DC TV Weekly #34

Supergirl 'Fort Rozz' Review
I think this might have been the hardest episode of Supergirl for me to get through. Not because it was too challenging or complicated...but because I was bored. Sure, there have been episodes of Supergirl that have bored me in the past, but I could at least watch them in the background, even having this episode on as background noise still bored me to tears. Supergirl has to team up with a group of really boring characters, Alex is dealing with a broken leg and is having to help the really bad kid actor, and just all round, I didn't care about what was happening, and somehow this 40 minute episode felt like it was 90. I'll give the episode credit that the attempt to redeem Livewire is an interesting premise, the character trying to give up a life of crime (Mostly out of fear mind you, but a decent jumping off point) and Supergirl trying to help her repent for her crimes is a very Super-family thing to do, the problem is this version of Livewire is just not that interesting of a character, the actress isn't that good and the way they wrote her doesn't give her that clear of an arc in the episode. A complete snooze fest and I'm glad it's all over. 3/10.

The Flash 'The Elongated Knight Rises' Review
At this point I've just given up on being able to define when The Flash is appropriately silly, as this season I've both praised and criticised them for their choices in tone. Half of this episode is committed to Barry's struggles in prison and is very bleak, serious and even somewhat depressing; then the other half is silly and wacky adventures as Ralph has to stop an eco-friendly bank robber, as well as the Trickster family. Tonal inconsistency, thy name is Flash. I don't want to be overly critical on the episode being too silly because in all honesty, I preferred the sillier parts of the episode; I'm not all too invested in Barry's struggles in prison because, well, he's The Flash, no one's a threat to him in there. Ralph meanwhile has slowly being developing into a character I can root for and I enjoy watching. While he does have his moments is annoyance, overall, I'm enjoying his character arc, and find him legitimately entertaining, what I don't find entertaining is the Trickster Family. Let's be real, no one actually cares about The Trickster as a villain, we just all love Mark Hamill in the role, so if people aren't interested in The Trickster, why would be be interested in his family? Short answer: We're not. Even the fights between Ralph and the Trickster family feel incredibly lazy, first fight: one hit and Ralph is down, second fight: one hit and Baby Trickster is down. The only positive to come out of it is Ralph finally got his proper costume (Which looks great) and his code-name: The Elongated Man. In a way that is so incredibly forced but probably the only way someone can get a name like that is to make it the most forced way possible and turn it into a joke, listing a whole bunch of synonyms for Ralph's powers and ending it by saying "I elongate, man". Because yeah, there's no way anyone would come up with the name "The Elongated Man" in this day and age, so you would really have to stretch (Puns!) logic to get that kind of name. 5/10. Also Beebo is back, I'd like Beebo to be in every DC Show please, then for the shocking twist that Beebo actually is a god, and is the main villain for next year's crossover.

Black Lightning 'LaWanda: The Book of Hope' Review
A continuation of the pilot's storyline, this episode somewhat feels more like clean-up than its own story. Wrapping up things like the motel, Lala, throw in a few fight scenes and boom you have an episode. That may sound like a criticism but honestly it doesn't bother me too much. I can definitely see where the repetitions are going to be in each episode, but every DC TV show has repetitive elements, its too early to see if these are going to be annoying or not, though if I had to put my money on it, the fight scenes between Black Lightning and generic thugs have literally no tension, so that'll probably get boring in the future. However, none of this holds too harshly against the show, because the initial elements and style of the series holds it all together. The grit and violent realism, in particular the story of LaWanda (The titular character of the ep) was unyielding and engaging, and Tobias Whale, yet again, has very little screentime, but what he does get is just excellent. He's violent, dominant and quite terrifying, I hope we do get more of him in the future, but what we're given right now is just enough. Furthermore, Jefferson Pierce is proving to be far more interesting a counterpart than his superhero alias, mostly because of the point mentioned earlier, nothing poses a threat to him as Black Lightning (Also it's stupidly obvious BL and Jefferson are the same person but no one notices), but as a principal? Trying to solve his problems with words instead of violence, that is much more interesting to watch, and arguably makes him one of the better heroes in DC TV. 7/10.

