Project Type: Geekly TV

Grimm

Kyle’s Review

Usually, I try not to reveal too many spoilers – creating a secrets page that you can opt to click on – but I can’t avoid spoilers with this particular episode of Grimm. You’ve been forewarned. Continue at your own risk.

Grimm turned the corner with this episode. This entire season has teetered between good and not-so-good, but “Tribunal” accomplished a lot: the gang’s back together in a most exciting way, Wu continues to shine as his character gains depth, and Juliette finally gets the attention she deserves.

Let’s start with the gang getting back together. Team Nick rescues Monroe from the Wesenrein – or Nazi Wesen – just before they plan to stake him. It’s always a good sign when Nick uses his detective and police skills. It’s even better when he has to shift gears to his Grimm duties. And boy does he ever get Grimm on those Nazi Wesen’s hind quarters.

Nick has help of course. The two least likely sources are Wu and Juliette. We’ll get to Juliette in a bit, but first, we’ll tackle Wu. I still like how Wu isn’t as quick to accept the Wesen world as Hank. Oddly enough, I thought – based on how the characters behave – that Wu would be more receptive of another world than Hank, but I’m glad to see a distinction between these two. Even though Wu struggles with this knowledge, he holds his own both in combat and the interrogation room. I just wish he retained some of the comedic value he had in previous seasons, but I don’t begrudge him growing.

Then we get to the most pleasant surprise in Grimm this season: Juliette. I haven’t cared for Juliette as a character the last three seasons, and I’ve cared even less about Nick’s and Juliette’s relationship, but Juliette’s transformation into a Hexenbiest has me tuned in. We get clues that a “made” Hexenbiest isn’t too uncommon, so this occurrence tracks with the Grimm lore set in seasons past. And it’s no small thing that Juliette gains her powers as an adult. Most Wesen are raised to fear others and hide who they are. They even understand their abilities, so it’s nice to see a character struggle, trying to play catch-up in the Wesen world. Her relationship with Nick has to suffer, too, and I can’t wait to see how this happens.

Verdict: “Tribunal” is quite possibly the turning point Grimm needed for a great season—both for its main storyline of rescuing Monroe and for the development of two characters.

Constantine

Kyle’s Review

This episode of Constantine had a lot in it. I liked that Chas drove this story. I wondered how he gained his immortality, and “Quip Pro Quo” did a great job of delving into his backstory.

But backstory means a lot of flashbacks. Most of these flashbacks worked, but I didn’t buy Chas’s wife Rene resenting Chas for not being around. Sure, his aiding of John Constantine mimics a police officer saving lives, and relationships don’t always end well for people in this line of work, but Chas died and came back to life. This miracle makes Rene come off as ungrateful.

Chas on the other hand becomes a more likeable character than he already was. We find out that his desire to help people has deeper meaning than just helping out John Constantine. He feels guilty about how he obtained his 47 lives (more on this in our secrets page), and it’s this focus on Chas that makes this week’s episode of Constantine great.

Constantine throws in some other geeky goodness into the mix. I enjoyed Felix Faust as the antagonist. Maybe his inclusion in this episode means that he’ll return to the comics.

Verdict: Constantine may have fell short in its second part to its midseason cliffhanger, but it finds solid ground with this Chas-driven, heart-felt episode.

Dig deeper into the netherworld with our Constantine secrets. But we warn you; they contain spoilers.

Bob’s Burgers

Kyle’s Review

Logan, Louise’s arch enemy who only appeared in the first episode of season three, returned in this weeks’ Bob’s Burgers, so this week focused on Louise.

I like Louise, but I don’t dig Logan. He’s too much of an entitled creep to stomach. His mother Cynthia is just as bad, and she played a major role in this episode, too. And to make matters worse, the put-upon Bob has to give up his second calling of gardening to remove Logan and his mother from the situation.

We have a quip pro quo situation. Bob gets a garden box at the community garden, while Logan gets to work at Bob’s Burgers and his mother can write an essay about the horrible things Logan doesn’t have to do at the restaurant. See what I mean? Entitled. Soon, Linda’s at Cynthia’s throat and Louise is at Logan’s. Throw in some of Tina trying to get the skinny on the boy’s locker room, and you get an episode that retreads old jokes and is a little light on laughs.

But Gene had a few shining moments. He makes a statement early on about Logan joining the crew, “Finally, another sausage at this party.” It was crude, but he tried to bond with Logan for the rest of the episode, desperate to have another male figure, and that drew my attention to the fact that Gene doesn’t have a lot of male friends. I know Gene loves his sisters, and he’s comfortable around girls, but I hope they don’t abandon Gene’s search for a friend.

Verdict: If you can get past Linda’s and Louise’s cattiness, you might find a deeper story with Gene.

Amazon Instant Video started this year’s first wave of pilot seasons. Last year’s yielded the award-winning Transparent, so there’s plenty of anticipation for this year’s crop of would-be television series.

Here’s how it works. Amazon releases seven television pilots, and fans vote on which one gets picked up for its own series. There are a lot of heavy hitters this year, and while I have my favorites, I’m not sure which one will make the cut. Here’s the skinny on all seven pilots.

The Man in the High Castle

Kyle’s Review

You don’t even need to watch this pilot to know it’ll bring geeky goodness. Hollywood has given us Phillip K. Dick appetizers for decades – A Scanner Darkly, Minority Report, and Total Recall to name a few – and now it’s time for the main course. Sweetening the pot further is the involvement of producer Ridley Scott who’s no stranger to Dick novels. He directed Blade Runner which was based on Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. Now, he takes on Dick’s Hugo award winning The Man in the High Castle, his magnum opus.

