iZombie Review: “Physician, Heal Thy Selfie”

Kyle’s Thoughts

A lot of disparate story threads came together in another fun episode of iZombie. “Physician, Heal Thy Selfie” showed how Blaine factored into the larger criminal underworld. Mr. Boss, the don of the Seattle crime scene, has found out that Blaine’s the new drug lord of the streets. The Seattle police department, in turn, searches the streets for the new player (Blaine), while the District Attorney turns full-on zombie and kills some of Mr. Boss’s drug dealers who threatened to kill him. Blaine’s influence and the open spot in Mr. Boss’s crime ring leaves space for Blaine to become part of the fold. Meanwhile, Major gets outed for the zombie murder he didn’t commit (he couldn’t kill a zombie dad, the aforementioned District Attorney) and Max Rager puts the screws to him. As you can tell a lot happened but the “Physician, Heal Thy Selfie” had nice pacing and the blocks fit neatly into place.

The only issue I had with this week’s episode was the relationship between Liv and her zombie beau. It’s not that iZombie failed to develop the two’s love affair. It’s that it the romance was a plot device, tying in another loose end or two. Through happenstance, by virtue of her lover, Liv knows of Blaine’s involvement with the greater Seattle mob. This will start a domino effect that will lead Liv to discover how all the pieces fit. A spark like this had to happen sooner or later but I would’ve preferred later. Just because you let the viewers know how the pieces fit one week doesn’t mean that the main character should know.

I’m not sure how many episodes are left in this season, so Liv’s romance serving as a plot device might not be that big of a deal. If iZombie only has six more episodes, it’s right on schedule. If there’s another half to the season, “Physician, Heal Thy Selfie” will have given way too much away too soon and either the show gets caught in a holding pattern or we’ll have to start questioning Liv’s intelligence with her inability to connect the dots, especially since her best friend Peyton is the new District Attorney and the two should discuss their two sides of the same criminal coin.

The brains Liv was on this week were fun. She took on the traits of a social media guru, so Liv morphed into a Facebook thirsty, Twitter mad, Instagrammer. This led to some great moments. Liv captures a video of herself opening a morgue supply box; it got 105 views on YouTube. She Instagrams her brain sushi before she eats it; she tags it as a salmon roll. She tweets out photos of herself at a crime scene. Clearly, a social media savvy medical examiner wouldn’t do most of what Liv did in this episode but iZombie has a habit of using exaggeration to the point of absurdity for comedic effect, and “Physician, Heal Thy Selfie” is a shining example.

I enjoyed this week’s episode. I only hope that iZombie hasn’t started its rise toward its season’s climax before it’s ready.

Grimm Review “A Reptile Dysfunction”

Kyle’s Thoughts

“A Reptile Dysfunction” worked on many levels (not the least of which was the puntastic name), but the weekly wesen fell flat. I loved seeing the return of Grimm’s police procedural roots—they haven’t done anything with Nick and Hank on a case in a while—and a lot of the side stories swirling around gained some clarity.

Eve isn’t a resurrected Juliette; we saw Juliette’s body as proof. Instead she’s a constructed wesen, think of a Grimm take on Frankenstein’s monster. Even though I liked this distinction, it’s a bit of a cop out: we didn’t want to bring back Juliette because of storyline conflicts but we didn’t want to get rid of Bitsie Tulloch, the actress who plays Juliette/Eve. It also doesn’t help that Eve works for the mysterious, government organization Hadrian’s Wall.

It’s well established that the Black Claw, also known as Schwarzkralle, plan to reshape the world into a place where wesen don’t have to hide their true selves. I had forgotten the Nazi party, according to Grimm lore, wanted to do the same thing in the Thirties and Forties, so it tracks that the Black Claw would borrow more than a thing or two from their predecessors, but we don’t know much about Hadrian’s Wall besides that they’re part of the government and they oppose the Black Claw. This powerful organization remade Juliette into Eve and has copious amounts of funds in order to turn Trubel into a secret agent Grimm.

