Arrow Secrets: May 8, 2015

Roy Harper as Jason

So, Roy picked the name Jason as his alias. That’s interesting because Roy Harper is currently paired with Jason Todd, the second Robin and current Red Hood, in the comics. The two have fought side-by-side since the start of the New 52 in 2011. Coincidence? I don’t think so.

Amina Raatko

Arrow grabbed Nyssa’s origin from the source material, sort of. In the comics, Nyssa was the illegitimate child of Ra’s and his mistress Raatko (the same name of Nyssa’s mother in this week’s episode), who wasn’t part of the League. This separation from the League allowed Nyssa to grow up as a normal child, who heard stories of her great father from her mother. Eventually, Nyssa sought out Ra’s and then she joined the League. That kind of sounds like Thea’s path as an assassin. Hmm.

Katana

Here we go. We finally got to see Tatsu don her Katana costume and like the comics, her family (her husband and son) is dead. I don’t know if Arrow will go this route (with Maseo) but Tatsu did take her husband and son’s souls by driving her enchanted sword, the Soultaker, into their flesh. By taking people’s souls, Katana can commune with their spirits. That sounds a little far-fetched for the world of Arrow but you never know.

Ibn al Ghul

In this week’s episode, Ra’s called the future offspring of Nyssa and Ollie “Ibn al Ghul,” which means Son of the Demon. This might be a stretch but Arrow had to be thinking of the Kingdom Come storyline where Batman and Talia had a son named Ibn al Xu’ffasch or Son of the Bat. That same kid was also named Damian Wayne and the other child introduced in this season of Arrow (through Ra’s’ long monologue last week) was named Damien. That can’t be a coincidence, can it?

In case you missed it, here’s a link to our Arrow-Flash Spin-Off preview.

Did you miss our Arrow review for this week? Check it out here.

Arrow Review – “This Is Your Sword”

Kyle’s Review

Arrow showed its hand with “This Is Your Sword,” the episode just before the season finale, and the results were mixed. Let’s start with the positives: I liked the action with Katana, for the most part, the team reassembling – to include Ray – was nice, the flashbacks continued to weave into the present day story arc better than it did earlier in the season, and we got to see Roy (more on him in our secrets page).

Unfortunately, the weaker elements outweighed the positives. Arrow did intend for Ollie to take down Ra’s, which like I said last week, demeans the Ra’s Al Ghul character. Merlyn, in turn, betrayed Ollie—perhaps. This could go one of two directions, either this is a double bluff by Ollie and Merlyn (the more likely of the two options), or Merlyn proved to be the weasel he’s been for the better part of three seasons. I like it when characters grow, so I’m partial to the former of these two options. Regardless, there’s no way the Alpha/Omega disease was used on Team Arrow, sans Ollie and Katana.

Getting back to Katana’s action, I didn’t like how some of her fighting moves looked like she was ballet-cizing. I know that most fight scenes incorporate dance, but she looked ridiculous at times. Still, you’ve gotta love Katana in her full costume and the moment when she takes Maseo’s life felt earned. Those were nice touches.

The waters are less murky for Arrow and that’s okay because there are still some twists and turns that have yet to present themselves. I hope that Arrow can end this season on a high note, while maintaining the integrity of the Ra’s Al Ghul character. We’ll have to see what happens next week.

Verdict:

“This Is Your Sword” was an action-packed episode of Arrow that revealed enough goods, to explain some of Arrow’s writer’s room choices, while keeping a few things close to the vest, so that there’s something left for the season finale.

We cover the upcoming Flash-Arrow Spin-Off with this preview.

Need more Arrow? Head to our Arrow secrets page.

iZombie Review – “Dead Air”

Kyle’s Review

“Dead Air” continued iZombie’s slow build of a zombie underworld and saw the return of a reasonable solution to the weekly mystery. I like how the zombie police lieutenant runs interference for Blaine’s criminal brain harvesting – that makes sense – and how that makes his job difficult. He mentions that hiding several bodies is a logistical nightmare and warns Blaine that he has to be more discrete. The loose ends the brain trade present should come to a head in just enough time for iZombie’s season finale, but the zombie romance story arc may have caught a snag.

