![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
locker_monsterWell, the first half of the current TV season seems to be done. Most shows have had their fall finales. Just wanted to jot down some thoughts on my shows.
- Castle: Well, Castle and Beckett finally got married. I was surprised that the wedding happened at the very end of an episode, which makes sense. After the big cliffhanger before the wedding ceremony last season, it made sense not to dedicate another huge episode about them tying the knot. So where do they go from here? Will Castle and Beckett had kids? Frankly, it doesn't matter what they do. The show thrives on them solving crime together so as long as they keep doing that, the show will go on. As for the fall finale where Captain Gates tells Castle that he can't work as a consultant anymore? Meh, it'll get sorted out. Because you can't have episodes of Castle where Castle is just sitting at home while Beckett solves all of the cases.
Oh, and one thing that amused me this season? So they had an episode called "Montreal" and Castle and Alexis go there to follow up on something that might make sense of Castle's disappearance. Um, yeah, it didn't look like Montreal at all. I know the average viewer won't know that, but I was just there before the episode aired, so it didn't look right to me. Also, the Quebecois accents did not sound right. At least the skyline was correct, when they were trying to identify where Castle recorded his message.
One random thought: So, that episode where Castle visited a parallal world? Wha? Since when is Castle a sci fi show? I appreciate all of the sci fi references, but that was just a weird twist.
- Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Seems like the show is finally doing good. I will fully admit that for a while there, I was just watching because I was being a loyal Whedonite. It was more of a chore than me actually enjoying the show. And then, to my surprise, the show actually became exciting again. I think it's because all of the characters had their world shaken and they haven't really recovered. Nothing is perfect anymore and characters suffering always makes for good television. The mystery with Coulson's alien writing also helped to drive the first half of the season forward. Having HYDRA for a foe helped, too. It gave the show some direction when before it kind of felt like it was floundering.
But the most interesting thing to come out of this season is the supposed introduction of the Inhumans. I say "supposed" because no one has actually used the term Inhuman yet, but all of the signs point in the right direction. It's not a big deal that they've revealed that Skye is more than human, but it's the fact that there's going to be an Inhumans movie in 2018. Would Marvel really introduced them now, on the small screen? I think they would. It's not a well known property, so you need to get people excited about it and you need to inform them. So AoS is a great way to slowly seed the relevant information and then the movie won't have to go into reams and reams of exposition.
This also adds another layer to AoS. Maybe Coulson and Co. will have to deal with the Inhumans and, by extension, the Kree as the show goes on. But can it be a spy show and an alien show at the same time?
Random thoughts from the first half of the season: Glad they didn't try to redeem Ward. And it was great that Skye got to shoot him. They killed Trip! So not cool. Mack looks okay, though. I can't actually believe they went to San Juan to film. When I saw the episode, I kept thinking, "Wow, this really looks like San Juan. I wonder where in L.A. this is." But then I took a peek at Clark Gregg's Facebook page and he had personal photos from the shoot. I actually walked through the city gate that Coulson and Bobbi walk through. That's where a lot of the stray cats in San Juan live. The show's Vancouver, though, it's less than impressive. I know Vancouver itself can look like any city, but it was too sunny. They should have colour timed it to make it look more grey. Oh well, at least they visited Canada.
- The Flash: It's still the first season so it's hard to be objective when the producers and writers are still learning how to make this show. It's not horrible, but there are still improvements they can make. The problem right now is that it's still working out how to be separate from Arrow. Here you have one show that's dark and gritty and here's this new show that's lighter and has people with superpowers. How do you make sure that you stay faithful to the world first created in Arrow but still create something completely different?
The ironic part is, the best episode of the season so far was the first half of the crossover event with Arrow. It was, surprisingly, much better than the second half. I think it's easier to take grimmer characters and put them into lighter situations than the reverse (but more on that in a second). So it was very fun seeing Team Arrow helping out Team Flash, though their reasons for being in Central City were really thin, but oh well. They even managed to work in the trope that when two superheroes meet they have a fight, even though Ollie and Barry are friendly with each other. Diggle's reaction to Barry's super speed was the best. First his shocked expression and then his line "I had a cousin who was struck by lightning once. He just developed a stutter." And everyone had a decent amount of screen time. I was worried Ollie and Co. wouldn't show up until later, but they're there from the start. They even brought up a thread from Arrow from last season. So I was very impressed that they managed to balance everyone.
