Looking Back on Black Lightning’s Powerful First Season

Yes, pun intended.

Black Lightning wowed with a first season that gave so much more than I expected. Looking back, there was so much that was so great about this show.

The Women

Nafessa Williams as Anissa Pierce. Photo by Mark Hill/The CW

Previously I wrote about how fantastic the women of the show are, and it only got better as the season progressed. Anissa’s Thunder is ready to fight the good fight and became a real superhero rather than a sidekick. It’s going to be exciting to see how Jennifer fits into the family dynamic as she explores her own powers. Lynn is forever bae, and it will be interesting to see how she finds her place as the odd one out in a family of metahumans.

I was sad to see Lady Eve and Tori go, but Kara looks to be more significant in season 2. She’s smart and caring, so we need to see how she got involved with such a shady organization. By the end of season 2 she’s either gonna go full baddy or we’ll see her switching sides.

The Baddies

No superhero can really shine if there isn’t a great villain. Black Lightning has spectacular baddies. Lady Eve was stone cold and not playing. Syonide is delightfully disturbed. I mean, the girl has carbon fiber under her skin! What? I loved Lala but was less into his return later in the season. And, given the way he was somewhat hastily dismissed, it seems like I’m not the only one who was losing interest. The idea of Lala being tormented by his past victims could have been great, but I think he was becoming a bit of a distraction, especially if we’ve got Payne Killer to be tormented by Tobias now.

Marvin “Krondon” Jones III as Tobias. Photo by Mark Hill/The CW

Speaking of Tobias, he is the quintessential bad guy. Originally, I was skeptical. I mean the harpoon thing is weird, right? It is such a complex and chilling character though, and Marvin Jones III makes Tobias so, so good. The show has a lot of talent, but Jones is just so good at being a baddy. Early on I thought he was going to be a conflicted bad guy, lashing out at the world due to the way he was tormented in the past. He is much, much more than that though. He’s a bad guy that can genuinely care for people in his life and still manifest a kind of hatred and calculated cruelty to provoke chills. I’m so glad he’s back, and I can’t wait to see him go full on Big Baddy in season 2.

The Music

Whether its an old class or something new, the music is great and well-curated. The refrain “I Can’t Breathe” in Mick Jenkins “Drowning” was so perfect and powerful, and “Family Affair” by Sly and The Family Stone was a perfect upbeat way to head into a new season. Godholly was the core of the soundtrack. “Can’t Go” set the scene for Lala’s return, and “Thunder” did a great job of spelling out what Thunder stands for, as well as drawing on real world injustices that would inspire her. When a show sends you to YouTube again and again to find songs, you know something is good.

The Family & Community

Christine Adams as Lynn. Photo by Mark Hill/The CW

The first half of the season was very focused on Freeland, and the second half moved more to an exploration of how Jefferson’s return to the suit affects his family, as well as how Anissa and Jennifer were being affected by powers of their own. I hope season two takes us back to the community a little bit more, but the community (and the culture) was well-represented throughout. Henderson looks like he’s ready to take on the 100 and other sinister forces in Freeland, and the community will certainly be affected by the return of the missing children. Side note: Who did Lynn take them to? I really hope it’s a past romantic interested because I don’t like to think that my favorite gal wasn’t doing her own romantic thing while she and Jefferson were apart.

The History/Culture

Anyone I’ve talked to about this show knows that I am extremely impressed by the conscious choices made in creating the characters and story for this show (Sorry, Melissa). Jefferson and Lynn are so well-though-out as parents. We see how deeply Khalil’s mother loves him and her pain when she finds out he’s returned. Lawanda showed us how difficult it is to protect a child from a cruel world, no matter how strong the love. There are wonderful and imperfect people in Freeland, but thankfully there weren’t a lot of characters that rely on tired and damaging tropes.

My absolute favorite thing is how well the show incorporates American history and the challenges we face in this country. There were clear references to Charlottesville and the push back against the drive to remove monuments to the Confederacy. Anissa participates in what looks a lot like a Black Lives Matter protest, and another becomes an opportunity for Tobias to try to turn Freeland against Black Lightning.

Tobias’ disparaging comments about the people of Freeland are a riff on internalized racism. Jefferson pushes students to succeed “by any means necessary,” and there’s a photo of King looking over Alvin Pierce’s shoulder as he teaches his son about non-violence. We see a young Jefferson running from police during riots following the shooting of young unarmed black man, which honestly could refer to any number of incidents, but also brings to mind the riots following the acquittal of LAPD officers in the shooting of Rodney king and related to the shooting of Latasha Harlins.

The entire season centered on scientific experimentation occurring in Freeland without the knowledge of the city’s residents and the kidnap of children for the purposes of medical experimentation. This reflects very real moments in our country’s history and even contemporary issues. The clearest correlation is to the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiments, which was a decades long medical experiment on an African American population that left hundreds untreated for a disease for which they were meant to be treated. Stuff You Missed in History has a great podcast on it, if you’d like to learn. You can read about another example in The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks or by looking into the seriously disturbing experiments done on slaves by James Marion Sims, the “father of modern gynecology.” The emergence of Greenlight in Freeland and its destructive impact on the community draws comparisons to the rise of crack cocaine and methamphetamines, as well as our current opioid crisis. If you had any doubt that Salim Akil and the rest of the team behind Black Lightning weren’t trying to tell you something, Martin Proctor’s “Let’s make America great again” is pretty convincing.

In season two we’ll get to see Jennifer in her own suit and find out what Tobias found in the briefcase. The return of the metahuman children could lead to some new characters and developments. Gambi and Jefferson will have to find their way back to family. One thing you can be sure of is that the Pierce family and Henderson will be on the trail of those who seek to harm Freeland and its residents.

Black Lighting will return with season 2 on the CW. Season 1 is available to stream on the CW app and Netflix.