DC TV Weekly #37

Legends and Black Lightning are the only DC shows airing right now so rather than doing two very small posts, let's just wait another week and group two episodes from both shows together for this instalment.

Legends of Tomorrow 'Daddy Darhkest' Review
Man, this show does not get enough credit for how frigging gay it is. Two bisexuals and a gay man travel through time to fight a demon possessing a little girl, meanwhile a gay(?) woman is crushing on the bi woman who just slept with the bi man and at the end of it all the gay man decides to go to his own dimension so he can marry his boyfriend. It's wacky sci-fi adventures filled with queer people, it's practically everything I ever wanted. I remember back when Constantine the series was first airing they said they weren't going to acknowledge his sexuality, less than a minute on Legends he approaches Leonard with "What's your name gorgeous?" also give him a smoke, because why the hell not? They knew Matt Ryan's John Constantine was a near perfect representation of the character, might as well fill in those last few slots. You might notice I'm mostly talking about the LGBT side of the episode, well that's simply because the rest of the episode does nothing for me. Damien Darhk is still an overused villain, and while I think the setting on an asylum allowed for a distinct tone to be set up for the episode, overall I just do not care about Darhk, his daughter or even Mallus. This show knows what it's main selling point is, Gays-In-Space! It revels in it, it's what makes it unique against any other superhero/sci-fi show, might as well indulge every so often, lord knows I'm appreciating it. 7/10. Oh, also Constantine is going to be a main character for season four, squeeeeeee!

Legends of Tomorrow 'Here I Go Again' Review
Yeah this feels like an episode that had to be done eventually, a time travel show that loves its pop culture references. I'm especially happy that the episode centres around Zari because honestly the woman needed an episode like this. So far this season she hasn't really gelled with the rest of the crew and has felt like an outsider without that much development. Her only notable action so far was sending Helen of Troy to Themiscyra, and the show acknowledges that it was an act of defiance, she's a rebellious character, but if she wants to be an important character she needs to learn to work as a team. Having her spend god knows how long repeating the same day, sometimes trying to save them, sometimes doing whatever she wants and most importantly learning more and more about her crewmates, top it all off with her willing to sacrifice herself to try and save them, I'd say it's a damn good episode for developing her. Now all we need is to see her define her relationships with at least one of the other characters so we can get a unique rapour going and I'd say she's complete in becoming one of the crew. 7/10.

Black Lightning 'And Then the Devil Brought the Plague: The Book of Green Light' Review
DC Television has many flaws, one of the main struggles is that they have very few great villains across their shows, Deathstroke, Reverse-Flash, Prometheus, The Legion of Doom, and even then one of them has turned anti-hero (Though still great) and RF and the LoD are starting to seem gimmicky. However, this episode for me solidifies Tobias as another one of the great DC TV Villains, and considering he's not a man who intimidates our hero physically-hell, if I remember correctly they haven't even had a scene together-but everything about the way he's written just makes him so interesting to watch. His relationship with his sister and how the two stick together no matter what after being abused by their father, now spending the episode getting closure on him by leaving him for death. Or his connection to Gambi, I don't think DC TV has done this yet where the villain and mentor have a secret connection, all of it is so far the most compelling part of the series. Everything else in the episode is...fine. Black Lightning is having issues with his powers, yeah-yeah, we've seen this story done to death by now, and Anissa is uncovering a conspiracy behind her grandfather's death, okay, sweet, plot progression but it most definitely got over shadowed by Tobias in terms of what engaged me while watching it. Nevertheless, most DC TV this year has just been average, so having any element stick out is a win in my books, Tobias alone gets this episode an 8/10.

DC TV Weekly #36

Supergirl 'Both Sides Now' Review
I'm not gonna lie, I'm glad Supergirl is going on a brief hiatus and is being swapped out for Legends of Tomorrow. So far it's been my least favourite DC show of the season, meanwhile Legends is probably the best, heck, I don't even know if I'll continue watching it next year, that's how bored of it I am. So let's see if it can at least end on a high note, no matter how brief the break is...They don't. I'm starting to realise almost none of the mini-character arcs in this show ever work, from an episode by episode basis it just doesn't make sense. Alex starts off behaving wildly out of character, making threats and insulting their prisoner, wanting to go for the most violent option, then changes her ways by the climax with no real motivation to do so, and then in the end it's revealed this is all because she's still upset about Maggie? Yeah these pieces do not go together at all. Some more character work we have is Mon-El being in love with Kara, because oh joy, didn't everyone just absolutely love that storyline last season? Oh well, for nothing else at least I can say this show has decent pacing when it comes to plot progression. The episode as a whole however just does not work for me. 4/10.

