Toboggans of Doom

Sometimes you just want to blow people and things up while taking a ride on the most pimped out toboggan time will ever know. Artic blasts will slap you in the face as you negotiate a psychotic obstacle course.

We’ll slide into the fun bits after a while but let’s look at the fine print first.

Fiddly Bits:

Designer: Jeremy Holcomb, Joseph Huber, Stephen McLaughlin, and Dan Tibbles
Publisher: Bucephalus Games
Date Released: 2008
Number of Players: 2 – 4
Age Range: 8 and up
Setup Time: less than 5 minutes
Play Time: around 30 minutes
Game Mechanics:
Dice Rolling
Tile Placement

Game Flow:

Shuffle the upgrade tiles and lay out twelve of them. These tiles are the gadgets you can use to pimp your ride.

Each player then rolls all but the percentile die in a set of polyhedral dice (D20 or Dungeons and Dragons dice). Toboggans of Doom comes with a set of two but if you’re playing with more than two players, you’ll have to bring more. A set of polyhedral dice—minus the percentile die—is a four-sided die, a six-sided die, an eight-sided die, a ten-sided die, a twelve-sided die, and a twenty-sided die.

You use the dice as currency. If the upgrade has a dollar sign with a number, you’ll have to use any combination of dice to pay for the upgrade. But let’s say that the cost says something like $d4. You’ll then spend a four-sided die (d4) with any number rolled in order pick up that item. Players take turns purchasing upgrades until they run out of dice.

Sample Upgrade Tiles

There’s one main thing you’re looking for in upgrades: avoiding the obstacles in your toboggan’s run. All obstacles either have you go “over,” “around,” or “through.” You have to roll over a target number for “over” obstacles, under a target number for “around,” and between two sets of numbers for “through.”

More Sample Upgrade Tiles

Big dice, like a twenty-sided die, work best with “over,” while small dice, like the aforementioned four-sided die, work best for “around” obstacles. “Through” obstacles throw a wrench in the works as the target numbers can vary.

Once everyone has spent their dice, the run begins. The mountain is three columns of tiles by ten with gaps at the third and sixth row. This is what it should look like.

The mountain with two check points

Each player takes turns trying to make it down the mountain. You only get three tries (rounds) with a chance to buy more upgrades, but if no one finishes the course, players count up victory points earned by reaching the gaps (checkpoints) in the race.

Game Review:

Toboggans of Doom plays like a snowy version of Mad Max: Fury Road, and it’s about as deep as the movie, too. If you like mindless dice chucking with little strategy, you might like Toboggans of Doom.

There are some upgrades that beat the pants off the other ones; you’ll always want to roll a d20 (twenty-sided die) for “over” rolls and d4s are great for “around” rolls. Whoever manages to snag those upgrades will usually win but with dice chucking, you get a lot of luck, too.

Example of the mountain before the first checkpoint

I enjoy the idea of this game. I have plenty of polyhedral dice in my arsenal and they get a lot of love with Toboggans. I also like how the designers used the dice as currency. You’d bid on the various upgrades and if the upgrades had a dollar amount (instead of a flat die for the cost), you’ll have to add some dice together in order to purchase an upgrade. I think Toboggans should’ve stuck with a variable dollar amount and not use single dice as the cost for any upgrade. Most of the over-powered upgrades use a single die as the cost, so whoever picks first will get the best gear.

Example of the mountain before the second checkpoint

I played this game when it first came out and my kids enjoyed it. That was six or seven years ago and after dusting it off recently, they were less pleased with the game. Toboggans is one of those games that look clever at first glance, but wear thin real fast.

Verdict:

Toboggans of Doom is fun if you want to shut off your brain and chuck some dice. If you yearn for something a little more than that, you should look elsewhere.

2015 Fall TV Shows

The fall shows are coming. The fall shows are coming.

We don’t have too many TV free weeks left before getting slapped in the face with some fresh programming, and if there was one thing JK Geekly kept up with on a regular basis last season, it was our coverage of our favorite geek chic shows.

