Weekly TV Reviews Part 1 (Spoilers)
Apr. 8th, 2018 03:48 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
matt_zimmerReviews for the latest episodes of Teen Titans Go!, DC Super Hero Girls, DC's Legends Of Tomorrow, Black Lightning, Arrow, Krypton, And Gotham.
Teen Titans Go! "Flashback, Parts 1 and 2"
Kid Flash is SUCH a stinker on this show. It is so weird that all of the major villains on this show are heroes, and all of the supposed villains are actually innocent victims. But Kid Flash comes across as especially loathsome. I hate him so much. Rosenbaum made him genuine and lovable. Friedle makes him the kind of guy who makes it so that you actually relish the shattered leg. And you really should not ever be doing that. But Friedle makes me WANT to do that.
I loved Raven "attacking the dummy". Seriously, Robin was begging for that.
I love the sickened and mistrustful look the cat gives Starfire after she takes it out of her mouth. Points for retconning the stupid language kiss meet-cute too. Did I mention I hate that part of the Teen Titans mythology? It needs to be retconned gone and stay retconned gone.
Was that the first instance of "The Old Shablammo"? I think it might have been.
Kid Flash better be doin' the peepee dance, and he'll be doing it for another minute! I love Beast Boy.
I love the idea that Robin is only an intense mess because the other Titans MADE him an intense mess. It's believable too.
What a fun episode. Not exactly as epic a debut as "Go!" was for the original series, but Go! didn't have Starfire eating cats, so pobody's nerfect. ****1/2.
DC Super Hero Girls "Ha-Ha Horticulture"
Grundy is a cannibal? Since when? **1/2.
DC Super Hero Girls "The Truth Of The Lasso: Part 1"
Do the green eyes mean it's Circe or Lena? Or is it actually Cheetah herself?
Cheetah gets an extra month of detention for saying Lucius Fox's vest is nerdy? She's just statin' an easy to verify fact.
Pretty good. ***1/2.
DC's Legends Of Tomorrow "I, Ava"
Interestingly enough, Kuwasa's first move to betray Nate was the right one. He IS a legit threat not only to her, but the entire Vixen legacy. Trading him for the Totem was correct decision, whether it hurts Amaya's feelings or not.
Feel a little ripped off we didn't actually see Mari. What's the point of doing this story if they can't pay her actor for a crossover?
Totem lesson number 1, Rory: You don't call Zari a b****. And Rory is the kind of guy who likes to learn things the hard way.
I am loving Gary. He is my current favorite character this season.
I was positive Ava was a robot, but a clone is a pretty good second guess. I wasn't right, but I was in the ballpark of being right.
Really, Wally? That sounded better in your head? Then your head is a very messed up place.
I don't buy the show retconning Damian Dahrk into a lovable goofball, but I kind of see the reasons WHY they think they can get away with it. To be honest, it is not credible that Dahrk actually cares about Nora. Dahrk is a sociopath. Those guys don't care about anyone but themselves.
But this episode sort of said, that's the entire conflict. He IS a sociopath, and wants to go back to being a sociopath, but having a daughter he actually cares about isn't letting him. He feels weaker and less-than for these genuine feelings BECAUSE he's a sociopath. And again, I don't really buy the newfound doofiness of the character. But it does explain how a sociopath can actually love his daughter.
Gonna rock the Barack next week.
Good episode. ****.
DC's Legends Of Tomorrow "Guest Starring John Noble"
What a great and weird episode title. And it shows up in the credits when it is supposed to.
I miss Barack too. It's so cool that Sara goes to him for advice. What I love is that the episode is complimentary to Barack Obama personally by saying he's a great guy and was a great President. That will make liberals happy. But it also repeatedly punishes and humiliates him. Which will make conservatives happy. Honestly, I think the liberals got the better deal from that, but what's great is that I'm sure conservatives will think the same thing, because they value different things than we do. That was the genius of how it was handled.
The 12th Ava. I am really starting to understand why no-one really likes Rip. Jeez, he sucks.
The John Noble stuff was really meta. I love that Rory is all of about the Lord of the Rings. I love Rory.
Amaya's memory being gone explains a lot. It's also interesting that Darhk now regrets some of his evil actions. Because it doesn't stop him from taking the most evil way out when it benefits him. Truthfully, part of me is hoping they'll still be able to save Nora next week.
Sara deciding to let the anachronism play out shows clearly why the Legends are the chainsaw. Her tossing Darhk the Death Totem was similarly insane in a pleasurable way. What's great is that both of her insane gambits seemed to have worked. We'll see what happens to Mari next when Vixen returns to CW Seed but so far a happy ending is not out of the question for Amaya's family.
I love that the only person who gets to decide if Rory pulls the trigger on Darhk is Sara. Hers is the only opinion that matters to him on the topic. And I love that.
Great episode. Season finale coming up already? This season has seemed really fast. Which is the mark of a good season. ****1/2.
Black Lightning "Sins Of The Father: The Book Of Redemption"
This show has the best episode titles.
Great episode. Great, great episode.
Love Jefferson with Malick. It shows he is an even bigger hero as a principal than he is as Black Lightning.
I was so shocked the Spotter was the vice-principle. This makes everything that much harder, especially since she now suspects Pierce is Black Lightning. Trouble ahead.
I have no idea why Anissa apologized to Jennifer for throwing Kahlil in her face. She was totally right to do it. Jennifer was being an @$$.
Nothing says that Jefferson can actually trust Gambi than the fact that he actually endured torture and still refused to give him up. I love the look on his face upon the suggestion of Jefferson being brought there. It was a look that said that that notion was either his salvation, and that he was the luckiest person alive, or it would be the bad guys getting exactly what they wanted, and end badly for everyone. And I love that it feels like the first thing at the time, but it turns out to be the second thing later on. It is really refreshing that the bad guy actually was smart enough to understand what was actually going on.
Black Lightning was right to give Two-Bits the mulligan he did a few episodes ago. If he hadn't, Jefferson wouldn't have gotten the crucial intel he did, which is another thing that tell me three strikes laws do more harm than good. I love the dumb lady dropping an air conditioner and a microwave on them to supposedly claim the reward. Unfortunately that woman struck me as the worst of stereotypes, which this show usually avoids. I like Two-Bits honestly telling Black Lightning he would go for the reward himself if thought he could take him, until Jefferson clears it up that he's innocent. Two-Bits is not only awesome for being honest about being tempted to betray Black Lightning, but a good enough person to change his mind about it when convinced of the truth. This show is interesting because it seems to give the bit characters we have been seeing around the city since the first few episodes huge backstories and complex motivations that are revealed bit by bit as the season progresses. Do you know what other superhero show does that? Luke Cage. There is a lesson here somewhere. I'm sure of it.
