Lanterns (2026)
Chris Mundy, Damon Lindelof, Tom King · DC Studios · Streamed on HBO Max★★½
Note: This review contains spoilers
First impressions, summary
I’ve been a fan of DC Comics characters for pretty much my entire life. I grew up watching Batman: The Animated Series, Superman: The Animated Series, and Justice League Unlimited. Unfortunately, despite DC having such rich lore, WB only ever seems to want to make Batman movies. So when I heard we were getting a Green Lantern TV series, I was immediately interested. The 2011 movie let me down badly, so I figured WB had learned its lesson and this might be the redemption the character desperately needed.When I learned it would be a grounded series, I was a little thrown off. Green Lantern is a galactic hero, and putting him in a grounded setting seems counterintuitive. But since this would be the Green Lantern for the fledgling DCU (DC’s answer to Marvel’s MCU), I figured there had to be a good story to tell.
Spearheaded by Chris Mundy, Damon Lindelof, and Tom King for HBO Max, Lanterns follows veteran Green Lantern Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler) and new recruit John Stewart (Aaron Pierre). They team up with local sheriff Kerry Kane (Kelly Macdonald) to investigate a murder in Rushville, Nebraska that is not what it seems. Hal is convinced the seemingly textbook case has extraterrestrial ties. At the same time, he has to reluctantly train John as a “backup,” when he knows he’s really training his own replacement.
What worked
The first half or so of the show has solid writing. There’s a reason those of us watching couldn’t wait for the next week’s episode. The pilot episode jumps ten years into the future and shows Hal’s dead body in the snow, and it hooked me right away. I was one of the many who didn’t believe he was actually dead (he was). It’s not a novel concept, but it’s a hell of a way to end a pilot.The cinematography is also pretty good. It’s nothing groundbreaking, but it’s miles better than your average CW superhero show. I really liked the neo-western vibe, too. It was probably wasted on a character like Green Lantern, but it was still cool in my opinion.
The best thing about the show is the cast, hands down. Kyle Chandler somehow made this weird, asshole version of Hal a likable character. He brings a charisma and wit that, for me, puts him close to the top of comic book performances. Aaron Pierre looks like he was ripped straight out of the JLU cartoon. He both looks the part and has the acting chops to possibly carry a GL movie. I did notice his native British accent does slip a few times, though. Kelly Macdonald shows great range, and her American accent is impeccable. The rest of the cast is also great in their roles. I do feel that Laura Linney was pretty underutilized though. I would have liked to see more of her.
As a slightly more than casual fan of the Green Lantern mythos, I appreciated the subtle easter eggs. My favorite was Hal’s password for his lantern safe, “Mogo doesn’t socialize”. This is the title of the 1985 Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons story that introduced Mogo, the Green Lantern who is a literal planet. The show also mentions Ch’p, the squirrel Green Lantern. There are a lot of little easter eggs like this sprinkled throughout to perk up the ears of GL fans.
What didn't
If you had asked me what I thought of Lanterns after the penultimate episode, I would have said it was one of the best DC shows of all time. Unfortunately, the finale completely dropped the ball. I wasn’t expecting a huge galactic battle, like many others were. I just wanted three things: a good wrap-up of the story’s loose ends, a way for Hal to live on (we can’t lose Kyle Chandler this early in the universe!), and for John to become a Green Lantern. The finale didn’t really deliver on any of them. Hal is truly dead, and he died in the dumbest possible way. John does end up with a ring, though he doesn't truly earn it. He has to trick Guy Gardner into stealing it from him and then powers it with a lantern made by Sinestro, but he never joins the Corps. In his own words, he becomes something more like an independent contractor. And plenty of questions are left hanging. How did Sinestro get broken out of jail? Why were the Guardians acting so out of character, and why did they have such a bone to pick with Hal? The show breaks the cardinal rule by telling more than it shows, and sometimes it doesn’t do either. I don’t need to be spoon fed my story, but I also need it to follow a logical structure.I will say I’m proud of myself for correctly predicting that Kerry was the one who shot Hal. I believe it was episode 5, when she shoots at him and he throws up a green construct shield. I knew it had to be her right at that moment. I actually didn’t hate the idea. I figured she did it to protect her son Noah. It was premeditated murder by an overprotective mom. I figured that was why she wanted to gain his trust after he got out of jail, to kill him, and then possibly to pin the murder on John. But the real reason is that she simply loses her temper and shoots him. That’s it. Nothing premeditated. Hal didn’t even threaten Noah. His last act of kindness was to offer Kerry to take both her and Noah to Guadalajara, Mexico to keep them safe. Premeditated makes her seem smarter, while an impulse kill just makes her seem like a loon.
