Jim’s Review

This week’s episode was a pretty nice balance between the villain-of-the-week format and the sort of show that advances the bigger plot threads. Mark Hamill did well as The Trickster. Let’s face it, the character is not easy to portray without being over-the-top campy, or a complete Joker rip-off, but Hamill was good. The, “I am your father” Easter Egg was surely a thrill for some, but I have to admit I cringed. It’s not that I’m dead inside, it’s just that I thought it was a bit of a reach for that one.

Barry coming to suspect Harrison Wells feels a little sudden, and I’m not sure how well they’ve sold it. Barry’s realization that Wells was speaking of the speed force from experience was relatively well-executed, but I have a hard time buying that Wells would have slipped quite that easily.

Finally, the revelation about Wells’ origin, his true identity and the reason for his sketchy past were a genuine surprise. I’m really not sure what they’ll do for (or to) the long-term plot of the series, but it’s definitely interesting. If nothing else, it’s the sort of significant development that makes me excited for what’s left of the season, and it was another solid installment of the show.

Kyle’s Take

I chuckled when I saw that Mark Hamill would reprise his role as The Trickster months ago. I figured that the inclusion of a character as zany as The Trickster would mean that The Flash wouldn’t take itself too seriously, and it hasn’t—for the most part. I agree with Jim. Hamill did a good job, and I groaned when I heard Hamill deliver the “I am your father” line. They only did that to tie into the up-coming Star Wars movie. Ugh.

The balance between the villain-of-the-week and the larger story arc worked, but I wanted more. I’ve gotten used to The Flash’s formula, and we are getting toward the end of the season, so I’d like to see this one-trick pony show us a different trick. You don’t have to break the entire series, and it’s okay to continue with this formula through the end of this season, but I’d like to see at least a small shake up at some point. The Flash has some villains running loose—Gorilla Grodd and The Pied Piper—and I think these could be more than just villains-of-the-week. But enough about the weekly baddies, let’s talk about the ongoing story arc.

I agree in spirit with what Jim said about Barry and Wells, but I think we need to make a distinction. The Flash has sold Barry suspecting Wells as a not-so-nice person (as soon as Iris’s mentor started tailing Wells, he died), but it hasn’t sold Wells as the Reverse-Flash—that’s the sticky widget. I agree that Wells wouldn’t have let the Speed Force slip that much and Barry shouldn’t know that Wells is the man who killed his mother, yet.

I’m also not as on-board with Wells’ origin as Jim. It didn’t add anything we didn’t already know. So what if Thawne killed Wells and then took over his face and role? He assumed an identity instead of creating one from scratch. Big whoop. I guess he upset the space-time continuum by killing Wells and his fiancée, but we knew he did something or things already. He’s been talking for months about restoring and upholding the timeline. And let’s not forget that the item Thawne used to take Wells’ identity was the same one he used to merge Firestorm’s two personalities into one body. I hope I’m wrong and that there’s more to this.

Verdict:

Another great episode that leaves enough reserved but built toward the season’s climax.

Check out our The Flash secrets page here.

Kyle’s Review

We learned what happens when a zombie goes several days-weeks without eating brains: they turn into the mindless monsters we all know and love. Unfortunately, that meant that Live had to rid the world of one of those brutes, a friend she knew from medical school, and she didn’t even feel remorse because of the brain she ate for dinner earlier.

I like that we saw a negative effect from one of the brains Liv consumed. Up to this point, the inclinations she’s gained from others have proven to be, at worst, mild inconveniences. This week’s sociopath of a hired gun’s brain made her heartless toward others. While this helped with her deal with the rejection from her former fiancée (I’m still not sure he’s the love interest that others have hinted at in this show), she alienated her friends and killed her former friend-turned-mindless-zombie with no remorse. As you can imagine, Liv had visions from the killer’s point of view and that was a nice twist.

Well, the killer whose brain Liv ate killed this week’s victim, but he was hired by another character. Liv has to deduce who the financer is and brings him to justice. She does so, but not before mucking up her unlife.

I continue to enjoy iZombie. It isn’t heavy stuff but it doesn’t have to be.

Verdict:

Another strong episode with a good twist.

Kyle’s Review

Powers took a reflective step back this week. They built up Wolfe for a couple of episodes and now that he’s in The Shaft (superpower prison) again, the creative team has the time to see how his escape has affected the other major players. That’s a risky move. Viewers have grown accustomed to Powers’ fast pace (from episode three and beyond) and to Wolfe as an unspeakable evil, but to remove both at the same time—when both are working—took guts. And it worked—for the most part.

