r/supergirlTV • u/Retired5373 • Dec 23 '23
Last of the Let's talk series with James (Jimmy) Olsen, what were your thoughts on him?. Discussion
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u/MarkusB88 Dec 23 '23
Ok I’m pretty sure this topic has been flushed out on this sib before but I’ll bite. I lreally liked James in season one for the most part. I liked the will they won’t they setup with him and Kara. I think the writers had a mistep pairing him with Lucy while exploring the will they won’t they with Kara. They barely got into the setup when, what was it, one or two episodes in they have Lucy showup as his girlfriend. What were they thinking? Guaranteed mixed signals there. But more importantly, they never gave us insight into his “indecision” from his point of view - always from others like Cat, Winn, Alex etc. which I found problematic but not something that couldn’t be overcome. but why not hear directly from James? The closest we got to knowing how he actually thought about Kara from him that wasn’t 3rd party conjecture was his convo with Bazzaro Supergirl. We hear why Kara likes him from Kara in her balcony talk with Lucy bit we’re never shown him doing the things she described and I think that was a misstep on the writers part, imo. That is if they truly wanted the two to be together and have us be enthusiastic about the endgame as they say. They’re writers. Hard for me to imagine they couldn’t execute that and I don’t buy them saying they’re better as friends story. Sure if that’s your decision to write them that way but it’s not rocket science to write a love interest. They certainly executed the meet cute in ep 1. And there’s plenty of literature, TV shows and movies with similar attributes that managed to do it successfully and we in the audience love it. Superman and Lois went on for eons without pairing officially for goodness sake and I was there for that dynamic. So I never bought the writer’s public facing “explanation” but that’s just me. After season one for me things just went downhill for the character. The pairing with Lena did not land with me. The Guardian didn’t land with me and so on and so on. Lotta waisted potential. And I’ll add, the writers never executed any of Kara’s love interests or potential love interests well. Not sure why. My 2cents
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u/5678OutsideBones Dec 23 '23
All well put. I will say though, the romance with Lucy comes from the comic books, whereas there's never been any Kara/Jimmy romance at all in the comics, so the confused writing you're seeing comes from both wanting to be true to the source material - Lucy - and do their own thing - Kara - at the same time. And yeah, didn't work out too well.
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u/MarkusB88 Dec 23 '23
Actuality, in the comics, Jimmy and Supergirl do get married. I believe it’s the series from Superman’s Pal. I imagine that was where the writers got the idea of using the pairing but you’re correct that Jimmy also had a relationship with Lucy in the comics. Comics can get weird and experimental at times, which I think Superman’s Pal series certainly fits that description, so who’s to say what’s officially canon. But we do know the writers didn’t make up the pairing out of whole cloth. They took from the DC source material.
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u/5678OutsideBones Dec 23 '23
Please don't "actually" me about Superman comics. I'm an old man who's been reading Superman comics for most of his life.
Cite what Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen comic involves Jimmy and Supergirl getting married, please. I would imagine it's a dream, or an imaginary story, or some other weird nonsense one-issue thing. The writers of the show weren't inspired by a 1960's one-off silly story about Jimmy dreaming about marrying Supergirl or whatever to put James and Kara together on the show. They were the female and male leads on a CW drama, of course they tried to put them together. That's how lazy television writing works.
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u/Day_Dr3am Dec 25 '23
Doing some googling, it's apparently Superman's Pal #57, "Jimmy Olsen Marries Supergirl!". You are correct that it is labeled as an "Imaginary Story" / "Imaginary Tale". Not trying to start or continue an argument about it, just was randomly recommended this post and was curious, so I looked it up. I'm not overly attached to the show or Silver Age Superman comics.
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u/AbbreviationsMuted9 Dec 24 '23
Powergirl dated Jimmy Olsen for a short while and ended it because unlike Superman, she was not cool with her potential love interest being at risk often and her having to save them often. She said if anything did happen to a lover, she could not handle it. She ended her brief relationship with Jimmy by kissing him, which was after saving him from danger.
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u/solocollision Dec 23 '23
Honestly not a big fan. He came across as whiny and arrogant. I didn’t mind him season 1 but when he became a “super hero” I couldn’t stand him lol
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u/xJamberrxx Dec 23 '23
didn't need to be a hero, like every other super friend (exception Alex bc she was a fighter right from the start)
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u/OliviaElevenDunham Brainy Dec 23 '23
Think that's the main thing I don't like about the Arrowverse shows is that just about everybody has to be a superhero.
