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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Batman Beyond – Introduction

Posted on by Elwood Jones

Released in 1999 during the golden age of comic book adaptions when Warner Bros. Animation was given full access to the complete back catalogue of their sister company DC comics. They created this series which formed the DC Animated Universe including “Batman Beyond” or “Batman of the Future” as it strangely renamed here in the UK, with the series forming a book end for the universe they’d established with the series which came before it. The show would equally create another timeline for DC Animated Universe which would continue to be revisited by several other franchises even after the series ended, teasingly hinting that perhaps the studio wasn’t quite as done with the series as it would have seemed by its abrupt cancellation.

Continue reading Batman Beyond – Introduction

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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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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Arrow S:03 E:10

Posted on by Jeffrey Lyles

Episode Title: Left Behind
Original Airdate: 1-21-14

Since its inception, “Arrow” has drawn comparisons to Batman, but tonight’s episode took a page from DC Comics’ other big icon in a fitting follow-up from the mid-season shocker.

Similar to DC’s classic “World Without a Superman (Superman (DC Comics)),” tonight we see how Team Arrow handles itself without their leader following Oliver’s fatal encounter with Ra’s al Ghul.

“Left Behind” was slower-paced than some episodes this season, but in the context of the season as a whole, it was an essential one that opens up a lot of potential subplots through the rest of the year.

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Constantine S:01 E:08

Posted on by Bubbawheat

Episode: The Saint of Last Resorts
Original Airdate: 12-12-14

And onto the final cliffhanger midseason finale of the year with the on-the-bubble Constantine. I have been enjoying this show for the most part since it started, it has one of the more morally ambiguous leads than any of the other shows so far aside from possibly Arrow which I don’t actually watch. The monster of the episode this week is one of the Garden of Eden’s Eve’s sisters who is more or less some type of vampire demon who steals a couple babies from the same family. And of course, it turns out that this family has ties to an ancient horror that has been thought long extinct, so much so that Constantine has no idea how to fight it. So of course, that is what is apparently responsible for the rising darkness which aims to destroy the barrier between the spirit world and the real world. Which is unfortunate because that is one of the most cliched storylines when it comes to these types of demon hunter or spirit hunter stories and most of this show has felt better than that. I imagine there’s still a way to spin that story into something interesting, but if I’m not that interested in the impending doom that’s supposed to befall our mighty heroes, then I’m less interested in the show overall. Meanwhile, there’s also the story of Zed who has been left behind while Constantine and Chas goes off to Mexico, even though yet another one of Zed’s talents is the ability to speak fluent Spanish. Or at least passable Spanish as she only speaks a couple lines to Constantine to show off. Anyway, it’s been hinted at in previous episodes that someone close to Constantine will betray him and last episode we saw that there is someone after her. And they finally come to get her here, even though she supposedly would have been safe if she had listened to Constantine and stayed inside the house. We also get to meet another one of Constantine’s old mates who was with him during the botched Exorcism in Newcastle. Anne Marie has a few tricks up her sleeve, though she has since joined a convent and is now a nun in the service of the Lord. Once the monster has been revealed and the plan is in place, Constantine once again tries going the same route he did with Gary in the Feast of Souls episode, but Anne Marie is a bit too smart for that and sees what he is trying to do immediately. And in fact, she actually turns the tables on him near the end of the episode, leaving him shot while some sort of weird looking demon is making his way towards them so that she can escape safely with the two babies. It’s a decent cliffhanger but for whatever reason, I just wasn’t as into the episode as I had been so far. And it didn’t help that it is a two part episode, though it’s helped a little bit that this seems to be one of the first shows out of the gate next year along with Gotham, coming back in the second week of January while the other shows don’t start up again until late January or February, and there’s still no date set that I know of for the new show iZombie. But hopefully the latter half of Constantine is able to pick things up because I still think it has promise and is worthy of more than just 13 episodes.

Arrow S:03 E:09

Posted on by Jeffrey Lyles

Episode: The Climb
Original Airdate 12-10-14

Silly me. I thought “Arrow vs. Flash” was last week, but DC’s top 2 comic book TV shows played another game of “can you top this?” Just as it seemed like the Flash vs. Reverse Flash confrontation gave Team Flash a seemingly insurmountable advantage, we get a jam-packed episode filled with major revelations after major revelations, Oliver vs. Ra’s al Ghul, the debut of A.T.O.M. and that insane cliffhanger making it clear that “Arrow” once again established itself as the king of the TV comic book shows.  Continue reading Arrow S:03 E:09

