DC TV Weekly #18

Supergirl 'Starcrossed' Review
Yet again Supergirl kinda gets the short end of the crossover, only actually being the set up for the crossover within the final few minutes. A crossover I very much wanna talk about, so Imma make this short. Mon-El's true origins are revealed, his parents are obvious Trump metaphors, Kara breaks it off with him and everyone on the internet points out how everything he does is very similar to emotionally manipulative relationships. Bit of advice: Don't drop the "I love you" bomb as a last ditch attempt to save a relationship. Or break into a girl's apartment. Or disrespect her privacy. Or lie to her about who you are. Or complain that you miss the days where you could be misogynistic--Wow Mon-El is a really unlikable character. Trying to draw parallels to Winn's relationship by saying "They didn't lie to hurt us" yeahhhhhh-no. Winn's girlfriend lied to save her brother. Mon-El lied because he didn't want people to know how shitty he's been in the past. So, in summary: Mon-El is shitty. 5/10. To the musical!

The Flash 'Duet' Review
Way back when I reviewed the first season of Flash on my YouTube channel I said that I wanted a musical episode. Now it's finally here. The music meister shows up, forces Barry and Kara into a dream where they're the main characters in a 50's musical, with all of their friends (At least the ones who can sing) are characters, with over the top accents, costumes and gay gangsters...I've said it before and I'll say it again, I love the fact that shows this silly exist. The music itself was enjoyable, even if there wasn't that many, and only two originals, but golly were they as over the top and full of passion and effort as any good musical should be. The highlight being 'Superfriend' because it was adorable, had clever lyrics and is just Barry and Kara complimenting each other because these two are adorable bunnies. Meanwhile in the real world we have Cisco, Kid Flash and Martian Manhunter doing all the superhero-ing, so looks like we get to have our cake and eat it too. The Music Meister as a villain was incredibly entertaining, mostly because he's not a villain, he's basically just a fan with supernatural abilities who decided to manipulate the world so two couples would get together and realise the importance of love and all that gooey shit (Hey, it's a musical, gotta have the gooey shit). Though I wish the songs did tie into the story a little more, and they had more original pieces, I friggin' loved this episode, I loved the songs, I loved seeing the two shows crossover, I loved the setting, it's just brilliant. 10/10.

Legends of Tomorrow 'Fellowship of the Spear' Review
It seems the writers realised what their two best episodes were this season, the George Lucas episode because it was filled with nerdy references and was filled with genuine charm. Then there was the Camelot episode for its massive scale and heartfelt story. Well, it seems they've decided to combine those two into one with the Legends travelling back to WW1 where they need the help of J.R.R Tolkein. So of course, it's stuffed with references to The Lord of the Rings, but it also represents Tolkein as a brave and respectable person. The entire episode certainly has an optimistic and pacifistic vibe to it considering the setting. But in reality that is actually quite fitting. The Legends are able to temporarily halt the war so the injured could be rescued, appealing the every soldier's decency, which is very similar to an actual event that happened in the war when the halted it for Christmas day. Then there is everything with Mick...which I don't know how to feel about that. On one hand, I can totally see his point of view, the team never really trusted him except for Amaya, and he has always followed Snart and seen him as his best friend, of course he would trust him. But at the same time he has changed during his time with the Legends. There is genuine conflict in this story, it's not just black & white like most of the stories are in these shows. I mean obviously siding with Snart is wrong in this scenario, but from Mick's point of view, I can see the conflict. All around, this was a large scale story with a very human core, fun references and legitimate drama for one of the lead characters. 9/10.

Arrow 'Kapiushon' Review
An episode where the flashbacks not only dominate the story...but are also really good? What world are we living in!? It is rare that the flashbacks feel as important as they do to the story as they did in this episode, but also the placements of them inparticular is what impresses me. Usually they feel like they put them in whenever they need a break from the main story, but they seamlessly tied in here, with the editing getting even more rapid as the tension grows, truly some of the best and most purposeful editing the show has had. Stepehn Amell is also wonderful in this episode, some of the best acting we've seen from him, he's desperate, he's broken, he's scared, he's angry, he's homicidal, things we never get to see from Oliver (Well, maybe the anger every so often). There's also a minimalism to the episode, focusing almost solely on Oliver with no stupid B-Plot and the other characters are kept to only to when they're needed. And hey, we get to see Artemis again, finally. Returning to the idea of Oliver killing is redundant, but they tackled it from a new angle and gave it more gravitas than they usually do. Amazing performances, editing, pacing, structure. Superb episode, 9/10.

