The DC series that plays like a crime drama arrives on HBO Max on 17 August
Lanterns runs eight episodes from Monday 17 August, with Aaron Pierre, Kyle Chandler, Kelly Macdonald and Laura Linney, and a premise that swaps intergalactic spectacle for a case to solve.
There is an odd decision at the heart of Lanterns, and it is the reason to give the thing a chance. DC Studios took the Green Lantern Corps — an intergalactic police force whose rings can conjure anything the wearer can imagine — and shot a slow-burning investigation drama in the American middle of nowhere.
Season one runs eight episodes and premieres on Monday 17 August on HBO Max. The trailer announcement came from the HBO Max Portugal press room, which put Portuguese subscribers among the first to see it.
Who is in it
Aaron Pierre and Kyle Chandler lead, with Kelly Macdonald and Laura Linney alongside them. That is a prestige-drama cast rather than a summer-blockbuster one, and the casting is the thesis.
Chris Mundy, Damon Lindelof and Tom King created the show and co-wrote the pilot, with Mundy as showrunner. James Hawes directs the first two episodes; Stephen Williams, Geeta Vasant Patel and Alik Sakharov handle the rest. Lindelof made Lost and Watchmen. King is one of the comics writers who reshaped how DC reads over the past decade. Between them, that tells you more about the register than any logline will.
What it means for DC on television
These characters have never carried a live-action series of their own, and this one lands at a moment when audiences have visibly tired of wholesale spectacle. If a small story with enormous powers works, it moves the goalposts for whatever comes next.
August has been busy for anyone watching from Portugal. The month already brought the Netflix thriller that locks a family inside their own house, with more returns booked for the second half. From Monday the 17th, add a badly lit bar somewhere in rural America and two men wearing rings nobody should have.
By Lucy Bennett
Image: HBO Max
