The Flash: “The New Rogues”

Jim’s Thoughts

Flash spent the first half of “The New Rogues” tap-dancing all over everything Kyle and I have been trashing it for. There was training the new speedster, awkward suckface featuring Barry and Iris, and a visit to the multi-dimensional parts store.

The gang went shopping for a new Harrison Wells because the old one was just a lease, and the new one comes with free oil changes and a hundred-thousand-mile warranty.

Doubling down on their plan to reduce the DC Comics Multiverse to a revival of The Dating Game, we also got some awkward romance moments with Wally and Jessie. The problems here are twofold. First, Wally not wanting to pursue Jessie because they’re literally from separate worlds only sounds like it makes sense. Seriously, hopping over between earths is shown to be simpler than switching planes at Laguardia. Secondarily, neither Wally nor Jessie are well developed characters, so I’m not invested in their romance. I’m not rooting for them.

The plot with Mirror Master was just another weekly villain plot. It wasn’t awful, just forgettable. Hey, remember Alchemy? That seemed promising. What’s going on with him? We don’t really know? Well, at least we know Iris thinks talking to someone in a mirror is weird. It’s not like she could think of it as a screen or anything. Skype must creep her out. See what you’ve done, Flash? You’ve reduced me to sarcasm, the lowest form of wit.

It’s more of the same this week. It isn’t bad. It’s just dull.

Kyle’s Take

This season of Flash has taken five or six iceberg sized steps back and the story’s troding along at a glacial pace. That’s why the opening to this season is lifeless.

Sure. We didn’t get time travel in “The New Rogues,” but we did get reintroduced to The Rogues, which were dropped after Captain Cold made the switch to Legends of Tomorrow, Killer Frost reared her platinum blonde extensions and she only had powers on Earth-Two, so we stay tethered to Harry’s Earth, even though Harry and Jessie exit, stage right, and the Barry-Iris love saga returned from season one, when it was dropped the last season—for the most part. Is it too soon to hit the reset button–again?

Not to beleaguer the point I’ve made in the past, but there might be a reason why Barry and Iris ended up together in almost every other timeline or alternate earth; the main storyline is the only reality and Earth in which Barry and Iris are siblings. I’m not sure why this season insists on retreading this and other story arcs that haven’t worked in the past.

“Love” permeated every fiber of “The New Rogues.” Barry and Iris, Wally and Jessie, Top and Mirror Master, and Detective West and Cecile Horton (potentially) were all twitterpated with one another. Too bad Bambi had more interesting romances.

I agree with Jim that Wally and Jessie haven’t been developed—that could be due to Flash’s tendency to reboot their story arc every other episode or “develop” its characters with expositional dialogue—and Top and Mirror Master were nothing but villains of the week with rushed back stories—I’m sure we’ll see them again sometime this season. The West-Horton love connection could have the best chance of working, but it’s the newest coupling (by half a second over Wally-Jessie), Flash has only hinted at a romance between these two, and the show has a horrendous, romantic track record. Let’s not forget Jatlin and Cisco Glider from last year. I’m sure most of these relationships will crash and burn, and we’ll get back to Doctor Alchemy, but at this point, I wouldn’t mind fast-forwarding to the inevitable.

Barry will go back in time, resetting each character once more, and he’ll suffer larger consequences—hopefully—for doing so. I can’t wait for season 3 of the Flash to start in earnest.

Supergirl: “Welcome to Earth”

Kyle’s Thoughts

“Welcome to Earth” tackled three items at once: aliens’ rights, a growing Supergirl universe, and the 2016 election. Sprinkle in the Arrowverse’s customary fan service and that’s a lot for one episode.

This week’s Supergirl did an adequate job of incorporating most of these elements. If there was one point Supergirl could’ve dropped, it would’ve been the 2016 election. While I get why the creative team would want to include the upcoming election (it’s omnipresent), the direct references “Welcome to Earth” makes aren’t handled with the gentlest of hands, and the issue of aliens’ rights—in Supergirl’s case it’s aliens from outer space and their interstellar immigration—does a fine job of alluding to the upcoming election and it’s an issue that should have legs if someone were to watch the show years in the future and the vivid nature of the show’s 2016 election references fade.

Overt political messages aside, “Welcome to Earth” was a bumpy ride. It gets a little too preachy; that wasn’t so good. Aliens, specifically Scorcher, fighting against a president who would grant them amnesty was clumsy. When these malcontent aliens explained why they would rebel against such a president, they force-fed us a lot of exposition. A growing Supergirl universe was nice to see; it’s good when Lynda Carter’s turn as an alien-friendly president is more than just a cameo (I’ll dive more into this with conjecture). And Supergirl has learned a thing or two from Arrow and Flash in terms of fan service—some of it was fantastic.