This is why I love DC TV, on one show we have a dimension hoping musical lover, and on another we have brutal and gritty torture...diverse?


-Danny

DC TV Weekly #17

The Flash 'Into the Speed Force' Review
Impossible! An episode about how Barry fucked up that isn't insulting to the main character!? I guess that makes sense seeing as these are events that have nothing to do with Flashpoint, and it's more of how Barry is passively responsible. Barry travels into the speed force to save Wally, and the corporeal form of the Speed Force returns as Eddie, Ronnie & Leonard, three different people that have died, not directly because of Barry, but he certainly had his part to play. That is always an interesting aspect to explore, Barry as The Flash inspired others to be brave and heroic, and as a result died doing the right thing. To which the Speed Force punishes Barry by showing him everything that was taken away from those people that he inspired, as they died heroes. But then of course they have to screw it up with the ending of it all, Jay shows up, saves both Barry and Wally, but he has to stay in their place. How powerful would it have been if Barry was the one who stayed behind? It would tie in thematically as the whole point was showing all the sacrifices people have made because of Barry, and now he would have to make that sacrifice as well. Especially as he played the mentor to Wally and has been saying how he'll overtake Barry someday and be the one to save Iris. They even address that it wouldn't be a permanent prison, but your main character, who the entire season people have been pointing out how he's screwed up, finally having to pay the price and willingly spend god knows how long reliving the worst moments of his life, that would have been so emotionally gripping. Even more so how we see Jesse able to injure Savitar, meaning technically she has done more to fight him off than Barry ever did, we could have had a great fight between Jesse & Wally vs Savitar as they save Iris, and then bring Barry back for the always awesome last minute rescue. The fight against the Gorilla army shows how strong they can be as a trio, use that to your advantage. Wow. Now I came into this review thinking about how positive this is going to be, now I'm just sad about everything they could have done with this ep. Eh, 7/10.

Legends of Tomorrow 'Moonshot' Review
I get the feeling the writers of Legends of Tomorrow have a checklist of all the wacky and wonderful places they want to visit and have fun with. Dinosaurs? Check. Camelot? Check. George Lucas? Check. Now we go to Apollo 13, everyone's favourite Nasa mission(?) In what conceptually is not that interesting considering we've seen these guys fight space pirates before, this feels rather small in comparison. Don't get me wrong, anything that talks about how badass Nasa is qualifies as awesome in my books, I just feel the show has moved on to a bigger scale than this. Which is not to say there wasn't interesting things to happen throughout. Rip questioning his place in the team now that everyone has gotten use to working perfectly fine without him, Eobard is forced to play good guy to avoid dying. And probably most interesting of all was Nate's inner conflict between saving his grandfather and protecting the future, Amaya taking the side of needs of the many, but Nate lets the ball drop about her family's future suffering, a dick move, but he's emotional and desperate, plus it's the easiest way to get her to see things from her side. Anything else? Oh yeah, that weird scene of Martin singing as a distraction. I can't decide if this is hilariously awkward or just regular awkward...screw it, let's say it's funny, give this a 7/10 and move on.

Arrow 'Checkmate' Review
Do you ever have those moments where you don't realise how bad someone is until you see them do something good? That would be my reaction to seeing Adrian Chase go full on cheesy bad guy tonight, which then made me realise "Wow...he kinda sucked when he was just a lawyer". But oh golly, he is just living it up as the bad guy, he's one step away from turning into Mr Burns going "Excellent". It's also a nice change of pace where both hero and villain are on the same page yet still have to be secretive about it, it makes the conversations between them more interesting. Though there are a few things to question, one: Susan (If that is her name, I don't know or care) as a hostage and how Oliver & Company (Puns!) treat it like if she dies that'll be the last straw in Oliver's back...does he really care about her that much? Yeah, obviously they're going to try hard to keep her safe, but is she really that important? Another thing being Talia shows up at the end to help Prometheus. Hmm, strange, I could have sworn Prometheus had another female archer on his side to help him...Where the fuck is Artemis!? Is the actress off sick or something? You bring in this fan favourite character, fuck her up, then drop her? Goddammit guys. Still, we're at the point in the season where the drama is getting intense, and for once it looks like it's not gonna end with a giant city wide fight, thank the lord. 7/10.

