Review: iZombie 1.4 – Live and Let Clive
After two completely boring and formulaic entries this week is a little better. Not much better but a little better. The show in general had a great first episode and then it degenerated into formula pretty quickly.
After two completely boring and formulaic entries this week is a little better. Not much better but a little better. The show in general had a great first episode and then it degenerated into formula pretty quickly. There’s nothing wrong with formula on the surface, it’s a valid serial story telling device. It’s sometimes a necessary story telling device, especially when you are telling a series of stories whose end you don’t know. Unless you signed up a television show with the specific intention of ending it at some point then the expectation is that the show will run forever and that changes the kind of stories you tell. It sets up a need for formula so that you can feed plot elements into a machine and create perpetual episodes from now into infinity with a moderate amount of work. I’m not saying that it’s not work, but the addition of a formula at least gives you a foothold when you break a story. You kind of have 20-30% of story right there, a skeleton to add flesh to. In the best case you have something like South Park that follows a very basic formula (the semi-famous ‘therefore’ and ‘but’ formula) in the worst cases you have House which was formula down to the minute; essentially the same episode every single time. What I’m trying to say is there is nothing wrong with using a formula however using that formula successfully is the trick. For the most part iZombie has not used its formula successfully. It established that formula in the first episode and then proceeded to clone that first episode twice more. Not only did it clone that first episode twice more it removed the cast elements that made that formula successful by narrowing focus to just Liv instead on the larger ensemble cast. It’s good to have a strong main character, someone who can carry the greater story, one that we can spend time with but I just don’t think the character of Liv Moore can carry the show on her own. She can carry moments on her own, she can carry, maybe, an act on her own, but not episode upon episode on her own. The strength of the series comes from that supporting cast which has been largely absent. This week we get the return of her smart ass brother who was a much welcome breath of fresh air, as limited an appearance as it was. His casual obsession with Liv’s absent roommate, his ease with Liv’s profession and just the slightly different personality he brings was a light in the darkness of the formula.
This episode saw Liv eating a brain and getting visions of her Detective sidekick being a dirty cop. This messed with the formula a bit as well as it created some level of conflict between the two characters. It was something different and it was nice to see. The scene of her ‘going undercover’ with her boss was just plain enjoyable as the chemistry between those two characters is funny and friendly. When she is hit by a homeless persons cart and jumps up announcing that she “…knows kung-fu…” I laughed, but I also thought it was incredibly stupid.
We also get the bigger picture on her zombie antagonist and his brain dealing operation which hints at being much bigger than previously thought. Apparently he has been turning quite a few people into zombies and runs a brain feeding operation out of a butcher shop that also serves gourmet brain meals (?) and where he literally keeps goons on ice ready to serve him. That whole side provides an interesting peek at the greater world but I wonder how they will come together by the end of the series and I don’t wonder that in a good way. It looks like it will be a major problem down the road and I’m curious to see how they make it work but I’m also anticipating it to be a car wreck. As for right now, this episode, it brings back some of the glimmer of the first episode so it’s not a total waste of your time but I wouldn’t clear your schedule to look at it.
Score: 3/5
iZombie 1.4 Watch iZombie on CW, Tuesday 9/8 C
Review: Marvel's Agents of SHIELD 2.16 - Afterlife
Damn, I thought this was another solid outing by Agents of SHIELD. Not as action packed as the previous episodes but we were starting to get story constipation and we desperately needed an exposition dump and what a dump this was!
Damn, I thought this was another solid outing by Agents of SHIELD. Not as action packed as the previous episodes but we were starting to get story constipation and we desperately needed an exposition dump and what a dump this was! A lot has been happening since the season return and we haven’t really stopped to breathe since. Last week there was a fair bit of exposition but it was exposition couched in action this episode dropped the pace down a bit and tried to tell the whole story rather than just focusing on one bit. Here we finally get answers about Skye, Real SHIELD, the Inhumans, what happened to Raina and what happened to Mr. Hyde (Cal, Skye’s father, I prefer to call him by his comic name) and hints as to what’s to come in the final three episodes. I have to say that I’m not really a fan of Real SHIELD or Edward James Olmos’ Robert Gonzales. It has been a pretty weak big bad for the second half of the season. They really should have extended Whitehall and HYDRA as the big bads throughout the season and tease the total end of HYDRA before bringing them back in either movie or TV show form later. HYDRA is just one of those insidious organizations that you can tease eliminating and then bring it back and it would feel appropriate. But HYDRA was dropped like a hot potato and we got Real SHIELD which just hasn’t done much for me other than piss me off and make me dislike everyone involved.
My opinion of Mockingbird and Mack have dropped considerably, but they are teasing a face turn for Mockingbird which makes me very happy because Mockingbird has been fantastic this entire season. She has probably been the best addition to the team since Tripp, rest his soul, and I hope she sticks around for the long term. Of course it’s Joss Whedon so we’re pretty much guaranteed to have a main/supporting cast death in the finale and I’m worried it will be her. I’m hoping it will be Gonzales and my gut tells me it will be Gonzales because it’s a big name actor and they’re trying very hard to get us to like him in the short time he’s been around.
