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locker_monsterLooks like most shows are on their winter break now, so I thought I would get a few thoughts down.
- So much angst this season of Supergirl. I'm used to Kara being the fun and upbeat one amongst the CW DC shows, so it's weird seeing her be so, well, mopey. I was never a huge fan of Mon-El, so Kara's lingering feelings about him has been kind of tedious to sit through. Yes, she really loved the guy and she's part of the reason he had to go away, but you're made of tougher stuff Kara. And then, of course, Mon-El has to come back, but he's been in the 31st century for seven years and, hey look, he conveniently got married to Saturn Girl while hanging out in the future. Ugh, even more angst. Just have Kara and Lena get together. She has more chemistry with Lena than any of the other love interests they've introduced. Oh, or better yet, don't give Kara a love interest. A part of her arc doesn't need to be defined by measuring her self worth against someone else.
Also angst-ing it up is Alex. No wedding for her and Maggie. I don't know if the break-up was always planned, but I think the writers had to put it in when the actress who plays Maggie decided to leave the show to pursue other things. Guh, why can't there be happy people on this show? I don't see Alex rushing into another relationship any time soon, so she and Kara be lovely single ladies together.
The stuff with Sam/Reign was slow. Like, Sam gets an arc trying to figure out what's going on with her, but it's kind of boring watching that journey. Things may be slightly more interesting now that Sam is Reign, but considering Sam doesn't seem to remember doing things as Reign, there are probably still more scenes of Sam acting confused in the future. I also feel like I've seen this storyline before. Smallville did a similar storyline when they introduced Doomsday back in the day, only he was a guy named Davis and he had no idea whe was a killer alien. Smallville went the same route, having Davis slowly discover his background. He also transformed into Doomsday when the situation called for it. Hopefully Supergirl does something a bit different with their take. Also, Reign's costume is terrible. I get that Reign in the comics isn't exactly human looking, but they could have done something else besides a weird mask and big shoulder pads.
Random: Legion of Superheroes! I can only assume that the other pods on Mon-El's ship contains other members of the Legion. I love that Carl Lumby, who voiced Martian Manhunter in the Justice League cartoon, plays J'onn's dad. DC does love its stunt casting. Lena and James are getting together? Meh; they're just playing into the trope of pairing the spares. The flashback centric episode "Midvale" was fun but very clearly a way to free up Melissa Benoist and Chyler Leigh so they could film the crossover. The actresses they hired to play teen Kara and Alex were freakin' amazing though; they looked so much like them and they had the mannerisms down. Also great was the reference to Chloe and her Wall of Weird; this doesn't imply that Smallville is set in the same universe and continuity as Supergirl, but it is nice that Chloe is part of the Superman mythos now. Oh, the school they chose to portray Midvale High School? It's the same school that Smallville used for Smallville High. I recognized it right away. Like, seriously? Of all of the schools in and around Vancouver, the production chose that one? Fun callback, sure, but a little weird.
I assume Kara and Reign will have more smackdowns. No doubt Kara is fine, but will feel some self doubt after getting her butt handed to her. Maybe the Legion will pitch in and help. Ooh, maybe they'll take Reign to the future. Kara doesn't have to kill a friend and Mon-El can leave again. But please, no more pods from Krypton. It seems highly implausible that more people made it off the planet before it exploded.
- The Flash has been much more lighthearted this season. There were times, though, where it felt like the writers were trying a little too hard to have humour and antics. Yes, last season was kind of grim, and if you want dark and moody you watch Arrow, so I get why there was a conscious effort to make things lighter, but you can go over the top sometimes. Maybe the second half of the season will be a bit more balanced considering Barry was just charged with murder.
It has been refreshing that the villain this season is not a speedster. And Team Flash also confronted the villain early instead of constantly running after him. Probably another conscious effort on part of the writing team to change things up. It's not clear what DeVoe wants. He made a bunch of metas, but only needed one of them? Or maybe he wants to steal Barry's powers? Or maybe that's just a mislead and really DeVoe wants to take over the minds of everyone in Central City? If he's out to steal Barry's speed, we've seen that before. City wide destruction I can buy; the plan needs to be something big for the finale.
I have enjoyed the introduction of Ralph, even if his presence is a contradiction of a statement Wells made in the first season (Ralph was listed among the list of people who died during the particle accelerator explosion; though, this is Ralph so maybe he used the explosion as an excuse to fake his death to avoid a client). Oh my god, the actor they hired is so perfect. That chin is straight out of a comic book. Ralph is a bit of a jerk right now, but he seems to growing as a person since he started hanging out with Team Flash. He so needs a better suit, though. The grey jumpsuit just isn't cutting it. Throw some purple accents on it, Cisco! I do find it odd that they introduced Ralph when Barry already had a good partner in Wally. But being a stretchy guy is different from being a speedster, so the writers can come up with new scenarios that don't involve a super speed solution.
Speaking of Wally, wow, they just dropped him from the show like a sack of hot potatoes. Is the actor busy with something else? His excuse of "I need to find myself" was just so lame. What also annoyed me was how they portrayed Wally at the beginning of the season. Wally's a pretty decent speedster. Why did they need Barry to save the day? I'm sure Wally could have stopped the Samuroid if he was given half a chance. And then in the episode with Kilgore, they just knock him out during the fight. Seriously? If you didn't want to two speedsters running around, then maybe you shouldn't have given Wally any powers. I like to imagine that Wally has gone off to hang with the Teen Titans or something. He did mention he was off fighting a giant star fish (Starro!), so maybe he found other super powered young people.