Grimm continues to hold back pertinent information but it’s only aired seven or eight episodes, so it’ll be a while before we some real resolution. Until then, we’re left with Nick and Hank solving a crime and this is where “A Reptile Dysfunction” comes into play. I liked Nick and Hank going back to work, but the wesen they pursued were either unintelligent, juvenile, or both. When the gang raids the groups’ hideout, the two culprits point their fingers at each other and said he did it. I half expected Nick to say don’t make me turn this car around.

Overall “A Reptile Dysfunction” provided some much needed clarity, for the Black Claw and Eve’s identity in particular, but the weekly murder mystery held it back from being a great episode. Even so Grimm’s trending upward.

DC Comics Legends of Tomorrow Review: “Blood Ties”

Kyle’s Thoughts

Legends of Tomorrow has gotten past its awkward pilot and developed Vandal Savage as a formidable villain, but the gang of misfits struggles to pull things together. The episode’s title, “Blood Ties,” refers to Captain Cold and the Snart family, and we get another reason why Cold may be on this trip, but Snart’s ability to do something about his rotten childhood is serendipitous. Wow! That worked out real well for him, didn’t it? He just happened to be in the right time to prevent his father from going to jail. Too bad the time line corrected itself by the episode’s end. Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate the effort Legends is putting into giving Snart (and company) a reason for being on this team but providing a new motivation for Snart each episode is a lot like giving him no reason for being there.

Meanwhile, we don’t get a single scene with the two halves of Firestorm, which makes sense because Dr. Stein roofied Jackson into going. I’m sure Legends is trying to distance itself from that, so that can’t be the real reason why the two didn’t share time, but it’s conspicuous just the same. Jackson is closer in age to the two thieves (Legends doesn’t offer another reason why the African-American half of Firestorm would be paired with the two criminals for a second time in three episodes; I don’t think Legends has an agenda, but this is partially why the Firestorm split is conspicuous), and Palmer and Stein have science to bond over, even if Stein can’t remember Palmer from his class. The two scientists share forced moments but they were decent in those moments despite clunky dialogue.

Stein and Palmer spent the bulk of “Blood Ties” fixing up Hawkgirl. Now I was excited when I heard that Hawkgirl would be on Legends. I thought, finally, a female character with a heap of power who can kick butt. And she’s spent the first two episodes wallowing in self-pity, only to spend this episode in a coma. To be fair she did wake from her coma but she’d better get tough and fast.

Rip Hunter and White Canary made up the third major grouping and it worked better than most of the others. My biggest issue is, again, the blood lust. Didn’t we just hear in Arrow that Sara should be fine (in regards to her “blood lust”) because John Constantine made her whole? Well, that’s not the case here, although White Canary sells the blood lust a lot better than Thea. I believe that the Canary has a blood lust, but she shouldn’t. Despite this shortcoming, we discovered more about Rip and Canary. I loved watching Canary size up an opponent; that’s something Arrow didn’t explore and it fits with the character.

In fact, Legends put in a lot of work developing Cold, Rip, Canary, and Savage. I had my doubts of whether or not Vandal Savage could carry a series but he’s proven to be a great adversary. It’s too bad the CW is wasting yet another good villain on a show that’s flailing. Legends won’t have as many episodes as Arrow or Flash, so it doesn’t have time to waste; it has to get it together soon.

There were plenty of secrets in Legends of Tomorrow. Warp to our Legends of Tomorrow secrets page.

Arrow Review: “Unchained”

Jim’s Thoughts

Arrow outdid The Flash this week. At least some of that is because of a few returns to the cast. Seeing Roy back, and being brought up to speed on Nyssa and the goings on at the League of Assassins were reminders of stronger episodes, but the real trick to it is that the league and Thea’s condition are being brought back to what’s made this season tick, and that’s Damien Darhk.

Having Damien’s wife oppose Oliver for mayor felt odd, just because to this point, I’ve almost forgotten about the mayoral race subplot completely. Here again, though, Arrow’s writers seem to be tying it all back to Darhk, and that’s something I hit The Flash for hard this week, losing focus on the central (and most interesting) conflict.