Another consistent week, good job DC.

-Danny

DC TV Weekly #16

Supergirl 'Exodus' Review
D-Does this mean no more stupid scenes at CatCo? Huzzah! (Awkward transition) The episode itself here was a strong one. Out of all the DC shows Supergirl seems to be the most thematically relevant and making a conscious effort to transform their story into a metaphor for immigration, responsibility of the media and fascist presidents, you know, in case it was being too subtle for ya. But hey, I've always said subtlety means shit when it comes to the quality of the content and...well, it's not bad commentary. They're not adding anything new to the conversation, but at the same time Supergirl seems like the perfect place to talk about the discussion of immigration and media, so it's not an unwelcome or jarring discussion, and I respect them for making their plots mean something more complex. That being said, when it comes to the literal plot, it has several holes in it. One: Kara can't seem to get the word out about aliens being abducted. You're friggin' Supergirl, the poster-child for alien immigrants. Make a YouTube video explaining what's happening, people will believe you. Two: J'onn testing Alex to see where her loyalties lie, and everyone treats him like he's betrayed them when this is exactly the type of thing he should do, in fact it was really smart of him, it's also a fairly low form of betrayal, don't exaggerate things Alex. Three: Maggie going along with Alex. Yes, she's her girlfriend, yes, Alex's heart is in the right place, but her plan is illogical, she is emotionally compromised, and they are severely outnumbered. With all that being said, I still thing this was a really good episode. The themes were well handled, the make-up is great (Don't think I've touched upon that yet, the make-up in this show is awesome), the final moment between Supergirl and Alex was touching, as well as badass, and we have as little Mon-El and James as possible. 8/10.

The Flash 'The Wrath of Savitar' Review
Oh hey, we're back to Barry fucking up. Or rather-more of the consequences of his prior fuck ups. I would certainly hope this is the last of his fuck ups because of Flashpoint, because I don't think the consequences could get higher, nor could the emotions. The Flash cast, while superb, do love to milk the crying scenes, this episode however, everyone seemed much more sombre and nuanced in their emotions, even with minimal expression you could feel the pain the characters are feeling inside. It's good to know that Grant Gustin is still able to find new ways to emote sadness, because it's one of the strongest aspects of his acting. But, still can't top Jesse L Martin, he has sadness down as well, but that face of bliss when he found out about that engagement (Oh yeah, that happened last week...forgot to mention it), brilliantly done. Great episode overall for the performances from everyone, best we've seen from Keiynan Lonsdale as Wally, the fear and paranoia he experienced while being haunted, very well done. Speaking of Wally, he got sucked into the speed force in this episode...yeah he does that. I'm pretty sure Wally must have some kind of regular's card with the speed force considering how many times he's been trapped in it, whether it be TV, comics, cartoons, we should have an intervention about this Wally. Though I did have my issues with the episode while watching, writing this review several hours later, really only one still matters to me, that being Caitlin keeping a part of the philosopher's stone. This whole season her big character motivation seems to be "Keep secrets because I'm scared" first the Killer Frost powers, now this. Caitlin's supposed to be smart, yet this is quite possibly the most idiotic thing. That thing is what is able to draw the god of speed to your universe and eventually kill Iris, you didn't think that might be important to bring up at some point! But, that's it, overall this episode was a chance for the actors to show off how talented they are, plus with some major plot progression and emotions running high. 8/10.

Legends of Tomorrow 'Land of the Lost' Review
Huzzah! Three good episodes in a row! Good going DC. Also good going Legends for putting forth some major plot progression, Rip is no longer a bad guy, Nate knows his time with Amaya is limited (Good, that plotline sucked anyway, kill it early), Martin starts acknowledging Jax's skills (Which, I didn't even realise was a problem to begin with) and Sara is now permanent captain instead of acting captain. You can tell we're kicking things into high gear now, with only a few episodes left, meaning no filler. Oh, we also get to see Gideon in person, that's interesting, though the idea of Rip and Gideon fancying each other is...awkward. How exactly that would work is not something I wanna think about (I imagine it would involve a usb port of some kind). And hey, I think this is the first time anyone has said that Sara is bisexual. Obviously it's not a trait that was up for interpretation, but still, it's nice to hear someone say it out loud, instead of them using metaphors like they're dancing around the word. Granted this episode did suffer from some filler with the poorly rendered CGI dinosaur, but they made up for it with Ray being on top game for his comedic side. So...an entertaining episode with good plot progression, another 8/10 I'd say.