The Man in the High Castle fills these immense shoes. After the opening credits which features an ominous rendition of “Edelweiss” and shows us the Germans taking over the Eastern United States and the Japanese conquering the Western United States during an alternate world’s World War II, it drops us into this bleak reality.

The performances are crisp and spot on, the action doesn’t give you time to breathe, there are so many double and triple twists that you’ll have to watch the pilot a couple of times to catch everything, and the ending hooks you. In short, The Man in the High Castle earns its spot as my Amazon pilot front runner.

It does tweak the story a bit, but so did Blade Runner and that didn’t detract from the movie’s greatness.

Check out the aforementioned opening.

Verdict: The best of the Amazon pilots, The Man in the High Castle is a must see even if you have to wait until it goes to DVD.

Salem Rogers: Model of the Year 1998

Kyle’s Review

Salem Rogers is another big debut but of the half-hour comedy variety. It also offers more of Leslie Bibb (About a Boy) and Rachel Dratch (SNL) than we ever had before. Both of these comediennes are underrated and it’s great to see them fuel their own series, but they’re playing familiar characters. Bibb is an abrasive supermodel, making Dratch’s put-upon assistant’s life hell. You could also look at Bibb’s Rogers as one of the grown, nasty teens from one of director Mark Waters’ earlier projects Mean Girls.

Despite the retreading of old roles and stories, Salem Rogers delivers enough laughs to make it a solid competitor in the Amazon Pilot war. I like the way they tell the story, too. There’s a six month time gap between what we see during the pilot and the pilot’s opening and ending, and I think the show has plenty to work with should it get picked up. You also can’t go wrong with Bibb and Dratch. The show knows where its strength is.

Verdict: A solid if not predictable installment by actors Bibb and Dratch, and director Mark Waters.

Down Dog

Kyle’s Review

I’m not sure if Down Dog was supposed to be a comedy or a coming-of-age story. It doesn’t work as either. That’s not a knock on the actors involved, they gave some good performances. Paget Brewster (Criminal Minds) and Lyndsy Fonseca (How I Met Your Mother) create a decent love triangle with newcomer Josh Casuabon, but they weren’t given much material.

The dramedy – I guess I’ll call it a dramedy – is set in a Los Angeles yoga studio and throws as many unfunny comedy gimmicks at us as it can. The main character and lead yoga instructor is the product of a mother who smoked dope while pregnant. And of course we get to see the character in utero: take that, Look Who’s Talking. According to Down Dog, a stoned fetus equals a laidback, handsome adult offspring, but I say that genetics and environment play more of a role.

We hear a flat narrator break down the yoga instructor’s life so far. Yawn. The instructor has equally snooze inducing sex. It takes talent to make sex look that boring. Brewster and Fonseca inject some spice but it’s not enough to reconcile the lack of laughs and lifelessness of this bore of a dramedy. Yeah, I think it’s a dramedy.

Verdict: Too bad Brewster and Fonseca got stuck on such a lackluster offering. Too bad I can’t ask for those thirty minutes back.

The New Yorker Presents

Kyle’s Review

This pilot is the most difficult one to categorize. The New Yorker Presents does an amicable job of converting The New Yorker, one of the most respectable magazines, into a television series.

I enjoyed the episode. Many of the articles were familiar to me and I loved how this series made the material accessible to a wider audience. There’s a moment during the documentary where someone mentions – and I’m paraphrasing here – that information needs to be available and accessible to a wider audience because what people don’t know can hurt them. Even with this lofty goal, I can see why voters on IMDB rated the program so low. It’s still The New Yorker.

No amount of cartoon interludes could jazz up – and boy, do they ever jazz up – a program that has limited appeal or has the appeal for an audience more likely to tune into PBS instead of Amazon. Still, the pilot is wonderful. It has balance and depth. You get a short film (that feels a bit out of place), a documentary, an interview, and even the recitation of a poem. The latter has some unsettling camera shots of a bearded Andrew Garfield (Amazing Spider-man), but outside the lone willies moment, The New Yorker Presents offers a lot to viewers. It deserves to get picked up somewhere even if it doesn’t make it on Amazon.

Verdict: A great conversion of The New Yorker into a television show. This could open the fabled magazine to a wider audience.

Mad Dogs

Kyle’s Review

Truth time: I’ve never watched Cris Cole’s original UK series of the same name, so I can’t compare the two. I do know that Ben Chaplin, who plays Joe in this version, played Billy Zane’s role in the UK version. I also know that Cole worked with Shawn Ryan (The Shield) to bring Mad Dogs to the United States. With that out of the way, I’ll start by saying that the US version of Mad Dogs is a pressure cooker.

It starts out with a hint of comedy, glossed over something sinister. Steve Zahn (Dallas Buyers Club) and Romany Malco (Weeds) have a knack for playing off-beat characters, and their talents shine here as do the talents of Chaplin, Zane and Michael Imperioli (The Sopranos). The estranged friends, who are now 40-somethings, have gathered to Belize to celebrate their friend Milo’s (Zane) early retirement.

