DC TV Weekly #40

The Flash 'Run, Iris, Run' Review
These past two episodes have been perfect examples of how to do filler episodes well and how to do them poorly. Last week's filler was creative and against formula, this week's filler is just that, filler. A random meta with generic fire powers tries to rob a bank...without a mask...in the city with the Flash...dumbass. However there's another bus meta who can take people's powers, and at first he seems to want to help people, but then he holds Iris hostage and runs away...for no reason. Then another guy gets the powers and instantly goes into crime because apparently everyone is evil. For nothing else at least they addressed an issue I've had since season one, that being Iris' uselessness. I'm not convinced they've fixed that issue in the long run, but having at least one episode of her being physically active is nice, plus the purple lightning made for a nice change of effect to look at. Then there's the subplot of Harry trying to recreate DeVoe's experiment and everyone except Cisco is totally up for it, even though Cisco has a very reasonable argument that it was this same experiment that turned DeVoe from a smart pacifist to an evil genius, and they give no reason to why the same won't happen to Harry...speaking of this subplot, it also contained the line "Have you not seen Spider-Man 2?" which means Marvel movies exist in this universe, except in the first Sam Raimi movie they reference Superman, who is canon in DC Television and this creates one heck of a paradox that I'm obviously thinking way too deep into but this episode as a whole was kinda meh and that's one stuck out to me the most and now I'm just babbling. 5/10.

Legends of Tomorrow 'Amazing Grace' Review
Perhaps Legends has just gone so far down the path of weird & wonderful that an episode all about Elvis having the power to summon ghosts with the power of music seems rather underwhelming by their standards. Not that there's anything wrong with the concept, more so the execution. At no point in this episode did there actually feel like there were any stakes, no villains, no tough obstacles, if the characters used their powers even once then any "problem" would disappear in an instant. Elvis didn't push back against the Legends, the ghosts didn't turn out to cause any problem, there was nothing, because of that, this whole episode just felt hollow. The closest I got to caring about anything was Axel the rat, and when I find myself caring more about the rat than any of the actual characters on the show, I think we can sum it up as a dud. Nothing bad about it per se, but nothing good either. 5/10.

Black Lightning 'The Book of Revelations' Review
And we're back to everything the way it always was, where everything is simply decent, mostly the plot progression. Jennifer's powers are starting to activate, but we all knew that was going to happen eventually, it's another case where there are certain story beats it has to hit before it can get interesting, but I'm glad they got through most of them in this one episode. That's another positive I can say about Black Lightning, it knows when it has to deal with specific story tropes that most superhero shows go through, so it tries to rush through them as quickly as possible to get to the good stuff. For example, Anissa is already going out on missions as Thunder, because wasting time with Jefferson saying no when we all know it's gonna happen eventually is boring, they dealt with it last episode and now they're just acting like a superhero duo. Then there is Gambi admitting his history to Jefferson and of course he's pissed and I'm excited for where that's gonna go. So yeah, good balance between advancing already established storylines and establishing entirely new ones with Jennifer and Lala. 7/10.

Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald - Trailer Review

It's been a long time since I've reviewed a trailer, mostly because it's been a long time since I've seen a trailer that gave me a longer thought than "That looks good" or "That looks shit". However, a trailer for a new film in the Harry Potter Franchise is never going to be "just a trailer", seeing as my love for Harry Potter is practically unrivalled, that being said, this trailer gives me some pause. Fantastic Beats & Where To Find Them was a film I very much enjoyed, there were even parts of it that I loved, and those parts were whenever the film was doing something new. The location, the creatures, Jacob Kowalski, Queenie Goldstein, all things that we had never seen before in Harry Potter, and thus were the most enjoyable parts for me because they expanded on the world and differentiated themselves from the other films. My least favourite parts of the film is whenever it felt the need to reference or repeat elements from the Harry Potter films, those were the moments where the film felt rather doubtful of itself and needed to fall back on already established elements as a safety net. This trailer suggests that this film is going even further back, returning to Hogwarts, making Dumbledore a main character, and telling a story that was already told in Deathly Hallows. Not told in great detail mind you, but it wasn't really a tale that needed detail, it was fine as it is.