The Flash 'True Colors' Review
In some ways Flash is the most loyal to the comic books in terms of tone, and in a lot of ways that's great, in other ways it's not, such as the idea of actions not having long term consequences. Now, obviously we don't want Barry to stay in jail forever, and there are a number of illogical things in a show like this that you just have to suspend your disbelief for, but sometimes the show likes to stretch it too far-or should I say, Elongate it too far? (PUNS!) Because Ralph transforming into DeVoe in a surprise witness courtroom style to act as proof Barry is innocent, that has a million problems with it. They have DeVoe's real body, even if he was alive, he still have a career, and the police are probably going to have follow up questions, how long is Ralph going to have to keep up this charade? I'm sorry but this was a dumb storyline in the first place and the resolution for it is even dumber. Then again, let's not try and dwell on the bad, because there is good in the episode. Barry having to team up with the meta-humans he's arrested so far to make a prison escape without their powers, and for the most part it is engaging, seeing all their different personalities interact, especially Becky Sharpe who isn't really a villain, just selfish and sick of life beating her down, which makes the real DeVoe showing up at the end and killing them all just a little bit more tragic and I found myself actually caring. Frankly I'd always rather have an episode that's divisive like this, where it has some good and some bad rather than just being average & bland all the way through, so I'll give it a 6/10, not great, but still overall positive.

Black Lightning 'Black Jesus' Review
I'm starting to think it's a bad sign that the show is already starting to feel just a tad stale when we're only 4 episodes in. Don't get me wrong, the show's not getting boring or anything, but this episode felt very much like a...repeat of things we've seen before, both good and bad with very little progression. We open with Jefferson trying to help a student and spends a fair amount of the episode trying to help him both emotionally and legally. These scenes of him helping people out of the suit are turning out to be some of the best moments of the series, especially in heroic sense. Honestly the least interesting parts of the show are in fact the ones where he's actually in the Black Lightning suit, because the fight scenes themselves are turning out to be quite dull. No one poses a threat to Black Lightning and he has to exert very little effort to take down a dozen drug dealers, so far Jefferson is a much more interesting character to watch than Black Lightning is. We also have more of Anissa using her powers, with a slight development that Gambi finds out, but doesn't confront her in this episode, and Tobias is now trying to recruit Jennifer's boyfriend, which I'm sure will lead to interesting things in the future, but nothing quite yet. For episode 4 of a 13 ep season, I feel we should be making better progress than still just setting up plot points, I can only hope that the slow build up with mean multiple episodes of non-stop action & story in the future. 6/10.

Arrow 'The Devil's Greatest Trick' Review
Well, I'll give ya credit Arrow, ya certainly threw me for a loop there. Finishing the antagonists' story this early followed by killing him off, I didn't see it coming...whether that makes it good is another topic. Part of me feels like there was more to do with Cayden James, maybe not a lot, but another episode to go, give more time to give him proper closure rather than forcing in the climax of his story as well as the flashbacks of him and his son, spread it out a little more. Another part of me just sees Diaz as a very weak replacement for a main villain, I say this because I had to google what his name was, that's how little interest I've had in this guy since the season began. I can only hope he's just second in command to some secret big villain we don't know about (Though it'd be a little late in the game to introduce a new villain). Then there is all the drama with Black Siren. Dinah wants to kill her, Lance wants to save her. They're both dumb. Lance I understand obviously missing his daughter, but he's an idiot if he thinks he can change her, and the writers are idiots if they actually go through with it, mostly because Katie Cassidy does so much better playing a villain than a hero. Dinah is dumb because...I have to be honest, I just simply don't like her. I don't know if it's the actress or the way she's written but she's boring. Nothing about her makes her an interesting character to me so I really am not interested in her storyline. That's a shame, they've had three Black Canary's on this show and the only one who was close to being what Black Canary should be is now the captain in Legends. 5/10.

