Lanterns review: Kyle Chandler soars in DC Comics’ take on the neo-western mystery

If the words “clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose” has special meaning to you, then the sight of Kyle Chandler sat on the bleachers next to a football field is going to be very exciting.

No, Coach Taylor isn’t back, but even that familiar tableau is enough to set hearts aflutter.

Chandler is one of the most affable actors on screen, even when he’s playing a villain or in the case of his new role in Lanterns, someone who can be arrogant, sarcastic and not particularly accommodating.

The character is Hal Jordan, and if that means nothing to you, it doesn’t matter. Yes, it is part of the DC Comics universe but no, you don’t need a PhD in superhero lore to get into this.

Nor do you need to be into comic book adaptations in general because Lanterns, even with its superpowered tropes (Hal can fly! Hal can create objects with a magic ring!), this is a mostly grounded drama that has been sold as DC meets True Detective.

That genre meld doesn’t sound as clashy in practice as it does on paper thanks to creators Chris Mundy, Damon Lindelof and Tom King.

Lindelof is an interesting figure among the trio because he has proven himself adept across many genres on shows including Lost, The Leftovers and Mrs Davis, but the most instructive previous work for the purposes of this is Watchmen.

That too was a comic book adaptation, which also had a life as a largely derided Zack Snyder movie years earlier. Lindelof’s version was this incredibly smart parable about race in modern America – and won 11 Emmys in the process.

Lanterns isn’t quite Watchmen but it is a great show that delivers on mystery, thrills, vibes and considered conversations about ageing, heroism, destiny and race.

The series is set primarily in 2016, and Hal is Earth’s first Green Lantern, part of an intergalactic force of cops, essentially. He was a former US air force test pilot and had been chosen by the ring.

Hal has a trainee in John Stewart (Aaron Pierre), who came to the position not because he was picked by some obscure magic process but by a group of alien overseers. Hal doesn’t really want John around, and John isn’t that fond of Hal.

The pair are sent to a crime scene in Nebraska, where a mass shooting has taken place at a football game in a small town where everyone knows each other, and where its sheriff, Kerry (Kelly Macdonald), is worried that tensions in the town are about to erupt.

The reason Hal and Jordan are there is there are signs the shooting involves an alien aspect, and it becomes apparent that certain people in town know more than they’re letting on.

Four out of eight episodes were made available for review and in the first half of the season, the series flies on the combined charisma of Chandler and Pierre, as well some excellent supporting work by Macdonald, Garret Dillahunt (a big deal cowboy who seems to have enormous influence), Poorna Jagannathan (a woman John meets at a bar) and Jasmine Cephas Jones (John’s mother).

Laura Linney also shows up as the human disguise for one these space cop overseers but she hasn’t been given much to do, yet.

The reluctant mentor-mentee strained dynamic is a recognisable trope in both neo-westerns and superhero genres, and Chandler and Pierre have been well-cast. Both always play their barely concealed resentment effectively, and there’s a great drama to be mined from two people thrown together despite themselves.

There’s also the question of potentially clashing agendas, which further tests this brittle core relationship that’s already contending with their very different personalities and how they got to be a lantern.

Saying more would be getting into spoiler territory but let’s just say it provokes a lot of questions of how public heroes are chosen and moulded.

Lanterns is a busy show but has a lot of promise, and anyone who would watch Chandler do anything (football bleachers or not) is already on board. Whether it lands the plane will depend on how the second half of the series goes.

Lanterns is streaming on HBO Max with new episodes weekly