Random: I find it odd that Iris is suddenly the team lead. Yes, she needed to be more involved with Team Flash, but why is she the strategist? And does Iris even go to work anymore? We haven't seen her report on any news or write a single story this season. Earth-2 Wells is back. I'm a little disappointed that we didn't get another Harrison Wells, but then, we did get to meet three more in one episode (well, four if you include Wizard Harry). The actress who played Hazard used to be a VJ (video jockey) on YTV in Canada and that totally distracted me for the entire episode. They seem to have settled on Killer Frost being an anti-hero rather than an all out villain. That's fine - no one has to fight and/or hurt Caitlin - but it's a little convenient that she can suppress Killer Frost most of the time when last season she was barely hanging on. Katee Sackhoff's English accent is terrible, but I can mostly ignore it since she's having such a fun time playing Amunet. It's crazy that they teased Barry being incarcerated all the way back in season one. When Barry takes his first trip into the past, we got glimpses of stuff that was in the future, and Barry wearing an Iron Heights jumpsuit was one of them. I guess the writers have been using those glimpses as a bit of a road map.
- I'm still enjoying Legends of Tomorrow the best. It has completely bonkers storylines and crazy antics, but they always temper the plots with just enough seriousness. If you're going to screw up time, you might as well have fun doing it. I'm not entirely sure what's going on this season. There's some big bad out there and Damien Darkh is back, but what's the end game? Does Mallus want to destroy time? There seems to be some manipulation of the Legends' past, since they keep bringing up how weird it is that they keep meeting ancestors and family members, but is this Mallus' influence or something else?
I'm still bummed that Rip isn't a recurring character this season. He popped up twice and now he's in jail. What really annoys me is how much of a jerk they've made Rip this season. He initially grounds the Legends and then later on he betrays them, which allows Damien Darkh to come back. Why can't the writers give Rip some decent character growth? Sara brings up that he's gone rogue from every organization he's ever worked for. Instead of making Rip look like a dumb ass, maybe you could have him confront his trust issues? Like, before meeting the Legends, he wasn't great working with others, but through his time with them, he learned to trust and rely on other people. But nope. Apparently Rip has learned nothing. Grr. The Legends are practically his only friends; you'd think he would be nicer to them. I can only hope that they spring Rip from jail and he gets to admit what a colossal idiot he's been. Also, there's a spot free on the team roster; maybe they could invite him back.
Speaking of the team, I didn't expect them to write out Jax as well. Yes, Stein is gone, so no more Firestorm, but that doesn't mean that Jax should leave, too. They could have used this as an opportunity for Jax to ponder his role within the team now that he doesn't have any superpowers. But maybe it was right for Jax to move on. He'd be lingering on the past if he stayed on the Waverider. I did like how they used past Stein to wrap up Jax's feelings. Only on a time travel show can you have a past version of a dead character tell a present day character to move on and think of the future. But it seriously sucks to be part of Firestorm. Ronnie died, Stein died, and now Jax is on his own.
I suppose they could have someone completely new to fill the spot on the team, like they did with Zari. She's a new character with no ties to anyone on the team (mostly). It'd be a good way to introduce more DC characters to the Arrowverse. Like, Zari/Isis is not that well known. I never realized that Isis actually started as a character on a kids' show and then she got integrated into the comics later on. Zari isn't quite the same - since Isis seems to have an Egyptian motif and is part of Black Adam's backstory - but who says that you can't tweaked a character's background? Actually, it's cool that they made her a Muslim. It doesn't come up a lot, and it doesn't need to, but it's good that they have some diversity on the Waverider. My only gripe is that they haven't used Zari's hacking skills that much since she was introduced. In "Return of the Mack", Ray finds that Palmer Tech watch and goes on about how it'll be hard to access the data inside. Instead of speaking to the resident computer hacker from the future, Ray kind of muddles around on his own before calling Curtis. Well, it wouldn't be LoT if they didn't have some illogical plot points.
Seeing as Constantine showed up in the fall finale, maybe this means he hangs around for a bit? It'd be fun if he got a few adventures on the Waverider before leaving again. Ooh, or he could join the team! I can't think of any other hero that they've introduced that would be free to join LoT. There are the Hawks, but I doubt anyone would want to have them back. There's Roy, who sounds like he's coming back to Arrow for an episode, but I don't know if Colton Haynes wants to come back full time. There's also Connor Hawke aka John Diggle Jr. aka Future Green Arrow. Non powered hero would be easy on the budget, but I think the team needs someone with a unique skill set. Hmm, maybe they could transfer one of the other heroes on the other shows?
Random: The episode set in the 80s was the best. Loved all of the references and callbacks to 1980s movies. Also, baby Dominator! So cute. They visited Themyscira! This means Wonder Woman exists on Earth-1! That was possibly one of the best Easter Eggs they've done. I highly doubt we'll get to see a CW version of Wonder Woman, but it's cool to think she's out there. Ooh, they've hinted at all of the members of the Trinity now. Obviously, we've seen a version Superman from Earth-38, but Reverse Flash also implied there's an Earth-1 Superman, and Ollie named dropped Bruce Wayne on Arrow. The body swap in "Helen Hunt" was pretty fun, too. It's always funny to watch actors try to act like other characters. FireStein was also pretty cool; also loved the fact that Nate named him FireStein. The Beepo doll was just hilarious. It's amazing that everyone managed to take it seriously.