Milo owns the greatest villa this side of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, and it’s all fun and games until the gloss of chuckles begins to crack. Milo’s in more trouble than you can shake a spear at and his friends don’t know a hundredth of what he’s gotten into until they find themselves in the middle of a murder conspiracy.

The acting, directing and writing work in this pilot. The US Mad Dogs has me interested in the UK version, but I don’t know how much story there is to this series. Clearly, there’s a lot of shady things going on, but there’s only one clear conflict and while I think they’ll do a good job of complicating the central conflict, I don’t know if they can add anything else that’s as juicy as murder—except more murder.

I enjoyed this episode and I think it could work as a series, but in a strange way, it works as a standalone.

Verdict: Another great Amazon pilot but this episode stands out because it has the strongest sense of character. You feel like you’ve known these characters as long as Milo.

Cocked

Kyle’s Review

Cocked was a lot of fun, but the story was okay. Just okay. I expected more from a show that features Jason Lee (My Name is Earl) and Sam Trammell (True Blood). The supporting actors featured character actors that I hold in high regard: Brian Dennehy (Montague in Romeo + Juliet) and Mark Christopher Lawrence (Chuck’s Big Mike). All of these actors gave their all but this story about a dysfunctional, gun-peddling family is so nuts that it’s weird for the sake of being weird.

The prodigal son (Trammell) gets roped back into the family business after his life’s threatened (by an unknown assailant). He floats a new campaign that’ll get these gun nuts back in black, but his ads that focus on “Guns for Gays” comes off as pandering. The majority of the family hates the idea because they work in a macho business, but the writing didn’t commit to an honest dialogue. When the new commercial succeed the characters involved either didn’t care to the issue in the first place or they’re too stoned to care. In fact, the script devolves into breasts, bullets, and blow.

There’s plenty of room to make a stand and/or express both sides of the gun control issue, but Cocked plays lip service, opting to have fun instead. There’s nothing wrong with fun. I just think they missed a great opportunity.

Verdict: Despite the heavy subject matter, Cocked uses gun control as a backdrop for a dramedy that pushes sex, drugs, and metal slugs.

Point of Glory

Kyle’s Review

To say that Point of Glory was difficult to get through would be an understatement. They do an adequate job of the history, but the rest of the show was one hot mess: a dash of modern slang, half-hearted attempts to show other reasons for the war besides slavery (yes, there were other reasons the two sides fought), and cardboard cut-out characters. I’d stick with other Civil War offerings.

Verdict: Skip it. There are countless other Civil War movies, TV shows, and mini-series that do a better job.

The Flash

Jim’s Review

The debut of the second half of season 1 did a nice job of diving back into the tension that was created before the break. We got a lot of character development for Barry, both in terms of dealing with the fallout from his revelation of his feelings for Iris, as well as his internal struggle to build on his abilities and prepare to take down Reverse Flash.

A bit of a struggle for Barry’s soul is beginning between Joe and Wells, with Dr. Wells pressing Barry for a more pragmatic approach to training, and Joe not wanting Barry to lose the part of him that is uncompromisingly good. It’s an interesting internal struggle for Barry, and it also gives the show’s two strongest actors a chance to bounce off each other.

The supervillain teamup between Heatwave and Captain Cold wasn’t exactly what I hoped for. The solution to defeating them came a little too easy, though the Ghostbusters reference was worth a smile. The actors overplayed their parts this time, but honestly, I almost found them to be incidental to the story this week.

Verdict: A strong way to pick up the back half of the season.

Kyle’s Take

Tom Cavanagh (Dr. Wells/Reverse Flash) and Jesse L. Martin (Joe West) are The Flash’s best actors, but we haven’t seen them bounce off each other too much…yet. They bounce off of Grant Gustin’s Barry Allen more. Both give Gustin a lot to work with and that’s one of the reasons why I think The Flash has trumped Arrow this season. But Gustin’s done a great job in his own right and that comes through in this episode.

Dr. Wells also wants Barry to take a more pragmatic approach to how he uses his powers (training always has some level of practicality; just ask Allen Iverson about practice), but of course Wells’ emphasis on Barry’s training is self-serving.

And Captain Cold overacted in his first episode, so it doesn’t surprise me that he, Heat Wave, and the actors around them were dropping Batman and Robin level groaners: “Freeze,” “The flame or the frost,” and “Your partner’s a real hot head.” These lines work in the context of the show not taking itself too serious, but something that doesn’t work for this episode is the title, “Revenge of the Rogues.” This is misleading. Only one rogue has it out for The Flash.

Overacting aside, this was one solid episode, filled with plenty of action.

Check out our The Flash Secrets page but beware, it contains spoilers.

Arrow

Kyle’s Review

I wondered if Arrow could survive without Ollie. This episode answered, yes. I liked that they gave Diggle and Roy some much needed screen time. Roy has mattered so little this season that I’m surprised he’s still on team Arrow. They had a couple of great action sequences, and Diggle wore the Arrow suit for one of the missions. I don’t know why he didn’t wear the suit again.

Emily Bett Rickards (Felicity) flexed her acting muscles this week, and her interactions with Roy Palmer (Brandon Routh) tied into Ollie’s story a lot better than the midseason finale. In turn, Roy fit more with the overall story instead of something the creators tacked on. Felicity has seen the dangerous of costumed crime-fighting, and Roy neither has the power or the training to save Starling City, yet.

