Is contemporary politics needed?

Comics in decades past rarely addressed cultural or political issues. With respect to last night's program, there was a definite tilt as to which characters got to take which side in the argument, the walk-on manufacturer being particularly glaring.

Yes. It's never going to go away from a show like this.

Comics have always addressed political and cultural issues. It should come as no surprise that the movies and tv shows based on them would as well. Especially with a topic that is so heavily represented in the news and politics, right now. But this episode tried to ride the line. James had a hard stance, but Lena had another. James tried to stop the DEO from taking drastic actions against a man who legally purchased a weapon.

They didn't talk about taking guns away from everybody. They didn't blame the left or right. Even the guy who ran the gun manufacturer was presented in a positive light, showing what guns meant to him and his family, and how his employees rely on those weapons and sales to support themselves and their families.

Instead of going extremely right or extremely left, they came up with their own answer. The DEO/Government didn't try to take everybody's weapons, or demonize the gun manufacturers. Instead, this particular unit of the government, the DEO, decided to try and set an example by phasing out their own guns, not taking them from anybody else. And furthermore, they took Kara's invulnerability out of th equation by using this storyline while she's off-world.

This show has shown, over 3 seasons, that it's not going to shy away from more controversial topics. If you're still surprised, I don't think you can really blame the show.

That being said, was I a fan of that particular story? Not really. Mostly because we haven't had any real Supergirl action in 2 episodes. But despite the difficulty of the topic, they didn't heavily lean one way or the other, by the end. They chose to disarm themselves, but did not forcibly disarm anybody else, as many gun owners fear the government would. They didn't present some left-leaning resolution that would completely fix gun issues and remove them for the world. Instead, they did the best they could with what they had, and chose to lead by example by disarming themselves. And I respect the crap out of that.

Social, topical and current event politics will always appear in such shows. It appeared in Wonder Woman over 40 years ago and has popped up in various guises since. However, where the writers and the PTB have let their political allegiance guard down was to inject a heavy-handedness to it and allowed it to be more of a lopsided sermon than a true PSA (which is simply to evenly recount to the public the available facts in a dispassionate manner).

Supergirl is by its own unabashed admission a very left-leaning show, but this time around it tipped too far and instead of delivering an even-handed message of social tolerance, justice and understanding, it felt more of a social rant. If the show wishes to retain its viewership base, especially those of a slightly more conservative nature, it has to stick to a fine balance of gravitas and levity without vacillating sharply one way or another.

Note: No one is disputing the severity and impact of gun violence and related issues, particularly in U.S. society, but there is a way to present it without coming across as the stern schoolteacher or overly earnest salesperson. This particular episode, "Not Kansas" did not succeed in doing that.

It does cut from the entertainment value, but perhaps it's the right thing to do

I second kdogg87 “Yes, it’s never going to go away from a show like this.” We’ve talked about this extensively before but those who want to again have at it.

Referring to Not Kansas, I for one get quite enough contemporary politics in the real world, and really do not need agitprop on entertainment television. In that respect the writing this year has gone down severely downhill.

I've pretty much said the same. Not even touching the soap box side of the writing I found in Season 1 it was not that good and too corny to be taken seriously but in season 2 I was happy it dropped the corny and actually started improving as if real writers were hired. Season 3 started positive but has taken a quick downturn.

Yes, we all get enough politics and real life issues in our everyday lives. This is not the type of show one watches to relive all the issues you see on the news. That might work for some political of police dramas but this is fantasy.

I second kdogg87 “Yes, it’s never going to go away from a show like this.” We’ve talked about this extensively before but those who want to again have at it.

It should never be in a show like this in the first place. I agree with Captain Past. I've read a number of comics including Supergirl in the 80s and 90s and all the new 52 supergirls and much of the JLA and can't recall any social justice / political / whatever you want to call it in those comics. So do present superhero movies do it? Did Superman? Wonder Woman? Batman? JLA? none spent such effort trying to be a PSA so no, the statement should not be, " it’s never going to go away from a show like this" it should be "It should never be in a show like this."

Ok yes I realize Arrow did a gun episode and i did feel that was a bit off base too however to their credit they did a great job showing both sides and made you think, not told you what was right or wrong. Very good job to those writers.

As Romulus stated, social/political issues have always been and will always be a part of entertainment. We don't get to pick and choose which ones are addressed just because we might disagree with the side that the show chooses to depict it from.

However, when the presentation of the issue make even viewers who are proponents of the issue cringe and wish that that particular issue was not written into an episode, then there is a serious problem with the writing. I've said it before on this topic with Supergirl - the writers don't seem to handle writing the issues very well at all, and I wish they would minimize the inclusion of them into the show.