The worst part is that Kerry doesn't go to jail for the murder. John simply says it’s not what Hal would have wanted, and everyone goes on with their merry day. I think the show tried to soften this with episode 7’s look at the Jordan family legacy, hinting that Hal may have been ready to die anyway. Even if that’s true, it doesn’t make his death something he chose, and it doesn’t let Kerry off the hook. It just didn’t sit right with me.
Beyond the finale, I hated that they used Hal Jordan as mere backstory for John’s origin. Hal was the first modern Green Lantern, not counting Alan Scott since he was never part of the Corps. I understand John was always meant to be the mainline Green Lantern, but that doesn’t mean Hal had to become cannon fodder. They could easily have had him retire, or sent him off on a mission halfway across the universe and left John in charge of Earth. There were a million things they could have done other than kill him. It also meant the two leads never got to make amends. Worst of all, his funeral only had three people there, only one of which knew him in his prime. It felt disrespectful that this would be his legacy. They couldn’t even let him go out as a hero and give him a big farewell.
At times there was too much antagonism between Hal and John. I was hoping that, in true buddy-cop fashion, they’d set their differences aside and become respected colleagues, if not friends. The show hinted at this a few times, showing that Hal was impressed with John even though he’d never admit it. Instead, John makes amends with a Halogram, a construct of Hal’s consciousness from ten years before the events in Rushville, which John can conjure up with the ring. That’s not the same thing.
There also wasn’t enough Lantern action. I know the show promoted itself as a grounded story, but I think the show was simply too grounded at times. It’s Green Lantern! Imagine a Superman show where he barely uses his powers because he can’t charge his cells with the sun. That works for an episode or two, but after a while you wonder why you’re even watching. I’m glad we at least got to see the suit in one episode, but it wasn’t enough for me. Honestly, the more grounded the show got, the more it felt like it was written for a different hero entirely. More on that below.
They basically pulled a The Last Jedi on the audience. Subverting expectations for the sake of subverting expectations and making our veteran hero a cynical jerk. James Gunn, you gotta do better.
Finally, more of a nitpick I think, but I would have liked to see more aliens on the show. I’m not a fan of making characters that are traditionally aliens look human, but I understand this was done for budget reasons.
Verdict
Lanterns is a flawed show, but overall, it did entertain me. It even made me want to go back and read some of the older GL stories. In that way, it deepened my knowledge of the character. If this had been an original series rather than a Green Lantern adaptation, I think it would have been a great sci-fi/neo-western show. But it strays a little too far from the source material, and that holds it back. Some people, myself included, think this story would have been much better suited to Martian Manhunter. (Not to be confused with the Manhunters from this show.) He’s also a galactic character like Green lantern, but his day job is traditionally a police detective, so he would have fit right in. The show is very rewatchable, so I’m not going to be too harsh on it. I’m between 2 and 3 stars, so I’ll split the difference at 2.5 stars. It has one of the worst season finales of all time, but I can't just give it a bad rating based on one episode. The rest of the season had some pretty cool moments that I have to give the production team props for. I’d also much rather watch this than the 2011 movie any day.I can’t wait to see John Stewart return in Man of Tomorrow next July, and if we get a second season, I hope it fixes many of this first season’s mistakes, or that it at least has more respect for the lore.
- Coming soon to Movie Talk - I will be rewriting the last episode of the show and possibly the entire season to hopefully address some, if not all, of my criticisms. After all it’s one thing to criticize and another to offer alternative solutions/ideas.
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