Flash Secrets: “The Man Who Saved Central City”

Atom-Smasher

Atom-Smasher—his alter ego is Albert Rothstein—is a hero in the comics. He has been a member of Infinity, Inc. and Justice League International and now I believe he’s a card-carrying member of the Justice Society of America: more on them later. Albert—is it okay if I call Atom-Smasher Albert—is the grandson of the reluctant supervillain Cyclotron, from whom Albert gained his metahuman powers, and he’s the godson of Al Pratt, DC’s golden age Atom. Pratt raised Albert, but Albert does have his grandfather’s tendency to teeter back and forth from hero to villain and then back again. Well, Albert’s upbringing and his destructive power lend themselves to Albert playing for both sides. At his core, Albert is a hero but it’s his internal struggle that makes him an interesting character.

Zoom

Atom-Smasher name-dropped Zoom before he died—if he died—in this episode. Reverse-Flash and Professor Zoom started as interchangeable names for the same character but as the DC Universe expanded, the two characters became more distinct. Geoff Johns, one of TV’s The Flash’s producers, went to great pains to distance the two characters in the comics and since The Flash will retain Tom Cavanagh (Dr. Harrison Wells/Reverse-Flash) as a series regular, we should expect these two to be different characters.

I won’t go into too much detail with each possibility as to who Zoom will be—there’s a lot of origins for both Professor Zoom and Reverse-Flash over the past five or six decades—but the presence of Jay Garrick, the guy who said, “your world is in danger,” at the end of this episode, sheds some light as to who Zoom might be. We’ll cover Garrick in more detail in a bit but let’s say he’s from an alternate timeline, Earth-Two if you will.

With so much time travel in the Flash’s adventures, timelines splinter off and create different realities. Professor Zoom may be the Reverse-Flash from an alternate timeline. The bottom line is don’t worry, Reverse Flash will return and we may get even more speedsters along the way. The Flash trailer at Comic-Con showcased some blue lightning. Could those blue lightning bolts come from Cobalt Blue? Or do those blue streaks belong to Professor Zoom?

Jay Garrick

Jay Garrick was the first and golden age Flash but with Barry Allen assuming the mantel of the scarlet speedster in DC’s silver age, Garrick became The Flash of Earth-Two. Earth-Two is another Earth from an alternate timeline. To be fair, DC justified the rebooting of many characters in the silver age by turning a lot of its golden age heroes into Earth-Two citizens, allowing DC’s silver age characters to live on Earth-One. Jay Garrick and Barry Allen team up frequently in the comics as the Justice Society of America (Earth-Two’s superhero group and original DC super team) join forces with the Justice League of America during their annual crossovers.

Separating Firestorm

No, Ronnie isn’t dead, we’ll see him again in DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, and comic book writers have used the separation of Firestorm as a plot tool for many decades. I’m sure we’ll see Dr. Stein and Ronnie Raymond come together before too long.

Mirror-Mirror

Did anyone else catch the two mirrors conspicuously facing each other during the Channel 52 newscast following The Flash celebration? If you blinked, you probably missed a man in a white costume. Could that be another of The Flash’s main villains, Mirror Master? Perhaps.

A New Flash Symbol

Barry is about to don a uniform closer to his classic silver age one. It’s the dawn of a new era for The Flash. You might as well dress the part.

The Flash Signal

Cisco created a flood light that could summon The Flash from anywhere in Central City and said that he saw it in a comic book once. Is that a hint at the Bat Signal? I think so.

News 52

DC’s TV universe has tipped its hat to the comics’ New 52 and that homage continued with this week’s episode of The Flash.

Mayor Bellows

Even though it’s just over a year old, the new Flash has a long history of recasting former 1990s The Flash cast members, and the second season premiere is no exception. Mayor Tony Bellows, the man who gave The Flash the key to the city, was a Central City cop in the 90s The Flash, but he’s climbed the ranks in the last two decades and he’s played by the same actor.

Mercury Labs

As soon as I heard that Caitlin Snow started working for Mercury Labs, I knew we’d get another appearance by a 1990s Flash cast member. Amanda Pays portrays the head of Mercury Labs and she was also The Flash’s love interest a couple decades ago.

