The Flash Review – “The Trap”

Jim’s Review

After a couple of stumbles, Flash seems to be developing a trend of finishing strong. This week’s episode kept with that. Grant Gustin continues to deliver a particularly strong performance. It’d be easy for him to overplay the part of the conflicted hero, trying to work with and subvert Dr. Wells at the same time, but he’s done it well.

There was a lot more of the Iris romance angle this week, both with Eddie and Barry, and I continue to just not care. Iris simply isn’t being given anything to make her an interesting character. Her “great revelation” that the appearance of meta-humans in Central City may be linked to the STAR Labs explosion did nothing to give her credibility as an investigative journalist. Actually, I’m thinking her next big breakthrough will be to link low income to poverty.

The sequence with Cisco remembering the events of the alternate timeline felt poorly explained, and that, in conjunction with the uninteresting Iris segments made for a weak midway point to the episode. By far, Dr. Wells going outright evil made for the high point. His loathing/need for Barry makes for an interesting story, and I look forward to it. Of course, the preview for the upcoming episode look really interesting. Grodd, anyone?

Kyle’s Take

This week’s Flash was fantastic if you turn off your brain and don’t ask too many questions. I’ll try something new this week and turn off my brain for the first portion of this review, and then turn it back on for some issues I found, but let’s start with the mind on shut down.

“The Trap” brought Flash back to the point it was at before Barry’s day trip, just after the tsunami. It tied many of the threads together: Wells gets outed, Eddie discovers his relationship to the Reverse-Flash, and Iris knows Barry’s secret. Fireworks popped all over the place, similar to the time warp/day trip episode, and we’re thrust toward Flash’s season finale with plenty of momentum. Throw in some great acting by Tom Cavanagh (Harrison Wells) and The Reverse-Flash’s loathing/need for Barry and a few gotcha scenes and this week’s episode proved to be a fun game of cat-and-mouse.

(Brain engaged.)

Yes, Iris discovering that meta-humans were created by the STAR Labs explosion was a duh moment, but Flash’s bigger issue is its inability to explain how alternate timelines work. They need to get out ahead of this and I’m disappointed that they didn’t put more thought into it before the series began. Cisco’s echoes of the alternate timeline where Wells kills him and Iris uncovering Barry’s secret that can be explained – most likely – by her experiencing an echo of the same timeline is inconsistent if no one has echoes of the timeline where the Reverse-Flash didn’t kill Wells. If you introduce another timeline (like the one without Wells’ untimely death), you can’t ignore it.

Then, the Reverse-Flash tells Eddie that he’s his great-great-great-grandfather (or something to that effect). That’s kind of like Hitler raising hell in the time of his predecessors and then telling one of his ancestors (that he’s making life difficult for) that they’re related. That ancestor would at least consider celibacy (or castration)—and good bye, Reverse-Flash.

Okay, there is a precedent for members of the Thawne family to become supervillains in the comics, but Eddie hasn’t shown a vicious bone in his body in the show so far and he’d be overreacting if he turns rogue after finding out Iris loves (and marries) Barry, not him.

Finally, we’re left with the gotcha moments. While they were fun, they weren’t earned. The Flash did little to explain how they could pull them off, since the biggest gotcha moment required The Everyman to possess knowledge that he couldn’t possibly have. There was no clue – besides a force field not working – that the man threatening Cisco wasn’t The Reverse-Flash. It was a bait and switch that manipulated the audience.

Despite these flaws, I choose to turn off my brain – for now – and enjoy this rollercoaster. Bring on Grodd.

Verdict:

A fun – if uneven – episode that gets fans excited for the season finale.

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iZombie Review – “Maternity Liv”

Kyle’s Review

I like the word play iZombie has used for its titular character Liv. The titles that use Liv’s name are cute and reveal what you should expect during the episode. “Liv and let Clive” was fun as is this week’s “Maternity Liv.” The episode itself fell short of its punny title.

As you can guess, Liv eats the brain of a deceased pregnant woman. Fortunately, the baby survives so we don’t have that death on our conscious. Unfortunately, the woman whose brain Liv eats gets reduced to motherhood. iZombie has walked a thin line between deep and stereotypical victim characters but the mother on Liv’s slab this week had only one defining characteristic: she was pregnant. To make matters worse, Liv’s zombie hunk ate the brains of a homosexual male and that caused the zombie hunk to prance around in stereotypical fashion.

