The Blog to Nowhere

I'm a little sad that this year's crossover was less integrated than last year's. Instead of the Super Friends Power Hour, they went back to having each part be a somewhat regular episode of each show with some very special guest stars. Though, my understanding is that the scheduling from "Crisis on Earth-X" nearly broke everyone, so I get that the producers would want to make things a little easier this time.

With that being said, "Elseworlds" was still pretty crazy and a whole lot of fun.

( Spoilers for The Flash 5x09, "Elseworlds, Part 1" )

( Spoilers for Arrow 7x09 "Elseworlds, Part 2" )

( Spoilers for Supergirl 4x09, "Elseworlds, Part 3" )

It only seems fair to discuss Legends of Tomorrow's winter finale as well.

( Spoilers for Legends of Tomorrow 4x08, "Legends of To-Meow-Meow" )

Well, that's it for the DC-CW for the year. I do believe that Supergirl and Legends of Tomorrow won't be back until April. :-( But a lot to look forward to in 2019.

- Supergirl's season is still going. I'm going to miss out on the last few episodes while on my cruise, so I'll have to play catch up once I'm back.

( Spoilers for The Flash season four )

( Spoilers for Arrow season six )

- And Arrowverse crossover news for next season: Batwoman!!!!! The plot of the crossover involves everyone going to Gotham for some reason. I can't imagine a threat big enough that would warrant all of the Super Friends to get together, though. Like, what the heck is happening in Gotham that the resident bat vigilante can't handle it? This also raises some questions, like, is there a Batman? Bruce Wayne certainly exists, but is he dressing up like a bat at night? One would assume he is around, if there's a Batwoman, but maybe Kathy Kane became the bat themed vigilante first and Bruce was inspired by her. That'd be a fun twist. As this is Earth-1 Batwoman, they could have an Earth-1 Maggie Sawyer as well, which would be awkward for Alex, who was engaged to Earth-38's Maggie Sawyer. That assumes, of course, that Alex is doing the crossover again. Frankly, it'd be nice if J'onn got to tag along this time, and maybe Winn, too. Winn and Cisco need to meet; they can exchange super suit tailoring tips. It'd also be nice if the Legends were more involved. I want Constantine to meet everyone and just flirt up a storm.

Ooh, I had a thought. What if they visit Gotham not in the present but in the past? Ollie and Kara haven't experienced time travel yet and it'd be a good way to have the Legends more involved in the plot. It would also get around the whole "does Batman exist or not" quandary. I do believe in the comics that there were two Batwomen: one older, named Katherine, and one younger, who's Kathy. They could meet Katherine Kane, who could or could not be related to Kathy. It'd also be fun to visit the 1930s or 1940s, the setting of the Golden Age of comics.

I also had a thought on how the show could release Melissa Benoist for a handful of episodes for the crossover: use the actress from the flashback episode "Midvale". She was perfect as young Kara. Why not have a villain de-age Kara into a teenager? Sure, it's kind of cliched, but I feel like the Supergirl writers could make the scenario work. You could have so many jokes about how cute Kara was when she was a teenager. Or you could have Alex trying to pass off teen Kara as her cousin. Frankly, I just want to see the actress again. She was on iZombie for a bit and she was pretty funny there.

( Spoilers for Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. season five and Avengers: Infinity War )

- In ongoing TV news, The Expanse has been saved! Amazon Prime has picked up the show for season four. I think this easily means the show will last long enough to cover all of the books. It also helps that the CEO of Amazon is a big fan of the books. I'm not sure what this means for Canada, though. Space airs The Expanse in Canada, but can they still do that if Amazon Prime has all of the distribution rights? The Expanse is filmed in Toronto, so there's enough Canadian content to justify airing it on Space, so maybe Bell Media can wrangle a deal with Amazon. It's amazing how, in this day and age, cancelled shows have a chance to find a second life. Had this been five or ten years ago, this would have been the end of The Expanse.

I know it's not fair to compare DC TV shows to DC movies, but damn, the CW DC shows knocked it out of the park with this year's crossover. They pretty much put Justice League to shame. It does help that the crossover was basically a three hour movie split into four parts. That's a lot of time to cover a number of plot points for a good chunk of the characters.

But what I loved the most was how none of the installments felt like an hour of any particular show. Like, they didn't start the story with Kara and eventually moved on to Barry and then Ollie and then the Legends. They all get introduced in the same montage. That was the element that was lacking in last year's crossover. I hope they adopt this model for every major crossover going forward. Sure, it was probably a scheduling nightmare for the producers and the actors, but the end result was worth it.

( Spoilers for "Crisis on Earth-X" )

Not to be undone, but Marvel released the first trailer for Avengers: Infinity War a day after the crossover was done. Coincidence? Or calculated timing to steal some of DC's thunder? ;-)

TV shows are pretty much on a break for the winter. I thought I would get a few thoughts down.

( Spoilers for Supergirl season two )

( Spoilers for The Flash 3x09, "The Present" )

( Spoilers for Arrow 5x09, "What We Leave Behind" )

( Spoilers for Legends of Tomorrow 2x08, "The Chicago Way" )

And jumping comic book universes, over on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. ...