I’m still not on board with a zombie romance – iZombie needs to distance itself from Warm Bodies – so the romantic snag in “Dead Air” was welcome for me. Liv doesn’t know if her relationship with the zombie hunk is anything more than just physical. I’m surprised she hasn’t questioned it before now. She hopped into bed with this guy after one episode (one week) and the two characters’ lives didn’t intersect before zombification. I smiled when Liv asked, “Would we even know each other if we didn’t become zombies?” I would answer, no, and while I would prefer no zombie romance, I’ll give one a chance if iZombie takes the time to develop one, but romance isn’t the only thing iZombie developed this week.

Major’s crusade to find justice for his charges blows up in his face time and time again, Dr. Chakrabarti (Liv’s boss at the mortuary) asks out Liv’s childhood friend Peyton, and there was a nice cliffhanger –something iZombie doesn’t do a lot of – at the end of “Dead Air” that should make things interesting.

Verdict:

“Dead Air” was a return to form for iZombie with the zombie underworld brewing in a delightful way.

Captain’s Wager

Take the steampunk genre, add a pirate theme to it and sprinkle a modern take on Poker for good measure and you get Captain’s Wager. If you like any of these three things, this game is a good fit. If you like all three things, Captain’s Wager may be the perfect game for you.

We’ll sail off to the review after the tide rolls in but first, we must make preparations and cover the technical speak.

The Fiddly Bits
Designer: Jonathan Hager
Publisher: Grey Fox Games
Date Released: 2014
Number of Players: 2-5
Age Range: 12 and up
Setup Time: Less than a minute
Play Time: Around 30 minutes
Game Mechanics:
Betting/Wagering
Hand Management

Game Flow:

Captain’s Wager, at its core, is a betting and wager card game but it has plenty of twists and turns. Players start the game with a deck of treasure cards. All of these treasure decks are the same (they consist of the same cards) and each of these decks has the color and symbol of your pirate clan on its backing.

All five pirate clans card backings

The cards in your treasure deck are kept face down and act like your currency with which to ante for a hand and bet with during a hand—but Captain’s Wager calls hands encounters. There are three encounters per round and whoever wins the most encounters in a round, takes treasure cards from the treasure pile (that folks anted and betted with), looks at these cards, and can either place them face up in their captured treasure pile (for points printed on the cards) or add them to their hand (if they have a neat ability). In order to win an encounter, you’re dealt four crew cards at the beginning of every round.

Example of Crew Cards

Each of these crew cards has a number in the top left-hand corner, ranging from 1-20, and most of them have a special effect that can improve their value. Players take turns playing one of their crew cards from their hand face up – some of these cards allow you to play extra cards from your hand during an encounter – and the player who ends the turn with the highest crew card value wins the encounter.

Example of Treasure Cards (Point Value in Top-Right Corner)

The game ends when one player runs out of cards in their (face down) treasure deck, which essentially means that they got cleaned out of all their money. After this happens, players tally up their score. You get a point for each card left in your treasure deck, count up the point values for the treasure in your captured treasure pile, and there are some treasure cards in your hand that can earn you points. The player with the most points wins.

The above game flow has a few things omitted – and we’ll get to those things in just a bit – but that’s pretty much the gist of Captain’s Wager.

Game Review:

Captain’s Wager, just like Poker, is mostly about betting and how well you can read other players. You can get dealt a great hand but other players can overcome your great hand if they play their cards better than you. The game does this well enough that pure luck can be overcome with skilled play. That must have taken the designer Jonathan Hager quite some time to get balanced.

One unique treasure per pirate clan

You can also borrow gold or even fold (Captain’s Wager calls it stealing) instead of paying for a hand. These two options add even more strategy to the base game flow. There are some crew members that allow you to pawn some of your negative point, loan tokens on another player and folding, and not wasting your cards and treasure, may be the optimal choice in certain situations.