I love the episode and I love the series. *****.
Black Lightning "Black Jesus: The Book Of Crucifixion"
Wow, that episode pushed a TON of buttons. And I assume it's gonna p*ss a lot of people off. But the people it will p*ss off are the people who need to hear this episode's message the most.
First off, I am amazed at the fact that all throughout the episode, Jefferson seems to believe the system works. It's turns out he's right by the end, but that shouldn't matter. His reactions were that of a person a lot more naive and optimistic than he should be. What do I mean?
When one of the cops tells him they found Green Light in his car, his reaction is "That's impossible!" instead of "That's b.s.!" And then when they pull it out of his desk he says, "That isn't mine," instead of the far more rational "You just planted that." Even at this point he still thinks this is all an innocent mistake. Which makes the abuse he endures infuriating.
Do you know what I love? The stupid person they interview on the news was the old white lady. Just the fact that she believed something so stupid and unbelievable about Jefferson shows that she's the type of person who goes to racist conspiracy sites and listens to rightwing talk radio. People like her live in an entirely different reality than you or I, and the episode is going to p*ss people off because people who look and sound exactly like this woman believed similar nonsense about Barack Obama. It is the episode's withering critique of where conservatives get their crazy news sources, and anyone who believed that Birth Certificate nonsense is someone the episode is calling out. And I love that. Arrow did an episode about gun violence last season, that seemed absolutely gutless considering the subject matter. It was trying too hard not to offend anybody. This show is the opposite and does not mind offending people who deserve that. Frankly, I'm a bit annoyed that we have to pretend deplorons like that old woman are simply misunderstood folks with economic anxieties, but this episode sort of says that that kind of ignorance and hatred does not come from a benign place. Old White Lady Moron believes Jefferson calls himself Black Jesus and forces his students to, because in the real world, that's a common belief racists have about respectable black people. Mitt Romney once bragged, "Nobody has ever asked to see my birth certificate." Gee, Mitt, I wonder why.
I love Henderson sighing about Jefferson saying he had no idea why the Feds are involved. I get why Jefferson lied. I do. But I love that Henderson's all, "I'm still gonna help you, but you just made it a lot harder."
Speaking of which, isn't Black Lightning still wanted for murder? Why was that not brought up during the episode?
I don't necessarily agree with the episode's idea that truth and justice will always win out in the end. But at the same time, at various times in history, there have been definite breaking points for society, where people said "Enough!!". And I'm thinking that maybe this community's (and Henderson's) final straw is the framing of Jefferson Pierce. My next question, which gives me a pit in MY stomach, is what will be OUR real-world breaking point? What will it take to get people angry enough about stuff like this to change it? The fact that with all of the real-world suffering black people have gone through, and after all the hard won fights and progress, it seems like things are actually getting worse. And I think this is the first point in history where that is true. Barack Obama once said the best time for black people to be alive was right this second. They had made so much progress, and the civil rights movement had changed so much, that it was actually totally true that as bad as things sometimes seemed, and they were still better than they ever were. I don't feel that way anymore, and it's only been a couple of years since he said that. But I think the past couple of years are literally the first years in American history where we went backwards on the subject and quite a bit.
I could do without the Roseanne reboot. I don't think we need a show done solely to justify people's racism. I think the message of this particular series is much more timely. ****.
Arrow "The Thanatos Guild"
I love Thea being smart enough to get Oliver to admit he actually loves being Green Arrow and that's why he won't give it up. She was also right to get him to promise to not string John along anymore. Although the preview hints that will not end well.
I also love Roy deciding to go along with Thea at the end. I love these two together. I especially like that he doesn't wear a costume on the mission. A baseball cap should be enough to hide his identity. Heh.
How did Curtis know that cop was gay? I've heard of gaydar before but that was uncanny.
I love Thea confirming the trap was Raiders to Felicity over the radio. Because knowing that was the important thing.
Speaking of Felicity, I love that Nyssa seems to have a sense of humor, and calls Oliver "Husband" simply because it upsets Felicity. I also am pretty sure she agreed to stay there and scare away distractions simply to annoy her too. She wouldn't have called her "Sister-Wife" just then if that wasn't the case.
I Awwed! at her giving Oliver the annulment at the end of the episode.
I loved this week. ****1/2.
Arrow "Brothers In Arms"
Oh my GOD! That totally p*ssed me off! Every second! And I loved it! This episode pushed all of the right buttons and I appreciated every inch of it.
Who's side do I land on?
Oliver's. And believe me, it's not because Oliver is perfect. He's not. It's because John is in total denial as to why he doesn't get the hood back.
First off, I truly believe the episode probably would have p*ssed a LOT more people off if John had stated a BIG part of the subtext as to why he's upset. He's upset because apparently there is a glass ceiling for black men, even in unlawful vigilantism, and that this is an instance of a white man putting a black man in his proper place. He could blame Oliver for that. I probably wouldn't have minded the extra drama, even if it would turn certain fans who always appreciated Diggle's colorblindness against him. I would have gotten that.
Except it's not Oliver that did that. It's the writers. THEY were the ones who chose to write John as lousy of a Green Arrow as he wound up being. Diggle wants to blame someone for losing the Hood? Look in the mirror. And he still cannot be honest about it at the end.
When Oliver is making his insipid apology about how being the Green Arrow makes him feel whole, I knew that was a mistake. But as John as always been previously insightful, I expected him to point out why that was a mistake. Why it ACTUALLY was a mistake. Instead he's saying that by Oliver saying that, he's putting his personal needs ahead of the city.
No. The truth is Oliver should not have said that because John feels exactly the same way, and by Oliver keeping the Hood, he is denying John the best part of himself he could be. If John had actually owned up to that, I'd sympathize with him. But him saying Oliver doing that is vanity does not fly with me, because I think he's doing the exact same thing.
Now let's talk about some of Dig's specific grievances, and whether they are justified or not. Dig says Oliver has become a poor leader recently. That does not fly. Oliver has ALWAYS been a poor leader. That has always been his biggest fault, and John pretending this is new is him not recognizing that that isn't the actual problem. Oliver has always had a problem with not alienating his allies.