I’m glad I was wrong and that Triphammer’s still kicking. He put a fine point on depending too much on the drainer that saps the supervillains’ powers, while sowing the seeds of a new threat. Powers is playing this new baddie close to the vest, but it could be worse than Wolfe—or somehow connected to him. We’ll have to see how this plays out.

We got a lot of airtime and background from Johnny Royalle’s clone-popping henchman Simons and we see why he’d give the potentially life-threatening Sway to Calista. I also liked the focus on Krispin. His power hate serves as a good counter-weight to Calista power worship. But outside of these three developments, the rest of the episode was either just good or flat.

Sharlto Copley (Agent Walker) and Susan Heyward (Agent Pilgrim) have zero chemistry. That’s a shame. I liked Copley in District 9 and I can tell that Heyward’s a good actor too, but they don’t go well together. It’s painful and it makes me wonder what in the audition process made you think that these two actors played off each other well? Wolfe (Eddie Izzard) sounded wooden at episode’s end. I’m not sure how that’s possible and that could be the first time I’ve ever seen Izzard that lackluster—I think the dialogue had a lot to do with that. And the whole A-lister powers versus lesser ones didn’t sit well. The exchanges between characters felt clunky and I could’ve done without that much exposition.

Still, Powers retained some momentum as they only have a few more episodes until the finale. I hope we see more Johnny Royalle.

Verdict:

Powers took a bit of a step back this week but it’s still not as bad as its first two episodes.

Kyle’s Review

Grimm had an iffy outing with this week’s “Double Date.” We’ve seen the dualities of the Wesen of the week in the past, but I didn’t completely buy the tapeworm-like Wesen with both a male and a female half. It felt disingenuous.

But before we go more into the Wesen of the week, let’s talk about some other elements. The ongoing story arcs continued: Juliette’s Hexenbiestness, Adalind’s new baby, and Juliette and Nick on the rocks. We even got introduced to a new arc of Renard’s touch with death causing ripples in his life. I’m not sure about Renard’s side story—I kind of liked only have two-three major ones—but all of those recurring stories got lost with this week’s over-the-top Wesen outcast.

I didn’t mind Grimm trying to tackle gender identity, but usually, Nick and his gang search for a middle ground. Yes, the tapeworm Wesen hustled unsuspecting men. Yes, one of their marks died (accidently) as a result and justice had to be upheld. But Team Grimm’s solution was more barbaric than normal. Nick shoots the Wesen with a testosterone-filled arrow, denying the Wesen of their female half and forcing them to remain male. You feel sorry for the Wesen, at the end, as it pleads for its female half to return, but those emotional heartstrings Grimm tries to pluck aren’t earned.

Verdict:

A worthy effort that fell short, but hopefully, Grimm bounces back next week.

Kyle’s Review

Archer and company get tasked with removing a life-threatening blood clot from an important comatose scientist. ISIS doesn’t have any doctors in their employ—even Krieger will tell you that he’s a doctor-ish but he doesn’t have a degree (whatever those are)—so they don’t perform surgery. No, the logical course of action is to shrink the gang and inject them into the man at the clot’s source. What we get for twenty minutes is typical Archer madness.

Krieger shined brightest in this episode. He felt disrespected, because the other “doctors” gave him the meaningless tasks because he doesn’t have an “MD,” and fouled up the mission at every turn. The rest of the episode pushed beyond the Lana-Archer love angle and to multiple “What will happen to their daughter Aubergine if both Lana and Archer die” scenarios. The third thread is “How does ISIS fit with the CIA?”

We’ve seen the former two threads often this year, but Archer occasionally dropped the CIA angle and whenever they did mentioned the CIA this season, the arc got twisted and disjointed. Case in point, we went from Archer and Lana screwing up their Wales mission last week to this week’s jump cut in a laboratory. We knew this season had to lead to ISIS’s falling in or falling out with the CIA, but why has the CIA put up with them for this long? I’m all for suspension of disbelief—especially in a comedy—but this pushes things a little too far and I could do without it.

Verdict:

The individual parts of this episode worked but this season’s impending climax leaves a lot to be desired.

The Flash

Jim’s Review

With last week’s cliffhanger or Barry being back in time, we were handed a pretty big clue as to whether or not the events of last week’s episode would stick. This week’s episode wastes no time in getting to that point, and while it makes sense, I came away from this episode just feeling like the stakes had been lowered in a very big way.

It’s not as though last week’s episode is completely irrelevant now, but the only thing that seemed to leave a lasting impact on the narrative was Barry’s moment with Iris, which is naturally undone now. With that said, Barry’s handing of the situation felt out of character and more awkward than I think the writers planned for.

