DC TV Weekly #38

The Flash 'Subject 9' Review
Well, at least they acknowledged the weirdness of DeVoe coming back, and even entertain the idea that DeVoe wasn't really there and it was just a metahuman trick...which it was. Yeah, Barry's still innocent, but I mean, they're not wrong. And this would conclude the section of the episode worth discussing. Sorry to say it, but the rest of the episode's main plot was just so incredibly paint by numbers I might actually believe a robot wrote this one. New meta shows up, Team Flash try to protect her, they fail; no new developments to the main plot, just that there needed to be 12 Metas and this one was just a placeholder. There were certainly attempts to make this more interesting, having Ralph develop feelings for the new meta is a good way to go at it, unfortunately the plot rushes through it so quickly that I do not even slightly believe they'd be this invested in each other, and so neither is the audience. I suppose the subplot between Harry and Cecile was somewhat entertaining and gave the two a unique storyline for them, but that's the B-Plot for a reason, they know it can't hold that much weight. I can't even argue that this is a bad episode, it's just so blandly average. 5/10.

Legends of Tomorrow 'The Curse of the Earth Totem' Review
I acknowledge this show isn't exactly accurate to real life history, hell, I should never expect it to be, that's not what it's there for. That being said, as a big fan of Blackbeard, I can't help but feel a bit miffed by their representation. Mostly because I'd say the real guy is far more interesting (Seriously, look him up), but hey, like I said that's not fair, I just wanted to get that off my chest. The episode for what it is, it's fine. We get more of Amaya and Mick's charming friendship as he tries to hype her up as the biggest and baddest pirate, we don't really talk much about how well these two work off each other, them as a pairing always makes for some of the best moments in the show. We also have Rip and Wally West off on their own adventure which includes drunk karaoke in 90s Japan, because why not. I really do think the move from Flash to Legends was the best move for Wally as a character, he was seriously being underused in the former show. But no matter what horrible events transpire with Blackbeard's pirate crew or Damien Darhk & daughter's mischief, the most crucial thing to the crew is that they don't ruin Sara & Ava's date, because of course that's the highest stakes in the show, it's just their style. 6/10.

Black Lightning 'Three Sevens: The Book of Thunder' Review
Either I haven't been paying enough attention or the show didn't establish it very well, but I had no idea Jefferson's kids didn't know he was Black Lightning, at no point did I realise that was a secret. Even though it is a secret, it continues one of the dumbest parts about the show, and that being HOW DOES NO ONE RECOGNISE EACH OTHER?! Those masks do absolutely nothing to hide their identity, I was willing to let it go for Black Lightning, but they really push their luck, especially with a father & daughter fighting and somehow not recognising each other, it's super dumb guys. I'm also mentioning this because I am seriously running out of things to say about this show, it's incredibly consistent in the good things staying good and the bad things staying bad, the story is moving at a decent pace, the mystery is there, the action still isn't that great, same thing week in-week out. 6/10.

Arrow 'Collision Course' Review
For an episode that actually had quite a bit happening, I'm struggling to think of things to discuss. The episode-as well as a large portion of this season as a whole-is the distrust between Team Arrow and team...not Arrow, and this episode was the boiling point for it, the two sides finally bashing heads in a fight where they don't hold back pulling out all the dirty tricks they need to in a very poorly shot action scene. Seriously, what is with this show's split between action and storytelling? It's like they know when an episode has a crap story so they put extra effort into the action, but when a story is actually good they decide to half arse the fight scenes? It was so dark I could barely make anything out. But let's focus on the positive there that this story was really well told, like I said they've built this up for a fair number of episodes now, with the distrust between the two growing bigger and bigger, tying it into the main plot of the series, creating genuine reasoning behind both sides, and not solving everything by the end.Their actions have consequences and no one came out of this episode a winner, no one got justice, the money wasn't returned, Rene is severely hurt and the two sides seem to hate each other. I'm sure everything will turn out alright in the end but for now I'm enjoying the restraint and damage the writers are showing with this story. 7/10.