I suppose that the best part of Black Lightening is that, from time to time, it throws some serious 1970s Funk at you, and that is honestly about the coolest thing that you can do with a show...or movie...or just in general. And it beats the heck out of modern music.
However, more so than any of the other Super Hero shows on the CW, it suffers HEAVILY under the mark of the CW. Just when you think it's going to take a good turn, the CW teenage focused melodrama is injected into it and takes the wind out of it's sails.
It would be forgivable if it happened once, but it seems to get neutered by the CW every time it takes what promises to be heading into a good direction. It could have dealt with race relations in an entertaining and dramatic manner...but then it turns into a CW manner and it turns into a melodrama.
It could have dealt with death is an entertaining, gripping, and dramatic way...and then abruptly turns to CW melodrama.
And those are just a couple of examples. it all adds up...and even though I can honestly say that it does deserve more than 1 star...the CW robbed it of it's potential too many times to sit down and watch.
Its like the CW is yelling "STOP! you're about to get gripping and realistic, remember your audience is a high school clique!"
I gave up. I can't watch it any longer...but I do believe that, if any other network (with the exception of Netflix) were to have picked this up, the show could have been very good.
