Constantine S:01 E:06

Posted on by Bubbawheat

Episode: Rage of Caliban
Original Airdate: 11-28-14

There’s two things that this episode does well compared to many of the earlier episodes. It finally has a stronger glimpse of horror rather than just a creepy vibe, and even though I’m fond of her character, it’s nice to have an episode that’s just Constantine and a bit of Chas without having to deal with Zed this time around. There’s yet another malevolent spirit, this time it’s inhabiting the body of a child and causes them to kill their own parents via some bloody and gruesome telekinesis. The spirit then moves onto a new host, a young boy who is usually scared of the “monsters” in his closet and under his bed. But now, he becomes very Damien-like with the creepy stares and need to cause harm to those around him. As far as Constantine’s role in all this, there is a hint of his guilt for the child that he had sent to hell, but overall it’s just a basic detective story with a bit of magic and a bit of humor. There are a few more decent scary scenes than usual, but everything else seems to be a bit more by the book. There is yet another moment where Chas gets incredibly hurt, which makes me think at this point in the show there should be someone who shouts “Oh my god! They killed Chas! You bastards!” every time he gets mortally wounded. There’s also more talk about the rising darkness, but it’s also starting to feel more like an ever-present macguffin rather than any sort of tangible threat. It was still a decent episode overall, but there just wasn’t any meat on its bones.

Gotham S:01 E:10

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Episode: Lovecraft
Original Airdate: 11-24-14

I’ve gone on quite a bit about how I go back and forth on episodes of Gotham, often even within a single episode. But more than any other show this season, Gotham is the one that keeps me coming back week after week and is the one show that I tend to watch same day rather than waiting a day or two to go back to it. And it felt like this episode really paid off and was the show firing on all cylinders. Nearly every character that I have been iffy on came back in a strong way here, and the characters that I have always enjoyed really got a chance to show their stuff. Alfred was a real powerhouse, and I really enjoyed the chemistry he had with Donal Logue’s Bullock. Baby Bruce has been a bit of a weak spot in my eyes, but I thought that this episode finally gave him something interesting to do in a way that didn’t feel overly forced. There’s also a great chemistry between little Bruce and little Cat that hits the right notes of a childhood romance combined with the elements of who they will become in future Gotham City. In a show not known for its subtlety, it felt like it finally started to get the right balance of foreshadowing without hitting people over the head, like with Ivy’s brief moment in the show. And to wrap up the episode, Richard Kind gave a great performance as the Mayor. There were a few moments within the episode that I had issues with, like Harvey Dent still rubs me the wrong way, and I was not fond of the female assassin who only cared about her target, but made some odd decisions. As for the ending, I’m curious about shifting the focus more onto the newly reopened Arkham Asylum, but if they can give me more episodes like this one, I’ll be happy.

Constantine S:01 E:05

Posted on by Bubbawheat

Episode: Danse Vaudou
Original Airdate: 11-21-14

Here we get to find out a few things about our characters that don’t go by the name John Constantine, and also get a life lesson in letting go of the guilt we may still harbor for the loved ones who have left us too soon. There’s also a much more subtle way of introducing a future DC character than the way that Gotham often does. Here we get an early glimpse into detective Jim Corrigan who will eventually become the spirit of vengeance known as the Spectre. Something that the show doesn’t tip off until the very end, unless you’re a Spectre fan already and simply recognize him by his name alone. He is also the mirror into the past of Zed, someone he recognizes as a previous missing persons case. Apparently she left home when she was young and quickly became a bit of a petty criminal, though he doesn’t actually mention what her real name is, only that he knows it. There’s also a nice bit of forced teamwork between Constantine and Poppa Midnight who tried to kill him just a couple episodes back and still remembers the fact that Constantine cost him a valuable artifact. It’s a great strained relationship where the two of them have a common goal, but by no means do they like each other or the fact that they have to work with each other in the first place. The actual ghost story felt a little bit on the heavy handed side as a story with morals and a deeper message rather than just a bit of a horror story. It also ends by sowing the seeds of distrust in both Constantine and the viewer when Poppa Midnight shares the revelation that the Rising Darkness is coming whether Constantine likes it or not. And besides that, someone close to him will betray him which obviously points the finger directly at Zed, but she is not the only possibility from the audience’s perspective. Overall, it was a nice bit of character and world building even though the ghost story was on the weak side of things. Until next time, this has been Bubbawheat for Flights, Tights, and Movie Nights.