Random thoughts: I feel sorry for the character of Iris. She's just there to be the love interest. She adds nothing to the plot. It's the same problem with Laurel on Arrow. The character is a large part of the hero's mythos so they naturally have to be part of the story. So I really hope they figure out what to do with her. Maybe she'll figure out that Barry is the Flash and then she and Laurel can start a support group for vigilante's ex-girlfriends/secret love interests. Team Flash is trying hard not to be Team Arrow but it's not there yet. Cisco is kind of annoying and Caitlin is a bit bland. Wells is the only interesting one, but it's stacked in his favour since he's from the future and is possibly the Reverse-Flash. I really have no idea what they're doing with Wells. Is he a good guy? Or a super villain? A New God? It has been cool seeing other super powered characters from the comics. I know the DC side of things a bit better so I do appreciate all of the small nods. They mentioned Ralph Dibny aka Elongated Man! There was even a tease of Gorilla Grodd, who's a super smart ape with mental powers and a prominent Flash villain. Fingers crossed that they actually use him in a future episode. Oh, and the show gets extra geek points for hiring actors from the old Flash show from 1990. They just had the actress who played Tina on the old show to play the same character on the new show and they're bringing back Mark Hamill as the Trickster in the spring! Can't wait.
- Arrow: The show is still good, but a part of me feels like it hasn't been as good this season. It's just a vague feeling I have that I can't quite put into words. The episodes don't suck, but I think they're lacking some of their usual pizzazz. Maybe it's because the season long arc is a murder mystery rather than a nefarious plot from the main villain for the season. Actually, they just solved the murder mystery, so I don't know what they have planned for the second half of the season. I am annoyed that they killed Sara, who made a pretty good Black Canary. We haven't seen Laurel as the new Black Canary yet, but I'm not that fond of Laurel as a character so I'm pretty sure I will prefer Sara's Canary in the end.
I can see why there isn't a main villain for the season. For the past two seasons, Starling City has been terrorized by a destructive earthquake machine and super powered thugs. You cannot have another season finale where Starling is under attack. Pretty soon, you're going to have people leaving the city by the droves. So the conflict this season is more personal for Ollie. You have more personal drama going on. Like him and Felicity in a weird holding pattern. He loves her, she loves him but they're not getting together any time soon because Ollie is a big dumbo. Then there's Laurel trying to cope with Sara's death. At least she's not a drunk anymore, but she's still useless and annoying. Maybe once she becomes the Black Canary and proves that she can hold her own then the character will be more relevant.
Oh yeah, the second half of the crossover event. It was fun to watch, but less enjoyable. First off, they had Captain Boomerang as the villain of the story and it is impossible to take a villain seriously when he's using boomerangs to take out people. Yes, I know, boomerangs are actually weapons, but come on! A boomerang is much slower than a bullet. It's beyond me how Captain Boomerang took out an entire building of A.R.G.U.S. personnel. Secondly, Team Flash does not belong in Arrow's darker world. Having Cisco there did not work at all. There were some jokes that worked but there were others where you groaned. At least Cisco did update Ollie's leather jacket. This seems to have become an annual thing. Last year, Barry gave Ollie his mask and now Cisco has given Ollie a greener jacket. Pretty soon, people are going to start calling the Arrow the Green Arrow.
Random: I do appreciate that both shows reference each other. If something happens on The Flash, there might be a passing mention of it on Arrow. That's part of the fun of having a shared universe. I'm not entirely sure why they introduced Ray Palmer, beyond giving Felicity another love interest. Seriously, she's just kissing all of the super heroes. Arrow doesn't need another hero, not when you have Ollie and Roy and, soon, Laurel running around in masks. But Brandon Routh is nice to look at so I can't complain too much. :-) For the record, they went nine episodes without showing Ollie without his shirt off; it must be a show record. Ollie getting stabbed in the chest in the fall finale? I don't see them killing him off. I'm sure they will introduce the Lazarus Pit and that's how he's healed. Because at one point Ra's Al Ghul says it's been 67 years since anyone challenged him to a fight to the death. He does not look like he's in his 70s, so there must be something that keeps him youthful.
Hmm, I'm only watching four shows this season. I didn't bother trying to watch more of Gotham and none of the other new shows have caught my fancy. The only thing I'm looking forward to in the new year is Agent Carter in January. Oh man, I hope it lives up to the hype. They've seeded a few things for the show on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. so it will be cool to see the follow through.
Now the only thing left to watch this year is the Doctor Who Christmas Special aka the best part about Christmas. :-)
- Castle: Well, Castle and Beckett finally got married. I was surprised that the wedding happened at the very end of an episode, which makes sense. After the big cliffhanger before the wedding ceremony last season, it made sense not to dedicate another huge episode about them tying the knot. So where do they go from here? Will Castle and Beckett had kids? Frankly, it doesn't matter what they do. The show thrives on them solving crime together so as long as they keep doing that, the show will go on. As for the fall finale where Captain Gates tells Castle that he can't work as a consultant anymore? Meh, it'll get sorted out. Because you can't have episodes of Castle where Castle is just sitting at home while Beckett solves all of the cases.