I also liked the use of flashbacks, but it’d be nice if Arrow’s creative team could use these flashbacks as more than explaining the events of the current episode. Yes, Maseo owed Ollie a favor and that’s why he saved him from the cliff, but this entire season has suffered from a lack of a slow build. Heck, this episode didn’t leave any doubt as to whether or not Ollie survived his fight. We saw Maseo dragging Ollie’s carcass in the snow.

And who’s the big baddy? ARGUS, League of Assassins, and Merlyn have dropped in and dropped out on many occasions. We knew what the show’s final battle would be the prior two seasons but we can’t get a handle on which direction Arrow wants to go this season. While this sounds like a good thing on paper, it comes off as a lack of focus.

Speaking of focus, is it just me, or did Merlyn look like Quickie Koala, suffering from ADD? He popped into the Arrow Cave one moment, then he zipped over to Nanda Parbat and did a half-cheeked job of looking for Ollie’s body (note: a half-cheeked job of something is half of a half-assed job). Then, he showed back up in the Arrow Cave and finally, warned Thea of impending danger. As far as Merlyn knew, the League thought Ollie killed Sarah. Little of what Merlyn said or did made sense.

But one villain did make sense. I loved the introduction of Brick. Vinnie Jones provided the charisma needed for the unstoppable, powerhouse kingpin, but I can’t help but wonder if he’ll play into this season of Arrow’s end game.

I tried to avoid it as long as I could, but Laurel donned the Black Canary outfit this episode. She blew her big moment but not in the way I thought she would. She spouted a stuck on stupid line: “I’m the justice you can’t run from.” If you’re going to be Canary, shut up and smack down.

Despite the issues that have plagued Arrow for most of the season, this was an enjoyable episode.

Check out our Arrow Secrets page, but be warned, there will be spoilers.

Verdict: A solid return for Arrow, but let’s hope the series does more to right the ship.

Our TV reviews are back on Mondays. We’re covering Constantine’s and Grimm’s return from their midseason break. Enjoy.

Constantine

Kyle’s Review

Constantine tied up its midseason cliffhangers a little too quick and neat for my taste. Zed’s excellent adventure turned into a bogus journey that lasted about two city blocks. She got kidnapped and then broke loose lickety split. I’m sure we haven’t seen the last of her tormentors, but Zed schooled them in this episode. While it was nice that Zed rejoined the team, it felt like the show’s creators made a cliffhanger for her just to have a cliffhanger.

A possessed John Constantine was a nice image that we’ve seen before in the pilot. It worked well with its reimplementation here. Matt Ryan gave a strong performance, but it can’t be a good thing that Constantine repeated a story thread in its first eight episodes. Oh, and the reason John consumed the demon was to save himself from his midseason cliffhanger. So both cliffhangers get resolved in fifteen minutes or your pizza’s free.

And we’re also free of any tension gained with the overarching Brujeria plot and the Rising Darkness, since this episode threw out that still warm pizza pie for John Constantine’s immediate need of an exorcism. Seriously, the most we get for the Brujeria is a glimpse of Vicente, who according to Constantine was the original tempter/snake in the Garden of Eden. I say that we catch a glimpse of Vicente because he announces himself and immediately gets dispatched by our ragtag team of anti-heroes. A ten second battle sounds about right for the snake that got Eve to eat the fruit of knowledge. Sure.

I know it sounds all negative, but the episode was entertaining. Like I said above, Matt Ryan was on his game. I just wish the cliffhangers meant more than a device to keep viewers.

Verdict: An entertaining episode with some strong acting performances, but the payoff from the midseason cliffhangers didn’t amount to much.

Here are some Constantine secrets. But beware, they contain spoilers.

Grimm

Kyle’s Review

Grimm had a lot of great developments this week. Unlike Constantine – which airs on NBC before it – Grimm made good on its midseason cliffhangers. Monroe’s abduction racketed up the tension. Juliette’s transformation into a hexenbiest blended well with Rosalee dealing with the loss of Monroe. Even Sergeant Wu’s indoctrination into the world of Grimm was handled with care. He may not have freaked out like he did before the break, but he doesn’t accept this new reality as easily as Hank.

The best part of this episode, “Wesenrein,” is that the storylines don’t get wrapped up in a neat bow and perhaps, the ending of this show has a better cliffhanger than the midseason finale. I wonder if Grimm plans to continue this trend and if so, how do they plan to do it. Grimm has me tuned in for next week.

Verdict: A solid episode that’s every bit a cliffhanger as the midseason finale.

 

We’re waiting until most of the shows are back on the air before we switch back to our twice a week TV review schedule. Until then, you’ll have to settle for TV review Friday. Enjoy.

Bob’s Burgers

Kyle’s Review

This season of Bob’s Burgers has given us some great shows based on movies and “Speakeasy Rider” is no different. The title also tells you what the episode’s about. The Belcher children replace Easy Rider’s motorcycles with go carts (and go cart racing), while the parents exchange the bootleg hooch of a speakeasy with Teddy’s – illegal to sell at a restaurant – home brew.

We get less of Tina. That’s a good thing since I was suffering from Tina-fatigue. Don’t get me wrong, I like Tina as a character, but there is such a thing as too much of a good thing. This episode balances the characters to near perfection.

The kids get equal time as do the parents and while Teddy’s bumbling antics add spice, I loved the triumphant return of Hugo the health inspector. We haven’t seen him for at least one full season and while tension has waned since Hugo has moved on from his deep like of Linda, he still proves that he’s as good of a foil for the Belchers as Jimmy Pesto.

