The Flash

Jim’s Review

With last week’s cliffhanger or Barry being back in time, we were handed a pretty big clue as to whether or not the events of last week’s episode would stick. This week’s episode wastes no time in getting to that point, and while it makes sense, I came away from this episode just feeling like the stakes had been lowered in a very big way.

It’s not as though last week’s episode is completely irrelevant now, but the only thing that seemed to leave a lasting impact on the narrative was Barry’s moment with Iris, which is naturally undone now. With that said, Barry’s handing of the situation felt out of character and more awkward than I think the writers planned for.

Captain Cold and his gang are clearly the season’s big baddies, and that’s fine, but the show still needs to do more to sell me on the threat Cold poses to The Flash. Flash can dodge a bullet, but not an ice ray? The inclusion of Barry’s identity into the mix does something for their rivalry, and the confrontation with Cisco offered some satisfying development for the loveable techie, even with the clichéd time-travel mantra of, “don’t mess with the timeline,” this episode felt more like an average villain-of-the-week affair, and pales in comparison to what we were teased with a week ago. It wasn’t a bad episode, it just didn’t build on what the last one started.

Oh, and a quick addendum: The gold gun was something that should never have been attempted.

Kyle’s Take

I wasn’t as invested in last week’s episode of The Flash because I knew little—if anything—would stick this week. When you introduce a time-travel mechanism, you can’t trust the events of a show. I’m hoping The Flash doesn’t pull a Dallas and erase an entire season. That would be terrible. Losing most of last week’s episode wasn’t too bad.

With that said, I agree with Jim. We lost any tension from last episode with The Flash’s quick fix this week. We still have seven or eight shows before the season finale, and I think last week served as a sneak peak at what might be in store.

I can’t say that I like Captain Cold and his gang as this season’s baddies either. Cold became less dangerous after his first episode. Part of what made Cold difficult to handle was that he calculated The Flash’s moves. Since his gang accrued more than one gun, they’ve leaned on their toys. It also doesn’t help that The Pied Piper was more menacing and clever. He’s my pick for the leader of the Rogues.

Oh, and I agree with Jim about the gold gun. But what were they going to do, make the Golden Glider ice skate on Snart’s gun blasts? A gold gun was less hokey than skates…maybe.

Verdict:

This was a down week for The Flash. Let’s hope they pick up the pieces next week.

Dart over to our secrets page to get more of The Flash.

Powers

Kyle’s Review

Well, that escalated quickly. Walker trapped Wolfe in the drainer cell, Johnny Royalle escaped the prison, Walker may or may not have regained his powers, Triphammer is no longer with us, and Zora took all the credit for locking up the big, bad Wolfe. Throw in some flashbacks when Royalle, Walker, and Wolfe were all friends, and that’s a lot happening in a Powers episode (“Paint It Black”) with the shortest runtime.

If you didn’t follow all of that, you’re in good company. I didn’t either—the first time. It took me a second viewer to see Wolfe go ape on Triphammer with Triphammer’s own mechanical arm. The flashbacks gave the audience a breather but they often posed more questions than answers.

It remains to be seen if dispensing the most powerful and deadly villain Powers has to offer will let out the sails, but I like how the show isn’t afraid to shake up things. They may be another source of tension on the horizon—the old Powers telling the new Powers to get off their lawn—and I like how they didn’t flinch when getting rid of a character as pivotal as Triphammer. Or did they?

Powers is a show based on a comic book, so it’s not out of the realm of possibility that Triphammer makes another appearance post death.

Verdict:

Another solid episode but I’m not sure where the show’s heading, now that Wolfe is in custody again and the Triphammer/Royalle angle of getting rid of powers or improving them might have reached an apex.

iZombie

Kyle’s Review

iZombie tallied another good episode with “Brother, Can You Spare a Brain?,” but it wasn’t without some minor hiccups. Liv’s narration got on my nerves a bit and I’m glad they cut that out by mid-episode. Why do you need to narrate when the main character expresses her inner monologue? And there was a scene of lesbian sexual tension. Liv caught a glimpse of a male victim’s dalliance with a caramel skinned lover, and then Liv fell for the same woman when they met. This moment bordered on exploitation, but Liv’s powers have made her do some things that she normally wouldn’t (kleptomania making her steal things), so I didn’t mind this too much. It also helped that Liv didn’t suddenly turn into a fulltime lesbian—that would’ve sensationalized the moment.

The murder case was by the numbers, but the introduction of David Anders as Blaine DeBeers was the show’s highlight. Blaine is a drug dealer turned zombie, trying to turn his unlife around. He tried to turn legit by his past caught up with him. We even learned through Blaine that there’s a larger zombie world out there. We knew Liv wasn’t alone, but there may be more here than we first thought.

Verdict:

Despite some bumps in the road, iZombie turned in another good episode and stayed grounded in the world of detective work.

Arrow

Kyle’s Review

This week’s Arrow was entertaining, if you find watching a train wreck entertaining.

I’ll try to make this short as I don’t like to harp on a show’s inadequacies. We got reintroduced to the Suicide Squad and ARGUS this week and neither reunion was a happy one. Cupid needs to go—that’s all I’ll say about her. I didn’t like Deadshot’s flashbacks because they didn’t do enough. You can’t introduce a soldier with a troubled past in two, one minute flashbacks. Lawton went from unsure father to raging alcoholic in sixty seconds. Why? Team Arrow had three years to develop his character and they didn’t: lazy writing.

Then you have to wonder who ARGUS works for. The US Military refused to consult on The Avengers movie because they didn’t like not knowing how SHIELD fits into a command structure (thanks for that info, Jim), but we know less about ARGUS than we do about SHIELD. Worse than that, we don’t know how ARGUS fits—if it does at all—into Arrow’s end game this season: again, lazy writing.

I hope Ray Palmer didn’t get a nose bleed on his high horse. His hypocrisy had a heavier hand than the one he donned in his suit. “The police won’t stop the vigilante, so I’ll stop him myself.” That’s known as vigilante justice, Ray-Ray: even more lazy writing.

I did like one, unintentionally funny moment. Ollie put his bow away after chastising Ray. Then, he walked off, while Roy is knocked unconscious in the gutter. Ollie doesn’t check to see if Roy’s still breathing. He doesn’t nudge Roy to see if he stirs. Ollie just walks off, and Roy’s going to wake up a few hours later, wet and alone, saying WTF. Dude, that’s cold blooded.

Verdict:

That was an awful lot of suck for having very little Laurel.

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