Captain Cold and his gang are clearly the season’s big baddies, and that’s fine, but the show still needs to do more to sell me on the threat Cold poses to The Flash. Flash can dodge a bullet, but not an ice ray? The inclusion of Barry’s identity into the mix does something for their rivalry, and the confrontation with Cisco offered some satisfying development for the loveable techie, even with the clichéd time-travel mantra of, “don’t mess with the timeline,” this episode felt more like an average villain-of-the-week affair, and pales in comparison to what we were teased with a week ago. It wasn’t a bad episode, it just didn’t build on what the last one started.

Oh, and a quick addendum: The gold gun was something that should never have been attempted.

Kyle’s Take

I wasn’t as invested in last week’s episode of The Flash because I knew little—if anything—would stick this week. When you introduce a time-travel mechanism, you can’t trust the events of a show. I’m hoping The Flash doesn’t pull a Dallas and erase an entire season. That would be terrible. Losing most of last week’s episode wasn’t too bad.

With that said, I agree with Jim. We lost any tension from last episode with The Flash’s quick fix this week. We still have seven or eight shows before the season finale, and I think last week served as a sneak peak at what might be in store.

I can’t say that I like Captain Cold and his gang as this season’s baddies either. Cold became less dangerous after his first episode. Part of what made Cold difficult to handle was that he calculated The Flash’s moves. Since his gang accrued more than one gun, they’ve leaned on their toys. It also doesn’t help that The Pied Piper was more menacing and clever. He’s my pick for the leader of the Rogues.

Oh, and I agree with Jim about the gold gun. But what were they going to do, make the Golden Glider ice skate on Snart’s gun blasts? A gold gun was less hokey than skates…maybe.

Verdict:

This was a down week for The Flash. Let’s hope they pick up the pieces next week.

Dart over to our secrets page to get more of The Flash.

Powers

Kyle’s Review

Well, that escalated quickly. Walker trapped Wolfe in the drainer cell, Johnny Royalle escaped the prison, Walker may or may not have regained his powers, Triphammer is no longer with us, and Zora took all the credit for locking up the big, bad Wolfe. Throw in some flashbacks when Royalle, Walker, and Wolfe were all friends, and that’s a lot happening in a Powers episode (“Paint It Black”) with the shortest runtime.

If you didn’t follow all of that, you’re in good company. I didn’t either—the first time. It took me a second viewer to see Wolfe go ape on Triphammer with Triphammer’s own mechanical arm. The flashbacks gave the audience a breather but they often posed more questions than answers.

It remains to be seen if dispensing the most powerful and deadly villain Powers has to offer will let out the sails, but I like how the show isn’t afraid to shake up things. They may be another source of tension on the horizon—the old Powers telling the new Powers to get off their lawn—and I like how they didn’t flinch when getting rid of a character as pivotal as Triphammer. Or did they?

Powers is a show based on a comic book, so it’s not out of the realm of possibility that Triphammer makes another appearance post death.

Verdict:

Another solid episode but I’m not sure where the show’s heading, now that Wolfe is in custody again and the Triphammer/Royalle angle of getting rid of powers or improving them might have reached an apex.

iZombie

Kyle’s Review

iZombie tallied another good episode with “Brother, Can You Spare a Brain?,” but it wasn’t without some minor hiccups. Liv’s narration got on my nerves a bit and I’m glad they cut that out by mid-episode. Why do you need to narrate when the main character expresses her inner monologue? And there was a scene of lesbian sexual tension. Liv caught a glimpse of a male victim’s dalliance with a caramel skinned lover, and then Liv fell for the same woman when they met. This moment bordered on exploitation, but Liv’s powers have made her do some things that she normally wouldn’t (kleptomania making her steal things), so I didn’t mind this too much. It also helped that Liv didn’t suddenly turn into a fulltime lesbian—that would’ve sensationalized the moment.

The murder case was by the numbers, but the introduction of David Anders as Blaine DeBeers was the show’s highlight. Blaine is a drug dealer turned zombie, trying to turn his unlife around. He tried to turn legit by his past caught up with him. We even learned through Blaine that there’s a larger zombie world out there. We knew Liv wasn’t alone, but there may be more here than we first thought.

Verdict:

Despite some bumps in the road, iZombie turned in another good episode and stayed grounded in the world of detective work.

Arrow

Kyle’s Review

This week’s Arrow was entertaining, if you find watching a train wreck entertaining.

I’ll try to make this short as I don’t like to harp on a show’s inadequacies. We got reintroduced to the Suicide Squad and ARGUS this week and neither reunion was a happy one. Cupid needs to go—that’s all I’ll say about her. I didn’t like Deadshot’s flashbacks because they didn’t do enough. You can’t introduce a soldier with a troubled past in two, one minute flashbacks. Lawton went from unsure father to raging alcoholic in sixty seconds. Why? Team Arrow had three years to develop his character and they didn’t: lazy writing.

