Let me start with the pros and cons.
Pros:
The suit. Looks awesome! Love the new symbol! It has the classic look while adding a "homemade" look.
Mellisa Benhoist. Great choice for Kara. She looks good without having a cheesecake look. And she's a great actress.
Her origin. I love adding the Phantom Zone to her backstory. It's a great source of future material. I also like the fact that she's not a fully developed teenager when she arrives on Earth like in every other version.
The DEO. A government agency set up to monitor super-beings on Earth is a great concept and is probably exactly what would happen if someone like Superman shows up on Earth.
Hank Henshaw. He's clearly being set up to be the "villain" that he is in the comics. Right now they are using him the same way Arrow used Det. Lance in the first season. Someone the hero has to get them to trust.
"James" Olsen. The idea of Superman sending him to watch over his cousin is a great idea and makes perfect sense. Makes me wonder if he knows about Clark being Superman.
The idea that Superman is the worlds only super-hero. This is a controversial stance, I think. But I like it in that it looks like the Superman of this universe is like Batman in the Nolan movies. No competition.
Her ship. It truly looks alien. It's not quite a rocket but it has a classic look.
Cons:
The dialogue. It's a little too much "Girl Power" and not enough SUPER-power. "She has super-powers, AND SHE'S A GIRL!" Well, yes, hence the name of the show. The line about Henshaw not thinking she could beat Vartox just because she was a girl was a little too much beating you over the head with the point. We get it. She's a role model for little girls. They didn't need a waitress point blank saying so.
Cat Grant. They're trying too hard to make her Devil Wears Prada. She's the evil cartoon boss. No real personality of her own.
The special effects. They need work. It looks very on-a-budget. Hopefully as the series catches on, they'll get their budget upped. It was just the pilot after all.
The lack of the use of the name Superman. I don't know what deal CBS made with WB but they need to let them use his name more often. He's mentioned like ten times and only once is he referred to by name. Coming up with various ways to avoid using it is going to get old very fast. It already did and this is just the first episode.
Toyman. Let's call him what he is. He's clearly going to become Toyman and he isn't even likable in his early form. Kara saves the plane and his first response is to complain she isn't wearing a suit? This may just go back to the dialogue problem but he is clearly meant to be the "nice guy" who turns on you when you won't go out with him.
Pacing. The show seemed to speed through a lot of important stuff. Now, Supergirl is a complex character with a lot of backstory and people just wanted to get the set up out of the way quickly but I hope that isn't going to be how they do things every week. To be honest, I think they could have gotten away with a two hour pilot to fill in some space.
Her evil aunt. She really is a cartoon villain. Her dialogue is hokey and she's not the best actress. She knows she's in a comic book show and is clearly acting like it. She's also a little too convenient a villain. Kara has a relative in the Phantom Zone that wants to kill her?
The timeline. The show can't seem to make up it's mind on when Krypton blew up and how old Superman is. Kara clearly came to Earth at 13. But how long ago did Superman arrive? If Krypton blew up 24 years ago, then he would have had to be 12 when he found her. Which clearly isn't the case. But if she was stuck in the Phantom Zone for 24 years, that makes a lot more sense. Yet at one point, she says that he arrived a dozen years before she did. They need to get their math squared away.
All in all it needs a little work but I like it and hope it lasts a long time. But there is something that occurred to me halfway through her fight with Vartox that I'd never thought about during a Superman show. For all intents and purposes, none of her threats are a real threat to Earth. Because even if they got through her, they'd still have to deal with Superman. Superman doesn't have a back up hero to pick up if he gets killed. She will always be in her cousin's shadow. The only way the Fort Rozz storyline works is if Superman doesn't know it came with her when she arrived. And that all these threats are operating on Earth. I get the impression that Henshaw doesn't like Superman and it would make sense he wouldn't tell him about all this. But that doesn't change the fact that anyone who gets through Supergirl would still have to deal with Superman. There's also a sort of passing the responsibility of raising her onto others feel to it. Now, if the Kents are dead in this universe, that would make sense. He would try to find the next best thing to them. Hence the Danvers. I hope they go into more detail about her powers and how they work and when they developed. Some backstory of her life with the Danvers (and I assume they will in future episodes) are down the line.
What also isn't clear is what her relationship with Superman is. Why doesn't she tell him about the Fort Rozz crash if he doesn't know already? How much contact do they have with each other? Because by the look of it, it's almost none. I wonder if they will reveal down the line why they don't have more contact with each other. He sends "James" to keep an eye on her? This comes across as trying too hard to keep Superman out of the show.
Let me know what you think. Do you agree? Disagree? What did you like or didn't like about the show?