Most older fans know Lynda Carter as Wonder Woman. She gets the royal treatment in “Welcome to Earth.” I liked it for the most part, but it did go over the top on more than one occasion. Supergirl spinning around (looking like Carter transforming into Wonder Woman) put a smile on my face, but the presidential addresses were too staid and contrived. This played into the overt political messages that didn’t always pan out. The private moments Carter’s president shared with Martian Manhunter and Supergirl were more impactful.

Scorcher was another villain of the week and since there was more of a focus on message instead of character building, she was more of a stereotype than a fully developed character. The true villain may be Lynda Carter’s president—but of course that’s conjecture on my part. Overall, “Welcome to Earth” was the weakest of the Supergirl episodes so far this season, but it’s still a solid episode and the show has a clear and intriguing direction.

Conjecture

I’ve been doing this for a few weeks, but just in case you’re new to this segment, conjecture is where I look at the tea leaves and divine what might happen in the coming weeks of a show. Since this section is about a possible future, a potential spoiler alert is in order. You’ve been warned.

Lynda Carter’s President Olivia Marsdin could be Supergirl’s Cyborg Superman in disguise.

The original Cyborg Superman was Hank Henshaw. Hank is Martian Manhunter on Supergirl, but how Jonn Jonn’z takes on the guise of the DEO commander Henshaw, plays into why Supergirl may be introducing Cyborg Superman. In the comics, Henshaw was an astronaut. In a storyline inspired by Marvel’s Fantastic four, he and his crew were exposed to solar radiation and began to mutate. The rest of the crew died, but Henshaw survived by bonding with Superman’s Kryptonian Birthing Matrix—it’s a Kryptonian incubator of sorts—and he eventually turned into Cyborg Superman, a cybernetic villain who half-way mimicked the appearance of Superman. Cyborg Superman battled Supes several times, but Supes could never fully defeat him because his digitized consciousness can create new bodies. In fact, Cyborg Superman wants to die and can’t.

These same bodies can shape-shift to look like anyone, and Cyborg Superman is also able to transfer—or download—his consciousness into someone else and temporarily take control of their bodies.

Enter Supergirl’s President Marsdin (Carter). Her eyes flickered red at the end of “Welcome to Earth,” and there’s the distinct possibility that she’s either Cyborg Superman in disguise or her mind is under the control of the cybernetic villain. We’ll have to see if Hank Henshaw is still alive. He presumably died years ago, but so did Jeremiah Danvers and we know that Danvers survived through Cadmus’s science-magic. Of course, Danvers (Dean Cain) could also be Cyborg Superman or the real Henshaw could take Danvers’ appearance, since Jonn’z is standing in for him. We’ll have to see what happens, but I’d be down with watching a half robotic Dean Cain.

That’s all I have this week. Thanks for reading.

Bob’s Burgers: “Teen-A-Witch”

Kyle’s Thoughts

“Teen-A-Witch” covers old and new ground. We’ve seen Tina become obsessed with something, especially around Halloween. Remember when she had a ghost boyfriend she kept in a box? This year, she’s all about the dark arts, but since Tina wanders into the dark side, she gains something we haven’t seen from her: an edge.

Okay. We’ve seen Bad Tina and Dina before but this witchy Tina has a nasty streak that we haven’t seen. “Teen-A-Witch” is a lot like “Flu-ouise” earlier this season. It’s focused entirely on the titular character. In fact, “Teen-A-Witch” takes this focus to a whole new level. We at least caught a whisper of other characters during “Flu-ouise;” “Teen-A-Witch” shuns most other Bob’s Burgers characters. Fortunately, Tina’s one of the better characters and I don’t mind the tunnel vision.

We don’t learn anything new about Tina (she still like-likes Jimmy Junior, is obsessed with butts and butt touching, and suffers from the occasional panic attack). The only thing truly new about Tina is her mean streak, but perhaps that’s all we need. Bob’s Burgers has a knack for adding to their characters. This may not be the last we’ve seen of a Tina who would put spells on her classmates, talk sass to her parents and teachers, and strut the school halls. I wouldn’t mind it if witchy Tina makes another appearance or two.

Arrow: “A Matter of Trust”

Jim’s Thoughts

“A Matter of Trust” wasn’t as bad of an episode of Arrow as ones in the past, but it’s bad for all the same reasons we’ve covered.

I’ll get the easiest one out of the way first. Have I mentioned I don’t like Felicity? Because I feel like I might have said that before. Anyway, I don’t like Felicity, and her subplot about feeling guilty over the destruction of Ragman’s hometown is boring me because of that. Intermittent has to be a tough thing to live with…intermittently.

Speaking of forcing the guilt angle, Diggle’s subplot is also clubbing us over the head with it. I get that he feels remorse about killing his brother, but judging by the show’s handling of grief and other human suffering, he should have moved forward somewhat. I mean, Felicity and Ollie have surely nailed at least a few dozen people since John’s been moping in the army, and now a cell. Keep up, John! In all seriousness, the real problem with Diggle’s story is it has him isolated and stagnant, where he can’t progress and can’t contribute anything to the main story.

