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matt_zimmerAlso reviews for the season finale of Black Lightning, and the latest episodes of The Flash, and DC's Legends Of Tomorrow.
Star Trek: Picard "Broken Pieces"
Seven of Nine to the rescue! I love how she became the temporary Borg Queen. I would have loved to have seen her and Hugh together. It makes sense they knew each other.
The Romulans' fear of the Synths seems scary, especially the reason for it. Are they right? What is the threat that comes past the Synth evolution threshold?
Too many f-bombs this episode and this series. I don't like it and it's one thing about the series I don't like.
I love that the Emergency Engineering Hologram has a Scottish accent. That must have been deliberate.
So basically Narissa is a committer of Borg genocide. I was horrified by that.
Besides that and the f-bombs I was mostly satisfied with that. ***1/2.
Black Lightning "The Book Of War: Chapter Three: Liberation"
Solid finale. It wasn't out of this world, but I had few real complaints, which is good (and unusual).
Brief rundown of events:
I found Jefferson throwing back Gravedigger's faux-comforting, condescending, b.s. back in his face after knocking him out awesome. Which is great, because before he did that I thought that mindset was kind of cool in a villain. But when Jefferson says it to HIM, I realize how empty the words are. The Operative from Serenity isn't nuanced or sympathetic for those words. He's full of cr*p, always has been, and the words mean nothing. And I used to LOVE the Operative for them. Jefferson just ruined the Operative for me. Not sure how I feel about that. I don't like Serenity being lessened, but Firefly, Buffy, and Angel have already been shredded in hindsight by people pointing out how damaging their messages ultimately were. I'm less mad at the Operative being ruined simply because there is very little about Firefly in hindsight that I still actually like.
Tobias continues to be the worst character on the show. Glad he was scarce this season.
Fans love imaginary battles in headspaces between good and evil versions of the same character, but I found Kahlil's fight with Painkiller empty and pointless. Why? Because the outcome was obvious, and the fight was eating up screentime better used for plot. It's to the episode's credit that it wrapped up most of the plot well anyways, but I was thinking "Get on with it" as it was occurring. I don't care about fight scenes at all.
I like that Kahlil is the one who took down Odell. Because he was the one hurt the most by him.
I think we maybe should have gotten a reaction from Brandon about learning Jace was dead, but maybe that's for next season.
The one part of the episode I did NOT like, and can't really mount a good defense for is putting Grace in a coma. I'd prefer they just killed her off. The coma in the finale is a death knell for any character. It means the writers have no idea what to do with the character next, and are taking them off the board to regroup. Then, half a season later, the writers STILL haven't figured it out, and they briefly bring the character back for a couple of episodes to kill them off for real. If they were so hard up for plots for Grace they should have either killed her off here or broken her and Anissa up. She's basically in limbo now instead and a dead character walking.
Not happy about Henderson dying, but I knew it was probably coming, and it was done well. Since I'm not surprised, I'm less mad than I otherwise would have been if I hadn't known Damon Gupta was leaving the show.
Obama was a thing in the Post-Crisis World. The Arrowverse has sort of flip-flopped its stances on modern Presidents existing, especially on DC's Legends Of Tomorrow. But this is the first episode after Crisis to say Obama existed on this world. Any future Flash or Supergirl episodes that act different are the ones that will be breaking canon.
Listening to Gravedigger's complaints about how ineffective Obama and MLK were makes me again realize why I hate the far left. They are never happy with anything. Gravedigger isn't progressive for his opinions that Obama and MLK didn't go far enough. He's emo and annoying. He should just vote for Jill Stein, elect Trump, and be done with it. He and Susan Sarandon can share a pity party about it too.
Lynn back to drugging. This is going to get old quick next year.
But I still really enjoyed that. ****1/2.
The Flash "Death Of The Speed Force"
This is going to be a relatively thorough review for the happiest of reasons: There was so much in the episode I liked, and I want to get to it all. That is unusual for my long reviews. I am usually forced to detail reasons why something sucked, and if too many things did, it's a slog. My having to write long reviews for something I hate is why I quit Riverdale. I was putting more into watching that show than I was getting out of it. I am very happy to write a long review if a show is good. I do that for Star Trek: Picard a lot (and sometimes Doctor Who). I'm glad I'll be able to treat this episode kindly too.
The episode sort of had me thinking at the beginning that it was going to be worse than it was. Barry's seems so unconcerned and irresponsible that it's actually out of character. But do you know what? It's addressed. Barry is called on it and punished for it, and learns there are consequences for taking your actions for granted. Ultimately Barry turned out to be less at fault for the death of the Speed Force than Wally and he believed. But I like Wally's righteous anger because Barry was NOT being a good steward of the Speed Force, and not taking his responsibilities seriously. So much so I would not have minded if he was demoted to the actual Kid Flash while Wally was promoted to the red suit. That idea tickles me in fact.
