DC TV Weekly #28

Supergirl 'Damage' Review
Supergirl has done many episodes drawing parallel to the Hillary Clinton vs Donald Trump election. Most of them being emotionally fair, but also so direct it is slightly cringey. This episode is quite possibly the best they've ever done. Children getting sick and the Trump reflection-Yeah I know he has a name, but I don't remember it and neither do you-accused Lena Luthor, despite having no evidence to prove it. Yet the media of course cobbles it up and thus the narrative is created that Lena is to blame, leading to harassment, abuse, even death threats, and not even given the chance to defend herself because there's nothing to defend against, just false accusations made by a charismatic lunatic. And you know what? They did all of this without once turning to the camera and going "Wow. It's just like that thing that happened in real life". Unfortunately you then do have to question why they're mimicking a real life event that happened a year ago, but on the other hand, the idea that the media is going to twist narratives and scrutinise women for ridiculous reasons is never not going to be relevant. Oh, and I guess there were other characters in this episode...they probably did something...right?...7/10.

The Flash 'Girl's Night Out' Review
If this episode succeeds in anything, it's showing that complete lack of depth Iris has outside of her relationship with Barry. She has her bachelorette party, and who does she invite? Felicity and Caitlin...both of whom are...Barry's friends. Which is definitely something the show addresses, but then just says that doesn't matter? Even though the show does focus on Barry, everyone else gets at least some resemblance of a life outside of him. We see what Caitlin and Cisco's families are like, Joe has a girlfriend, Harry has a daughter. Iris doesn't have that; everything revolves around Barry, even her job as a reporter hasn't been acknowledged since season two. Having an episode focusing on Iris: good idea, but the emotional connections between her and the other characters don't feel genuine and the action scenes are dull, apart from Killer Frost and Amunet, because then we get to see both Danielle Panabaker and Katee Sackhoff be over the top, fun and badass. If anything, Barry still somehow stole the spotlight with his drunken ramblings. It was something we haven't seen from him before, and it was really funny. Also because the people he went out with on his bachelor party are people he would already hangout with. Except for Ralph, but that's kind of the point, they don't want him there. At best this episode was an okay plot with underwhelming execution, filled with decent action and some funny scenes, but nothing special. 6/10.

Legends of Tomorrow 'Return of the Mack' Review
Oh hey, Damien Dahrk is back...you know, he might have been a great villain last season, but that was A: Teaming him up with two other villains where he had good chemistry, and B: Bringing him in from a different show. It was a different dynamic and frankly, it worked great. This is overkill at this point, or...overliving? This character has run his course, stop bringing him back, honestly, he's boring now, especially on his own. In fact, the entire episode was kind of dull, it was another basic Legends episode, but we've had so many of them so far this season that I'm becoming less forgiving for them. The only point of interest is Rip's semi-betrayal. Trying to prove that he's right and can fix everything so he goes behind everyone's back and...of course he's proven wrong and suffers the consequences for it. That's interesting, that's different and that's believable. In fact I'd say is just barely saves this episode for me to give it a positive rating. 6/10.

Arrow 'Deathstroke Returns' Review
Do you wanna bet that the writers had no plans for Vigilante when they introduced him last season? He was very clearly a red herring for Prometheus and was never again addressed. Eventually someone went "I guess he could be this guy" because, y'know, superhero stuff, no one is ever really dead. And of all the people to waste immortality on, one of the A-List powers on a B-Plot villain. Also the FBI Agent is a character that I've failed to talk about because she is simply dull. She's a generic stick in the mud no nonsense fed who's going to be a thorn in the backside of our heroes, but lead to no actual important acts. Of course the only reason why I start with this is so I can spend the rest of this review gushing because while the side story was lacking, the main event was friggin phenomenal. Not to repeat myself too much, but Manu Bennett as Deathstroke can not be overstated how much good he has done for this show. He went from their best villain to one of Oliver's allies so quickly yet their relationship has been surprisingly believable. On top of that, the fight scene in this episode is one of the show's best. Most fight scenes have to be played down in some regards as our heroes don't kill, but in this case, they don't have to hold back. Deathstroke taking on an army of soldiers, slaughtering them left and right was brutal, well shot, well choreographed and unlike anything else in the show's run. If only the b-plot was completely skippable then I might actually like it more, but seeing as it does hold relevance to the plot yet fails to be at all interesting, it actually hurts the episode. But, it's a B-Plot nonetheless, it doesn't matter at all in comparison to the A-Plot, which in case you can't tell, was brilliant. 8/10.

I just realised each episode this week had a recurring theme of returning villains, which is nice, it means we get to see it done well, it done alright and done poorly.