The Warner Brothers Home Entertainment separate DVD and Blu-ray releases of the 2018 first season of the SyFy network series "Krypton" shows that this series clearly is a production by fanboys for fanboys. The even better news is that this show is as highly entertaining to those of us in the middle range of the Kinsey Scale of Superman fandom as to the folks at either more extreme end.
Creators DCU veteran David S. Goyer and "Stargate" veteran Damian Kindler reach well across the aisle in setting this Superman prequel a long time ago in a galaxy far far away, They also reflect the British reasoning that creating a handful of excellent episodes each season is better than offering a larger number of mediocre or bad ones.
This love of the art is clear from the opening shot of the titular planet brightly red aflame ahead of the global destruction that makes the last son of that world the man whom he is today. What we see when the action shifts back a couple of centuries before that apocalypse further demonstrates that this is a true labor of love,
The opening comments in the entertaining and the informative 2017 ComicCon panel on "Krypton" that is a home-video bonus feature aptly gives props to the feature-film quality cinematography. An amusing remark notes that the action occurring in such a foreign setting precludes merely shooting outside the police station down the street.
These elements additionally REQUIRE buying "Krypton" in Blu-ray; playing it in a 4K player and watching it on a 4K Sony set makes you feel as if you are there. As an aside, being a cheap bastard in buying the fourth season of the CW DCU series "The Flash" on DVD after buying the other three on Blu-ray is a deep regret. It does not look nearly as good despite giving it the same 4K treatment as "Krypton."
The final diversion into Blogland before returning to the proud tradition of this site playing it straight relates to enhanced viewing pleasure. Getting the review BD set on that Friday facilitated a marathon (rather than binge) watching session that night. That evoked fond memories of going to the home of friends virtually every Friday night in the early 2000s to eat take-out and watch "Stargate" series or other SyFy series of that era.
The following YouTube clip of a "Krypton" S1 trailer provides a good sense of the lore of the series. It also highlights the talents of dreamy theater-trained star Cameron Cuffe, who plays literal granddaddy of Kal-El Sig-El.
All this (and most of out story) occurs in the then-domed (rather than bottled) city of Candor. The rigid hierarchy of that society has the ruling class of ranked families, all of which lead a particular segment of society such as the military and the sciences. The hoi polloi are unranked people who generally live a deprived existence.
14 cycles later, a 23 year-old unranked Sig-El is in the middle of a brawl at the bar at his buddy Kem. One game-changer is a heroic act by the grandfather of a Justice League member gets him reranked into the "noble" house of Vex he also finds himself facing a marriage of apparent convenience to Nyssa-Vex.
A CW element enters the picture in the form of this engagement occurring at a time that Sig-El is getting busy with Lyta-Zod. Even someone unable to solve "Scooby-Doo" mysteries can figure out the rest of the story when Superman nemesis General Zod enters the picture. That development further enhances the Shakespearean vibe of this series that already looks and feels like a story from the mind of The Bard.
Another important element of the season-long story-arc comes in the form of easy earth-boy Adam Strange beaming in with a warning from our time. He delivers an essentially "your children need your help" message to Sig-El. This gist of this news is that a earth-based threat from the future is traveling to the "Krypton" present on that planet to prevent Kal-El from being born.
Meanwhile, DCU villain/collector of planets Brainiac is headed straight for Krypton; Team El is aware both that the scheme of that evil alien is to literally rip Candor from the face of Krypton and that the very reasonable objectives of Sig-El and Strange are mutually exclusive.
Meanwhile, there is plenty of Shakespeare-style drama around the aforementioned three leading families of Krypton. This includes an aptly major and potentially bloody vexing rift between the fiancee of Sig-El and his future father-in-law. This is not to mention an "its complicated" relationship between the three generations of Zods.
As if that is not enough, another Superman villain is a player. That reflects the philosophy of "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" that contending with Klingon enemies requires having a Klingon directly fight on your side.
The bigger picture is that the inter-woven threads above and other related aspects of "Krypton" both keep the action non-stop and provides high-quality plots that reflect the awful truth that most solutions rarely are easy. This particularly has an O'Henry element in this cerebral series.
The copious extras in addition to the Comic Con panel include a "making-of" feature, a "Life on Krypton" bonus, deleted scenes, and a gag reel. A cutting-room scene between Nyssa-Vax and Seg-El is particularly note-worthy.
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