I have to say, I always rave about Joe and Barry's relationship on this show, but Joe and Wally are just as good. What a great father. He insightfully points out that Barry will be beating himself up enough, and that Wally's anger sort of pushed against his new supposed Zen philosophy. Really, Jesse L Martin is like the best dad ever.
The return of Thawne: I am concerned. I am concerned that there is no nuance left in the character. This is not a Thawne who will tell Cisco he's the closest thing he's ever had to a son before killing him. He wants to kill Barry and all of his friends for no rational reason other than the fact that he's apparently a psychopath who gets off on causing pain and suffering. And we have still yet to see Team Flash do something to any version of Thawne that would justifiably elicit that level of rage. I think he's simply nuts.
The series is very careful to show that Barry and fake Iris seem to be too busy to have sex. I like that the series does not seem to be having the Faux Iris rape Barry without his knowledge. It's a super gross idea that genre LOVES to explore when they use the evil twin idea, and I'm liking the show is using a lighter touch regarding sexual betrayals. That could of course change soon, but I think if they were going to make that an issue, it would have literally been the first place they went to in the episode after Iris went into the mirror. I like that I'm not squicked out. At least not yet.
Is this the first time Atlantis has been referenced in the Arrowverse? It might be.
The idea of doppelgangers degenerating was first introduced on Batwoman, although Supergirl has sort of shown a different idea. But I'm thinking the Batwoman thing is going to be the official position going forward, at least until everyone realizes the Multiverse is back.
Wally says any hero would have made the same call as Barry. And that's what I loved about the reason Barry accidentally killed the Speed Force. It was the right call, even if the Speed Force would die. He saved the Universe, and unknowingly the Multiverse. If the Speed Force had to die, that's actually an acceptable trade, especially since Barry had been willing to sacrifice himself.
I found Barry's last scene with the Speed Force as his mother moving because it says it loves and forgives him and gives him a level of closure he didn't get with Nora. And the scene was emotional and well-acted and effected me deeply.
Turtle II doesn't seem like a great name, but Cisco is right that it works because it's basic and says what it needs to say. It's not like this villain was great enough to deserve an original name.
I am very concerned about Thawne in the weeks to come, but Barry's idea of creating an artificial Speed Force sounds like a decent way to stem the tide. Things got alarmingly dire in the space of a single episode with the Speed Force dying and Thawne returning at the same time. Barry could probably deal with one thing or the other. Both? At once? Team Flash is in trouble, and that also goes for the fact that none of them know about the threat of Mirror Iris yet. Maybe the more and more team members gets sucked into the mirror after learning the truth, people will start to notice, but there is nothing to say Kamilla won't get a double next week too.
Interesting that Wally senses there is something off about Iris when Barry can't. I don't blame Joe for not seeing it. He's not a Metahuman, and whenever Mirror Iris has lashed out her excuses seem plausible. But it says something bad that Barry can't only not detect the Speed Force dying, but the fact that his wife has been replaced by a Pod Person. I am very curious where this specific story will ultimately go, because the team already has its hands full with two full-on emergencies and aren't even aware that this specific problem exists.
That episode was pretty great. And I'm glad I spent a lot of time detailing why it was. ****1/2.
DC's Legends Of Tomorrow "Mr. Parker's Cul-de-Sac"
Damian Dahrk murdered Laurel Lance and caused so much pain and suffering to the characters on Arrow. I was never on-board him turning into a goofy, comical villain the way this show portrayed him as. And I don't feel he deserved a redemption either. I feel the same way now. And yet, I feel less bad where things left off because the murder of Laurel is not forgotten, or by Sara forgiven, and ultimately Dahrk damns himself to Hell rather than continue to do more damage. And I don't forgive him. But I don't dismiss that either.
I cannot overstate how disappointed I was in season four of this show. Season One was technically worse, but the show was great in season 3, so seeing it stumble then hurt more. But season 4 disappointed me so badly because Matt Ryan was made a series regular, and we were promised a season focusing on John Constantine. And instead the season became all about the character Mona, who we had never heard of before, is not from the comics, has a super annoying personality, and her powers suck. And she became the season focal point and made everything worse by osmosis. I'm wondering if Season 5 will be the Constantine season we have always deserved but were denied by Mona. His temporary alliance with Charlie to find the loom and only use it once (allegedly) is how good arcs are started off. The potential of greatness marred by the potential for human greed and weakness. Of which Constantine is a perfect character to explore that.