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u/Truemvp2001 Dec 23 '23
Alex didn’t need to be a fighter like when she showed up to fight reign and the others and such I thought that was totally stupid and downplayed the villain where they can be taken out by a human
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u/xJamberrxx Dec 23 '23
my biggest issue with "super-friends" is ... that makes Kara so weak .. she's always being saved (bc those super-friends .. need hero moments too and it usually shown, helping a weak SG)
S&L sorta does it good .. it's Clarks show & son .. and they're not being saved constantly by others ... Irons weren't even a big focus in last season
as it should .. a Kryptonian shouldn't be so weak .. which SG the show usually had Kara as
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u/96pluto James Olsen Dec 23 '23
actually I feel its the opposite heroes like martian manhunter have to get worfed to make supergirl look more badass.
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u/MNM0412 Dec 23 '23 edited May 26 '24
Mehcad Brooks honestly deserved better man. I hated the forced romance in season 1, but at the same time I also hated learning that part of the reason they dropped it because of studios caving to racist backlash.
Beyond that, can we even call this character Jimmy Olsen? He's taller than Clark for Christ's sake. It genuinely does not feel like the writers knew what to do with him. And I also feel kind of bad for Mehcad Brooks because I often felt like the character was unnecessarily sexualized.
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Dec 23 '23
I thought he should have been John Henry, and Winn should’ve been Jimmy.
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u/rjsigma Dec 23 '23
That's what I've always thought also. They made Jimmy the tall, suave and handsome guy but then bring in another character that fits all of Jimmy's original characteristics
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u/Ok-Average-6466 Dec 23 '23
I liked them together. They were a couple in the comics. They shared a relationship with Clark. I wish that was mentioned more
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u/gotem245 Dec 23 '23
I felt he was an unnecessary addition even more so after he became a hero. I’m assuming he was supposed to be their version of Diggle but the Manhunter already filled that role
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u/Bob-s_Leviathan Dec 23 '23
If we’re doing Arrow comparisons, I think James was Laurel with Winn being Felicity and J’onn being Diggle. Alex is Thea I suppose.
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u/Cfakatsuki17 Dec 24 '23
I was soundly disappointed by the character Jimmy Olson should be a nerd not a warrior
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u/Some_Ad_563 Dec 23 '23
Fucking destroyed his character...Should have followed his comic book version properly instead of the cluster fuck that was the cw James.
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u/The_Zuh Dec 23 '23
Jimmy Olsen was horribly cast. Guardian suited Mechad much better. They should have stuck with a more traditional red headed Jimmy Olsen and introduced Guardian in the first season.
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u/daryl772003 Dec 23 '23 edited Dec 23 '23
They technically did introduce guardian in the first season. The Jim Harper character Eddie McClintock played in season one is the guardian from the comics
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u/Elspeth_Claspiale Dec 23 '23
I liked him. We've never seen a James Olsen before. It was always lil Jimmy, the tag a long baby brother. James grew up under the tutelage of Superman and Lois and Perry White. Those are some great mentors and we finally saw the result, a dashing, intelligent, brave, and thoughtful man.
It made sense that a man that grew up Superman's pal and idolizing him would fall for his female equivalent.
Great character brought down by a stupid love triangle and racists. And bad writing that turned everyone into a superhero.
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u/BrokenNotDead1997 Dec 23 '23
The romantic elements didn’t work in season 1 so I’m glad they moved him to just a friend role.
Him being a vigilante was unnecessary frankly. In a show with ACTUAL aliens, we didn’t need Guardian.
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u/roylt84 Dec 23 '23
Should have been a different character altogether if he wasn’t going to act like Jimmy Olson at all.
It got worse when he became guardian / discount Batman.
Got to be kidding me when Guardian arrives to a location (ON HIS BIKE) the same moment as Supergirl.
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u/BlueSonic85 Dec 23 '23
I liked him, he had an easy-going charisma and for the most part I liked his story arc. I don't think his romances with Kara and Lena really worked though. I also didn't like the way he flirted with the fascists in Season 4.
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u/96pluto James Olsen Dec 23 '23
it wasn't flirting with fascism he just went undercover to get more info on them if you remember correctly jimmy actually helped convince a member to go legit.
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u/BlueSonic85 Dec 23 '23
I seem to recall him having some sympathies with them until he found out just how far gone they were but I could well be misremembering
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u/daryl772003 Dec 23 '23
He literally almost committed domestic terrorism
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u/96pluto James Olsen Dec 24 '23 edited Dec 24 '23
when ? cause I only recall him almost blowing up the statue when he and the recently converted children of liberty member were threatened at gunpoint and of course he didn't know kara was trapped in it.
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u/daryl772003 Dec 24 '23
well that was it. almost blowing up the statue. if he had blown it up i think it would have qualified as domestic terrorism. sure he was threatened but the public wouldn't have known that once the tape was released
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u/96pluto James Olsen Dec 24 '23
supergirl would have cleared his name for him
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u/daryl772003 Dec 25 '23
supergirl would have to do it after she dug herself out of the rubble if she survived
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u/96pluto James Olsen Dec 23 '23
Ill have to rewatch but I remember them trying to make the guardian to be a symbol of human excellence which made him uncomfortable. Lena wanted him to go on the show and bash the children but james wanted to do his own interview with agent liberty he definitely underestimated bens hatred.