In this episode he had a few moments with May and they are really pushing his sense of ‘honor’. But I have to ask where his honor was when he sent people to kill an unarmed, recovering woman. Or when they gassed their own people. Or when they subverted their own organization instead of extending an olive branch. They just burst in there with the intention of stealing people and tech and weakening an already ailing SHIELD. It makes me so angry but it’s good heat, it’s not go-away heat from me yet. It makes me angry but it makes angry in that way where I want to see what happens next. I want to see Real SHIELD go down and I’ll be so happy when it does.
This week had another huge secret cameo. I don’t know if maybe they’re spoiling these things in the previews but since Hulu doesn’t have previews for the next week I’ve had several very pleasant surprises this season. The first was the return of Sif who I was happy to see, but that episode didn’t top her appearance from the first season. That’s forgivable though because they didn’t have a Thor movie driving Asgardian interest. I, personally, hope that Sif comes back every season; that would be a fun little event to look forward to every year. This week was the return of Deathlok who looked ripped-diesel and hard as hell in his much welcomed comeback. When Coulson teased ‘back-up’ I started marking out. They couldn’t have meant Downey Jr. that’s a name that’s a bit too big but I thought maybe Renner could show up as Hawkeye. Pretty much all the big name Avengers have expressed interest in showing up on SHIELD so nothing is impossible I suppose but I was ‘hopefully optimistic’. It turned out to be Deathlok, who I kind of forgot about honestly and it was quite an arrival pulling open the bay of a Quinjet, then disabling a second Quinjet and finally taking out about dozen guys in the process. With a heavy hitter like that on their side Coulson and Hunter might have a chance getting their SHIELD back.
Unfortunately the weakest part of this episode was Skye’s part but it was also the part that shed the most light on the Inhumans. They still refuse to use the word Inhuman, which is frustrating. Just say the damn word already! They beat around the bush and use every word and description other than Inhuman, including dictionary definitions of the word ‘Inhuman’ even when the word ‘Inhuman’ would work better. Just pull the Band-Aid off already. Reveal the Inhumans even if it’s not the royal family (Black Bolt, Medusa, Crystal, Triton, Lockjaw, Gorgon, Karnak). I understand you may not have your big name Marquee characters for the Inhuman movie but you could find a Crystal or a Karnak or even a Gorgon, the equivalent of Sif, someone that could do both movies and TV. Then people can get used to them and you elevate them putting them in a main television spot ready to be in a supporting movie slot. I just think if you want people to care about obscure characters like the Inhumans you might want to start pushing them now. Sorry about all the wrestling terms, I’ve been watching A LOT of NXT lately, so that’s where my head is at as I write this.
My point is it would be cool to reveal a Karnak who could show up, his powers are cool but cheap to film (simply put: he’s a super fighter, Iron Fist without the chi) it would be a good build up to the movie and start building the incredibly complex concept behind the Inhumans. Maybe they’ve simplified the Inhumans since last I paid attention but, man, if you think the X-Men are convoluted and confusing they’ve got nothing on the Inhumans. The Inhumans are the Wu-Tang clan of comics, there’s a hundred of them, they all get track time, they all have backstories and they all got gimmicks. If you want us to care about your Method Man (Blackbolt) you need to introduce us to your Rae-Kwon the Chef (Gorgon). KILLER BEE’S MOTHER FUCKER! You got to make us care and show us that the Inhumans ain’t nothing to fuck with.
It was a good episode that had me excited throughout. Whether it was Fitz/Simmons teased fallout (I so want to make a Fitz Special sandwich, it sounds delicious) or Coulson’s modern Howlin’ Commando kit with its holographic card game. Real SHIELD breaking into Bruce Banner’s cabin or Raina’s sexy porcupine lady (don't judge me, I saw Clive Barkers 'Nightbreed' at a young age and it gave me a sexy porcupine lady fetish) or even Gordon who I’m slowly starting to really like for reasons unknown to me. They have also been really pushing Bahrain which makes me think they’ll finally tell us that story, which has me really excited. The bottom line is I can’t really tell you if this episode stands on its own very well but I think it feeds the series very well. If you haven’t been watching SHIELD then I don’t think this episode has much for you but it’s definitely part of the reason you should be watching the whole series.
Score: 4/5
Marvel's Agents of SHIELD 2.16 - Afterlife New episodes of Marvel’s Agents of Shield – Tuesdays 9/8C
Review: iZombie 1.3 – The Exterminator
Well I missed a review for last week’s show so I’ll touch on that before I get to what happened this week. Last week was largely the same as the pilot. It built on the exact same formulas and relationships established in the pilot and failed to expand in any discernible way.
Well I missed a review for last week’s show so I’ll touch on that before I get to what happened this week. Last week was largely the same as the pilot. It built on the exact same formulas and relationships established in the pilot and failed to expand in any discernible way. It could best be described as ‘an episode of this show’ and didn’t succeed or fail in any interesting or comment worthy way. I couldn’t really think of anything else to say about the show so I didn’t, but needless to say if you liked the pilot then you’d like episode 2 because it’s just more of the same. Other than introducing us to our series antagonist not much noteworthy happened so no notes were taken. This episode is largely the same yet again. This show fell into formula fast and hasn’t really gotten back that interpersonal character interaction that got me going in the pilot. The relationships are still their but there isn’t as much of them. Liv and her boss haven’t spent a whole lot of time together and they’ve managed to really mute the charm he exuded before. The detective has gone from interesting to incompetent and I’d be hard pressed to tell you anything about him that has stood out in the last two episodes. My primary feeling during this episode was boredom.