Weathersby & Stone

When I first saw the camera zoom into Henry Allen’s mail and read Weathersby & Stone Attorneys at Law, I wondered if that was a nod to something in the comics but found nothing. It took me a while to realize that Taylor Weathersby and Eli Stone where the couple at the center of the TV series Eli Stone and that the actor who plays Martin Stein, Victor Garber, also played Weathersby’s father. Nice touch, The Flash.

If you missed our review of The Flash “The Man Who Saved Central City,” here’s a link.

The Flash Review: “The Man Who Saved Central City”

Jim’s Review

The season 2 premier of The Flash was about what you would have expected. We spent a lot of time catching up, getting glimpses of the fallout from the events of the season 1 finale.

In terms of tone, there was everything that made the show’s first season successful. Unfortunately, I think we’re already seeing the return of the big gripes from last season, too. We had a flash-in-the-pan villain, and while there may be a payoff as Atom Smasher was used to drop a big name for the future, but Atom Smasher himself was underdeveloped, and his conflict with Barry was overshadowed by the team’s internal conflict.

Speaking of the team’s internal conflict, the whole idea of Barry wrestling with whether or not to “go it alone,” or to accept the help of his friends feels like another rehashed story line. I was also disappointed to see Caitlin’s character regress back to simply missing Ronnie, but I am interested to see if Martin will replace Dr. Wells in the team. That seems to be where they’re headed.

Aside from the name Atom Smasher dropped, I think the teaser for next week’s episode was the real exciting part. Since it’s in the previews, I’ll call it fair game to say Jay Garrick coming to the show opens up some really interesting possibilities, not just for The Flash, but for other DC screen properties.

All things considered, it was a slower start to season 2 than I would have liked, but there certainly appears to be plenty of reason to stay excited about the show.

Kyle’s Take

I guess we’re not mentioning the name dropped here. (Nudge, nudge, wink, wink, say no more, say no more.) We do mention the name Atom Smasher mutters in our Flash secrets page. You can check that out here.

I have to echo Jim’s underdeveloped villain comment. The Flash has a wealth of interesting villains. He isn’t the Green Arrow. Arrow had to borrow characters from other franchises to round out his rogues. Heck, Arrow even borrowed from The Flash. It pains me to see a character like Atom Smasher tossed aside, especially when he has a deep and rich past that ties into Jay Garrick’s arrival.

Still, I can’t wait to see what The Flash has in store.

Blindspot Review: “Eight Slim Grins”

Kyle’s Review

Blindspot plugged along with “Eight Slim Grins.” The cast are sliding into their roles, the story solidified Jane Doe’s connection with Agent Weller, and the secret organization gets bigger, while remaining secret.

Is it just me or has Weller had more of a response to Jane Doe, and the fact that she is the lady he thought she was, than he has to his own family? I kind of hoped Weller was wrong because I don’t see how ruining Weller’s father could possibly fit into the new world order’s plans. That’s what we’re dealing with here, right? Some uber-secret organization, pulling everyone’s strings, purposefully dropped Jane Doe into Weller’s lap. Actually, Weller’s name is tattooed on Jane Doe’s back, so this group is taunting Agent Weller.

I have to be honest and say that this week’s baddie faded in my memory. I had to watch parts of “Eight Slim Grins” a second time to recall that Team Jane Doe was tailing a crew of jewel thieves. The focus was less on these jewel thieves and more about people from Jane Doe’s past. The guy who trained Jane was shot and killed, and the guy from the jewel heist crew, who Team Jane Doe caught, had a link to Jane’s past and died by the end of the episode. At this rate, Jane will never find out who she is, or will she? She is the girl from Agent Weller’s childhood.

I’m sure Blindspot will add some more folks from Jane’s past to fill the void between now and when she was ten. Until then, I’ll keep watching this guilty pleasure. The action should intensify, now that Jane won’t be shackled to Agent Weller’s car, and Weller isn’t as wooden as he was in the first two episodes.

Verdict:

Blindspot continues to improve but it severed the only link to Jane’s past—that Jane knows of—and I hope the show doesn’t devolve into Jane learning one face or name and then that person dies as soon as she encounters them. I’ll give Blindspot a chance because it can be a lot of fun.

Heroes Reborn Review: “Under the Mask”

Kyle’s Review

The thick plottens with Heroes Reborn’s latest episode “Under the Mask.”