I realised after watching it that every bit of news to come out about this film has been slightly disheartening for me, Dumbeldore's sexuality not going to be addressed, the casting of Johnny Depp, David Yates remaining on as a director, none of it being things to raise my confidence in the film. That being said, I am still very much looking forward to this film, and while I may complain about now, I know that as soon as I see Hogwarts back on the big screen, I'm going to turn into a pile of mush, because it's like Rowling said: “Whether you come back by page or by the big screen, Hogwarts will always be there to welcome you home.”.

Also, here are some smaller observations I noticed about the trailer:

-I really don't like how they're downplaying the costumes and general aesthetics of the wizarding world, Dumbledore is for some reason wearing suits instead of robes.

-Rebranding it under the 'Wizarding World' Franchise is probably a good move, calling it the Harry Potter franchise is a bit odd when he hasn't been in one of these films for 7 years.

-That one shot of Newt and Dumbledore throwing their wands to the ground looked really cool.

-The music at the title screen sounded like the theme to The Avengers.

-Danny

DC TV Weekly #39

The Flash 'Enter Flashtime' Review
Well I'll be, last week I complain about Flash being so blandly average, and the very next episode they bring in the most inventive and original episodes the show has ever done. Barry stuck in Flash-Time and one by one dragging in everyone else to try and stop a nuclear bomb as it's exploding. Right from the start you could tell this episode was different, beginning in-media-res to establish the tension by showing Barry at his most desperate, and from there the rest of the episode is formula breaking in more than one regard, even down to the cinematography had a very distinct style to it, the go-pro pen shots, the focus on the glass shaking during the climactic moments, the beautiful cgi on the Speed Force, also having three speedsters all working together and trying to solve a problem through science rather than fighting it. It also gave Grant Gustin a chance to act his butt off, the man has shown time and time again how talented an actor he is, and he really got to show off here. Also just a small moment but I really want to mention it is when Jesse first shows up and Barry says "Wally's not here" was a perfect comedic moment, the way it was shot to have Barry obscured from view, to Gustin's delivery, really was as well executed the small joke could have been. This is why this episode sticks out to me, everything feels like it just had a little more effort put into it than would have been expected. From the writing, to the acting, to the directing, everyone seemed to dedicate just more energy to this one episode than everything else they've done this season. I've been looking back on my reviews of the season so far and it upsets me how many "meh" reviews that I've had to give this year, even the stand out episodes upon further reflection only stand out in comparison to the rest of the season. This is the first episode that I can say is truly outstanding, one of the best the show has ever done. 9/10 (Very tempted to give it a 10/10, but I'm gonna hold back for now, see how I feel later.).

Legends of Tomorrow 'No Country For Old Dads' Review
Hm, apparently it's the trend of the week for DC shows to be trying something new. A whole episode dedicated to Ray, the kindest and most gullible of the Legends being held prisoner forced to work alongside Damian and Nora, and by the end he actually sees a possibility of redemption within her. Not gonna lie, I really enjoyed their interactions, seeing Ray empathise with Nora's situation, and getting some actual solid development between Damian & Nora's relationship, though the show seems to forget Damian did have another family in Arrow that he doesn't seem to care about, but we'd all like to pretend that season existed. While I may complain that Damian as a villain has been overplayed at this point, but my god Neal McDonough is just having so much fun in the role I can't help but be entertained by him, even something as dumb as a "Hi Annoyed, I'm Dad" joke. The rest of the Legends didn't really get that much to do in this episode, but a part of me actually likes that, it gave them plenty of more time to focus on Ray and the villains, and like I already said, the three of them play off of each other so well that they were able to hold attention for the majority of the episode. Also Wally's officially joined the team and looks like Grodd's returning next episode, yippee! 7/10.

Black Lightning 'Equinox: The Book of Fate' Review
Boy howdy was I ready to give this episode a negative review, heck, I was even excited for just so that I had something new to talk about with this show, but then gosh darn it did they do a 180 on me in the final act of the episode. Let's start from the top. For the majority of this episode all I could think was "boring" and it's not even the show's fault for some of it. The conversations between Anissa and Jefferson about him being a superhero and she wants to team up but of course he doesn't want it to happen, it's dull, it's predictable, but it has to happen because of course those are the conversations you have in a story like this, it's just the fact that we all know they're going to get to that place eventually, I just wish there was a way to skip all the meandering. Then there was the ending, with so much plot progression occuring in such a short span of time, Tobias' sister is killed, Lady Eve is killed and Black Lightning framed for it, and then Lala coming back to life, boy howdy was I more invested in those final few minutes than the rest of the episode combined. I'm glad the episode at least ended on a high because it meant my feeling as a whole came out positive, but it certainly dragged it's feet getting there. 6/10.

