Granted, the nerdverse is all a'flutter over the new Star Wars trailer, but The CW put on a pretty spicy Wednesday night to go along with a decent but workmanlike episode of The Flash.
Not that there's anything wrong with that.
Flash is rad as balls, but it can't be all climax, and this week's episode was a good place-setter, plus a nice Arrow crossover/Justice Friends spinoff with Felicity and Ray/A.T.O.M. swinging by Central City to be helpful and whatnot. Ray and Cisco talking tech was a lot of fun, and it's telling that Felicity needs these jaunts to escape the "doom and gloom" of Team Arrow.
Nuts and bolts: It's almost refreshing to have a non-supervillain as the Baddie of the Week, and it's nice to see Emily Kinney getting work, but killer robot bees just don't move the needle as much (not without Nicolas Cage punching a woman in a bear costume, anyway). The two main things to take out of this week's episode: Kaitlyn and Cisco have been brought into the "We should have a talk about Harrison Wells" circle of trust, and Iris...sigh. Not her fault, but she's the worst. And I hate when a character (especially a non-powered female) gets stuck with the job of being The Worst. I wonder if Laurel Lance came by to hand over the crown and sceptre in some kind of ceremony. Guess it sucks to be the last one on the Secret Identity float in the Superhero parade. By the end of the season, she'll either know, or be Bumblebee and join the HIVE.
Amanda Pays sighting, as we shoehorn Tina McGee into the episode so we can get another "Harrison Wells isn't Harrison Wells" clue, and next week should be a lot of unraveling, but we probably don't get full reveal until the season finale.
Meanwhile, Arrow was badass! When last we left Star(ling) City, Oliver Queen turned himself in as the Arrow, but Roy Harper jumped in to take the bullet, much to the chagrin of Ollie (and Detective Harry Dresden). Laurel (Hi, The Worst!) gets Oliver released and they head to Verdant for a good brooding session. Suddenly, cops show up to check out the secret Arrowcave, only Ollie's fingerprints had been wiped off of everything and only Roy's remain. Oliver REALLY wants to go to jail!
Roy gets in a prison fight that gives me Arkham City flashbacks, and takes a shiv across the back. Later, he gets stabbed by a cop, and Thea gives us the weepy news that he is DEAD. And comic book dead means really de...oh, and he's okay. Pretty sneaky sis! Also, Close Personal Friend (okay, he hugged me at All-Con once) DOUG JONES is also in Star City as Deathgaze to rob banks and shoot eyebeams. We needed a lot more ATOM in our week, so Ray gets to play substitute vigilante, since Oliver has to lay low. He learns a valuable lesson about...well something, while being ocularsmacked around by Deathgaze. In the end, the feather was just a trick and he could fly the whole time, or something like that, and Ray takes another trip to Central City, but this time to deposit him in villain jail. More Cisco for all! Lot of good stuff in this episode, and we are gearing up for the finale.
Oh, and Ra's al-Ghul stabs the shit out of Thea.
And finally, Supernatural has woken up and is picking up some speed with about one month left until the summer break! Cas has his grace back, the Mark of Cain might finally be going away, Rowena finally has some purpose other than looking and sounding ADORABLE, and Metatron ate waffles!
Thursday, April 16, 2015
Wednesday, April 1, 2015
I guess this is just a Flash blog for now
Not that I mind...Arrow has been solid but nothing feels like it needs to be said yet. Supernatural has been...sigh, awful since the musical episode. Crowley's mom should be an interesting foil, but she has yet to really do anything. She's Endora at best, and she needs to be the next Dick Roman and give this show something to DO. Walking Dead's finale was a great 90 minutes as long as you can just enjoy it for what it is, and not really require "things" to be happening. It exposed some flaws, but then painted over them with the really really nice paint that TWD has in its shed. At least The Wolves are going to be a tangible foe, and Alexandria is a Thing Worth Losing (you know, like the farm and the prison), so next season now has some stakes on the table.
Anyway, The Flash. Boom. The great thing about shows based on comics is that there is so much history to draw from without worrying about running out. Also, a grand tradition of recurring villains. Flash managed to put me on my ass before the first commercial, as I already thought it was a cool idea to give us the full visual of the Flash on Reverse Flash fight that Lil Barry witnessed when his mom died. But then, Reverse Flash runs away, can't run anymore, oh and it's not Harrison Wells under the mask. Whaaaaa?