Mechanical Dragon: he doesn’t have effect text but he’s big and nasty

Captain’s Wager is easy to pick up but it takes time to know when to hold ‘em and when to fold ‘em. It takes 30 minutes to play Captain’s Wager but that doesn’t refer to your first time playing the game. Most rookies will view folding as losing and that’ll lead to them playing more cards, betting more treasure, and ending the game sooner because they’ll run out of treasure but Captain’s Wager has another barrier for new players. Fortunately, it’s a small one.

While most betting/wager games earn you points/money at the end of each hand, you don’t take from the Captain’s Wager treasure pile until a round (three hands or encounters) are finished. This sounds like it’s not that big of a deal but it takes time – about one play through – for you to wrap your brain around this odd rule.

I could also see some folks say that Captain’s Wager doesn’t have enough theme but I think that’s an unfair assessment. The name lets you know that it’s a betting/wager game—wager’s in the title. You assume the role of a steampunk captain and the crew cards mimic the types of characters you’d encounter in such a world and occupation. The art and graphics are phenomenal, the gameplay is quick and fun, but I’d say that it plays better with more players.

With more players, you’ll end up with more difficult choices in terms of which crew cards you’ll play, more treasure cards enter play, and there’s less of a chance of one player winning two rounds and that makes the game out of reach for everyone else at the table.

Verdict:

This game just finished its Kickstarter campaign and won’t be out until the July-August timeframe (around GenCon), so I can’t give a definite verdict for it yet, but I can’t wait for its release.

Orphan Black Review – “Formalized, Complex, and Costly”

Kyle’s Review

Orphan Black’s male and female clones are more entangled than we first thought and the two genders are on the prowl for the original clone DNA. “Formalized, Complex, and Costly” sheds enough light on some questions so that twice as many new questions take their place but the show shines with its continued success of weaving multiple storylines.

Mark and Gracie, on-the-lam, pursue new leads to find the DNA samples that will cure both the males and females. At the same time, Cosima and Scott learn as much as they can about the male clone’s biology, which led to the revelation about the males and females as kin, while Alison is on the campaign trail and business/politics are looking good. Art finally joins the exclusive Clone Club and that causes a much needed link to Toronto, Canada. With Helen abroad and the rest of the clones spread out across the winds, it’s nice to have an anchor like Art. Rest assure that the show ends with a deadly showdown (no spoilers) and we get a cliffhanger that demands you to watch next week.

I’m amazed at how well Orphan Black can show enough of each member of its large cast to keep me vested in them. “Formalized, Complex, and Costly” gave me enough info to whet my appetite but it also keeps enough shrouded that I’ll be back for more.

Verdict:

Despite the second set of clones slowing down the narrative by a hair, Orphan Black continues with a strong third season.

Bob’s Burgers Review – “Eat, Spray, Linda”

Kyle’s Review

Ordinarily, I’d say that going from a Gene-centric story last week to a Linda-centric story this week would be too much – they’re two of the shallowest characters on Bob’s Burgers – but “Eat, Spray, Linda” overcame its Linda-ness. This Linda-driven story broke away from her need to be a star and focused on a woman worried about growing old. This not only served as a good divergence from the usual, it gave some insight as to why Linda would want to be a star: she’s afraid of her own mortality.

That last line may have been an overstatement but at the very least, “Eat, Spray, Linda” humanized Linda. She went through the ringer – in typical sitcom fashion – this episode and the rest of the family learned a lot about her. Linda may not have the glamorous life she envisions but she still lives an interesting one. Plus, Linda, according to one of this week’s songs, “BMs in the PM.”

That might have been too much information but it’s these windows into these characters (maybe not the bathroom window) that makes Bob’s Burgers a joy and if you follow Bob’s Burgers, you’ll enjoy “Eat, Spray, Linda.”