Oh, and one thing that amused me this season? So they had an episode called "Montreal" and Castle and Alexis go there to follow up on something that might make sense of Castle's disappearance. Um, yeah, it didn't look like Montreal at all. I know the average viewer won't know that, but I was just there before the episode aired, so it didn't look right to me. Also, the Quebecois accents did not sound right. At least the skyline was correct, when they were trying to identify where Castle recorded his message.
One random thought: So, that episode where Castle visited a parallal world? Wha? Since when is Castle a sci fi show? I appreciate all of the sci fi references, but that was just a weird twist.
- Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Seems like the show is finally doing good. I will fully admit that for a while there, I was just watching because I was being a loyal Whedonite. It was more of a chore than me actually enjoying the show. And then, to my surprise, the show actually became exciting again. I think it's because all of the characters had their world shaken and they haven't really recovered. Nothing is perfect anymore and characters suffering always makes for good television. The mystery with Coulson's alien writing also helped to drive the first half of the season forward. Having HYDRA for a foe helped, too. It gave the show some direction when before it kind of felt like it was floundering.
But the most interesting thing to come out of this season is the supposed introduction of the Inhumans. I say "supposed" because no one has actually used the term Inhuman yet, but all of the signs point in the right direction. It's not a big deal that they've revealed that Skye is more than human, but it's the fact that there's going to be an Inhumans movie in 2018. Would Marvel really introduced them now, on the small screen? I think they would. It's not a well known property, so you need to get people excited about it and you need to inform them. So AoS is a great way to slowly seed the relevant information and then the movie won't have to go into reams and reams of exposition.
This also adds another layer to AoS. Maybe Coulson and Co. will have to deal with the Inhumans and, by extension, the Kree as the show goes on. But can it be a spy show and an alien show at the same time?
Random thoughts from the first half of the season: Glad they didn't try to redeem Ward. And it was great that Skye got to shoot him. They killed Trip! So not cool. Mack looks okay, though. I can't actually believe they went to San Juan to film. When I saw the episode, I kept thinking, "Wow, this really looks like San Juan. I wonder where in L.A. this is." But then I took a peek at Clark Gregg's Facebook page and he had personal photos from the shoot. I actually walked through the city gate that Coulson and Bobbi walk through. That's where a lot of the stray cats in San Juan live. The show's Vancouver, though, it's less than impressive. I know Vancouver itself can look like any city, but it was too sunny. They should have colour timed it to make it look more grey. Oh well, at least they visited Canada.
- The Flash: It's still the first season so it's hard to be objective when the producers and writers are still learning how to make this show. It's not horrible, but there are still improvements they can make. The problem right now is that it's still working out how to be separate from Arrow. Here you have one show that's dark and gritty and here's this new show that's lighter and has people with superpowers. How do you make sure that you stay faithful to the world first created in Arrow but still create something completely different?
The ironic part is, the best episode of the season so far was the first half of the crossover event with Arrow. It was, surprisingly, much better than the second half. I think it's easier to take grimmer characters and put them into lighter situations than the reverse (but more on that in a second). So it was very fun seeing Team Arrow helping out Team Flash, though their reasons for being in Central City were really thin, but oh well. They even managed to work in the trope that when two superheroes meet they have a fight, even though Ollie and Barry are friendly with each other. Diggle's reaction to Barry's super speed was the best. First his shocked expression and then his line "I had a cousin who was struck by lightning once. He just developed a stutter." And everyone had a decent amount of screen time. I was worried Ollie and Co. wouldn't show up until later, but they're there from the start. They even brought up a thread from Arrow from last season. So I was very impressed that they managed to balance everyone.
Random thoughts: I feel sorry for the character of Iris. She's just there to be the love interest. She adds nothing to the plot. It's the same problem with Laurel on Arrow. The character is a large part of the hero's mythos so they naturally have to be part of the story. So I really hope they figure out what to do with her. Maybe she'll figure out that Barry is the Flash and then she and Laurel can start a support group for vigilante's ex-girlfriends/secret love interests. Team Flash is trying hard not to be Team Arrow but it's not there yet. Cisco is kind of annoying and Caitlin is a bit bland. Wells is the only interesting one, but it's stacked in his favour since he's from the future and is possibly the Reverse-Flash. I really have no idea what they're doing with Wells. Is he a good guy? Or a super villain? A New God? It has been cool seeing other super powered characters from the comics. I know the DC side of things a bit better so I do appreciate all of the small nods. They mentioned Ralph Dibny aka Elongated Man! There was even a tease of Gorilla Grodd, who's a super smart ape with mental powers and a prominent Flash villain. Fingers crossed that they actually use him in a future episode. Oh, and the show gets extra geek points for hiring actors from the old Flash show from 1990. They just had the actress who played Tina on the old show to play the same character on the new show and they're bringing back Mark Hamill as the Trickster in the spring! Can't wait.