We’ll break down the upcoming programming, and we may even mention some shows we’ll review, but there’s no way we can keep up with everything on this list. Can we?

TV on Sundays

Bob’s Burgers

Will we cover it? We covered Bob’s Burgers last year and there’s no way we won’t do so this season.

Claim to geekdom. Two words and a letter: H Jon Benjamin. Fine, Bob’s Burgers may not be the engine for Benjamin’s humor as Archer (Benjamin plays the straight man half the time), but the rest of the cast is stellar and it’s a fun show.

TV on Mondays

Minority Report

Will we cover it? We’ll give it a go, but it might go downhill fast.

Claim to geekdom. It’s the TV show based on the movie, which was based on a Phillip K. Dick short story. I don’t know how much story is left to tell after the events of the Minority Report movie, but I’m sure this TV show will squeeze as much juice as it can. Can I get at least 1/3 of a cup?

Supergirl

Will we cover it? Aren’t we contractually obligated with covering comic book TV shows?

Claim to geekdom. Supergirl is Superman’s cousin, but the DC TV universe can’t mention Superman. How does that work? We also get the second most popular female character in the DCU. Hunh? Where’s Wonder Woman?

Blindspot

Will we cover it? The show stars Jaimie Alexander (Lady Sif from the Marvel cinematic universe) so there’s a good chance.

Claim to geekdom. Jaimie Alexander. Also, the premise of a Jane Doe waking up with tattoos, all over her body, that may lead to a killer’s identity is kind of neat. Blindspot isn’t our usual fare, but we’ll give it a chance. Three shows on Monday? Yikes!

TV on Tuesdays

The Muppets

Will we cover it? It’s the Muppets, so yes.

Claim to geekdom. They’re the Muppets, Jim Henson’s puppet love children. The new Muppet show will target the folks who grew up with the original Muppet Show—like yours truly—but they’re changing the format with a little reality TV show twist. I’m excited. I just hope I can get over some of the wrong-sounding Muppets.

Agents of SHIELD

Will we cover it? I got caught up with the show, so probably.

Claim to geekdom. For better or for worse it’s tied to the Marvel cinematic universe. Plus, I’m interested in seeing Agent Simmons contract full-blown symbiote. That blob waiting for Simmons, carefully selecting her, before it swallowed her can’t be coincidence—neither can the timing of Spidey’s inclusion in the MCU.

The Flash

Will we cover it? Heck yeah.

Claim to geekdom. Barry Allen is the fastest man alive. He zips around Central City in his patented red and yellow jumpsuit. The TV show The Flash just happens to be one of the best comic book TV shows going. I can’t wait for season two.

iZombie

Will we cover it? Its first season did enough to keep my interest, so yeah.

Claim to geekdom. iZombie is yet another CW adaptation of a DC comic—they do a good job with those. The titular character, Liv Moore, is a crime-fighting zombie who works at the local morgue. It’s an outrageous premise but the show has legs—so far.

Scream Queens

Will we cover it? Five shows on Tuesday? Are you kidding me? In all seriousness, we won’t be able to follow all of these shows, and Scream Queens is the most likely one to get axed.

Claim to geekdom. It’s the love child of Glee and American Horror Story. There’ll be a lot of familiar faces as Ryan Murphy tends to use a lot of the same actors, but something tells me that Scream Queens won’t have the same appeal as Glee, the first two years, and it can’t possibly be as dark as AHS because it’s on a major network. Still, I’ll give it a try.

TV on Wednesdays

Arrow

Will we cover it? Um, yeah. It’s been grandfathered in by now.

Claim to geekdom. Arrow is the show that started the modern DC TV universe. The quality wasn’t as good last year as it was in years past, but the third season played like we might get a soft reset to the series. I don’t know if that’s a good or bad thing, but we’ll find out in September.

TV on Thursdays

Heroes Reborn

Will we cover it? Maybe. I can’t help but think of an old adage. “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.”

Claim to geekdom. The original Heroes got people excited about superhero/comic book TV shows, but it suffered from the properties of half-life: each subsequent season was half as good as the season that preceded it until everyone stopped caring.