Gotham S:01 E:09

Posted on by Bubbawheat

Episode: Harvey Dent
Original Airdate: 11-17-14

Gotham already feels like the Two Face of Batman TV shows, it has the good side and the bad side and it’s a flip of the coin as to which one it’s going to be from one moment to the next. And just when you thought they weren’t going to shoehorn in any more Batman foreshadowing. Oh wait, who am I kidding, they can’t go two episodes without another moment of Batman foreshadowing. This time around Two Face gets his time in the sun, or at least half of his face in the sun and the other half in shadow. It’s at least ten to fifteen years B.B. (Before Batman) and Harvey Dent is already making a name for himself on his way to being Gotham’s White Knight. He’s trusted by the MCU and so by extension Gordon gives him his trust, but there’s already the seeds of doubt where he already has his two sided coin, and we get to see him flip out on the heretofore unknown mob guy to really hit home the fact that he has a darker side and will definitely become Two Face at a later point in time. That moment was like most of these moments in Gotham, totally overblown and hamfisted. The parts of the episode that I did like were surprisingly the scenes with baby Bruce and Cat. I did actually like this more playful and subtle foreshadowing of the Bat and the Cat romance. It allowed Bruce to actually be a kid for a moment and I liked seeing that. It also gave him those nice little moments of realization about how his training in such a sterile environment won’t really help him out if he ever gets into the nitty gritty of Gotham’s underworld proper. There was also some more development on the Penguin plot, but I didn’t really feel one way or the other about it, it was more of Penguin being Gotham’s Penguin which I’m still not fully on board with, but I am starting to appreciate how he is making the Penguin his own thing that is different from anything else out there right now, but also weird, offputting, creepy, and still menacing in his own way. And the final scene where we find out that Barbara has gone back to Montoya was just a complete eye roll moment for me. It didn’t feel like it was representing a truly bisexual character, it felt like it was tossing out a lesbian scene for the shock and ratings factor. Yet another mixed bag from Gotham.

Constantine S:01 E:04

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Episode: A Feast of Friends
Original Airdate: 11-14-14

This is another episode that treads on some pretty dark elements though it still never feels like horror. The show revisits one of the important aspects of the Pilot episode that has only vaguely been brought up since: when the failed exorcism of a young girl named Astra caused her to be drug into hell. This time one of his friends from back then comes back around. He was, and still is a drug addict that has yet to hit rock bottom, but still wants a chance at redemption. A chance that Constantine isn’t quite ready to give him. It’s also through his friend’s actions that released a powerful hunger demon out into the wild. The concept of the hunger demon is somewhat interesting where it takes the form of a swarm of beetles which enters a person and causes them to gorge on any food that they can find until they die and it moves onto the next host. There’s an interesting aspect where the real world views it as being an exotic and deadly disease and tries to quarantine the areas where the demon attacks have taken place. But the greatest aspect of the episode really shows what steps Constantine is willing to take in order to do what is necessary to hold back the spawns of hell from causing disaster in the world. Ultimately, the demon can only be taken care of by essentially giving it a human sacrifice, trapping it in a human host where its only recourse is to devour the human and eventually devour itself. It ends up being the ultimate form of atonement by his friend, but it’s also a moment of darkness for Constantine as he essentially manipulates his friend into the situation, though it is his friend who ultimately makes the final decision to sacrifice himself. It’s a great bit of depth and darkness that we don’t often get to see in the types of television shows that I’m used to seeing while still keeping Constantine a likable character. Reaslly one of the better episodes so far, if only because of the ending. Until next time, this has been Bubbawheat for Flights, Tights, and Movie Nights.

The Flash S:01 E:05

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Episode: Plastique
Original Airdate: 11-11-14