Verdict: A solid episode after last week’s hiccup.

Marvel’s Agent Carter

Kyle’s Review

I’m still digging this miniseries. The setting feels right, Peggy serves as a strong female lead, and Jarvis is a great sidekick. I’m glad to see him as more than a computer program.

Sousa remains the sole island of acceptance in the SSR’s ocean of chauvinism, but at least the waters were calmer this episode—until the end, that is—and the biggest issue I had with this episode was the ending. We get a somewhat touching scene where the director has to call an agent’s wife. Before the director leaves our periphery, another agent says that he’ll call the agent’s girlfriend.

Really? It’s one thing to have adultery in the office but calling an agent’s girlfriend is condoning the behavior. There’s no love lost for the fallen agent, but this one action loses any kind of sympathy for the agency as a whole. What’s worse is that the agent calls the mistress before the director can get to his office, so the mistress will know before the agent’s wife.

Other than that one gripe, this episode was another solid one. Too bad Agent Carter is only slated for eight episodes. I see the Howard Stark’s toys are on the loose having some real legs. We see where Tony gets his ideas through his father. Hopefully, this miniseries will serve as a testing ground for an extended series.

One last question: What’s up with demoralizing Sousa? One of the agents tells Sousa that he won’t ever get with Agent Carter because there’s no way she’d go from Cap to a guy who uses crutches. This is insulting to both Peggy and Sousa. Dial down this dialog and then you’ll have a show that could have a longer shelf life than Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD.

Verdict: Looking good so far.

Some of these reviews are a little late. We’ve been having some technical difficulties but we hope these issues have resolved, so without further ado, here’s our first Geekly TV for 2015.

Marvel’s Agent Carter

Jim’s Review

Agent Carter’s first episode managed to hold true to the titular character, and add some charm with a few supporting characters. Jarvis works well as a side-kick here, and the Sousa character gives us someone else within the agency to pull for.

Speaking about the rest of the agency, that’s where the writing irks me. They use the retro, post-war setting well, but the other characters’ relentless chauvinism goes a bit too far. It makes the show feel like it’s trying too hard to make a point. That was made even more so by the use of the Captain America radio broadcasts that kept popping up.

The use of Cap as a background figure can be tricky. The show is meant to take place a year or so after the events of The First Avenger, and so it stands to reason that Peggy would still mourn Cap’s loss, but if it keeps up, they could run the risk of leaning too heavily on the movie to sell the show.

With a few concerns in mind, I’m optimistic that the show can even out through the duration of its run. Oh, and full disclosure; I am of the opinion that Hayley Atwell is the reason saxophone music and slow motion were invented, so I’ll be watching the show regardless.

Verdict: It’s a pretty good start.

Kyle’s Take

I love the use of setting and most of the supporting characters. I enjoy the main character a lot – comics can use as many strong females on the big and small screen as they can get – but I have to admit that they use a Gang Busters of this is a man’s world. They need to tone this down as well as the Captain America references.

I don’t think this led to Agent Carter’s lower ratings (6 million viewers compared to the Agents of SHIELD pilot’s 12 million viewers). The show didn’t get poor ratings, but I think Agent Carter isn’t helped by being a midseason replacement and it doesn’t help that audiences last saw Peggy Carter in the first Captain America film.

Since then, Avengers has been released and there’s been a second Cap movie. We’re even less than four months away from a second Avengers movie. Yay! But talk about striking when the iron’s ice cold. Nonetheless, this was a good start for Agent Carter, and I foresee a lot of cold showers for Jim on Tuesday nights.

Bob’s Burgers

Kyle’s Review

I’ll preface this review by saying that this episode of Bob’s Burgers suffers from airing after a string of seven fantastic episodes. If it had aired any other season, it might have fared better. It gave me some chuckles but not at the level prior to the midseason break.

The biggest issue is that the main story makes little sense. Tina’s about to receive a promotion as hall monitor – I vaguely remember an episode two seasons ago where she was a hall monitor – when she fails to deliver Zeke to the principal’s office. Tina lies and covers up her failure in order to keep her promotion. This is very un-Tina.

Tina’s the girl whose conscience got the best of her during an insurance scam dust-up, perpetrated by a character voiced by Bob Odenkirk. She was the only honest person in a sea of lying adults (her father Bob included) and now she lies to keep a promotion as hall monitor. I could see Tina lying to protect her Thundergirl status, but this has been touched on in the past, too—in fact, it was done right before the midseason break. Tina lying to protect her hall monitor status doesn’t track.

What also didn’t track was Regular-Sized Rudy’s admiration of Tina. He’s hardly had any airtime with her, so this came out of nowhere. Kind of like the secondary story in this episode of Bob as a terrible artist. Why does he care if he can’t draw a burger?

Let’s hope this episode is a speed bump to an otherwise stellar season.

Verdict: A shaky episode to put it mildly, but this may be due to some Tina-fatigue. Yes. Tina’s a great character, but we need more Louise, Gene, Linda, and the rest.

Grimm

Kyle’s Review

This week’s episode of Grimm had to be the strongest of the year. Like the couple wesen that came before it, this wesen of the week wasn’t malevolent, he was sick.

Grimm tapped into the Ebola crisis of western Africa and added a wesen only illness to the mix. Like Ebola this wesen-centric disease works fast and is usually fatal. The Grimm crew only has enough ingredients for one vaccination –similar to the experimental Ebola vaccine of which there were only two made – and when the wesen-gone-wild finds out he infected his wife, he sacrifices himself to save her.

