Project Type: Geekly TV

Constantine

Kyle’s Review
Constantine drops us in the middle of the story, which is something that’s missing from a lot of this year’s new shows, and I like the move. We do get a lot of exposition, mostly from the angel Manny (played by Harold Perrineau of Lost fame). In fact, Manny feeds us so much exposition with his dialogue that it’s safe to call him the Archangel of Exposition. Still, he’s a likable character, and I dig his wings.

Matt Ryan does a great job as John Constantine. It makes sense that the hellblazing, conman/occult detective would have an English accent. Sure, he has some hackneyed dialogue, but he pulls off the character well enough because we see him as flawed, and that’s always more interesting than someone who has their act together. And we see enough of the character in action to get a sense of what makes him effective—complete with a few instances of fast talking, quick thinking, and swindling.

My only real issues with the Constantine character so far is that he’s supposed to be a smoker, but television doesn’t allow smoking on a primetime show, so this really isn’t an indictment of the show.
But Constantine still carries a cigarette lighter. I guess he keeps it handy so he can set things on fire. I just hope they don’t use the John Constantine has lung cancer story arc. It won’t make any sense. John does drink like a fish. Perhaps they’ll make him contract liver disease. Oh, and I don’t get why Constantine would need a business card for what he does except to spawn more exposition about who he is and what he does.

The rest of the supporting cast does a fine, if not a bit shaky, job. Charles Halford as Chas is solid, but Lucy Griffiths slips into her British accent from time to time as Liv Aberdine, when Liv is supposed to be from Atlanta.

And I’m not as sure of Atlanta as the setting. Constantine travels the world, so most locations make sense and I can see why you wouldn’t want to set the show in London (there’s a long line), New York (too many shows), or Los Angeles (it’s all about the Benjamins), but I can’t help but think that they chose Atlanta because The Walking Dead has done well in Georgia so far, so let’s do what they’re doing. Still, the setting works for the most part.

The pilot works for the most part. It’s enjoyable. Unlike The Flash, Constantine’s flashbacks are smoother. The special effects are top notch—but we expected that—and I love the Easter eggs throughout the show. Minor spoiler: we get a hint at Dr. Fate. Constantine bought my attention for the foreseeable future.

Verdict: A solid pilot for a show that exhibits promise.

Grimm

Kyle’s Review
I was skeptical of the new season of Grimm given how last season ended, but they pulled off an okay show. Nick (played by David Giuntoli) actually had to use some detective skills. He didn’t do as much in this arena as I would’ve liked, but he did concoct a way to work around his lack of Grimm abilities. But I loved how Juliette (Bitsie Tulloch) drew attention to the fact that Nick used to be a good detective and he needed to get back to doing what he did best.

Trubel (pronounced trouble and played by Jacqueline Toboni) is the only Grimm in town, and she isn’t as annoying as I’d thought she’d be this season as the substitute Grimm, but I still don’t think she’s long for the show. As soon as Nick gets his Grimm on, she’s out the door or the cell.

I had forgotten that Captain Renard (Sasha Roiz) was shot last season. His character had been relegated to window dressing and as soon as the royal story arc ends, I’m not sure he continues with the show. And I got a lot of “he or she won’t be on the show much longer” in this episode, so I fear that the creative team will shake up things with a dreaded line-up change after a less than stellar season last year.

And speaking of last than stellar, I’m not buying a lot of things in this episode. Sergeant Wu’s (Reggie Lee) story arc about him learning about the supernatural doesn’t interest me. There are far too many characters who already know about this “other” world, and Wu hasn’t been the same character since they took him from the realm of comic relief to a brooding police officer. I get why Monroe (Silas Weir Mitchell) and Rosalee (Bree Turner) would cancel their honeymoon, but the entire exchange felt forced, and I don’t know how to gauge Juliette’s response to Nick sleeping with Adalind (Claire Coffee). Again, I could see how she would, but there was a least one moment when I though Juliette was actually Adalind in disguise.

There was a new wesen this week, but I appreciate what they did with the octopus man, a dude with an octopus for a face. His power to suck memories from people actually comes with a price. After dining on a male victim, sapping his memories from him, the male victim’s girlfriend enters the house. Octodude tells the woman that she shouldn’t have been back from her vacation yet, and he looked upset that he’d have to take her life; so apparently, Octodude gained more than his victim’s memories. He gained fondness for the man’s girlfriend as result of the memories he took.

It was an uneven show that posed more questions than answers, but Grimm did cut out a lot of soap opera elements that dragged down last season. We’ll have to see what’s in store next week.

Verdict: Off to a rocky but interesting start.

The Flash

Kyle’s Review

Let’s face it. The CW shows have it going on right now. Their shows may not hit all the time, but they have more hits than misses. And I had my doubts for The Flash series before it debuted.

I wasn’t sure how good the production value (CGI and other effects) would be because the CW doesn’t have as large a budget as the bigger networks, and The Flash with all its meta-humans could go over the top quickly. But neither of those things has happened so far. The effects look slick, and more importantly, the grounded characters—at least the main cast: Barry, Detective West, and Harrison Wells—make a man running several times the speed of sound look natural.

Like Ollie from Arrow—learning how not to kill—before him, Barry Allen struggles with what’s right in the latest episode of The Flash. This isn’t the first time Barry has questioned how he should use his powers or even if he should use his powers, and this makes Barry a believable character; take notes, Gotham’s Batboy. You can’t be the hero you will become after three episodes, and while The Flash could be on the fast track to superherodom, he still stumbles.