Even the weekly mystery was a yawn. iZombie bucked the trend (and reality) of someone close to a murder victim as the culprit for a nonsensical solution. That hurt. Usually, I can count on the mystery to do work if the interpersonal stuff doesn’t. Even worse was that iZombie set up a great who done it that could’ve pinned the murder on a jealous boyfriend or her overbearing parents. Instead, we’re left scratching our heads.

But all wasn’t horrible. The police lieutenant – the one proven zombie at police HQ – might have figured out that Liv’s a zombie too and I liked how Major and Detective Babineaux could be at odds with Major introducing the press to the missing kids case. iZombie has plenty to work with in regards to its ongoing arcs. We’ll have to see which direction they’ll take. Hopefully, they’ll make some wiser choices and get back to some deeper characters and mysteries.

Verdict:

“Maternity Liv” was the weakest episode of iZombie so far but folks who follow the ongoing arcs had something to cheer for.

Bob’s Burgers Review – “Itty Bitty Ditty Committee”

Kyle’s Review

Gene presents a problem that most Bob’s Burgers characters don’t have: he doesn’t have the attention span to have long-term or focused goals. The other Bob’s Burgers characters can always tap one desire that engages the audience with the character. Gene only wants to have fun. His inability to see beyond his bulbous nose makes it difficult to write for him if you don’t have a solid objective for him like in “Best Burger” (get Dad the ingredient he needs to win a cooking competition) earlier this season. This issue reared its ugly head in this week’s “Itty Bitty Ditty Committee.”

Sure, Gene loves music but he really wants to be a musical star rather than learn how to play anything – his piano lesson lasted all of two minutes – and despite his “love” of music, he was too willing to give it up as soon as it became work. Gene’s band booted him out after they booked a gig at a prestigious birthday party and while reinstatement in the band should’ve been Gene’s short-term objective (and was for the aforementioned two minutes), he lost sight of even that. The story resolved with his bandmates saying that music wasn’t fun without him. That didn’t ring true either because at least two out of those three bandmates had taken a year of lessons to learn their instruments. Why would they consider learning how to play music as just work?

Don’t get me wrong. I like Gene as a character but I question how easy it is to write him as the main character. He works better as the guy who gets a hair-brained idea and his sudden desire runs counter to what the main character wants to do like in “Topsy” from the second season, where Gene writes a musical about elephant and electric love. “Topsy” even shows that Gene would be willing to put in the work, even if his goal is to be a star.

The side story of Linda’s armpit rash fared slightly better. She doesn’t want to look like a fool with two furry friends (her pit hair) under her arms and eventually, finds a way to deal with the embarrassment. In genuine Linda style, she owns her massive pit hair and even earns a compliment by episode’s end.

“Itty Bitty Ditty Committee” may not have been the welcome back episode of Bob’s Burgers I was expecting, but it was fun. You also have to love the straw solo at the end.

Orphan Black Review – “Transitory Sacrifices of Crisis”

Kyle’s Review

“Transitory Sacrifices of Crisis” faltered a bit but Orphan Black’s good is still better than most show’s great.

I didn’t know it was possible, but Sarah (the show’s protagonist) got lost in this week’s episode. Sure, she was physically in the show but the male clones took over in the scenes with Sarah, causing her to react instead of plan or do much of anything else. This isn’t a bad thing necessarily. Ari Millen does a good job as the male clones but he doesn’t make his characters as different as Tatiana Maslany (the female clone actor) and I’m not as invested in his characters yet.

As with the female clones, the male clones have a fatal flaw in their makeup. I won’t spoil it here but this defect leads to a powerful scene. But the scene in question wasn’t as powerful as Millen’s final scene as the Prolethean turned lover boy on the run, Mark Rollins. Mark is one of the few male clones who does stand out.

As for Maslany’s clones, Helena sustains more abuse. I like that she doesn’t buy into her captors’ lies. She may not have had too much screen time but we got a nice taste of her character. Cosima makes a brief appearance too and it was memorable as she defied authority but the true female clone stand out this week has to be Alison Hendrix. She continues her bid for school trustee and found her edge over the competition. Again, I won’t spoil it here but she sure does know how to turn a situation on its ear. After she lost most of her money and anonymity, she became the forgotten clone but she made strides for her return as The Clone Club’s financier.