Arrow 'Doppelganger' Review
So Roy's back, that's pretty neat. Apparently he's back for several episodes, that's super neat. It also seems this is the show's way of writing Thea out for good, that's less neat, but also makes sense, Thea was missing for a chunk of the season near the beginning, it makes sense that they might send her off soon, and if she goes away with Roy then at least they both get a happy ending. Speaking of the early parts of the season, it's amazing how many storylines I completely forgot about (and seemingly the show did as well) that are now being addressed. Ollie's trial, Rene's daughter, the fact that Ollie being the Green Arrow was supposed to be a temporary thing. This season as a whole has felt rather unfocused, like the writers couldn't decide on what the main plot could be, so just threw everything to the wall to see what stuck, unfortunately multiple things stuck so they just decided to incorporate them all. And now there's a Ra's Al Ghul related sub-plot that's being set up...more than halfway through the season. Ah well, it's not like the "main" plot of the season takes up all that much time, might as well see if we get anything good from this one. This episode as a whole didn't offer much in terms of quality, but nothing that bad either, at least we got to see Roy again, which is nice, so I'll settle on a 6/10.

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.

Best Things of February 2018

Well, might not have as much to talk about as last time-not just because it's a shorter month-but because one thing in particular took up most of my time, nevertheless, let's talk about things.

Black Panther
Let's get the obvious one out of their way, because everyone & their mothers has already fallen in love with this film. While Black Panther is certainly a quality film, with brilliant characters, music & visuals (Minus some cgi backgrounds) the film has instantly become iconic as a cultural milestone. It's representation of African culture and Black heritage makes it possibly the most important film Marvel has ever made, and seeing the impact it has on people, inspiring children, making grown men & women burst out into tears, frankly, no one can take that away from them, getting that kind of genuine reaction out of people is the best thing a film can strive for, and Black Panther achieved it in strides.


The Shape of Water
Despite coming out late last year for America, it took until February for those of us in the UK to finally see Guillermo Del Toro's latest film, and I have been dying to see it since it was first announced seeing as Del Toro is one of my all-time favourite directors, and it was absolutely beautiful. Like every Del Toro film the first compliment to talk about is the absolute visual treat that is the film, everything from the cinematography to the costume design of the Amphibious Man is absolutely stunning. One could argue this film has the simplest characters out of all Del Toro's filmography, the heroes are easy to root for as a group of outcast misfits with heavy prejudices against them, while the villains are easy to hate & fear because...they're Michael Shannon and he's just really fucking good at playing those type of characters. But I'd argue the film can get away with it as it already has one giant hurdle to overcome, making the audience believe a romance between a woman and a fish monster. Del Toro once said that he sees the beauty in horror, and this is probably the most literal example of that statement, taking the monster from an iconic horror film and turning him into a sympathetic romantic lead. The film takes this story with complete sincerity and in the hands of a lesser director it could have easily crashed and burned, but in the hands of a master like Del Toro, he of course makes it one of the most beautiful films both in story and in visuals that I have seen. An instant classic that I can gush over for years to come.

Persona 5
And now for the thing that took up the majority of my month. I was never really that interested in purchasing Persona 5, I had heard great things about the franchise-this game in particular-but it never really appealed to me. Then when I found out it was on sale for half off on the Playstation Network, I shrugged and thought "what the hell". Since then I have become addicted to this game in a way that I have not being addicted in years. A game that is near 100 hours long in gameplay and yet it so well paced, hours fly by without me even noticing, and I've not even finished by the way, at the time of writing I'm only about 45 hours in! The game has endearing and likeable characters, catchy music, and really fun gameplay. Though you will catch on to the formula rather quickly, and the further into the game you go I find there's just so much to do and so little time, that just means I wish I had more time both in real life and in game to do everything possible. There have been nights where I can't sleep cause I'm thinking of playing the game, so I play the game and come morning when I have actual shit to do, I hate myself and the game for making me so addicted to it...then I go ahead and play some more. Frankly, I love this game so much I hate it, and I can't wait to finally finish it so my life can actually go back to normal and I start functioning like a real human being...but the only way to do that is to keep on playing it so, I'm gonna go back to playing it, bye!

-Danny

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.