The teamwork motif came back too, and it was as annoying as before. Besides Curtis, who is on thin ice with me as he acts more and more like a Felicity clone, I don’t know any of these new characters. They haven’t given me anything to invest in, and so they’re really just taking up screen time.

I could go on and pick apart the same things I’ve griped about the last few weeks. There’s been no improvement, but let me get to the heart of why this show is boring me. It began with Tobias Church. He was generic, but the possibility always exist to build on a generic character, so there was potential. Church was overtaken by Prometheus, who certainly looks cool, and has a decent comic book pedigree to pull from. Okay, Prometheus can be the big baddie. That works. Sure, Church’s buildup so far is wasted, but I can live with that. Whoops, there’s no Prometheus this week? Now we’re supposed to watch Solomon take a Joker-style chemical bath? If you say so…but what’s Prometheus up to? This show works best when there’s a good buildup to a confrontation with a central villain, and it’s robbing itself of that.

Sure, we got cute inside jokes this week. Yay, we saw Curtis put a “T” on his face. Yep, we know Ollie likes Hockey masks because he played Casey Jones in the Ninja Turtles movie, but are they really trying to breathe life into the show with this stuff? I’m afraid it’s looking like it.

Kyle’s Take

I agree with everything Jim mentioned in his review. We were messaging back and forth while watching “A Matter of Trust” and I think I may have said that we’ve known who the big bad was by episode 3 the past four seasons of Arrow. We don’t have that clarity in season 5, and that’s not good. Since Jim covered Arrow’s surface issues, I’ll try and dig a little deeper to the biggest reason why I think Arrow is suffering.

It’s bad enough when Arrow has its own problems; it doesn’t need to inherit one from Flash. I’m talking about time travel and the manipulation of the storyline. Up to this point we’ve seen a gender bender to the Diggle baby as the only repercussion from Flashpoint, but that’s sure to change.

Every Arrow recap (at the beginning of each episode) reminds us that Barry changed the sex of the Diggle baby by changing his show’s timeline. Every Flash commercial poses the question, will this be the week Barry changes time again, and we catch a glimpse of a Diggle family photo. I can’t take anything that happens on either show seriously until Arrow and Flash drop this nonsense.

Arrow could decide not to make wholesale changes to their story after Flashpoint resolves, but it’s “A Matter of Trust” to believe that anything in the first half of this Arrow season will matter. I don’t trust Arrow to make this first half have any meaning; it must be spinning its wheels for a reason, and if we’re to believe all the hype, Flashpoint may be the best reason.

The sad thing is that Arrow has a history of getting hijacked by another CW show. Legends of Tomorrow dominated the first half of last season (it did the same for Flash too), and if Barry Allen comes down like the hand of God and changes everything on Arrow, this creative team will have relegated Arrow to a second-rate show. I like Arrow—I loved it during its second season—and the DC TV Universe is affectionately called the Arrowverse by fans. If this doomsday scenario is the direction the creative team wants to take Arrow, it will turn a show that started a TV Universe into a second-rate show in the universe it created.

I get that the creative team wanted to make the Flash instead of Arrow. But if that was the case, why didn’t you start with Flash? I’m sure Arrow was an easier sell to TV executives, but since the show found success, you can’t ignore the show’s fan base. It’s clear the writers are bored with these characters, and the first rule of writing is that if the story or characters don’t interest you, they won’t interest the reader, or in this case, the viewers.

I was a little disappointed when Floyd Lawton turned out to be a figment of Diggle’s imagination. A live Deadshot would’ve given more validation to a Flashpoint ripple. As it stands, I think we’re in for a complete change with Arrow when Flashpoint resolves and the show’s creative team will have never given us examples of how Flash affected Arrow beyond one baby. Green Arrow’s greatest enemy could be his TV show’s writers.

The Flash: “Magenta”

Jim’s Thoughts

It’s a little odd there was so much talk this week between Barry and Iris about their “boring date,” because I found the episode pretty boring. There was entirely too much air time devoted to the least interesting plotlines of the show, and yes, I’m counting Barry and Iris’ romance among them, and probably foremost at that.

The show went through and made Jessie a speedster, so I can’t really accuse this week’s episode of not doing anything. It’s just that I don’t think more speedsters, or even more characters in general, are what this series needed. It’s a crowded cast, and there’s already enough competition for screen time.

Wally’s quest for powers is awkward for me. Hearing about how Jessie developed her abilities in a delayed response to the dark matter exposure, and having Wally wonder if his will come around feels like a clumsy reference to puberty. At this point, I’m waiting for someone to show him an outdated video while he tries not to make eye contact with the other embarrassed students.

Magenta was a boring villain of the week. Her abusive foster parent backstory was a piece of emotional manipulation that failed to make up for flat characters with rushed, sloppy development.