Arrow 'We Fall' Review
So is there any actual reason for the team to split in two? Cause they seem to be going on the exact same missions and remain in contact with each other, this feels like one of those plot points the writers didn't really think through. Furthermore I've recently realised that the villains aren't weak out of a lack of an attempt to make them interesting, but rather, they're just not interesting in general. Vigilante is double crossing people every other episode that I've lost any potential interest in him, Cayden James' motivation is basic; the only thing dragging them along is Michael Emerson & Katie Cassidy lively performances. Also the plot point about Oliver's son not knowing he's the Green Arrow is resolved...good. It was never that engaging to begin with and I'm glad they didn't drag it out, in fact, I think even the writers knew this wasn't interesting because they resolved this issue with almost no actual conflict. Speaking of William, that scene of him on the bus was laughable in how ridiculous it was, I know he's the Green Arrow's son but we was way too mature and confident in a crisis, nothing about that was believable. This episode felt rather basic, nothing too good, nothing too bad, let's call it a 5/10 and go home.

-Danny

My Favourite Characters - Rosa Diaz

Technically speaking, there are several characters on Brooklyn Nine-Nine that I like more than Rosa, either because I think their funnier, they've been the centre to some of my favourite episodes, or because they're played by Terry Crews. However, Rosa Diaz was able to give me something that no other sitcom character-hell, no character-has ever given me something before, and chances are, you know what that is, just because of the frame I used for this post.

Rosa Diaz coming out as bisexual was a moment that I didn't expect to hit me so hard. I rarely see my sexuality portrayed on screen, and it never really bothered me outside of mild annoyance, but when Brooklyn Nine-Nine had one of their main characters come out, and said the word "bisexual" more times in one episode than I've heard any other show use, combined? It got to me. It's something I didn't realise I needed until I got it. It wasn't even the discussion or the specific character that got to me, it was just the use of the word, hearing "bisexual" be said so many times on television. It made me think back to every character in fiction that was bisexual, they either avoid using the word (Sara Lance, Korra, Bob Belcher) or they're sex driven maniacs (Jack Harkness, Britney Pierce, Oberyn Martell). Hell, even a character like Wonder Woman, who is one of my favourite characters, confirmed to be bisexual and is all about loving everyone, has never even said the word before. Looking back, the only example I could think of where a character verbally confirms to be bisexual while not being defined by their sex drives is the movie Paul. How crazy is that?

Rosa was a first for me, a character that isn't defined by her bisexuality, but isn't hiding it either. Sure, she was in the closet, but every queer person takes their own time to come out. When I think of Rosa, I think about the fact that she's a hard-ass, she's deadpan, she's violent, and she's hilarious. Now I get to think she's all those things and bisexual, and to say the word, and to talk to her friends who love her for it. Rosa Diaz is the best portrayal of bisexuality I've ever seen, so thank you Rosa, thank you Stephanie Beatriz, thank you Brooklyn Nine-Nine.

-Danny

Is There Anything GOOD About Principal and the Pauper?

The Principal and the Pauper is often considered to be the episode that ended the golden age of The Simpsons, fans hated it, critics were...critical of it. Even The Simpsons staff have disowned the episode, but is it really that bad? Or is it really the episode that "killed The Simpsons" as some people put it? Personally I think the prior episode The City of New York Vs Homer Simpson goes more against the usual style of The Simpsons than this one, and there are also plenty of episodes after this that I would consider really good. However, there is no denying that there was definitely a drop in consistent quality from season nine onward, and this is the episode that gets saddled with the blame. After all, it took a beloved character, retconned their backstory so heavily and replaced it with something baffling and illogical only to completely ignore it in the end and pass it off as a joke, and basically, no character came off looking that good, the real Seymour Skinner was a stick in the mud, the fake Skinner now had a different backstory and the rest of the town seemed way too mean spirited in their conclusion. But what works about this episode?

Well, the number one thing: It's funny. I can't really argue that the episode is well written in terms of plot or character, but comedy? Yeah they've still got it. Some highlights include Homer slowly walking towards the cake, anything with Ralph and "Because Jasper didn't want to come alone", that last one in particular always gets me. There have been plenty of nonsensical or even bad plots in The Simpsons in the past, but we tend to let them off the hook because they're just that funny. Can you honestly look at episodes like Cape Feare and say the plot makes perfect sense? No, but we don't mind because the comedy is solid. The Simpsons is a comedy, it should always put the comedy first, and if you just look at the jokes in this episode? They still work. True, it doesn't have me laughing every minute like some other Simpsons episodes do, but its still enough that whenever I watch the episode, I tend to think more about what worked over what didn't.