Dig also says that if he were Green Arrow, none of this stuff with Diaz would be happening. That is 100% nonsense. And I was punching the air as Oliver was screaming that he was hooked on Diaz's drugs and endangering the team. Diaz got the foothold he did because of people like John specifically. And he wants to blame Oliver for Vince? No, that was 100% on The Outsiders for keeping Oliver out of the loop. They probably could have thought of a different solution where everyone lived if it wasn't sprung on Oliver on the last second. The Outsiders are another thing that bothered me.
We all had a case of the feelgoods when they forgave Dig for endangering them. But the truth is, John did NOT have their backs when Oliver decided to push against them to weed out the traitor. And it's specifically the fact that they had Dig's back when he needed them which is the thing that shows that Dig was a lousy Green Arrow, and no better at the leader thing than Oliver. He says he never should have let Oliver spy on the team. Notice the wording there. He LET him. He could have raised a fuss, and defended the teammates who stuck by him through a difficult time if he had chosen to do that. And frankly, because Oliver had not been through the things with them that Dig did as Green Arrow, which makes me realize it's not Oliver's responsibility to trust every single one of those recruits. But after all that time, it was Dig's. And he chose to let Oliver do what he did. I don't blame Oliver. He frankly never had a great reason to trust the new team members, and had been resisting them from the start. Don't you think he would have listened to Dig if he had vouched for them? The fact that Dig did not do that says that he is every bit the bad leader he claims Oliver is.
Then Dig says to Oliver, in a truly appalling moment, that he got William's mother killed. You know what? That's fair. That's true. But Oliver never killed his own brother.
I loved Oliver saying that. Loved it. Something that horrible would have been Thea or Laurel's Tuesday in Season 1, but it is literally the most horrible thing we have ever witnessed Oliver say to another human being. But I totally get why he said that. But invoking William's dead mother as one of Oliver's failings, he totally opened the door for Oliver to say that. He wants to do this? Oliver will do this. This kind of thing is now acceptable. All right then. So you killed your brother.
If Oliver had more of a mind to, he could have twisted the knife and said it was precisely because Dig was stupid enough to trust Andy that Laurel was killed in the first place. John says Oliver leaves a trail of bodies in his wake. Laurel was not one of them. That was 100% on Dig.
I have a sneaking suspicious that Diaz is not as credible a threat as everyone says he is. Oliver faced Deathstroke so I know he can handle it. But my perspective about Diaz's potential hold over the city is that it's a house of cards and entirely illusory. One of the scariest and most mindblowing things about the entire concept of money to me is that it only has value because we all agree it does. If tomorrow, we all agreed that it was worthless and decided to use old socks as currency instead, rich people would be screwed. Money only has value because we all have agreed to that.
That is Diaz. Completely. He's not a Dragon. He's a paper tiger if there ever was one. If every single person scared to death of not doing what he says, randomly decided to change their minds at the same time, he'd be dead in a second. Heck, if a SINGLE person working for him decided to put a bullet in him instead of following him because it would be safer, he'd also be dead. He does not have the amount of supernatural juice Slade Wilson and Ra's Al Ghul did. Those guys came by their power legitimately. Diaz is simply the bully who has never been told no. Once he actually is, it's all over.
I was screaming in frustration that Curtis' new boyfriend hates vigilantes. Why can't Curtis ever have a supportive significant other? Why does he always have the disapproving husband / boyfriend while Oliver, Dig, and Barry get Felicity, Lilah, and Iris? And then he learns the secret in the episode, and I laughed. That was great. They were not going to string us along with that, which would have been torture. And y'know, he WAS actually fired for being a clean cop. Maybe he is the type of person who could learn there was something to this vigilante thing after all.
Why is Diaz complimenting Laurel for bringing up the impeachment charges? Why didn't Diaz already think to do that? I repeat: Paper tiger. And I knew they were gonna kiss. And when her eyes light up at the drugs I was like "Of course she's a junkie." It doesn't matter if she's good or evil, there is no part of Laurel Lance that doesn't suck. Some things never change.
Felicity stepping in between Dig and Oliver told me something that you'd figure one of them would have pointed out. It doesn't matter who wears the hood because it seems like Felicity is the one actually in charge. Every time she tells them to do something, they meekly do it. They are fighting for the leadership position of the team they have already subconsciously decided belongs to Felicity in the first place. Could you imagine if Felicity was as evil as Diaz? THEN the city would be in trouble.
I love this episode because it engaged in something the show had abandoned for years. As far as I was concerned, the entire hook of the series wasn't the fights, it wasn't the superhero geek stuff, it wasn't the CW soap opera. The entire hook of the first three seasons to me was the contentious relationship between Oliver Queen and Quentin Lance. I don't think the series ever did a finer moment than near the end of season three where Quentin storms into the Arrowcave with a bunch of cops and says "I've got you now, you son of a b*tch." That was what the entire series was about. That moment. And once that moment was over, the series went in different directions that I didn't care about.
This episode was messy family drama in the way the series should be. This is Arrow filled with the precise level of gut-wrenching pathos it used to be when it was a good show. Most people think the show went downhill in season three. I don't. It still had the Oliver and Quentin dynamic in spades. And it's only when they stepped away from that in season four which is when the show started sucking.
Brothers in arms having a smackdown in the Arrowcave. This is what the show should be and rarely is anymore. I loved this episode and I love how angry I was at the end of it. *****.
Krypton "House Of El"
Much better than the first episode.
Lyta's "No mercy" moment was great, and I love Adam being mad he had to give up the hat. Last week I thought this show was going to be a snooze. This week I think it has promise. ****.
Krypton "The Rankless Initiative"
Lyta Zod missed her true calling. She shouldn't have been a soldier. She should have been a lawyer. She made that crooked guard basically confess her entire crime in under the space of 60 seconds simply by correctly poking at the large holes in the story. The guard was actually afraid of an unarmed Rankless in shackles? Is she even aware how pathetic she sounds with that claim? I love that because that's Lyta using the Sagittaran's smug superiority against themselves. Either that guard is guilty of brutality and murder, or she's a total loser and a coward. And I love that Lyta gets her to confess to the murder simply by getting her to admit she didn't know anything for sure before she fired the shot. This is pretty much the end of every Perry Mason episode. There is flopsweat involved in these moments. Every time. And she got there a lot quicker than Perry ever did using SO much less. I want to see NCIS: Krypton now.