They do manage to pull out a few interesting character moments from this week’s brain when Liv eats a hitman. They use her cold, calculating heel turn to ask questions about humanity and feeling emotion versus not feeling emotion and play with the idea of which is truly better. The moments that it was the focus were probably the most interesting moments of the show. Usually those brain moments are the most interesting thing about the show because if it weren’t for those this would be no different than, say, Bones but with a supernatural element.
The pilot was so good. Everyone was on point, the characters had chemistry the plot was sharp and the premise was unique but we’ve already hit the routine in this procedural and we’re only 3 episodes in! I was expecting a lot more after than first impression and it’s a shame it hasn’t been able to live up to that but maybe they’re building up to something. They could be saving the best for last and I hope that’s the case because if I’m going to watch it I’d like to enjoy it.
Score: 2/5
Watch iZombie on CW, Tuesday 9/8 C
Review: Marvel's Agents of SHIELD 2.15 – One Door Closes
Last week’s lull leads to this week’s blowout! Much like the B-Lister’s fight a few episodes ago this one provides the mini-Marvel movie experience. The plot is a bit jumbled, again, it’s hard to find the various and elusive A and B plot’s and instead we get several equally important plot lines. Let’s jump right into them.
Last week’s lull leads to this week’s blowout! Much like the B-Lister’s fight a few episodes ago this one provides the mini-Marvel movie experience. The plot is a bit jumbled, again, it’s hard to find the various and elusive A and B plot’s and instead we get several equally important plot lines. Let’s jump right into them. The plot that sort of winds itself throughout is the flashback to the fall of SHIELD that sees the return of Lucy Lawless. Not only do we get to see more of Lucy’s character, whom I liked quite a bit in her brief cameo early on, but we get to see her being much more badass than I remember in her one or two episode stint. I’m pretty sure she was just in the premiere and while she did have her guns a-blazing moment she manages to really settle into the role of badass here knifing gun wielding Hydra scum. The basis of this flashback is to show the creation of ‘Real SHIELD’. It’s kind of hard for me to get into this whole ‘Real SHIELD’ thing mostly because they seem to be a bunch of ignorant hypocrites.
SHIELD is too shady so they solve that by hiding in the shadows. SHIELD is too deceptive so they solve that by using spies and lying. SHIELD is too aggressive so they gas their own people and invade their own installation. The hardest selling point though is the near racist belief that anyone different than us is ‘dangerous’ and that Coulson is an unworthy leader because he has ‘alien blood’. I don’t like this group of people and it sours me on Mockingbird and Mack a little. I just hope they come around by the end of the season and continue into next season because I like both characters. I kind of just want them to resolve this whole ‘Real SHIELD’ thing as fast as possible and focus on some other stuff. But the flashback provides a lot of good action that highlights Lucy Lawless and Mockingbird’s abilities as agents. I would also like to point out that unlike Arrow, which has over used its flashback device, this flashback felt more effective and enhanced the story. There was also a minimum of stupid wigs. I liked the flashback while still not being a fan of the ‘Real SHIELD’ angle which, in my opinion, makes this a very effective flashback.
One of the present day plots is Coulson confronting Mack about the scanner he put in mini-Lola. It’s a pretty intense scene of verbal jousting as Coulson drops hints before finally coming out and voicing his suspicion. When the plot becomes clear we get a really great fight between May and Mockingbird. I’ve got to say I really look forward to the May fights. She gets a couple of really great fights a season and when they put her against a worthy opponent like Mockingbird you get a pretty good show. I just wait for that moment of May kicking ass and you wouldn’t normally see two "faces" like May and Mockingbird square off so I marked out at it. If I may drop some more wrestling terms I felt they were able to have these two "faces" work each other, but still have each retain their heat. Which means they had the fight but there was no clear winner so they can both continue to be badasses without losing anything.
The final plot was Skye hanging out in the Retreat, or, as they call it as some point, The House That Banner Built. They kind of hint at this when Skye removes some fake wood paneling to reveal a Hulk sized fist print in the metal SHIELD retaining wall. I think they are supposed to be some kind of Vibranium but I thought that metal was supposed to be precious so maybe it’s some kind of fake Vibranium. Anyways it was at this point I realized, "Hey, that looks an awful lot like the cabin at the end of Incredible Hulk.” And then I high fived myself. I’m a sucker for stuff like that.
Skye’s plot is the least action packed but probably has the most character development. Gordon, the no-eyes teleporter, shows up and talks to Skye about her powers and the Inhumans. After some discussion she decides to not go with him, but when ‘Real SHIELD’ shows up and they try to fucking shoot her(!) after being told to use ICE’ers she has a power freakout that’s quite visually impressive. She then calls Gordon to come get her and they hug it out as they escape. I still really hope they drop a bomb and reveal Black Bolt, even if it was clearly shot somewhere else and they just cut to him alone with no interaction. Or Medusa. If they do I will freak out. If they don’t then I hope we get some interaction with Age of Ultron. If they do both I’ll be the happiest Marvel fan ever.