The second thing about the episode that works is the ending. Now I know that my seem contradictory seeing as I opened this by saying the ending was one of the flaws, but that's really more of in context with the rest of the episode, the ending itself, is very much a Simpsons fitting climax. Taking a problem, and just tying it to a train to disappear forever, never to be mentioned again under penalty of torture, everyone cheers. It's very much similar to an episode like Homer vs the 18th Amendment where the citizens of Springfield literally catapult a human out of the city, and no one bats an eye. The reason why it works there is because the rest of the episode had a tone and script that matched the ending. While here, the majority the episode is actually quite sombre in tone, but with a nonsensical attitude to everything, so a silly ending like this might seem out of place, but honestly, it is probably the best part of the episode, and should the other 19 minutes have had a similar tone to it, the episode a whole might have worked.

Unfortunately, that's all I have to say, the few times I've done posts like this in the past it's usually talking about the positives in a bad film, so trying to find the positives in a bad 20 minute episode of a TV Show, there's less to talk about. To sum it all up, Principal and the Pauper is not irredeemable, nor was it the "death of The Simpsons" as some claim, there were worse episodes before this, there have been worse episodes since, but there have also been better episodes since. If anything, upon reflection, Principal and the Pauper is at worst just kinda "meh", which granted at the time would definitely make it a bad Simpsons episode, but considering the very large pick of bad episodes we have now, I doubt this episode would even make the bottom 100.

-Danny

DC TV Weekly #33

So with Black Lightning finally arriving, CW has decided to alter it's schedule a tad, with Supergirl and Legends now sharing each other's spot, meaning we won't be getting any of Legends for a couple of weeks. Understandable as you don't want to overcrowd the network (Unless you just wanna create a superhero exclusive network like I've always thought they should) but it means no Legends for a little bit. Oh well.



Supergirl 'Legion of Superheroes' Review
Ya remember last year when I reviewed the episode of Supergirl where Superman & Martian Manhunter fighting Metallo? And even though the rest of the episode didn't do much for me, I still gave it a positive rating just because it has Superman & Martian Manhunter fighting Metallo? I feel like this is gonna be the same. Kara is in a coma because she's injured but then they turn it into a psychological problem which I don't believe. It also has a toneally confused comedic scene where J'onn has to pretend to be Kara, even though the rest of this episode is super serious. Then there's also this absolutely stupid romance between Lana and James that has no place being here...But it also has the Legion of Super Heroes showing up, teaming up with Supergirl and Martian Manhunter to fight off a super villain. I'm sorry, my nerdy heart just can't say no to that. I can overlook stupid details like why a prison has one button just out in free space that can open every cell in the block, simply because we have Braniac-5 awkwardly having a crush on Supergirl. That's good enough. 6/10.

The Flash 'The Trail of The Flash' Review
It's strange what parts of this show I'm willing to accept. Man who can run faster than the speed of light? Sure. Soap Opera style court cases? Now that's too silly. Maybe it's just because I recently finished binge watching The People vs OJ Simpson, but this court room was almost laughable at how unbelievable it is. Surprise evidence, people storming in and out of the court room and the idea the defendant can just leave whenever he wants? The worst thing about it was Iris just going to give up Barry's identity, did she really not think about the repercussions that would cause?? Furthermore, Iris, that's not your secret, don't be a dick! Oh, and Barry apparently has a new super power that we've never seen before and wasn't set up at all, cause that's good writing! It wasn't all bad though, the scene with Ralph convincing Joe to not go dirty was great, convincing him to do the right thing, while also exploring more of Ralph's backstory. Even the Meta of the week was decent, he wasn't a bad guy, just a dude with a really unlucky power, and we got to see the trio take him on together (Even if Killer Frost did kinda get the shaft). On a final note: I don't think I like this new DeVoe, he just lacks the charisma that Neil Sandilands brought to the role, now he just feels like a blank piece of paper. For the most part this episode was lacking, I like the fact that they followed through with Barry being arrested and has now been found guilty, it's just everything about the court case felt half-arsed, but the dressing around it was nice. 5/10.