DC TV Weekly #35

Supergirl 'For Good' Review
Wait a second...did they say Superman killed Zod? You're just going to gloss over that like it's not a big deal? This ain't Snyder's Superman, this is actually a good representation of the character, don't act like Superman killing Zod is not a big deal! Give me more information please! Yeah I know, it's a small detail that doesn't really matter in context of this review, but honestly, the fact that the biggest takeaway I have from this episode is just a throwaway line like that should show how uninteresting the rest of this episode was. It's fascinating how each of these shows has different issues with balancing filler vs main plot, looking back at the season so far, the best episodes are the ones that have very little to do with the main story for the season (Far From The Tree & Midvale), meanwhile episodes that further the main plot tend to be less interesting. Come to think of it, all three seasons of Supergirl have suffered from this problem, the main story is never that interesting and often feels like they didn't really know where they were going until it was too late to properly develop it. They've been building up Reign for half the season, and it had a great pay off, but now they're introducing several more Worldkillers even though it seems unnecessary. Particularly with Reign, they're putting a lot of focus on how this will effect her relationship with her daughter, but it's hard to be invested in that when her daughter is played by a terrible actress. Out of all the characters, Lena Luthor is still one of the more interesting ones, after all, she's from a terrible family, trying to do good but everything in the world keeps pushing her down, including the Trump-Reflection, so I enjoy seeing the focus be put on her. Also the fight between Supergirl and Lillian Luthor in the LexSuit is incredibly goofy, but it's the kind of goofy I enjoy in these shows. This episode started off quite boring, but was able to redeem itself by the end by focusing more on an interesting character and having some fun action, but man, that first half sure did drag. 5/10.

The Flash 'Honey, I Shrunk Team Flash' Review
I never realised how little character Cecile has until they actually tried to give her a character. She just fits so well into the background I completely forget she even exists, it's hard to believe she's been here since season two. Frankly, I'd like her to go back to that please because this was just a weird episode for her. She's developed temporary meta-powers because she's pregnant, but the baby isn't a meta, and technically neither is she, it's just the pregnancy...what? Oh, and having the powers to read minds means she's become a complete dumbass who verbalises every thought-both her's and someone else's. Meanwhile there's a new meta villain who has the power to shrink and grow things, and that was decently fun, Cisco and Ralph shrunk got a few laughs, and the way the villain fights by just carrying a round a whole arsenal in his pocket made for a creative fight scene. Finally there was the continuation and resolution of Barry's story in jail where he helps an innocent convict escape jail and is somehow able to run all the way from Central City to China within a matter of seconds...I know the limits of Barry's speed has always been inconsistent, but that is really pushing it. 5/10.

Black Lightning 'LaWanda: The Book of Burial' Review
Again, really enjoying the fact that this show is just telling one continuous story, I understand that technically all the DC Shows are telling one continuous story, but there is a lot of fluff within them. I'm just really paranoid that for season two they're going to extend Black Lightning's season to the usual 22 episodes, to that I say PLEASE NO! If anything, shorten everyone else's! You have enough shows right now, you could easily cut down to 13 and still fill those time slots. Black Lightning is showing the strength of focusing your story, it's very well paced, actions in one episode have consequences in another, and there has so far been some genuine drama. It's almost difficult to review the show because so far the past three episodes, the elements of the show that are great are still great, the elements I'm not a fan of aren't changing either. The show is maintaining a consistent level of quality. The only thing different about this episode was Gambi seemingly having a bit of treacherous side to him, considering so far he's been the least interesting character (I know, we're really early in, shouldn't be judging too harshly) it's a little note of intrigue there that has me invested in the character as I'm not too sure where his motivations lie. The rest of the episode is just what I said, what's good from before is still good, what's bad from before is still bad, so let's give it the same rating 7/10.

Arrow 'All For Nothing' Review
It makes sense to want to expand on the less developed characters, but you could probably write a class on why this is the wrong way to go about it. Seeing the backstory of Vince & Dinah, but not really, the only new piece of information we get is seeing them meet for the first time, everything else is just pointless detail on an event we already know, the two were undercover, discovered and Vince was killed during it. At no point in these flashbacks do we learn how they felt about each other at the start, what made them fall in love, how long it took, no new information that would flesh out the characters or their relationship at all. Then they end it all by killing him off again, now let's say the flashbacks actually did their job and developed these characters, you went from a dull character to an interesting one, just to end his life then and there, the audience still wouldn't have been connected enough to care. Not that any of this matters because this was supposed to help us see things from Dinah's perspective but it doesn't because like I said, nothing was actually developed! Gosh, how long has it been since I've given a good review to an Arrow episode? I can't even say the bad episodes make the season as a whole bad, just...dull. 4/10.

-Danny

Best Things of January 2018

At the end of each year I talk about my favourite pieces of media that I was exposed to during the year. Well, this year I'm going to try and expand that by talking about whatever I really liked during each month, just gives me a chance to talk more about things, so let's get to it!