This entire episode spent its time trying to tie together the disparate parts to Heroes Reborn’s story in a slip knot. I don’t know if it succeeded at doing even that. I’m sure there’s plenty more going on behind the scenes but here’s what we know so far. (These might be slight spoilers for those of you behind in the mini-series but I don’t think they’re too big. Heroes Reborn is holding back a lot so little makes much sense.) Molly, the young lady who can locate other evolved humans, gets kidnapped and a mysterious corporation jacks into her mind so that anyone who owns a pair of computer glasses can spot an Evo from a mile away. Claire might be dead or in hiding or dead and in hiding. Somehow the high school boy plays a role in saving humanity but it isn’t as simple as “Save the cheerleader, save the world.” The Latino superhero runs into more Evos—both enemies and friendlies. And Zachary Levi portrays the new burning man—er, the guy who can explode. Maybe.

“Under the Mask” ended with so many cliffhangers that I’m not sure which threads—if any—I need to hold and I know I missed at least a few more like the Japanese lady wielding Hiro Nakamura’s katana. The sad thing is that most of these threads would make a decent story if only two or three were used but I’m left drinking a carton of milk in two seconds flat, and the majority of the story’s curdling on my shirt. You’d have to watch “Under the Mask” a few times to catch everything and I don’t think there’s that many people who’d take the time.

If Heroes Reborn can’t clean up this mess in a timely fashion, I may have to stop watching and reviewing it. The solution doesn’t have to be a simple slogan like “Save the cheerleader, save the world,” but something needs to tie these characters together and soon.

Verdict:

Heroes Reborn “Under the Mask” ended with one mell of a hess. Viewers should question where characters’ loyalties lie but they shouldn’t question what’s going on in every other scene.

The Awesomes Review: “The Dames of Danger”

Kyle’s Review

The Awesomes paused the main story arc this week—as they’re oft to do this time of the season—and also split up the boys and girls. Even though Mr. Awesome and Dr. Malocchio didn’t make physical appearances in “The Dames of Danger,” they were present because this episode was all about the relationships parents and children share.

Livewire misses her father, Dr. Malocchio, and learns that her mother is one of the episode’s titular Dames of Danger. Livewire’s pregnant with Prock’s child—yet another level of parenthood explored—and reluctantly joins her mother and her cronies on a secret mission to stop Backstory. Yes. The villain of the week’s name is Backstory and we get a long, drawn out backstory for our villain. That’s so meta.

I love that “The Dames of Danger” receive their orders from a shrouded man a la Charlie’s Angels but The Awesomes give that formula a twist by having the mysterious man wire every women’s room in the world. In true Awesomes style, the Dames of Danger’s leader gets apprehended for installing cameras in every ladies’ room in the world.

“The Dames of Danger” didn’t add much to the main story arc this week but we’re left with some pretty big revelations that should ripple through the team in the coming weeks.

Verdict:

“The Dames of Danger” was a solid episode but it didn’t add much to the main story arc. We’ll have to wait another week or two for Mr. Awesome and Dr. Malocchio to make their moves but that doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy the ride.

The Muppets Review: “Hostile Makeover” and “Bear Left Then Bear Write”

Kyle’s Review

Technical difficulties and Nuke-Con have put me behind on reviews but I did have a chance to catch up with The Muppets. I wasn’t impressed with “Hostile Makeover” or “Bear Left Then Bear Write.” The pilot showcased some classic Muppet jokes and delivered some self-referential humor but the second and third episodes tried to fast-forward the show from a new sit-com to one that’s been on for many seasons.

Sit-coms typically start off with broad, one-note and over-the-top characters and over time, the characters grow so that the situations the characters find themselves in amplify the humor because of the particular character(s) placed in those situation. As I mentioned before, The Muppet Show was a sketch comedy so there isn’t any history with which to build these connections. I liked how the pilot focused on Kermit and Miss Piggy’s relationship because they’re the closest characters to having more than one level.

The next two episodes stray from the Kermit/Miss Piggy dynamic somewhat and we’re given some hollow stories as a result. In fact, The Muppets are so deprived of deep characters that they had to invent two new characters, Chip the IT guy and a random second bear, so the show could explore certain topics. Chip and the other bear aren’t winners.

I don’t want to be too judgmental so I’ll probably stop reviewing The Muppets until it improves. At this point, I wouldn’t be surprised to see the show venture into the abuse Dr. Teeth experienced as a child. Some stories don’t need to be told.