I would feel more disturbed by Lyta refusing a direct order from her mother if every single troop under her didn't just completely ignore her order to do this entire mess non-violently, and to only fire a shot on her say-so. I'm thinking the etiquette of following rules is much more flexible than Lyta's mother is telling her it is. Lyta actually HAS some legit authority. It's not great if she disobeys orders, but she can make the case for it after the fact. Can ANY of those soldiers who started immediately beating civilians claim the same? They literally ignored every single thing she told them, immediately.
Honestly, Krypton is a pit. It's corrupt, the good people are suffering, and literally the only good thing that came from it is Superman, and in some continuities, Supergirl. After seeing the first few episodes of this show, I'm thinking it exploding was no great big universal loss. And the show is smart enough to allow me to feel that way, and still want Seg's mission to succeed so Superman can properly exist. If not for the clever time-travel angle the series used as a hook, I would have zero investment in any of these characters succeeding. Because I know Krypton ultimately doesn't. But by framing the series as effecting Superman's current status and continuity, suddenly I care about the stakes in a way I never do on Gotham. It was very cunning for the series to make Superman a huge part of the mythology right off the bat. If Smallville had been smart enough to do that I probably wouldn't have been as frustrated as I was for ten years.
I'm not on board this series yet. But these past two episodes interested me in a way the Pilot did not. ****.
Gotham "A Dark Knight: One Of My Three Soups"
Great episode title.
I liked it. I liked Jerome trying to figure out Bruce's funniest fate, and I liked the idea that Jim was smart enough to get everyone to save each other. When Harvey tells him that if he was locked up everyone else would be dead just then, I tend to think he's right. No matter how much I hate Jim, I don't think Harvey would have come up with that solution. I also like that Harvey pulled that crazy stunt simply because he knew Jim would save him. He's right, so I don't begrudge him.
They didn't hire Scarecrow's previous actor for Crane. Maybe they didn't need to for this episode since he never took the hood off.
Bruce is overthinking that he's responsible for Jerome. I liked his scenes with Selina this episode where she points that out. Him crying to distract the cop was funny, as was him leaning over and opening the door to the car. And I totally got Jim's frustration at the end when he told him he would see him there at this school. This dang kid.
Not sure how the stuff with Barbara as the new Ra's Al Ghul will go. I assume it will be bad. But it wasn't a bad thing this episode, so I'll take it.
Above average. ****.
Gotham "Mandatory Brunch Meeting"
That was awesome. Full stop. The series made a huge mistake by killing off Jerome in season two, and hinting the Joker could be anyone, but they are back on the correct track. And it seemed to spin a bit too wildly out of control before. Jerome is far too crazy right this second to become the Joker later on. Batman is supposed to create the Joker, and he has nothing to do with either why Jerome is nuts, or why he was disfigured.
Instead, the show comes up with the genius and cartoony idea of the mousy identical twin. It's perfect on every level.
First of all, Cameron Monhagan is the best live-action Joker ever. I know that's a statement, but it's true. And he's barely the Joker at all. But he rocks it in a way no other live-action actor ever has. He's truthfully not as great as Mark Hamill, who does the cartoon voice, but he is the only other Joker actor in Hamill's league. Heath Ledger was great and turned the Joker into a manipulative psychopath unlike any other interpretation. But he didn't quite strike me as the Joker either. Monhagan totally does.
So if the problem is that Monaghan is one of the best Joker actors ever, and there is no way Jerome could be the Joker and have it fit into the canon, the solution is the twin brother. Who is hinted at being a secret monster deep down and who has hidden it from everyone else. Remember how mousy Monaghan played Jerome in his first episode? It was a bit jarring to see it again years later, but this kid has always been super talented in this exact way. This is just him proving it. But we already knew.
And Jeremiah has a Very Bad Day in his future. Whether the Very Bad Day is to do with Jerome or Batman, it to be determined, but as of now, Jeremiah has all of the things he needs to become the best Joker ever. He has the quiet backstory. He has the dark secret. And best of all, he's played by the best live-action Joker already. How great is this idea?
Running and screaming at Tetch seems to work. Now I will call foul when Harvey and Jim don't do that in the future.
Love Alfred being unapologetic about knowing Bruce was going after Jerome. He's pretty much casting the die by saying that. The Wayne Family will no longer accept protection from Gordon and the GCPD. They are going to figure out this crap themselves. If Jim weren't so stupid, he'd the see the logic there. Because he has been a miserable failure in regards to protecting and keeping his promises to Bruce.
The only negative notes I have for the episode were for Riddler and Lee. And most of it worked. I liked how Lee won the game. When she said Riddler was going to tell her the answer, Riddler foolishly thinks she's appealing to Ed to save her. No, she's appealing to Riddler's insane need to give clues and get caught. And he does. And then she is clever enough to make the answer to her Riddle something Riddler would never say, at least not publicly, and under these circumstances. She could have made the answer "My name is Edward Nygma and I am NOT the Riddler" and provoked the exact same response. This was just easier, and probably less humiliating for Ed.
But my problem is Lee kissing him at the end. Secretly, the fact that Ed was willing to commit suicide to protect her makes me secretly ship them. Just like I secretly shipped Buffy and Spike in Season Five of Buffy The Vampire Slayer. But like Spuffy, it's NOT a ship that should ever happen. Just us wanting it is enough. It's not a ship that should ever be paid off. Especially with this show's track record. Edward Nygma, as the guy who killed his first girlfriend, should not constantly be rewarded by the objects of his creepy desire returning his affections. Part of the reason I resent Lee kissing him, is that he doesn't actually deserve someone as amazing as Lee. And if Lee thinks he does, I think less of her. Her self-esteem should be higher on that point. But truthfully, it's the writers I think less of. To be blunt, I would be madder at this turn if the "'Nice Guy who actually isn't' wins the Girl" trope wasn't already rampant in entertainment. Even by the time we were appalled by Spuffy, it was already old hat. I cannot begrudge the show for going to a horrible well, that even the most well-written and respected of shows have already engaged in.
Speaking of, how great is "A Legion Of Horribles?" That would be the best band name ever.
Is it just me or does Jeremiah have the exact same glasses and haircut as Bruce Timm? Am I the only one who noticed that?
The last shot of the guy laughing as blood JUST started to come out of his eye was disturbing on every level.