Speaking of my gripes about The Flash, I have to be even handed here with Arrow. While they did a much better job of not letting the plot meander, Felicity is continuing to get a disproportionate amount of screen time. We got a double dose of that this week with the development of the latest piece of Palmer tech, then this episode’s villain of the week. I won’t spoil the big connection to Felicity for those who still need to catch up, but I will say I found it groan-worthy.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, the flashbacks were another long yawn this week. They’re being used too much to tie some theme, some lesson Ollie needs to learn from his past into the present situation, and that’s just not enough to make it interesting. Areas where they try to make the flashbacks relevant to the current plot have been sloppy at best, and the show is getting so crowded anyway that I’m thinking it’d be best to ditch the flashback formula altogether.

It was another imperfect episode, but I will say I am happy to see some indication of a big showdown in the making, something that will be a satisfying conclusion to the Damien Darhk story, or at least this part of it. That shows that even if the show isn’t taking the scenic route, it at least knows where it’s supposed to end up.

Kyle’s Take

I’m not so sure about Arrow staying on task with their main villain. This is the perfect example of developing villains so you can return to them in the future, and viewers will care about them (that I mentioned in my Flash take). The League of Assassins factors into the Darhk story on a cursory level.

There’s no way the League is the end game this season (that’s Darhk), and they can’t be next season’s big bad (they were the big bad last season), so we’re left with a five to six episode mini arc in the middle of the season, while Darhk is placed on the backburner. Don’t believe me? Arrow did the same thing last year with Brick. He was in a five to six episode mini arc while Ollie was away, and when Ollie returned to Starling City, he defeated Brick in a minute and a half.

Okay. This season might not play out the same way as last season. Last season was last season, but you can’t introduce the League this late, open the huge can of worms that comes with them, and not have the resulting fallout consume half of what remains of this season.

It would help if Thea wasn’t an obvious plot device. In fact, she’s been less character and more plot device all season. I never believed her “blood lust.” She was normal last season, the season she was first resurrected (with a third of the season left). The “blood lust” started this season and she goes from 0 to 300 miles per hour in 0.00002 seconds. I need to kill. Now I can chill for two or three episodes and talk about my “blood lust” but not show any signs of struggling with it until the script tells me that I need to kill. Oh, now Darhk rid me of my “blood lust” and nothing’s wrong for five episodes. Oh, the “Unchained” script says that I’ll capture a villain and faint, even though I’ve shown no signs of physical fatigue up to this point. Really? You can do better than that, Arrow. A simple I don’t feel so good, I need to lie down before this episode would’ve been nice.

Don’t get me wrong, I liked seeing familiar faces. It was nice catching up with Roy and Nyssa. The future Mr. Terrific made an appearance after disappearing for multiple episodes. He’s an okay secondary character but I wasn’t too choked up when he pulled a vanishing act. The problem with Terrific is that he’s linked with Felicity pulling Palmer Tech from the brink of bankruptcy, and that story’s misguided at best just as the one with Ollie running for mayor. And the Calculator, this episode’s villain of the week, was forgettable, except that he has ties with Felicity, so we haven’t seen the last of him. Hopefully, he’s not another villain who will steal focus from Darhk.

“Unchained” was an enjoyable episode, so long as you fast forward past the Felicity parts, but Arrow runs the risk of flying further off the rails than Flash.

Do you want more Arrow? Check out our Arrow secrets page. Thanks for reading.

Flash Review: “Fast Lane”

Jim’s Thoughts

Pacing continues to be a problem for The Flash. It wasn’t that we got a bad episode. We got another entry in keeping with what we’ve come to expect from the show. That means we were introduced to another villain of the week, a few light hearted moments, and a bit of personal drama. Normally it doesn’t bother me, but we’re entering the back half of the season now, we’ve been teased with a huge Zoom confrontation, and for some reason we spent most of our time delving into West family theatrics. In short, what bothers me is that everything not Zoom feels like filler.

Iris had been bothering me less as a character lately, and that was largely undone this week. She was a human public service announcement, lecturing everyone, and sneaking around with all the investigative skill of a toddler reaching their fork into the electrical outlet.

Wells’ part of the story had something to it. That could be because it’s the only thing on screen that serves to remind us of the larger conflict the writers insist on letting die on the vine, but even here it played out too quickly.