- Arrow has finally given up on flashbacks. I actually haven't noticed any difference without them. Actually, that's not true. In one of the earlier episodes, I noticed it affected the way the show is shot. They usually had those transitions from present to past with fancy camera moves or swipes, which was an easy way to leave a scene, but now there's no reason to do them. One episode tried to keep the same transitions, but it just fell flat. I haven't noticed it since then, so I guess the directors have adapted the house style.
So, Lian Yu Explosion-paloosa killed exactly... one person. That we know of, at any rate. Samantha was the only causality they showed on screen. Nyssa, Talia, Evelyn; no mention of their fates. Seriously? An entire island explodes and only one person dies? There weren't even major injuries. Dig got some shrapnel to the shoulder and Thea was put into a coma, but everyone else was pretty unscathed. I guess the ARGUS plane was really well armoured. Also, as a resolution, that was pretty lacklustre. I guess they don't want to say who definitively died or not. It leaves the door open for the characters to come back.
It's been an interesting season so far for Ollie. He's not so focused on his past and he's trying to look to his future. Watching him struggle to balance parenting with his Green Arrow-ing was different. I wish they had spent a bit longer with it. It was hard for a few episodes, then Ollie handed off the Green Arrow mantle to Dig, but now Ollie is back being the Green Arrow and he hasn't told William at all, but it doesn't seem like he's torn up about it. I feel like part of the reason Dig got to be the Green Arrow was so Stephen Amell could go off to film the crossover. But, the show is about Ollie being a vigilante, not the world's lamest mayor, so he had to take the hood back eventually. You'd think that being under investigation by the FBI would encourage Ollie to take a step back from the Green Arrow, but the team is split up right now, so he probably won't.
Who knows how Ollie's trial will go. I expect he will be found not guilty or something will come up that will force a mistrial, because that's how TV works. Your hero can be in dire straits, but only for a little while before everything is cleared up by the end of the season. But if Ollie gets off scott free, can he just go back to how things were before?
As for the other stuff going on, I'm not sure what the end game is. You have Cayden James, Black Siren, Vigilante, Anatoly, and that drug dealer whose name I can't remember teaming up. Usually Team Arrow faces off against one foe for the season, so it will be interesting to see how they handle this team up. Of course, that means waiting for Team Arrow to figure out that everyone is working together and if The Flash has proven anything, it's that it's kind of annoying watching your hero play catch up. On the other hand, they had Ollie playing cat and mouse with Adrian Chase last season and that got kind of tedious, too. We shall see.
Random: I doubt the team will be split up for long. Something will happen that will draw everyone back. Or maybe not. It's a good opportunity to clean house, so to speak. You can give characters a clean exit without killing them off. The one I'd ditch is Rene. He doesn't add much and he's still annoying. Felicity and Ollie finally got married. I didn't expect them to tie the knot so soon after getting back together, but it's better than the drawn out will they/won't they that they had for a couple of seasons. Why the hell was Thea in a coma for the first half of the season. Did Willa Holland not want to come back? Or she was busy with something else? So great that Lance gave Ollie the watch that his father gave him when he got married. The two of them have come a long way since season one, to the point that Lance can be a father figure. Hell, he is the father figure for Rene and Dinah. I'm surprised Lance has lasted this long; I always pegged him as the character who would be bumped off. When Slade said he had to go to Calgary to find his son, I laughed so hard. His son, the super spy and mercenary, was in Calgary. What? Was he undercover as a cowboy?
- Star Trek: Discovery has been hit and miss. I think the only really good episode they had in the first block was the time loop episode. Even then, it was odd that they followed Michael through the time loop and not Stamets. On the other hand, shows always follow the character outside of the time loop, so this was a bit different. I don't know. The show is trying to be new and different from the other Star Trek shows, but it's not exactly working. The mid-season finale was pretty good, but Lorca's speech about how this ship of scientists never asked to be soldiers? Um, we barely saw that. I think there was maybe one scene with Stamets lamenting the use of his spore drive during war time, but the rest of the time, you never saw the crew struggling between being explorers and being soldiers. Had they had more of that, I think the first half of the season could have been way better. I guess if I want to see that conflict play out on screen, I'll just watch the later seasons of DS9.
Random: I think Stamets is my favourite followed by Tilly. Stamets was so snarky before he injected himself with the Tardigrade DNA and who doesn't love snark. Tilly is just fun on a ship full of very solemn people. Tyler is so a Klingon spy. The theory floating around is that he's actually Voq, that L'Rell used her super spy skills to help transform him into a human. All of the trauma he's remembering is actually the surgery to make him human. Though, Ash Tyler appears to be a real person - Lorca was able to look up his record and whatnot - so maybe Tyler is just a sleeper agent of some sort? The Discovery totally landed in the Mirror Universe at the mid-season break. That scene with Lorca and Stamets looking at the map of the mycelial network made mention of other dimensions, so where else could they be but the most famous alternate dimension of the Trek franchise.