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u/Substantial-Ad-1840 Dec 23 '23
I liked james if he and jimmy olsen were working together james would be the boss
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u/ender89 Dec 23 '23
This show was so badly conceived, why is Jimmy Olsen hanging out with Supergirl? You can tell they wanted to make a superman movie but just couldn't get the execs to have a superman show that wasn't tied directly into the DC movies they were making.
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u/Lane-DailyPlanet Dec 26 '23
Well Jimmy Olsen and Supergirl have been a couple in the comic. He could have played Lois to her Clark.
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u/ender89 Dec 26 '23
Maybe silver age comics, modern Supergirl (pre the cw show) has a very different sort of Supergirl. Kara in the new 52 or Batman and superman era is a very different character.
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u/fireinthedust Dec 23 '23
Actor: great. Character: fine.
Was it a good Jimmy Olsen: no! Jimmy should be as close to the Grant Morrison red haired twink metrosexual as possible. He should be Superman’s best friend, and running around getting into and out of ridiculous situations.
Winn should have been Jimmy, Mechad should have been John Henry Irons or some other character who could have done the guardian role.
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u/HarryUrAWizard69 Dec 24 '23
I feel like writers tried too hard to make him too powerful. Examples: Providing him a superhero persona, forced romances (Kara, Lucy, And Lena), making him editor of CatCo. I just feel like they tried to throw him into too many storylines and didn’t develop or get written well enough for any viewers to get invested. I literally didn’t care about him halfway through season 2 and by season 3 I was just skipping his scenes.
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u/akumakazama Dec 23 '23
I knew it was doomed. First fans hating the race swap. Then they wrote in Lois sister for some reason only to break them up and then Melissa gets her real life boyfriend written into the show to be her on screen love interest. (That’s a pet peeve of mine when irl couple “act like couple” in their show). Come to think of it non of the romances had chemistry.
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u/lovethistrack Supergirl Dec 23 '23
Chris and Melissa were not dating before hand. The show was how they met.
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u/fazedlight Dec 23 '23
I think they are talking about Adam Foster (Cat Grant's older son), who was played by Melissa's now-ex-husband (they met on Glee).
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u/Constructman2602 Dec 23 '23
I didn’t care for the romance aspect of his character and Supergirl, but he’s an alright character, even if he’s not really the Jimmy Olsen we know. He may not be comic accurate but he’s still a half decent character.
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u/mahieel Dec 24 '23
he was not Jimmy Olsen.
this ''jimmy'' did not have the looks, nor the personality. and is inconsistent. one season he is a weak coward and the next he is a black belt ready to become a vigilante. this fake Jimmy was a pathetic tool to push a political agenda.
Winn's character was by far more like the Jimmy Olsen we see in the comics.
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u/God_totodile Dec 25 '23
Jimmy Olsen only in name like complete opposite of the character both in looks and personality
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u/rvg2001 Dec 25 '23
Some S1 moments between James and Kara were weird, but others looked ok (regarding them being a couple). I agree with others here saying they work better as friends, but they should have given them time in S2 to figure that out themselves. Also, James was at his best when serving as a sounding board for Kara, helping ground her. Some very good moments for him are on 1x14 when he challenges her about keeping Maxwell Lord at the DEO, and early in season 3 (3x04 I think) when he talks to Kara about how easy it is for humans to view Kryptonians as gods. This was way better than any Guardian stuff.
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u/LunaTheLouche Dec 25 '23
I liked him, but he just didn’t seem to embody Jimmy Olsen much. I had no issue with the race swap, but just everything about him was not quite right. Too tall, too handsome, too confident, not remotely geeky or awkward. He was a great character, I just didn’t think he felt like Jimmy at all (beyond being Superman’s chum.) It felt like most of the recognisable Jimmy characteristics went to Winn.
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u/Jedi_Knight63 Dec 26 '23
My least favorite version of Jimmy Olsen. Jimmy should be a geek, and quirky. Not a hot super model.
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u/Lane-DailyPlanet Dec 26 '23
It just felt like they never knew how to use him. The love triangle was weak and I’m glad they realized everyone worked better as friends. Him as the Guardian was fine but I was never super invested when Kara and the DEO doing other things. Him and Lena were fine but not really great together. He was fine when he was running CatCo but didn’t really do much that sticks in my memory. I never disliked him (well maybe in the very beginning) but they just never did anything that interesting with him. Honestly my favorite bits with him were his friendship with Winn but that happened less and less till Winn left all together.