Speaking of money bags, Sarah’s beau Cal, who happens to be the formerly estranged father of her daughter, has deeper pockets than we might have guessed from last season. He had plenty of money lying around a year ago but apparently he has enough cash to purchase a gorgeous, new home. Cal, played by Game of Thrones’ Michiel Huisman, has a dark past of which Sarah has only scratched the surface. This might have played into Sarah’s diminished role but I see her clawing her way into the center of Cal’s past in the not-so-distant future.

Verdict:

A solid episode, “Transitory Sacrifices of Crisis” traded female clones for male clones to good effect. Orphan Black’s secondary female clones played well but Sarah needs more direction. I think she’ll have it soon.

Grimm Review – “Iron Hans”

Kyle’s Review

This week’s episode of Grimm, “Iron Hans,” was a partial return to form to Grimm’s earlier season success. The Wesen of the week brought Monroe’s choice of non-violence back in the lime light – and I like the fact that Grimm returned to familiar Wesen instead of introducing a new Wesen, which meant that they didn’t have to waste the majority of the show’s hour explaining why we should care about this new Wesen – but the continuing stories shined the brightest.

Adalind’s love child with Nick reached critical mass. Juliette embraced her hexenbiest and I’m mostly on board with her vengeance, since Nick sided with Adalind instead of her. I also get Nick’s side, too—Adalind is pregnant with his child and even if Adalind wasn’t pregnant with Nick’s child, an unborn baby of about seven months is an innocent no matter the parentage. I still get Juliette’s sense of betrayal. While I like this angle a little more than I did before, I don’t like how heavy handed Grimm was when delivering it. Grimm used the line, “Adalind is having the baby that you (Juliette) were supposed to have.” That’s a little too on the nose.

Still, those developments worked nice and I got the sense that Monroe’s tormentors may be back soon. Grimm isn’t too subtle but the Wesen he meets in the woods let him know that his reputation precedes him. They were all right with Monroe’s actions but this could be a more gentle hand to reintroduce other Wesen who might not agree with Monroe’s actions.

Verdict:

I hope “Iron Hans” is a sign of what Grimm has in store for us in the future. Most of the ongoing stories progressed.

Orphan Black Review – “The Weight of this Combination”

Kyle’s Review

I can’t say enough nice things about Orphan Black. The previous two season were excellent (writing, acting, directing, and general awesomeness) and I keep waiting for the show to fall off. That didn’t happen with its third season debut episode “The Weight of this Combination” and it could have given how last season ended. Orphan Black’s second season ended with a microphone drop of sorts, introducing a series of male clones that could’ve upset the show’s balance.

I say balance because Tatiana Maslany is brilliant as the female clones and that was a lot for Ari Millen to live up to. He’s done an admirable job so far but the show hasn’t gotten away from what made it great the previous two season: Maslany.

It’s criminal that she hasn’t been nominated for an Emmy but Sci Fi shows typically don’t receive love come award season. Malany will play one clone, pretending to be another clone, and she nails it. She doesn’t portray Rachel in the scenes where Sarah infiltrates DYAD, she portrays Sarah pretending to Rachel. It’s just off enough, in the manner of how Sarah would be off when playing Rachel, so that other characters that know Rachel well can tell that she isn’t who she claims to be and close enough to fool characters who may not have been in contact with Rachel that much—and the best part is that the fans are in on it the whole time.

The plot is a tangled mess at this point – you’ll have to catch up with seasons one and two before watching this episode – but if you can binge watch this show in order to watch Orphan Black’s third season, I highly recommend it. It’s the best Sci Fi TV show on air and I’m going to stop waiting for the show to slip.

Verdict:

Orphan Black is the best Sci Fi TV show, period. You owe it to yourself to watch “The Weight of this Combination.” The opening sequence alone is a great one: we get to see the perfect world of one of the show’s least understood characters, Helena.

Arrow Review – “The Fallen”

Kyle’s Review

I’ll give Arrow this, they are fully committed to the Ra’s Al Ghul arc. I’m still not sure if the Ra’s Al Ghul arc’s a good or bad thing but it’s something very few other shows would try, so that makes it interesting.

Still, there are a lot of incongruities with this episode. How does Thea know that Merlyn’s her father but doesn’t know that Ollie’s alive? How can Ollie go to the ends of the earth to bring back his sister from the dead and then leave his sister in less than a minute to have steamy extended cable sex with Felicity that’s cut short by a flashback? Who thought that Felicity’s idea to smuggle Ollie out of Nanda Parbat was a good idea? That had to be the most laughable moment this season.