- Technically speaking, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is not on a winter break just yet, but I thought I would include it anyway. So, the team is in space and in the future. I wasn't expecting that last bit at all. I had to wonder if it was done so the show could avoid having to tie itself in with events from Black Panther and Avengers: Infinity War. Though, it was pointed out to me that this could be a budget saving tactic as well, since space sets are confined and pretty limited and there's rarely any location filming. I don't doubt that ABC cut the show's overall budget; Marvel had to step in just to ensure that AoS was renewed for this season. Budget restrictions do force the writers to focus more on the characters, since you can't go anywhere you want for a story, so I expect this season will be much more personal and less overarching.
But who sent the team to the future and why? Did someone need S.H.I.E.L.D. out of the way? But then, Coulson and Co. were prepared to go to jail at the end of last season, so it's not like the team would be in the way if someone wanted to do something nefarious. So maybe they were sent to the future for safekeeping? Though, why leave Fitz behind? I want to believe that they eventually make it back to the present, that they'll have a few more arcs after this (like they did last season), but they were still filming on the space sets for their 100th episode. That'd be roughly their 12th episode of the season, so maybe the future setting is for most of the season. Well, as long as they can keep it interesting, I won't mind.
Now that they have introduced time travel, there's one thing I would love to see. Assuming the team finds a way home, it'd be amazing if they overshot and ended up in the past, rather than the present. Maybe they could end up in, I don't know, 1950s L.A., where a certain SSR Agent might be living. :-D Oh man, I would lose my mind if they did a quick arc with Peggy. It'd be a way to wrap up Agent Carter and have even more time travel shenanigans. Just imagine it. Coulson and Co. meet Peggy, but they can't tell her who they are. Simmons could have a huge fangirl moment meeting Peggy. Maybe we could see the formation of S.H.I.E.L.D. It's a far fetched dream, but really, anything could happen.
Random: Yo-Yo has a great comment in the premiere about there being an outer space wing of S.H.I.E.L.D., which she imagines is called S.P.E.A.R. I laughed. Clearly it's a nod to S.W.O.R.D., the branch of S.H.I.E.L.D. that Joss created when he was writing Astonishing X-Men. I also feel like it was a comment on how they probably can't use S.W.O.R.D. since it was established in an X-Men comic (though with Disney buying 21st Century FOX, maybe that's not an issue anymore). Mack being up on his pop culture references was great ("Haven't you ever seen an alien movie?"). I continue to love the effect they use for Yo-Yo's superspeed. The slow mo with the after images in her wake is way cooler than just having a blur. Also cheaper, I imagine. I assume Fitz isn't in the first few episodes because the actor was busy with something else?
And there were a couple of shows that finished their season, too:
- Or in Inhumans case, the end of the series most likely. Such a waste of time, this show. ABC could have taken that money and funnelled it into Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s budget. I'm not sure what they were trying to do. They were exploring Inhumans on AoS just fine without needing to take a trip to the Moon. Inhumans ended with the implication that something bad was coming. Maybe an alien invasion? Set up for Infinity Wars perhaps? Whatever they had planned, we probably won't see the end result, unless they tie it up with AoS.
Lockjaw was still cute, though, even if the CGI wasn't up to snuff.
- The Orville was renewed for a second season, but there wasn't an order to extend the first season. Considering that the 13th episode of the season, the actual finale, wasn't aired due to scheduling conflicts, I bet FOX doesn't have room in its programming schedule.
I continue to be surprised by how much I enjoyed this show. I went in with low expectations, but with every episode, they raised the bar. Some things are still uneven, there are times when jokes fall flat, but the premise works and the characters don't need tweaking. In fact, they could expand the characters' backgrounds a bit more. We've had bits here and there, but I want to know more. As for the jokes, they dialled them back a bit towards the end of the season and I hope that's the level they stay at for the rest of the show. Yes, The Orville was advertised as a comedy, but it's proven it's much more than that. They're telling the allegorical stories that were the bread and butter for Star Trek for so long.
Random: the "season finale" reminded me so much of the Voyager episode "Blink of an Eye", only the planet travels between dimensions whereas the planet on Voyager just rotated really fast. That's not a diss; that episode of Voyager is one of my faves. With a history as long as Star Trek's, it's hard not to hit upon ideas that they haven't used already. The episode "Krill" could have been a lot better if they had gotten rid of the jokes. Gordon kept making cracks about Avis and Hertz and it felt super disrespectful in an episode about war and learning about the enemy. It's interesting that they don't have teleporters on the show. Maybe there wasn't money in the budget to do dematerializations every week. It'd be neat if they visit Issac's planet next season. He's been fun so far. The episode where he was stranded with Clarie's kids could have been played for cheap laughs, but thankfully they didn't go there. Every time they have a Star Trek alum on the show, be it in front of or behind the camera, I just laugh. It's like a weird in-joke for Trekkers.
I'm currently trying to catch up with Runaways, but it's been kind of slow so far so I haven't felt the need to binge it. Also, it airs on Showcase here in Canada so airs weekly rather than being available all at once like on Hulu. I may have more thoughts later. In the spring, iZombie is back and there's also Black Lightning. I don't know if I'll check it out. If it's good, maybe I'll watch it later.