Sorry for the in depth plot reveal but I’m hyped about this show and I want to talk about it like a 5th grader who’s just seen an action movie. This show just does it for me and I totally miss any flaws that it might have. The action had me at the edge of my seat, the character moments had me looking forward to more character development and most importantly it left me wanting to see the next episode. I don’t always feel that way with the other shows. Like Flash lately, I’m not left wanting to see the next episode. Same with Arrow, a show that, in its first season, excelled at dropping a compelling cliffhanger at the end of every single episode. This show though, this show I can’t wait until the next week. I greedily and hungrily consume every episode the moment it comes out and then I anxiously await the next one. If you can incite that kind of reaction in me then I can forgive a lot of sins. That’s a pass in the ‘Pass/Fail’ category, then it’s just a matter of how much it succeeds and, to me, this really succeeds.
Score: 4/5
Marvel’s Agents of Shield 2.15
Review: The Flash 1.17 - Tricksters
Flash, dude, what are you doing? I was kind of looking forward to this episode until I started to really think about the continuity. Having to focus on continuity is never a good sign for me because it means there’s nothing compelling about the story.
Flash, dude, what are you doing? I was kind of looking forward to this episode until I started to really think about the continuity. Having to focus on continuity is never a good sign for me because it means there’s nothing compelling about the story. It leads to this kind of sensory deprivation where I have to focus on something else, anything else. In cases like this it means continuity. So, we have John Wesley Shipp, the first Flash from the first Flash series. But he’s not the Flash, he’s just a dude. Okay fine, I can still forgive that error. Actors play different roles, this is a new era, etc, etc. Now we have Mark Hamill reprising the Trickster. Which means we’ve made that series cannon. Or at least a part of that series cannon. Now that we have a Trickster how was he stopped? Who stopped him? Why would a costumed super-villain just suddenly appear without inspiration from a costumed super-hero? The whole plot of the original Trickster revolved around Flash and Trickster’s obsession with the Flash. So how much of that original story is cannon? How much of it happened? Did he still kidnap a ‘Prank’? Did he still stalk Flash’s on-again-off-again femme fatale? What’s the story here? Where are the lines drawn?
All that being said I did enjoy seeing Mark Hamill back and interacting with John Wesley Shipp. I like both actors and they both did really well in the first series. The new Trickster looks cool but acts like a second rate Dark Knight Joker. As far as Rouges go I’m not all that invested into him. The one decent moment they had together was also the moment I groaned the most at. Out of nowhere Mark Hamill tells new Trickster that he’s his father. Really? I kind of liked it, but it was also really lame.
The episode had two mark out moments for me. The flashback Flash fight was pretty good and Barry’s discovery of the speed force and vibrating through a truck to shake off a speed triggered explosive was cool as well. That was about the only things salvageable in this episode. I mean Mark Hamill was enjoyable as always but really we sally forth in this post-time travel, alternate reality world like nothing happened. The fallout from that is nil, the last two episodes didn’t even need to happen.
The only thing that drags this episode out of the depths is the reveal that the real Harrison Wells is dead and replaced by some dude. Eobard Thawne stole Harrison Well’s appearance after manufacturing a car accident. Okay? Why? But the plot reveal is probably going to be necessary viewing as we limp into the finale which makes at least that portion a must watch. What the hell happened to this series? The two halves of this season feel totally different. The first half was bright and funny and hip and exciting and everything Arrow wasn’t in the best way possible. Now it’s just turned into Arrow-lite, all the grimness of Arrow with half the substance. I miss first-half-of-season-Flash and if this show can give me nothing else, and it doesn’t seem like it can, then I demand a telepathic monkey! Give me my monkey!
Score: 3/5
The Flash airs Tuesdays 8/7 C
Review: Marvel's Agents of SHIELD 2.14 – Love in the Time of Hydra
Coming down from last week’s action packed B-List slug fest things slow down a little and we get a couple of very claustrophobic stories. Unfortunately none of those stories involve what happened to Cal and the Inhumans last episode.
Coming down from last week’s action packed B-List slug fest things slow down a little and we get a couple of very claustrophobic stories. Unfortunately none of those stories involve what happened to Cal and the Inhumans last episode. I was looking forward to some payoff on that but that’s not what I got. Instead we spend our time working through a couple of intense, interpersonal stories. It’s hard to pick an ‘A’ story, that is to say, a main story. Two of the stories impact the main plot but they are both very separate while the return of Ward and Madame Masque is clearly a ‘B’ story because that doesn’t really seem to affect anyone or anything other than to reintroduce us to those characters. The two A stories are divided between Skye and Coulson coming to terms with Skye’s powers and Hunter being introduced to the ‘Real SHIELD’.
The Skye and Coulson story was interesting in that it forced several characters to come to terms with things boiling under the surface. The father/daughter chemistry between Coulson and Skye is still there and there’s something unique about it because Clark Gregg doesn’t seem to be able to have the same kind of scenes with anyone else. When it’s Coulson/Skye time it’s unique to those characters. Coulson takes Skye to an undisclosed location to figure herself out away from the SHIELD crew. They talk a little about what the changes are to Skye and what Skye should do. She’s essentially a prisoner in a very fancy prison. Most of that interaction though is pretty forgettable and kind of standard comfort banter. It’s white noise, if it weren’t there you’d notice it but it being there doesn’t do much for your experience.
The more important part of this plot comes in the form of a side exchange between Fitz and Simmons. Fitz points out that Simmons is afraid of the changes that happened to both Fitz and Skye and that fear has in fact changed Simmons the most out of everyone. It’s something they’ve been building to and they dropped the bomb a few episodes ago when they were all cleaning up the mess left by the Kree agent and Fitz lets Simmons know he knows how Simmons is behaving and how he relates to Skye. I really liked how they’ve changed Fitz and Simmons dynamic this season giving it a bit of depth and stretching Fitz out a bit in the process.