We got a couple of different stories woven through this episode, and the meaty one was the Origin of Harrison Wells. After the break, we see that the guy under the mask is actually Eobard Thawne (which makes sense, because he looks a little like Eddie), and Harrison Wells is a nice guy with a wife and a plan to build STAR Labs in the future. Buuuuut, Eobard is stuck in the past with no connection to the Speed Force (finally!) and so he needs to manufacture a source for Speed Force (aka, Barry) sooner than the original timetable that events happened. He jams a Future Plot Device into Harrison and sucks his DNA out and morphs into the appearance (and knowledge?) of Harrison. So actual Harrison Wells is dead, and New Harrison Wells is Eobard Thawne (and Gideon, his helpful sidekick!). Not gonna lie, I had my hopes up that there would be a way that Actual Harrison Wells could come back and be a good guy (and Tom Cavanaugh could stay on the show forever), but it looks like Wells is gonna be Evil Wells.
Speaking of Evil Wells, Barry has flipped from Wells Defender to Wells J'Accuser, which leads to a LOT of awkward moments as Barry doesn't trust Wells, but kinda has to in order to keep being the Flash. Much like Wells would like to off Barry but can't because he needs to harvest his speed from him. And this all comes to head when Wells has to get inside Barry's head, speedster to speedster, and talk him through developing the ability to vibrate/phase/whatever through solid matter. Barry may have had some doubts, but only Reverse Flash would have that kind of knowledge, and Cavanaugh's read on that monologue was SO GOOD.
Have I gone this far into a review and not even mentioned THE GODDAMN TRICKSTER? UNF, I loved the CBS Flash series, and Mark Hamill's two appearances at The Trickster were not only highlights of the series, but also formed a lot of the Joker voice from Batman the Animated Series. There was so much to love: Them using stills from the CBS series when talking about Trickster's original crime spree, the entirety of the scene with Barry and Jesse L. Martin in the jail cell, sniffing the red licorice, the reveal of Son of Trickster, the read on "I am your father", evil monologueing at the mayor's fundraiser, everything. Bring him back Season 2, I demand it.
Now we get two weeks before the next new episode, but holy crap that "this season on The Flash" montage at the end! CW is killing it with their first foray into "superheroes", since Arrow is street level with more stunts than effects, and I am all about whatever spinoff/spinoffs they roll out with Ray Palmer and the gang. And Rory as Rip Hunter! Forget about movies, DC is building a TV empire.
Anyway, The Flash. Boom. The great thing about shows based on comics is that there is so much history to draw from without worrying about running out. Also, a grand tradition of recurring villains. Flash managed to put me on my ass before the first commercial, as I already thought it was a cool idea to give us the full visual of the Flash on Reverse Flash fight that Lil Barry witnessed when his mom died. But then, Reverse Flash runs away, can't run anymore, oh and it's not Harrison Wells under the mask. Whaaaaa?
We got a couple of different stories woven through this episode, and the meaty one was the Origin of Harrison Wells. After the break, we see that the guy under the mask is actually Eobard Thawne (which makes sense, because he looks a little like Eddie), and Harrison Wells is a nice guy with a wife and a plan to build STAR Labs in the future. Buuuuut, Eobard is stuck in the past with no connection to the Speed Force (finally!) and so he needs to manufacture a source for Speed Force (aka, Barry) sooner than the original timetable that events happened. He jams a Future Plot Device into Harrison and sucks his DNA out and morphs into the appearance (and knowledge?) of Harrison. So actual Harrison Wells is dead, and New Harrison Wells is Eobard Thawne (and Gideon, his helpful sidekick!). Not gonna lie, I had my hopes up that there would be a way that Actual Harrison Wells could come back and be a good guy (and Tom Cavanaugh could stay on the show forever), but it looks like Wells is gonna be Evil Wells.
Speaking of Evil Wells, Barry has flipped from Wells Defender to Wells J'Accuser, which leads to a LOT of awkward moments as Barry doesn't trust Wells, but kinda has to in order to keep being the Flash. Much like Wells would like to off Barry but can't because he needs to harvest his speed from him. And this all comes to head when Wells has to get inside Barry's head, speedster to speedster, and talk him through developing the ability to vibrate/phase/whatever through solid matter. Barry may have had some doubts, but only Reverse Flash would have that kind of knowledge, and Cavanaugh's read on that monologue was SO GOOD.
Have I gone this far into a review and not even mentioned THE GODDAMN TRICKSTER? UNF, I loved the CBS Flash series, and Mark Hamill's two appearances at The Trickster were not only highlights of the series, but also formed a lot of the Joker voice from Batman the Animated Series. There was so much to love: Them using stills from the CBS series when talking about Trickster's original crime spree, the entirety of the scene with Barry and Jesse L. Martin in the jail cell, sniffing the red licorice, the reveal of Son of Trickster, the read on "I am your father", evil monologueing at the mayor's fundraiser, everything. Bring him back Season 2, I demand it.
Now we get two weeks before the next new episode, but holy crap that "this season on The Flash" montage at the end! CW is killing it with their first foray into "superheroes", since Arrow is street level with more stunts than effects, and I am all about whatever spinoff/spinoffs they roll out with Ray Palmer and the gang. And Rory as Rip Hunter! Forget about movies, DC is building a TV empire.
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