Whew, that was a long post. Clearly I watch too much TV. :-D
- So much angst this season of Supergirl. I'm used to Kara being the fun and upbeat one amongst the CW DC shows, so it's weird seeing her be so, well, mopey. I was never a huge fan of Mon-El, so Kara's lingering feelings about him has been kind of tedious to sit through. Yes, she really loved the guy and she's part of the reason he had to go away, but you're made of tougher stuff Kara. And then, of course, Mon-El has to come back, but he's been in the 31st century for seven years and, hey look, he conveniently got married to Saturn Girl while hanging out in the future. Ugh, even more angst. Just have Kara and Lena get together. She has more chemistry with Lena than any of the other love interests they've introduced. Oh, or better yet, don't give Kara a love interest. A part of her arc doesn't need to be defined by measuring her self worth against someone else.
Also angst-ing it up is Alex. No wedding for her and Maggie. I don't know if the break-up was always planned, but I think the writers had to put it in when the actress who plays Maggie decided to leave the show to pursue other things. Guh, why can't there be happy people on this show? I don't see Alex rushing into another relationship any time soon, so she and Kara be lovely single ladies together.
The stuff with Sam/Reign was slow. Like, Sam gets an arc trying to figure out what's going on with her, but it's kind of boring watching that journey. Things may be slightly more interesting now that Sam is Reign, but considering Sam doesn't seem to remember doing things as Reign, there are probably still more scenes of Sam acting confused in the future. I also feel like I've seen this storyline before. Smallville did a similar storyline when they introduced Doomsday back in the day, only he was a guy named Davis and he had no idea whe was a killer alien. Smallville went the same route, having Davis slowly discover his background. He also transformed into Doomsday when the situation called for it. Hopefully Supergirl does something a bit different with their take. Also, Reign's costume is terrible. I get that Reign in the comics isn't exactly human looking, but they could have done something else besides a weird mask and big shoulder pads.
Random: Legion of Superheroes! I can only assume that the other pods on Mon-El's ship contains other members of the Legion. I love that Carl Lumby, who voiced Martian Manhunter in the Justice League cartoon, plays J'onn's dad. DC does love its stunt casting. Lena and James are getting together? Meh; they're just playing into the trope of pairing the spares. The flashback centric episode "Midvale" was fun but very clearly a way to free up Melissa Benoist and Chyler Leigh so they could film the crossover. The actresses they hired to play teen Kara and Alex were freakin' amazing though; they looked so much like them and they had the mannerisms down. Also great was the reference to Chloe and her Wall of Weird; this doesn't imply that Smallville is set in the same universe and continuity as Supergirl, but it is nice that Chloe is part of the Superman mythos now. Oh, the school they chose to portray Midvale High School? It's the same school that Smallville used for Smallville High. I recognized it right away. Like, seriously? Of all of the schools in and around Vancouver, the production chose that one? Fun callback, sure, but a little weird.
I assume Kara and Reign will have more smackdowns. No doubt Kara is fine, but will feel some self doubt after getting her butt handed to her. Maybe the Legion will pitch in and help. Ooh, maybe they'll take Reign to the future. Kara doesn't have to kill a friend and Mon-El can leave again. But please, no more pods from Krypton. It seems highly implausible that more people made it off the planet before it exploded.
- The Flash has been much more lighthearted this season. There were times, though, where it felt like the writers were trying a little too hard to have humour and antics. Yes, last season was kind of grim, and if you want dark and moody you watch Arrow, so I get why there was a conscious effort to make things lighter, but you can go over the top sometimes. Maybe the second half of the season will be a bit more balanced considering Barry was just charged with murder.
It has been refreshing that the villain this season is not a speedster. And Team Flash also confronted the villain early instead of constantly running after him. Probably another conscious effort on part of the writing team to change things up. It's not clear what DeVoe wants. He made a bunch of metas, but only needed one of them? Or maybe he wants to steal Barry's powers? Or maybe that's just a mislead and really DeVoe wants to take over the minds of everyone in Central City? If he's out to steal Barry's speed, we've seen that before. City wide destruction I can buy; the plan needs to be something big for the finale.
I have enjoyed the introduction of Ralph, even if his presence is a contradiction of a statement Wells made in the first season (Ralph was listed among the list of people who died during the particle accelerator explosion; though, this is Ralph so maybe he used the explosion as an excuse to fake his death to avoid a client). Oh my god, the actor they hired is so perfect. That chin is straight out of a comic book. Ralph is a bit of a jerk right now, but he seems to growing as a person since he started hanging out with Team Flash. He so needs a better suit, though. The grey jumpsuit just isn't cutting it. Throw some purple accents on it, Cisco! I do find it odd that they introduced Ralph when Barry already had a good partner in Wally. But being a stretchy guy is different from being a speedster, so the writers can come up with new scenarios that don't involve a super speed solution.
Speaking of Wally, wow, they just dropped him from the show like a sack of hot potatoes. Is the actor busy with something else? His excuse of "I need to find myself" was just so lame. What also annoyed me was how they portrayed Wally at the beginning of the season. Wally's a pretty decent speedster. Why did they need Barry to save the day? I'm sure Wally could have stopped the Samuroid if he was given half a chance. And then in the episode with Kilgore, they just knock him out during the fight. Seriously? If you didn't want to two speedsters running around, then maybe you shouldn't have given Wally any powers. I like to imagine that Wally has gone off to hang with the Teen Titans or something. He did mention he was off fighting a giant star fish (Starro!), so maybe he found other super powered young people.