All in all, this came off as a sort of breather episode, which would be more acceptable if the season weren’t off to a slow start as it is.

Kyle’s Take

Jim has mentioned how much the Iris-Barry love story has bored him in the past—and I agree that it’s banal at best—and I’ve mentioned in the past that Flash is in danger of collecting speedsters at the same rate that Arrow hordes archers and vigilantes. We don’t need more of either of these and we get more of both in “Magenta.”

How Magenta was presented was tedious and manipulative. In the comics Magenta’s a love interest for Wally, was an integral member of Flash’s Rogues during Geoff Johns’ (Flash’s producer) run on the comic, and functions as Flash’s answer to Batman’s Two-Face. There’s a lot of potential with this character and none of it translated to the screen. I’m not sure why Flash aged down Magenta—like I said, Magenta’s a love interest for Wally in the comics and she’s nowhere near his age in this episode. The only reason I can come up with for aging down Magenta is that it made her backstory easier to get through, leading to the worst crime this episode commits: Magenta’s rushed character development. Mayflies have longer timespans with which to germinate.

Wally’s part of the story baffles me. Sure. Who wouldn’t want to have super speed? But how he decides to rush to the speed force is asinine. It played out like an after-school special. If all your friends (Jessie Quick) stood in front of a speeding car to gain super powers, would you do it too? Evidently his answer is yes.

I guess I’ll get back to the Iris-Barry love story. I’m less concerned with how boring the relationship has played out—it’s like watching the hands of a clock move while pretending to pay attention to the Barry-Iris sections of a Flash episode—and I’m more concerned with the CW’s persistence on staying in the vicinity of incest. Ollie yo-yo banged the two Lance sisters. Barry grew up under the same roof as Iris. Detective West, Iris’s dad, told Barry in “Magenta” that he already has one of “his kids” running around the city. If Daddy West sees Barry as his son, why wouldn’t Iris view Barry as her brother on some level? Why do you have to make it weird, CW? Your plan was clearly to hook up these two; you had a future news article written by Iris West-Allen in season one. Why do you have to hold your palm less than an inch from our face and say not incest, can’t get mad?

“Magenta” was hard to watch. I had hope that next week’s “The New Rogues” would’ve included Magenta, but Flash has made it clear that it won’t and I’m okay with this Magenta not being a member of Flash’s Rogues. Here’s hoping for better character development in the coming weeks.

Conjecture

Hi, guys, it’s Kyle looking into his crystal ball again. I’m not sure how well I’m going to be able to predict the future (of the show) but I’ll do my best here. Oh, I guess a potential spoiler alert is in order, so you’ve been warned.

Tom Felton (Julian Albert) made some questionable choices this week if he’s Doctor Alchemy. He analyzed Magenta’s DNA and determined that she’s a meta-human. That doesn’t look good for Albert=Alchemy, but I’m not sure that it eliminates him from contention. He’s still the one thing that doesn’t add up from the Flashpoint and this could be a red herring to throw viewers off from suspecting Albert. If Albert is Alchemy, he could’ve outed Magenta because he wanted to ascertain the Flash’s identity (see who reacts to Magenta’s shenanigans) and appear as if he’s doing his job—or that he’s competent at his job. He has been at the department for over a year because he couldn’t “solve” what caused the meta-human epidemic.

“The New Rogues” will feature a new set of Rogues. I’m sure we’ll see Captain Cold, Heat Wave, and Golden Glider—they could still have cameos in next week’s episode—but they’ll most likely appear later this season. The only villain who’s confirmed for “The New Rogues” is Mirror Master. We’ll have to see if any of the other villains we’ve met to this point make an appearance, otherwise we’ll have a firehose of new characters thrown at us. There’s been so much time travel that I’m not sure who’s an enemy and who isn’t any more. Could we see Pied Piper, Weather Wizard, and/or Gorilla Grodd? Probably for at least one of them, maybe for the rest, and I couldn’t tell you which one is which, although one of the maybes is probably Grodd, and that makes me sad.

That’s all I have this week. Thanks for reading.

Supergirl: “The Last Children of Krypton”

Kyle’s Thoughts

Supergirl continues to outshine the other CW superhero shows. It eliminated the “love interest” angle and the characters are allowed to evolve. What you know? So far, Supergirl does an adequate job of setting up their characters; it does a great job when compared to Arrow and Flash.

With a title like “The Last Children of Krypton,” we had to get another Superman episode. Tyler Hoechlin makes for a great Rebirth Era Superman. He delivers a good performance, while not stealing focus from Supergirl (Benoist). Like Arrow last week, “The Last Children of Krypton” had teamwork and trust as chief elements of the side story. I can see Jim’s eye roll through cyber space right now. But Supergirl adds family to the mix and it brought out those elements more than the new Team Arrow. Supergirl pals around with her cousin and in the process, ignores her adoptive sister. All hard feelings subside by the end of the episode—this is a CW superhero show after all—but a quick resolution to these squabbles is a little easier to stomach when it’s family—and it’s been established (in the first season) that the two sisters are close.