This week’s episode gave us one great character moment, and that was Barry’s speech to the team about not leaving Earth 2, or Wells’ daughter to their doom. It seemed ill-fitting that he’d need to say any of that to his team, but after some weird emo-esque choices with Barry this season, I liked being reminded of why he’s a hero.

At this point, I’m hoping for a strong finish for season 2, but they really need to narrow their focus, quit cramming every storyline into every episode, and give us a proper buildup to the final showdown with Zoom.

Kyle’s Take

I agree, in principle, with most of Jim’s points. The biggest problem The Flash has is pacing. I can’t knock “Fast Lane” too much for continuing the West family story arc, when I’ve bashed this show and Arrow for dropping a story arc that didn’t have a resolution in the past, but I don’t find the West family story interesting either.

At this point the West storyline doesn’t serve a purpose except to give air time to more characters from the DC Universe, but perhaps one of the Wests’ Earth-2 counterparts is Zoom. I’m going to give Flash the benefit of the doubt for the time being. It would make sense to deviate from Zoom this much if Flash made Zoom one of Earth-2’s Wests and therefore the West family story from Earth-Prime could serve as a parallel background for Zoom. The biggest sin The Flash is guilty of this week is giving way too much time for the West arc, and moving their story at a snail’s pace, while putting the Wells’ story on fast forward.

There was nothing wrong with the progression of the Wells’ story: he betrays Barry, he comes clean, the gang locks him up, and after a minute, he’s freed and forgiven. The problem with the Wells’ story is that it was resolved in the amount of time it took our readers to read through that chain of events. It’s okay if The Flash wants to dedicate more time to the Wests, but the show has to provide the Wells story with more time to germinate and it needs the same care.

Iris annoyed me in this episode. I’m not sure what she brings to the table as an investigative reporter (she’s held that job for a year now), when she barges into a mobster’s front door and threatens to out him as a mobster. That’s a good way of becoming a blood stain. And every time she lectured one of the West boys (yes, even her father Detective West), I kept waiting for a G. I. Joe character like Duke or Scarlett to pop out and say, “And knowing is half the battle.” Then I would remember that G. I. Joe is a Marvel comic and that wouldn’t work unless we had a bizarre crossover. Seriously, someone has to splice footage of Iris from this episode with a G. I. Joe public service announcement and post it to YouTube. You’d get a thousand views from me alone. Go, Joe!

Sorry. I got off topic, just like the parts of “Fast Lane” that didn’t deal with Wells, Barry, or Zoom. Even though The Flash should focus on the main villain more, I don’t know that recurring villains isn’t a bad formula. The Flash doesn’t waste any time with a villain outside the big bad of the season and Captain Cold, and Captain Cold left for another show. I still wonder what happened to The Pied Piper, especially after Dr. Wells of Earth-Prime’s death, and I’m thirsty for more Gorilla Grodd. The Flash needs to slow down with revealing all of the hero’s rogues and let us latch on to a few of them. If it did that, we might care that this week’s episode features Mirror Master or whoever else happens to grace the screen.

The Flash did have that shining moment Jim mentioned where Barry ditched his emo aesthetic and rallied the troops. He did reminded us why he’s a hero. Hopefully, The Flash can remember to balance its storylines and give more attention to the main arc, but the show does have another half of a season to reach its conclusion; “Fast Lane” was only episode twelve of twenty-four.

Want more Flash? Zoom to our Flash secrets page. Thanks for reading.

iZombie Review: “Fifty Shades of Grey Matter”

Kyle’s Thoughts

Usually, iZombie places personal drama on the backburner in order to tackle the zombie criminal underworld and check the boxes for a police procedural, but with an episode title like “Fifty Shades of Grey Matter,” the episode lived up to the punny name by the way, the show had to focus on romantic relationships and that part of the show was okay, even though I didn’t buy into any of the relationships. I had forgotten about the bouncer zombie working for Blaine and his and Liv’s relationship won’t last. Peyton’s affair with Blaine is a plot device. Now she’s stuck with him as a star witness against a crime lord despite her knowledge of the murders Blaine committed. She may have to maintain the romance for a while, and that might get interesting, but the affair was always a plot device to insert Peyton in the middle of the zombie madness and further tie in the criminal element into the main arc.