Then you have to wonder who ARGUS works for. The US Military refused to consult on The Avengers movie because they didn’t like not knowing how SHIELD fits into a command structure (thanks for that info, Jim), but we know less about ARGUS than we do about SHIELD. Worse than that, we don’t know how ARGUS fits—if it does at all—into Arrow’s end game this season: again, lazy writing.

I hope Ray Palmer didn’t get a nose bleed on his high horse. His hypocrisy had a heavier hand than the one he donned in his suit. “The police won’t stop the vigilante, so I’ll stop him myself.” That’s known as vigilante justice, Ray-Ray: even more lazy writing.

I did like one, unintentionally funny moment. Ollie put his bow away after chastising Ray. Then, he walked off, while Roy is knocked unconscious in the gutter. Ollie doesn’t check to see if Roy’s still breathing. He doesn’t nudge Roy to see if he stirs. Ollie just walks off, and Roy’s going to wake up a few hours later, wet and alone, saying WTF. Dude, that’s cold blooded.

Verdict:

That was an awful lot of suck for having very little Laurel.

Want more Arrow? Check out our secrets page.

Grimm

Kyle’s Review

Grimm didn’t quite live up to the episode that aired just before its spring break, but “Bad Luck” did progress the main arcs. While I liked Grimm’s interesting (and disturbing) twist of a “lucky rabbit’s foot,” the Wesens of the week paled in comparison to the continuing Adalind and Juliette drama.

In fact, Wesen having fertility issues so they switch to magical means to conceive by means of severing a rabbit-person’s left foot feeds into Adalind’s baby issues, which in turn feeds into Juliette and Nick’s relationship. I didn’t buy Juliette forcing Nick to accept her hesenbiestness in a 24-hour period. She didn’t accept Nick as a Grimm right away, so that was unfair and yet, I think they’ll get through it. Here comes a spoiler: Adalind as Nick’s baby momma will be harder to overcome—end of spoiler.

I do like how Rosalee and Monroe conducting reconnaissance might stir cross-Wesen breeding to the fore, and I can see Grimm drudging up Wesen-race issues again. All of that’s working, but I agree with Renard, when he said that Adalind doesn’t care for their baby as much as she says (or thinks) she does. For an episode centered on families and how they protect each other, Adalind has a cold, disconnected aura between her and her daughter. I’m not sure if this works or not.

One could argue that hesenbiests can’t love, but that would mean that Juliette will fall victim to this fact, or one could say that Adalind never had someone to love her, so she can’t love anyone else. It’s a classic nature versus nurture argument. We’ll have to wait and see how Grimm responds.

Verdict:

A solid outing that might have brought up some points that’ll drive Grimm to a strong finish.

Archer

Kyle’s Review

At first glance, this week’s episode of Archer (“Achub Y Morfilod”) looked like it abandoned the Katya hijinks of last week. The first scene deserts Archer’s penthouse apartment—where we left him and Lana—for Archer driving a foreign car across a lush, countryside. We think Archer’s alone, talking to his mother, but soon, Lana wakes up in the car’s backseat.

Archer drugged Lana and brought her to Wales. He thought that a romantic and neutral site would give him the chance to explain how Katya’s unmentionables ended up in his apartment. It’s never that easy with Archer. In addition to a romantic getaway in Wales, he abducted Lana for a new CIA mission. Things get nutty as the mission blows up in Archer and Lana’s face—when does that not happen?—because the two entangle their personal lives with getting the job done.

In the end, Archer and Lana are on the rocks, and their status with the CIA might be in danger. It looks like another crazy Archer finale’s in the works in the next couple of weeks.

Verdict:

Archer ups the ante in more ways than one as it heads toward the end of its sixth season.

Bob’s Burgers

Kyle’s Review

Bob’s Burgers continued its eighties nostalgia year with “Runway Club.” It was only a matter of time before the Belchers and company took on the classic Breakfast Club, but this episode was underwhelming. The cast split up into adults and children—another thing that’s happened a lot this season—and instead of the show hinting at its film’s namesake, it recreated most of the plot. And it didn’t do it well. The two biggest problems with this episode are that the kids don’t fit neatly into the Breakfast Club’s archetypes (a brain, an athlete, a basket case, a princess, and a criminal), and it foregoes the multiple reasons for the children being in detention for a single instance.

While it’s usually a good thing that Bob’s Burgers doesn’t pigeon hole its characters, it makes the Breakfast Club motif a tough fit. The movie started with those stereotypes and then the characters tore through them with the myriad of reasons why they ended up troubled in the first place. Bob’s Burgers never put up those walls, but it also cheapened the source material for not having something with more weight than Tina and Tammy’s beef.

