DC TV Weekly #10

Hot Dingo! We're back baby! I have missed talking about DC Shows, so let's get into it!














Supergirl 'Supergirl Lives' Review
Seems to be coming a bit of a tradition for Kevin Smith to direct episodes of this universe. Doing two episodes of Flash, one great, one awful, and now he's doing Supergirl, in an episode lovingly tributing his failed Superman film 'Superman Lives'. Though, anyone who doesn't know about that would be rather confused by that title. However, Smith has managed to make the impossible possible, he made Mon-El interesting, and made the idea of Mon-El and Kara not absolutely ridiculous. In the past Mon-El has been portrayed as selfish, simple, lazy and kind of a jerk. Now he's still all of those things here, minus the jerk. All of his flaws are played up for comedic affect here, and even more so, this isn't a case of Kara setting him up and him failing, but instead it's him setting himself up, then him failing, which doesn't reflect as badly on him as a character when we see he's trying. The fact that he's not a burden on anyone else makes his arc more valuable and reflective on him as a character, and seeing he and Kara having playful banter rather than melodramatic romance is just more entertaining for the audience.
Speaking of romance, yes Alex and Maggie are adorable, do I think they're playing it up a little bit because they know how much they enjoy it? Most likely, but I wouldn't call it pandering, but that little bit of drama seemed rather pointless, because nothing about their dynamic has changed, it was just there to act as filler. Speaking of pointless filler, James as Guardian is not an interested character or story, because like Kara said, he's really not doing anything that Supergirl can't, he's just picking up the scraps. Furthermore, all the scenes with Kara as a reporter continue to be boring, trivial and so damn useless. Some small notes: The Star Trek references were greatly appreciated, and why was Kara at the DEO in her civilian gear? Does everyone at the DEO know he secret identity? And I wish J'onn got more to do (He still has M'gann unlawfully imprisoned for crying out loud!)
To sum it up, in a shocking turn of events it was the romance stuff that was actually the best parts, but everything that sucked prior to this episode, still suck in this episode. 7/10.

The Flash 'Borrowing Problems From The Future' Review
Set-up. That's what this episode was. Lots and lots of set-up for future episodes, and catch-up for prior episodes. Getting everyone caught up to speed (Puns!) with Barry, having Wally officially become recognised as Kid Flash, making Julian an official member of Team Flash. On the set-up side we have Barry & Cisco seeing the future and noting down certain events such as Music Meister (Yay!) and the return of Killer Frost and Gorilla Grodd, all events to look forward too. Basically this was one giant "Previously on The Flash" for the characters, mixed with a "Next time on The Flash" for the audience. The only things really worth noting are the STAR Labs museum (Because we all know what that's gonna lead too) and Wally finally becoming Kid Flash and helping out...even if everything he did could have easily be done by Barry, but future events means he has to do it, technicalities, whatever, at least he wasn't just stood around complaining all episode.
Overall this was a very...non-episode, just a lot of recap and set-up, with a little bit of Kid Flash thrown in for good measure. 6/10.

Legends of Tomorrow 'Raiders of the Lost Art' Review
A Hanna Barbara reference, a subtle jab at Marvel, an entire episode based around the team having to save George-Freakin-Lucas! What nerd wouldn't love this episode!? Mostly for all the references to Star Wars, personal favourites being the "only hope" line and Malcolm getting the Wilhelm scream. Speaking of Malcolm, one major criticism I've heard someone say about him as a villain in this series is that he is a completely different character here than he was in Arrow. Which is not...untrue, hell, considering the time travel, he's basically just Captain Jack Harkness' evil twin. Thing is, I still find it very enjoyable, hell, this is possibly the most entertaining and the most personality Malcolm Merlyn has had since season one of Arrow, you know, before he was the worst father in the world to Thea but kept claiming he was great at it. Furthermore, I kind of want to see an edit of this episode that takes out all of Mick and Stein's scenes, except for the brain surgery, because seeing the characters walk in and that and Stein just shrugs it off like it's no big deal is kind of hilarious. At the start of this new season, I said I was perfectly fine if this show just wanted to be silly fun adventures, and I don't think you could get more silly and fun than this, there's no nuance or drama, it's just a fun romp. 8/10.

Arrow 'Who Are You?' Review
Thank-friggin-god Laurel is still dead! I seriously thought they were gonna pull some bullshit on us and bring her back to life, but instead it's just her evil counterpart Black Siren, which is so much better a choice. Now whether or not they used her to the best of her abilities...that could be debatable. I get what they were going for by trying to show things from her side and how she turned to villainy after Ollie's death on her world, but they just flip flopped with her too much and never really commited to a single idea or what her purpose was. This could have been a great story of Ollie forgiving himself for Laurel's death and being able to move on, but then when they throw in Felicity's paranoia, Black Siren questioning her role, trying to make her sympathetic but also straight up evil, none of it goes well, they should have just picked an idea and focused on that. Take the B-Plot for example, Curtis feeling insecure over his place in the team, which makes sense, a lot of things have just been going terribly for him. It was a simple idea with a great execution, though I wish it was Rory helping him instead of Rene because they have more in common and Rory is more of an empathetic person and...well, a better character. Also Talia Al Ghul is Prometheus. I'm willing to put money on it, just from her 3 second appearance, I already know it's her. Which also means half this season's story was bullshit, you can't have a mystery plot if the clues to the real answer aren't introduced until halfway through, that's cheating. So yeah, a messy A-Plot with a solid enough B-Plot. 6/10.

Man it feels good to talk about these shows again, even if it was mostly a lackluster opening week. It's an exciting time to be a DC TV Fan.

-Danny