Constantine S:01 E:07

Posted on by Bubbawheat

Episode: Blessed are the Damned
Original Airdate: 12-5-14

After last week’s relatively mediocre episode it was nice to get back to something a little more interesting as well as something that I hadn’t seen much of before here. While I said last week that it was nice to have an episode without Zed, I was actually glad that they didn’t spend much time away from her and brought her back right away. The case of the week here was actually quite interesting where they follow a reverend of a small, backwater church of snake handlers who gets bitten by a venomous snake but comes back to life holding the feather from an angel’s wing. While the angel herself wasn’t quite as majestic as Tilda Swinton’s wings from the movie version, they were still quite impressive for television. I also thought the twist was very well done when they find out that the angel wasn’t actually one of the ones from heaven, but instead she was a fallen angel working for hell. And after several episodes of just popping up and giving Constantine some infuriatingly vague advice, the actual angel Manny finally comes around to finally picking a side and helping Constantine a little bit more, and a lotta bit more at the very end where he does something that he says he will have to face consequences for. But he doesn’t yet say what those consequences might be. And the final tease shows some further possible darker motives for Zed even though I have no idea what it actually means for the future of the show. One thing outside of the episode that I thought was really great was the fact that for some reason William Shatner was livetweeting the West Coast feed.

Arrow S:03 E:08

Posted on by Bubbawheat

Episode: The Brave and the Bold
Original Airdate: 12-3-14

As essentially the other half of the Flash/Arrow crossover episode, I had to watch it. Especially because they teased Captain Boomerang via the first half of the episode. One of the first things I noticed about Arrow is that I had no idea that they introduced a sidekick for him already and throughout the episode I don’t think I ever caught his name, though I do believe “Speedy” was referenced. I’m not entirely sure if that’s what they actually call him, or if that’s what his sidekick was named in the comics back in the day. I also thought it was interesting that the title of the episode was also used for a Batman cartoon series several years back. It also was great to see the Flash really act like the Flash that I’ve known from those kind of cartoons. The cocky, flippant character that is absolutely a blast to watch. He felt more like the Flash here in Arrow than he has so far in any episode of his own show. There wasn’t any bothering with the serious love story or the serious backstory of his parents, or anything else. All the serious stuff was kept with Arrow while the Flash just got to spend the entire episode being the Flash and I absolutely loved it. Even though I didn’t really have any idea what was going on with several of the other characters like Diggle and his love interest, or anything to do with Amanda Waller. I am slightly familiar with the Suicide Squad and I knew that it had been referenced in Arrow but I didn’t quite know to what extent. Coming into it blind, there was quite a bit to take in, but it was still a nice episode and companion piece to the Flash’s half of the crossover episode, especially the end tease with the full blown practice fight between Arrow and Flash.

The Flash S:01 E:08

Posted on by Bubbawheat

Episode: The Flash vs. Arrow
Original Airdate: 12-2-14

It’s been a while since I’ve seen a good crossover episode. Probably not since the time when Buffy and Angel crossed paths with each other on their respective shows, even though I didn’t see them until syndication. But this episode has been hyped since almost the start of the season when they showed that the two characters existed on the same universe and just a mere train ride or run in order to meet up with each other. The Flash has already seen Felicity come over to the show for an episode, but this time around the whole gang comes along and secret identities be damned! The high point for me was all the hilarious reactions from Diggle who I wasn’t familiar with at all considering I haven’t really been watching Arrow at all. Mainly the episode felt like an excuse to showcase how differently each of the heroes work, where Barry has the power but goes in head first and flies by the seat of his pants. While Arrow has a plan of attack and relies on his preparation and experience. There’s nothing funnier than seeing Flash get shot with an arrow in the back with the casual reply “I heard you heal fast”. But of course, there’s also the villain of the week involving someone who essentially has the power of Red Kryptonite from Smallville, only with a bit more rage than just the losing of inhibitions. And of course, Barry gets “whammied” as an excuse to have the two heroes fight each other outside of being just a practice exercise. It’s even more noticeable when it finally comes time to go work together to catch the villain and it all happens during the commercial break. Overall, it was a pretty fun episode and also played an important part in the overall storyline involving Barry and Iris. Although I believe some iterations of the Flash have him eventually marrying Iris (although without the whole growing up together as step-siblings), here he gets on her bad side as he goes after her current boyfriend while under the influence of Red Kryptonite, or the rage glare, whatever you want to call it. Of course, she still hasn’t made the connection between the Flash and Barry, so those two are likely still on good terms. And of course, there’s also the setup that there is a Flash task force now within the police force dedicated to arresting him. Good times. Oh, and I have to mention that I loved the fact that Dr. Wells name-dropped Batman within the episode like it was nothing.