In Review: Stargirl (S1 – Ep5) – Hourman and Dr. Mid-Nite

Synopsis: As Courtney sets her sights on recruiting more members to the Justice Society of America, Pat finds himself one step closer to learning which ISA members may be in Blue Valley.

The Story

This episode begins with a brief flashback sequence, which sees Rex Tyler (The original Hourman) leaving his son Rick Tyler in the care of his uncle.

In the present day. Courtney is continuing her search for other members to join the ranks of the JSA and happens to have a chance meeting with Rick Tyler when he stops to lend Pat a hand with his car. While Rick and Pat are talking the Egg Timer is triggered and Courtney who is in the back of Pats broken down care notices it. She has found her Hour-Man, but recruiting the troubled John Tyler will not be a simple task.

Elsewhere, Beth Chapel who has been following both Courtney and Yolanda around the school and knows their secret decides to call on Courtney and posing as a friend she is let into Courtney’s home by her somewhat preoccupied mother Barbara. When Beth sees the family dog chewing on something she is drawn to Dr. Mid-Nite’s goggles and becomes the present-day version of Mid-Nite on a provisional basis until she is able to earn the trust of Courtney and stop geeking out.

The Acting

Kudos go to Henry Thomas for lending his voice to the A.I. of Charles McNider who lives in the Dr. Mid-Nite goggles and forms an immediate bond with Beth. It is Beth’s late intervention with the help of the goggles that helps Courtney and Yolanda to convince Rick Tyler to join their team. Thomas does a great job of providing the voice of the goggles and if they ever did an update of Knight Rider that would last longer than a season. He’d be a natural for it. Thankfully, we didn’t get any ET jokes about phoning home.

Anjelika Washington does a great job of the somewhat lonely and geeky Beth. Although a little annoying when geeking out over stuff. She also makes the character a little endearing. Cameron Gellman does a fairly good job of introducing us to Rick Tyler who starts off as quite moody and angsty and will most likely stay that way until he mellows out somewhat. Rick is angry about the deaths of his parents and it is eating him up. So becoming Hourman is how he will channel it.

Overall

While lacking in the action department. This episode gives us some more character development and introduces us to a couple more of the players. The big reveal this week is that Rick’s parents were murdered by Soloman Grundy, which is what proves to be the trigger that convinces Rick to join Courtney and the team. We also learn that he can only use the hourglass for one hour a day, but for that hour he gains super strength.

We get very little on the Injustice League this week other than a brief sequence toward the end of the episode in which Anaya Bowin and The Gambler stop a truck. Kill the driver and hypnotize his partner with some music. Speaking of music. We got some pretty nice music cues this week. In particular, the brief piano music that played when Beth put the Dr. Mid-Nite goggles on.

Overall. This series continues to build a really cool and interesting world of characters that we can all get behind.