Not only was this episode topical, it reached a level of depth that Grimm hasn’t seen since its second season. We also get an idea of how the Austrian royals fit into the Portland side of the house. It’s nice to see Adalind strike an uncomfortable alliance with them. She certainly wouldn’t hide her disdain for them – it’s just not her style – and Renard’s alliance with the resistance proves just as shaky.

I’m even warming up to the Sergeant Wu storyline. He sees definitive proof of the otherworldly wesen this week, and unlike others before him, he doesn’t handle the information well. It’s unbelievable when everyone either is a wesen or Grimm, or they accept this other world. Let’s hope for more Wu freak outs.

Grimm has always had pretty good cliffhangers, but they must’ve taken a note from the DC Comics TV shows. This year’s mid-season finale had some key figures getting kidnapped and revealed the repercussions of Nick getting his Grimm back: Juliette may be a hexenbeast—Yikes!

Verdict: A strong showing for Grimm’s mid-season finale that leaves plenty to work with after the hiatus.

Constantine

Kyle’s Review

Constantine took another big step forward this week. John runs into another one of his former mates which built up his past and added weight to the character, and I liked how we got two dueling stories this week: John and Zed.

Zed got the shorter end of the stick. She faced her dark past, but her half of things wasn’t as well developed. You have to buy her leaving headquarters to get some random art supplies. Then, she investigates two – count them one, two – places in the vast confines of the magic shack and those two places just happen to help her evade her pursuers. She still gets captured with a syringe to the neck, but the guy with the needle must have been made of vapor to get that good of a drop on her. It was all too convenient.

But John had another great outing. He heads to Mexico and meets up with Anne-Marie from his past. She’s since gone to a convent and became a nun, but there have been some strange dealings with babies disappearing. Anne-Marie contacts John via astral plane radio, and John comes running. The ensuing confrontation reveals a heap of information about the characters’ tangled past, what’s been going on behind the scenes thus far, and saw several elements from the Hellblazer and even the Swamp Thing comics leap onto the small screen.

I won’t spoil it here, but John gets a taste of his own medicine with the end’s cliffhanger.

Verdict: The narrative may have had its ups and downs this season, but Constantine goes into its midseason hiatus on a high note.

Check out our Constantine spoilers page here.

Bob’s Burgers

Kyle’s Review

This week’s episode of Bob’s Burgers is titled “Tina, Tailor, Soldier, Spy,” and as the name implies, Tina goes undercover. Deep undercover.

At the beginning of the episode, Tina has to quit Thundergirls because she turned thirteen, and thirteen is forty in Thundergirl years. Unfortunately, Tina’s ex-Thundergirl troop has a mole in their ranks, and Tina’s former troop master enlists Tina to uncover the culprit.

The two other stories braid into this main storyline: Linda feels old and dyes her hair blonde, while Gene wants to help Tina by checking Thundergirl trash only to find trash fashion or as he likes to call it trashion. Louise complicates matters more by forming the Mole Patrol. She joins Tina’s troop and when that doesn’t lead to results, she joins the rival troop 257, but it’s Tina who solves the mystery. She might not want to admit it, but Louise looks up to her awkward, older sister.

As far as the Thundergirl sting is concerned, let’s just say that a pinky swear of eternal friendship was broken, and the episode turns nuttier than a Banana nut-fudge cookie with macadamia nuts. And it’s just as delicious.

Verdict: Tina makes a great spy and Louise reveals her humanity in this solid episode.

Read more about Bob’s Burgers with our spoiler page.

The Flash

Kyle’s Review

The Flash serves up one exciting episode this week. We get a full dose of Reverse-Flash – something the show has built up to since the pilot – and Firestorm blasts onto the scene as well. Melodrama aside, this was one strong week.

I like beginning the show in medias res (or in the middle) where we see the Flash and Reverse-Flash going toe to toe in Central City. The rest of the show does a good job of filling in the gaps and weaving many of the loose ends introduced in the first part of the debut season into a more cohesive story. Fortunately, these loose ends don’t get tied up all the way, so there’s plenty to work with after The Flash takes its mid-season hiatus.

We did see a lot of characters getting choked up during this episode, and I got a little fatigued going from one scene to the next with someone dropping crocodile tears. Some of the scenes were earned: Barry and his two dads worked, and I actually liked Iris’s awkwardness toward Barry after he professed his love to her—she was a little over-the-top during the scene where Barry let her know his feelings, but subsequent scenes with the two showcased some of the best acting she’s had to this point.

But other dramatic scenes were forced. Ronnie hasn’t been developed enough for me to buy Caitlin’s line of she’d rather him die the night of the particle accelerator explosion. Caitlin has dealt with enough metahumans to know that confusion usually accompanies the powers granted. She gives up on her fiancé too quickly for my taste.

Overall, this episode was a lot of fun, and I like where the show’s headed. Dr. Wells reveals his hand (to the viewers at least) which is a good thing, but I can’t say that the show’s teaser was as big of a surprise as Team Flash would’ve wanted.

Verdict: A solid ending to The Flash’s first segment.

Read more about The Flash with our spoiler page.

Arrow

Kyle’s Review

Arrow tries to mirror The Flash this week by beginning its mid-season finale in medias res, but it doesn’t work as well. Arrow already jumps between two timelines, so adding a third one that’s supposed to happen in the future only muddies the water. But the scene Arrow leads up to is one heck of a scene.