Verdict:

I had high hopes but I can’t recommend The Muppets at this time. The show needs to figure out what it wants its characters to be and then commit to them, while trying to keep the elements that made the Muppets the Muppets. This will be a tall order.

Bob’s Burgers Review: “How I Met Your Mother”

Kyle’s Review

It took Bob’s Burgers long enough but they finally unveiled how Bob met Linda. The setup for “How I Met Your Mother” was a typical one for Bob’s Burgers. Bob and Linda reminisce about the day they met. Linda tells the kids that it was Bob’s manly stache that caught her eye – and the engagement ring Hugo gave her – and then the kids wonder what would’ve happened if Bob didn’t have his mustache.

We were treated to three alternate time lines and the kids’ stories matched their personalities: Gene had Bob getting a robostache (in a Robocop knock off), Louise turned Bob into a werewolf via a tip of the hat to the movie Big, and Tina kept trying to keep her parents together at every turn. While Gene and Louise tried to pry their parents apart in their stories, they ultimately had Bob and Linda ending up as a couple. Tina was the only one who succeeded in splitting up her parents and she hated every minute of it.

Robostache

Despite the look into Bob and Linda’s past, we didn’t get too many revelations in “How I Met Your Mother,” but the show’s title begs the question, Why did it take 9 seasons to explain how someone’s parents met in the sitcom How I Met Your Mother? We found out how Bob and Linda met in 10 seconds.

“How I Met Your Mother” – the TV episode, not the series – was funny in parts: mostly with Gene’s Robostache story. We had some weird moments – thank you, Louise – and Tina, as usual, went for our heartstrings. In short, Bob’s Burgers had a solid season 6 premiere.

Verdict:

“How I Met Your Mother” was a strong start to Bob’s Burgers’ sixth season.

The Awesomes Review: “Indiana Johnson and the Nazi Granddaughters”

Kyle’s Review

“Indiana Johnson and the Nazi Granddaughters” was an interesting episode of The Awesomes. From a main narrative perspective, The Awesomes threw in a few things that will slow the big reveal of Mr. Awesome as the main villain the season, while also furthering Mr. Awesome’s candidacy for U.S. president. We even see Dr. Malocchio get integrated into main narrative and he’s on his way back to Earth. The Awesomes have great pacing this season. I could see these threads playing out and then tying up within the final three episodes, where we’ll see Prock take on his dad. But before that happens, we’ll encounter a villain a week over the next month. This week’s villain was the granddaughters of Heinrich Himmler, Joseph Goebbels, and Adolph Hitler.

Everything’s better with Nazis as a villain and you can’t have a parody of Indiana Jones without including them. We got some slams against bigotry and racism but millennials as a generation suffered the worst blows. The Nazi granddaughters wanted to reanimate their Pappies with the Weeping Angel’s Stone because they were their grandfathers and they couldn’t be bad. Also, they fell asleep in History class. Who cares about old people anyway?

The Nazis were a sidebar to The Awesomes taking down the trio of teenage girls by sowing the seeds of mistrust. Once the girls were dispatched, the Nazis disappeared, but the girls didn’t stop with reanimating their grandfathers. Dinosaurs, mammoths, and other ancient creatures made appearances. You could say that there was an abundance of awesome on The Awesomes this week. My favorite ongoing gag was Sumo being treated as Short Round from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, but there were some others. “Snacks! Why does there always have to be snacks?”

Verdict:

“Indiana Johnson and the Nazi Granddaughter” allowed The Awesomes to flex their pun muscles. The season has a great pace to it and we can see the pieces fall into place for the finale.

Heroes Reborn Review: “Brave New World/Odessa”

Kyle’s Review

I don’t know who – if anyone – asked for a Heroes reboot, and still, NBC has given us Heroes Reborn. There was no way the new miniseries could live up to the spectacle that was Heroes’ first season, but the first two episodes (they aired on the same night) weren’t as bad as the woeful third and fourth seasons. After Heroes “saved the cheerleader, saved the world” – that’s a play on the first season’s tagline – its quality deteriorated with each subsequent season. So you could rate Heroes Reborn by how it falls on the Heroes grading scale: it’s better than the second season and therefore watchable.

I have a confession to make. I stopped watching Heroes after the first few episodes of season three, but once the show made it to Netflix, I binged on the remaining episodes. Even though the fourth season was lacking in many areas, it was interesting and I liked how the final show ended: Claire exposed the existence of supers to the world. Those final two minutes of Heroes made me a little curious about what would – or could – happen next. Heroes Reborn fast forwards the story to a world fully aware of evolved humans.

