Khalil Payne has made a new life for himself far away from Freeland City as he tries to deal with his past and the darkness within him. But a chance encounter leads him into confrontation with a powerful enemy who may hold the key to his redemption.

Black Lightning is on my ‘To watch’ list so aside from having seen the pilot an age ago, I come to this backdoor pilot for the Painkiller solo series pretty fresh, and whereas it’s stylishly shot and goes through all the right motions, it’s hard to escape the notion that we have seen all this before.

The unique schtick of the show is Khalil’s dual personality. The eponymous ‘Painkiller’ is an alter ego of sorts – a programmed killer driven by rage and pain who Khalil has somehow subsumed back into the deeper recesses of his mind. The constant back and forth between the internalised personification of this darker side to his nature and his enlightened, calmer self is often represented by scenes which break up the action – literally – as the two debate, discuss and even have ‘physical’ fights over how to proceed next in any given situation. Think the Incredible Hulk if Bruce and The Other Guy had to sit down and have an argument with one another on the astral plane every time the change was upon them.

The issue is, other than this fairly odd slant, everything else feels very by the numbers. There’s the smart Asian sidekick who looks unassuming but is a tech whiz. The other sidekick who’s a gentle giant dispensing wisdom via cod-philosophy soundbites. The shadowy corporation up to nefarious things which may also just be the key to solving Khalil’s own problem. And there’s the sudden intrusion of his past life into his present which results in an incredibly hackneyed (and as it turns out mostly unnecessary) rescue mission. In between all this, Jordan Calloway as Khalil/Painkiller gets to snarl out some one-liners, get involved in a few fairly dull fight scenes and drive an anachronistically classic car through the show’s neon-tinged futuristic landscapes.

It’s possible I’d feel more attachment to the characters and the premise if I’d been up to speed on the show it’s an offshoot from. Certainly there’s nothing here that’s actively bad. The cast are solid, turning in decent performances with the material they have, and the central hook of the show could be an interesting one if allowed the chance to properly develop. But as it stands this just feels like yet another superhero show which is doing nothing to really stand out from the crowd.

Verdict: Entertaining in a sort of middle-of-the-road way, but feels like it slightly wastes its central premise and its cast with what is a very well-worn set of storytelling tropes. Here’s hoping the show proper gets better. 6/10

Greg D. Smith