TV on Fridays

Grimm

Will we cover it? We covered it last year and we’ll do it again.

Claim to geekdom. Fairy tales are real and their denizens live among us. It’s up to Nick, a Grimm, to police these otherworldly beings. Grimm’s last season had its peaks and valleys but it ended in an interesting place. Juliette can’t be dead. Can she?

TV on Saturdays

There are no shows on day seven. I’m serious. That wasn’t just a Monty Python reference; we really don’t have any geeky shows to cover on Saturday.

Steaming TV

The Awesomes

Will we cover it? We did last year, so we will again.

Claim to geekdom. The Awesomes features the vocal talents of SNL alums and pokes fun at all those super heroes who dominate popular culture. Last season was a good one overall, and we were left with a cliffhanger.

The Man in the High Castle

Will we cover it? Oh yes. If we’re giving Minority Report a glance, we have to review The Man in the High Castle.

Claim to geekdom. It’s another adaption of a Phillip K. Dick story but it’s the one no one thought would ever happen, brought to us by the guy who made Blade Runner. This one of my most anticipated new shows this upcoming season.

Jessica Jones

Will we cover it? We will in some capacity.

Claim to geekdom. Jessica Jones is the second leg of the Netflix/Marvel Defenders saga. It’s difficult to review each individual episode but I’m watching it for sure and I can’t wait for the stories to converge. Defenders might be the Avengers for the folks suffering from Marvel cinematic universe fatigue.

TV Note

But that’s not all. You may have noticed some glaring omissions: the CW’s Legends of Tomorrow, Fox’s Lucifer (based loosely off of Neil Gaiman’s character from Sandman), ABC’s Agent Carter, and Netflix’s Defenders. All of these shows premiere sometime in 2016, so we’ll have to wait a little while longer.

Fantastic Four

Kyle’s Review

The new Fantastic Four movie has received so many negative reviews that you’d think you’d get contact cosmic radiation from watching the film. As of the time of this review, Fantastic Four was holding firm at 10% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, which is good enough – or bad enough – for a tie (with Pixels) for the summer’s worst movie. We’ll get to the movie’s cons in a bit, but let’s discuss what the film did well first. Yes, there are some highlights.

The Good

The cast showed signs of chemistry. The actors Fox cast as the FF are some of Hollywood’s most promising young stars, so the chemistry wasn’t a huge surprise. You got a sense of depth and history. The love triangle between Sue Storm, Reed Richards, and Victor von Doom was understated and worked for the most part. Sue and Johnny Storm showed levels of sibling love and familial responsibility. We even saw Ben and Reed’s friendship begin and grow.

The final five to ten minutes gave fans some hope for the series’ second installment. Fox announced a Fantastic Four sequel, which is set for a June 2017 release, before the first movie even opened. (They have to retain their movie rights.) Thank goodness we saw a team that more resembled the Fantastic Four, even if it was just before the credits rolled.

This might be a horrible case of optimism on my part, but the acting performances and the glimpse of a true Fantastic Four at the movie’s end, left me hopeful.

The Bad

There’s plenty to not like about Fantastic Four, but most of the internet’s ire stems from the movie’s slow pace and the grim versions of the characters, and I can’t disagree with them.

(Director) Trank built an iceberg of a plot with little payoff. The glacial pace reminded me of a low budget sci-fi film where the focus is on asking a thought provoking question about humanity, but we’re never given a thought provoking question. At its heart, Fantastic Four should be a comic book movie and yet it tried to apologize for how ridiculous a man bursting into flames is. Note to Fox: You don’t have to apologize. The customers who paid for admission expect to see a man burst into flames.

To make matters worse, every character had a chip on their shoulder, and not just the literal chip for the Thing. This movie was the emo version of the Fantastic Four: the Fantastic Four who could star in a Zoloft commercial. I never cared for the brooding nature of Ultimate Fantastic Four (the comic of which the new Fantastic Four movie is based). It says something when Doctor Doom looks like the well-adjusted one emotionally.

