(series review) [STREAMING] - Lanterns - Episode 7

 

 

The penultimate episode is upon us, and if modern TV history has taught us anything, this is where the major action and drama is. Shows used to save all the fireworks for a season finale cliffhanger, but post-Game of Thrones, episode nine (or its equivalent) is usually where the entire season’s gunpowder gets detonated, leaving the finale to deal with the fallout.

​Up to this point, the series has been methodically dropping breadcrumbs—who the Manhunter actually is, who killed Hal Jordan, and who we can’t trust for a second. But beneath all the sci-fi mystery, the show has quietly been exploring family dynamics: how we’re raised, what shapes us, and the baggage we refuse to drop as adults. This episode tackles those themes head-on, all while keeping the central mystery of Hal’s killer firmly under wraps.

​We open with a flashback: a young Hal Jordan sitting with his baseball coach, waiting on his dad. The fallout from that meeting leads to Hal’s father dropping some heavy wisdom on the importance of letting go. Cut to the present, where the "Hal-ogram" stands over  Hal (with an amazing transition shot). After a quick sync with John—who makes it clear he’s still single-mindedly focused on solving this case—the duo team up to crack the mystery. The catch? They’re running on a strictly limited ring battery, slapping a brutally tight "ticking clock" (yes, another one) onto the entire whodunit.

(series review) [STREAMING] - Lanterns - Episode 5

 

The thing about trailers for later episodes as a sneak peek or news of characters appearing in other media before a show they are currently in has finished airring, is that it takes away the stakes. It’s the prequel trap—when you already know a character survives to make it to the "sequel," every life-or-death scenario loses its punch. You’re just along for the ride because you know for a fact nobody important is dying. 

The main character here is not going to die. But this show is more than John not dying. This show is a what happened to Hal Jordan? Does John Stewart get the Green Lantern ring? Who are the bad guys? Why is Guy Gardner (yeah, why....) and what is it about this town that it has a big mystery surrounding it, what is it hiding and if the Guardians are involved somehow, how are the Guardians involved? This show is questions after questions, a relentless engine of answering one question only to hand you two more.

​The episode starts with a slow burn for the first ten minutes before kicking into overdrive and letting all hell break loose. As Laura Linney’s character states so accurately "I believe the appropriate word to describe today's events would be: shitstorm!"

​Hal leaves John locked in the car while he goes hunting for the Manhunter. With the timer expired, the entire town goes on high alert. Precision orbital beams start vaporizing the town to protect the cover-up, leaving Hal and John on desperate but separate, high-stakes missions—forced to navigate the chaos while their trust in each other completely erodes.

(series review) [STREAMING] - Lanterns - Episode 2

The last episode was great, and the show delivered its serious tone, with few jokes but plenty of mature themes and content, extremely well. In that pilot, we get little bits of information about Hal, the Green Lanterns, the town, John and the story that is slowly unfolding. The pacing was great and, by the end, the mystery was even better. So, considering where we left things, it was going to be very interesting to see where this second episode takes us.
Well... it doesn't disappoint.


We kick off this episode with Hal waking John up and sending him on an errand to fetch his things. Whilst John is off doing that, Hal continues his own investigative work, only to run into some trouble of his own. Meanwhile, John's seemingly simple errand doesn't exactly go to plan either, and he finds himself dealing with his own issues before he can make it back to Hal.
And this is where Lanterns continues to impress.

The second episode gives us more information about the Green Lanterns, the characters surrounding Hal and John, and the mystery at the centre of the story, but it doesn't feel like the show is dumping information on us just for the sake of it. Instead, we're getting small pieces of the puzzle while the investigation continues.

What I particularly like is that the show isn't rushing to give us answers. There is a real sense that something much bigger is happening underneath everything we are seeing, and the slower, investigative approach works incredibly well.

Two episodes in and Lanterns is doing exactly what it needs to do. The mystery is getting deeper, the characters are becoming more interesting, and I'm genuinely invested in finding out where this is all going.

So far, James Gunn's DCU is looking pretty damn good