Arrow 'Divided' Review
What did this episode achieve? Really? This episode is the characters playing catch up, learning things that we as the audience already know, without doing anything interesting in the meantime. If you're going to give your audience more information than the characters, there needs to be a purpose, because the first half of this episode did none of that. Then in the second half we have Oliver realising that *gasp* he needs a team! WE KNOW THIS! It's been drilled into his head and our heads since season two! Then we have him having trust issues and having his hypocritical bullshit being called out, being doing that since season three. This episode is nothing but repetition of bad ideas that we hated back then, and we hated now. We know nothing new about the villain's plans, and now three members of Team Arrow have gone off to form their own team which is stupid, do they not see how that's going to make the bad guys job easier and their own job harder!? At best, this episode was dull, at worst it was stupid. It sucked, and I hated it. 3/10.

-Danny

Black Lightning 'The Resurrection' Review

In the future, Black Lightning will be a part of DC TV Weekly just like the other CW Shows, however, seeing as it's the pilot episode, I thought I'd give it a post all on its own to discuss the show, seeing as I'd probably have more to say than I would a regular episode of DC Television.

For those of you unaware, Black Lightning is a DC Superhero who has the power to control electricity...and is black...says what it does on the tin I suppose. The CW Television show follows Jefferson Pierce, former superhero who retired after a near fatal fight, and is now a high school principal who has dedicated his life to raising his daughters and helping the community without having to put on the suit. But, with gang crime on the rise and blatantly racist cops not doing anything about it, and after Jefferson's daughters are kidnapped, Jefferson puts the suit back on to yet again become the hero Black Lightning.

Now this set-up instantly establishes the distinction between Black Lightning as a series against the rest of the DCW. This is not an origin story, this is someone who spent years as a superhero, but gave it up and dedicated his life to helping people within the system. In fact, the scene of him explaining his past as a superhero is possibly the highlight of the episode, discussing his initial motivations and how no matter what he did, crime never changed, and all he was doing was putting his own life on the line while being viewed as a vigilante by the police. It's an argument that many have made that superheroes such as Batman or Iron Man could do so much more good within the system without having to put on a suit. Jefferson proved it, becoming a high school principal, improving kids lives, helping his community, being on good terms with both the police and gangs just enough to keep his school safe at least. In fact another contender for best scene is when one of the gang members comes to his school, pulls out a gun, and he defuses the situation with words, not violence. It would have been so easy for him to just beat him up, but instead choosing the pacifist approach shows how dedicated he is to helping people as just Jefferson Pierce, not Black Lightning.

Which in a way makes it feel like his return to crime fighting feels rather abrupt. The man went 9 years without using his powers even once, yet according to this episode, all it took for him to snap was one racist cop. Now you could make the argument that he's had a build up of anger over the years and this is just what pushed him over the edge, but the way it's shown to us doesn't suggest that. Later on in the episode it's the threat of his daughters being put in danger that makes him cross the line, which makes much more sense as motivation. Although his ex-wife being okay with it, while also understandable, I feel there should have been a little bit more resistance on her end.

There's also the argument made in the show of the difference between Vigilante and Superhero. Now as of right now it's not made clear if this takes place in the Arrowverse, but they do confirm that other superheroes do exist in this universe, so it's safe to assume they're in the same universe. In which case, the only two prominent superheroes are Green Arrow and The Flash (Supergirl is from a different universe and the Legends aren't well known to the public). In which case, Green Arrow is most definitely viewed as a vigilante, hell that's what the current season's plot is about. But more than likely they're making comparisons to The Flash, which makes more sense, they're both super powered beings who are public figures in their cities (Hell, they both even have lightning powers). In which there is definitely the argument to be made, because let's not lie, if superheroes existed, there's definitely people-and especially people in the media-that would label them as hero or vigilante based entirely on skin colour. Now while we don't know exactly what Black Lightning was like as a hero, judging by his actions in this episode, there is kind of a heavy distinction. Flash both works with the police department and doesn't kill (Usually), while Black Lightning goes against the police and has no problem killing, which is exactly what Green Arrow did in season one, which is why he was viewed as a vigilante, so yeah, it's understandable why Black Lightning would be viewed like that. It's not a clear cut issue here, again, the police force in BL has it's corruption, but the main cop Henderson seems to be a good officer, even friends with Jefferson, which means that's probably going to lead to interesting drama later on, but if Henderson thinks Black Lightning is a vigilante, I'm leaning towards his side.