I love the episode and will be grading it five stars. But I am not completely happy with the idea of Lee and Ed actually getting together. *****.
Teen Titans Go! "Flashback, Parts 1 and 2"
Kid Flash is SUCH a stinker on this show. It is so weird that all of the major villains on this show are heroes, and all of the supposed villains are actually innocent victims. But Kid Flash comes across as especially loathsome. I hate him so much. Rosenbaum made him genuine and lovable. Friedle makes him the kind of guy who makes it so that you actually relish the shattered leg. And you really should not ever be doing that. But Friedle makes me WANT to do that.
I loved Raven "attacking the dummy". Seriously, Robin was begging for that.
I love the sickened and mistrustful look the cat gives Starfire after she takes it out of her mouth. Points for retconning the stupid language kiss meet-cute too. Did I mention I hate that part of the Teen Titans mythology? It needs to be retconned gone and stay retconned gone.
Was that the first instance of "The Old Shablammo"? I think it might have been.
Kid Flash better be doin' the peepee dance, and he'll be doing it for another minute! I love Beast Boy.
I love the idea that Robin is only an intense mess because the other Titans MADE him an intense mess. It's believable too.
What a fun episode. Not exactly as epic a debut as "Go!" was for the original series, but Go! didn't have Starfire eating cats, so pobody's nerfect. ****1/2.
DC Super Hero Girls "Ha-Ha Horticulture"
Grundy is a cannibal? Since when? **1/2.
DC Super Hero Girls "The Truth Of The Lasso: Part 1"
Do the green eyes mean it's Circe or Lena? Or is it actually Cheetah herself?
Cheetah gets an extra month of detention for saying Lucius Fox's vest is nerdy? She's just statin' an easy to verify fact.
Pretty good. ***1/2.
DC's Legends Of Tomorrow "I, Ava"
Interestingly enough, Kuwasa's first move to betray Nate was the right one. He IS a legit threat not only to her, but the entire Vixen legacy. Trading him for the Totem was correct decision, whether it hurts Amaya's feelings or not.
Feel a little ripped off we didn't actually see Mari. What's the point of doing this story if they can't pay her actor for a crossover?
Totem lesson number 1, Rory: You don't call Zari a b****. And Rory is the kind of guy who likes to learn things the hard way.
I am loving Gary. He is my current favorite character this season.
I was positive Ava was a robot, but a clone is a pretty good second guess. I wasn't right, but I was in the ballpark of being right.
Really, Wally? That sounded better in your head? Then your head is a very messed up place.
I don't buy the show retconning Damian Dahrk into a lovable goofball, but I kind of see the reasons WHY they think they can get away with it. To be honest, it is not credible that Dahrk actually cares about Nora. Dahrk is a sociopath. Those guys don't care about anyone but themselves.
But this episode sort of said, that's the entire conflict. He IS a sociopath, and wants to go back to being a sociopath, but having a daughter he actually cares about isn't letting him. He feels weaker and less-than for these genuine feelings BECAUSE he's a sociopath. And again, I don't really buy the newfound doofiness of the character. But it does explain how a sociopath can actually love his daughter.
Gonna rock the Barack next week.
Good episode. ****.
DC's Legends Of Tomorrow "Guest Starring John Noble"
What a great and weird episode title. And it shows up in the credits when it is supposed to.
I miss Barack too. It's so cool that Sara goes to him for advice. What I love is that the episode is complimentary to Barack Obama personally by saying he's a great guy and was a great President. That will make liberals happy. But it also repeatedly punishes and humiliates him. Which will make conservatives happy. Honestly, I think the liberals got the better deal from that, but what's great is that I'm sure conservatives will think the same thing, because they value different things than we do. That was the genius of how it was handled.
The 12th Ava. I am really starting to understand why no-one really likes Rip. Jeez, he sucks.
The John Noble stuff was really meta. I love that Rory is all of about the Lord of the Rings. I love Rory.
Amaya's memory being gone explains a lot. It's also interesting that Darhk now regrets some of his evil actions. Because it doesn't stop him from taking the most evil way out when it benefits him. Truthfully, part of me is hoping they'll still be able to save Nora next week.
Sara deciding to let the anachronism play out shows clearly why the Legends are the chainsaw. Her tossing Darhk the Death Totem was similarly insane in a pleasurable way. What's great is that both of her insane gambits seemed to have worked. We'll see what happens to Mari next when Vixen returns to CW Seed but so far a happy ending is not out of the question for Amaya's family.
I love that the only person who gets to decide if Rory pulls the trigger on Darhk is Sara. Hers is the only opinion that matters to him on the topic. And I love that.
Great episode. Season finale coming up already? This season has seemed really fast. Which is the mark of a good season. ****1/2.
Black Lightning "Sins Of The Father: The Book Of Redemption"
This show has the best episode titles.
Great episode. Great, great episode.
Love Jefferson with Malick. It shows he is an even bigger hero as a principal than he is as Black Lightning.
I was so shocked the Spotter was the vice-principle. This makes everything that much harder, especially since she now suspects Pierce is Black Lightning. Trouble ahead.
I have no idea why Anissa apologized to Jennifer for throwing Kahlil in her face. She was totally right to do it. Jennifer was being an @$$.
Nothing says that Jefferson can actually trust Gambi than the fact that he actually endured torture and still refused to give him up. I love the look on his face upon the suggestion of Jefferson being brought there. It was a look that said that that notion was either his salvation, and that he was the luckiest person alive, or it would be the bad guys getting exactly what they wanted, and end badly for everyone. And I love that it feels like the first thing at the time, but it turns out to be the second thing later on. It is really refreshing that the bad guy actually was smart enough to understand what was actually going on.
Black Lightning was right to give Two-Bits the mulligan he did a few episodes ago. If he hadn't, Jefferson wouldn't have gotten the crucial intel he did, which is another thing that tell me three strikes laws do more harm than good. I love the dumb lady dropping an air conditioner and a microwave on them to supposedly claim the reward. Unfortunately that woman struck me as the worst of stereotypes, which this show usually avoids. I like Two-Bits honestly telling Black Lightning he would go for the reward himself if thought he could take him, until Jefferson clears it up that he's innocent. Two-Bits is not only awesome for being honest about being tempted to betray Black Lightning, but a good enough person to change his mind about it when convinced of the truth. This show is interesting because it seems to give the bit characters we have been seeing around the city since the first few episodes huge backstories and complex motivations that are revealed bit by bit as the season progresses. Do you know what other superhero show does that? Luke Cage. There is a lesson here somewhere. I'm sure of it.