( Spoilers for Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. season four )

I'm actually glad that my TV shows are on a winter hiatus. It gives me time to watch other things I've been meaning to watch. But soon we will have new Doctor Who and Sherlock to watch. :-)

All four CW superhero shows are back so I'd thought I would post some thoughts:

( Spoilers for Supergirl 2x01, "The Adventures of Supergirl" )

( Spoilers for The Flash 3x01 and 3x02 )

( Spoilers for Arrow 5x01 and 5x02 )

( Spoilers for Legends of Tomorrow 2x01, "Out of Time" )

Whew, that's a lot of DC content. Add on Gotham and Lucifer and DC is killing it on TV. I really need some Arrowverse icons...

- Compared to last year's finale of The Flash, this year definitely had higher stakes. But the show keeps going back to one thing:

( Spoilers for The Flash 2x23, "The Race of His Life" )

- Arrow also had its finale. One more year of flashbacks to go. Can't wait until the show can devote the entire 45 minutes to the main storyline in the present.

( Spoilers for Arrow 4x23, "Schism" )

I now eagerly await the mega crossover. I have high hopes that will be really good, but I will settle for okay as long as they have a lot of geeky comic book moments.

First off, TV show renewals and cancellations:

- Well frak. ABC has cancelled Agent Carter. :-P Damn you! Please move the show to Netflix. I need more Peggy in my life.

- Incidently, ABC also cancelled Castle, which is a good thing since the show was going to suck without Beckett around. I wonder how they'll end the show. I read they filmed an extra scene just in case they didn't get a pick-up. Hopefully no one dies.

- Thankfully, Supergirl got renewed for another season. And it's moving to the CW! Crossovers galore! I think the show is also moving to Vancouver to take advantage of the low Canadian dollar. Makes sense. The Flash can do weekly wonders with a CW budget in Canada, so Supergirl can now follow suit. Now they just need to figure out how to incorporate Kara's world with Earth-1.

Moving on to general TV show thoughts:

- So Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. did have a reference to Captain America: Civil War.

( Spoilers for Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. 3x20, "Emancipation" )

- Kevin Smith's episode of The Flash wasn't bad. I don't think I've ever seen any of his movies, so I don't know what his directorial style is like, but I didn't feel like the tone was out of place. There was a tad more humour, but given the situation, you can't help but joke.

( Spoilers for The Flash 2x21, "The Runaway Dinosaur" )

- Oh, there was something from last week's Arrow that bugged me.

( Mild spoilers for Arrow 4x20, "Genesis" )

- The description on my PVR for the latest episode of Legends of Tomorrow started off with the words: "Rip and Rory..." I'm sorry. I instantly pictured Rip and, well, Rory from Doctor Who. If you must, please refer to Heat Wave as Mick and not Rory. But this also gives me a germ of an idea for a Doctor Who/Legends of Tomorrow fanfic.

I got caught up in my knitting, so I haven't been able to get some thoughts down. My gosh, there are so many superhero shows on right now.

( Mild spoilers for Supergirl season one )

( Spoilers for The Flash, 2x11 "The Reverse-Flash Returns" )

( Spoilers for Agent Carter, 2x03 "Better Angels" )

( Spoilers for Arrow, 4x11 "A.W.O.L." )

( Spoilers for Legends of Tomorrow, 1x02 "Pilot Part 2" )

When iZombie comes back from its winter break, that will be seven DC or DC imprinted shows on the air. That's nuts.

- Turns out, if you want to be on EI, you have to provide bi-weekly updates to the government. You have to provide proof that you're looking for work. Back to the employment agency I go.

- So I was watching Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. last night and for the first time in a long time, I was sad that the episode was over. I looked over at the clock and saw that it was near the end of the hour, but nothing had been resolved yet, and I couldn't believe it. Most weeks, AoS doesn't hold my attention like The Flash does, but this week, I think it's safe to say that both shows were excellent.

- But to be honest, The Flash still won the night. Why? Crossover! They dove right in and didn't look back. It was very much the Flash/Green Arrow hour rather than The Flash guest starring some characters from Arrow. The crossover is all about setting up Legends of Tomorrow, so there's a ton of set-up, but they had a lot of fun with this episode. I'm super hopeful that the second part tonight on Arrow is even better now that all of the exposition is out of the way. I'm not sure I totally agree with how they're handling the origins of one of the characters, but they'll probably expand upon it during the course of LoT.

- Oh, and for some reason, ABC has pushed back the premiere date of Agent Carter's second season. January 19 rather than January 5. I think that means that Agent Carter and Legends of Tomorrow will be airing against each other. At the very least, people will be comparing their ratings. As much as I love Peggy and her ass kicking ways, I don't know if she can compete against another comic book show that has like, six, superheroes in it plus time travel. So when it comes time to renew Agent Carter for another season, I hope the network execs keep in mind that there was stiff competition that year.

- And I'm nearly done Jessica Jones. Just three more episodes to go. It kind of feels like the show is running out of steam going into the final leg, like they only had enough content for ten episodes and they were forced to stretch it out to thirteen episodes. It's still a joy to watch David Tennant, though. He makes everything better. :-)

TV shows are done for the season for the most part. Some thoughts:

( Spoilers for the latest seasons of Castle, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., The Flash, and Arrow )

Oh, and the Supergirl pilot is online. Was it leaked so people could gain a better impression from the show? Maybe.

( Vague spoilers for the Supergirl pilot )

Well, now I have the summer to do other things like knit and get caught up on my video games.