The other A plot is Hunter being introduced to the ‘Real SHIELD’ which was kind of a letdown after all the mystery and hype of Hunter being choked out. The core conceit of the ‘Real SHIELD’ is transparency and apparently the irony of wanting to be a transparent organization that uses spies and hides in the shadows never occurred to anyone. Which is strange because I know for a fact Edward James Olmos has a highly defined sense of irony. I know that from playing chess with him. In my mansion. Where I keep all my money. Have I mentioned I don’t believe in lying? I believe in only telling the truth.
Anyway Hunter escapes and they have 12 hours before he makes shore and they’re pretty sure he’ll blow their cover at that point, instead of say, fuck off and drink himself unconscious which is the cover they’ve been using to Coulson and he seems to believe that pretty easily. But they’re worries about their precious cover they’ve tried so hard to keep. Because they don’t believe in hiding in the shadows like Fury or Coulson. Because they’re transparent… Mockingbird asks to be put back in to… ‘Fake SHIELD’… I guess… so she can take out Coulson. For this organization. That doesn’t believe in backstabbing or lying. When presented with the 12 hour deadline she grimly assures everyone she can do it in 6 hours.
Meanwhile Coulson and May decided to take Mack out because they know he’s a spy. Of course they do, you can’t subtly choke a guy out and drag his body somewhere. Trust me, I know this from experience. Metal Gear Solid makes it look so easy but it’s not, you try it and suddenly everyone at the church is looking at you wondering what you’re doing to the priest. I’m just glad I didn’t know anyone at that wedding.
The decidedly B plot is Ward and Agent 33 (Madame Masque) go to get her face fixed so she doesn’t look and sound like a broken Agent May Hall of Presidents robot. It starts with a Pulp Fiction-esque café kidnapping and ends with General Talbot delivering the best parts of this episode. After they get her face fixed she tries to seduce Ward by looking like Skye but sounding like May. She should have known that wasn’t going to work, that’s far too confusing for a penis. Ward tells her the way to get her groove back is to go after Bakshi who you may remember as Hydra’s number one number two. They do this by breaking into Talbot’s Air Force base. Talbot is the star of this episode by far, he has the most personality and delivers the best comedy. If it weren’t for him then this episode would have been a dumper. From talking about riding lawnmowers to yanking on some woman’s face to prove she’s an infiltrator to pointing a gun at his own wife he makes this episode worthwhile. Not a whole lot of forward momentum and it’s definitely missing that Cal payoff they tried so hard to set up last episode but it keeps the story floating, even if it doesn’t go very far. If you like Marvel's Agents of SHIELD then this will sit as one of those mediocre episodes if you don’t like the show then this is just going to be another reason to not watch it.
Score: 3/5
Marvel’s Agents of Shield 2.14
New episodes of Marvel’s Agents of Shield – Tuesdays 9/8C
Review: The Flash 1.16 – Rogue Time
Holy shit, the real villains of this week are Cisco’s shitty fucking family. Jesus. I mean Thong Song wasn’t exactly groundbreaking but it did pretty well. It was all over the place in the 90’s, that’s respectable, even if there wasn’t a follow up hit.
Holy shit, the real villains of this week are Cisco’s shitty fucking family. Jesus. I mean Thong Song wasn’t exactly groundbreaking but it did pretty well. It was all over the place in the 90’s, that’s respectable, even if there wasn’t a follow-up hit. But man are they a crappy group of people. I kind of wish last week’s tsunami hit landfall if it meant wiping that colony of assholes off the face of the map. Good god. Speaking of last week’s tsunami it was apparently the only thing that ignited Iris’ love for Barry. See boys, the woman you love probably loves you back, you just need to put her in a life threatening situation and then save her and all those feelings will come gushing out. Also keep in mind, as the show has established, that if you ARE a hero you are allowed to look at a woman naked without her permission. The Flash ladies and gentlemen! He’s a role-model to poorly adjusted perverts everywhere! His costume should really come with a red fedora.
Flash immediately subverts everything that happened last episode without any sort of debate that makes it worthwhile. All the debate about time travel comes after the fact, Wells warns that any tragedy subverted by time travel will only be replaced by an equal or greater tragedy. Apparently this means that Barry doesn’t get his sex prize because suddenly Iris doesn’t love Barry the way she did at the end of last episode. By Odin’s hoary beard this aspect of the show pisses me right the hell off. I can’t focus on anything else. While I’m just generally venting, before I get into the episode proper, let me tell you how well the show hooked me this week? After 5 minutes, when they made last week totally irrelevant, I decided that my living room really needed to be cleaned. Then, boy, those dishes should probably be put away. Then, man, I should probably use that Neti Pot I got to try to help with a sinus infection. I decided sinus irrigation with warm water was preferable to watching this. DO YOU KNOW WHAT A NETI POT IS? DO YOU KNOW WHAT IT DOES? Look that shit up and realize that I would rather do that than watch this week’s Flash.