Liv and company are back in action. She had been on the outs with Detective Babineaux before the mid-season break and they’ve recaptured their working relationship, so that’s good. From a police procedural aspect, “Fifty Shades of Grey Matter” was by the book. Seriously. The gang did a good job of detective work, but the weekly mystery’s solve was obvious, down to the red herrings that kept you guessing.

The zombie underworld got the shaft but not really. Blaine was physically in this episode but he wasn’t moving pieces behind the scene and still, he may have found the biggest pawn in his plan: the aforementioned assistant DA Peyton. Next week should see a lot more underworld action.

Major almost got caught as the zombie killer but he escaped just before Detective Babineaux discovered his identity. But Major left a clue and that’s a great thing. The pieces are in place for a dramatic build to a season finale.

“Fifty Shades of Grey Matter” also had Liv on sex-starved librarian brain and it was awkward and silly to see her lust after every man on the screen. The episode didn’t do everything well but it had enough bright spots and it earned its title. There were things introduced in this episode that should have lastly ramifications on Liv and the rest of the gang, and that holds my interest.

Agent Carter Review: “Smoke & Mirrors”

Kyle’s Thoughts

I’m not sure if the Hedy Lamarr estate (check out last week’s Agent Carter review) likes how her namesake Whitney Frost has gone the way of a double agent, but “Smoke & Mirrors” did its best to fill viewers into Frost’s past and explain why she’d want to gain power. Agent Carter did a great job of using flashbacks. The pacing felt right as this week’s episode went back and forth from Peggy to Whitney and back again in order to form a shared history between these female characters, even though they just met. The woman in a man’s world theme continues to dominate the storyline but the moments where this is most evident in this episode are quieter moments that occurred in the past and that works. Instead of a public display, “Smoke & Mirrors” opted for parents scolding their children and that better illustrated the cause of such a world; this mindset and behavior is learned.

Unfortunately, the rest of the show delved into interpersonal relationships. Sure, there were plenty of laughs, I chuckled at Jarvis’s attempt to be an action hero, but Agent Carter pushed the would-be love triangle of Peggy, Sousa, and Dr. Wilkes. Sousa is engaged, and Peggy would never steal him away from his fiancée, but she has more chemistry with Sousa than she does Dr. Wilkes. Most of Peggy and Wilkes’s forced relationship comes from the fact that Wilkes has no physical presence. Literally. He’s fading from existence and this is another relationship that’s doomed to fail, and Peggy didn’t have enough time to develop a strong rapport before he turned ghost.

Agent Carter continues to hit more than miss. The backstories did a great job of setting up Frost and providing some background for Peggy. The show also takes advantage of the time in which it’s set. And the move from New York last season to Hollywood this season doesn’t hurt either.

Grimm Review “Eve of Destruction”

Kyle’s Thoughts

“Eve of Destruction” did a good job of bringing Grimm back from the mid-season break but it’s morphing into a political allegory and borrowing more from comic books at this point than fairy tales.

Comic books love secret organizations, and Grimm has at least three in play here: democratic revolutionaries (a new government spawned from a secret society), royals trying to hold onto power (we haven’t seen much of them), and a wesen fundamentalist group (Black Claws). Juliette has returned from the dead—another comic book trope—and she’s become the ultimate weapon—ditto. Trubel is Nick’s sidekick of sorts. She’s even been reprogrammed by one of the secret organizations and she shares more with Captain America’s Bucky than she does with a fairy tale counterpart. Some of these developments work, while others don’t, but I liked how Grimm had separated itself from the other comic book shows I’ve been watching, and time has eroded that distinction.

The political allegory generally works because Grimm tends to use a subtle hand. The fundamentalist group borrows from so many historical factions that you can’t pinpoint any one in particular, except for the few times they take on Nazi party characteristics. The royals have stepped into the shadows. Renard has to factor into this group somehow but Grimm won’t say, or show, us how, and as a result, they’re the most opaque. And the democratic revolutionaries acted as if they supported the council (a townhouse level governing body) but didn’t actively defend it. Honestly, I’m glad the fundamentalist group wiped out the wesen council. We needed fewer pieces in play, and I wasn’t a big fan of the council in the first place; I never knew exactly how it worked. Grimm didn’t tie down exact rules for the council, they changed many of them on a whim. Getting rid of the council focused Grimm’s conflict on the two main factions (the revolutionaries and the fundamentalists), while sowing the idea of suspicion throughout the wesen world. Now all Grimm has to do is wait for the dust to settle and focus the swirling tension.

