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'Lanterns' Episode 1 Review, Sharp Performances And Fresh Approach, With A Slower, Messier Pace
'Lanterns' is the latest entry in the DC Universe, created by James Gunn and Peter Safran. Notably, the pilot episode of the show has arrived on HBO Max.
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Add BollywoodShaadis on GoogleWith Lanterns, HBO and DC try something rare for superhero TV, which is restraint. Instead of universe-ending stakes, the show drops two mismatched cops into Middle America and lets character tension do the work.
Kyle Chandler and Aaron Pierre carry a pilot that feels closer to gritty crime drama than comic book spectacle, yet it never pretends the power rings aren’t there. It’s messy, funny, and oddly grounded, and for once a Green Lantern story seems more interested in people than in mythology.
A cop story that just happens to have power rings
The starting frames of Lanterns are set in 1996, where a kid is watching television. 'John Stewart' is sitting in his living room while an interview with a costumed space cop plays on screen. His father walks in, puts an apple on the boy’s head, points a gun at him, and asks if he’s afraid. The boy says no, the shot rings out, and the family goes to lunch as if nothing happened. That one scene tells you almost everything about how this show wants to handle DC lore. It keeps the big, cosmic ideas but grounds them in behavior that feels human, messy, and a little cruel.
Jump to 2016, and the tone settles. 'Hal Jordan' is older, tired, and very unwilling to retire. He drinks in a small-town bar and tells the story of how he got his job in the most unglamorous way possible. No green bubble, no glowing desert. Just him, a crashed ship, and a dying alien who picked him because he didn’t flinch. 'John Stewart' has just been assigned as his backup by the Guardians, and 'Hal' treats that like an insult. He’s been doing this for decades, and he isn’t planning to die soon, so why train a replacement?
The setting does most of the heavy lifting. Rushville, Nebraska is presented less like a superhero backdrop and more like a place from a crime drama. A shooting at a high school football game brings 'Hal' in because he’s convinced it’s alien-related.
Local sheriff 'Kerry Kane' doesn’t want his help. She’s already dealing with a town that’s too big for her and a case that doesn’t fit neatly. The dynamic between the two leads and the sheriff is where the pilot finds its rhythm. 'Hal' is loud, impatient, and convinced he’s right. 'John' is quiet, observant, and used to being the only Black man in a room.
The show spends a lot of time on people instead of spectacle. When 'Hal' gets arrested after a bar fight, 'Kerry’s' husband, 'Billy Macon,' bails him out and invites both Lanterns to dinner at his father’s ranch. That ranch turns out to be a compound full of armed men doing drills.
The father, 'Will Macon,' is the kind of prepper who thinks aliens are coming to colonize Earth the way Europeans colonized America. He serves vegan food to 'John' while talking about invasion and defense, and he makes it clear that he doesn’t trust the outsider in his house. 'Will’s' wife 'Zoe' adds another layer of tension because she and 'John' had a one-night stand the night before, and 'Will' seems to know it.
'Hal' gets one big showcase scene when he interrogates a suspect named 'Waylon Sanders'. The scene plays like a classic detective bit. 'Hal' asks questions about football and politics to see if the guy is really from Nebraska. It works. 'Waylon' breaks, reveals he’s not human, and then triggers a self-destruct. It’s played for laughs and dread at the same time, which is the show’s sweet spot. When 'John' accidentally activates a hologram of 'Hal,' it complains that the real 'Hal' hasn’t updated his backup in ten years, which tells you how sloppy this hero has become.
Kyle Chandler leans into 'Hal’s' arrogance without making him unlikable. He delivers every line with a drawl and a grin, like a man who knows he’s the best at a job he’s bored with. Aaron Pierre does the opposite work. 'John' barely raises his voice, but you see the frustration in his posture, in the phone calls home, in the way he watches 'Hal' take up space. Their friction is the engine of the episode.
Ten years later, and the cost of holding on
The pilot jumps timelines without making a big deal of it. After spending most of the hour in 2016, it ends in 2026 on the same football field. 'John' returns and finds 'Kerry' waiting. In the bleachers is 'Hal’s' body, frozen and bloody, and his ring is gone.
That final image reframes everything that came before. For most of the episode, 'Hal' insists he will never give up the ring. He parties too hard, he skips paperwork, and he treats the job like it’s his and his alone. 'Kerry' even says it out loud earlier. He’s not fearless; he’s lonely. Without people to answer to, he never had to let go. The question the episode leaves you with is whether that stubbornness got him killed. Did he fail to pass things on the way 'Abin Sur' passed them to him, or did someone take it from him?
The creators clearly borrowed structure from grounded crime shows, but they didn’t strip out the weirdness. There are mentions of the Guardians, there’s talk of sectors and intergalactic police, and there’s a moment where a kid gets advice about throwing a football that sounds exactly like advice for using a ring. By 2026, that kid, 'Noah,' is a high school quarterback. Little touches like that keep it from feeling like a straight drama with green effects added later.
What works best is that the show lets 'Hal' be competent, despite the fact that the character has some issues. It lets 'John' be professional and still be angry. It lets a conversation about alien invasion happening at a barbecue while someone chops meat. The music, the costumes, the brief flashes of light constructs: all of it is there, but it never overwhelms the character work.
If it can keep this balance, Lanterns has a real shot. Two leads who don’t like each other but need each other, a town full of secrets, and a mystery that stretches across decades. If it tips too far into grit, it will feel like any other detective show. If it tips too far into cosmic world, it will lose the weight it just earned. Right now, in the pilot, it holds the middle. And that middle is where 'Hal' and 'John' have the most to say to each other.
Have you watched the first episode of Lanterns? Let us know.
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