Despite all that, the acting was good. Stephen Amell has perfected his wounded face – I just hope they don’t over use it like Laurel’s doe eyes – and his farewells to his team were genuine. I liked him calling Diggle his “brother” and “the best man he’s ever known.” That’s right, Ollie. Never forget your first and best friend.

Merlyn was less of a tool and more fatherly this week but his whole premise of the Lazarus Pit changing a person at their core didn’t pan out. Besides ten seconds of rage, Thea was more confused than anything else. Once she returned to Starling, she was back to the normal Thea, so I don’t see why Merlyn would object to a Lazarus bath or why the gang hasn’t thought to do the same for Sara.

As for Matt Nable as Ra’s, he’s done an adequate job. I think most fans were upset with Arrow casting a Brit as Ra’s because they thought that Brit would’ve been Liam Neeson reprising his Batman Begins role. Nable has enough screen presence to pull off the role but he does come off as Neeson portraying Ra’s instead of a different Ra’s. I also liked Ra’s’s offhand remark about his other children. Could he be referring to Talia and Dusan al Ghul?

The flashbacks disappointed again this week. They don’t add anything to the present day arc that we didn’t already know and this week’s flashbacks continued the trend of not explaining Maseo’s thought process behind making Ollie the new Ra’s. He had to know about the prophecy.

We know that Team Arrow won’t take Ollie’s absence lying down but what does Ollie’s new position mean to his heroic career? Ollie has the League at his disposal but I don’t think they’ll help him play the Good Samaritan.

Verdict:

An interesting but confusing episode of Arrow, “The Fallen” gave a strong blueprint for the season’s finale. I just hope it’s a finale that ties everything together.

No, we have no Arrow secrets today.

Sorry, there’s no Arrow secrets page this week because there weren’t too many secrets this week besides the aforementioned Lazarus Pit making its first real appearance and Ollie joining the League — for now — but we’ll leave you with one tidbit. Remember how Arrow gets branded at the end of this week’s episode?

Well, the arrowhead during Arrow’s opening sequence has changed every year and usually, that’s for aesthetics (except for the Cupid episode) but this year, Arrow’s arrowhead has hinted at this moment.

That had to hurt, Ollie.

The Flash Review – “Who Is Harrison Wells?”

Jim’s Review

This week’s Flash wasn’t quite the return to form I was hoping for. The villain of the week had a lot of potential, but unfortunately, their decision to make everyone so slow-witted this episode drained the potential tension from the shape-shifting enemy angle.

Iris was given a reason to back off her pouty routine, but the damage is done there. It was a little weird having her and Laurel on screen in the same episode, and realizing Laurel has competition for most obnoxious female character.

The biggest nuisance of the week–by far–having a bunch of supposed geniuses know that a shape-shifting metahuman is on the loose, seeing familiar faces acting abnormally, then not making the connection until it was too late. It was just more laziness on the part of the writers’ room.

Speaking of laziness, we had more than a slight dose of sloppy, expositional dialogue this week. Detectives West and Lance having their heart-to-heart felt out of character for each of them, and sort of a desperate attempt to remind us of the current subplot in Arrow.

The show was spared by its ending. The shape-shifter story was a clumsy attempt at a parallel story line, but it helped move Harrison Wells’ story forward, and that’s been overdue. Seeing Barry, Caitlin and Cisco at the end made this a worthwhile episode.

The show still needs to find its footing again, but the build toward the home-stretch of the season looks promising.

Kyle’s Take

I want to disagree with most of Jim’s review but I can’t.

The Flash has never done as good of a job of building a parallel story line as past seasons of the Arrow, so it’s not surprising that the shape-shifter story didn’t sync with the Wells arc. This is where recurring villains could help. I’m not saying that The Flash must have nothing but ongoing arcs but if some of their villains (besides Wells and Captain Cold) showed up three to five times in a season, it’d make a more compelling story. The Pied Piper would’ve played off the gang’s misgivings about Wells better in this episode (as would his sonic tech, since Cisco uses similar tech for Black Canary).

Speaking of Laurel, I’m not sure the writers of The Flash/Arrow can write a good female character and it gets worse when the female in question doesn’t have powers or training. Does anyone else remember the Huntress or Sarah’s bevy of hambone lines like “Pain and I came to an understanding a long time ago?” Ugh.