As for the villain, I don't have much to say about him as we didn't get that many scenes, nor do we fully know the extent of his power, but, in the two scenes we got, we saw him feed a guy to piranhas and then casually shoot a dude with a harpoon. I already like him. He also has a personal connection to Black Lightning, having killed his father (Because of course he did) and was the one who nearly killed Black Lightning all those years ago, we don't know how, but the dude has obviously got some power behind him, whether it be an army of gang members, or maybe a literal power, I'm excited to find out.

Overall Black Lightning delivered on a solid pilot. Cress Williams makes for a compelling lead, it tells a different story from other CW Superhero shows, the supporting cast are all interesting, it has style, and I'm interested in seeing where it's gonna go. Also please let this mean we're getting Static at some point. 8/10.

-Danny

Friends and Homophobia

Several times in the past I've talked about the television show Friends and it's bizarre representations of masculinity and homophobic nature behind some of its jokes and plots (One here, the other here). Now that the show has come to UK Netflix, a lot of other people seem to be noticing some of the more...dated humour. Not sure how they didn't notice before, the show has literally never left UK television. Regardless, it's something that I've criticised in the past, but was mostly baffled by. Friends, a show created by a gay man and a woman, somehow has two lead characters who constantly make jokes about non-masculine or hetero-normative scenarios. They're literally left baffled and uncomfortable at even the idea of homosexuality or men behaving femininely. In the first season Chandler is offended that people first think he's gay because he has "a quality" and 8 seasons later, Ross fires a Male Nanny--even though they're good at their job, he finds it "weird".

But is there a reason behind it? Let's actually analyse these characters and take a look at why they behave this way. In the same episode where Ross fires the Male Nanny-Sandy-he mentions that a lot of this comes down to the way his father treated him as a child, getting angry and judgemental of him whenever he would do anything that didn't go along with what a "real boy" would do. Granted, this doesn't sound at all like the person we know Jack Geller to be, but for the benefit of the doubt, let's assume that's what he was like several decades ago. This would certainly explain Ross' obsession with appearing masculine, even though he's really not. As for his views on homosexuality, well, his ex-wife turned out to be a lesbian, that gotta sting. That being said, most of his more erratic behaviour isn't aimed at homosexuality, it's aimed at masculinity, things like him not being comfortable taking a nap with a man, or hiring a male nanny. But he also has no problem wearing pink clothes, putting on make-up or using beauty products...wow Ross is such a hypocrite.

Chandler on the other hand, his homophobia is a lot more blatant, and comes from a much more obvious place. Chandler himself has admitted most of his problems originates with his parents divorce. His smoking addiction, fears of commitment, even using humour as a defence mechanism. So, it makes logical sense that this key event in his life, where his father left his family to go off and become a gay burlesque cross dressing dancer in Las Vegas-which Chandler has also said he had to partake in growing up-would very much leave some deep seeded issues. He's estranged from his father and even avoids him at all costs, it's understandable if this sub-consciously built in his homophobic tendencies, especially if he constantly gets mistaken as gay, probably worried that he might end up like his father. Side note: Is the fact Chandler's dad is supposed to be a male cross dresser yet is played by a woman offensive as well as confusing?

Meanwhile you have a character like Joey, who was raised in a mostly female household, has always expressed his sexuality healthily, is perfectly comfortable in his masculinity and will kiss men, wear women's clothing, and in his own words "Totally okay with the gay thing (It was the 90s)", and he almost never partakes in homophobic humour, and is the only one of the guys who is ever allowed to be portrayed as actually masculine.

I'm not trying to justify their behaviour, I'm just trying to understand it. I don't think it intentionally comes from a place of malice on the side of the writers, after all, you look at the only prominent gay characters in the show: Susan and Carol, they're not portrayed as stereotypes, nor is the audience meant to judge them for their sexuality. A lot of the character's behaviour you could argue as just being because it was the 90s, but I think that's a rather weak excuse, instead, it's much more likely that it was an intentional and realistic character trait for the two to have. While it's sad that they never truly get called out for their attention, they're still clearly in the wrong and we're never meant to side with them for their behaviour. Except for Joey, always side with Joey, because Joey is the best.

-Danny