Speaking of Doom, he got built up as blood-thirsty and all-powerful, and then he got beaten by a thirty-second-old superhero team in record time. If you were expecting one of Reed and Victor’s classic battle of wits, don’t. The way the Fantastic Four takes out Doc Doom could be found on any elementary school playground.

The Get-Over-Yourselves

Prior to Fantastic Four’s release, fans were belly aching that Johnny Storm was recast as an African-American. This casting choice didn’t hurt the film and since Michael B. Jordan gave a solid performance, Fantastic Four benefited from the recasting. They may look different, but you could tell Sue and Johnny were family. So “we don’t need hateration, holleration’ in this dance for me.” It’s okay to add a little flavor to Marvel’s vanilla ice cream team of superheroes.

Verdict

Even though Fantastic Four has earned most of its hateration, it’s still worth a movie rental for those moments of fine acting. I wouldn’t spend the extra dough for the theatrical release unless you can catch it at a bargain movie theater. If you’re a huge FF fan, you might consider a matinee.

Top 5 Comic Book Movies

Biff! Bam! Ker-Sploosh! Adaptations of comic books slap the summer blockbuster movie windshield like so many bug guts. We can’t get enough of them, love ‘em to death, but which comic book flick has left the biggest mark? I mean, which comic book movie is the best of all time?

Importance will play a role, but we don’t want to get too hung up on ceremony. We’d rather have movies on this list that we can watch more than once. Sure, we’ll have some older films, but those oldies must stand the test of time. In short, they must be good.

We’ll limit the movies to one per franchise, that way we won’t get a list of nothing but Superman. If you haven’t seen Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, you should. It’s pure comedic gold.

We’re also only including franchises that originated in comic books, so no Incredibles. Incidentally, I’d pick the Incredibles as my number one super hero movie: it’s the Fantastic Four done right. This was a tough list to make because there are a lot of movies to take into consideration and some just barely missed the list. Too bad we don’t make top tens.

Without further ado, here’s our top five comic book movies.

5) Captain America: The Winter Soldier

What? How dare we put Winter Soldier at number five? Don’t we know that countless critics have dubbed it the greatest comic book movie of all time?

Yeah, Captain America: The Winter Soldier is great, that’s why it made our list, but there are four other movies we liked more. The second Cap movie has some flaws – gasp – and that’s why it’s at our five spot but let’s discuss what it did well first.

The acting was great
Ditto for the direction
It dived into the characters
Global changes to the Marvel Cinematic Universe
It took risks
It’s the MCU’s The Empire Strikes Back

We don’t want to get too negative – this is a Top Five list – but we’ll share why Winter Soldier’s this far on the list. It leans too much on one comic book cliché: characters returning from the dead.

Protagonist (Cap): defrosted two movies prior
Antagonist (Winter Soldier): the power science
Hydra took over SHIELD: mostly because a Hydra scientist’s mind was uploaded into a super computer
Nick Fury turns the tide: Fury faked his death for strategic advantage

Winter Soldier abused this cliché so much that when a character died in Avengers: Age of Ultron, fans asked Joss Whedon how the character in question would return from the dead.

On a more personal note, I make three kinds of lemonade before watching Winter Soldier and I drink a different type each time someone returns from the dead. It’s a great game and yet the movie still holds up, and it follows the Winter Soldier story arc in the comics to the letter.

4) Superman (1978)

You will believe a man can fly. That tagline was epic and Superman delivered on that promise. Sure, it’s dated, and Christopher Reeve’s costume is straight up seventies, but you can’t beat the elegance of this film. It’s Superman at his truest and purest, and the symbol on his chest doesn’t stand for hope.

Sure, the scene where Supes turns back time by reversing the Earth’s rotation makes no sense (Superman would’ve killed everyone on Earth by pulling a stunt like that), and we could’ve gone with Superman 2, which was just as fun, but nothing beats the original.