The flashbacks in this episode stumble, too, but I don’t think the execution of the flashbacks was the main reason. Sure, the transitions are clunky, but the chief problem with these flashbacks rest with who’s having them. I haven’t bought into Caitlin Snow and Cisco Ramon as characters yet, so their back stories fall a little short. Heck, Diggle didn’t have a flashback until much later in the Arrow series. The Flash needs to develop these two characters further before they delve into their past. But the one flashback at the end—I won’t say who, but you can probably guess—makes up for the previous flashbacks.

I enjoyed this episode’s villain. He had a good back story, a great power, and the reasoning behind his abilities made sense. The only problem is that The Mist is the appetizer for a larger meal. We’re getting some nice build up. Let’s hope the payoff is worth it. But I’ve learned my lesson with CW shows. I expect a wallop of a payoff.

Verdict: The Flash continues its strong start.

Jim’s Take

The show continues with some clunky character interaction, and the flashbacks to the night the particle accelerator blew up weren’t handled as well as they should have been, slowing down the pace of the episode, but this show continues to hit far more than it misses. I really enjoyed seeing Barry struggle with the knowledge that he could simply bust his father out of prison, and seeing a character ponder an ethical question like that is a great example of how to develop a character. In short, The Flash is not yet the person he will become, and that makes it interesting. The Mist was the villain of the week, and while I feel we didn’t get enough of the character, I was impressed with the presentation. I knew a show like The Flash would test the limits of The CW’s production budget, and this episode in particular shows they’re doing pretty well.

Arrow

Kyle’s Review

This week’s episode of Arrow was enjoyable, but I found myself having to suspend disbelief quite a bit which is something I’ve had to do a lot of this season. Is it just me or are we going to see someone pull their League of Assassins training out of a Cracker Jack?

We’ve had too many characters with world-class combat training in this show already, and now we get Thea and a fledgling Laurel. It takes longer than six months to pull off Deathstroke moves, people. That said. The Laurel storyline was at least somewhat believable. She did get her behind handed to her, and her motivation makes sense. I just don’t care for the actor’s portrayal of the character up to this point. But I have to admit that she’s showing some range this season, so I’ll hold some of my judgment until later in the season. It does look like we traded watching Roy Harper’s (Arsenal’s) training—something I’m glad we didn’t have to see in its entirety—for Laurel Lance’s (Black Canary Mark II’s).

But surely Laurel’s training will last longer than Thea’s. She’s already a card carrying assassin. And didn’t she shoot her dad in last season’s finale? She should have herself checked for a personality disorder, because she swings over to Camp Merlyn in half a heartbeat with some half-baked idea that she no longer wants to feel pain and that Merlyn’s the chap to teach how not to feel. Hunh?

Despite the odd Merlyn-Thea relationship, I liked Ollie’s and Thea’s interactions in this episode. It’s nice to see how Ollie connects with Thea. It felt like a genuine moment, and I’m interested to see how Thea balance her brother’s and her biological father’s relationship. Or if she even chooses one over the other. I have my suspicions as to which side she’ll choose, but I think the show does a good job sewing ambiguity in the character.

And speaking of ambiguity, I like what Arrow’s done with A.R.G.U.S. in this episode. Up until now they’ve given us enough to know that they aren’t the kind of group you want to play patty cake with—and that continues in this episode—but they haven’t completely shown their hand. I do have to say that I don’t buy that Lyla would send Diggle to do her dirty work unless she wanted Diggle to get her out of A.R.G.U.S. which remains to be seen.

Still, this episode of Arrow kept me entertained, and I’m glad they didn’t hide The Flash Easter eggs dotted throughout the episode. I won’t spoil anything for you, but you’ll like the two cliffhangers.

Verdict: It has its flaws, but it’s still fun to watch.

Gotham

Kyle’s Review

The can of mixed nuts that is Gotham continues. The creative team shakes the can every week, dumps out ten nuts at a time, and the fans have to hope for a good variety. We got the same nut this week. You’ll begin to see a pattern with what’s working and what needs work in this fifth episode.

Bruce makes another appearance. His inclusion makes more sense with the story’s arc, and this is a great thing. But he’s already Batman. As I’ve said in weeks past I don’t want to see Batboy. Bruce Wayne has no place to grow as a character. He’s already Batman at age 12, and not only is that unbelievable, it also makes Batboy not interesting. We all know how Bruce Wayne ends up, and you do have to give service to Bruce’s proclivities, but show us his path of becoming Batman. He can’t be Batboy sans cape and cowl less than a month after his parents’ death.

Gotham City continues to feel like a modern city from an alternate reality, and it doesn’t look like a New York City clone. This is another great thing. But the rampant crime and mob war screams a Batman era Gotham instead of a Lieutenant Gordon Gotham. The city’s corruption should exist but should be difficult to see at first like the oil on a teenager’s skin. The pimple shouldn’t be ready to pop.

Minor spoiler: the drug of choice in this episode, Viper, is the predecessor of the Venom Bane uses in the comics. While the two drugs are similar, they don’t work the same way. This is another great choice. But, through dialogue, we learn that a group of scientists have already perfected Venom. You can’t have Venom without Bane, and I don’t see them introducing this character any time soon. Gotham wastes yet another chance to let the world that will become Batman’s to develop.

And the only development worth watching on a nightly basis is the Penguin. Let’s call this nut a cashew: the nut I try to eat the most of before my wife gets to the can. I like Robin Lord Taylor’s portrayal of the Penguin a lot. I might be a little biased because I also wondered why the Nolan Batman movies didn’t include the Penguin. He’s a Batman character grounded in reality, rooted in the mob, and you can count on Taylor’s performance most nights. Taylor gives another great performance this week. The only problem with the Penguin is that his story intertwines with Fish Mooney’s.

