Lanterns Series Premiere Review: A Grounded, Gritty Mystery

Originally published August 17, 2026. This article reviews the premiere of DC’s Lanterns series on HBO.

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The next chapter in the new DC Universe is finally here. Lanterns barrels ahead with a strong series premiere, bolstered by compelling performances, fun characters, super hero shenanigans, and an enthralling mystery. And that cliffhanger! I was on the edge of my seat, ready to dive headfirst into the next episode. My verdict? So far, so entertaining.

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Believable Performances and Dynamite Dynamics

Right off the bat, I found myself really connecting with the characters in Lanterns, and that’s, of course, down to the tight writing in the series premiere. However, there’s another crucial element at play – the performances.

Kyle Chandler is pitch-perfect as the washed-up Green Lantern who’s essentially on his way out the door. You get a sense that Hal Jordan lives with his foot incessantly on the gas while chafing at his restraints and refusing to play by the rules. You can also tell there’s a lot of pain brewing beneath his surface; people often act recklessly as a means of suppressing or quieting that pain. And yet Hal repeatedly reminds John in episode 1 that the latter will get the Green Lantern Ring over his dead body. There’s this push and pull in Hal between wanting to die and striving to live.

Aaron Pierre shines as Chandler’s opposite, character-wise. He portrays John Stewart as a buttoned-up, stoic recruit who was heavily influenced by his militaristic upbringing. John’s father shaped his identity, and you can see that history in Pierre’s performance. John seems like a man who was told to color inside the lines and never go off script; that “Yes, sir” should be one’s response to an order. Every wild card like Hal needs a “straight man”-esque character like John, and Pierre fills this role perfectly.

The character dynamics are a lot of fun, too. Even minutes into the season premiere, when Hal picks up John after going MIA for two weeks, you understand their relationship. Chandler and Pierre play off each other well, and that “good cop, bad cop” stereotype works here. Chandler and Kelly Macdonald are also a delightful pair. Sheriff Kane desperately wants to hate Hal, and she fights against that urge in episode 1.

Poorna Jagannathan’s Zoe Macon and Garret Dillahunt’s Will Macon are fascinating to watch. The married couple seems like two people who undoubtedly know more than they’re letting on – perhaps more than they should. Only time will tell how that shakes out as the season unfolds.

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“There’s Hail in Rushville, Nebraska”

Lanterns is a great stepping stone for people who aren’t fans of comic book shows because it leans more into the grounded, gritty elements of the mystery at the core of its narrative. It plays with the genre, bending it in different directions. You can even see inspiration from procedural dramas in the story. Episode 1 whisks Hal and John away to the American heartland, where a seemingly open-and-shut murder case is a cover for aliens roaming Earth.

Of course, we later learn that Hal was aware of Rushville, Nebraska, potentially being a hotbed for extraterrestrial activity when he recounts how he became a Green Lantern to John in the bar. I love seeing the friction between the “space cops” and Earth law enforcement, and I hope the series continues to experiment with that conflict in future episodes.

The interrogation scene featuring Hal and Waylon Sanders is a masterclass in tension and letting the plot unravel organically. It also sets up the rest of the season since, based on the trailer released after the premiere, we’re strapping in for a lengthy stay in Rushville. The Macon family, who also seem to pull the strings in town and have ties to the crime world, are compelling as a unit and are worth exploring for their potential connection to the extraterrestrial.

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A Delightful Mix of Humor, Drama, and Intrigue

I didn’t expect Lanterns to be as funny as it is (so far). Chandler gets some hilarious one-liners and moments in the series premiere. The episode itself is lighter than expected, too – that is, until we get to those heartbreaking final minutes.

It’s really a balanced blend of dark humor, drama, action, and intrigue. From Hal leaving John to fend for himself in a car careening off a cliff to Hal attempting to contain an explosion from Waylon the Alien, the season premiere utilizes action sparingly but to great effect, relying more on strong storytelling and nuanced characters to sell the series. The occasional friction between Hal and John also adds layers of intrigue to this story, along with elements of drama as the seeds are planted for these characters’ overarching internal conflicts.

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Artful Nonlinear Storytelling

I believe Hal’s line about John getting the ring over his dead body is clever foreshadowing. It sets up his inevitable demise. However, it’s certainly a surprise to deliver a gut punch like that so soon in the season. We flash forward to the present, with John driving to Rushville during a snowstorm. We see that the Macon ranch is long gone, 10 years after the Waylon incident. Kane leads John to Hal’s body at the high school football field, where Waylon murdered multiple people – a gunshot to the head and a missing Green Lantern Ring.

For most of the episode, we’re seeing a version of John who’s only beginning his training to become the next Green Lantern. The massive cliffhanger lays the groundwork for John to take up the Lantern mantle now that Hal is gone. The outing artfully incorporates nonlinear storytelling, and based on the aforementioned trailer, the unraveling alien mystery in Rushville in 2016 and Hal’s death in 2026 are inextricably linked.

I’m excited to see how they’re connected, why the aliens are fixated on a small town in Nebraska, and how Hal hilariously continues to adopt unorthodox training methods to prepare John to be Earth’s sole protector from extraterrestrial threats. Bring it on.

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What did you think about the Lanterns series premiere?

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