3) Guardians of the Galaxy

This one came out of nowhere. I think the fact that not many knew of or had expectations for Guardians of the Galaxy helped it become the breakout hit of 2014. We had no idea who these people or places were, so Guardians set the ground work with a compelling narrative. The cast was perfect. The writing stellar. Heck, we even got one of the greatest soundtracks for a movie in years. Who didn’t want their own copy of The Awesome Mix volumes one and two?

Guardians did tap the anime trope of “the power of friendship conquers all,” but it worked for these characters. The guardians didn’t get along so well for the majority of the movie and Guardians spent plenty of time deconstructing – and making fun of – other tropes and clichés. Plus, it has a gun-toting raccoon.

We are Groot. That is all.

2) Men in Black

Yes, Men in Black was a comic book before it became a movie and for those of you keeping score, it’s also the third Marvel movie on this list. Okay. Men in Black was part of Marvel’s Malibu Comics imprint, but that’s semantics.

We were out of this world for the third movie on our list and we stay out of this world with MiB. Men in Black gave Guardians of the Galaxy the blueprint for fusing comedy with intergalactic action, but it added a buddy cop element to the mix. We haven’t seen two cops this entertaining since Lethal Weapon, and we haven’t seen one as funny as MiB until Hot Fuzz.

Men in Black came close to earning our top spot, but it came just short of another classic comic book movie.

1) Batman (1989)

This is the film that started the comic book movie craze. No one wanted to touch tights and spandex after Christopher Reeve prior to Batman, and Michael Keaton may still be the one actor who truly captured Bruce Wayne – besides Batman: The Animated Series’ Kevin Conroy.

We know we’ll catch flak from Christian Bale lovers. We love Bale’s portrayal of the Dark Knight too, even though he sounded like he needed a throat lozenge, and Heath Ledger gave us an Oscar-worthy performance as the Joker, but 1989’s Batman nailed the Caped Crusader. Any Tim Burton movie that makes you forget that Tim Burton directed it deserves our top spot. Batman honored the source material.

Did we get our list right? Let us know and give us more ideas for future Top Fives.

Ant-Man

Kyle’s Review

Despite going small, Ant-Man packs a powerful punch.

It’s difficult to compare Marvel movies because each film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) that features a solo hero uses a different genre and its tropes for its blueprint. Ant-Man chose the heist movie. Selecting this genre fed into the MCU’s second wave of films by showing a parent – in this case two, Paul Rudd’s Scott Lang and Michael Douglas’s Hank Pym – trying to be the people their children need them to be. This led to some good, if somewhat by the numbers, character development for the majority of the main cast, and this character development made for a more enjoyable viewing experience than Avengers: Age of Ultron.

Ant-Man also used Macrovision, which was how Ant-Man appeared a centimeter tall on-screen. This process provided some fresh eye candy, but the movie weaved these moments into the narrative well enough that you didn’t get overloaded with special effects. You had enough of the father-daughter moments to ground you in reality and yet, Macrovision provided some of the best action sequences we’ve seen thus far in an MCU film.

I also liked how Ant-Man introduced the Wasp. Those of you who haven’t seen the film might be crying spoilers right now, but anyone who read the Marvel comic knows that Ant-Man and the Wasp are synonymous. This movie could’ve been easily called Ant-Man and The Wasp, and that’s wonderful. The MCU has forced the Black Widow down our throats as the only super heroine of note, and it’s great to see another strong female.

Minor Spoiler Alert: Ant-Man visits the Quantum Zone. This is another one that won’t sound familiar to some fans, but the Quantum Zone could be one of the few links to the main MCU – besides the obvious S.H.I.E.L.D. flashbacks – that Ant-Man makes. On the surface, Ant-Man comes off as a standalone Marvel movie, which is great if you’ve missed a movie or two, but if you caught the silhouette Scott Lang didn’t see, while he was in the Quantum Zone, you’d know that Ant-Man might have more than its S.H.I.E.L.D. and Avengers references. Yes, the figure in question might be Janet Van Dyne, who disappeared in the Quantum Zone, but the person in question might be a nod to the upcoming Marvel film Doctor Strange.

