans that might have been watching the episode and some of the English and Irish people that may have been watching it? Yes, I think so. The song sounds very, very like another song from the 70s called...

[01:12:01] I've Got Myself a Brand New Combine Harvester. There you go. It's a similar tune to that. And I was laughing at it going, that's one of my least favorite songs. It was number one, the year I was born or the day I was born, actually. That's why I always remember it. But there's no way that Hal Jordan is playing, I've Got a Brand New Combine Harvester sung by a lady on here. So, yes, that's our tip. That's our tip. You can probably pick it out. John, do you want to give the question one more time? Absolutely.

[01:12:27] What song does Hal Jordan play multiple times to get the attention of the local pub patrons? Fantastic. That's the first question of eight questions for the season. Gather together all the correct answers at the end of the season. Email them in to us to feedback at tvpodcastindustries.com at the end of the season. And you could be in with a chance of getting your hands on some Lanterns goodies. I think with that, it brings us on to our wonderful feedback from our awesome fellow Lanterns. John, we've got a bit in after the first episode came out. Absolutely.

[01:12:55] First up, on email from Coffee and Vodka. Greetings, fellow roller skating defenders. After Craig Gillespie's admission of ignoring Supergirl's source material and the resultant tanking movie, the creators of Lanterns got in front with their talk of owning long boxes of Green Lantern comics and their love of the lore. Too sweet. And after just one episode, you can tell it wasn't just lip service.

[01:13:22] Even with the heavy HBO and true detective Midwest grounding, they weren't shy with showing Green Lantern's powers. So far, the best of both worlds. John's stoicism and Hal's weariness and weariness felt earned, rather than just scripted to fit the show. Kerry Kane, in short order, was fleshed out to a full character, rather than just making her a hostile sheriff, keen to keep our Lanterns out of the investigation.

[01:13:50] The backdrop, social commentary framing Earth and its inhabitants as backwater, avoided by the rest of the galaxy, completed the setting, making for something that felt solid and real. Even the bad guys, though only with their surface scratched, were as substantial as they were mysterious. 2026 has been a great year for TV, with Lanterns so far joining the standouts Wonder Man, Invincible and Spider Noir. Here's to hoping it continues.

[01:14:19] Five fabricated fivers, fast flings and frosty codgers out of five. Peace and take care. Coffee and vodka. Fantastic. Coffee and vodka. Yeah. I love your ratings once again. Yeah, absolutely. I couldn't agree with you more, actually. I think I didn't actually know that in terms of the admission from Craig Gillespie around sort of not taking on board the source material for Supergirl.

[01:14:48] And whilst I'm not going into that, I think like if you're doing a project on the basis of huge amounts of lore, then you've at least got to, you know, do your research basically as a creative, I think. Even if you may want to go in a completely different way. Yeah. Because the touch points are important. I mean, I always thought Nolan had a good sort of grasp

[01:15:16] of this on Batman, you know? And, you know, where he's like saying, well, how do you know what to take and how, you know, what you should put in? And he's like, you know, it is important to do your own thing, but you also have to respect that you are, in a sense, standing on the shoulders of giants because there's a huge amount of writing and creative wealth on this very character. Yeah. And I think what's,

[01:15:46] I suppose what's frustrating as comic book fans when somebody says, well, I just ignored it completely, is comic book writers do this every month. They jump into a character, maybe for the first time or for the first time after 20 years and they have to go, well, five other people are writing this character. What did they do with it? And they find their path there and then come up with a new story. And sometimes it's a brand new origin story with the character, but it still has to take elements of what people have written before because that's the character, right? Interestingly,

[01:16:15] Supergirl's movie was supposed to be based on the Tom King story of Supergirl, a very, very well-respected DC comic book. And Tom King is one of the writers here and one of the showrunners here on Lantern. So not only are they saying we're involved and have long boxes of Lantern's comics, they brought on board a comic book writer to be central to the team of creators on the show. So look, this is all in the world of Peter Safran and James Gunn. They thought they had something that would hit with an audience with Supergirl.

[01:16:44] I don't think they were trying to ignore the universe. I think they thought Craig Gillespie's take would be something that people would be interested in. And unfortunately, it just didn't land in the way that they hoped it would because they're really trying to land a whole universe here. And every setback they have in this universe is causing them issues getting the next thing greenlit and getting the next thing done. So I'm just hoping we're going to get great comic book movies. That's all I want is just great comic book stories brought to life whatever way they do them. This is another adaptation.