Fish’s accent continues to baffle me. What is her nationality anyway? Most of Europe may share a common currency, but they don’t all speak the same language let alone the same dialect. Furthermore, Fish’s cockamamie ideas make no sense. The only positive thing I can say is that at least Gotham didn’t wait a few months to show how a teenage songbird could take down a crime boss. The only problem is that there’s no way this plan should work. And I fear that it might.

Verdict: A can of mixed nuts where most of the good nuts are taken.

Jim’s Take

I’m glad that Bruce’s part of the plot felt less tacked-on this week, but I’m still not convinced he should have been in the episode. I’m also annoyed that he’s already displaying so many of the characteristics that will make him Batman. I’ve said it before, but the character should be allowed to develop with the show. Also on that note, I’m troubled that Venom exists so far before Batman comes into being. Frankly, I think “Viper” was pretty obviously a precursor to Venom, and I think they could have left it at the prototype, and that would have been a good thing. Fish Mooney’s acting continues to annoy, and the idea that her protégé could take down a mob boss with a song is unbelievable and silly. The show still isn’t terrible, it’s just that I can’t shake the feeling that it should be getting better.

The Walking Dead

Jim’s Review

Consider this fair warning. I make fun of this show. Actually, I watch this show for the purpose of making fun of it. Well, I also watch it because I’ve promised Elizabeth that I would, but she’s used to my snarky comments. If you’re a regular reader of JK Geekly reviews, you know we try to stay positive, or at least to be fair. I make no such effort here. So, with that out of the way, on with the review.

The premiere did exactly what anyone who pays attention would have expected. Some people who don’t matter died to show the seriousness of the situation, and some people who wouldn’t matter if their faces weren’t on the promos got away. A lone woman used a herd of zombies to overrun a secure compound. Once freed, our heroes rescued some unnamed survivors from their secure position so they could wander, disoriented and unarmed through the fray and wind up as zombie food. The baby, Judith, was nearly murdered because Tyreese forgot to make a hostile prisoner pinkie-promise not to.

We got a teaser for the return of a popular character at the end, and that should make fans happy. The truth of this episode is if you’re a fan of the show, you’ll be glad to see (mostly) everyone reunited and back on the road, and the teaser for next week will have you pumped. If you’re like me, you’ll shake your head, laugh out loud, and ultimately decide gnawing Rick’s face off is a goal worth supporting.

Verdict: Satisfying, laughable, or satisfyingly laughable, depending on your standpoint.

Gotham

Jim’s Review

It was an unusually mixed bag for me this week. I like the premise of the episode. Involving too many comic book characters runs the risk of emphasizing the super hero/super villain elements that Batman’s absence will cause to feel unsatisfying. Centering the story around a hitman and a struggle between the Falcone and Maroni families keeps this show in the realm of the more grounded aspects of Gotham City. There can be more of a payoff with that, I believe. The problem, or at least part of it, is that the episode tried to do so much.

Yet again, Bruce’s presence added nothing to the episode, and it continued to highlight the awkward and unbelievable relationship between Jim Gordon and a young Bruce Wayne. Gordon’s special relationship, and even borderline collaborative relationship with Bruce is made even more awkward by the conflict with Barbara over his secrecy. Barbara’s insistence on Jim’s openness is a problem for two reasons. The first is that Jim and Barbara’s relationship is still too undeveloped for us to care about the conflict in it, and the second is that it has the strangeness of a psychiatrist’s wife demanding that her husband break doctor/patient confidentiality. Her unwillingness to accept that he can’t discuss open cases makes her seem needy and unrealistic. A final note on their relationship, her defensiveness of her lesbian relationship with Montoya felt sloppy. She’s implying that Gordon’s objection is based on homophobia, and that rings hollow. She’s his fiancé. She knows Jim Gordon, and she’d know his feelings on same sex relationships. Getting that commentary felt like a desperate attempt on the part of the show to remind us how “modern” the show is. It worked better as a piece of information that everyone treated as normal, because it is normal.

Fish Mooney is getting on my nerves more and more. Her on again off again, pseudo-accent is distracting and over-the-top, and while I appreciate that she’s a wildcard in the war between the Falcone and Maroni factions, how she plans to make use of a teenage singer as her ace-in-the-hole, I have no idea.

Verdict: It’s still not bad, but it’s still not improving.

Kyle’s Take

The hitman works, and the Penguin wrinkle adds spice, but no Batman, no real Penguin. I know nothing about Jim Gordon’s and Barbara’s relationship—besides the fact they’re engaged for some reason—and I don’t care to know. The Barbara/Montoya relationship is tacked on because the creative team wants to horn in on the hot issue that is marriage equality. Never mind that the show’s title is “Arkham,” and even the most casual Batman fan knows what a show titled Arkham should be about: mental health and illness. But I guess mental health isn’t as sexy as two women making out on-screen. The Arkham angle should’ve had Batboy dealing more with his parents’ deaths and Alfred tending to Bruce’s wellbeing, but Alfred doesn’t seek therapy for Bruce, and Bruce has already decided he’ll serve as Gordon’s sidekick and suppress his feelings, even though the Bruce Wayne character works best when he fights his demons. From now on, the only Batboy I want to see in Gotham is the one retrieving foul balls for the Gotham City Knights baseball team. And Fish smells something fierce when it’s left out for three days. This was episode four.

The Flash

Kyle’s Review

The Flash serves as a nice counterweight to Arrow. While Arrow takes itself too seriously at times, The Flash with its gregarious titular character always looks on the bright side of life.