There’s plenty to love in Ant-Man (I enjoyed Michael Pena’s performance as Luis) and the movie adds plenty to the MCU. For those of you who think Ant-Man’s an unnecessary movie, think again. Captain America isn’t a founding member of the Avengers, but Ant-Man and the Wasp are. These two classic Avengers needed their due and Ant-Man delivers.

iZombie Review – “Dead Rat, Live Rat, Brown Rat, White Rat”

Kyle’s Review

Sorry but I’ve fallen behind again with Geekly posts, because I’m working on my book and hope to be done before the end of the summer. We’ll see. Anyway, iZombie had another interesting episode with “Dead Rat, Live Rat, Brown Rat, White Rat.” Evan Moore, Liv’s brother, finally joins the Brain Café waiting staff, so that’ll link Liv to Blaine even more than she already is. Matters get worse with Major, who finds himself on the wrong side of the Brain Café—not that there’s a right side to the Brain Café.

The cured rat failed as a zombie panacea but it was too good to be true. If Dr. Chakrabarti (Rahul Kohli) solved the zombie epidemic, the series wouldn’t last long and iZombie’s already renewed for another season. Frankly, I think the rat cure was iZombie’s exit strategy for the first season if they had gotten canceled. Regardless, we can put this storyline to rest – for the moment – and concentrate on the growing zombie drama.

Congratulations, Liv. You created your own zombie and he was the focus of this week’s mystery. It was only a matter of time until Liv got tangled into Seattle’s increasing death-rate and iZombie handled it well. Things got tied in a neat bow fast and the aftermath resulted in Liv getting outed as a zombie to her bestie, Peyton. We’ll have to see where this goes but with all the other threads converging for a big showdown with Blaine next week, iZombie’s primed for a thrilling finale.

Orphan Black Review: “Community of Dreadful Fear and Hate”

Kyle’s Review

I’ve been behind on the site for the last couple of days but hopefully, I’ll get back into the swing of things with my TV reviews—I’m only covering two shows at the moment.

Getting back to one of the two show’s I’m still covering, Orphan Black had an odd combination of characters in this week’s “Community of Dreadful Fear and Hate.” Up until this week, we haven’t seen too much of Cosima and Alison together. If you’ve been watching the show for a while, you’ll know that these two were introduced during the same episode and they’ve known each other longer than any other set of female clones, but they haven’t shared too much airtime since their first couple of episodes, and there might be a reason for that: Cosima and Alison are so different that they don’t play well together.

Cosima drives the Dyad-Top Side story and figures heavily in the clones falling like flies (because of a flaw in their design that makes them deathly ill) arc, while Alison exists separate from any other clone, because she’s the comic relief. The only clone Alison meshes well with is Sarah, but Sarah and Helena are stuck in Mexico—we’ll get back to them in a bit. You can’t even say that Alison and Cosima have much time together in “Community of Dreadful Fear and Hate” as Felix juggles the two of them at a political rally – you can’t have too many people catching a glimpse of the two clones – and when we see the two together, it undercuts the severity of Cosima’s storyline and forces deeper meaning in Alison’s arc. Usually, I’m okay with shaking things up but Cosima’s coughing up a lung, dying, and we’re making light of that, while this was the first episode of Alison’s harsh mom, so it’s difficult to get behind Alison’s need to please her mother. In fact, I’m still not sure she’s that interested in pleasing her mother because of how the episode ended. Unfortunately, most of the plottiness of this episode revolves around Cosima and Alison, but the good thing is that the other arcs worked well.

I would’ve liked to have seen more of Sarah and Helena as they reunited with Mrs. S. For those of you following the show, you’re aware that Mrs. S sold Helena out to the Castor Project, so this isn’t the happiest of reunions. We see just enough of Helena and Mrs. S talking out their differences, or rather punching out their differences, to know that this was a lengthy process of acceptance.

