Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		3.0

Supergirl: The Complete Fourth Season Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman October 15, 2019

A cursory review of some internet lists (a la the standard operating procedure of sites like Buzzfeed and its kin) would suggest that there are a ton of popular female superheroes that fans adore, but I personally was kind of surprised that Supergirl didn’t make the top echelons of any list that I perused. That may account at least in part for the relative lack of attention that this television version of Supergirl (portrayed by Melissa Benoist) has received through the years, though that said, there must be some kind of loyal fanbase for this series since it managed to escape being jettisoned by CBS after its first season, and has survived if arguably not prospered at the CW for several seasons since then. That said, if another internet site purporting to be an online encyclopedia is to be believed, Supergirl’s audience numbers have been steadily dwindling almost from the get go, not all of which can be attributed to the relatively more meager “reach” of the CW when compared to CBS. Perhaps adding insult to injury is the fact that Supergirl is often marketed as part of the so-called “Arrowverse”, which would suggest, if maybe only subliminally, that a male superhero, namely Arrow of course, is the “real” focus of things.

Our reviews of previous seasons of Supergirl can be accessed by clicking on the following links:

Supergirl: The Complete First Season Blu-ray review

Supergirl: The Complete Second Season Blu-ray review

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

Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock lately (and who would blame you?), you are probably already too aware of how much newsprint and/or bandwidth has been given over to reports about “illegal aliens,” though this fourth season of Supergirl takes that idea to a perhaps more literal place. That provides one of the through lines of this season, offering showdowns with Ben Lockwood (Sam Witwer), who, like many other characters in the “Arrowverse”, ultimately has an alias, in this case Agent Liberty. The fact that Supergirl herself is an alien of course plays into all of this, but it’s perhaps notable that despite the “relevancy” of at least the subtext of this plot device, if not its actual execution or presentation in the series itself, this potentially compelling aspect never really delivers any truly visceral content, and in fact is at times ironically kind of cartoonishly handled. Still, it's obvious that Supergirl is attempting to ply some of the same "us vs. them" material that tends to show up in, say, some of the X-Men properties.

Agent Liberty has connections to Lex Luthor (Jon Cryer), adding to the villainy, and Lex himself becomes more central as the season progresses, but there’s a probably predictable reliance on other bad guys (and gals — this series, if nothing else, is an “equal opportunity employer” in both the heroine and villain categories). Too often the show goes in for silly standalone episodes, including hoary plot devices like characters switching bodies (which is part of this season’s “crossover” event called “Elseworlds”.

There’s an undeniable perkiness to a lot of Supergirl which is at least intermittently engaging, but the show seems increasingly tired and repetitive, this despite what is an obvious attempt to introduce some new characters this season in an apparent attempt to keep things "fresh". Fans who have followed Kara Danvers’ adventures thus far will probably find enough here to fitfully engage them, but I doubt even diehard followers of this show would place this particular season up very high in their own individual lists of favorite television versions of female superheroes.

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

Supergirl: The Complete Fourth Season is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Warner Brothers Home Entertainment with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. This season continues the generally okay if never quite completely spectacular looking high definition releases that WBHE has granted the series. Once again, bitrates are on the paltry side, perhaps leading to a diminution in fine detail levels at times, but what really struck me this season was some pretty shoddy looking CGI. It's so lackluster at times that I almost wondered if the special effects budget for the series had been seriously slashed. In non-effects sequences, detail levels tend to be quite good, and the palette pops appealingly. I didn't notice any major issues with aliasing on this season's episodes, and banding, while passingly noticeable during sudden changes in lighting conditions, never really rose to what I'd term to be objectionable levels.

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

Supergirl: The Complete Fourth Season features another workmanlike DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track, one that predictably tends to exhibit its best energy levels and surround activity during big action set pieces. There are some decent panning effects in some of the flying scenes, but surround activity is often offered via discrete channelization for individual effects like ambient environmental sounds. Dialogue is always rendered cleanly and clearly throughout this season.

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

Disc One

• Deleted Scenes (1080p; 2:28)


• Best of DC TV's Comic Con Panels San Diego 2018 (1080i; 1:00:59) is the same supplement offered previously on Arrow: The Complete Seventh Season , which probably only furthers that "adding insult to injury" aspect of this show being considered part of the "Arrowverse" that I mentioned above.

Disc Two

• Inside the Crossover: Elseworlds (1080p; 45:00) is, like the Best of DC TV's Comic Con Panels San Diego 2018, the very same supplement that was offered previously on Arrow: The Complete Seventh Season , though kind of weirdly (and slightly funnily), this one is a whole second shorter. As I stated in the Arrow: The Complete Seventh Season Blu-ray review , this is an enjoyable look at one of this season's calling cards, plus it has the added benefit of giving us a new made up word ("elseworlds") to compete with that aforementioned "Arrowverse" coinage. This also features some fun behind the scenes footage, but it also offers some informative sit down group conversations among producers and the like.


• Deleted Scenes (1080p; 3:01)

Disc Three

• Villains: Modes of Persuasion (1080p; 38:04) is rather incredibly the third supplement that was previously released on Arrow: The Complete Seventh Season , and it is once again kind of weirdly shorn of one solitary second in this version.


• Deleted Scenes (1080p; 6:35)

Disc Four

• Deleted Scenes (1080p; 10:27)


• Gag Reel (1080p; 7:28)

Note: My score above for the supplements on this release is the same I gave for Arrow: The Complete Seventh Season, but as should hopefully be obvious, for anyone who has already purchased that release, there's considerably less "new" bonus content here and so those individuals should probably downgrade my score accordingly.

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

Supergirl may occasionally leap buildings in a single bound like her more famous cousin, but this series seems increasingly earthbound, playing almost like a sitcom at times in terms of Kara's office environment. The whole "illegal alien" aspect is interesting in and of itself, but I found its development this season to be curiously uninvolving. Fans of the series will probably find enough here to warrant a purchase, and for them technical merits are generally solid.