Gotham S:01 E:15

Posted on by Bubbawheat

Episode Title: The Scarecrow
Original Airdate: 2-9-15

After a string of episodes that I’ve really enjoyed, this episode goes right back down into more territory that I don’t quite find as appealing. While they had some good ideas with Jonathan Crane’s father, they turned it into a very not-subtle and ridiculous origin for Batman’s Scarecrow. Meanwhile Fish Mooney apparently lost that anime battle teased at the end of last week’s episode and is now in a weird prison, though apparently unharmed. There’s also the perils of an office romance, a new club owner, and a traditional hike in the woods that have various moments of their ups and downs.
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Constantine S:01 E:12

Posted on by Bubbawheat

Episode Title: Angels and Ministers of Grace
Original Airdate: 2-6-15

Coming in for the second to last episode of the season brings on one of the funniest episodes to date, and also one with some of the most revelatory character moments where both John and Manny soften up a bit. It does make me sad that the show is ending already, though there is a sliver a hope that she show will get picked up for a second season by SyFy along with a name change to the original Hellblazer along with a stronger focus on the horror and sci-fi elements rather than the current format which is closer to a detective procedural with supernatural elements. This episode has John and Zed investigating a literal black heart of darkness while Zed struggles with her own personal spiritual conflict.
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The Flash S:01 E:12

Posted on by Bubbawheat

Episode Title: Crazy For You
Original Airdate: 2-3-15

While Gotham may be the show I most enjoy discussing, the Flash is still the show that I just completely enjoy on almost every level. It gets the right combination of drama, action, and humor without generally taking itself too seriously. I seriously doubt that Gorilla Grodd would ever be able to make its way into Gotham, but he’s already been teased a couple times before now and during the final scene before the credits we get our first glimpse of the intelligent ape even if he stays mostly in the shadows. But this episode wasn’t really about Grodd, instead it was about Peek-A-Boo, or a Nightcrawler style teleporting metahuman. As well as a bit about what really happened to Ronnie.
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Gotham S:01 E:14

Posted on by Bubbawheat

Episode Title: The Fearsome Dr. Crane
Original Airdate: 2-2-15

One of the biggest complaints against Gotham seems to be how it has been taking too many of Batman’s villains lately and having them come into play long before Bruce Wayne even develops an irrational fear of bats. There’s a couple thought processes that go into this criticism. The biggest one against is the theory that it was the appearance of Batman himself that created the more eccentric supervillains of Gotham. If he hadn’t come around with his theatricality then the crime would still be there, but it would continue to be the stereotypical mob and street crime. The other theory is that the most interesting thing about the world of Batman, Gotham City, and Arkham Asylum are the villains and to have this show focusing on the city that beget Batman without using any of the rogues gallery would be a waste and be uninteresting. I find that the show is the best when it walks the fine line between those two sides, but it is a fine line and different for everyone.
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Constantine S:01 E:11

Posted on by Bubbawheat

Episode Title: A Whole World Out There
Original Airdate: 1-30-15

It’s coming down to the end of the season already with only two more episodes to go after this one and unfortunately the ratings aren’t quite living up to the quality of the show as this week dropped off once again from last week’s slight bump. It’s disappointing because I really am enjoying this show and it seems to get better each week as it gets deeper into its own mythology. This episode marks the return of one of the few friends of Constantine who hasn’t died. The professor and tech guy Ritchie from the pilot episode returns as a professor who has some students that invoke a very real ritual to go on an out of body experience and end up releasing the spirit of a someone long trapped in his own plane of existence. It was a really great episode that had quite a few horror elements to it that I wish they would do more of. The one downside was that much of is was fairly predictable, but the characters were all interesting enough to hold it together for me.
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The Flash S:01 E:11