“Brave New World” and “Odessa,” the two episodes of Heroes Reborn that debuted on the September 24^th, introduced us to a heap of characters. Both episodes felt rushed when compared to the original series’ first season. That could be because many characters in the first series were related to one another and they had a lot of scenes together. As far as I can tell through the first two episodes, most of Heroes Reborn’s characters don’t have the same connective tissue, so we’re left with several disparate story threads.

I can’t remember when we were first introduced to the tagline, “Save the cheerleader, save the world,” but it felt like that line was uttered within the first four episodes of Heroes’ first season. Granted, we aren’t to the fourth episode of Heroes Reborn but Heroes’ first season lasted for 20 episodes, while Heroes Reborn is a 13 episode miniseries and we only caught a glimpse of the over-arching threat that should bind the heroes together. I won’t spoil it – because I don’t know enough about it to spoil it – but the big threat looks like the eye of Sauron.

In fact, we saw so little of this threat and the hero protecting the world from it that when I saw a promo picture of the cast, I didn’t recognize the blonde girl. It took me a minute to remember that she’s the one keeping an eye on the eye of Sauron. Speaking of the cast, the new cast works well enough. Heroes Reborn didn’t include too many members of the original cast – Jack Coleman as Noah Bennet and Jimmy Jean-Louis as The Haitian are the only main cast member we saw in the first two episodes – but they rehashed many of the same character types. Tommy is the new Claire. Miko is the new Hiro. Molly returns but with a new actress, Francesca Eastwood, portraying her. The only characters I found new were the two grieving parents/bounty hunters Luke and Joanne Collins, played by Zachary Levi and Judith Shekoni, and the Mexican superhero who wears a luchador mask.

The first two episodes of Heroes Reborn were good but they didn’t blow me away like the first season of Heroes. But then again, I didn’t expect Heroes Reborn to be as good as the first season of Heroes. I’m concerned that we don’t know enough about the main narrative with only 11 episodes remaining. Heroes Reborn better hit the gas on bringing these characters together soon. A catchy slogan wouldn’t hurt either.

Verdict:

The first two episodes of Heroes Reborn weren’t the first two episodes of the original Heroes, but “Brave New World” and “Odessa” weren’t as bad as Heroes seasons 2-4 either. There’s enough to the first two episodes to keep me watching for a while.

The Muppets Review: “Pig Girls Don’t Cry”

Kyle’s Review

Rejoice! The Muppets have returned. The creative team behind the new Muppets packed plenty of material into 20 minutes. Love or hate the separate cameras for each character approach – which apes Modern Family – you have to admit that the Muppets were made to break the fourth wall. Heck, they had the two curmudgeons in the audience from the original show.

As you would expect, we got a healthy dose of Kermit, Miss Piggy, and Fozzie. The first episode, “Pig Girls Don’t Cry,” revolved around Kermit and Piggy’s break up and Fozzie meeting his human girlfriend’s parents. Even if you don’t know who these characters are, The Muppets gave us some nice background. We saw their history play out—and the Muppets have a lot of history. The fourth wall breaks worked for the most part. Gonzo actually had a chance to poke fun at Modern Family’s storytelling device of individual cameras for each character. Fozzie had as many one liners and puns with his girlfriend’s parents than he did during his standup. And while I didn’t know whether or not I’d like Kermit moving on from Miss Piggy when I first heard of this series, their breakup made sense and we could see those two getting back together at some point. Kermit does have a type.

A variety show, like the Muppet’s former show within their show, doesn’t translate in today’s market, and the switch to Miss Piggy fronting a late night show in The Muppets is a good compromise. Like the original Muppet Show, we had guest stars Elizabeth Banks and Tom Bergeron, and musical guests Imagine Dragons. If you’re not a huge Imagine Dragons fan, that’s okay. They played with Dr. Teeth and The Electric Mayhem as the credits rolled. I thought that was a nice touch.

If you’re expecting sketch comedy like the original, don’t. The Muppets all but abandon their original format. They’re still the characters you love but this show’s gone in a different direction, and as if there was any doubt, I’ll keep watching.

Verdict:

The Muppets tip their hat to their original Muppet Show but it isn’t a complete retread. As a result, it’ll turn away some viewers but it’s a good show in its own right.