Despite these problems, I liked the attempt to mash up Breakfast Club and Project Runway—I just wished they didn’t trade the group essay of Breakfast Club for a group fashion show. I guess the lesson here is that when you take on a classic, you must bring your “A” material.

Verdict:

“Runway Club” did manage to capture some of the Breakfast Club and Project Runway’s feel, but it tripped on its train and fell flat.

iZombie

Kyle’s Review

iZombie upheld the CW’s season of outstanding pilots. It blended more genres in a tasty way than a Long Island Iced Tea mixes liquor.

The protagonist Liv comes off as an undead Veronica Mars: acerbic and unaffected. She even narrates as she goes along. Then iZombie infuses the zombie motif and I say motif because there’s just enough of a hint of zombie so you know that she’s undead but the focus isn’t on brain eating. That may be a deal breaker for true zombie fans but I’m not so sure. At the heart of every zombie fan is the feeling that you don’t belong—werewolves are the jocks; vampires are the heartthrobs everyone wants to be with—so iZombie captures the essence of being a zombie while not showcasing the gore. But my favorite genre twist is iZombie’s inclusion of a police procedural. Even though you get plenty of the buddy cop flavor, iZombie turns the genre on its ear by having one of the partners a zombie, masquerading as a psychic.

Who knew that there could be side effects from eating brains? Liv gains the memories, proclivities and abilities of the people whose brains are in her system. She found out who killed a Jane Doe by using visions from the victim’s memory, became a kleptomaniac that also factored in pinpointing the victim, and her sudden knowledge of Romanian helped in the interrogation process. In a word, Genius.

I even like how iZombie used comic panel stills just to remind folks that this is yet another great addition to the DC Comics TV Universe. Okay, iZombie comes from a DC Comics subsidiary Vertigo but it’s still a great show.

Verdict:

Another wonderful DC Comics TV Universe (err…Vertigo) pilot and it makes me yearn for the CW programming shifting to non-stop DC Comics shows.

The Flash

Jim’s Review

Well, as we get closer to the end of Flash’s first season, the show is doing a couple of really nice things. I like that after this week’s episode, Iris finally knows Barry’s big secret. On the one hand, it can be argued that far too many people know Flash’s identity, but Iris being clued in feels overdue. Additionally, I’m glad that there wasn’t some big moment to it. It felt like it came out because it had to, and really, it did.

The other nice thing this show is doing is raising the stakes. If last week’s episode has a big knock against it, it’s that the second Weather Wizard was underwhelming, to say the least. Dr. Wells’ big moment with Cisco did something to pick that slack up, though.

With the device of time travel introduced, it’s hard to imagine Cisco’s death being a permanent development, but I will say the scene was effective nonetheless. I think the only disappointment with Wells’ character is that because we saw him stare down the yellow suit a number of episodes ago, I wanted the truth behind his identity to be a little more complicated than it has proven to be. Still, this week’s episode provided some very real momentum for the show’s first season, and I am anticipating a strong finish.

Kyle’s Take

Stop me if this sounds familiar. This week’s villain of the week didn’t do a whole lot–stop. But Harrison Wells saved the tension by giving us some great moments–stop. Yeah, those two things have happened a lot this season.

I’m also not convinced that Cisco’s death will stay permanent because of the time travel element but the same can be said of Iris knowing Barry’s secret. Anything of note in this episode occurred after Barry met his speed mirage, so if Barry changes the pattern of events, Cisco will no longer be dead, Captain Singh won’t be in the hospital, the Weather Wizard will not have gone wild in Central City yet, Harrison Wells will not have revealed his identity (I agree that it was too straight forward of any explanation anyway), and Iris won’t know that Barry’s the Flash.

The only thing that happened prior to the speed mirage is that horrible double date at the bowling alley. For all its fireworks, this episode could be null and void, except for the first and last few minutes.

Verdict:

An exciting show that may or may not have made progress.

Do you want more Flash? Check out our secrets page here.

Powers

Kyle’s Review

Powers continued its upward swing this week with the curiously named episode “Devil in a Garbage Bag.” All heck broke loose when Wolfe ran amok in the Powers prison and all the threads that were introduced in the previous three episodes germinated in this one.

Johnny Royalle revealed the secret behind his Sway and how his actions aided in Wolfe’s escape. The great thing is that Royalle didn’t plan Wolfe’s escape as hinted at the end of last week’s episode; it was a mistake. Johnny resumed his role of misunderstood villain, while Wolfe added his name to that list.