Random: I find it odd that Iris is suddenly the team lead. Yes, she needed to be more involved with Team Flash, but why is she the strategist? And does Iris even go to work anymore? We haven't seen her report on any news or write a single story this season. Earth-2 Wells is back. I'm a little disappointed that we didn't get another Harrison Wells, but then, we did get to meet three more in one episode (well, four if you include Wizard Harry). The actress who played Hazard used to be a VJ (video jockey) on YTV in Canada and that totally distracted me for the entire episode. They seem to have settled on Killer Frost being an anti-hero rather than an all out villain. That's fine - no one has to fight and/or hurt Caitlin - but it's a little convenient that she can suppress Killer Frost most of the time when last season she was barely hanging on. Katee Sackhoff's English accent is terrible, but I can mostly ignore it since she's having such a fun time playing Amunet. It's crazy that they teased Barry being incarcerated all the way back in season one. When Barry takes his first trip into the past, we got glimpses of stuff that was in the future, and Barry wearing an Iron Heights jumpsuit was one of them. I guess the writers have been using those glimpses as a bit of a road map.
- I'm still enjoying Legends of Tomorrow the best. It has completely bonkers storylines and crazy antics, but they always temper the plots with just enough seriousness. If you're going to screw up time, you might as well have fun doing it. I'm not entirely sure what's going on this season. There's some big bad out there and Damien Darkh is back, but what's the end game? Does Mallus want to destroy time? There seems to be some manipulation of the Legends' past, since they keep bringing up how weird it is that they keep meeting ancestors and family members, but is this Mallus' influence or something else?
I'm still bummed that Rip isn't a recurring character this season. He popped up twice and now he's in jail. What really annoys me is how much of a jerk they've made Rip this season. He initially grounds the Legends and then later on he betrays them, which allows Damien Darkh to come back. Why can't the writers give Rip some decent character growth? Sara brings up that he's gone rogue from every organization he's ever worked for. Instead of making Rip look like a dumb ass, maybe you could have him confront his trust issues? Like, before meeting the Legends, he wasn't great working with others, but through his time with them, he learned to trust and rely on other people. But nope. Apparently Rip has learned nothing. Grr. The Legends are practically his only friends; you'd think he would be nicer to them. I can only hope that they spring Rip from jail and he gets to admit what a colossal idiot he's been. Also, there's a spot free on the team roster; maybe they could invite him back.
Speaking of the team, I didn't expect them to write out Jax as well. Yes, Stein is gone, so no more Firestorm, but that doesn't mean that Jax should leave, too. They could have used this as an opportunity for Jax to ponder his role within the team now that he doesn't have any superpowers. But maybe it was right for Jax to move on. He'd be lingering on the past if he stayed on the Waverider. I did like how they used past Stein to wrap up Jax's feelings. Only on a time travel show can you have a past version of a dead character tell a present day character to move on and think of the future. But it seriously sucks to be part of Firestorm. Ronnie died, Stein died, and now Jax is on his own.
I suppose they could have someone completely new to fill the spot on the team, like they did with Zari. She's a new character with no ties to anyone on the team (mostly). It'd be a good way to introduce more DC characters to the Arrowverse. Like, Zari/Isis is not that well known. I never realized that Isis actually started as a character on a kids' show and then she got integrated into the comics later on. Zari isn't quite the same - since Isis seems to have an Egyptian motif and is part of Black Adam's backstory - but who says that you can't tweaked a character's background? Actually, it's cool that they made her a Muslim. It doesn't come up a lot, and it doesn't need to, but it's good that they have some diversity on the Waverider. My only gripe is that they haven't used Zari's hacking skills that much since she was introduced. In "Return of the Mack", Ray finds that Palmer Tech watch and goes on about how it'll be hard to access the data inside. Instead of speaking to the resident computer hacker from the future, Ray kind of muddles around on his own before calling Curtis. Well, it wouldn't be LoT if they didn't have some illogical plot points.
Seeing as Constantine showed up in the fall finale, maybe this means he hangs around for a bit? It'd be fun if he got a few adventures on the Waverider before leaving again. Ooh, or he could join the team! I can't think of any other hero that they've introduced that would be free to join LoT. There are the Hawks, but I doubt anyone would want to have them back. There's Roy, who sounds like he's coming back to Arrow for an episode, but I don't know if Colton Haynes wants to come back full time. There's also Connor Hawke aka John Diggle Jr. aka Future Green Arrow. Non powered hero would be easy on the budget, but I think the team needs someone with a unique skill set. Hmm, maybe they could transfer one of the other heroes on the other shows?
Random: The episode set in the 80s was the best. Loved all of the references and callbacks to 1980s movies. Also, baby Dominator! So cute. They visited Themyscira! This means Wonder Woman exists on Earth-1! That was possibly one of the best Easter Eggs they've done. I highly doubt we'll get to see a CW version of Wonder Woman, but it's cool to think she's out there. Ooh, they've hinted at all of the members of the Trinity now. Obviously, we've seen a version Superman from Earth-38, but Reverse Flash also implied there's an Earth-1 Superman, and Ollie named dropped Bruce Wayne on Arrow. The body swap in "Helen Hunt" was pretty fun, too. It's always funny to watch actors try to act like other characters. FireStein was also pretty cool; also loved the fact that Nate named him FireStein. The Beepo doll was just hilarious. It's amazing that everyone managed to take it seriously.
