YMMV / Krypton

• And You Thought It Would Fail: When it was first announced, the general reaction was bewilderment and apathy, especially since it was said to be set in the then-divisive DC Extended Universe (even though the series borrows some visual and thematic aspects of it, that proved not to be the case). It was renewed for a second season after it proved to be Syfy's most-watched scripted show since 2015 and the channel's most-watched debuting show since 2014, and Season 2 ended up much better received. Sadly, audience ratings sank like stones, and the show was canceled by Syfy after the second season.
• Anticlimax Boss: Brainiac is defeated simply by being sent into the Phantom Zone at the end of Season 1. Downplayed when he drags Seg along with him and, come Season 2, keeps surviving the attempts to kill him.
• Complete Monster: Brainiac, known as The Collector of Worlds, is a cyborg who wiped out his entire race and travels through the galaxy to abduct cities, shrinking them for his collection and often causing the destruction of their planets. While Brainiac publicly claims to bring immortality for the people he takes, in actuality they are put into a paralyzed stasis while remaining conscious forever. Having already inflicted this fate on countless cities and setting sights on Kandor from planet Krypton, Brainiac sends a sentry that possesses and kills an innocent woman before infecting the dictator of Kandor, whom Brainiac remotely controls. After defeating a coup, Brainiac brainwashes the rebels into his loyal guards and forces chief magistrate Daron-Vex to execute his co-conspirators, including Daron's own daughter, Nyssa. To replenish his forces, Brainiac regularly feeds on the birth facility, draining embryos as batteries. Brainiac then slaughters any opposition with his Psychic Powers and turns a little girl into a living bomb he sends upon her friend, Seg-El. Upon being defeated and cast away into the Phantom Zone, Brainiac drags Seg with him and possesses him to return back to Krypton, kidnapping Seg's son and taking him to Earth so he can rule over the planet as a god.
• Growing the Beard: The second season was much better received critically than the first one (also, quite hilariously, Seg has a thicker beard in the early parts of that season). It sadly wasn't enough, as the show was canceled right after the final episode of Season 2 aired due to low audience ratings.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • A Zod (Lyta) finishing someone off with a Neck Snap. The reverse of what happened last time a live action House of Zod member was involved in a fight. Later, a Black Zero leader does it on one of his own men, and later still he's revealed as General Dru-Zod himself.
  • Jayna-Zod saying, "You've always been my greatest love, but now you are my greatest shame," to her daughter Lyta. She's played by Ann Ogbomo, who was in Wonder Woman, in which Queen Hippolyta said the very same thing (with "sorrow" instead of "shame") to her daughter Diana.
  • Almost three months after playing the character who became Doomsday, Staz Nair became a series regular on Supergirl, playing a character named William Dey.
  • Wallis Day goes from Jor-El's mother/Superman's grandmother to a member of the Bat-family, namely as a recast Kate Kane, on Batwoman.
• Memetic Mutation: This promo for season 2 has been making the rounds due to a... particular sound effect chosen for the scene of Doomsday growing his iconic spikes. ^Explanation The sound effect in question? World's Loudest Orgasm, an audio clip from a pornographic movie featuring a man having a long and very loud orgasm.
• Narm Charm: Seg's surprised "Mum?" when Charys appears, piloting a spaceship when he's running away from the armed forces.
• Older Than They Think:
  • The Zods are black in this show unlike their usual depiction, but this started with Val-Zod of Earth 2.
  • In this show, Superman is General Zod's (half-)nephew, but a similar twist first happened with Superman: Earth One where Zod was Zod-El.
• Second Season Downfall: The show has been canceled right after the last episode of Season 2 (and Season 2 grew the beard compared to the first one nonetheless) aired, due to low audience ratings.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • Seg's parents Ter-El and Charys-El, We Hardly Knew Ye.
  • Dru-Zod's fellow Black Zero renegade Kiyo. She gets an interesting Made of Iron action scene, and it would have been interesting to see how she learned the truth about Zod's goal to stop Brainiac, and if she approves of his endgame of conquering the planet he first wants to save. However, she gets little background or characterization before being killed halfway through season one.
  • Tai-Un is an Action Girl Sagitari who seems loyal to Lyta, excels at some of the group's more benevolent duties and ends up as a bystander when the heroes capture and start questioning time traveler Zod about the future of Krypton. She has much potential to become an Ascended Extra, but gets a very abrupt Slashed Throat after two episodes.
  • Mal, Jax-Ur's lieutenant from the last episodes of season one. He has some good moments displaying Screw the Money, I Have Rules!, has bad blood with the House of Vex, and shows Undying Loyalty but not Blind Obedience to Jax-Ur during some tense and pivotal scenes. It might have been interesting seeing him get a bigger role in the rebellion in season 2, but he vanishes without a trace between seasons.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • Having the series set in its own continuity is fine, but having it set in the DC Extended Universe as originally intended by David S. Goyer would've meant they could have fleshed out the Krypton of that continuity, set up elements for future movies, and possibly shown how Jor-El grew up to be an Adaptational Badass.
  • Nyssa has four sisters whom she views as allies, but none of them ever appear in person, even though their relationship with their father and new brother-in-law could have been interesting and furthered the plot.
  • Many fans wanted to see more noble houses and a more varied aristocratic power structure on the planet, but only the houses of El, Zod, and Vex have any focus.
  • The series rarely ventures outside of Kandor, when many people wanted to see less frequently seen regions of the planet like Juru Valley, Kryptonopolis, the Isle of Thieves, Argo City, the Scarlet Jungle, and Twenx (a few get occasional mentions, while others hover in Schrödinger's Canon status) featured to give a more varied view of Krypton's culture.
  • Since the Genesis Chamber uses DNA samples taken from people's hands rather than any kind of gametes, obviously it's capable of Homosexual Reproduction, but we don't see this happen or hear it alluded to.
• Unexpected Character: To say that people were surprised when it was announced at Comic-Con 2017 that Adam Strange would be a major character in the series, would be an understatement. Even more so for Dru-Zod, better known as General Zod — not to mention Doomsday.
  • For Season 2, there's Lobo, of all people. In the season/series finale, while the Thanagarians were hinted about, absolutely nobody was expecting Apokolips to be coming.
• Visual Effects of Awesome: The visuals are among the best coming from Syfy.

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