It's true what they say, limits do cause artists to be more creative. I'm guessing this was around the time when Melissa Benoist and Chyler Leigh were filming the big crossover event this year, seeing as they're barely in this episode. But what we get in return is certainly a strong episode to hold us over, even if it is technically filler. Seeing more of Alex & Kara's relationship as kids and how they didn't get along shows a new side we haven't seen before. All other flashbacks have shown them to be idyllic siblings, which is probably not what would happen if your parents brought home an alien one day and said they were going to live with you. On top of that, we get to see Kara's first real friendship with a human, and how losing them changed her as a person, seeing more of how she became who she is today. Also, Smallville reference, that's cute. Even though this is technically filler, it's damn good filler, with a lot of focus on the character's relationships, expanding on their history and considering the writers were basically forced to write an episode without their two main leads, I'd say they did a damn good job of it. 8/10.
The Flash 'When Harry Met Harry' Review
Can strangers just...visit children in hospitals? I know that's just one of those small suspension of disbelief things, but it's just rather odd. Just wanted to get that out of the way, because this might just be the best episode of The Flash this season. The main plot of the episode has Barry continuing to train Ralph to be a superhero, which leads to a lot of funny moments, including an attempted mugging. But it also has strong emotional moments to balance it out; Ralph's actions lead to a child getting injured while trying to capture the villain, and we get a look into his character and why he is the way he is. He went into the private detective business because he still got some vague sense of performing justice, but without having to stick around to face the consequences when things got tough. It also lends itself to creating interesting conversations between him and Barry, Ralph thinks it's more important to catch the bad guy, Barry thinks it's more important to save civilians; neither are wrong, and that's what makes the debate so engaging. We even got a funny B-Plot to back us up with Harry bringing together a Counsel of Wells, including a bunch of wacky personalities from other worlds to give us a good laugh. The only weakness of the episode is the villain is yet again lacking, but it was clearly only there to be a means to an end. What the episode wanted to do, it did really well. 8/10. God, I can't believe that's the first time I've given that rating to a Flash episode this year...
Legends of Tomorrow 'Helen Hunt' Review
Heh, nice pun. I understand that it's very difficult to understand what I mean when a "standard" episode does or doesn't work, after all, I've both complimented and criticised episodes with the exact same comments. Really I think it just comes down to how much fun the show has in their environment, if they take full advantage of their setting and play with it how they can. In this case, going back to the golden age of cinema, and everyone talks in stereotypical 1930's accents, everything looks sleek and romanticised, the show fully becomes what they're trying to represent. They even manage to take the cliche body swap episode and have fun with it, Stein being put into a younger body, one that can flirt with his childhood crush and actually have a chance (Also Stein in the Firestorm suit). Also, Themyscira makes an appearance, and any nod to Wondey is a positive in my book. My only negatives is that if Helen of Troy is so beautiful that no one can resist her beauty, then how come Sara-the self proclaimed "You know I prefers girls" doesn't falter the same way? I get that it's a nitpick, it just seems weird that the show likes to play up her as being sexually promiscuous, and yet this is the one time they don't mention it? Oh well, it's still a fun episode nonetheless. 7/10.
Arrow 'Promises Kept' Review
Wait...they were playing Injustice 2...how does that even work?? Sooooo how to write this review where I don't just repeat what I said last week? It's a continuation of Deathstroke's story, I already said he was awesome, it just continues to be awesome here. In particular that shot of him bloody after killing all his men in the flashback, such a cool shot. There are some rumours of a Deathstroke show coming out in the near future, if so then I could definitely see this as a backdoor pilot, he got the majority focus and they ended it without a full resolution for his story. However, I'm not sure I like the idea of a Deathstroke series. He's an amazing character, but he's also an anti-hero, one we don't always root for, and I doubt the CW will go full Punisher will him, so if giving him a full series means making him more "likeable" then I'd rather we keep him as a supporting character. I even have positive things to say about the B-plot this episode. Structurally it was still a basic stop the bad guy plot, but at least this one was connected to Diggle's story and his own personal struggles that he's dealing with this season, meaning we got a lot of progress there and it prevented it from being boring. Overall, another great episode. 8/10.
-Danny
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