The CW just got a good excuse to have Constantine try and quit smoking, but if the show is honest, it won't take for long. They've just gotten a couple of weeks of breathing room for the censors. I don't think this should be permanent. One of the major character flaws of John Constantine is how self-destructive he is despite knowing better, and having the potential to do better. He makes conscious decisions to do bad things that are actually unnecessary to achieve the goals he states he wants. He does not have to betray every single person he's ever cared about to fight demons. That's simply the way he's chosen to fight them. That is the thing that feeds into his self-loathing and refusal to improve himself. It's not in character for John to make a serious effort to stop smoking. What John would do is even knowing he has ten years before lung cancer catches up to him, keep smoking anyways because he believes he deserves to suffer, and is too dumb to understand that the world doesn't revolve around him, or require his and his friends' suffering to function. John thinks he has a bigger responsibility to the bad things happening in the world than he does. And it's not because he's a responsible person. It that he's such a narcissist he actually believes the world revolves around him.
Bringing back the Puppets works. Why? Because Constantine hates the Puppets. If he dug them I'm hate them myself. Because they annoy him so which is why they are actually funny.
Speaking of Mona ruining things, I was appalled in her last episode when she cut a huge fart in the room before leaving the show, and took the Rebecca Silver non de plume from Rory. I was like "Even when she is gone, she couldn't leave without destroying the best thing about Rory." Thankfully, the show ultimately ignored that idea, and I loved the idea that Rory was flummoxed the troll was a young woman and shocked that she was his daughter. I don't like the memory wipe he gave her and her mother though. It's played as a joke, but I actually think it's unforgivable. I am aware that Rory is, or at least used to be, a bad guy. But I also care about him, and him doing something like that makes me care about him less. The show came up with a perfectly funny and fun scenario and Monaed things completely.
I'm wonder why Astra chose Damian to be an Encore to begin with. If she had known his previous connections to the Legends, perhaps she wouldn't have.
Constantine and Dahrk meeting was a big moment, and it was played that way, and it actually felt like they had been enemies the entire time without ever sharing a scene before. Matt Ryan makes everything better.
There was a lot in that episode to like and there was a lot to criticize. Ultimately, I like more than I didn't. But the stuff I disliked was NOT insignificant either. ***1/2.
Star Trek: Picard "Broken Pieces"
Seven of Nine to the rescue! I love how she became the temporary Borg Queen. I would have loved to have seen her and Hugh together. It makes sense they knew each other.
The Romulans' fear of the Synths seems scary, especially the reason for it. Are they right? What is the threat that comes past the Synth evolution threshold?
Too many f-bombs this episode and this series. I don't like it and it's one thing about the series I don't like.
I love that the Emergency Engineering Hologram has a Scottish accent. That must have been deliberate.
So basically Narissa is a committer of Borg genocide. I was horrified by that.
Besides that and the f-bombs I was mostly satisfied with that. ***1/2.
Black Lightning "The Book Of War: Chapter Three: Liberation"
Solid finale. It wasn't out of this world, but I had few real complaints, which is good (and unusual).
Brief rundown of events:
I found Jefferson throwing back Gravedigger's faux-comforting, condescending, b.s. back in his face after knocking him out awesome. Which is great, because before he did that I thought that mindset was kind of cool in a villain. But when Jefferson says it to HIM, I realize how empty the words are. The Operative from Serenity isn't nuanced or sympathetic for those words. He's full of cr*p, always has been, and the words mean nothing. And I used to LOVE the Operative for them. Jefferson just ruined the Operative for me. Not sure how I feel about that. I don't like Serenity being lessened, but Firefly, Buffy, and Angel have already been shredded in hindsight by people pointing out how damaging their messages ultimately were. I'm less mad at the Operative being ruined simply because there is very little about Firefly in hindsight that I still actually like.
Tobias continues to be the worst character on the show. Glad he was scarce this season.
Fans love imaginary battles in headspaces between good and evil versions of the same character, but I found Kahlil's fight with Painkiller empty and pointless. Why? Because the outcome was obvious, and the fight was eating up screentime better used for plot. It's to the episode's credit that it wrapped up most of the plot well anyways, but I was thinking "Get on with it" as it was occurring. I don't care about fight scenes at all.
I like that Kahlil is the one who took down Odell. Because he was the one hurt the most by him.
I think we maybe should have gotten a reaction from Brandon about learning Jace was dead, but maybe that's for next season.