[01:17:14] There's no book called Lanterns which is set in this town telling the story the way they're telling it. And I'm just hoping it continues as well as it's started here. I guess as well, it's the context. I mean, you know, not many people reference Iron Man 2 much or dare I say it, Thor 2. They, yes, they made good money. But like now, it's everything that's compared to Endgame. Yeah. Whereas before that,

[01:17:44] it wasn't. Yeah. And so, but also people look back fondly when really, yes, if they want a choice of going through Iron Man 1, 2 or 3, certainly for me, 1, yes, and 3, yes. 2, I'll do it if I'm doing the trilogy. Well, yes, exactly. That was what was trying to set up the universe, wasn't it? It was the problem for 2, but it wasn't a great story on its own. And here we are at the start of a new universe, at the start of a new series,

[01:18:13] and they're setting up a great establishing story here for the world. But I'm sure there's going to be people that will be rubbed up the wrong way by what's happening here in this episode or what's going to happen in the story overall. But that happens with every single comic book story. You know, someone will pick up one book of Batman and say this is the best story ever created and the person beside will go, it destroyed everything that I liked about the character. Yeah, well, that is. And, you know, the people that loved Tim Burton's Batman don't necessarily like Christopher Nolan's Batman. Or the people that liked the Batman from the 60s

[01:18:43] don't like every other version after that, even though that was never. But that's the thing. It's like, I think you're right. It just, when you're starting off a creative project certainly as ambitious as the DCU-verse, then, you know. I'm just really surprised that anybody involved in that project would say I ignored the source material because you'd expect him to go, I ignored it because everybody else had my back. You know, maybe something like that. I'm the creator of a movie I need to come in and direct it and everybody else knows the source material

[01:19:12] and was keeping me on track would be the way you'd hope they'd say it. Absolutely. But, I mean, I think Coffee and Vodka absolutely agree with the sentiment here around this TV show, around the two main protagonists, around Jon Stewart and how they're captured here, how the world feels, how sort of the antagonist in Kerry Kane, at least at the moment, you know, the human antagonist, but at the same time, sort of the deeper mystery here

[01:19:41] of the alien antagonist with the, you know, the exploding Waylon. And so, yes, I totally agree. I think some really good TV here in this first episode. Absolutely. Let's move on over to our Facebook group at facebook.com slash groups slash TV podcast industries. A little bit of feedback over there. First up from Steve Brown, the wonderful Steve Brown, who says, I loved it. The mystery is definitely drawing me into this world. I can't wait to see the rest of the story play out

[01:20:11] in the multiple timelines. Excellent stuff, Steve. Wendy says, as a non-comic book reader, it felt like a lot of exposition and a bit slow at times, but the acting was great and I'm trying to have patience as it seems like they dropped us off in the middle of a story. Yeah, Wendy, I agree with you. That's definitely, that's the opening episode is all about the middle of almost three stories. Really, you know, you got the start of it, which is kind of dropping you off in how has been Green Lantern for a while, so we're hopefully going to see a bit of that. A bit of time when Hal and Jon Stewart are working together

[01:20:41] is the second story and then the third story being what's going on with Jon Stewart after the potential death of Hal Jordan. Interesting. So do you think that the season will sort of be varying amounts of those three sort of main chunks of a timeline? I think that's possible. Yeah, I think that's a great way to go, at least. And actually, Damien Lindelof, that it sounds about right. Yeah, yeah, it does kind of, it's his kind of style, isn't it? There's people that have been comparing this to

[01:21:11] The Watchmen, which he served as lead writer on, or leader of the writer's room, let's say, on, and that show started off with the death of a very well-known actor, probably the best-known actor in the show, and then told it backwards as to how they got to that point. And that's what people are suspecting this show will do, is how to get to this point in 2026. So, yeah, it'll be interesting to see how they're going to do it. But I think, yeah, you're supposed to feel a little disorientated, but hopefully, at least you're liking the characters

[01:21:40] and liking the acting because they're going to carry you through the story. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think the acting has been really good. And, like, you know, sometimes the overarching plot, there are nuances in the characters, the character interactions that, you know, sometimes can get overlooked where you're just looking at plot. Yeah. So, I think that's a really important point, Wendy, to say, you know, the acting here was really, really good. And I think to what Coffee and Vodka