I did like the internal struggle Kara goes through when she tries to balance her two families. It’s nice to see that and there might be fertile ground with this story. Superman may take a break from Supergirl, but this won’t be the last time we see him. I’m also giddy whenever I see a Superman who doesn’t look like he’s mad at the world.

The main villain was another Superman oldie but goodie: Metallo. He came off as a villain of the week—cue another Jim eye roll—but this is one villain who should see more than one appearance. One Metallo wasn’t enough, so Supergirl threw in another one. This played out like a ploy to get Superman—and to a lesser extent Supergirl—out of Capital City and into Metropolis. The two Metallos also sewed mistrust among Supergirl’s team and Superman and fueled the teamwork and trust side story. Again, the Metallo part of the story wrapped up too soon for my liking, but to be fair, Project Cadmus was the real brains.

I like the idea of Project Cadmus in Supergirl; I’d love the idea if we knew how Supergirl relates to the rest of the CW’s shows. Cadmus serves as a great through-line villain for Supergirl’s second season, but they’ve had their hands in a lot of other pies in the DC Universe. Cadmus could easily affect Flash and Arrow as much as Flashpoint should and hasn’t (so far). Man-Bat, Doomsday, and Task Force X (a squad that takes on suicide missions: Suicide Squad) have all had ties to Cadmus. I can suffer through the occasional villain of the week if it means that we get a great payoff. We’ll have to see.

Speaking of payoff, we didn’t get much of one with Superman and Martian Manhunter. J’onn J’onzz and Kal-El’s conflict was dropped too soon. Superman didn’t like that Martian Manhunter kept Kryptonite around—understandably—so one episode later, J’onzz decided to get rid of all the known Kryptonite on Earth. I’m not sure how wise a decision this is. Supergirl has had an inordinate amount of ill-tempered Kryptonians on its set, and It’s one thing for Arrow to get rid of Lazarus Pits (they were overpowered and led to the writing crutch of resurrections and do-overs), but Kryptonite is one of Supergirl’s few weaknesses. I’m sure we haven’t seen the last of Kryptonite.

We also said goodbye to Cat Grant (Calista Flockhart). Grant’s story had played itself out and we needed to get a boss for Kara that would challenge her. Enter Snapper Carr. Snapper has a rich history in the DC Universe and I love that Supergirl addressed how Kara didn’t earn her position as a reporter. Snapper—who undoubtedly has to keep Kara as a reporter because Grant still owns the media center—will make Kara’s life hell as she tries to live up to her role as a reporter. Supergirl’s soft reboot this season may have had some hiccups but the show’s had good developments on the whole—so far. I’d even be up for a romantic thread, so long as the show earns it. If the other facets of her life are any indication, I trust she will. Thanks for reading.

Arrow: “The Recruits”

Jim’s Thoughts

Arrow delivered another episode I’ll call “mostly watchable.” I’m trying to be positive here, and that’s pretty much what I’ve come up with. It’s nowhere close to the cringe-worthy show it was last season, but it’s been slow out of the gate.

Teamwork has been such a heavy theme in this series it’s beginning to make Arrow look like a corporate training seminar with occasional displays of gymnastics. That was the big deal with Ollie’s recruiting expedition, and while it wasn’t the worst thing the show has done, I grew impatient with the recruits’ inability to decipher what was pretty obvious the goal of the bell-ringing exercise.

Felicity’s new relationship is garbage piled on more garbage. It’s another example of how The CW’s insistence on cramming romance down our throats and it sends the writing to some bad places. If the timeline is to be taken seriously, she’s beginning to give Oliver a run for his money on the bed hopping. She loved Ollie, then Barry, then Ray, then Ollie again, and now this guy? Am I forgetting someone? Probably. It doesn’t matter.

Diggle’s storyline is wasted screen time. None of the characters there are developed, and even their mission is unclear. It’s just floating there in the middle of the narrative doing nothing for anyone.

Ollie’s flashbacks continue to be what they’ve been; sporadically entertaining, but baseless. There was some effort to tie into the current story with Ollie’s training methods, but we’ve seen enough of how Ollie became who he is. It’s not a point of curiosity anymore.

Ragman seems like he could make an interesting addition to the team, but as it stands, I don’t know why he needs the Green Arrow. If the show isn’t careful, they could end up adding an overpowered character that breaks all levels of believable things.

Prometheus has potential to be a compelling villain, at least more so than Church. It’ll be tough to maneuver in a way that won’t make Church’s buildup seem like completely wasted space, but it’s clear they’re going for Prometheus as the bigger baddie.

It’s been a slow start, but I can at least say watching the show doesn’t feel like a chore so far. Bad as it sounds, that’s a step in the right direction.

