Lanterns Episode 1 Addresses One Major Fan Controversy Right Away

• Television
• Superhero Shows

In darkest day, in blackest spoilers: This article discusses major plot details from the series premiere of "Lanterns."

Trust is a hard thing to come by even in the best of times, so you can understand why fans have remained leery about the prospects of a Green Lantern show — especially one that isn't even called "Green Lantern." To be fair, HBO hasn't been anything other than straight shooters when it comes to what we can expect from "Lanterns." The latest DC installment has been touted from the start as a superhero twist on "True Detective," which paints a picture of a grounded, washed-out, and somewhat irreverent take on the property. The series premiere lives up to each and every one of those buzzwords, beginning and ending with a far more dour take on this world than anything else we've seen from James Gunn's rebooted universe.

But "Lanterns" co-creators Chris Mundy, Damon Lindelof, and Tom King haven't ignored the biggest criticism of their series in recent weeks: Where the heck is all the green? Their approach becomes readily apparent within the first 10 minutes or so. After spending an entire childhood preparing for this moment, Aaron Pierre's John Stewart is now under the tutelage of the fabled Green Lantern Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler). The only rub is, instead of being a gracious and generous mentor to his younger counterpart, this version of Hal is stubborn and sullen and in no mood to give up his power. Of course he doesn't bother wearing his suit.

But he wasn't always like this. The opening scene depicts a rookie (and digitally de-aged) Hal in all his glory. Optimistic. Heroic. And, yes, wearing green. Right away, "Lanterns" shows us why it deserved some benefit of the doubt all along.

Lanterns immediately gives fans exactly what they wanted -- sort of

Whatever else may come in the rest of the season, give "Lanterns" this much credit, at least: It definitely makes one heck of an entrance. The series premiere opens in 1996, as young John Stewart (Cairo Cash Lee) watches in pure awe while Hal Jordan announces himself to the world on an episode of "60 Minutes." Hal looks every inch the hero fans have been clamoring for all along: in his prime, innately selfless and inspiring, and sporting his famous green suit.

The fact that we only ever see this version of Hal on a TV set and only in the distant past — and nowhere else in the entire premiere — is as quintessentially Damon Lindelof as it gets, but it's awfully telling. It also has everything to do with the choice to portray this idealized Hal specifically through the eyes of young John. Read in a certain light, "Lanterns" is implicitly telling us that it's not necessarily wrong to yearn for our heroes to look and act like the heroes we build them up to be in our minds. It's just not always the reality of the situation, which is a fairly understandable worldview from one of the guys who gave us HBO's "Watchmen" series. "Lanterns" isn't afraid to go full comic book on us and embrace the green of it all. It's simply taking a more measured path to get there.

Whether this pays off or not, at least we're all on the same page now. Any good movie or show "teaches" its audience how to watch it and what to expect as soon as it can. "Lanterns" does so quite cleverly, setting up a Hal Jordan/John Stewart dynamic that we can't wait to see unfold.

There's a good reason behind Lantern's grounded, green-less aesthetic

Hey, don't shoot the messenger, but sometimes it pays to wait and actually watch a movie or show before raking it over the coals. Anyone paying attention to the various trailers for "Lanterns" was well within their rights to point out some worrying signs cropping up here and there — don't get me wrong. Compared to the bright and poppy vibes of James Gunn's "Superman" and even Craig Gillespie's "Supergirl," the HBO series seemed downright embarrassed to be associated with a flying, ring-conjuring superhero dressed in all green. Co-creator Damon Lindelof's off-the-cuff jokes about the goofy name certainly didn't help, either. But, at the risk of spouting clichés, maybe trusting the process would've been a good idea.

As it turns out, "Lanterns" makes a solid case for its specific visuals. After that opening scene with young John Stewart watching Hal Jordan on TV, we spend the rest of the hour adjusting to how much has changed in the intervening 20 years. Superheroes like Hal have become more like celebrities, and Hal's trajectory definitely resembles that of A-listers who've burned out, grown cynical, and have no interest in sharing the limelight. In what world would it make sense to see him sporting his green duds, saving squirrels from trees, and otherwise doing the right thing for the sake of it?

"Lanterns" makes it clear that John represents the idealism of the Green Lantern mantle, while Hal reflects the other side of the coin — which his shocking fate at the end of the episode underlines emphatically. We know the superhero action is coming eventually. But this is about the journey to get there, and that's a perfectly valid approach.

New episodes of "Lanterns" stream on HBO Max every Sunday.