Wolfe proved to be a Galactus type. He doesn’t mean to hurt people; he’s just hungry. He even viewed himself as a boy throughout the episode and hurt the people who had been hurting him. I loved following him through the labyrinth of a prison, trying to remember why and how he was placed there, but I’m not sure if Powers can continue this arc for another six episodes. Still, there’s plenty to work with the Walker-Wolfe angle.

Walker and Pilgrim looked like they had finally bridged the gap between awkward partners to full-fledged partners when Walker took Sway, trying to regain his lost powers. We knew it was only a matter of time before he tried something like that. Long story short: it didn’t end well for Walker. He spent most of the episode psychically linked with Wolfe—that’s how we see Wolfe’s depiction of himself as a child. We’re not sure how Walker and Royalle plan to deal with Wolfe—and that’s a good thing.

We found out how Triphammer and Retro-Girl intended to deal with Wolfe. Triphammer’s drainer took center stage, while Retro-Girl exited stage right. Sprinkle in some good airtime for Calista and Krispen and you get the most engaging episode of Powers yet.

Powers’ first season may act a lot like Arrow’s inaugural season. It started off shaky and now it may have found its legs.

Verdict:

Powers continues to get better week after week. Let’s hope it doesn’t peak too soon.

Arrow

Kyle’s Review

This week’s episode of Arrow, “The Offer,” suffers from one key plot device but there were some good, small developments. Let’s get the one major weakness out of the way first.

I didn’t buy Ra’s Al Ghul slumming it, asking Ollie to be the next Demon’s Head before the spring break (How do you go from the DC Comics icon Batman to the tertiary character Green Arrow?), and I don’t believe Ra’s trying to sabotage the Arrow’s gig in Starling City now. Arrow’s asking me to suspend disbelief a little too much. And I while think Ra’s tearing down Ollie has enough legs to propel Arrow to the end of the season, this feels like a series reboot. Captain Lance didn’t like Arrow in the first season and a half and hunted him, and now it looks like he’ll start hunting Arrow again by this season’s end. With that aside, I did like some of the other developments.

Thank you, Ollie, for cementing Roy’s crime fighting nickname. He’s officially Arsenal and there was much rejoicing. Roy had a particularly good episode as he and Thea got back together. It was only a matter of time and it felt right here. I’m not sure about Thea’s mental state—I don’t think she is either—and she needs a rock. Outside of Diggle, Roy’s the well-adjusted member of Team Arrow. But Roy and Thea are two characters I like. Let’s talk about one member of Team Arrow I wished wasn’t part of the cast.

Laurel had few lines—that’s good. She had a lot of over-the-top action sequences—that’s better. And she asked a Nyssa without a home to be her new trainer. Nyssa as Laurel’s trainer is both smart for Laurel—we don’t say that too often about her—and Arrow needed a friendly link to Ra’s. Ra’s daughter Nyssa aiding Ollie should even out Ra’s trying to damage Ollie’s reputation.

Verdict:

Arrow took some steps toward a solid end game, but it wasn’t the end game we wanted.

Check out our Arrow secrets page here.

We’re a little late publishing our Geekly TV for Monday. I’m kicking it in Iowa City, visiting the University of Iowa. Go Hawkeyes!

And here goes today’s TV reviews.

Powers

Kyle’s Review

Playstation Network (PSN) launches its original television programming with Powers. I was skeptical of Powers until I found out that its producers are the same as the ones for Breaking Bad. They also assembled an excellent cast: Sharlto Copley (District 9), Eddie Izzard (Hannibal and United States of Tara), Noah Taylor (Game of Thrones and Peaky Blinder), and Michelle Forbes (True Blood and Orphan Black) to name a few. And then there’s the fact that Playstation is owned by Sony and if any of the big three game consoles can pull off original television, it’s Playstation.

PSN released the first three episodes this week, so we’ll give some quick reviews of each one.

The Pilot (Episode 1)

The Powers pilot starts off rocky. We get a lot thrown at us at once—that’s code for exposition heavy—but the pilot does a good job setting up the main character, Christian Walker. Walker used to have superpowers and he lost them somehow—we later find out that they were stolen by another character—and he’s since joined the police force’s Powers division, a special task force that monitors humans with superpowers.

I’ll borrow from the Superman (1978) tagline. You’ll believe a man can fly. Only, you believe in the superpowers of Powers half the time and the rest of the time, the powers feel like they belong to another world. The special effects are clunky, but they work for the most part but I take more issue with the overuse of Calista, a wayward teen, as a go-between for these two worlds. Calista loves Powers and wishes she had them but Walker already serves as a conduit between normal people and Powers, so I don’t see the need in Calista as a character.

The Powers pilot suffered from small doses of overacting and the cast didn’t feel connected to their characters and each other at times. I also would’ve preferred more of a noir aesthetic as opposed to an eighties cop show vibe.

