DC TV Weekly #27

Supergirl 'The Faithful' Review
Yeah I guess this is a clever idea, DC Superheroes have always been written as godlike beings, having a story about people forming a religious cult around one is a smart place to go. Heck, even the fact that they become so obsessed that they intentionally misinterpret what their deity is saying despite being obviously wrong is still accurate to a lot of people. The problem is, a group of religious nutbags isn't really a threat for Supergirl. Hence why at the end of the episode they had to bring in the deus ex of all machinas-Kryptonite. There had to have been a more interesting ending than this, in fact, during the episode they showed people intentionally putting themselves in danger just so Supergirl would save them, couldn't they have had that on a larger scale?

I should probably also talk about the other plots being established for this season. The first one being Alex & Maggie most likely going to break up. I'm not a fan of it. It could just be because the number of LGBT relationships in media that end happily is far smaller than the ones that end tragically so I kinda hate it. But it's too early to tell, maybe it'll turn out better when we get some more episodes detailing the break-up. Then there is Samantha, a new character who works alongside Lena Luthor and is learning she has superpowers. This is...interesting? I think? I can't really tell because we don't know a whole lot about her yet and apart from a basic connection to Lena, her story so far is very much standing on her own. Which I kind of like, getting us invested in this standalone character and then making her part of the main story is a challenge but if done well comes with a big reward. So we'll just have to wait and see which one it is. 5/10.

The Flash 'Elongated Journey Into Night' Review
How dare you sir, how dare you insult the good name of Plastic Man! Like 'Elongated Man' is any better. Of course I could just be biased because I have a deep love of Plastic Man and have absolutely no connection to Elongated Man, so I have no idea if this is a good representation of the character here. That being said, what we do get, I like. Ralph Dibney is represented more like an anti-hero, and not in the constantly scowling angry violent Punisher type, but more of someone who has their heart in the right place, but they're also kind of lazy and selfish and try to find shortcuts to the answer. I've gotta be honest, that's a much more interesting idea of an anti-hero than just the brooding action star. I'm excited to see where things go with the character, though if I'm honest the effects aren't really working for me, even on a TV Budget, and perhaps Barry was a little too mean spirited towards him? He literally labelled him a villain! But overall, still an enjoyable episode. 7/10.

Legends of Tomorrow 'Phone Home' Review
I'll give the episode this, out of all the pastiches Legends has done in the past, this is probably the closest to being an accurate replication of the original material. After all coming of age sci-fi films of the 80s isn't exactly scarce in material. E.T, Explorers, Monster Squad, Flight of the Navigator. It's a subgenre that's always has a certain charm to it, even when the stories didn't always make sense or the product looked kind of cheap; and that's a description that fits perfectly at home when describing a show like Legends of Tomorrow. Even down to the final shot of the entire team trick r treating with young Ray, it's silly, but sweet. But then there's the problem of focusing on one character specifically in an ensemble show means others don't have as much to do. In this case, Jax & Mick thinking Stein has betrayed them. Really? Are we actually meant to buy this? This is clearly just a time filler, and to give the characters something to do because they're not involved in the main plot of the episode. Making the episode feel rather disjointed when a large portion of the cast have nothing to do. 6/10.

Arrow 'Reversal' Review
Points for trying to put the same product in a different package at least. I can't really say this is exactly like all the other generic villains having generic evil plots because this technically does have recurring villains in the centre of it, though being completely honest I had to google who the heck this big baddie was-apparently he's been in the show before, do you remember him? I don't. I just saw it was Michael Emerson and thought "Okay, this has to be an important bad guy to get an actor that calibre to play him. Also having Black Siren as his second in command adds some credibility to his actions. But even still, it's just another basic villain plot, do you remember what they were stealing? Or why? Of course you don't. The big draw for this episode is having Felicity in the leadership role, which adds a new flavour to the whole thing, even Ollie in the role of tech support is kind of entertaining. It's not enough to make it a great episode, but it's enough to redeem it a little bit. 6/10.