- Arrow has finally given up on flashbacks. I actually haven't noticed any difference without them. Actually, that's not true. In one of the earlier episodes, I noticed it affected the way the show is shot. They usually had those transitions from present to past with fancy camera moves or swipes, which was an easy way to leave a scene, but now there's no reason to do them. One episode tried to keep the same transitions, but it just fell flat. I haven't noticed it since then, so I guess the directors have adapted the house style.
So, Lian Yu Explosion-paloosa killed exactly... one person. That we know of, at any rate. Samantha was the only causality they showed on screen. Nyssa, Talia, Evelyn; no mention of their fates. Seriously? An entire island explodes and only one person dies? There weren't even major injuries. Dig got some shrapnel to the shoulder and Thea was put into a coma, but everyone else was pretty unscathed. I guess the ARGUS plane was really well armoured. Also, as a resolution, that was pretty lacklustre. I guess they don't want to say who definitively died or not. It leaves the door open for the characters to come back.
It's been an interesting season so far for Ollie. He's not so focused on his past and he's trying to look to his future. Watching him struggle to balance parenting with his Green Arrow-ing was different. I wish they had spent a bit longer with it. It was hard for a few episodes, then Ollie handed off the Green Arrow mantle to Dig, but now Ollie is back being the Green Arrow and he hasn't told William at all, but it doesn't seem like he's torn up about it. I feel like part of the reason Dig got to be the Green Arrow was so Stephen Amell could go off to film the crossover. But, the show is about Ollie being a vigilante, not the world's lamest mayor, so he had to take the hood back eventually. You'd think that being under investigation by the FBI would encourage Ollie to take a step back from the Green Arrow, but the team is split up right now, so he probably won't.
Who knows how Ollie's trial will go. I expect he will be found not guilty or something will come up that will force a mistrial, because that's how TV works. Your hero can be in dire straits, but only for a little while before everything is cleared up by the end of the season. But if Ollie gets off scott free, can he just go back to how things were before?
As for the other stuff going on, I'm not sure what the end game is. You have Cayden James, Black Siren, Vigilante, Anatoly, and that drug dealer whose name I can't remember teaming up. Usually Team Arrow faces off against one foe for the season, so it will be interesting to see how they handle this team up. Of course, that means waiting for Team Arrow to figure out that everyone is working together and if The Flash has proven anything, it's that it's kind of annoying watching your hero play catch up. On the other hand, they had Ollie playing cat and mouse with Adrian Chase last season and that got kind of tedious, too. We shall see.
Random: I doubt the team will be split up for long. Something will happen that will draw everyone back. Or maybe not. It's a good opportunity to clean house, so to speak. You can give characters a clean exit without killing them off. The one I'd ditch is Rene. He doesn't add much and he's still annoying. Felicity and Ollie finally got married. I didn't expect them to tie the knot so soon after getting back together, but it's better than the drawn out will they/won't they that they had for a couple of seasons. Why the hell was Thea in a coma for the first half of the season. Did Willa Holland not want to come back? Or she was busy with something else? So great that Lance gave Ollie the watch that his father gave him when he got married. The two of them have come a long way since season one, to the point that Lance can be a father figure. Hell, he is the father figure for Rene and Dinah. I'm surprised Lance has lasted this long; I always pegged him as the character who would be bumped off. When Slade said he had to go to Calgary to find his son, I laughed so hard. His son, the super spy and mercenary, was in Calgary. What? Was he undercover as a cowboy?
- Star Trek: Discovery has been hit and miss. I think the only really good episode they had in the first block was the time loop episode. Even then, it was odd that they followed Michael through the time loop and not Stamets. On the other hand, shows always follow the character outside of the time loop, so this was a bit different. I don't know. The show is trying to be new and different from the other Star Trek shows, but it's not exactly working. The mid-season finale was pretty good, but Lorca's speech about how this ship of scientists never asked to be soldiers? Um, we barely saw that. I think there was maybe one scene with Stamets lamenting the use of his spore drive during war time, but the rest of the time, you never saw the crew struggling between being explorers and being soldiers. Had they had more of that, I think the first half of the season could have been way better. I guess if I want to see that conflict play out on screen, I'll just watch the later seasons of DS9.
Random: I think Stamets is my favourite followed by Tilly. Stamets was so snarky before he injected himself with the Tardigrade DNA and who doesn't love snark. Tilly is just fun on a ship full of very solemn people. Tyler is so a Klingon spy. The theory floating around is that he's actually Voq, that L'Rell used her super spy skills to help transform him into a human. All of the trauma he's remembering is actually the surgery to make him human. Though, Ash Tyler appears to be a real person - Lorca was able to look up his record and whatnot - so maybe Tyler is just a sleeper agent of some sort? The Discovery totally landed in the Mirror Universe at the mid-season break. That scene with Lorca and Stamets looking at the map of the mycelial network made mention of other dimensions, so where else could they be but the most famous alternate dimension of the Trek franchise.