Skulduggery Pleasant: The Faceless Ones - Derek Landy
In my 'Books I've Read 2017' post I mentioned reading the second instalment of the Skuludggery Pleasant series, well, now I've finished the third book, and yeah, this series just keeps getting better with each instalment. Why this series works so well is that it's not just a fantasy adventure series, but it also explores the potentially traumatic issues a child could face being introduced to this world. The last book mentioned that our protagonist Valkyrie Cain is missing out on a normal childhood, and even witnesses a clone of her's die, which will certainly leave some emotional issues. Within the first few chapters of this book, Valkyrie basically goes into denial over past events, choosing to avoid thinking about them whenever possible, and at one point where she gets attacked and slightly disfigured, it's the first time she's ever felt the legitimacy of the danger she's in. The only one who calls Skulduggery out on the dangers of bringing a 14 year old girl into this world being Dr Kenspeckle, who might be my new favourite character, being mean to adults but kind to children, acting like the smartest man in the room because he always is and a doctor who abhors violence, he's definitely a stand out. Landy himself clearly becoming more confident as an author, even ending the book on a cliffhanger, knowing there will be a sequel (And a whole lot more after that), however I still feel he struggles with writing action scenes-which I know will always be difficult as action is more a visual medium's game-and he is yet to give the series a compelling villain, though this one definitely comes the closest. Despite all that, this is a franchise that just gets better and better with each instalment, and I look forward to seeing where the next one takes us.

The Greatest Showman Soundtrack
The Greatest Showman was not a well received film, and personally, I very much disagree with that. Now don't get me wrong, the script isn't exactly going to be winning any awards, but I just find it ridiculous to argue a film isn't realistic when its a musical. Even going beyond that, biopics are films first, history lessons never, you can make arguments about how much better it could have been if they were more accurate to real life events, but by that logic, it also could have crashed and burned. For me, the film was a visual marvel, but most of all, the soundtrack is unbelievable. Like it's cinematic counterpart, the music itself is ripe with cliches, I'm not entirely sure how I'd identify them because I am not a music critic and don't know the terminology, but most of what I hear in the soundtrack, I've heard elsewhere, fortunately, it just so happens to be the type of cliches that I never get sick of. The big power ballads, the ones that get to show off the singer's talents as they scream at the top of their lungs how passionate they are about things. I've not stopped listening to the soundtrack since I first saw the film (In case you're wondering, my favourite track is The Other Side), it's like cotton candy for the ears.

Coco
I've somehow gone from never crying in a cinema, to crying twice in the past two months, once at Paddington 2, and now for Coco. Pixar's latest film is an achievement in many ways, it's the first Disney film to feature an entirely Hispanic cast, it's the closest Pixar has gotten to doing a musical, and it's first Pixar film to make me cry (Well, at least cry sober). The story itself starts off rather generic, a young boy has a dream, his family disapproves, he runs away not wanting to be part of the family, goes on a wild adventure and learns his lesson about the importance of family. It's difficult to pinpoint what exactly it is that makes Pixar capable of taking predictable stories and making them work, it's most likely a mixture of their unbeatable animation, charming comedy and mature emotional moments. They know when to be loud and fun, and when to be quiet and sincere, they've practically got it perfected to a science. Anyone's that's seen the film can probably guess which scene made me cry, it's Miguel singing to his mama Coco, all the way to the end credits. Nothing in an emotional scene with Pixar feels cheap, they take their time building up to the moment, and aren't afraid to expose the characters pain for the audience to see. I can count the number of films to make me cry (Again, while sober) on one hand, and this just became one of them.

Supergods - Grant Morrison
If somehow you've never noticed, I have quite the affinity for superheroes, and Grant Morrison is often considered to be one of the best superhero comic book writers of all time, naturally I was interested in reading his book about the history and his own personal experiences of the comic book industry. Also it's a book I've owned for a really long time and it's always good to cross those off your list. What stands out in particular about this book is the detail and context Morrison gives to the industry and the world around it, rather than just explaining what books were popular at what time, the focus on the world at large, the competition with other mediums and general perception of comic books to the greater public help to create a vivid image of the topics at hand. Whether it be the rapid storytelling in Action Comics #1, the more personalised approach to Amazing Fantasy #15, or how cinematic portrayals of these characters would shape future stories, it never feels like you're only getting half the picture, or details are being left out to fit to a certain narrative. That being said it is obvious what Morrison's own personal views are on certain characters and industries, sometimes he'll outright profess his feelings, others is more left in the subtext. I can't exactly blame him for this as there have been a lot of both positive and negative moments in the history of comic books, some of which still affect creators and fans to this day. Obviously the most accurate portion of the book is when he discusses his own history and career in the industry, but I can understand if people are turned off by this as I myself found it rather jarring. The first half of the book acts like a history lesson on the industry, all of a sudden to dedicate a whole chapter explaining his childhood, and then cutting back and forth in future chapters between his own life story and the industry as a whole. That being said, I found both Morrison and business of comic books to be equally fascinating and I'm left with a new appreciation for the art form as a whole.

-Danny