The premiere episode of “Lanterns,” the latest TV entry in James Gunn and Peter Safran’s DC Universe, makes the counterintuitive choice of taking space cop Green Lantern, often the star of sprawling space opera stories, and keeping him–or, rather, them–constrained to Earth. What’s more, the apparent alien threat targets not a major world capital or population center, but a small town in Nebraska. 

If the intention was to distance the series from previous Green Lantern adaptations, especially the abysmal 2011 movie starring a pre-”Deadpool” Ryan Reynolds, then it’s safe to say co-creators Chris Mundy (“True Detective,” “Ozark”), Damon Lindelof (“Watchmen,” “Lost”) and comic book writer Tom King (“Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow”) were successful.

The show wastes no time introducing us to the titular Lanterns: loose cannon veteran Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler) and his trainee, a by-the-book rookie named John Stewart (Aaron Pierre).

“Lanterns” wears its crime procedural influences on its sleeve, particularly in the dynamic between Jordan, who sees no purpose in training a backup, and Stewart, who sees Jordan’s job as his for the taking. The small town murder mystery aspect makes “True Detective” comparisons inevitable, seemingly by design.

The plot, largely taking place in 2016, involves a multi-casualty shooting at a high school football game in Nebraska, which Jordan pegs as extra-terrestrial in nature, while Stewart and local law-woman Sheriff Kane (Kelly Macdonald) suspect a more mundane mass murder. Jordan, of course, is proven right.

Aside from an intriguing twist ending taking place in 2026, the pilot episode doesn’t give much of an idea of what to expect from the full series, aside from more small-town intrigue, a mysterious alien plot and–hopefully, at some point–actual super hero action.

The Green Lantern ring, the source of the hero’s energy powers, acts as more of a plot device for the conflict between Jordan and Stewart than it does a super hero accessory in the pilot episode. Jordan performs scant few super-powered feats in the episode, including a brief flight, creating a dollar bill to scam a jukebox and containing what would have been a destructive explosion during an interrogation-gone-wrong.

A final verdict on “Lanterns” will depend on the coming weeks. The pilot episode has laid the foundation for what could be an intriguing interstellar mystery, but could just as easily wind up as an underwhelming supernatural police procedural.

Either way, DC Studios deserves at least a little credit for using its characters to attempt to tell different types of stories than the standard super hero fare of “Superman” (complimentary) and “Supergirl” (derogatory).

About the author:

Ben Hooper is looking forward to seeing how this show plays out, as he has a lot of (possibly misplaced) faith in Damon Lindelof. Please feel free to reach out to him with any questions you might have about why you are wrong about the ending of “Lost.”