-Danny

DC TV Weekly #15

Supergirl 'Homecoming' Review
Talk about having your cake and eating it too. An episode that for 2/3 of the runtime criticised Mon-El for his behaviour, not respecting Kara's wishes, breaking an agreement and accusing her adoptive father of being their enemy...and then in the end suddenly having him be right. You can't really do that guys. You can't spend the majority of your episode saying a characters behaviour is wrong only to then say "Oh but turns out it was a good thing he was an arsehole because it saved the day", that's bad encouragement for him to not actually learn. In fact that's an important point to make, how little Mon-El seems to be learning. He started off as a sexist egomaniac, Kara apparently changed him, yet in this episode he talks about how he preferred it when he could view women as objects. He supposedly wants to be a hero and has spent several months training, yet he still shirks off his responsibilities and works in a fucking bar for some reason. Between Mon-El and James, I'm not sure what the writers are thinking. They so badly want to get Kara together with every man on the planet, yet insist on writing them like absolute twats. Oh, to make matters worse it's another Cadmus episode, because they haven't been idiots in the past(!). But despite all the negativity there is still elements to praise. It's great to see Dean Cain return and the emotional dilemma's presented, whether they be him betraying Alex or even his wife Eliza questioning their marriage, were well done. Speaking of Alex, she's pretty much being the big star of the season. It's strange looking back at the first half of season one where I hated her, yet here we are now where she has the most interesting story, is given some of the best scenes acting wise and basically at this point I'm more invested in her relationship with Maggie and her family than I am with the fucking alien killers. But sadly that's not enough to redeem this let down of an episode. 4/10.

The Flash 'Attack on Central City' Review
I feel like I'm not prepared to review this episode because I don't remember anything that happened. Now that's not saying it was a bad episode, I think just because last weeks was so awesome and my excitement for this one was probably a little too high that in reality an okay episode is now disappointing. Even taking that hype aside though, there are still a number of issues, mostly for the lack of focus. Let's take a look at what everyone is doing in this ep, Cisco is upset that he can't get a girlfriend, Jesse wants to tell her dad she's staying on Earth-1, and Barry debated whether or not he should kill Grodd (Even though he's killed several times in the past!). All of this nonsense when they could be focusing on the fucking Gorilla army coming to destroy them! Last week's episode knew where the focus should be, on Gorilla City and everything that happens there, with a little bit for the people on Earth-1 worried about the others. Cisco's romance problems aren't connected to anything, Jesse's problems could have waited a week, and Barry's moral dilemma is moronic because he has killed people before, Atom Smasher, Sand Demon, Zoom. Even Reverse-Flash-though he didn't kill him-he was more than willing too. I've said it before and I'll say it again, stop having moral dilemmas over killing CW. You're not good at it. Honestly with all of this filler by the time Grodd and his army had shown up, I had completely lost interest, the momentum had died down and I didn't care. 5/10.

Arrow 'Fighting Fire With Fire' Review
Hm, so in order to avoid the twist of Adrian Chase being Vigilante (As he is in the comics) they made him Prometheus instead...I can't tell if that's really clever or not. Not only did that major reveal happen, but we also got a fair amount of story progression, some in small ways like Curtis' balls (hehehe), but also with Oliver declaring the Green Arrow an enemy of Star City, I'm actually curious to see where that's gonna go. Also, the most unrealistic thing in this show? Politicians caring about doing the right thing. Also just as a small thing, seeing Prometheus and Vigilante fighting was cool, something about villains fighting each other is just always fun to see. Wait a minute, I just thought of something. If Adrian isn't Vigilante, who is? Could it be Talia, because she was my guess for Prometheus. Wow, I don't think I've been this engaged in Arrow in a long time. Granted I'm not on the edge of my seat because I'm sure I'll be disappointed, but still, any engagement is better than none, because this is the show that I care the least about each week, but maybe not now, or at least, not for a while. 7/10.

-Danny