I love the episode and I love the series. *****.
Black Lightning "Black Jesus: The Book Of Crucifixion"
Wow, that episode pushed a TON of buttons. And I assume it's gonna p*ss a lot of people off. But the people it will p*ss off are the people who need to hear this episode's message the most.
First off, I am amazed at the fact that all throughout the episode, Jefferson seems to believe the system works. It's turns out he's right by the end, but that shouldn't matter. His reactions were that of a person a lot more naive and optimistic than he should be. What do I mean?
When one of the cops tells him they found Green Light in his car, his reaction is "That's impossible!" instead of "That's b.s.!" And then when they pull it out of his desk he says, "That isn't mine," instead of the far more rational "You just planted that." Even at this point he still thinks this is all an innocent mistake. Which makes the abuse he endures infuriating.
Do you know what I love? The stupid person they interview on the news was the old white lady. Just the fact that she believed something so stupid and unbelievable about Jefferson shows that she's the type of person who goes to racist conspiracy sites and listens to rightwing talk radio. People like her live in an entirely different reality than you or I, and the episode is going to p*ss people off because people who look and sound exactly like this woman believed similar nonsense about Barack Obama. It is the episode's withering critique of where conservatives get their crazy news sources, and anyone who believed that Birth Certificate nonsense is someone the episode is calling out. And I love that. Arrow did an episode about gun violence last season, that seemed absolutely gutless considering the subject matter. It was trying too hard not to offend anybody. This show is the opposite and does not mind offending people who deserve that. Frankly, I'm a bit annoyed that we have to pretend deplorons like that old woman are simply misunderstood folks with economic anxieties, but this episode sort of says that that kind of ignorance and hatred does not come from a benign place. Old White Lady Moron believes Jefferson calls himself Black Jesus and forces his students to, because in the real world, that's a common belief racists have about respectable black people. Mitt Romney once bragged, "Nobody has ever asked to see my birth certificate." Gee, Mitt, I wonder why.
I love Henderson sighing about Jefferson saying he had no idea why the Feds are involved. I get why Jefferson lied. I do. But I love that Henderson's all, "I'm still gonna help you, but you just made it a lot harder."
Speaking of which, isn't Black Lightning still wanted for murder? Why was that not brought up during the episode?
I don't necessarily agree with the episode's idea that truth and justice will always win out in the end. But at the same time, at various times in history, there have been definite breaking points for society, where people said "Enough!!". And I'm thinking that maybe this community's (and Henderson's) final straw is the framing of Jefferson Pierce. My next question, which gives me a pit in MY stomach, is what will be OUR real-world breaking point? What will it take to get people angry enough about stuff like this to change it? The fact that with all of the real-world suffering black people have gone through, and after all the hard won fights and progress, it seems like things are actually getting worse. And I think this is the first point in history where that is true. Barack Obama once said the best time for black people to be alive was right this second. They had made so much progress, and the civil rights movement had changed so much, that it was actually totally true that as bad as things sometimes seemed, and they were still better than they ever were. I don't feel that way anymore, and it's only been a couple of years since he said that. But I think the past couple of years are literally the first years in American history where we went backwards on the subject and quite a bit.
I could do without the Roseanne reboot. I don't think we need a show done solely to justify people's racism. I think the message of this particular series is much more timely. ****.
Arrow "The Thanatos Guild"
I love Thea being smart enough to get Oliver to admit he actually loves being Green Arrow and that's why he won't give it up. She was also right to get him to promise to not string John along anymore. Although the preview hints that will not end well.
I also love Roy deciding to go along with Thea at the end. I love these two together. I especially like that he doesn't wear a costume on the mission. A baseball cap should be enough to hide his identity. Heh.
How did Curtis know that cop was gay? I've heard of gaydar before but that was uncanny.
I love Thea confirming the trap was Raiders to Felicity over the radio. Because knowing that was the important thing.
Speaking of Felicity, I love that Nyssa seems to have a sense of humor, and calls Oliver "Husband" simply because it upsets Felicity. I also am pretty sure she agreed to stay there and scare away distractions simply to annoy her too. She wouldn't have called her "Sister-Wife" just then if that wasn't the case.
I Awwed! at her giving Oliver the annulment at the end of the episode.
I loved this week. ****1/2.
Arrow "Brothers In Arms"
Oh my GOD! That totally p*ssed me off! Every second! And I loved it! This episode pushed all of the right buttons and I appreciated every inch of it.
Who's side do I land on?
Oliver's. And believe me, it's not because Oliver is perfect. He's not. It's because John is in total denial as to why he doesn't get the hood back.
First off, I truly believe the episode probably would have p*ssed a LOT more people off if John had stated a BIG part of the subtext as to why he's upset. He's upset because apparently there is a glass ceiling for black men, even in unlawful vigilantism, and that this is an instance of a white man putting a black man in his proper place. He could blame Oliver for that. I probably wouldn't have minded the extra drama, even if it would turn certain fans who always appreciated Diggle's colorblindness against him. I would have gotten that.
Except it's not Oliver that did that. It's the writers. THEY were the ones who chose to write John as lousy of a Green Arrow as he wound up being. Diggle wants to blame someone for losing the Hood? Look in the mirror. And he still cannot be honest about it at the end.
When Oliver is making his insipid apology about how being the Green Arrow makes him feel whole, I knew that was a mistake. But as John as always been previously insightful, I expected him to point out why that was a mistake. Why it ACTUALLY was a mistake. Instead he's saying that by Oliver saying that, he's putting his personal needs ahead of the city.
No. The truth is Oliver should not have said that because John feels exactly the same way, and by Oliver keeping the Hood, he is denying John the best part of himself he could be. If John had actually owned up to that, I'd sympathize with him. But him saying Oliver doing that is vanity does not fly with me, because I think he's doing the exact same thing.
Now let's talk about some of Dig's specific grievances, and whether they are justified or not. Dig says Oliver has become a poor leader recently. That does not fly. Oliver has ALWAYS been a poor leader. That has always been his biggest fault, and John pretending this is new is him not recognizing that that isn't the actual problem. Oliver has always had a problem with not alienating his allies.