- Arrow: The show is still good, but a part of me feels like it hasn't been as good this season. It's just a vague feeling I have that I can't quite put into words. The episodes don't suck, but I think they're lacking some of their usual pizzazz. Maybe it's because the season long arc is a murder mystery rather than a nefarious plot from the main villain for the season. Actually, they just solved the murder mystery, so I don't know what they have planned for the second half of the season. I am annoyed that they killed Sara, who made a pretty good Black Canary. We haven't seen Laurel as the new Black Canary yet, but I'm not that fond of Laurel as a character so I'm pretty sure I will prefer Sara's Canary in the end.
I can see why there isn't a main villain for the season. For the past two seasons, Starling City has been terrorized by a destructive earthquake machine and super powered thugs. You cannot have another season finale where Starling is under attack. Pretty soon, you're going to have people leaving the city by the droves. So the conflict this season is more personal for Ollie. You have more personal drama going on. Like him and Felicity in a weird holding pattern. He loves her, she loves him but they're not getting together any time soon because Ollie is a big dumbo. Then there's Laurel trying to cope with Sara's death. At least she's not a drunk anymore, but she's still useless and annoying. Maybe once she becomes the Black Canary and proves that she can hold her own then the character will be more relevant.
Oh yeah, the second half of the crossover event. It was fun to watch, but less enjoyable. First off, they had Captain Boomerang as the villain of the story and it is impossible to take a villain seriously when he's using boomerangs to take out people. Yes, I know, boomerangs are actually weapons, but come on! A boomerang is much slower than a bullet. It's beyond me how Captain Boomerang took out an entire building of A.R.G.U.S. personnel. Secondly, Team Flash does not belong in Arrow's darker world. Having Cisco there did not work at all. There were some jokes that worked but there were others where you groaned. At least Cisco did update Ollie's leather jacket. This seems to have become an annual thing. Last year, Barry gave Ollie his mask and now Cisco has given Ollie a greener jacket. Pretty soon, people are going to start calling the Arrow the Green Arrow.
Random: I do appreciate that both shows reference each other. If something happens on The Flash, there might be a passing mention of it on Arrow. That's part of the fun of having a shared universe. I'm not entirely sure why they introduced Ray Palmer, beyond giving Felicity another love interest. Seriously, she's just kissing all of the super heroes. Arrow doesn't need another hero, not when you have Ollie and Roy and, soon, Laurel running around in masks. But Brandon Routh is nice to look at so I can't complain too much. :-) For the record, they went nine episodes without showing Ollie without his shirt off; it must be a show record. Ollie getting stabbed in the chest in the fall finale? I don't see them killing him off. I'm sure they will introduce the Lazarus Pit and that's how he's healed. Because at one point Ra's Al Ghul says it's been 67 years since anyone challenged him to a fight to the death. He does not look like he's in his 70s, so there must be something that keeps him youthful.
Hmm, I'm only watching four shows this season. I didn't bother trying to watch more of Gotham and none of the other new shows have caught my fancy. The only thing I'm looking forward to in the new year is Agent Carter in January. Oh man, I hope it lives up to the hype. They've seeded a few things for the show on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. so it will be cool to see the follow through.
Now the only thing left to watch this year is the Doctor Who Christmas Special aka the best part about Christmas. :-)
Tags:
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2014-12-16 09:34 am (UTC)I mean, how do you hire Burn Gorman on a show and NOT have him play an evil immortal? I mean, assuming that's an option.
But yeah, it's a pretty conventional show, I only watch it because it's on a block where there's nothing better on and I don't have to change a channel for the whole night (I'm particularly annoyed at how often they tease "Oh I'm going to reveal myself/be found out... nope, of course not!" ;)
And no, the flashbacks mostly just deal thematically with it. On a very rare occasion some specific fact he remembers from that time comes up (there was one where somebody he knew as a young woman was murdered as an old lady), but not often
no subject
Date: 2014-12-17 03:01 am (UTC)Forever still sounds like Forever Knight to me, only he's a coroner instead of a police detective and not obviously not a vampire. Eh, maybe I'll give it a shot over the Christmas break if I'm feeling bored.