Supergirl: The Complete Fifth Season Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		4.0
Overall		3.5

Supergirl: The Complete Fifth Season Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman January 29, 2021

One of the kind of goofily charming conceits of the old venerated Adventures of Superman series was how a simple pair of glasses and ordinary street clothes seemed to keep the series’ titular character well and truly disguised as Clark Kent. Something very similar has been at play with regard to Supergirl (the show and the character) and her alter ego, Kara Danvers (Melissa Benoist). What’s kind of humorous about this fifth season of the now long running series is how an increasing number of people seem to be aware that Kara Danvers is Supergirl, and in fact there’s a major running subplot this season about what that knowledge means for one supporting character, Lena Luthor (Katie McGrath). That infamous surname of Luthor might hint at the possibilities, but one of the fun if admittedly rote aspects to this series is how is plays with its own inherent genre tropes, which in this case means Lena can kind of toe a bizarrely fine line between being an archvillain and Kara’s BFF. Another major subplot of this season has to do with a kind of virtual reality program called Obsidian which users activate via special contact lenses they insert in their eyes. Suffice it to say, even putting that “virtual” part of virtual reality aside, all is not as it seems with regard to this technology. Supergirl continues to be often surprisingly engaging in its fifth year, even if you can kind of feel the writers starting to spin elements of an endgame (the series’ sixth season, which will be its last, is reportedly being shot now, though some delays due to the Covid-19 pandemic have also been reported, and in fact the virus evidently put the kibosh on the production of the proposed 20th episode of this season, which is why there were only 19 shot).

For those wanting to catch up on the adventures of Kara Zor-El in previous seasons of Supergirl on Blu-ray, please click on the following review links:

Supergirl: The Complete First Season Blu-ray review

Supergirl: The Complete Second Season Blu-ray review

Supergirl: The Complete Fourth Season Blu-ray review

(It appears that the third season of the series has yet to be officially reviewed.)

As silly as Supergirl undeniably is a lot of the time, it's also rather well written, at least within the confines of a show about a alien with superpowers fighting for truth, justice and the American Way (or something like that). One of the series' defining elements has been how it manages to inject some actual character development into often almost lunatic proceedings, and there are a number of fun and even touching turns Supergirl takes this year. If the on again, off again, friendship between Kara and Lena provides a through line of sorts, there are also moments given over to a whole glut of supporting characters, and the show is kind of refreshingly low key about potentially provocative elements like the sexual preferences of Alex Danvers (Chyler Leigh).

Aside from its rather numerous array of supporting characters, the series this year kind of takes potshots at a number of au courant issues. The whole Obsidian subplot is a clear critique of people becoming "addicted" to online activities, and the fact that a scheming entrepreneur named Andrea Rojas (Julie Gonzalo), the head of Obsidian, also takes over CatCo and attempts to remake its offerings into something more akin to tabloid journalism seems to be reflective of certain multimedia enterprises that survive courtesy of "page views" and "clicks", even if what's being clicked on and/or looked at is complete hogwash. Lena's use of an Alexa-like device to potentially wreak havoc on Supergirl is also perhaps offering a bit of subtextual commentary on modern life.

There are some fun cameos this season for those who pay close attention, and a number of "special guest stars" get to strut their stuff in recurring roles, notably Jon Cryer as Lex Luthor, Mitch Pileggi as Rama Khan and Thomas Lennon as Mister Mxyzptlk.

Supergirl: The Complete Fifth Season Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Supergirl: The Complete Fifth Season is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Warner Brothers Home Entertainment with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. This season is very much in line with some of the aspects I detailed in the Supergirl: The Complete Fourth Season Blu-ray review. I'd argue that some of the effects work this season has at least marginally better detail levels, but there is still noticeable softness not only in some VFX moments, but other shots, including a number of establishing shots that capture supposedly wide vistas. That said, the "normal" day to day side of things tends to offer very nice fine detail levels, with an appealingly saturated palette and no distracting compression anomalies.

Supergirl: The Complete Fifth Season Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Supergirl: The Complete Fifth Season features an often bombastic DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix that exploits some pretty rumbly LFE in virtually every episode. Surround activity is nicely consistent in all of the big effects sequences, and even some more "mundane" scenes like life at CatCo where there are a bunch of characters in one room offer good engagement of the side and rear channels. Dialogue is presented cleanly and clearly throughout this enjoyable track. Optional English subtitles are available.

Supergirl: The Complete Fifth Season Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Disc One

• Deleted Scenes (1080p; 5:18)

Note: The Deleted Scenes can be accessed in aggregate under the Deleted Scenes Menu, or via a little scissors icon next to each individual episode (which plays only deleted scenes from that particular episode).

Disc Two

• Deleted Scenes (1080p; 6:32)

Note: The Deleted Scenes can be accessed in aggregate under the Deleted Scenes Menu, or via a little scissors icon next to each individual episode (which plays only deleted scenes from that particular episode).

Disc Three

• Deleted Scenes (1080p; 4:16)

Note: The Deleted Scenes can be accessed in aggregate under the Deleted Scenes Menu, or via a little scissors icon next to each individual episode (which plays only deleted scenes from that particular episode).

Disc Four

• Deleted Scenes (1080p; 4:03)
  
  Note: The Deleted Scenes can be accessed in aggregate under the Deleted Scenes submenu (which on this disc is accessible under the general Extras menu), or via a little scissors icon next to each individual episode (which plays only deleted scenes from that particular episode).
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• The Best of DC TV's Comic-Con San Diego Panels 2019 (1080i; 51:05) features some fun moments with the casts of Arrow, The Flash, Black Lightning, Batwoman and Supergirl.


• Gag Reel (1080p; 7:38)

Disc Five offers all five episodes of this season's "crossover", Crisis On Infinite Earths, along with the following supplements:

• Crisis on Infinite Earths: The Architects Return (1080p; 11:55) is the first of several featurettes to offer some interesting interviews with various talking heads, here discussing aspects of the original comic book among other subjects.


• Crisis Management (1080p; 13:08) focuses on the efforts to bring as many DC characters as possible into the story.


• Crisis Past and Present: Kevin Conroy Bat Legend (1080p; 3:17) addresses the casting of Conroy as an older Bruce Wayne.


• Crisis Past and Present: Superman vs. Superman (1080p; 4:37) looks at the two different versions of the characters in the story.


• Characters in Crisis: Pariah (1080p; 4:20) is a brief overview of the role played by Tom Cavanagh.


• Characters in Crisis: The Anti-Monitor (1080p; 4:55) does similar service for the part played by LaMonica Garrett.

Supergirl: The Complete Fifth Season Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Vis a vis that whole "take off some glasses and adopt a new identity" conceit that is part of this particular corner of the DC Universe, one of the kind of cheeky aspects to this season is a "newfangled" technology whereby Kara removing her glasses actually causes her Supergirl outfit (now with pants instead of a skirt) to magically "grow" on her body. That at least removes the necessity of coming across ever harder to find phone booths in order to facilitate a quick change (and, yes, that's a joke). Supergirl continues to be surprisingly engaging in its fifth season, and this Blu-ray release offers solid technical merits and some enjoyable supplements. Recommended.