HBO just dropped the first episode of its most ambitious superhero gamble yet, and honestly? Lanterns is already the most interesting thing DC has done in years. Whether that interest translates to actual quality is still up for debate, but one thing is certain: Kyle Chandler is doing something magical with those eyebrows, and we are all witnesses.
The series premiere introduces us to Hal Jordan, a jaded, sarcastic Green Lantern played by Chandler with the exact energy of a man who has seen too much and cares too little. He’s paired with John Stewart, a trainee played by Aaron Pierre who responds to Hal’s chaos with the kind of rigid discipline that can only come from a childhood where your dad played William Tell with an apple and a handgun. Their dynamic is immediately tense, occasionally funny, and weirdly compelling despite the fact that they clearly hate each other.
Lanterns takes the bold approach of grounding its cosmic heroes in rural Nebraska, where a murder at a high school football game kicks off the central mystery. It’s a dusty, small-town detective story that just happens to involve alien-powered rings and intergalactic police protocols. The show is clearly aiming for a True Detective vibe, complete with multiple timelines and a sense of creeping dread. Does it fully land? Not exactly. But the ambition is undeniable, and the atmosphere is thick enough to cut with a knife.
The pacing is deliberate, to put it politely. Lanterns is a slow burn that trusts its audience to stick around for the long game. Some viewers will love the methodical unraveling of the mystery. Others will wonder why a show about space cops spends so much time in a Nebraska bar fight. Both reactions are valid. What saves the premiere from dragging is Chandler, who steals every scene with a performance that somehow makes grumpy seem charismatic. He’s the reason you’ll hit next episode, even when the plot feels like it’s moving through molasses.
There’s a lot riding on Lanterns. After a few DC streaming misfires and the divisive reaction to Supergirl, this show needs to prove that James Gunn’s universe can work on the small screen. The premiere doesn’t quite deliver a knockout punch, but it does enough to keep you curious. The final shot of the episode, which jumps to 2026 and reveals Hal Jordan’s frozen corpse sitting in a football stadium, is the kind of bonkers cliffhanger that guarantees you’ll be back for more. You don’t end an episode like that unless you’re confident people are coming back.
If you were expecting a traditional Green Lantern space opera, adjust your expectations immediately. Lanterns is doing something different, something weirder, and something that might actually work if it commits to its own strange rhythm. The premiere is messy, moody, and occasionally magnificent. That’s more than enough to earn a second episode. Let’s just hope the show figures out what it wants to be before Hal’s eyebrows run out of charm.
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