Kyle’s Take

Arrow may need Ragman to handle Prometheus. What is with Green Arrow battling villains who outclass him? Deathstroke has taken on the Titans by himself and Prometheus has done the same with the Justice League. Prometheus fighting Green Arrow should watch a lot like the internet cartoon Godzilla vs. Bambi. You see a minute and a half of Bambi eating greens, Godzilla stomps on him, and roll credits.

Don’t get me wrong, Prometheus can—and has been—a compelling villain in the comics and shows promise in “The Recruits,” but when Green Arrow faces off against Prometheus and Deathstroke, you have to suspend disbelief to a point where it gets to an unwanted level of silliness. I know that Arrow’s a comic book TV show, but its universe has rules. Marvel wouldn’t have Daredevil and Galactus battling each other; Galactus would eat him in one gulp. Green Arrow shouldn’t take on Prometheus.

I agree with Jim that Ragman can take Arrow to an unwanted place (magic and power-wise) and I don’t know why Ragman needs Green Arrow besides the flimsy dad connection. This played out better than Batman and Superman realizing their mothers had the same first name in Batman v Superman, but that’s not saying much and I’m going to need more to cement this relationship.

This season also benefits from how low the fourth season set the bar. The recruits’ idiocy, Ollie’s superfluous flashbacks, Diggle’s rudderless storyline, and Felicity’s obnoxious love life would be series lows if not for last season’s debacle. I’m still not a fan of Ollie moon-lighting as the mayor—it’s silly to think he’d have the time for fighting crime and mayoring—but Captain Lance’s descent into alcoholism could have some legs. My only worry with this thread is that Arrow will make Lance all better after one pep talk. That’s not how that illness works. It’s a constant struggle.

And we get back to conflict and the lack of rising tension. Arrow and Flash have dropped tension so fast that Jim’s right to be concerned about Church’s buildup as wasted time. Arrow dropping Lance’s alcoholism can’t be trusted either because we didn’t see him struggle with whether or not to buy a beer (or drink of his choice) when his other daughter died or when the same daughter was resurrected as a feral animal. I’m sure there are television rules Arrow doesn’t want to break (in terms of drinking alcohol), but the CW should show us small beats—they shouldn’t be episode long monologues or season hijacking story arcs, but small beats within episodes—that build up these characters.

All in all, “The Recruits” was for the most part watchable, which is more than I can say for half of last season, and Arrow is on an upward swing.

Conjecture

I started a conjecture section with Flash this week and I’ll do the same for Arrow. This section is where I look into the shows future, so you may see some potential spoilers. You’ve been warned.

I don’t have much in terms of Arrow tea leaf reading. Perhaps I’m not as interested in the show as I am Flash—Arrow did fall off a cliff last season—but it’s more likely that Arrow doesn’t have as much intrigue at the moment. Still, I do have a bit of news that some of you may have already heard.

Deathstroke will make another appearance. So we may get the madness of Prometheus and Deathstroke taking on Ollie at once. Or we could have a scene where Deathstroke and Prometheus battle each other (over who gets to off Ollie) and that’d be neat. Either way, it’s a positive step when Arrow adds Deathstroke to its cast.

That’s all we have this week. Thank you for reading.

The Flash: “Paradox”

Jim’s Thoughts

The Flash gave us another watchable episode this week. True, Flash didn’t have as steep a hill to climb to get back there as Arrow does, but it’s nice to see at least an okay start to the season.

What’s interesting here is it looks like the show is trying to address some of what started showing its weakness last season. Kyle and I have criticized Flash on several occasions for leaning too hard on the time travel/alternate reality mechanic. It’s killed a lot of tension in the show, and this episode brought Jay Garrick in to tell Barry he needed to quit messing with the timeline. The broken cup example was weak, and the dialogue was on the nose, but if the end result is the show picks a reality and sticks with it, it’ll have done its job.

The funny part of this “no more do-overs” speech is seeing how the show is giving itself a giant do-over with the villain. Last season, Zoom was presented as a fantastic nemesis. He was legitimately disturbing, and when he was unmasked and shown to be a love-sick Hunter Zolomon puppy, it was ruined. Dr. Alchemy reminds me a lot of Zoom, his voice, his presentation, his big plan involving other rogues, and it feels like the show wants Alchemy to be their do-over from Zoom. Here’s hoping they don’t botch it this time.

The Iris storyline is still boring me, but there’s a segment of the fanbase that watches for the romance (*cough* TUMBLR cough*), so I can live with it having a place on the show. The only problem will come if they start pandering to that demographic like Arrow did by making last season all about Felicity.

The teaser about Snow becoming Frost was interesting, and they’ve certainly more than hinted that some transformations are on their way. This risks overcrowding the screen again, so let’s hope Barry doesn’t disappear in his own series.

Tom Felton (you know him as Draco from Harry Potter) debuted properly this week, and I think it was a strong performance on his part. It’s a chance for interesting character moments at Central City PD, so let’s hope he gets more to do, and that side of the series gets some build to it.