We get reintroduced to the League of Assassins in this episode, but I’m not sure why the League chose to return to Starling City at this time—except that it’s the mid-season finale. It’s been several months with no developments (from the Sara Lance/Black Canary murder). I vaguely remember a timetable for Ollie to find Sara’s murderer, but the timing of the League’s return was arbitrary. Then, they set a 48 hour time limit for Ollie to deliver the murderer to the League’s base half a world away. That was more than a little unbelievable.

In classic Arrow form, the flashback has a connection with current events, but these flashbacks didn’t add much to the overall storyline that hasn’t already been explored—except that someone from Ollie’s past plays a major role now. We also get a blast from Laurel’s past. Her mom drops by for a visit, and Laurel spills the beans about Sara’s death. Laurel’s mom gives Laurel the green light to avenge her sister’s death, so Black Canary Mark II is in the offing.

I can’t say that the solution to Sara’s murder was surprising. Arrow choreographed its blows. I won’t say who the killer is (you’ll have to check out our Arrow spoiler page), but let’s say that Merlyn had something to do with it, and the reasoning has more webs than Spider-man’s underoos.

In short, Merlyn’s back as a major player, and there’s another character that didn’t get enough screen time, but I think that’ll change soon. Dr. Palmer felt out of place in this episode, but he may be a major player after the break. Let’s just say that after the mid-season finale, Ollie will be indisposed, and Dr. Palmer could fill in as the Starling City’s savior.

And what a mid-season finale. Arrow has always ended on a great note whether it’s a mid-season finale or otherwise. The ending of this year’s finale will leave you hungry for more.

Verdict: An uneven show that ends with a stunning climax.

Grimm

Kyle’s Review

Grimm unveiled their obligatory Christmas episode this week. It was as hokey as most other Grimm Christmas stories before it, but it still had charm.

Let’s conduct the Grimm Christmas checklist. Was there a Christmas-themed Wesen? Check. Was it a mindless beast? Sort of. Did Nick have to defeat the beast in combat? No. In fact the Wesen in question was a group of teenagers going through – ahem – changes. The main story arc does a great job of treating Wesen as something other than monsters; they’re people, too. As a result Nick and crew solved the case with a gentler touch than usual.

While Nick learned the true meaning of fruit cake, Trubel investigated the ongoing harassment of Monroe and Rosalee. Trubel proved her detective skills with the side story, but we knew she wasn’t long for this show. Once Nick regained his Grimm powers, she was as good as a ghost. Josh – the son of another Grimm we met last season – wasn’t more than a plot device to get Trubel out of town, but despite the formulaic aspect of his character, we saw him change, and he allowed Trubel to leave on a good note. It doesn’t hurt that we get a promise for possible dual coast Grimm action.

Verdict: A fun Christmas-quasi-standalone episode that trims some of the fat from the cast as well as the tree.

Constantine

Kyle’s Review

This week wasn’t just a case of Manny being Manny. Manny played more than his role as Angel of Exposition. He lends John a helping hand. Manny still finds a way to feed us some backstory – so he does give us a taste of the usual Manny – but he sticks around long enough to show us that the fight between good and evil extends beyond the mortal plane. Seriously, Constantine has painted the big man upstairs as an absentee father, and it took a creature John couldn’t handle for a celestial being to take action.

As you can guess, this week’s antagonist differed from all the others. We even get a switcheroo-twist in the plot, too. I’ll try not to give away too much (Constantine Spoilers), but for the first time we see John finger the wrong man—err demon or unholy harbingers of evil or whatever else John takes down a weekly basis. The guy John suspects of wrong doing is just a misguided soul.

For a character like John who’s a study in a gray, you can’t have a black and white antagonist. It’s great to see back-to-back episodes where good and evil aren’t so clear.

Verdict: Another entertaining show that minimizes the show’s flaws.

Bob’s Burgers

Kyle’s Review

We learned in previous seasons that Bob and his father Bob don’t get along. We’ve never seen Bob senior in the flesh, but in true Bob’s Burgers fashion, we see the two Bobs’ dysfunctional relationship play out over Christmas.

Bob shares with Linda that he can only spend fifteen minutes with his father until he’s had his fill. Louise calls it speed dating with his dad, her Popop. Cue the montage. A bright-eyed Bob opens Bob’s Burgers for the first time, and his father tells him it won’t last a month. A smiling Bob throws his eldest child Tina a birthday party, and Bob’s father notices that Bob’s fatter than he was at his age. A frazzled Bob hands a newborn Gene to his father, and Bob’s father asks if it’s not too late to change the name. In a span of thirty seconds we get a wealth of history.

We also see the rivalry between these two. Bob believes that his father has no faith in him. He has to one up him at every turn only to realize—with the helping hand of his children—that his father was proud of him all along. Throw in a psychotic Linda Christmas carol, Gene running around half-naked covered in baked beans and some failed Christmas presents and you get a wonderful day in the life of Bob’s Burgers.

Verdict: Another great holiday episode.

Read more about Bob’s Burgers with our spoiler page.

The Flash

Kyle’s Review

Given the episode’s title, “Flash vs Arrow,” it delivers the goods. With versus in the name, you had to show the two characters fighting each other, and the action sequence was what you’d expect: explosive.