[01:22:09] also said, this notion of the weariness, the weariness coupled to the stoicism of John Stewart, you know, is a really interesting character dynamic. You know, I get it, character dynamics might not always be what people are looking for in, you know, their weekly show or whatever. But, you know, it's why The Wire was such a great show. And that was its main bread and butter done really, really well, really effectively

[01:22:39] for a lot of people. Not everyone, but, you know, and I think hopefully, Wendy, yeah, the exposition helps sort of layer it in for the next few episodes. Good stuff. Thanks, Wendy, and thanks, Steve. Thanks, Jess. Yeah, over on Discord, we got a message from Joe Herbst who says, promising start. My wife was entertained, so that was a good sign. We watched Watchmen recently. Lindelof is involved in this too. And it's interesting

[01:23:08] to see some similarities in the setting. There you go. Yeah. Great stuff. Thanks, Joe. Yeah, I mean, the Watchmen one was really, really good and, I mean, opened up for me such, well, I mean, such a grim part of American history that I never had heard about before, which was the firebombing of sort of the black business district

[01:23:37] and neighborhoods in Oklahoma. Yeah. like, it was just so brutal and I love that this, that the Watchmen show did that and I thought Lindelof and the writing were really, really good at what they brought. It was such a fascinating series for me. It was brilliant, yeah. Yeah, so good. Absolutely brilliant. Again, with a property that people thought, how could you do a sequel to that? And it did such a brilliant job to do a sequel to one of the

[01:24:07] most well-known comic books of all time. Brilliant stuff. Thanks, Joe. Richard Blaze says, wow, this has all the hallmarks of being a classic, fantastic acting, intriguing story and just the right amount of mature grounding needed. Loved episode one and really can't wait to see where it now goes to tie up the 30 years covered in the show. Yeah, I think, yeah, I think I'm kind of on the same side that this is going to potentially take place over those different time periods that they've set up. Hopefully we'll see a bit of that in

[01:24:36] each of the episodes going forward. That'd be kind of a cool way to go, I think. Yeah, great stuff. Thanks, Richard. Paolo says, it didn't capture me completely, although I appreciate a move out of the usual metropolitan superhero setting. Clearly takes a lot from the now ubiquitous neo-western series sprouted by Yellowstone. It seems like they worked very hard in removing any comic book campiness, maybe as a contrast to Nathan Fillion's Guy Gardner. Do we know if he

[01:25:06] will appear here? Let's see how this proceeds. For now, it's a three out of five tofu stakes for me. Very good. Very good. We do know that Guy Gardner is going to appear in the show. Yeah, we will be seeing Nathan Fillion at some point during the series. IMDB has him listed for seven episodes because we knew he wasn't in the first episode, but I think that would be quite a lot to have that haircut on screen. Yeah, absolutely. So I suspect we will see him in a setting where we see lots of

[01:25:35] different lanterns of different types. Or maybe he comes to help in the investigation because he's another green lantern, isn't he? Yeah, absolutely. I think so, yeah. He is, isn't he? Yes, he is. Yeah, yeah, he is. So yes, he's another one of the green lanterns, so we hopefully will see him coming out in style because we love Nathan Fillion. He'll definitely add some more comedy to the show, right? He certainly will, but I mean, I hope it's, yeah, I guess they just need to be careful with that, to be honest. Because his haircut's distracting. It's just a disaster.

[01:26:06] It is in the comic books as well. It feels like a very James Gunn thing to do, to be honest. Yeah. Picking the character of Guy Gardner out of the comic books is a very James Gunn thing to do, definitely. And the haircut even probably is the basis of it. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. So I think they need to just make sure it fits the property. Not everything needs to be, and I love James Gunn. Of course. But not everything needs to do a James Gunn on it. Yeah. And so we'll see.

[01:26:35] But we know he's going to appear and we know he has that haircut. That's the character haircut. He can't just take it away because it's too funny with him on screen. Well, maybe you can wear a cowboy hat. Just wear a cowboy hat. Yeah, it'll be fine. Great stuff. Or if they made him look like, you know, no country for old men, that would be really good. Oh, there you go. Yeah, yeah. Dye it black and have him walking around like sugar with the gas gun. The air-powered rifle. There you go. Exactly. Great stuff. Thanks, Paolo. Thanks, Paolo.