The one part of the episode I did NOT like, and can't really mount a good defense for is putting Grace in a coma. I'd prefer they just killed her off. The coma in the finale is a death knell for any character. It means the writers have no idea what to do with the character next, and are taking them off the board to regroup. Then, half a season later, the writers STILL haven't figured it out, and they briefly bring the character back for a couple of episodes to kill them off for real. If they were so hard up for plots for Grace they should have either killed her off here or broken her and Anissa up. She's basically in limbo now instead and a dead character walking.
Not happy about Henderson dying, but I knew it was probably coming, and it was done well. Since I'm not surprised, I'm less mad than I otherwise would have been if I hadn't known Damon Gupta was leaving the show.
Obama was a thing in the Post-Crisis World. The Arrowverse has sort of flip-flopped its stances on modern Presidents existing, especially on DC's Legends Of Tomorrow. But this is the first episode after Crisis to say Obama existed on this world. Any future Flash or Supergirl episodes that act different are the ones that will be breaking canon.
Listening to Gravedigger's complaints about how ineffective Obama and MLK were makes me again realize why I hate the far left. They are never happy with anything. Gravedigger isn't progressive for his opinions that Obama and MLK didn't go far enough. He's emo and annoying. He should just vote for Jill Stein, elect Trump, and be done with it. He and Susan Sarandon can share a pity party about it too.
Lynn back to drugging. This is going to get old quick next year.
But I still really enjoyed that. ****1/2.
The Flash "Death Of The Speed Force"
This is going to be a relatively thorough review for the happiest of reasons: There was so much in the episode I liked, and I want to get to it all. That is unusual for my long reviews. I am usually forced to detail reasons why something sucked, and if too many things did, it's a slog. My having to write long reviews for something I hate is why I quit Riverdale. I was putting more into watching that show than I was getting out of it. I am very happy to write a long review if a show is good. I do that for Star Trek: Picard a lot (and sometimes Doctor Who). I'm glad I'll be able to treat this episode kindly too.
The episode sort of had me thinking at the beginning that it was going to be worse than it was. Barry's seems so unconcerned and irresponsible that it's actually out of character. But do you know what? It's addressed. Barry is called on it and punished for it, and learns there are consequences for taking your actions for granted. Ultimately Barry turned out to be less at fault for the death of the Speed Force than Wally and he believed. But I like Wally's righteous anger because Barry was NOT being a good steward of the Speed Force, and not taking his responsibilities seriously. So much so I would not have minded if he was demoted to the actual Kid Flash while Wally was promoted to the red suit. That idea tickles me in fact.
I have to say, I always rave about Joe and Barry's relationship on this show, but Joe and Wally are just as good. What a great father. He insightfully points out that Barry will be beating himself up enough, and that Wally's anger sort of pushed against his new supposed Zen philosophy. Really, Jesse L Martin is like the best dad ever.
The return of Thawne: I am concerned. I am concerned that there is no nuance left in the character. This is not a Thawne who will tell Cisco he's the closest thing he's ever had to a son before killing him. He wants to kill Barry and all of his friends for no rational reason other than the fact that he's apparently a psychopath who gets off on causing pain and suffering. And we have still yet to see Team Flash do something to any version of Thawne that would justifiably elicit that level of rage. I think he's simply nuts.
The series is very careful to show that Barry and fake Iris seem to be too busy to have sex. I like that the series does not seem to be having the Faux Iris rape Barry without his knowledge. It's a super gross idea that genre LOVES to explore when they use the evil twin idea, and I'm liking the show is using a lighter touch regarding sexual betrayals. That could of course change soon, but I think if they were going to make that an issue, it would have literally been the first place they went to in the episode after Iris went into the mirror. I like that I'm not squicked out. At least not yet.
Is this the first time Atlantis has been referenced in the Arrowverse? It might be.
The idea of doppelgangers degenerating was first introduced on Batwoman, although Supergirl has sort of shown a different idea. But I'm thinking the Batwoman thing is going to be the official position going forward, at least until everyone realizes the Multiverse is back.
Wally says any hero would have made the same call as Barry. And that's what I loved about the reason Barry accidentally killed the Speed Force. It was the right call, even if the Speed Force would die. He saved the Universe, and unknowingly the Multiverse. If the Speed Force had to die, that's actually an acceptable trade, especially since Barry had been willing to sacrifice himself.
I found Barry's last scene with the Speed Force as his mother moving because it says it loves and forgives him and gives him a level of closure he didn't get with Nora. And the scene was emotional and well-acted and effected me deeply.
Turtle II doesn't seem like a great name, but Cisco is right that it works because it's basic and says what it needs to say. It's not like this villain was great enough to deserve an original name.