The characters continue to feed us exposition with their dialogue, but it wanes in the second episode—thank goodness. Most of the characters are settling into a groove. And I liked that they introduced Barry’s blood-sugar levels dropping from the Nineties Flash series. But in the Nineties’ Flash series, Barry suffered from the symptoms a lot sooner—I think in the pilot—and the science team diagnosed him quicker. If you’re going to lose that much glucose in your system each time you hit 300 mph, you’d suffer from hypoglycemia in a day or two. By this point he’s been running for weeks.

Multiplex as a villain works, but he doesn’t do much else but function as the catalyst that galvanizes the relationship between Barry and his adopted father, and I love the relationship between Detective West and Barry. Their connection comes through with all its levels. I enjoy the Cisco character, who reminds us that DC characters can be light-hearted. And Harrison Wells shines, pulling strings and showing his hand a bit. I won’t drop any spoilers, but will say that like the pilot this show gives us hints at other Flash villains.

To paraphrase Barry Allen, we have the introductions out of the way, let’s progress the story.

Verdict: The Flash continues its playful romp.

Jim’s Take

This was a nice build-up after a strong start. They’ve still got some awkward expositional dialogue, but the characters are engaging. The angle with Barry’s blood-sugar levels dropping and causing him to pass out seemed odd. I would think caloric intake would have occurred to the scientifically minded much sooner, but it’s encouraging that the writers are thinking in terms of complicating Barry’s powers. This show is definitely headed in the right direction.

Arrow

Jim’s Review

I feel like I’m doing this a lot lately, but I’ll start this off with another fair warning. At this point, I’m going to assume if you’re reading a review for this week’s show, you’ve seen last week’s, so I won’t tiptoe around last week’s big development. With that in mind, read on, friends.

I’ll get to it. With Sara’s death coming at the end of last week’s episode, a part of me was suspicious of whether or not that would stick. I wondered if we were going to find out it was just a poisoned dart, and despite falling off a building afterward, there’s still hope to find and antidote, or worse yet, Sara would just be in a coma. As we all know, death in the world of comics is often just a temporary state, and so a show based on a comic book is subject to that same consideration, but at least for the time being, they’re letting Sara’s death stick. I’m glad for that. It shows they’re willing to make big moves, and to take chances.

Ollie’s reaction to Sara’s death was well done, and I even enjoyed his rant about needing to lead, and no having the luxury of “falling to pieces,” but I didn’t buy everyone’s response. Simply put, Felicity’s level of grief rivaling Ollie’s was unbelievable, as was Diggle’s. Yes, they’ve been through a lot together, but the show never developed individual relationships between Sara and the rest of the team, so their references to her being “family” rang hollow to me. As for Felicity’s sudden realization that one day, it could be Oliver killed in their crusade, I found it tough to buy. Tommy has already died, as has Moira. This team has been confronted with death before, and while Sara is different because like Ollie, she was trained, it’s still a bit of a leap for me.

Speaking of Tommy, it was good to see him back this week, if only in flashback form (this is not an example of death being a temporary setback). It really would have been nice to get more of his dynamic with Ollie, but given the situation, and what that would have done to the show’s continuity, it wasn’t possible. With that aside, therein lies my problem with the flashback sequence this week. It really didn’t do anything for the narrative. We didn’t learn anything new.

My last big concern for the show this week involves Thea and Laurel. We close with a glimpse of Thea in her new role, too easily donning her bad-guy clothes, and training under her too easily accepted daddy, Malcolm. Between that and the telegraphed punch of Laurel staring at Black Canary’s jacket, the show is running the risk of making first-aid certification look tougher to acquire than the skills of a world-class assassin.

With all that in mind, Season 3 is still off to an entertaining start. The narrative is moving forward, and there are still enough Easter eggs to keep any comic nerd smiling. Anyone catch the Amazonian Princess remark? How about Palmer calling it, “Star City?” Did I just hear that wrong?

This show is popular. Let’s not construe that to mean it’s perfect, but it’s popular for a reason. It hits more than it misses, and while the first two episodes of Season 3 have their shortcomings, they never had me bored.

Verdict: I remain confident

Kyle’s Take
This episode was a mixed bag for me but still entertaining. While I believe in Ollie’s reaction to Sara’s death and his motivation (even though I questioned it last week), the supporting cast stumbled. Like Jim, I don’t think Felicity could ever sell the “there was a death in family” line. I’m more willing to trust Diggle’s response to Black Canary’s absence, but not for the reason the script says. Diggle wants to get back into the fray, and Sara’s death opens a spot in Ollie’s support team. I don’t want Laurel to don the Black Canary costume—because the actress who plays her gets on my nerves—and Thea must’ve eaten her Assassin-Ohs every morning for the past seven to eight months. Either that or she slept in a Holiday Inn Express the night before. Despite these flaws, Arrow keeps my interest, and I can’t wait for next week’s episode.

 

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Jim’s Review

This was really just more of the same, I’m sorry to say. We still haven’t moved forward in the narrative. We don’t have any real answers about what’s happening to Coulson, or what the alien writing is all about. Readers of Marvel comics can make some pretty solid educated guesses, but the show hasn’t played those cards yet. Beyond that, it was another instance of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Hydra fighting over an object, and that’s a formula this show has worked far too much. It’s beginning to feel every week like watching a football game where two teams are wrestling over a fumble. It’s okay for a while, but the show needs to give us a hint of the larger picture.

More so than usual, this episode had some really awkward dialogue. Coulson and May’s banter at the early stages of the mission felt forced, and in the end, it was all just a setup for the ending. The lengths those awkward “nostalgia” moments between Coulson and May were stretched to made the end feel like just another one of the show’s unearned moments.