Like a Power (Episode 2)

The actors eased into their roles in the second episode of Powers, “Like a Power,” and it didn’t hurt that Michelle Forbes joined the cast. She has so much screen presence that some of it can’t help but rub off. My only complaint about Forbes’s Retro-Girl is that she got colored as just Walker’s ex in this episode. That’s a waste for such a talented actor.

Despite that shortcoming, I liked the overall direction of “Like a Power.” Johnny Royalle (Noah Taylor) showed more of his hand in this episode. He single-handedly drove the story. Whether he incited Walker for swiping one of his favorite ties or he manipulated Calista to join him, Royalle had onscreen chemistry with most cast members.

Pilgrim (Susan Heyward) added some spicy hot-headedness this week. I loved how she charged toward a Power named Zerotron, who has electric-based powers, but she didn’t smooth the rough edges with her partner Walker. Unfortunately, these rough edges aren’t partners learning how to work together, these rough edges deal with the lack of chemistry between the two actors. I like both characters, but they can’t get it together. I’m wondering if Calista giving them the slip several times doesn’t contribute to this shortcoming.

And speaking of Calista, I still don’t buy her as the bridge between the haves and the have-nots, especially since “Like a Power” introduced Krispen, who lost loved ones as a result of two Powers fighting. He comes from the source material—fans of the comic should’ve recognized his Kaotic Chic graffiti—and did more to ground the world in the dangers of people with superpowers.

Mickey Rooney Cries No More (Episode 3)

The third episode of the Powers (the oddly named “Mickey Rooney Cries No More”) manages to fix a lot of the series early ailments. Sure, the show still focuses on Calista as a go-between, but we gain a clearer view of what drives this world and its characters. Some folks love Powers, others hate them.

Triphammer, the Batman or Ironman of the Powers universe, made his debut in this episode. He doesn’t have powers and takes a strong anti-Powers stance. He doesn’t hate villains as much as the general idea of superpowers and has devoted his technological prowess to creating a Powers “draining” beam. This arc played well off the reveal of the true effects of Johnny Royalle’s drug.

Up to this point we’ve seen Royalle’s drug kill people but this episode actually saw it enhance a Powers’ ability. Royalle improving works as the perfect counterweight to Triphammer stripping away these same powers, and this duality shows up again between two non-Powers: Calista and Krispen.

I still don’t see the necessity of Calista as a character—she’s only served to show how inept Walker and Pilgrim are at their job—but she does work well with Krispen, the teen boy who lost family because of a fight between two Powers. Calista’s upbringing differed a lot from Krispen’s and these two characters are two sides of the same hero-worshipping coin. I also like how they ran off together at the end of the episode.

But before Krispen and Calista could run off together, we had the continuance of the frustrating tug-of-war between Retro-Girl, Royalle and Walker trying to control Calista. I guess Calista does serve as a good pawn and illustrates the depravity of the three main Powers. All three old friends want Calista for their own selfish reasons. We get a tense stare down between the three at Royalle’s new Here and Gone Club, and fittingly, Calista ends up with none of them, but not before plenty of character development.

I like how they built on Retro-Girl and how she tires from the fame of her Powers. Royalle digs deep in his past to show why he might actually care about Calista. We even saw awkward signs of a relationship between Walker and Pilgrim as they bonded over being losers, but I don’t know if Walker earned his tantrum of not being a good cop; he rushed from lamenting his powers to hating his ineptitude as a lawman. But the cop drama transitioned for the better.

I keep forgetting that Walker and Pilgrim are investigating Olympia’s death because the murder mystery is too much of a side note. I like how Wolfe escapes captivity at the end of this episode. He’s the big, bad Wolfe that can drive the rest of the series. Even so I didn’t care for he absorbed bio-kinetic energy. I thought of Wolfe’s absorption as more of a figurative eating as opposed to the literal eating of people that we saw in the show’s final moments. Ew.

Verdict:

Powers started off rocky—like a lot of other pilots—but found its footing by the third episode. It’s heading in the right direction. Character development without a rush of exposition helps with that.

Archer

Kyle’s Review

I had to binge watch Archer in order to catch up with its sixth season, so I’ll give you a quick rundown of the show so far. The fifth season—the previous season—of Archer rebooted the series, casting the main characters as members of a drug cartel, but this, the sixth season unrebooted—Is unrebooted a word?—the series and returned the cast to their incompetent, secret agent roots.

This next nugget will be a spoiler for folks who haven’t devoured Archer season five on Netflix or DVD, so avert your eyes if you don’t want to know that Lana’s baby-daddy is Sterling Archer. Okay, that wasn’t much of a spoiler. I thought Archer was the father from the beginning, but I still loved how, during the reveal, baby Archer mimicked her daddy’s hold that thought finger, while she was breastfeeding.

