Lanterns Review: HBO’s DC Mystery Thriller Shines Bright

HBO’s “Lanterns” arrives as several things at once, but above all, it feels like exactly the kind of jolt the new DCU needed after its first major stumble. When James Gunn took the reins of DC’s rebooted screen universe, the promise was not simply another interconnected superhero machine, but a broader creative playground — one where different filmmakers could bring their own genres, rhythms, and points of view to a shared comic book world.

So far, however, much of the new DC slate has still felt firmly shaped by Gunn’s own sensibility. “Creature Commandos,” “Peacemaker,” and “Superman” all carried his unmistakable fingerprints, while “Supergirl,” despite being the first major project he neither wrote nor directed, still appeared to bear enough of his influence that critics were quick to notice. Beyond the forthcoming “Clayface,” which originated with Mike Flanagan and is being directed by James Watkins, the next big-screen DCU entry is “Man of Tomorrow,” a direct follow-up to Gunn’s “Superman.”

That is what makes “Lanterns” stand apart. The series clearly belongs to the world introduced by “Superman,” and it doesn’t feel disconnected from the DCU’s larger framework. But tonally, it moves with a different pulse. Billed as a sci-fi-inflected take on “True Detective,” the show blends buddy-cop tension, noir atmosphere, and a central conspiracy that appears tied to the very foundation of this new DC Universe. Based on the first four episodes of its eight-episode season, “Lanterns” could become the franchise’s most refreshing change of pace yet — provided it can bring its mystery home with the same confidence.

The “True Detective” comparison is not just marketing shorthand. “Lanterns” follows an uneasy partnership between seasoned Green Lantern Hal Jordan, played by Kyle Chandler, and new recruit John Stewart, played by Aaron Pierre, as they investigate a case that unfolds across more than one timeline. In this version of the DCU, Hal has spent years as Earth’s first and only Green Lantern, operating in the pre-Superman era the franchise has only lightly sketched so far. Now older and more weathered, he is assigned to train John, a former Marine who grew up seeing Hal’s heroics filtered through headlines and broadcasts. Their first assignment leads them to Rushville, Nebraska, a small town with a strange connection to Hal’s earliest days with the Green Lantern ring.

Alongside its clear HBO crime-drama DNA, “Lanterns” also draws heavily from the mentor-and-rookie friction of “Training Day.” Rushville’s dusty, isolated setting gives veteran television director James Hawes room to lean into Western textures as much as police-thriller tension. The result is a spare, earthy, and tightly wound Green Lantern series that puts character, mood, and mystery ahead of cosmic fireworks. Early footage looked so muted that some fans worried the show was distancing itself from its comic book roots, but the episodes themselves suggest something more deliberate. Viewers hoping for an explosion of bright green spectacle may still need patience, yet the way “Lanterns” filters DC’s vast space mythology through a grounded investigation gives the story a surprisingly strong dramatic charge.

There’s a moment early on where Hal gives a brief monologue in a bar about how the ring came into his possession and changed his life forever. There’s no maximalist flashback, no cutaways to special effects-laden recreations of crash-landing spaceships. It’s just Chandler’s voice and eyes and face recounting a tale fans of the source material will be very familiar with, but recontextualizing that notorious event through sheer will alone. It instills chills and very efficiently sells why “Lanterns” took this particular approach. 

In the wake of the 2011 “Green Lantern” film becoming a perpetual punchline, forever tethered to the chip on Ryan Reynolds’ shoulder, reintroducing this mythology to the masses required a different approach. It’s not ashamed of its beginnings, but it knows a little genre convention goes a long way. It’s more like the first “Terminator” movie, which heavily alluded to the future robot war rather than trying to show us every inch of it. The unique way it brings Green Lantern back to the mainstream is an interesting amalgamation of its three creators’ respective approaches to storytelling.

Primary showrunner Chris Mundy’s biggest credit to date remains the Netflix crime drama “Ozark,” and that show’s confident plotting and high caliber acting are on display here, but it’s the show’s other two co-creators who give “Lanterns” its dueling creative identities. 

Controversial “Wonder Woman” scribe Tom King has been involved with the DCU since James Gunn put his initial writers’ room together, and the failed “Supergirl” film was loosely based on one of his most celebrated graphic novels. But “Lanterns,” right from its shocking opening scene, feels like the clearest distillation of his cape comics in a live action setting. King likes to play fast and loose with accepted canon, making his approach to fan-favorite characters malleable within the stories he personally chooses to tell.

That’s why his Hal is older, washed-up and conflicted about his own legacy. It’s also likely why the unique wrinkle in the way John Stewart’s connection to the mythology is dispensed with hews so closely to ex-CIA agent King’s frequently maudlin and controversial explorations of combat veterans’ histories. Both provide fertile ground for the series’ two leads to play around in, with both Kyle Chandler and Aaron Pierre doing instantly iconic work within this new corner of the DCU.

The other big creative force here is “Lost” co-creator Damon Lindelof, and it’s clear he is continuing some of the ideas that were central to his “Watchmen” adaptation. There is a palpable sense of racial politics being wrestled with inside a superhero-centric setting, particularly once Stewart’s backstory begins to be excavated and his role as Hal’s successor becomes more complicated than it first appears. Together, these different writers and their respective pet themes and approaches help create something that feels like a necessary step outside Gunn’s authorial voice. Whether the changes work will likely depend on how much of a stickler for continuity and comic book accuracy the viewer is, especially with some of the thornier ideas surrounding race.

But “Lanterns” feels like something very necessary for the future of the DCU, especially its shaky state post-“Supergirl” and with the Paramount merger looming. Thankfully, it’s an entertaining and engrossing proposition, the kind of show that’s worth sticking with, whether or not the eventual finale effectively ties its disparate elements into a bow.