Welcome to the Couch Club, our recurring column devoted to all things #DCTV! This week, Joseph McCabe unpacks the first three episodes of Lanterns and how the most recent, “OutKast,” reintroduces themes from John Stewart’s comic book debut.

SPOILER ALERT: The following column contains spoilers from the first three episodes of Lanterns.
 

Lanterns is the Green Lantern show fans of the fabled Emerald Gladiator didn’t know they needed. A character study of two of Earth’s best-known Green Lantern Corps members—John Stewart (played by Aaron Pierre) and Hal Jordan (played by Kyle Chandler)—in the guise of a police procedural that just happens to feature intergalactic space cops. The show sees Jordan serving as Stewart’s mentor, training him as an apprentice as they investigate a murder in the small town of Rushville, Nebraska. Along the way, they run afoul of the local police chief, Kerry Kane (Kelly Macdonald), her father-in-law William Macon (Garret Dillahunt) and his wife Zoe (Poorna Jagannathan), who bonds with the stoic Stewart. (Check out my earlier interview with all three of them for a bit more on Rushville’s wonderfully uncomfortable dynamic.)

Early reports compared HBO’s Lanterns to True Detective, another two-hander about a murder investigation in the hinterland with existential ramifications. But in its racial tension, it's more akin to Walter Hill’s 48 Hours—the original modern buddy-cop dramedy—while the dubious ethics of its mentoring police officer recall those of Denzel Washington’s Alonzo Harris in Antoine Fuqua’s Training Day. There’s also a bit of Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones’ quirky dynamic in Men in Black.

The show’s pilot episode—written by its creators, executive producers Damon Lindelof, Tom King and Chris Mundy (who also serves as showrunner)—begins in 2016, introducing the titular Lanterns as they receive a message from Hal’s power ring (a “Halogram”), which sends them to Rushville. There, they meet Kerry and her kooky in-laws. William and Zoe’s marriage is an open one, and so Mrs. Macon immediately hooks up with Stewart in a local bar. It’s only afterwards John learns she’s the wife of Rushville’s wealthiest and most xenophobic rancher. The town has suffered a mass shooting, and it’s revealed the suspect is an alien named Waylon Sanders, who winds up detonating himself. The episode ends in 2026 with an older John (now sporting the goatee he wore in TV’s animated Justice League Unlimited) returning to Rushville, where Kerry takes him to the dead body of Hal, his ring now missing.

Episode 2 (“Trust Fall”) opens with Hal sending John on a mission to Coast City to grab his power battery. As a key part of it, John must keep a power ring-constructed bird intact throughout the trip. For his troubles, John (and the bird) get kidnapped by Sanders’ fellow aliens, who are searching for a Manhunter they blame for the destruction of their people. (Longtime comic readers will recognize the synthetic Manhunters as the first peacekeeping force the Guardians of the Universe created before the Green Lantern Corps.) The alien leader, Antaan, gives John 48 hours to locate their target before they blow up Rushville. The episode ends with Hal donning his Green Lantern uniform and flying off to question Sinestro about the Manhunter.

Episode 3 (“OutKast”) reveals the heretofore tight-lipped John’s origin story. It turns out his father, John Sr. (Alphonse Nicholson), was once considered for membership in the Corps by the Guardians of the Universe but failed to meet their standard of fearlessness. Haunted by his rejection, he grows apart from his wife Bernadette (Jasmine Cephas Jones). She’s visited by a Guardian named Lianna (a typically outstanding Laura Linney), who suggests that while it’s too late for John Sr., their youngest son has the potential to be a Lantern.

After John Jr. turns five, Bernadette and her husband do what any responsible parent would do—they teach their son fearlessness by making him balance an apple on his head while they shoot it with a handgun in their backyard. (As it appears they live in the suburbs, I’m assuming all of their neighbors are extremely hard of hearing.) When John comes of age, he joins the Marine Corps, but an assassination mission on which he’s sent is thwarted by Hal. Despite his having done nothing wrong, this results in a dishonorable discharge for John, and after a stretch of time spent in despair, he enrolls in art school, in which he excels. Soon after, he’s recruited by Lianna and assigned to a disgruntled Hal as his apprentice.

More so than prior episodes, “OutKast” establishes the racial issue at the heart of Lanterns. “Do you know how unfair it is to ask a Black man on Earth if he’s afraid?” Bernadette asks Lianna early in the episode. And John indeed has to work so much harder than Hal to earn a proverbial seat at the Guardians’ table.

It’s a theme that may surprise some fans, since in recent years, race hasn’t been an issue between Hal and John in the comics. But it’s an issue that’s been a part of John’s character since he first appeared in Green Lantern #87. In making race a source of primary tension between its two leads, the show is akin to creator Tom King’s comic works, which frequently offer fresh takes on DC characters’ established personas and relationships. King’s work on Lanterns is balanced by co-creator Chris Mundy’s instincts, honed on gritty crime dramas like True Detective and Ozark (in which Linney also starred), as well as Damon Lindelof’s non-linear, trauma-fueled storytelling, demonstrated on The Leftovers and his sequel to Watchmen.

The resulting mix works wonders. Lanterns is compelling enough for new viewers and just enough in line with established lore for dedicated readers to breathe easy at its introduction of Green Lantern mythology into the Gunnverse. It’s buoyed by first-rate performances from the entire cast, especially Chandler and Pierre, who nail Hal and John. The series is just beginning and it’s unclear at this point where things are heading, but tension is building, the mystery of Rushville is deepening and our two Lanterns’ rivalry continues to heat up.
 

Lanterns, starring Aaron Pierre as John Stewart, airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on HBO and HBO Max.

Joseph McCabe writes about comics, film and superhero history for DC.com. Follow him on Instagram at @joe_mccabe_editor.

NOTE: The views and opinions expressed in this feature are solely those of Joseph McCabe and do not necessarily reflect those of DC or Warner Bros. Discovery, nor should they be read as confirmation or denial of future DC plans.