As with a lot of the personal conflicts on this show, the team’s ability to put grudges aside was rushed and handled badly. That’s a common problem with CW programs, they just don’t seem to understand how anger works in human beings. I’ve come to expect it now, but it’s still worth mentioning.

Kyle’s Take

I was wrong last week: wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong.

That was Rival (the third version of Reverse-Flash/Zoom in bed and Doctor Alchemy whispering to him). I had no idea Dr. Alchemy was a cross between Zoom and a Pokemon. His dialogue played like a possessed Pikachu. Alca—alca—alca—Me!

In all seriousness, I agree with Jim that Alchemy is a step in the right direction. I’d even say that he borrows from Zoom (the voice and presentation) and Reverse-Flash (working behind the scenes and transforming others into meta-humans), and those are two great developments. Go back to when two main villains worked.

We haven’t seen the last of time jumps this season. Barry feels guilty for altering history and in effect, killing Cisco’s brother. The Flash will also have to deal with Caitlin as Killer Frost and that will most likely result in The Flash turning back time. What Flash has done is hint that there will be greater consequences (besides Time Wraiths) when Barry does time jump—it’s no accident that Jay Garrick’s appearance resembled a Time Wraith. I might be okay with continued time jumps this season in regards to Barry developing as a character (he should retain knowledge of these timelines) but that’ll kill any character development for everyone else. But Flash appears to be settling on a timeline, or at least getting close to one it can live with, and if the consequences are dire enough, Barry won’t be time jumping in the future.

I’m also tired of the Iris love story—it’s the least interesting part of the show for me—but Flash is a CW show and there has to be some romantic angle, no matter how inert. Part of the mind-numbness of the Iris love story can be blamed on all the time-jumping. As soon as Flash settles on a timeline, the Iris storyline could have space to grow. We’ll see.

We’ll also see if Flash can produce normal human interaction with its characters. All conflicts (animosity among characters) were smoothed out too quickly. This is another reason why I think Flash will time jump again soon. If these versions are the characters the show is settling on, why did the show drop the tension? Of course, I mentioned The Flash’s inability to build tension last week. This is not a new problem.

Overall, “Paradox” was an enjoyable episode with some minor hiccups. I’m excited to see what happens next—so much so that I’m including a conjecture section.

Conjecture

I tend to be wrong because I read the tea leaves a lot. I added this section so I can delineate when I’m stating fact (or my opinion on actual show developments) and when I’m looking to the future. Since this is a look at a possible timeline, a potential spoiler alert is in order.

According to inside sources, this season of The Flash will be broken into two parts and each part will have its own antagonist. The first half (before the mid-season break) will feature Doctor Alchemy—we know Dr. Alchemy’s the main antagonist for at least the time being, so this tracks—and the second half (after the mid-season break) will showcase The Black Racer.

Remember when I said that The Flash set up greater consequences in regards to time traveling during “Paradox?” Well, The Black Racer is the Flash version of death and chases down speedsters for various reasons. One of those reasons could be changing the timeline too much. If this is the case, consider The Black Racer as a 1,000 Time Wraiths merging to form Death.

As far as Julian Albert (Tom Felton) is concerned, I agree with Jim that he did a good job and earned a larger role, but I included Albert here because it’s obvious that Felton is Doctor Alchemy.

The Flash had Dr. Wells tracking meta-humans in season one, and Albert’s doing that here. Albert is also the third nipple, a character who sticks out and doesn’t belong, like Jay Garrick (Hunter Zoloman/Zoom) from last season. Albert’s character name was originally Julian Dorn, but The Flash wanted to honor the source material by naming him Julian Albert and the only Flash rogue named Albert is Doctor Alchemy—but you can call him Al. And finally, the item that powers Doctor Alchemy is a philosopher’s stone, and the Harry Potter franchise has some history with philosopher’s stones. (That makes me wonder why the American version of Harry Potter’s first novel was changed to the Sorcerer’s Stone, when Dr. Alchemy predates the Harry Potter series by several decades.) It’s almost type-casting for Felton.

That’s all I have this week. Thank for you for reading.

Supergirl: “The Adventures of Supergirl”

Kyle’s Thoughts

I’m going to start with a short recap of Supergirl’s first season because we’ve never covered Supergirl on Geekly before. I binge-watched the first season on Netflix within the last month so I could—maybe—add it to the CW shows we review. Jim and I weren’t impressed with the pilot. Supergirl rushed faster than a speeding bullet to develop its characters in the form of data-dump dialogue and the show came at a time before Batman v Superman and DC coming to terms with how poorly they portrayed their characters on the big screen, so there were some coy, obnoxious nods to Man of Steel. I’m also nowhere near Supergirl’s target audience (young girls with little to no knowledge of the comic book character). But I stuck it out for six or seven episodes, and Supergirl did what every other show by this creative team (Arrow and Flash writers/producers) does and got enjoyable.