Maybe I’ve put the writers in a bit of a no-win situation with Fitz. I’ve complained before that he’s had nothing to do this season, but this week it felt like he was given something to do just to be given something to do. I should be glad to see him earning his place back in the group, but it’s hard to give the show that credit when his conflict feels so incidental to the main plot.

They upped the production value this week, but all it gave us was another look at a trick that Winter Soldier already played. May fighting fake May in a nightie wasn’t exactly a chore to watch, but it also comes off as pandering.

Verdict: Nothing was ventured here, and nothing was gained.

The Flash

Kyle’s Review

The Flash gives us the best series premiere this fall TV season—so far—but that shouldn’t come as a surprise, since the creative team of Arrow shares a lot of pieces with The Flash’s creative team. This doesn’t mean that the show doesn’t have issues.

The biggest problems with The Flash are expository dialogue and a flat supporting cast. I don’t need every character telling me their life story when I meet them. Some cast members have few lines outside why they’re doing what they’ve done or what they’re currently doing. This makes for awkward storytelling and character development, but fortunately, Gustin as the affable goof Barry Allen drives the show.

With Allen at the show’s center The Flash has a different feel than Arrow—of course we get a cameo from the Arrow, and the way they include the Arrow is an example of good storytelling. Speaking of Arrow, a lot of people know that Oliver Queen is Green Arrow, and judging from The Flash’s pilot, they want to play catch up. The only problem with this is that Arrow has had two seasons to develop these characters, while The Flash comes out of the gate with almost as many people knowing his secret.

The creative team has plenty of their own secrets. Some of character names are changed from the comics to the TV series in order to obfuscate who plays which character. There’s one main character whose name has been changed, and it’s difficult to get into depth with him without giving away some spoilers, so spoiler alert: Harrison Wells, played by Tom Cavanagh, time travels. We get a nice Easter egg at the end of the episode—if you read the comics, you’ll be pleasantly surprised—that reveals Wells’s time traveling exploits.

And now I’ll speculate on the two characters I think Cavanagh might be portraying. Keep in mind that they have to have some link with time traveling. Reverse Flash factors into Barry Allen’s origin, but there have been countless versions of the character. Given Cavanagh’s performance, if he were the Reverse Flash, he would have to be the one who fancies himself as the man grooming The Flash into superherodom. Then, we have rumors from The Flash producers that they plan to include Booster Gold in the series. Geoff Johns wrote a few Booster Gold stories in the past, so it isn’t too farfetched to see Cavanagh sporting the blue and gold. Of course there’s another character who could don the booster Gold uniform, too.

The Flash intrigues me with its solid pilot. It does in forty minutes what the 1990s Flash TV show took almost two hours to do: introduce the likeable Barry Allen. And speaking of the Nineties’ Flash, I had a smile on my face when I saw John Wesley Shipp playing Barry Allen’s father Henry Allen. Shipp played the titular character in the Nineties, and he gives a nice performance here.

Verdict: Great pilot, even though it has flaws

Jim’s Take

As a fan of Arrow, I had high hopes for The Flash, and I was not disappointed. There was a lot of clunky exposition, and I’m a little concerned about how many people already know Barry Allen’s secret, but the show manages to bring a lot of the meta-human aspects of the DC Universe to the screen in a convincing and satisfying way. While I’m not quite sold on much of the supporting cast yet, Grant Gustin’s portrayal of Barry Allen is engaging and the character is instantly likeable.

Arrow

Jim’s Review

Well, Arrow titled this episode, “The Calm,” and that was definitely a bit of misdirection. There was no easing us into season three, and while I’m happy for the quick start, I think the problem with this premiere may have been that it moved a little too fast.

I’m going to get into spoiler territory here, so be warned. The relationship between Oliver and Felicity is something the show’s been developing since the first season. While we got some really tender scenes with them together, it felt to me like they went from start to finish a little too quickly, especially since the realization that a normal romance would be out of reach for Oliver was something already explored. In other words, if they were going to have Oliver arrive at a conclusion he’d already reached before, they needed to let it breathe, let us consider that he may have been wrong for a bit. We didn’t really get that chance.

It was good seeing Roy take more fully to his role as Arsenal. It’s a storyline that has been brewing for a while now, so I’m glad they didn’t depend on it for a huge moment in the episode. There’s still some development required to sell him in that role, but I’m confident we’ll get it.

Brandon Routh as Dr. Palmer/The Atom is also off to a good start. Routh brings a certain charm to the role, and I like that there’s some ambiguity in the character for those members of the audience who are unfamiliar with the comics.

Paul Blackthorne as Quentin Lance continues to be a strong point of the show, but this episode may have pushed his post-heart-attack frailty a little too far. I’m excited to see his role change now following his promotion, and the decision to recognize The Arrow, and change Oliver’s relationship with the Police Department is an exciting development for me.

The general theme of the episode, having Oliver struggle with his relationships with his team, and how much risk he is willing to expose them to was stretched a bit thin. Yes, there was a close call this week, but it’s not a first for any of them. It’s not even a third for any of them. Having Oliver all of sudden decide to draw the line is a bit unsatisfying.

The show’s big cliffhanger ending is a tricky one, but I’ll address it saying as little to give it away as possible. There is an apparent death at the close of this episode, and it’s not a minor character. The setup for it felt a bit awkward, even contrived, but it is somewhat of a game changer for the direction of the show. We all know that death in a comic book universe is often a temporary state, and there’s always the possibility for this to be sleight of hand work, but at the very least, the writers have shown us they are not holding back.

Verdict: Season three is off to a solid start.