Posted on by Bubbawheat

Episode Title: The Sound and the Fury
Original Airdate: 1-27-15

Once again, the Flash reminds me of Smallville in some of the best ways. Even when it has an episode with a fairly weak villain as the main focus of the episode, there are still some great elements of character development that are just too interesting and/or enjoyable to ignore. There is a lot to dislike in The Sound and the Fury from the rather uninspired villain of the week who has sonic gloves and a hearing aid that more or less turns down his super hearing, or at least just tempers his extreme tinnitus. Not to mention overplaying the chess metaphor between the Pied Piper aka Hartley Rathaway and Dr. Wells. But aside from the A story, there were some interesting developments regarding the mysterious Dr. Wells himself, giving a few more hints as to what his ultimate goal is as well as making him very analogous to Smallville’s Lex Luthor in the early seasons when he was still trying his hardest to do good and be Clark’s friend, but it just wasn’t in his upbringing to go about it in any other way than through money and power. In a very similar way Dr. Wells is doing what he can to be a hero in Barry’s eyes, but meanwhile he has an alternative agenda in place that is much more sinister.
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Gotham S:01 E:13

Posted on by Bubbawheat

Episode Title: Welcome Back, Jim Gordon
Original Airdate: 1-26-15

Some days I feel like I’m too much of a positive person. There’s plenty of Batman fans that didn’t like this show and still don’t. But there is enough of an audience to give it a second season and episode by episode I’m falling more in line with the fans of this show rather than the detractors. In fact, this episode is one of the first episodes where I didn’t have any major issues with any moment in the show. There were still a couple little moments, but they were brief and often made up for even within that same scene. This wraps up Fish Mooney’s story arc, puts some more much needed kick into Jim Gordon as a character, and gives a bit of play to several of the other supporting characters’ arcs. It may be that I’m just getting a better feel for the characters in the show overall, but I thought this was definitely one of the strongest episodes of the season so far.
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Constantine S:01 E:10

Posted on by Bubbawheat

Episode Title: Quid Pro Quo
Original Airdate: 1-23-14

“Quid Pro Quo” is a Latin phrase that means “this for that” which really gets to the heart of what Constantine is all about. There’s often talk of how when it comes to magic in the world of this show, “there is always a price” and we get to see a lot more of that price in this episode. We also get to see a lot more of the backstory of Chas, why he is so loyal to Constantine, and how he is seemingly immortal. While there is several mentions of the rising darkness, this felt much more like a one-off episode that didn’t really further any of the season-long plot lines, but it is a really great character piece that shows how far both Constantine and Chas have come over the past couple years. And it does so without getting into Newcastle any futher aside from one throwaway mention.
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Webseries Spotlight – John Con Noir W:01 E:01

Posted on by Bubbawheat

Welcome to the first of hopefully many forays into the wide world of webseries! Because nowadays television isn’t just about television, there’s so much content out on the internet in terms of shorts, animation, and of course, plenty of superheroes and comics. But we’re not here to just find webseries and share them with you, here at Channel: Superhero we want to give you that little bit extra to give you a reason to watch those webseries here rather than YouTube or Vimeo or wherever else they may be. So today I have a brief Q&A with writer Sammy Corrado and Cool Town Creations founder and animator Carol Rasaphangthong along with some behind the scenes pictures of the animation process. So I hope you enjoy the first of these and keep a look out for more to come!
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The Flash S:01 E:10

Posted on by Bubbawheat

Episode Title: Revenge of the Rogues
Original Airdate: 1-20-14

The Flash is back and so is his first recurring villain: (not counting the metal guy who Wells let out to fight the electro guy a couple episodes back) Captain Cold. Honestly, I’ve been a little nonplussed by most of the villains that Flash has faced this season with the exception of Reverse Flash. It’s been nice that they have been using some of the more flamboyant of his villains instead of going low key, but none have really been much more than the freak of the week. So I’m glad that Wentworth Miller returned, and it seemed like he has a better handle on the character. Back in episode four I thought he did a good enough job, but I really enjoyed how he played the villain this time around with his obsession with the Flash and his odd clipped manner of speaking. It also helped to have the addition of Heatwave with his slight Russian accent and psychotic tendencies to help play off of Captain Cold.
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