Melissa Benoist makes for an adorkable Kara Danvers/Supergirl. She must’ve studied Christopher Reeve’s Superman because she’s ringer for his timing. The rest of the cast got better and their characters more layered as the season progressed. Calista Flockhart (Cat Grant) illustrates this development the most. She started the season as an over-the-top, tough-as-nails woman in charge, but when she stopped telling us who she was (in dialogue) and displayed a nurturing side, she gave a more believable performance. I could’ve used Chyler Leigh (Alex Danvers, Kara’s adoptive sister) or Laura Benanti (Alura Zor-El) as examples too, but as the cast as a whole became more comfortable.

I won’t say that Supergirl’s first season was the greatest, it had its flaws. I’m still not happy with the show casting Mehcad Brooks as James Olsen. He’s Jimmy Olsen—not James—and he’s not a hunk; Jimmy was the blueprint for Peter Parker/Spider-man, so he’s supposed to be a geek who can tell you the differences between Wally West and Barry Allen’s Flash. Supergirl also suffered from the same writing issues as Arrow and Flash, but the younger intended audience did make it a wholesome show and that’s something I hope the CW continues. More than Superman, Supergirl has to be uplifting. And Supergirl’s first season did an admirable job.

Well, that took longer than I would’ve liked but I did sum up an entire season in a few paragraphs. Let’s get to this week’s “The Adventures of Supergirl.” I liked it when Supergirl cut pretense and called Superman by name. Kara is Kal-El’s cousin so you can’t call Supes “The Man in Blue” or the “Big Guy” for twenty plus episodes. We even caught glimpses of Superman in the first season, but “The Adventures of Supergirl” showed us Superman and that brought a smile to my face. Yes! Supergirl exists in the same universe as Superman—if only that meant that Arrow and Flash existed in a universe with a Superman. Oh, well. It’s a step in the right direction.

What’s even better is that Superman doesn’t steal focus away from Supergirl. It’d be easy for an icon like Superman to overshadow Kara, but Benoist’s charisma and screen presence won’t let that happen. This is her show.

I also liked Supergirl’s inclusion of Lena Luthor (Lex’s sister), and how in this version of Supergirl’s story (unlike the version we’re getting to know in DC’s current Superwoman title) Lena’s a woman who wants to climb out of her family’s shadow. That doesn’t sound like Kara at all. Katie McGrath’s portrayal of Lena Luthor as a confident businesswoman without making her heartless was also good to see; Supergirl learned from their missteps with Cat Grant last season.

Jim might groan that we got a villain-of-the-week this episode, but that’s not exactly the case. This week’s villain set up Project Cadmus and that could have some long-lasting effects on Supergirl and the Arrowverse, should the shows intersect. All in all, “The Adventures of Supergirl” was fun and promising.

Supergirl dropped the Olsen-Danvers love connection (Jimmy’s not supposed to be a heart throb), J’onn J’onzz and Kal-El have an interesting history, and this week’s episode did something that Marvel shows/movies haven’t done well in the past; it didn’t shove feminist rhetoric down our throats. You don’t have to cheerlead or preach feminism when the main character is a kick ass female and you give female actors interesting, complex, and empowering roles. Show us what a woman of steel can do. “The Adventures of Supergirl” did just that.

Bob’s Burgers: “Sea Me Now”

Kyle’s Thoughts

“Sea Me Now” was very punny. I lost count of how many puns the cast of Bob’s Burgers dropped but they were plentiful and laugh worthy. Beyond that, the play on words left me in stitches.

I don’t want to spoil too much about “Sea Me Now” but I’d like to share sample dialogue from this episode.

Tina (watching the floor of Teddy’s boat): Teddy, when’s a good time to tell you the boat’s filling up with water.
Teddy: Oh, that’s not ideal.
Tina: It’s not an ideal time. Okay. I’ll wait to tell you later.

Even the episode’s title “Sea Me Now” is a play on words and a hint at the show’s central conflict: Teddy dealing with his divorce. We’ve heard Teddy talk about his ex-wife for the past six years, but he’s never dealt with the loss, until this week. Teddy gets on my nerves but he’s an earnest character, and “Sea Me Now” is an earnest Bob’s Burgers episode, something in which the show excels.

We see Teddy descend to the precipice of madness, trying to impress his ex with the boat he’s been working on since the divorce, and it takes seeing someone else who went down a similar path to open Teddy’s eyes to what he’s doing. Bob’s Burgers also does a great job of building its characters and showing character growth in episodes. “Sea Me Now” does this for Teddy—a character we haven’t seen get this treatment yet—and if prior seasons are any indication, these changes will hold water and we’ll see the character progress in the coming episodes and years.

While I’m not the biggest Teddy fan, “Sea Me Now” exhibited many of the strengths that make Bob’s Burgers one of the better TV comedies today.

Thanks for reading.