Kyle’s Take

The episode name is a bait and switch, but I guess it works in the sense that it may refer to the “calm before the storm.” And there definitely is a storm brewing at episode’s end (see Jim’s comment about the show’s big cliffhanger above). I’d be shocked if the character in question doesn’t show up again in one form or another. I did like the addition of Routh/Dr. Palmer. He slides in with the current cast, and his character gives a tip of the hat to another of Star City’s heroes. But Oliver’s motivations are at best forced and at worst disingenuous.

Bob’s Burgers

Kyle’s Review

This season’s premiere serves as a perfect jumping off point if you’ve never seen an episode of Bob’s Burgers. You learn all you need to know about who these characters are through their antics in this show. Gene puts on a one man musical with the frantic comedy that comes with it, Tina obsesses over Jimmy Junior’s butt and makes all decisions based on said posterior, Louise devises madcap schemes that result in a massive blowup, and Linda goes over the top because two of her children are in competing musicals. Even minor child characters make triumphant returns. But this episode skimps on the titular character and most of the adult extras. When was the last time the family spent a day in the restaurant? I have to admit that Linda and the children are a lot more entertaining than Bob—it’s an odd choice to have H. Jon Benjamin as the straight man. Hopefully, we’ll see more of the characters we’ve grown to love over the last four seasons.

Verdict: Solid show

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Jim’s Review
It’s hard to talk about this week’s episode without getting into spoiler territory. I’ll do my best, but be warned that some specific details of the episode will be addressed.

There was a little bit of plot development this week. We get a sense of the tug-of-war between S.H.I.E.L.D. and Hydra, but at some point, I feel like we need more than a recruiting battle. What is ultimately at stake here? I expect Marvel to be reluctant to reveal Hydra’s master plan on a TV show as opposed to a feature film, but that’s becoming just a little too apparent.
We’re finally told what took Simmons away from the team, but I find the answer unsatisfying. She’s joined Hydra as a sleeper spy for Coulson, but what little character development she’s had has shown Simmons to be a horrible liar, and that makes the decision to use her in that role seem completely unbelievable, even with the limited personnel to choose from. The show addresses this in a weak attempt to poke fun at the character, and possibly even acknowledge its logical shortcoming, but I don’t think it’s enough.

I’ve always been down on the Skye character, so it probably won’t shock anyone to know I’m struggling to accept her new-found competence as a field operative. I also didn’t think the confrontation between Ward and Fitz paid off like it was meant to. I don’t know if they’re trying to earn sympathy for Ward, or trying to give Fitz credibility as a more assertive character, but the exchange seemed to come too easily.

I’m also a little concerned about the introduction of mind-control. In a show where unearned moments pepper the narrative, I feel like that particular device can be used to shift allegiances and explain out-of-character behavior too easily.

Verdict: Bit of a stumble this week.

Gotham

Kyle’s Review

This episode fared better than the two that preceded it, but I wonder if that’s a function of a few things: no Gordon-Bruce scenes, Alfred acted more like he knew Bruce and cared for him, and Catwoman actually did something Catwoman-like. Throw in some good scenes between Gordon and Bullock and get rid of the Penguin references, and this episode improved on a lot of the things that bogged down the others, while building on what worked in the first two.

I can’t say I buy the relationship between Barbara and Montoya. It’s tacked on and borderline pandering, but I’ll give it a chance. We get a different kind of vigilante, and this slant of vigilantism is heavy-handed in terms of how it relates to the once and future Batman. Yes. We get it. Batman differs from this vigilante in a very key way that I won’t reveal here because of potential spoilers. Let’s say the creative team telegraphs their punches, and they keep tugging at a thread with no hope of follow through.

I still can’t stand Fish’s accent, we don’t get a fleshed out opinion of the vigilante by another Gotham policeman besides Jim Gordon, and subtlety continues to elude Gotham. But the show continues to improve. The Penguin’s transformation is interesting, but I’m not sure how far they’ll take it without any hope of Batman’s presence. Perhaps the best thing this episode does is give us a sense of Gotham City as its own character.

Verdict: Watchable and improving

Gotham

Jim’s Review

With a lot of the obligatory origin material taken care of in the pilot episode, this week’s episode allowed us a little time to explore the city the show’s built so far. This also made the storyline seem a little less cluttered this week as the writers weren’t so clearly pressed to give equal screen time to all the plot threads.

Maybe most importantly, Selina Kyle (Catwoman-to-be) actually had some lines this week. Once again, she felt a little inconsequential to the events of the episode, but letting her speak at least gives us a feel for the character as Gotham will portray her. I found her delivery to be a little awkward, but as far as I’m concerned, young actors get a little latitude.

In general, the performances felt a bit off. Fish Mooney’s over-pronunciation gives her an odd, quasi-English accent, and it takes me out of her scenes somewhat. Carmine Falcone got a bit more screen time, and I’m still enjoying his part of the show. The dynamic between Harvey Bullock and Jim Gordon worked well again, but I thought the repeated mentioning of Gordon “getting on board” was heavy handed.

Subtlety is something the show needs to get better at. Right now, they’re relying very heavily on archetypal characters. For example, the mayor feels too much like an uncaring, straw-man politician. Ultimately, that makes the character flat. A heavy dose of pragmatism works wonders in making the Bullock character more fully rendered, and I think that trick could work with the mayor and other characters on the show. If we’re dealing with people who are not simply “bad guys,” but rather just too lazy, scared, or pessimistic to make changes in the city, it’s more believable that with better leadership, things could improve.

There was also a bit of fan service in this episode. Without tossing around major spoilers, we get our first mention of Arkham Asylum, and our first DC supervillain already at work (not just in their origin like Edward Nygma). It seems they’re treading lightly, trying not to let Batman’s rogue’s gallery get ahead of him, but I’m a little nervous that they’ll lose patience on this. I’d rather see them stay focused on the more down-to-earth villains at work in Gotham, like the Falcone family, and Fish Mooney’s power struggle.