Dig also says that if he were Green Arrow, none of this stuff with Diaz would be happening. That is 100% nonsense. And I was punching the air as Oliver was screaming that he was hooked on Diaz's drugs and endangering the team. Diaz got the foothold he did because of people like John specifically. And he wants to blame Oliver for Vince? No, that was 100% on The Outsiders for keeping Oliver out of the loop. They probably could have thought of a different solution where everyone lived if it wasn't sprung on Oliver on the last second. The Outsiders are another thing that bothered me.
We all had a case of the feelgoods when they forgave Dig for endangering them. But the truth is, John did NOT have their backs when Oliver decided to push against them to weed out the traitor. And it's specifically the fact that they had Dig's back when he needed them which is the thing that shows that Dig was a lousy Green Arrow, and no better at the leader thing than Oliver. He says he never should have let Oliver spy on the team. Notice the wording there. He LET him. He could have raised a fuss, and defended the teammates who stuck by him through a difficult time if he had chosen to do that. And frankly, because Oliver had not been through the things with them that Dig did as Green Arrow, which makes me realize it's not Oliver's responsibility to trust every single one of those recruits. But after all that time, it was Dig's. And he chose to let Oliver do what he did. I don't blame Oliver. He frankly never had a great reason to trust the new team members, and had been resisting them from the start. Don't you think he would have listened to Dig if he had vouched for them? The fact that Dig did not do that says that he is every bit the bad leader he claims Oliver is.
Then Dig says to Oliver, in a truly appalling moment, that he got William's mother killed. You know what? That's fair. That's true. But Oliver never killed his own brother.
I loved Oliver saying that. Loved it. Something that horrible would have been Thea or Laurel's Tuesday in Season 1, but it is literally the most horrible thing we have ever witnessed Oliver say to another human being. But I totally get why he said that. But invoking William's dead mother as one of Oliver's failings, he totally opened the door for Oliver to say that. He wants to do this? Oliver will do this. This kind of thing is now acceptable. All right then. So you killed your brother.
If Oliver had more of a mind to, he could have twisted the knife and said it was precisely because Dig was stupid enough to trust Andy that Laurel was killed in the first place. John says Oliver leaves a trail of bodies in his wake. Laurel was not one of them. That was 100% on Dig.
I have a sneaking suspicious that Diaz is not as credible a threat as everyone says he is. Oliver faced Deathstroke so I know he can handle it. But my perspective about Diaz's potential hold over the city is that it's a house of cards and entirely illusory. One of the scariest and most mindblowing things about the entire concept of money to me is that it only has value because we all agree it does. If tomorrow, we all agreed that it was worthless and decided to use old socks as currency instead, rich people would be screwed. Money only has value because we all have agreed to that.
That is Diaz. Completely. He's not a Dragon. He's a paper tiger if there ever was one. If every single person scared to death of not doing what he says, randomly decided to change their minds at the same time, he'd be dead in a second. Heck, if a SINGLE person working for him decided to put a bullet in him instead of following him because it would be safer, he'd also be dead. He does not have the amount of supernatural juice Slade Wilson and Ra's Al Ghul did. Those guys came by their power legitimately. Diaz is simply the bully who has never been told no. Once he actually is, it's all over.
I was screaming in frustration that Curtis' new boyfriend hates vigilantes. Why can't Curtis ever have a supportive significant other? Why does he always have the disapproving husband / boyfriend while Oliver, Dig, and Barry get Felicity, Lilah, and Iris? And then he learns the secret in the episode, and I laughed. That was great. They were not going to string us along with that, which would have been torture. And y'know, he WAS actually fired for being a clean cop. Maybe he is the type of person who could learn there was something to this vigilante thing after all.
Why is Diaz complimenting Laurel for bringing up the impeachment charges? Why didn't Diaz already think to do that? I repeat: Paper tiger. And I knew they were gonna kiss. And when her eyes light up at the drugs I was like "Of course she's a junkie." It doesn't matter if she's good or evil, there is no part of Laurel Lance that doesn't suck. Some things never change.
Felicity stepping in between Dig and Oliver told me something that you'd figure one of them would have pointed out. It doesn't matter who wears the hood because it seems like Felicity is the one actually in charge. Every time she tells them to do something, they meekly do it. They are fighting for the leadership position of the team they have already subconsciously decided belongs to Felicity in the first place. Could you imagine if Felicity was as evil as Diaz? THEN the city would be in trouble.
I love this episode because it engaged in something the show had abandoned for years. As far as I was concerned, the entire hook of the series wasn't the fights, it wasn't the superhero geek stuff, it wasn't the CW soap opera. The entire hook of the first three seasons to me was the contentious relationship between Oliver Queen and Quentin Lance. I don't think the series ever did a finer moment than near the end of season three where Quentin storms into the Arrowcave with a bunch of cops and says "I've got you now, you son of a b*tch." That was what the entire series was about. That moment. And once that moment was over, the series went in different directions that I didn't care about.
This episode was messy family drama in the way the series should be. This is Arrow filled with the precise level of gut-wrenching pathos it used to be when it was a good show. Most people think the show went downhill in season three. I don't. It still had the Oliver and Quentin dynamic in spades. And it's only when they stepped away from that in season four which is when the show started sucking.
Brothers in arms having a smackdown in the Arrowcave. This is what the show should be and rarely is anymore. I loved this episode and I love how angry I was at the end of it. *****.
Krypton "House Of El"
Much better than the first episode.
Lyta's "No mercy" moment was great, and I love Adam being mad he had to give up the hat. Last week I thought this show was going to be a snooze. This week I think it has promise. ****.
Krypton "The Rankless Initiative"
Lyta Zod missed her true calling. She shouldn't have been a soldier. She should have been a lawyer. She made that crooked guard basically confess her entire crime in under the space of 60 seconds simply by correctly poking at the large holes in the story. The guard was actually afraid of an unarmed Rankless in shackles? Is she even aware how pathetic she sounds with that claim? I love that because that's Lyta using the Sagittaran's smug superiority against themselves. Either that guard is guilty of brutality and murder, or she's a total loser and a coward. And I love that Lyta gets her to confess to the murder simply by getting her to admit she didn't know anything for sure before she fired the shot. This is pretty much the end of every Perry Mason episode. There is flopsweat involved in these moments. Every time. And she got there a lot quicker than Perry ever did using SO much less. I want to see NCIS: Krypton now.