[01:27:05] Kenlog says, true detective DC style. Really intrigued by the first episode. Have never read a Green Lantern comic, so I'm curious how different Hal Jordan's character is from his comic counterpart. Seems like this could be a fascinating mystery series that could set things up in the wider DC universe. Very good, Kenlog. I'll have to leave it to some of our other fellow DC fans. I know Richard Blaze is a big DC fan as well, so maybe he can give us a bit of a contrast as to how Hal Jordan is in the comics, but I know there's been plenty of

[01:27:34] takes of the character over the years, been around for many, many years, longer than I have even. So I know there's been many, many different takes, but yes, this version of Hal Jordan, I suspect, is a bit different than what you pick up in a Green Lantern comic, on an average version of Hal Jordan. Anyway, I suspect, because, yeah, he needs to be the hero, and here he's not looking like the hero that most people would follow, except when he's posing for photographs and selfies with everybody around him. There was something I meant to mention just when Wendy said about the show being a

[01:28:04] little slow and exposition heavy. That moment when Zoe Makin meets with Jon Stewart in the bar and she's asking questions, there was a point where I was going, is she an alien? Because the questions that she was asking and the fact that he was delivering all of this dialogue and exposition, I was going, there's nobody else that would ask these questions. I know it's a boring local town with, you know, with not much going on. These are the new guys in town, but nobody would ask all of those questions and get all of those answers.

[01:28:33] So I was thinking she was going to be a much bigger character that she was an alien and they would have to fight with her later on in the episode or something and then it turns out, no, no, Jon's just going to sleep with her and it's going to be someone from the most powerful family in town and yeah, that's probably is going to cause problems for them in the future. But I was going, this is going to turn out she's an alien. Absolutely. Excellent stuff. Thanks, Ken, for your feedback. We have one last piece of feedback in which just came in while we were recording the podcast.

[01:29:03] It came in from Philippe. Yes, Philippe says, has really enjoyed this episode. Very promising start. Jon Stewart has been my favourite Green Lantern ever since the Justice League animated series, so it's great to finally see him in live action. Also, I'm a huge Damon Lindelof fan going all the way back to Lost, the very first series I followed from start to finish. Fantastic. Excellent stuff, Philippe. Really glad you could get

[01:29:31] your thoughts in on this first episode of Lanterns. Lanterns. Absolutely. There you go. We'll ask you, Philippe, how different is Hal Jordan in the comic books to this version of Hal Jordan we see on TV? It would be kind of cool to hear your thoughts on that and what you think there. Great. I'm right there with you as well about Lost. I remember following along every single episode of that show as it was coming out to the point where the finale was airing in the US at I think it was 3 a.m. our time and I got up at 3 a.m.

[01:30:00] our time to sit on the couch and watch the finale and bawled my eyes out at the finale and how it all wrapped up because I thought it was absolutely wonderful and then had to go to work about three hours later. So after having a very emotional experience overnight I probably should have taken the day off. Absolutely. I think you should have done. Absolutely. If you want to get your feedback into us thanks to everybody who did for this episode just email us to feedback at tv podcast industries dot com or as I said go over to our Facebook group or

[01:30:29] discord and join us over there where we put up spoiler posts every week for the shows and movies that we cover. Yes of course as well fellow lanterns if you want to support the podcast you can head on over to patron just search tv podcast industries or buy me a coffee dot com where you just search for tv pi and you can donate your any support and to help with the running of the podcast but more importantly please share

[01:30:58] the podcast with your friends family and whoever else you want to and subscribe because sharing the podcast is of course sharing the love. Yes it is. And as well feedback is great support for the podcast so keep those great thoughts theories and observations coming in as well. Absolutely. We'll be back next week for a lanterns episode two. We don't know the name just yet for the episode and they're keeping that under wraps like most of the mystery for the season

[01:31:27] but hopefully one mystery is we will have our third host coming to join us for the next podcast. Chris is hopefully going to be joining us every Tuesday for our recordings of lanterns from next week. He couldn't join us for the first one and I don't want to be caught on this again so if it doesn't turn up next week he'll just be turning up as a surprise from next week. At some point. But he says he'll be here for his first dc show on tv podcast. That's true he's not a normal dc person so yeah well he's never made it

[01:31:57] for any of his dc shows. No. He does read lots of lots and lots of comics though. He does yeah absolutely. But yes thank you so much fellow lanterns for joining us as always until we come back for episode two keep watching keep listening and of course keep shining a light. Bye. Bye. Four. Bye.