I never thought they’d turn to Roy G. Bivolo (that’s a play on the ROY G BIV colors of the rainbow) as the villain who’d turn the two heroes against each other. Caitlin was right about Bivolo’s codename Rainbow Raider—Prism is another DC Comics villain—and that’s the reason why I was surprised to him: Rainbow Raider was one of JK Geekly’s Lame Super Villains last month. He may have ditched his magic goggles for metahuman powers, but he’s still lame enough to not warrant showing the two heroes taking him into custody. This episode was all about the Flash and Arrow.

The two titular characters play off each other well. Their differences shine as we even get the classic line from Ollie that despite Barry’s speed, he’s always late. The two couldn’t be more different: from the way they train (or lack thereof) to the way they view the world. Those of us who’ve watched the last season and a half of Arrow don’t see Ollie as the hardnosed vigilante who kills anymore, but of course people in this universe would color him that way.

The Flash has his name besmirched—and his would-be girlfriend Iris falling out of like with him—when he lets out his rage on Eddie. Eddie in turn gets his Flash task force approved by Captain Singh. I can’t wait to see these two butt heads. I figured it would happen sooner or later. Despite all these good developments, there was some problem with cross-pollination.

What has plagued Arrow this season has traveled to The Flash and vice versa. The Flash had too many people who knew his identity and now the Flash’s cadre knows who Arrow is, and Arrow had way too many heroes clogging up his show and we had a teaser for another hero at the end of The Flash. I won’t say who he is here. If you want to read more, check out our Flash spoilers’ link here. I’m also concerned about the Flash’s story lines. Jim mentioned last week that a superhero losing his powers was a cliche. Well, there’s also the cliche of a superhero getting brainwashed and attacking his comrades — miracuru comes to mind and heck, there’s a certain color of kryptonite that realigns Superman’s morality — so I think it’s a misstep to go to the cliche well on back to back episodes.

But I am glad The Flash went back to another well. Arrow fans should recognize who the lady was at Jitters. She was the pregnant woman Ollie’s mom bought off to leave Starling City and never come back during a second season flashback. If you recall, the lady in question told Mrs. Queen that she had family in Central City, The Flash’s city. So the eight or nine-year-old kid she was talking to was Ollie’s.

Verdict: Some great tie-ins, even better action sequences, and the two heroes go together like chocolate and peanut butter. Even though the villain was an afterthought, this was a fun episode.

Jim’s Take

Really solid episode. Ollie and Barry have a great dynamic, and I enjoyed seeing some of the insecurities Barry harbors about being a super-powered superhero bubble to the surface. Rainbow Raider isn’t a great villain (let’s leave it at that), but he served as a decent catalyst to bring that about. Some of the tension between Barry and Ollie’s respective support teams felt a little forced, but with Diggle’s priceless reactions to “metahuman” abilities, there was also a lot of charm to be found.

Arrow

Kyle’s Review

“Sometimes bravery isn’t enough. Sometimes we need to be bold.” Lyla said this in a poignant part of this week’s Arrow, and it should come as no surprise that this episode’s title shares the same name as the classic DC Comics team up book The Brave and The Bold.

Like the other Arrow/Flash crossover, this episode lives up to its title, but the title in question looms bigger than a simple showdown. We get the Arrow’s darkness in harmony with the Flash’s light and travel down a philosophical tale reminiscent of the best Green Arrow stories.

I’ve been rating The Flash higher than Arrow this season because of Arrow’s inability to find its footing and the electricity of The Flash’s debut season, but Arrow got the better end of this crossover: the story was more cohesive, the villain more engaging (even though boomerangs strike a smidge more fear than a Rainbow Raider), the flashbacks worked to give Ollie’s internal conflict depth, and the show had more balance.

I never got tired seeing the Flash get to the scene before Arrow, and the other cast mates had some great moments, too. Even though Roy wasn’t featured (he wasn’t even the focal point when he thought he killed Sara), I liked how he blended with Cisco and Caitlin. He started off annoyed but quickly accepted them. I’m sure that Cisco complimenting his suit because it’s red didn’t hurt.

My only complaint is that both crossover episodes tied up too neatly. I know we haven’t seen the last of the Flash/Arrow crossovers, but it would’ve been nice if this story could have led somewhere in both series. I also would love to see Captain Boomerang again. He’d make a nice recurring villain. I won’t say why here (I’ll save that for our Arrow spoilers page), but it bodes well that he occupies the same prison as another Arrow villain.

Let’s hope that this shot of adrenaline will get Arrow going in the right direction. As this episode illustrated, Arrow needs to be more than just darkness. He needs to be the voice of reason, the outspoken hero of the common man.

Verdict: The better half of the Arrow/Flash crossover. Hopefully, Arrow has found its footing.

Jim’s Take

This was another successful teamup. Personally, I thought Flash’s leg of the two-parter was the more successful one. I think Tuesday’s show did a better job blending the gritty with the light-hearted, but Arrow didn’t drop the ball by any reckoning. As is sometimes the case with Arrow, the show’s message about torture and Ollie’s humanity felt heavy-handed and preachy, but I’m hopeful this crossover will give Arrow some momentum moving forward. The mention of Captain Boomerang being imprisoned with Slade gave me hope for a really big development there. Can I just mention, though, how weird is it that Deathstroke is Australian in the Arrow-verse, and Captain Boomerang is not? All-in-all, this may have been Arrow‘s strongest showing of season 3. Let’s hope it continues.