Iris may or may not be likeable but her one outburst doesn’t compare with years of poor Laurel writing. Laurel slept with Ollie after he cheated on her with her sister and she blamed him for her sister’s death. Who does that? For two seasons, Laurel and Sarah played Ollie like a game of pinball: they were the flippers, slapping Ollie’s ball. That’s so wretched that it’s sub-Kardashian.

I also don’t buy the father-to-father talk for West and Lance – that exchange felt like an out-of-body experience for the two characters – and I’m concerned about the ending. Yes, it was cool from a fanboy stance, but after the gloss wore off, I was left scratching my head.

I’m not digging how Team Arrow imploded and their writers’ clumsiness of a partial series reboot, and I can see The Flash getting to that point faster than Arrow. I agree that the gang has to discover that Wells is Reverse-Flash – or else they’re stupid and Barry’s flash to the past doesn’t make as much sense – but they aren’t as strong of a team as Team Arrow. What happens now? Wells funds their team. He owns their headquarters. Is this happening so fast that the continuance of Barry’s heroic exploits at this level are far-fetched if they confront Wells? I fear that The Flash may use time-travel as a story-saving panacea in the manner that Arrow looks poised to use people coming back from the dead.

Verdict:

An interesting episode that doesn’t balance two parallel storylines, but the ending will generate buzz and that’s what an effective ending does.

Not enough Flash for you? Speed off to our Flash secrets page.

iZombie Review – “Virtual Reality Bites”

Kyle’s Review

The other shoe fell during this week’s “Virtual Reality Bites” and it looks like Liv is in a relationship with another zombie. I liked how the creative team took their time to introduce romance to the story before this week and let us get accustomed to the possibility but they fast forward through a few steps.

I get that Mr. Hunk Zombie with a British accent is one of a few dating options for Liv but I could’ve used a few more weeks leading up to them as soulmates. Okay, they didn’t use the term soulmate but it was implied and the fact that these two zombies, who were overly cautious up to this week, are jumping into a relationship doesn’t track. But despite the romance story faltering, there were plenty of other good ongoing arcs.

I like the zombie underground, meat market – iZombie has played this card well – but I wonder how long they can keep Liv and Blaine apart. Major investigating the missing street kids and coming up with Blaine will force iZombie to revisit Liv’s distrust of him but this should shake the zombie community’s tree. Liv and Zombie Hunk think they’re two of the few undead in town but that should change.

The only constant will be the weekly mysteries. This week’s mystery worked better than last week’s, but fell a little flat when compared with the ones at the beginning of the season. It felt more like a typical police procedural, complete with a gotcha moment at the end, but it was satisfying enough. Let’s hope that the ongoing story arcs and the one introduced at the end of this episode (I won’t spoil it; I swear) will lead iZombie in new and exciting directions.

Verdict:

iZombie delivered the promised zombie romance in this week’s “Virtual Reality Bites” but the zombie underground remains the more interesting arc and it may have some company.

Powers Review – “Level 13”

Kyle’s Review

Powers managed to keep me off-balance this week. I liked the use of Pulp Fiction jump cuts: six days ago became two hours ago and then three days ago and then back again. I couldn’t keep up with what happened when – and that was problematic at times – but I knew what Walker wanted and questioned if he was playing Johnny Royalle or his fellow cops or both. Walker chose the latter and that was good but the twist ending was great.

The ending marked the official closing of to the Simons arc and – unfortunately – the Calista one started anew. After the events of “Level 13,” Calista doesn’t have purpose in the world of Powers. Maybe she’ll find her powers and that’ll be something but for now, Krispin is far more interesting.

Walker fails to comfort Krispin and to avenge the death of Krispin’s mother. Walker’s moral grayness accentuates Krispin’s idea that there are no heroes or villains in this world, but while Krispin insists that all powers are a sham, the truth is that they aren’t so much a sham as they are humans with powers. There’s a reason the comic and the show aren’t called “Heroes”—besides the obvious copyright infringement.

“Level 13” stands out from the other episodes of Powers because they had few special effects – What’s with that terrible CGI? – and the script was written by the comic’s creator, Brian Michael Bendis. BMB doesn’t always hit homeruns but Powers is one of his better works and this episode captured its frenetic pace, while showcasing the tone of the source material. I won’t spoil the ending for you here but it’s great and should lead to a satisfying finale.

Verdict:

Just when I thought all hope was lost for the series, Powers delivered its best episode so far. This week’s “Level 13” cranked the series to thirteen in time for its finale.