HBO’s ‘Lanterns’ Silences the Skeptics With a Near-Perfect Rotten Tomatoes Debut
The DC Universe under James Gunn and Peter Safran has had its share of highs and lows this year, and fans have been watching closely to see where the newest entry would land. ‘Lanterns’ arrived as the third live-action series in this rebooted DCU, following ‘Creature Commandos’ and the second season of ‘Peacemaker,’ and expectations were mixed heading into its debut weekend.
Much of that hesitation traced back to the marketing rollout, where some viewers complained the trailers leaned too grounded and too gray for a show built around a ring that famously glows green. Others worried the series, described by multiple outlets as a True Detective inspired take on the Green Lantern mythos, might strip away too much of the cosmic wonder that makes the source material distinctive.
Those concerns appear to have evaporated once actual audiences got a look. As Geek Vibes Nation highlighted, ‘Lanterns’ opened to a 92 percent audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, with viewers largely awarding it perfect five star ratings once the premiere hit HBO and HBO Max. The bulk of the audience reviews are giving Lanterns perfect scores of five out of five stars, putting the show almost perfectly in line with what critics had already been saying.
That critical consensus has hovered in a similarly strong range, with outlets clocking the Tomatometer anywhere from the high 80s into the low 90s depending on when the score was pulled. Forbes reported a verified fresh 90 percent score from 40 critics, calling it one of the top scoring DCU projects to date. ComicBookMovie noted an early 91 percent mark from 32 reviews, a dramatic improvement over the 25 percent Ryan Reynolds’ 2011 ‘Green Lantern’ film received.
The series follows Kyle Chandler as veteran Lantern Hal Jordan and Aaron Pierre as rookie recruit John Stewart, with the pair investigating a murder in the American heartland that gradually reveals cosmic ties beneath the surface. Created by Chris Mundy, Damon Lindelof and Tom King, the eight episode drama also features Kelly Macdonald, Garret Dillahunt, Poorna Jagannathan and Nathan Fillion as Guy Gardner.
Chandler admitted the pressure of stepping into such a beloved character weighed on him ahead of release, joking about the warnings he received before cameras rolled. It wasn’t intimidating until somebody told him he’d better not screw it up or he’d get a lot of hate mail, Chandler told TheWrap with a laugh, adding that he doesn’t really see much of it since he isn’t active on social media.
Given how divisive early trailer reactions were, the matching critic and audience numbers feel like a genuine turning point for the DCU’s television side, especially after ‘Supergirl’ struggled with mixed reviews earlier this year. With ‘Lanterns’ now airing weekly through its eight episode run, the real test will be whether that goodwill holds as the mystery in Rushville deepens.
Now that Hal Jordan and John Stewart have won over both critics and audiences in one weekend, are you convinced ‘Lanterns’ is the grounded Green Lantern story DC fans have been waiting for?