The other major arc had Scott, Cosima’s assistant, figuring out Duncan’s strange language (that holds the key to curing the sick clones) with Rachel. Yes, we have a Rachel sighting, and that’s a good thing. I’m still not sure if the Castor Project (who was absent in this episode) makes a good antagonist because we don’t know anything about them. We know plenty about Rachel. We know what motivates her, which makes me question why she’s helping Scott. That’s more interesting than a faceless government agency that we know nothing about.

Orphan Black’s “Community of Dreadful Fear and Hate” could’ve used less Cosima and Alison and more of anyone else, but it’s still a solid episode.

iZombie Review – “Astroburger”

Kyle’s Review

iZombie took another step forward this week with “Astroburger.” It was only a matter of time before a brain tainted with a mental illness found its way through Liv’s lips. The results were delightful unpredictability and as a result, “Astroburger” was the most light-hearted episode of iZombie to date, showcasing the source material’s penchant for quirky humor.

The majority of the show’s absurdity radiated from Liv’s episodes, you’ve gotta love a talking potato chip mascot, but the same things that jumped out as odd turn out to have some basis in this week’s mystery’s solution. You couldn’t trust anything in this episode, since we see the show through Liv’s eyes, but everything Liv experiences comes into play. iZombie does a wonderful job of weaving the real with the unreal. I know I’m talking in generalities but that’s because I don’t want to provide any spoilers. I won’t spoil any of the mystery’s hijinks, but I will reveal some ongoing storyline spoilers.

The story arc that tied Major into the rest of the show’s plot threads dried up, so he has to find out that zombies exist. He does in “Astroburger,” and the results aren’t good for Liv. Dr. Chakrabarti, Liv’s boss, may have found a cure for zombism and that brings Blaine by the lab/morgue. Okay, the cure and the fact that the zombie police Lieutenant informed Blaine that Liv might know more about the zombie underworld than she lets on brought Blaine to Liv’s home base.

Things are coming to a head for iZombie’s first season. We should get some resolution to the zombie cure, or lack thereof because I don’t see a cure for this disease in the offing any time soon, and the zombie underworld should come into focus too. iZombie has had an up and down season but it’s headed to a nice place with “Astroburger.”

Orphan Black Review – “Certain Agony of the Battlefield”

Kyle’s Review

Normally, Orphan Black waits until the season finale to give us a shocking twist and pull several threads together but they didn’t waste time this year with “Certain Agony of the Battlefield.” Unlike the previous week, this week’s Orphan Black juggled the various clones well and even managed to bring back a couple of forgotten clones: Beth (from season one) appeared in flashbacks, while Rachel made her first show in three weeks.

Rachel may know more than people give her credit. I won’t say what she knows, but it intrigues Cosima and that could tie those two clones together—and that’s a good thing. But it might not be too good of a thing that Cosima’s new girlfriend may not be as much of a secret from Delphine as she’d like. That could, and should, come back to bite Cosima. We saw enough of Alison and Donnie for a nice breath of comic relief, while the two fertile clones, Sarah and Helena, continued their escape from the Castor encampment and that’s where we get the twist.

This next bit is a spoiler, so consider yourself warned: Paul dies. Yes, the some-times love interest for the first two seasons passed away as a result of treachery. Apparently, the military knows about the male clone’s defects and the disease they spread if they have intercourse with women, and they’re okay with it. Paul tries to stop the amoral experiments, frees Sarah, and Momma shots him for his troubles. I don’t know if this cements Momma as the full-fledged villain for the third season (you could say that the military is the true culprit and she’s just a lackey), but her killing Paul puts her in the neighborhood.

We had a couple more good developments: Felix shows some grit, and the male clones had some range. “Certain Agony of the Battlefield” may be the turning point for Orphan Black’s third season. I just hope the show didn’t peak too soon—we still have another four episodes.

The Flash Secrets: May 22, 2015

The Time Sphere

Well, doesn’t that glass sphere make time travelling convenient? The Time Sphere was created in the future and allowed the Time Master, Rip Hunter (and sometimes Booster Gold), to travel through time and space. Harrison Wells, or Eobard Thawne, knows his history. It was Rip Hunter who created the Time Sphere.