Grimm Review – “You Don’t Know Jack”

Kyle’s Review

Grimm traded the weekly Wesen for introducing a yarn about Jack the Ripper. I hope this story has deeper roots instead of a just a ploy to introduce the famous serial killer. A couple of weeks ago, Renard made the comment that “most of the world’s crimes involve Wesen.” I groaned at that unbelievable statement then but pinning Jack the Ripper on a Wesen goes a little far. Still, if one of the show’s regulars has a link with these killings, I might be more inclined to accept this story, but like other weeks before it, this week’s strength rests with the ongoing arcs, namely Adalind’s pregnancy and Juliette going off the deep end.

I’m a little standoffish toward Adalind playing house – of sorts – with Nick. She’s been the antagonist for the better part of three seasons and it’s difficult to see her in any other role but it makes sense that she’d be willing to help Nick and company as much as she can. She’s protected her own hide for years and she’s gotten good at it. Nick is trapped between safeguarding Adalind and their unborn child and Juliette, the woman that he thought was the love of his life. Grimm has played up the conflicted Nick – David Giuntoli as Nick isn’t as subtle as Grant Gustin’s Barry Allen – but the stakes are high and you can see why Nick would want to side with both women in his life. Juliette has made it more and more difficult to side with her. I won’t go into any detail and drop spoilers but she may have crossed a line at the end of “You Don’t Know Jack” of which there is no return. Kudos to Grimm if they commit to this darker path but something tells me that they won’t.

The Renard storyline doesn’t interest me that much but if he’s involved in the Jack the Ripper arc somehow, I could get invested in the story. Nick’s mom (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio) should make another appearance and that’s always a good sign, and all of these story arc noodles are getting tied together, making that final push for a solid finale.

Top 5 TV Shows for April 2015

We had another odd month of TV in April. Bob’s Burgers was off the air, Powers continued to fluctuate between good and I can’t watch this, and iZombie introduced its love interest—and I’m not a big fan of that arc.

As a result, those three shows didn’t make our list but we have five others that met the challenge – for the most part – and we saw a couple of resurgences and a couple of new faces. That’s enough about the also ran shows, let’s get to our Top 5 RV shows for April, 2015.

5) Arrow

Oddly enough, Arrow makes it on our list because even though they haven’t been consistent, they’re a lot more consistent than the three shows that just missed the cut. I could exchange five and four – and have a couple of times – and I wouldn’t feel too bad about doing so, but Arrow starts off our list because of its inconsistency all year.

We’re also awarding Team Arrow’s risk-taking. They may or may not have written themselves into a corner but they’re coming out swinging and that should make for an interesting season finale.

4) Grimm

Grimm edges out Arrow again this month but by the narrowest of margins. Nick and company haven’t had the best track record for the month of April either but their ongoing story arcs solidify the four spot here. Their season finale is also more of a sure thing – as in they should have more a workable and coherent ending to their season – than the man in the hood.

Grimm should watch its back. Arrow could zip pass them next month, should Arrow deliver a memorable finale—and that’s something Arrow does well.

3) The Flash

The Flash dropped from our top spot last month, but it didn’t fall too far. It lands at our third spot because, like so many of the other shows on our list, it wasn’t consistent. The Flash’s last two weeks were solid and propelled the season to its finale but the two episodes at the beginning of last month didn’t fare as well. Hopefully, The Flash will ride its newfound momentum to a great finish.

2) Orphan Black

Orphan Black made its triumphant return this month. The acting, direction, and writing are still firing on all cylinders. I was skeptical of the newly introduced male clones and how they’d fit in this world but they’ve integrated well and I’m surprised Orphan Black didn’t get our top spot. But there’s one show that topped it.

1) Daredevil

There’s no doubt that Daredevil should earn top honors this month. Daredevil is to Netflix what Final Fantasy VII was to the original Playstation. If you didn’t buy the device/service yet, this is your reason to do it.

The action sequences are rawer than anything you’ll see on any other channel. You can feel Matt Murdoch fighting twelve people in the single shot hallway scene. It’s not pretty but taking on twelve people at once isn’t pretty. The acting’s fantastic; each character was three dimensional, not your typical flat stereotypes. I was on the fence about making Kingpin, a villain that barely qualifies as human in the comics, sympathetic but Vincent D’Onofrio brought the character to life. And if this is what we can expect from the marriage between Netflix, Marvel, and ABC Studios, bring on the rest of the Defenders.

