Lanterns Teaser Shines

HBO dropped a new Lanterns teaser, and the show might actually be good.

That’s not how I expected to feel. The early marketing was strange. They kept stripping the green out of the title. They kept calling it a grounded mystery in the vein of True Detective. I was not convinced.

Then this teaser arrived. Kyle Chandler as Hal Jordan, using his ring to forge a dollar bill and feed it into a jukebox. Aaron Pierre’s John Stewart calls him out. Hal shrugs it off the way Hal Jordan always shrugs things off in the comics. Cocky test pilot who somehow keeps getting handed the most powerful weapon in the universe. Chandler nails the type.

Laura Linney is in it. Nathan Fillion is back as Guy Gardner. Damon Lindelof and Chris Mundy from Ozark co-created it with comics writer Tom King. August 16 on HBO.

Coach Taylor with a power ring. I don’t know what I expected. It wasn’t this, and I’m in.