Verdict: I remain cautiously optimistic.

Kyle’s Take:

Jim and I pretty much agree. This episode was a lot more watchable than the pilot, but the series suffers from a lack of subtlety (see Jim’s review: character depth) and the heavy handedness of foreshadowing (akin to the subtlety issue). If I hear one more Penguin reference, I’m gonna squawk. It reminds me of the movie Titanic where “unsinkable” or some derivative was used fifty times in twenty minutes of film. We get it. Move on. And I will move on to Bruce Wayne. The Wayne story arc is one hot mess: an unlikable Alfred (I wanted to like this unique portrayal but can’t), and the attitude of hey, Gordon, I just met you and this is crazy, but here’s the Wayne kid, so raise him maybe. Still, I enjoyed the Cat on the prowl, even if she didn’t factor into the overall events as much as I’d like, and despite its flaws, Gotham has done enough to keep me watching for another week.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Jim’s Review
I don’t know whether or not I’d say the second episode of the season was an improvement, but it wasn’t a step backward. We were given a little closure—or at least movement—on a couple of the secondary storylines. Given that one of my primary gripes with season one was that it felt like a long holding-pattern until Winter Soldier came out, a little plot progress is a welcome sight.
With that said, I still just don’t care about the mercenaries’ stories. I don’t feel they were ever fleshed out, and so I never invested in any of the characters. That detracted from some of the intended sentiment, which really just fell flat for me.
It’s hard to get into my concerns with this season without giving away too many plot spoilers, but I can sum it up by saying it’s beginning to seem like the show’s writers are working off a template. The formula of unclear allegiances and murky background information is wearing thin. It’s made worse by the fact that they’re still farming Coulson’s character for the mystery part of the formula. It’s understandable. Coulson is really the only fully-developed character on the show (thanks to the movies), but it’s beginning to come off as lazier than I’m willing to forgive.
It’s also problematic for me that once again we see Coulson choosing to place his faith in a character that has double-crossed him before. I understand that S.H.I.E.L.D. finds itself understaffed and stretched thin after the events of Winter Soldier, but they’re running the risk of making Coulson appear incompetent.
The preview for next week’s episode promises for more movement on the Fitz and Simmons plot, but it appears they’re going back to their well of dubious loyalties for a source of tension, and the relationship between Fitz and Simmons never had time to breathe after the events of last season’s finale, which makes such immediate confrontation feel like the show is on fast-forward.
It’s not so much that I’m upset about where this show is, it’s just that I see no real signs that it’s going to make satisfying progress without being forced to by the next Marvel movie.
Verdict: It’s still watchable.

The Awesomes

Kyle’s Review

The final episode of this season skimped on the jokes—minor spoiler: one of the best laughs has to be after an alien invasion begins and a news correspondent reveals how best to get ready, “prepare your grave ahead of time for the easy burying of any body parts you have left”—but it delivered on the promised super villain team and the inevitable beat-em-up. Oddly enough The Awesomes had better character development and payoff than any of the other shows in this review. But this week’s episode was the season finale as opposed to an early season episode. Still, it left me satisfied.

Perfect Man gets back to a more palatable character. I still don’t like him, and that’s the point, but I prefer this variant of Perfect Man. Even better is the fact that his oddball, loosely relevant story threads of this year actually make some sense with the main storyline.

I love how we’re introduced to an alien world, learn few things about this world, and all of the things we learn make another appearance in the episode. We get images that build on each other throughout the story. Even the solution the heroes come up with to defeat the villains is deeply rooted in this odd world that’s familiar, even though we just met it.

This episode takes everything that’s good about the Awesomes and condenses it into twenty minutes. You could watch just this episode and get a feel for who each character is. Thank goodness Hulu renewed the Awesomes for another season.

The creative team introduced next year’s main story arc at the end of this episode, and by the looks of the story they introduced, it can go one of two ways: extremely well or the show just jumped the shark. If this season taught me anything, I’ve learned to trust this creative team and go with the former over the latter. Either way, next season can’t come soon enough.

Verdict: Great show

Gotham

Kyle’s Review

The creative team behind Gotham has some good ideas, but they squeeze them into the blender that is the pilot episode and hit frappe. Watching the seedy streets of Gotham through the eyes of a tweenage Catwoman is fun for a while (before you find out that all she does is prowl Gotham when she isn’t Bruce’s creepy stalker). Then we get the Wayne death scene which feels robotic. There are a few reasons for this: uneven acting, sudden shifts in POV between the aforementioned Catwoman and Bruce Wayne, and slowing down the moment so it has an other-worldly feel when the scene occurs in real time instead of flashback. (If you wanted to show this scene in flashback form, you should have given us an adult Bruce Wayne as Batman.)

But the clunky life-altering scenes don’t stop with the Waynes’ death. A ten-year-old or so Ivy Pepper (AKA Poison Ivy AKA Pamela Isley) watches the GCPD invade her home as she tends to her plants. Ivy suffers from Gotham’s interlocking origins as her story arc ties closely with Bruce’s storyline, but she isn’t the only one. The Penguin actually takes the plunge into supervillainhood by episode’s end, and it feels rushed. Cobblepot’s cohorts tease him with a nickname, Penguin, that isn’t explained or earned (he looks more like a weasel), and his arc ties into Gordon’s and Bullock’s. You can feel The Penguin, and most other characters, getting shoehorned into the episode. Slow down, Gotham. You have an entire season to introduce these villains or the people who will become Batman’s rogue’s gallery.