The only redeeming quality to this episode is the return of Captain Cold and Heatwave along with the debuting Golden Glider. Although I don’t remember Golden Glider having a gold gun. There was a DC Green Lantern villain called Goldbug that had a gold gun but Golden Glider just had ice powers like her brother Captain Cold. Except she ice skated around on ice producing skates and maybe she had a cold wand? I don’t remember and it doesn’t really matter. Captain Cold just gets better and better with each appearance as he seems to settle into the role nicely. His chemistry with Heatwave is really great and understandably so since the two spent a lot of time together as the ‘Prison Break Bros’ but I think their characters and their dynamic was a bit different. All I know about Prison Break came from watching commercials about Prison Break. But I welcome Captain Cold any time I get to see him. On a random note did Barry just make a deal to allow crime as long as Cold keeps his identity? Did I understand that exchange right?
This episode was worthless. I would have cut everything but Cold/Heatwave and ran that as an online short. It would have been just as effective. Cisco’s family is utterly unlikable so their whole brotherly love sub plot couldn’t have interested me less. Barry struggling with the changes to the timeline wasn’t very interesting and nothing gets addressed or moved forward. Not only could they not have aired this episode but they would have been better off not airing last week’s episode as well. It should have just been an hour of commercials and dead air both weeks. Where is my fucking telepathic monkey!
Score: 2/5
The Flash 1.16
The Flash airs Tuesdays 8/7 C
Review: iZombie 1.1 - Pilot
If I had to describe this first episode in a word that word would definitely be ‘charming’. I don’t know much about iZombie only recently learning that it was a comic book and judging by the opening credits it’s a Vertigo book at that.
If I had to describe this first episode in a word that word would definitely be ‘charming’. I don’t know much about iZombie only recently learning that it was a comic book and judging by the opening credits it’s a Vertigo book at that. When I first heard that the show was coming and that it was based on a comic what the title brought to mind was something closer to Clueless meets iCarly with the visual aesthetic of Zombie Tramp. Some satire of celebrity using a zombie who is super into fashion and a little shallow but ultimately loveable and has a YouTube series where she talks about fashion and graveyards as well as an Instagram where she posts pictures of her brain based food and Pinterest’s the brain based recipes. Maybe I’m weird or maybe it’s poorly named. The premise, instead, is a pretty straightforward ‘gifted detective’ story. You could probably slot it into the ‘psychic detective’ genre but really it’s the same as Monk or Psych or The Mentalist or Lie to Me or any of those kinds of shows. The zombie twist is nice though and makes it stand out on its own a little bit better. By eating the brains of those she exams medically at the morgue she works at she gets visions. She can also adopt personality traits and apparently language as she learns Romanian and becomes a kleptomaniac by eating this week’s brain and trying to keep her zombie status a secret also helps to create tension in the setting.
The little flashes of comic drawings to introduce the next scene and the great narration mechanic they use really helps add personality and quirk to what could be a pretty boring show. All those little bits help but what made everything really pop for me was the cast. They did a good job of assembling a cast that has excellent chemistry. Everybody puts in their A-game and they all work well together. Our three mains are each unique and work well as a group and as their various pairings. The only one we get to see alone is Liv, our titular zombie, and she is interesting enough to carry scenes by herself even though she works best playing off her M.E. boss or her detective partner. Her supporting cast, namely her family and her ex, do well enough with the brief time they’re given providing a bunch of interesting and conflicting personalities. Not that those personalities are well-rounded or 3 dimensional, because they aren’t, they’re prone to broad characterization but not in a way that pulls me out of the story. All in all, despite its flaws, it connects me to the cast and makes me want to see more of what will happen. Add in a reveal of an antagonist as potentially supernatural as Liv and you got something that could carry the show all the way to mid-season without a problem.
Score: 3/5
Watch iZombie on CW, Tuesday 9/8 C
Review: The Flash 1.15 – Out of Time
“Don’t bother talking to them, they’re extras, they’re not paid enough to talk.”
“Don’t bother talking to them, they’re extras, they’re not paid enough to talk.”
For the most part this was yet another boring episode from the Flash with a few moments that captured that old Flash feeling I had at the start of the series. Most of it was more boring family stuff and more Wells “Is he good or evil?” stuff. Stuff they’ve been retreading since mid-season. Meh, I could do without that kind of drama. What bothers me most is the relationship between Barry and Iris which happens to be the exact kind of relationship that resonates on the perfect frequency to piss me right the hell off and its presence sours an otherwise good episode. At least they don’t mention millennials again.
Wells is an out of the closet bad guy now with Cisco discovering the recorded message in the trap they set for Reverse Flash in the mid-season finale that allowed Wells to be in two places at once. With this discovery came the dropping of all pretense on the part of Wells who reveals himself to be Eobard Thawne which cements him as the Professor Zoom incarnation of Reverse Flash. The scene was great and played to perfection by both Cisco and Wells who are probably the best actors on this show and consistently save it from dropping into the trash bin. Sadly it ends with Reverse Flash driving a vibrating hand into the chest of Cisco and Cisco’s last words being a chilling “Dumps like a truck, truck, truck. Let me say it again…” Touching, truly touching. I cried.
Barry reveals his identity to Iris when he is forced to stop a tsunami by running really fast. Running really fast, the cause of and solution to all of life’s problems! He runs so fast however he goes back in time. I’m going to assume they’ll use this mechanic to erase all the cool things they did this episode. They’ll probably retcon the secret identity reveal for both Flash and Wells, reverse Cisco’s murder and the tsunami. It kind of takes the sting out of everything that happened here knowing that it’s probably all meaningless.
