New champ alert: HBO’s record-breaking “sci-fi True Detective” has TV’s best premiere in three years

I spend far too many hours sat in front of the telly—an occupational hazard in this line of work. The thing is, when you feast on as much TV as I do, you realise just how much of it there is, and frankly, only a handful get the blood pumping. For every Succession, there are dozens of shows punted out with a 'dream cast' and a high-concept pitch that land with all the excitement of a cold cup of tea. The streaming era's hardly helped—most weeks, some ageing movie franchise gets repackaged as yet another series, and if we’re being honest, there’s an unmistakable undercurrent of mediocrity that’s worlds away from the so-called Golden Age of Television.

Let’s not kid ourselves: we’re past the glory days. There is brilliant TV around, sure, but the game changed after the Pandemic. Now, it's Blockbuster TV central—superheroes, space epics, swords and sorcery. That's where studios are throwing the money, but going by the numbers, it's not exactly what most folks are itching to watch. Shows like Spider-Noir or For All Mankind are quality stuff, yet always just miss grabbing the wider conversation. But then you’ve got HBO’s Lanterns, which is something else entirely. It’s bulldozed its way into HBO Max’s all-time Top 5 streamed premieres, which doesn’t happen every day, and the comic book mob are actually happy for once.

Lanterns is now among HBO Max's five most-watched launches ever.

Superhero-wise, only WandaVision managed a bigger streaming launch, and that’s still the benchmark for Marvel on Disney+. What Lanterns and WandaVision share is a willingness to tear up the superhero playbook and try something bold with the format. The real problem with the genre lately isn’t so much 'superhero fatigue'—it’s the conveyor belt of bland, formula-driven scripts. Even the better recent DC or Marvel offerings have started to feel a bit like reheated leftovers.

I’ve slogged through hundreds of Green Lantern comics and nearly every animated version, so trust me when I say this: Lanterns is nothing like the Hal Jordan stories we’re used to—and that’s why it works. Sure, there are hints you’ll clock if you know the comics well enough, but most of it is uncharted territory. That proper sense of mystery is absolutely what’s selling it for me—there’s nothing better than a show that actually leaves you guessing.

The Chandler Move

Now, if you’d told me a few years back that Kyle Chandler (yes, Coach Taylor himself) was going to don the ring as Hal Jordan, I’d have laughed in your face. But here we are, and he absolutely nails it. It's not the cocky young pilot you might remember—or Ryan Reynolds doing… whatever that was. This Hal is battered, older, still has the swagger, but he’s signed up to mentor the new kid. It happens all the time in comics: cast someone who seems like an odd fit, and they end up being pitch perfect. Heath Ledger’s Joker, Robert Pattinson as Batman, Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine—you get the idea.

Just looking at social media, people are already wishing Chandler had been around for the role two decades ago. That’s what makes his version of Hal so good—he’s impossibly watchable, but only for a limited run. Because the truth is, Hal Jordan isn’t the DCU’s main Green Lantern anymore; that torch (ring?) is being passed to Aaron Pierre's John Stewart, who’s already confirmed for the Superman: Man of Tomorrow sequel next year. He’s not the main event in Lanterns—yet.

The creators keep stressing it's a show about legacy, but at the moment, Chandler's Hal is chewing up the scenery. If he reminds you of Robert Downey Jr’s Iron Man, that's not an accident—he's that special mix of loveable and insufferable. Making him brilliant, then moving him offstage quickly, is actually smart. If you want your superhero universe to feel big, you can’t show all your cards. Sometimes, hinting at the legends of the past is much more effective than spelling them out—it's the same trick Star Wars played with Obi-Wan and the Clone Wars.

The John Stewart Era

But right, we’ve got to talk Aaron Pierre. So far, he’s playing it cool with John Stewart—a bit reserved and stoic (standard for the character), but you can see he’s going somewhere. And, if you’ve ever watched the Justice League cartoons, you’ll know fans are practically begging for the show to push him front and centre. Give him a minute, though—I reckon Pierre's about to prove himself one of the all-time great superhero castings. His story arc in the DCU is still winding up.

Premier League TV

I went back over the recent series I’ve watched, just trying to remember the last time a first episode grabbed me as quickly as Lanterns. We’ve had decent runs recently—Pluribus, Widow’s Bay, Task—but honestly, none of them came flying out the gates like this. It’s been years since a premiere this good. In fact, I had to go back to 2023 and Beef for something comparable. And yeah, both Shōgun and The Pitt came close, but Lanterns offers the whole package from episode one: it pops with character, mystery, and actual humour, all while building a world you genuinely want to poke around in. Not much more you can ask for from a series opener, is there?