I would feel more disturbed by Lyta refusing a direct order from her mother if every single troop under her didn't just completely ignore her order to do this entire mess non-violently, and to only fire a shot on her say-so. I'm thinking the etiquette of following rules is much more flexible than Lyta's mother is telling her it is. Lyta actually HAS some legit authority. It's not great if she disobeys orders, but she can make the case for it after the fact. Can ANY of those soldiers who started immediately beating civilians claim the same? They literally ignored every single thing she told them, immediately.
Honestly, Krypton is a pit. It's corrupt, the good people are suffering, and literally the only good thing that came from it is Superman, and in some continuities, Supergirl. After seeing the first few episodes of this show, I'm thinking it exploding was no great big universal loss. And the show is smart enough to allow me to feel that way, and still want Seg's mission to succeed so Superman can properly exist. If not for the clever time-travel angle the series used as a hook, I would have zero investment in any of these characters succeeding. Because I know Krypton ultimately doesn't. But by framing the series as effecting Superman's current status and continuity, suddenly I care about the stakes in a way I never do on Gotham. It was very cunning for the series to make Superman a huge part of the mythology right off the bat. If Smallville had been smart enough to do that I probably wouldn't have been as frustrated as I was for ten years.
I'm not on board this series yet. But these past two episodes interested me in a way the Pilot did not. ****.
Gotham "A Dark Knight: One Of My Three Soups"
Great episode title.
I liked it. I liked Jerome trying to figure out Bruce's funniest fate, and I liked the idea that Jim was smart enough to get everyone to save each other. When Harvey tells him that if he was locked up everyone else would be dead just then, I tend to think he's right. No matter how much I hate Jim, I don't think Harvey would have come up with that solution. I also like that Harvey pulled that crazy stunt simply because he knew Jim would save him. He's right, so I don't begrudge him.
They didn't hire Scarecrow's previous actor for Crane. Maybe they didn't need to for this episode since he never took the hood off.
Bruce is overthinking that he's responsible for Jerome. I liked his scenes with Selina this episode where she points that out. Him crying to distract the cop was funny, as was him leaning over and opening the door to the car. And I totally got Jim's frustration at the end when he told him he would see him there at this school. This dang kid.
Not sure how the stuff with Barbara as the new Ra's Al Ghul will go. I assume it will be bad. But it wasn't a bad thing this episode, so I'll take it.
Above average. ****.
Gotham "Mandatory Brunch Meeting"
That was awesome. Full stop. The series made a huge mistake by killing off Jerome in season two, and hinting the Joker could be anyone, but they are back on the correct track. And it seemed to spin a bit too wildly out of control before. Jerome is far too crazy right this second to become the Joker later on. Batman is supposed to create the Joker, and he has nothing to do with either why Jerome is nuts, or why he was disfigured.
Instead, the show comes up with the genius and cartoony idea of the mousy identical twin. It's perfect on every level.
First of all, Cameron Monhagan is the best live-action Joker ever. I know that's a statement, but it's true. And he's barely the Joker at all. But he rocks it in a way no other live-action actor ever has. He's truthfully not as great as Mark Hamill, who does the cartoon voice, but he is the only other Joker actor in Hamill's league. Heath Ledger was great and turned the Joker into a manipulative psychopath unlike any other interpretation. But he didn't quite strike me as the Joker either. Monhagan totally does.
So if the problem is that Monaghan is one of the best Joker actors ever, and there is no way Jerome could be the Joker and have it fit into the canon, the solution is the twin brother. Who is hinted at being a secret monster deep down and who has hidden it from everyone else. Remember how mousy Monaghan played Jerome in his first episode? It was a bit jarring to see it again years later, but this kid has always been super talented in this exact way. This is just him proving it. But we already knew.
And Jeremiah has a Very Bad Day in his future. Whether the Very Bad Day is to do with Jerome or Batman, it to be determined, but as of now, Jeremiah has all of the things he needs to become the best Joker ever. He has the quiet backstory. He has the dark secret. And best of all, he's played by the best live-action Joker already. How great is this idea?
Running and screaming at Tetch seems to work. Now I will call foul when Harvey and Jim don't do that in the future.
Love Alfred being unapologetic about knowing Bruce was going after Jerome. He's pretty much casting the die by saying that. The Wayne Family will no longer accept protection from Gordon and the GCPD. They are going to figure out this crap themselves. If Jim weren't so stupid, he'd the see the logic there. Because he has been a miserable failure in regards to protecting and keeping his promises to Bruce.
The only negative notes I have for the episode were for Riddler and Lee. And most of it worked. I liked how Lee won the game. When she said Riddler was going to tell her the answer, Riddler foolishly thinks she's appealing to Ed to save her. No, she's appealing to Riddler's insane need to give clues and get caught. And he does. And then she is clever enough to make the answer to her Riddle something Riddler would never say, at least not publicly, and under these circumstances. She could have made the answer "My name is Edward Nygma and I am NOT the Riddler" and provoked the exact same response. This was just easier, and probably less humiliating for Ed.
But my problem is Lee kissing him at the end. Secretly, the fact that Ed was willing to commit suicide to protect her makes me secretly ship them. Just like I secretly shipped Buffy and Spike in Season Five of Buffy The Vampire Slayer. But like Spuffy, it's NOT a ship that should ever happen. Just us wanting it is enough. It's not a ship that should ever be paid off. Especially with this show's track record. Edward Nygma, as the guy who killed his first girlfriend, should not constantly be rewarded by the objects of his creepy desire returning his affections. Part of the reason I resent Lee kissing him, is that he doesn't actually deserve someone as amazing as Lee. And if Lee thinks he does, I think less of her. Her self-esteem should be higher on that point. But truthfully, it's the writers I think less of. To be blunt, I would be madder at this turn if the "'Nice Guy who actually isn't' wins the Girl" trope wasn't already rampant in entertainment. Even by the time we were appalled by Spuffy, it was already old hat. I cannot begrudge the show for going to a horrible well, that even the most well-written and respected of shows have already engaged in.
Speaking of, how great is "A Legion Of Horribles?" That would be the best band name ever.
Is it just me or does Jeremiah have the exact same glasses and haircut as Bruce Timm? Am I the only one who noticed that?
The last shot of the guy laughing as blood JUST started to come out of his eye was disturbing on every level.
I love the episode and will be grading it five stars. But I am not completely happy with the idea of Lee and Ed actually getting together. *****.
