Lanterns Premiere Reviews: Strong Early Response to HBO's Green Lantern Mystery

This page records the early critical reaction when HBO’s Lanterns premiered, as DC Studios took Green Lantern in a much more grounded direction.

The series premiered August 16 on HBO and HBO Max, with Kyle Chandler playing veteran Lantern Hal Jordan opposite Aaron Pierre’s new recruit John Stewart. The pair are drawn into a murder investigation in Rushville, Nebraska, giving the cosmic DC property the structure of a small-town crime mystery. For the full cast, schedule and DCU setup, see our complete Lanterns guide.

At this launch snapshot on August 18, Lanterns held a 94% Tomatometer score from 68 Season 1 reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, with an 86% Popcornmeter from more than 500 audience ratings. Those early figures were not a completed-season consensus.

Later episodes have since aired. Rotten Tomatoes currently lists a 93% Season 1 Tomatometer score, separate from the launch snapshot recorded here.

Chandler and Pierre Lead the Praise

A recurring point across the critical response is the chemistry between the two leads. Rotten Tomatoes’ current critics consensus highlights Chandler and Pierre’s performances, grounded writing and their chemistry, while Variety and The Hollywood Reporter also point to the pairing as one of the show’s strongest elements.

The grounded approach has drawn repeated comparisons to True Detective, but that influence has not worked for everyone. TIME describes the show’s mix of creative influences as uneven, while more skeptical reviews have argued that the crime-drama approach can hold back some of Green Lantern’s more imaginative superhero possibilities.

For now, the reception is clearly positive overall — just not universal.

This is not a season review: it covers the premiere/early-review response, while later episodes continue to shape the full-season reception. Early review scores and online discussion should not be confused with confirmed ratings success — see our Lanterns ratings and viewership breakdown for the reported premiere audience.

Hero photograph: Aaron Pierre and Kyle Chandler by Kevin Paul, CC BY 4.0. Cropped to 16:9 and converted to WebP.