I thought that if he were not pressured into becoming a Green Lantern, John would have become a professional painter or a sketch artist. I guess I wasn't really thinking big, because when it's revealed that John has become an architect in Bad Optics, I gave an approving smile. This is the perfect job for him, allowing him to combine his ambitions with his artistic skills. The sixth episode begins with John pitching his idea for building panic rooms across the city, and we slowly come to learn that he has entered into this venture with Marcus, one of his siblings. Is everything okay in the Stewart family now that John has decided to reject his Green Lantern role and duties? One of the good things about Bad Optics is how it gradually paints the current, fractured picture of John's family. John's father is in a nursing home, and John isn't as close to his mother as he used to be (he calls her by her first name and sounds impatient while talking to her on the phone).
This ex-Marine-turned-architect has zero patience for his parents, having now fully grasped the extent to which he was treated as a puppet to fulfill someone else's dreams. His brothers are naturally pissed, given that their parents spent all their energy nurturing John while placing them on the sidelines. Is this why they haven't managed to stand on their own feet? One sibling is financially dependent on John to nurture his own career in music, and Marcus... well, I think we can safely assume that he got excited by the opportunity to work with his talented sibling, though there is also a sense of sadness and frustration in his voice, especially when John says, "I need to do that" or "I need to do this," rather than, "We need to work together and build this."
Bad Optics is mainly about viewing a present that carries the ripples of the past within it. Thanks to the destructive events of 2016, the Rushville of 2026 hates Green Lantern and has grown antagonistic towards him. John's father has to pull off stunts like using a firearm at the nursing home to talk to John because of the way he and his wife parented him. Guy Gardner gets to be Green Lantern in the present only because John declined the offer in 2016. A bartender named Maggie blackmails John for money because she holds him responsible for ruining her town and her life. There also used to be a motel in Rushville where John and Hal stayed in 2016, and that structure has been completely destroyed (no one rebuilt it).
One of the amusing revelations in Bad Optics involves the fact that Hal has written his own eulogy, which John is asked to deliver by Carol Ferris. The text opens with a greeting to terrestrials and extraterrestrials, the President and the First Lady, which suggests that Hal had a rather high opinion of himself. In the end, though, only three people attend his funeral, with Guy showing up briefly—more to do John a favor than to pay his respects to the dead man. This, too, is a result of the kind of life Hal chose to live.
Anyway, this last point brings me to another aspect of Lanterns Episode 6: its ability to have fun even amid a mood of mourning. There is a big square box that requires Hal's voice as a key to unlock it, and when John plays a voice note on Kerry's mobile, this supremely intelligent object identifies it as a recording and warns John and Kerry that it won't be kind to them if they try to deceive it again (the box lets them walk away with a first and final warning). But the most pleasing, the most satisfying moment comes courtesy of Kerry when she deputizes John over a cup of coffee.
Kelly Macdonald continues to prove herself the greatest asset of this series. With just sudden or minor changes in her expressions, she makes a scene look grand and appealing. I smiled just by looking at her confused face when John delivered the eulogy. Macdonald has to be one of the most arresting actors to grace the screen. Forget the green suit or the magical ring; I can no longer imagine a version of Lanterns without Macdonald in it. If there is a version of it somewhere, it must be pretty boring. Quick, someone cast her as a regular in this DC universe, in this superhero franchise. She is a star worth gazing at for an eternity.
Final Score - [6/10]