I also like the awkward pairing of Adalind and Nick. They didn’t have a lot of screen time together but the ones they shared were tense, tender, and shined. We saw a lot more of Trubel and even though I didn’t care much for her at first, she’s grown on me, especially when I think of her as Bucky to Nick’s Cap. She’s also the only connective tissue viewers have between the world of Grimm’s secret organizations and Nick. Trubel actually works—for the most part—but I’d like something more than Juliette’s return as a tie-in.

I never believed Juliette was dead or that she’d stay dead, so I wasn’t surprised to see her again. (We did catch a glimpse of her before the break.) What does surprise me is that she’s subservient to the secret society and that doesn’t ring true. Juliette must have a reason for working with these people, otherwise she’s just like Genie from Aladdin: phenomenal cosmic powers, itty, bitty living space.

Ultimately, “Eve of Destruction” was a little plot-heavy for its own good. The episode did too much and since there were only six episodes that preceded it this season, there wasn’t enough to ground the characters once the show went down its many rabbit holes. Still, it held my interest, and I’ll stick with it.

DC Comics Legends of Tomorrow Review: “Pilot, Part 2”

Kyle’s Thoughts

Okay. Part of my delay with our weekly Legends of Tomorrow comes from the big snow storm knocking down my cable/internet for an extended time period. The other part for my delay is that I can’t find too many good things to say about the series besides they continue to push the special effects capabilities of a CW show as far as they will go. There were moments when I forgot this was a TV show instead of major motion picture. But there’s not much to like about the story. Since this is the second part of the pilot, I’ll cover some ground covered in the previous week’s review; both parts make up the full vision of the show’s inaugural episode.

Let’s start with characters. They didn’t have time to develop before the show or during the show, disappeared and then suddenly reappeared in contrived ways, or they grated on my nerves during the Arrow and/or Flash. The motivation for these individuals to make something of themselves rings hollow except for Dr. Stein and Ray Palmer. Everyone else on this roster either wouldn’t care (thieves want to die fat and happy, not leave their mark), shouldn’t want to be well-known (the best assassins are anonymous), or they’re Hawkpeople and they want revenge on Vandal Savage, and that’s another good—if not generic—motivator.

We’re supposed to believe that this incompetent group of heroes—I’m sorry, legends—will prevent the world from going to heck. They got manhandled by Chronos in the first episode. How are they supposed to be a threat to Savage if they can’t (as a combined team) deal with a random, solo bounty hunter? It’s one thing to lose. It’s another to lose by 30 points at home, when the visiting team is resting half their starters. Unfortunately, the legends didn’t pull their heads out of their hind quarters in the pilot’s second half.

Stein all but tells his younger self who he is and destroys his timeline in the process (only to have Rip Hunter restore it). The two thieves are sent out on a burglary mission, which makes senses, but Atom’s shocked when they grab more loot than the mission tells them to. Again, they’re thieves. Rip cites the Butterfly Effect (if you do so much as kill a butterfly in the past, you could change time irrevocably) and then the group turns Captain Caveman on the black arms market, complete with a nuclear explosion. That’s even before Atom leaves a parting gift, a piece of future tech fell off his super suit, for Savage and his vandals, which hastens mankind’s demise. They put out the fire Palmer started and go after Savage, and that’s where we get to Hawkman and Hawkgirl.

Hawkgirl is the key because she knows what the inscription on the dagger (that can kill Savage) says. The only problem with this logic is that when Hawkgirl accesses her memory of what the dagger says, she doesn’t read it to herself, she recites the poem on the dagger to Hawkman. Why doesn’t Hawkman have this memory? I thought two Hawks were one too many and (Spoiler) Legends agrees. Hawkman dies in the pilot’s second part, after he plunges Hawkgirl’s dagger into Savage’s chest and then Savage returns the favor. As he delivers the killing blow, Savage tells Hawkman that he should’ve know that he can’t use Hawkgirl’s dagger, and I agree with him. Hawkman should’ve known not to use Hawkgirl’s dagger. For being the one of the two Hawks who had the most clear recollection of their past, he knew shockingly few details. And that’s where Legends falls flat: the details.