Jessica Jones, Iron Fist, and Luke Cage already have series planned for later this year and early next year and Punisher just got added to the mix. I can’t wait.

For those of you who don’t have Netflix, here’s the intro for Daredevil. It’s haunting and a warning that there will be blood. Yes, there’s plenty of blood but the blood serves as a reminder of Matt Murdoch’s dangerous world. He won’t escape too many fights without a few scrapes.

Top 5 Games: April 2015

Avengers: Age of Ultron

Jim’s Review

I enjoyed Age of Ultron. I came out of the theatre having had a good time, but let’s get something out of the way and say it wasn’t as good as The Avengers. Some of that is just going to be chalked up to the law of diminishing returns. Simply put, we’ve seen these fireworks before, but there’s more to it than that.

Age of Ultron makes some weird choices. Some of them are out of necessity, but others are creative decisions that I don’t particularly agree with. Maybe the most glaring of those is the budding romance between Hulk and Black Widow. If you read that and you’re shocked, my point is already proven. It seems absurd, and no interaction between the two characters has ever suggested there was any romantic spark between them. It feels forced, and things feeling forced is sort of the mantra behind most of what’s wrong with the movie.

Major plot points, like Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver switching sides, happen too easily. The effort to give every character a side plot felt tacked-on, and seemed to mostly be about setting up future story-lines.

Essentially, the problem with Age of Ultron is a simple one: there are too many characters, and with a 2 1/2 hour runtime, they really couldn’t add enough movie to accommodate them all. Even the titular villain, Ultron sometimes gets lost in the mix.

Personally, I think this has been the inevitable fate of these movies. They keep forcing the follow-up to be bigger, it’s succumbing to the fallacy that more is better, and they have begun to crack under their own weight. With that said, the movie does its job. It held my attention, and it set up what’s to come next.

If I were to highlight everything that I found wrong with this movie, it would sound like I disliked it. Maybe I’m already there, but that’s not really how I feel. I wasn’t even disappointed by Age of Ultron, I just wasn’t as impressed as I hoped to be.

Kyle’s Take

That’s an in depth analysis of Age of Ultron, Jim, that I can’t refute. I’ll start by saying that Age of Ultron may not be the movie I expected, but it’s still the comic book movie and blockbuster for the summer. Still, it’s not without some issues. I’ll boil the movie’s shortcomings to two main problems (both of which you mentioned, Jim) that may have critics and fans less than impressed: too many characters and the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s prior success.

Age of Ultron has a runtime of two hours and twenty minutes – that includes fifteen minutes of credits – so it’s actually the shortest movie Marvel has made in quite some time and they have twelve (or more) characters fighting for screen time. Each character is left with an average of ten minutes apiece, so weird choices like the Hulk and Black Widow romance and easy fixes like Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver flip-flopping were out of necessity. We don’t have time for Black Widow this movie, so let’s hook her up with eeny, meeny, miny, Hulk. Yeah, the Hulk works. It didn’t. Several of these choices felt rushed and took me out of Marvel’s world, but I can’t help but think that previous Marvel movies colored my reaction to this film.

Of the five Marvel movies leading up to Age of Ultron, three are on my short list for the best comic book movies of all time. The first Avengers film, Captain America: Winter Soldier, and Guardians of the Galaxy developed their characters – Avengers had help from other movies – and gave us engaging stories, steeped in Marvel’s rich history. I entered the movie theater hoping for another comic book movie great (maybe not as great as those three) and found that Age of Ultron deviated from the Marvel Universe more than those other films and didn’t have enough time to ground us in its characters. Such is the fate of most comic book movie franchises. You start off with one villain and then one villain isn’t enough, so you keep adding more and more until you reach critical mass. The Marvel Cinematic Universe isn’t to that point yet, but I don’t see how they can possibly crossover every character and make it work.

But let’s face it. If you’ve watched the Marvel movies up to this point, you’re going to watch Age of Ultron and you’ll have a good time.