Speaking of Batman’s rogues, Edward Nygma fumbles his way on-screen for a half a minute as an annoying crime scene investigator who asks too many questions or riddles, while a comedian with a love of gory jokes sweats his bodyweight on the stage in front of Fish Mooney. Could he become The Joker? Groan.

The dichotomy of Gordon’s clean cop and Bullock’s not-so-clean cop works well, but that’s mostly because of the engaging Bullock not Gordon. While Bullock brings his patented style of moral ambiguity, perfect for Gotham’s mean streets, Detective Gordon struts around stiff, making questionable decisions. Many of Gordon’s choices are unwise (telling multiple people inside and outside of his department that they killed an innocent man and yet not filling a report), others are obtuse (anytime he speaks with Bruce Wayne: especially after the Wayne death scene), and some are flat out stupid (confronting Mooney without any back-up).

Despite all these issues, the city of Gotham feels like it should, Carmine Falcone adds a dash of pepper in the scene he has, and Bullock should be a fan favorite by season’s end.

Verdict: I remain cautiously optimistic

Jim’s take:

Kyle and I are pretty much in agreement on this one. Gotham is neither as good as I hoped, nor as bad as I feared. There are some instances of cringe-worthy dialogue (the references to Penguin, and a cliche war analogy), and there are far too many characters in this episode with nothing to do. The decision to have all these characters’ origins interconnect feels contrived, but for all its faults, there are signs of promise. Gotham feels like its own city here, not just New York with a paint-job, and Donal Logue as Harvey Bullock is definitely the high point. The show might improve, and it will need to if it’s going to hold my interest, but the pilot did its job. I’ll check out the next episode.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Season 2 Premiere
Jim’s Review

Let me come clean. I’ve got a thing for Hayley Atwell; an unwavering, and mildly alarming thing. With that said, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (AoS) kicked off season 2 with a bit of a tease. A flashback to 1945 set up the plot with a cameo from Peggy Carter (Atwell), Dum Dum Dugan (Neal McDonough), and The Howling Commandos, but it’s short-lived. This first arc is a familiar one. There’s a super-powered villain and another “084” in play. Both of these remain factors at the close of the episode, so we can assume this thread will carry through at least part of the season. It’s a little formulaic at this point, but the real aim of the opener is to reacquaint us with the state of the Marvel universe as we left it. This is done somewhat effectively, and we start to see how the characters have evolved over the break, but the developments aren’t always believable. As usual, the team’s plans come together a bit too easily, and I’m left with the feeling that outsmarting the bad guys ought to be more complicated, otherwise having them in the lead is no small embarrassment. The show’s big reveal at the end of the episode (no spoilers) isn’t so much a shocker as it is a groaner. It has potential for a major character development, but it was used more as fodder for one of Coulson’s speeches about “why we fight,” and it appears at least for now like it’s going to be used as another heavy-handed example of how good the “good guys” really are. Some of the lapses in subtlety and logic have carried over from season 1, but the improvements we saw following The Winter Soldier are still there. This is a much better debut than we saw last season.

Verdict: Not bad.

The Awesomes

Kyle’s Review

This week’s episode was a lot better than the previous week’s. The story progressed because there was no possible way that the creative team would create and introduce yet another character, and this season’s loose strands of a story came together for the most part. The people of the city reinstated “Awesomes Day” for all the great deeds the Awesomes had done over the past year—even though most of their accomplishments occurred away from home, so Perfect Man (ugh) could have his bits where he wandered Awesome Mountain alone, and the times where the action occurred at home Metal Fella (Hot Wire) saved the day in lieu of the team. Reinstating Awesomes Day made little to no sense but at least some laughs ensued and the season appears to have gotten back on the track. The characters are back. The laughs have returned. Even Perfect Man’s bits had a little payoff and some chuckles this week. Finish strong, Awesomes. Finish strong.

Verdict: Worth a look

The Awesomes

The Awesomes turned on a fire hose of character introductions, ensuring that we couldn’t possibly latch on to any of them. This latest episode introduces two new villains and the titular superhero team’s European counterparts.

A grand total of nine new characters (that’s two-fifths of a character every minute of the show, including the intro and closing credits) were introduced and discarded like empty candy wrappers. What’s worse is that most of the story was an elaborate cheat to reunite Hot Wire, the Awesome’s estranged team member, with Prock the team’s leader. Even worse than that is when the only meaningful new character for this season receives similar treatment to the ones we’ve known for five minutes.

The writing saw Prock’s new girlfriend turn uncharacteristically psychotic and reveal a latent power—there was never a hint that anyone in her family had even met a superhero prior to Prock—that seems tied to her mental break. To be fair Prock’s girlfriend has dropped hints up to this point that she could pull an Annie Wilkes (Kathy Bates’s character from Misery), but this doesn’t support the sudden power surge.

Maybe I’m just bitter that one of the most annoying members of the cast, Perfect Man, receives another lengthy story arc. Like most of Perfect Man’s story arc’s this season he mimics a movie franchise or movie trope, and his story has nothing to do with any of the other action. So you can up the ratio to almost a one character introduced in every watchable minute of the show.

There were some bright spots in this episode. Impresario sweet talking a comely, French hunchback is good for some chuckles, and while we don’t get to know any of the new characters well, most of their powers are hilarious since they have no practical application: crotch puncher (he has an extra-large left hand with which he uses to punch people in the crotch, perfectly every time). Or the European Awesomes take a classic superpower and make it ridiculous: the Flying Dutchman sprouts windmill blades out of his back, and the blades work like a helicopter’s rotors.

There’s another silver lining. We should have all the introductions out of the way. Let’s hope the show gets back to the core group of characters, and a lot of these issues are resolved in the two part season finale.