- Technically speaking, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is not on a winter break just yet, but I thought I would include it anyway. So, the team is in space and in the future. I wasn't expecting that last bit at all. I had to wonder if it was done so the show could avoid having to tie itself in with events from Black Panther and Avengers: Infinity War. Though, it was pointed out to me that this could be a budget saving tactic as well, since space sets are confined and pretty limited and there's rarely any location filming. I don't doubt that ABC cut the show's overall budget; Marvel had to step in just to ensure that AoS was renewed for this season. Budget restrictions do force the writers to focus more on the characters, since you can't go anywhere you want for a story, so I expect this season will be much more personal and less overarching.
But who sent the team to the future and why? Did someone need S.H.I.E.L.D. out of the way? But then, Coulson and Co. were prepared to go to jail at the end of last season, so it's not like the team would be in the way if someone wanted to do something nefarious. So maybe they were sent to the future for safekeeping? Though, why leave Fitz behind? I want to believe that they eventually make it back to the present, that they'll have a few more arcs after this (like they did last season), but they were still filming on the space sets for their 100th episode. That'd be roughly their 12th episode of the season, so maybe the future setting is for most of the season. Well, as long as they can keep it interesting, I won't mind.
Now that they have introduced time travel, there's one thing I would love to see. Assuming the team finds a way home, it'd be amazing if they overshot and ended up in the past, rather than the present. Maybe they could end up in, I don't know, 1950s L.A., where a certain SSR Agent might be living. :-D Oh man, I would lose my mind if they did a quick arc with Peggy. It'd be a way to wrap up Agent Carter and have even more time travel shenanigans. Just imagine it. Coulson and Co. meet Peggy, but they can't tell her who they are. Simmons could have a huge fangirl moment meeting Peggy. Maybe we could see the formation of S.H.I.E.L.D. It's a far fetched dream, but really, anything could happen.
Random: Yo-Yo has a great comment in the premiere about there being an outer space wing of S.H.I.E.L.D., which she imagines is called S.P.E.A.R. I laughed. Clearly it's a nod to S.W.O.R.D., the branch of S.H.I.E.L.D. that Joss created when he was writing Astonishing X-Men. I also feel like it was a comment on how they probably can't use S.W.O.R.D. since it was established in an X-Men comic (though with Disney buying 21st Century FOX, maybe that's not an issue anymore). Mack being up on his pop culture references was great ("Haven't you ever seen an alien movie?"). I continue to love the effect they use for Yo-Yo's superspeed. The slow mo with the after images in her wake is way cooler than just having a blur. Also cheaper, I imagine. I assume Fitz isn't in the first few episodes because the actor was busy with something else?
And there were a couple of shows that finished their season, too:
- Or in Inhumans case, the end of the series most likely. Such a waste of time, this show. ABC could have taken that money and funnelled it into Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s budget. I'm not sure what they were trying to do. They were exploring Inhumans on AoS just fine without needing to take a trip to the Moon. Inhumans ended with the implication that something bad was coming. Maybe an alien invasion? Set up for Infinity Wars perhaps? Whatever they had planned, we probably won't see the end result, unless they tie it up with AoS.
Lockjaw was still cute, though, even if the CGI wasn't up to snuff.
- The Orville was renewed for a second season, but there wasn't an order to extend the first season. Considering that the 13th episode of the season, the actual finale, wasn't aired due to scheduling conflicts, I bet FOX doesn't have room in its programming schedule.
I continue to be surprised by how much I enjoyed this show. I went in with low expectations, but with every episode, they raised the bar. Some things are still uneven, there are times when jokes fall flat, but the premise works and the characters don't need tweaking. In fact, they could expand the characters' backgrounds a bit more. We've had bits here and there, but I want to know more. As for the jokes, they dialled them back a bit towards the end of the season and I hope that's the level they stay at for the rest of the show. Yes, The Orville was advertised as a comedy, but it's proven it's much more than that. They're telling the allegorical stories that were the bread and butter for Star Trek for so long.
Random: the "season finale" reminded me so much of the Voyager episode "Blink of an Eye", only the planet travels between dimensions whereas the planet on Voyager just rotated really fast. That's not a diss; that episode of Voyager is one of my faves. With a history as long as Star Trek's, it's hard not to hit upon ideas that they haven't used already. The episode "Krill" could have been a lot better if they had gotten rid of the jokes. Gordon kept making cracks about Avis and Hertz and it felt super disrespectful in an episode about war and learning about the enemy. It's interesting that they don't have teleporters on the show. Maybe there wasn't money in the budget to do dematerializations every week. It'd be neat if they visit Issac's planet next season. He's been fun so far. The episode where he was stranded with Clarie's kids could have been played for cheap laughs, but thankfully they didn't go there. Every time they have a Star Trek alum on the show, be it in front of or behind the camera, I just laugh. It's like a weird in-joke for Trekkers.
I'm currently trying to catch up with Runaways, but it's been kind of slow so far so I haven't felt the need to binge it. Also, it airs on Showcase here in Canada so airs weekly rather than being available all at once like on Hulu. I may have more thoughts later. In the spring, iZombie is back and there's also Black Lightning. I don't know if I'll check it out. If it's good, maybe I'll watch it later.
Whew, that was a long post. Clearly I watch too much TV. :-D