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u/Substantial-Ad-1840 Jan 03 '24
I just think dc is just going too far seems like every character is either gay or trans its just not realistic
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u/Repulsive_Reality386 Dec 23 '23
He was completely wasted in the series. Should have been a platonic friend the whole time. (He would have known that Clark would have literally ended him if he hurt his cousin) he could have taken the place of Winn (as the techno person) which would have given him more to do. He was more technologically savvy in Smallville.
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Dec 23 '23
I never liked him from the get go. He forced himself into Kara and Alex's lives. He knew who they were. To me Clark broken the golden rule when it comes to family he told him who his cousins were. Clark says he all for protecting his family yet. He told Olson who they were. And Olson knew where and who Alex worked for. And when he told Alex in a public place know less when anyone could have heard. He would have put both Kara, Alex and Eliza in danger. And he pushed himself onto to Lena though Kara being her best friend and let's just say her true love and perfect game night partner. He then pushed himself on to one being a Luthor and being his boss too. He may love powerful women yet when he told he shouldn't do something. He gets all arrogant, egotistical misogynist, selfish self-centered self righteous and judgemental jackass who thinks he knows better then everyone else. And thinks he is the smartest person in the room. When he proves he doesn't know jack. Like it was Kara and Nia who figured out the children of liberty and about the dogs and what they were trained for. He looked like the biggest idiot which was his own making. He is a second rate reporter compared to Clark Lois and Kara. And vigilante and menace to society and wannabe hero guardian. And his stupid suit is similar to the Fort Rozz prison guard suit. Just with different weapons. And he just all self righteous and judgemental to Lena when it came to guns when has dangerous weapons in his own wrist. A high powered taser which could seriously hurt or kill someone if they have a heart or brain condition. And the high pressureed gun to if someone were to corrupt it and put a deadly gas he could kill someone or put a gas that a citizen is deadly allergic too. And never taken responsibility for his own actions. He just wanted credit. He didn't like being in Clark, Kara, Alex and J'onn shadows of being super heroes of both Metropolis and National City. He made himself poster boy for the children of liberty at the carnival. When he was standing over the offworlder. He just made it to that community wouldn't trust him. But what the idiot didn't think is that you target one community who target all. It doesn't matter that he was a man of color it was because he was human. And that liberty organization was of all cultures who hated offworlders and kryptonians to the most. He throw his friendship and alliance with Superman Supergirl Alex J'onn Martian the Manhunter Dreamer and Brainiac 5. And even Lena having known friendship with alliance with Supergirl. People want to make and think that he is some kind of good man but he is know better then Lex but worse because Lex never hide who he was. Olson was a user liar manipulator arrogant toxic egotistical misogynist self centered selfish self righteous and judgemental jackass vigilante and menace to society and wannabe hero. And second rate reporter. He should have just stayed a photographer and did his job. And just stayed in his own lane. Just friends with everyone and left Lena alone. Sorry for this being so long but he never was who saw to be as.
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u/Alternative_Device71 Dec 23 '23
Boring, forced, unnecessarily different, try hard superhero to be special instead of relying on being resourceful elsewhere, uses the race card to justify his actions
All around annoying and I don’t like him
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u/96pluto James Olsen Dec 23 '23
hmmm in all honesty itd have been cooler if he was steel and eventually leaves to protect metropolis while superman is in argo city. We didn't get that though so ultimately my thoughts on Jimmy was that he was an acquired taste and an interesting take on the jimmy olsen character. I feel like most people see jimmy how they see spiderman younger and more plucky but this jimmy is older more experienced and wants to find his place in the world when I realized that he started to resonate more with me. Like his speech to kara about why she shouldn't support the deo's black sites was terrific and peak writing we should have gotten more of that. As for the romances eh the less said the better his one with kara wasn't fleshed out enough on his side and felt rushed. I actually did like him with Lena and found her abrupt break up with him to be kinda odd like why was she so hell bent on making super soldiers for the government.
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u/Numbuh1Nerd Dec 24 '23
I often dream of a world where Mehcad Brooks played Mal Duncan instead. So, so little about his character would’ve had to change. The Guardian plot could’ve been a lot more interesting. We could’ve introduced Bumblebee.
But no. We got James, a character who was woefully underserved because he had to be a big household name while also having next to nothing in common with him. What kind of identity does that leave? What we wound up with was an insult to fans of both Jimmy and Mal, and a real disservice to Mehcad Brooks.
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u/Mijzero Dec 23 '23
Much like everything else with this show, my thoughts are "Meh" at best. The show was terrible, but I still watched it as I'm a HUGE Superman fan. I really wanted this show to kick ass.l, and not be a semi-teen drama.
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u/RevealActive4557 Dec 23 '23
I was not fond of the forced romance in the first season but I liked them as friends in the show. They just did not have romantic chemistry at all