It’s no secret that I haven’t been that huge of a fan of Flash since its return and it’s too bad I couldn’t establish my love of the show by reviewing the earlier episodes because this is by no means how I want to come off about this show but it just hasn’t been good lately. I think they’re trying too hard to be Arrow and that’s not what this show needs to be. Let Arrow be Arrow, let Flash be Flash and let the new Atom die in a fire. Sorry, that’s another thing I’m passionate about. There have certainly been worse episodes of the Flash and this one at least establishes some momentum towards being the Flash that I loved before which grants it a watchable score.
Score: 3/5
The Flash 1.15
The Flash airs Tuesdays 8/7 C
Review: Marvel's Agents of SHIELD 2.13 - One of Us
That’s Angar the fucking Screamer! Number one in obscure Marvel villains that I am SO happy to see.
Do you know who this is?
That’s Angar the fucking Screamer! Number one in obscure Marvel villains that I am SO happy to see. Shit like this hits me right in the fanboy and makes me mark out like crazy. All they need to do now is have an appearance by Armless Tiger Man and I might just ask Marvel's Agents of SHIELD to marry me.
Kidding aside this was an excellent episode, a damn near perfect one for me. We get more of Cal, whom I love. Kyle MacLachlan as Mr. Hyde has really transformed that character from some Z-Grade Hulk villain that I don’t care about into one of my favorite Marvel Cinematic Universe baddies. I’d love to see Cal make it into a movie or become a more permanent fixture in Agents of SHIELD. Mr. Hyde’s storyline gives me everything I really enjoy about Agents of SHIELD: dramatic monologues, bad bad guys, good good guys and dredging the obscure depths of the Marvel Universe for B-squaders and making them super badass. Scrubs like Angar or Ajax (called Francis Noche here, I’m calling it based on the fact they share a first name, some powers and some origin) or enhanced references like Carla Faye Gideon (you might remember her from Daredevil, here they pay off her origin with a twist) all have great moments and fantastic real world depictions. Add to that a movie worthy showdown between SHIELD and Cal’s group and you’ve got one of the better A-plots since before the break. Stuff like this is why I thought SHIELD was immediately better this season than last, each episode felt like a mini-movie and it captured that feeling here again.
The B-plot is about Skye getting a psych evaluation from Agent May’s ex-husband. It didn’t make me mark out like the A-plot did but it does a good job of exploring Skye’s new position within SHIELD and uses it as a platform to explore pretty much everyone else’s interpersonal relationships in the process. We see Simmons and Bobbi get a moment, Fitz and Simmons, May and Skye, Skye with May’s Ex and so on. We also get some closure on Mack choking out Hunter at the end of the last episode as he gets introduced to the ‘Real SHIELD’ which uses the old SSR logo. The final sting is Cal facing Inhuman justice.
I doubt Marvel would debut someone as powerful as Black Bolt, who may or may not be Vin Diesel, but who knows. With this show pretty much anything could go. If I were in charge every big name movie actor contract would come with mandatory appearances on Agents of SHIELD. You sign up for 3 movies you make 6 appearances on Agents of SHIELD, you appear every season. These people make enough money in their contracts you might as well get your money’s worth. Run the show at a loss and use it like a cool commercial for your movies. Seeing people like Chris Evans or Jeremy Renner or Scarlett Johansen would do wonders not only for the TV show but also as a way to promote your huge movies. Who knows maybe Black Bolt will be the first big reveal they do here.
I’m now really excited to see what happens with the series. With only a few episodes left, according to Wikipedia, I’m interested in seeing where it’s all going. Who is the real SHIELD? What will happen with Skye? Are they going to make her full Quake with gauntlets and everything? How will the Inhumans play a role in all of this? Will old Peggy Carter come back as the head of ‘real SHIELD’? I know she was kind of out of it in Winter Soldier but maybe they cured her of that. Maybe it’s Nick Fury. Maybe it’s Maria Hill or someone else entirely. How will it all go into Avengers 2? So many questions and I’m excited to get the answers.
Score: 4/5
Marvel’s Agents of Shield 2.13
New episodes of Marvel’s Agents of Shield – Tuesdays 9/8C
Review: Marvel's Agents of SHIELD 2.12 – Who You Really Are
“We’ve worked together before. See, here are the promotional photos from the last crossover.”
This week opens on the totally surprising cameo of Sif! In a budget friendly leather jacket! At least it is a total surprise to me, Hulu doesn’t have previews and I guess it hasn’t been that big a deal online but I’m always happy to see Sif. Along with Sif we get our first exposure to the Kree. Could this mean a possible introduction to Captain Marvel sometime down the road? With the establishment of Terrigen gas/Inhumans could we see Kamala Ms. Marvel? A final, random, observation before we get into the review proper: Agent May tells Sif that they’ve met Odin. What!?! When!?! Before or after The Dark World!?! THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT! ANSWER MY QUESTIONS PRE-RECORDED TV SHOW!