With a baby introduced into the cast, parenthood is the main topic for Archer’s sixth season. Archer has to come to terms that he’s a father and needs to learn how to be a dad even though he never knew his own father. This has led to some extraordinary soul searching from the titular character, and Lana and Archer have rekindled their relationship. Given the context Lana and Sterling getting back together sounds anything but farfetched and yet this is the sixth season, and we’ve never seen them together and it’s a little unsettling—until this week’s episode “Reignition Sequence.”

Katya, Sterling’s ex-girlfriend, challenges Archer’s fidelity, but we see Archer resist her, and not in the pigheaded manner he might have in seasons past, Archer shows his growth by respectfully declining Katya’s advances. All looks well until we find out that Katya left something behind—we won’t say what, but it’s hilarious.

I’m enjoying this season a lot. I thought the previous season Archer Vice took risks few shows that have a strong following wouldn’t take, and this current season continues to take risks. How many animated characters are allowed to grow?

“Reignition Sequence” showcases Archer’s growth and adds to an already stellar season.

Verdict:

Yet another great episode of Archer and this week’s cliffhanger leaves you thirsty for next week’s episode. Thursday can’t get here quick enough.

Bob’s Burgers

Kyle’s Review

We may have seen the adults and children split up several times on Bob’s Burgers and allusions to eighties movies—like this week’s “Adventures in Chinchilla Sitting”—are par for the course. Even so I enjoyed this week’s episode.

The adults are given license to act poorly. Bob and Linda cheat at trivia night. That’s a bad choice for a date night, Bob, and that’s coming from a guy who enjoys trivia games. The kids don’t fare much better.

Louise babysits her classroom’s chinchilla, and the pet escapes in short order—like we couldn’t see that coming—and that forces the kids out of the house with Wayne, a modern take on the classic Warner Brothers cartoon Abominable Snowman, in tow. Wayne is the chinchilla’s primary caretaker and he complicates the chinchilla problem.

Eventually, the kids recover the pet and in a rare act of kindness, Louise hands over the chinchilla to Wayne, but the level of kindness open for debate. The small pet gets a little too much hugging and squeezing from Wayne.

We’ve seen this story type numerous times with Bob’s Burgers, but even though “Adventures in Chinchilla Sitting” doesn’t cover new ground, it’s still solid.

Verdict:

A good but predictable episode.

Bob’s Burgers

Kyle’s Review

Bob’s Burgers shook up the family dynamic in this week’s episode “Lil Hard Dad.” We rarely see the Belcher family split up according to gender (Louise and Tina tend to play off the two sides of their father Bob, while Gene’s musical flair pairs him with his mother Linda), but this week didn’t just have a division of gender, it questioned what it means to be an adult.

Even though Bob usually serves as the straight man to the rest of the cast’s antics, he switches his even keel for Gene’s manic pace when he declares war on someone who did him wrong. Gene may not pal around with his dad, but he looks up to him—we’ve seen enough evidence in prior episodes and seasons—so we buy Gene’s desire to be more like Bob, especially when Bob’s acting like Gene. The conflict escalates to cartoonish levels—pun intended—and it’s Gene who channels his inner Bob and convinces his dad to forgive and forget. Both male characters reversed their typical roles, but the ladies didn’t have as much of a dramatic turn.

Tina confesses that she’s a slow reader—that tracks because she’s slow at everything—and she didn’t finish The Call of the Wild for school. Linda chimes in with a “You can’t judge a book by its cover—its front cover—but you can judge it by its back cover.” Linda’s the weaker of the two parents—moral compass wise—so this isn’t a departure for her. She takes the scant information from the back cover and the picture on the front to make up a musical. Apparently, this is how she got Bs and Cs in school.

I kept waiting for Linda to see the errors of her ways and she did for a split second, but that was only because her mischievous daughter Louise agreed with her too much. I also kept waiting for Tina to do the right thing—she was three-quarters through the book with the sun still out—but she didn’t return to her usual form. She went to class, dressed as a wolf, and freaked out. But this wasn’t a normal Tina freak-out, she got violent and destroyed her props. Fortunately, the teacher thought this was part of the book report and passed Tina, but unfortunately, Linda didn’t from Tina’s book report debacle. She even tried to claim a best parent this week award, but the rest of the family was there and they set her straight.

Yes, Gene, you were the best parent this week, and this episode of Bob’s Burgers proves that you can learn from your children.

Verdict:

Another great episode of Bob’s Burgers that shows the Belchers as a living and growing family.