I might be able to get over Hawkman’s death as a plot device to galvanize the team, even though the bulk of the team doesn’t know him from Atom. I may even be able to forget that Legends pulled the same plot device in the pilot’s first part with Hawkman and Hawkgirl’s son, but Legends of Tomorrow concerns itself too much with its beautiful CGI to bother with things like characters and story. I hope this was opening show jitters, and Legends rights the ship soon.

There were plenty of secrets in Legends of Tomorrow. Warp to our Legends of Tomorrow secrets page.

Arrow Review: “A.W.O.L.”

Kyle’s Take

We’ve entered the dog days of Arrow, the time of year when Arrow marches in place after the mid-season break. The episodes get mired by flashbacks trying to stay relevant in the current storyline but often get the story stuck in the mud until someone gets out and pushes the show from its rut by episode 16 or 17, which is in time for a crescendo before the season finale. “A.W.O.L.” was better than some episodes of this ilk, but it wasn’t as good as it could’ve been.

We got some Diggle family drama, and that’s usually a breath of fresh air, but the Diggle brothers’ arc was marred by the aforementioned flashbacks. I’m not sure I buy the militant Reiter searching for mystic power, paralleling the militant Darhk who searches for mystic power. And where was Darhk? Oh, right. Arrow had to add Shadowspire, another secret organization, to the growing hoard of secret organizations. Besides Shadowspire, the flashbacks show us the Diggle brothers’ history. This would be a great thing if we didn’t hear the two brothers bicker, telling us their history before showing us the same history. At least we should see fewer forced interactions between John and Andy after this week, and I move we make Andy’s codename “Little Diggle.”

Even though the flashbacks didn’t work, the present Diggles did work. Andy was more than the one note character he’s been up to this point, and that was refreshing. John was forced into a situation where he had to trust his brother, and his faith was restored. I don’t know if Diggle would’ve ever given his brother the chance if he wasn’t placed in a no-win scenario. It was a plot device, but it was effective in moving that conflict forward. I don’t think we’ve seen the last of Andy backstabbing his kin.

It also looks like Lyla, Diggle’s wife, will take over A.R.G.U.S. because Team Arrow will need the intel A.R.G.U.S. has on Darhk and H.I.V.E. so they can take them down. This was another obvious plot device, but we’ll have to wait for Arrow to pull the trigger before we see exactly how A.R.G.U.S. helps the Green Arrow. The Rubicon might play a role in combating Shadowspire, should Shadowspire have a part to play, but they may be season 5’s big bad.

Okay, I’ve put off talking about Felicity for as long as I could. It’s official; she’s paralyzed. In a turn akin to Barbara Gordon she’s Team Arrow’s Oracle, only her codename is the cumbersome Overwatch. While I like the name change, Arrow can’t borrow everything from Batman, I don’t care for Ollie’s explanation of the name change: Oracle was already taken. Does Batman exist in the CW universe? Barbara Gordon was Batgirl before she became Oracle. Now I hear Supergirl admits that there’s a Superman because you can’t have Supergirl without Superman. But Batman still doesn’t exist in the CW shows. How is the codename Oracle already taken? Can you have a Batgirl without Batman? Getting back to Felicity’s story arc, she faced her teenage goth self in “A.W.O.L..”

I liked the idea of Felicity tripping on her insecurities, fears, and good pain meds, but I don’t know what Goth Felicity was trying to accomplish. Was she trying to use reverse-psychology to get Felicity back in action, or drive her away from her current life and back to her previous one, or send her packing to a third undisclosed life? At times Goth Felicity wanted all of these things at once and at others just one or maybe two. I get that she’s not in her right mind but something tells me Arrow didn’t give her arc that much thought. Regardless, it didn’t take long to resolve this and for that I’m grateful. I don’t know if I could’ve handled five to six episodes of GothyContin Felicity.

Do you want more Arrow? Check out our Arrow secrets page. Thanks for reading.