For a show that usually hangs on to its mysteries, milking them for all their worth, they really hotshot the whole Skye/Fitz conspiracy. It comes to a head by the end of this episode while the whole Mockingbird/Mac conspiracy gets cleared up a little. We know they aren’t Hydra, at least they imply they aren’t Hyrda, what they could be is still up in the air. Personally I think it’s some kind of pro-registration deal, an internal, more hardline organization looking to displace Coulson’s more meta-friendly one. I also think they’re turning Mac into New Warrior Rage. Which, if true, might lead to the start of Captain America 3: Civil War when fellow New Warrior Speedball gets blow’d up. Who knows what their take will be on it, if instead of the New Warriors being a group a doofy kids in a reality show maybe they’ll be a public meta strike force. Anyway, who knows, I just think it’s fun to speculate. Which is probably why I like this show so much, it leaves a lot of room for speculation.
Being a superfan of this show I enjoyed it. I thought the action beats were good, I thought the character interaction was good, especially one of the final moments between Fitz and Jemma and I liked what was built upon there. I also like that Coulson calls his big Loki-buster gun ‘Bambino’. The show does drift into melodrama at points but that is the language of stories like this. I don’t know how they could eliminate that without it coming off as flat. One thing that bothered me was that they pull the Thesaurus out and call Skye every word but Inhuman that still means inhuman. I wish they’d just own the word already.
Ultimately the show works for me. It answers questions as it asks new ones and pulls me along the narrative thread. I want to know what happens next, how these relationships will change, how the story will change. Will Skye end up joining the Inhumans? What is this conspiracy that’s going on? Apparently it’s so important Mac would rather choke a bitch out than talk about it. How will this play into the next movies? How will the next movies affect this show? There are a lot of plans in motion and a lot of players on the field and I’m looking forward to seeing how they all come together.
Score: 3/5
Marvel's Agents of Shield 2.12
New episodes of Marvel's Agents of Shield - Tuesdays 9/8C
Review: Marvel's Agents of SHIELD 2.11 - Aftershocks
Seeing as this is my first review of Marvel's Agents of SHIELD, I should start by giving my overall opinion of the show so you can understand my rating. I thought the first half of season one was duller than an old penny.
Seeing as this is my first review of Marvel's Agents of SHIELD, I should start by giving my overall opinion of the show so you can understand my rating. I thought the first half of season one was duller than an old penny. It took me forever to get into the series. I liked the pilot, but the pilot is where you put your best foot forward so it’s not surprising that the pilot was good but pretty much everything from after the pilot to the fall of SHIELD was hit or miss. There were some highlights, sure, but things didn’t get good until after Winter Soldier. There were a couple of really solid episodes leading to the heel turn but Hydra taking over was the best thing that happened to the series. Suddenly every episode was a homerun and I was anxiously awaiting the next week. Season 2 came along and I thought right from the start it was great. To me every episode felt like a Marvel mini-movie and I really enjoyed appearances by Absorbing Man and Blizzard as well as the higher stakes SHIELD was playing for. The introduction of Mr. Hyde, Mockingbird, the change to Fitz/Simmons, everything made the show stronger and more interesting, in my opinion with the height of this season being the mid-season finale. I have been anxiously awaiting this episode for a while now with only Agent Carter to keep me company. As far as company goes you could do worse than Agent Carter.
Needless to say I’m a super fanboy of the series which is going to bias my score on the high side a little. If you don’t feel the same way about Marvel's Agents of SHIELD then you might be able to shave a point or two off the score, but if I tell you something is bad about this show then you can trust that it must have been bad for me to draw attention to it.
The season return of Marvel's Agents of SHIELD is a very emotional one as we find the crew still morning the loss of Trip during the mid-season finale. Honestly I was kind of heartbroken about Trip, I thought he was a great replacement for Ward last season and I was looking forward to seeing more of him. He was such a better character than Ward I kind of wish he was on the team from the start. Ward spent most of last season boring and lifeless, he didn’t start to get interesting until after he turned evil whereas Trip was interesting from the start. So, Trip is gone and we spend the episode morning him and I have to admit there were some truly emotional moments concerning him.
What can I say, I’m a sucker for fictional emotions, I’m very emotionally reactive. I tend to feel what I’m seeing being felt more than I tend to display emotion. I blame my programmers for that. Dr. Noonien Soong hadn’t perfected the emotion chip yet so my brother got all the feelings, which he passed on to the Borg. One criticism I have is as much as I like Clark Gregg his emotional notes can be spotty. Some of his anger came off flat and took me out of the moment but overall I enjoyed it. However as spotty as Clark Gregg can be, Chloe Bennet does emotion very well and Coulsen and Skye play off each other as characters very well.
While the episode was very emotional it wasn’t without its action moments. Coulson decides to take Hydra head on, the thought process being with Daniel Whitehall dead (which I didn’t think would be a permanent thing but I guess it was) now is the time to target all the heads of Hydra. To top this off the end of the episode promises some kind of secret plan going on within SHIELD. The idea of a plot within SHIELD has been done before on this series whether it’s positive (Agent May reporting to Nick Fury) or negative (the whole Hydra thing), so it’s not groundbreaking. However whether this is yet another Hydra plot or another internal, rather benign, plot I’m looking forward to seeing how it plays out. With Mr. Hyde still in play and Skye’s new super powers all they need to do to make a killer finale is bring back Deathlok and Absorbing Man. Add to that an Inhuman ending that made me mark out a little and you have a really strong return episode.
Score: 4/5
Marvel's Agents of SHIELD 2.11 - Aftershocks Tuesday's 9/8C