Rip Hunter

Yep, he’s just your average time-traveling adventurer from the future. In fact, Rip lives so far into the future that his base of operations is at the edge of the end of all time. He’s played significant roles in several DC Crisis events, and he’s one of Booster Gold’s distant descendants.

Better yet, we’ll see Rip in the flesh when he headlines The CW’s new fall series, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow. (Here’s our write up on the new spinoff series.) If I could, I would build my own Time Sphere and travel to this fall and watch the show today. Or would it still be considered watching it in the future?

Cobalt Resin

When Cisco asks Wells about the Time Sphere’s construction, Wells told Cisco that he could prevent degradation under conditions of extreme heat with a Cobalt resin. Could that be a reference to Cobalt Blue?

Glimpse into the future

We saw a lot, when Barry ripped through the Speed Force barrier: scenes from the past and the future. If you were wondering who that meta-human woman with white hair was, the safe money’s on Caitlin Snow as Killer Frost.

The massive building guarded by two gigantic statues of The Flash was the Flash Museum. If only there was a transport I could use that would allow me to travel through time, space, and reality to visit the Flash Museum. Rip has all the fun.

A Flying Hat

Did you catch that not-so-subtle winged hat? That’s the helmet of the first Flash, Jay Garrick. We’ve seen Barry and Wells travel forward and backward in time, so what’s keeping the Golden Age Flash from doing the same? Eobard said that he had someone he had to catch up with. Could that be Jay Garrick?

A New Zoom and a Tragedy

Who knows if The Flash will go in a different direction for the Reverse-Flash? But if they do, they could go the route of Zoom or Hunter Zolomon. This might be a long shot because Harrison Wells was very loosely based on Hunter, who thought a great personal tragedy would help Wally West become a better hero, but Hunter’s powers are less about running really fast and more about time-traveling, so it looks like he’s running fast and that could work if The Flash turns to more time-traveling antics.

Barry becomes a father

Henry says that Barry might better understand things if he had kids himself and in the comics, he does. When Barry and Iris go to the future to retire, they have a pair of twins and a grandson, Bart, who would become Impulse/Kid Flash/The Flash. Phew. Looks like Bart has more nicknames than Roy and Thea.

Run, Barry, run

Wells says this a lot, but it was more sinister this time, and Henry Allen joined the fun by uttering these same words to Barry at the time of his wife’s death.

Excelsior

Nice one, Martin Stein. But does Stan Lee’s catchphrase work on a show about The Flash?

Cisco and his Pop References

“Back to the future.”
“So long, and thanks for all the fish.” Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
“1 minute and 52 seconds.” Another “52” reference.
“May the Speed Force be with you.” Star Wars

Vibe

Cisco got his vibe on after all. We’ll have to see what happens with his transformation into a superhero.

Killer Frost and Firestorm

Ah, Caitlin got hitched this week. In the comics, Caitlin’s alter ego Killer Frost is mortal enemies with Firestorm. I can’t wait to see what The Flash has in store for us because we know Caitlin’s going to go through some cha-cha-cha-changes.

Fading out

Eobard Thawne’s fade into oblivion looked a lot like Barry’s own fade out in Crisis on Infinite Earths. I don’t think that’s a coincidence.

The Singularity

A similar antimatter-like event horizon, to the one we saw at the end of this episode, occurred in Zero Hour: A Crisis in Time. In Zero Hour, too many anomalies in the time stream caused existence to eat itself. That doesn’t sound like fun.

Flashpoint

It looks like Barry averted the events of Flashpoint, a storyline in the comics that showed what would happen if Barry saved his mother. Or did he? The future Flash waved off our Barry, perhaps because he already knew that nothing good can happen from saving his mother. Then there’s the fact that John Wesley Shipp (Henry Allen) said that the Flash writers are looking at Flashpoint stories for season two. Perhaps we will see this bleak future after all.

Hawkgirl

Yes, there was Hawkgirl sighting in this week’s episode. She was one of the bystanders in the final scene.

Did you miss our Flash review? Check it out here.