I am very concerned about Thawne in the weeks to come, but Barry's idea of creating an artificial Speed Force sounds like a decent way to stem the tide. Things got alarmingly dire in the space of a single episode with the Speed Force dying and Thawne returning at the same time. Barry could probably deal with one thing or the other. Both? At once? Team Flash is in trouble, and that also goes for the fact that none of them know about the threat of Mirror Iris yet. Maybe the more and more team members gets sucked into the mirror after learning the truth, people will start to notice, but there is nothing to say Kamilla won't get a double next week too.
Interesting that Wally senses there is something off about Iris when Barry can't. I don't blame Joe for not seeing it. He's not a Metahuman, and whenever Mirror Iris has lashed out her excuses seem plausible. But it says something bad that Barry can't only not detect the Speed Force dying, but the fact that his wife has been replaced by a Pod Person. I am very curious where this specific story will ultimately go, because the team already has its hands full with two full-on emergencies and aren't even aware that this specific problem exists.
That episode was pretty great. And I'm glad I spent a lot of time detailing why it was. ****1/2.
DC's Legends Of Tomorrow "Mr. Parker's Cul-de-Sac"
Damian Dahrk murdered Laurel Lance and caused so much pain and suffering to the characters on Arrow. I was never on-board him turning into a goofy, comical villain the way this show portrayed him as. And I don't feel he deserved a redemption either. I feel the same way now. And yet, I feel less bad where things left off because the murder of Laurel is not forgotten, or by Sara forgiven, and ultimately Dahrk damns himself to Hell rather than continue to do more damage. And I don't forgive him. But I don't dismiss that either.
I cannot overstate how disappointed I was in season four of this show. Season One was technically worse, but the show was great in season 3, so seeing it stumble then hurt more. But season 4 disappointed me so badly because Matt Ryan was made a series regular, and we were promised a season focusing on John Constantine. And instead the season became all about the character Mona, who we had never heard of before, is not from the comics, has a super annoying personality, and her powers suck. And she became the season focal point and made everything worse by osmosis. I'm wondering if Season 5 will be the Constantine season we have always deserved but were denied by Mona. His temporary alliance with Charlie to find the loom and only use it once (allegedly) is how good arcs are started off. The potential of greatness marred by the potential for human greed and weakness. Of which Constantine is a perfect character to explore that.
The CW just got a good excuse to have Constantine try and quit smoking, but if the show is honest, it won't take for long. They've just gotten a couple of weeks of breathing room for the censors. I don't think this should be permanent. One of the major character flaws of John Constantine is how self-destructive he is despite knowing better, and having the potential to do better. He makes conscious decisions to do bad things that are actually unnecessary to achieve the goals he states he wants. He does not have to betray every single person he's ever cared about to fight demons. That's simply the way he's chosen to fight them. That is the thing that feeds into his self-loathing and refusal to improve himself. It's not in character for John to make a serious effort to stop smoking. What John would do is even knowing he has ten years before lung cancer catches up to him, keep smoking anyways because he believes he deserves to suffer, and is too dumb to understand that the world doesn't revolve around him, or require his and his friends' suffering to function. John thinks he has a bigger responsibility to the bad things happening in the world than he does. And it's not because he's a responsible person. It that he's such a narcissist he actually believes the world revolves around him.
Bringing back the Puppets works. Why? Because Constantine hates the Puppets. If he dug them I'm hate them myself. Because they annoy him so which is why they are actually funny.
Speaking of Mona ruining things, I was appalled in her last episode when she cut a huge fart in the room before leaving the show, and took the Rebecca Silver non de plume from Rory. I was like "Even when she is gone, she couldn't leave without destroying the best thing about Rory." Thankfully, the show ultimately ignored that idea, and I loved the idea that Rory was flummoxed the troll was a young woman and shocked that she was his daughter. I don't like the memory wipe he gave her and her mother though. It's played as a joke, but I actually think it's unforgivable. I am aware that Rory is, or at least used to be, a bad guy. But I also care about him, and him doing something like that makes me care about him less. The show came up with a perfectly funny and fun scenario and Monaed things completely.
I'm wonder why Astra chose Damian to be an Encore to begin with. If she had known his previous connections to the Legends, perhaps she wouldn't have.
Constantine and Dahrk meeting was a big moment, and it was played that way, and it actually felt like they had been enemies the entire time without ever sharing a scene before. Matt Ryan makes everything better.
There was a lot in that episode to like and there was a lot to criticize. Ultimately, I like more than I didn't. But the stuff I disliked was NOT insignificant either. ***1/2.