After having a few episodes featuring the metahuman villain of the week, this one finally brings about its first sympathetic metahuman in Plastique. She has the ability to turn anything that she touches into an explosive, seemingly without being able to control it, though it’s unclear as to exactly how it works, or I just missed the memo. As her clothes don’t explode, neither do the gloves that she wears, but it does work on Barry’s costume. But aside from that, even though she is a sympathetic character, her ability makes it difficult to work with. The scientists at STAR labs can’t cure her, and neither can she really be much help to Barry as a crimefighter who can make bombs. On top of that, she’s being hunted by the army led by the great Clancy Brown who had also worked with Dr. Wells several years ago before Wells left due to ethical disagreements. Or at least that’s what he claims. So with this set up, there’s really only one possible outcome in this type of show and that’s exactly what happens. Plastique dies at the hands of Brown as she goes in for an attempt at revenge at the goading of Wells. There is a bit of a weak point at the end which is supposed to be a moment of tension, but that tension isn’t very effective as there is no doubt that Barry will survive this giant explosion, and I was bothered by the fact that they had essentially a repeated conversation about how fast he would have to run to walk across water. It worked well enough when he questioned whether or not he could run up the side of a building, but it was too much of the same thing and no matter what the answer that was given, it essentially boils down to “really fast”. I like how they are showing off some of his different speed powers besides running really fast, but they aren’t all working as well as they could. There’s the typical secretive love story between Barry and Iris, and while that is all fairly typical, it’s still done well. What is nice is how it is dealt with between Barry and Joe, they have such a great relationship together and my favorite scene was when Barry revealed how he could change his voice and there is such a moment of joy between the two of them. There’s also a nice reveal that Joe has known that Barry has been in love with Iris for years. Even if it is such a cliche plotline of “will they or won’t they”, it’s cliche because it works, and it almost always could go either way.

Gotham S:01 E:08

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Episode: The Mask
Original Airdate: 11-10-14

Here is yet another instance of Gotham’s ability to have great moments and horrible moments within a single episode of television. As far as the good stuff goes, I mostly enjoyed the criminal investigation of the episode involving essentially a more dangerous office Fight Club where potential employees at a prestigious office are forced to fight it out for the position in an abandoned office while the rest of the office workers watch via closed circuit TV. And while I still don’t care one bit about baby Bruce, this episode gave a mighty fine moment to a young Alfred Pennyworth. As Bruce goes back to school, he inevitably gets on the bad side of the school bully and later admits to Alfred that he doesn’t know how to fight. Alfred finds the boy’s home address, give Bruce his father’s watch to use as a brass knuckle and has the greatest line in the episode “He tried to kill you; just you remember that next time you see him, and you remember that I let him try.” As for the bad of this episode, I really disliked Bullock’s “speech” where he rallied all the Gotham police to help look for Gordon as penance for not helping him with Zsasz. It wasn’t inspiring in the least, and even though it worked, it didn’t sound like it should have. There’s also the somewhat furthering of the mob scene with Penguin, Mooney, and Mooney’s Falcone spy. None of it had much weight to it, her spy seems to be getting cold feet while the audience knows that she has likely already been found out, and Penguin is just being Penguin. And once again Cat is forced into the episode right at the end. While I initially liked Cat, she seems to be moving away from what I liked about her. I thought she worked best as a mischievous agent of chaos. She is smooth, she knows what she is doing, and it’s all about her. But she gets caught robbing someplace and just once again asks to see Gordon, I just don’t see the angle.

Constantine S:01 E:03

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Episode: The Devil’s Vinyl
Original Airdate: 11-7-14

This episode is very much a stand alone story that really plays up the horror elements of the show. There’s an acetate that was recorded back in the 30s or 40s by a blues artist who had sold his soul to the devil. And the devil came to collect during the session resulting in the voice of the deceiver being burned into the disc. And I should probably clarify as very few people are likely to even know what an acetate is aside from being a certain chemical. In this instance, it’s a specific type of album used to record music sessions that aren’t specifically made for mass production as it can actually be played immediately after recording on it. And as it has the recording of the devil himself on it, it also has the evil power within it that tends to make people desperately want to listen to it and play it so other people can listen to it. This episode is also notable for introducing Poppa Midnight who also made an appearance in Constantine. There he was mostly helpful, but slightly annoyed at Constantine’s antics, here he is only slightly agreeable, but mostly antagonistic. Especially when he thinks that Constantine is after the same thing he is, so much so that he basically strings him up and leaves him to die in a rather tortuous way. It also has a lot more of Zed becoming part of the team and I’m very quickly beginning to like her as a character almost more than Constantine himself. Even though there is quite a bit of blood in this episode, there still isn’t much of what I would call scares, it continues to have a feeling of a macabre murder mystery combined with the occult and some dark humor. I’m still on board though as they mesh quite well, though I’d be happy if they did have a much more scare oriented episode.

Gotham S:01 E:07

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Episode: Penguin’s Umbrella
Original Airdate: 11-3-14

It turns out my prediction for this week was wrong, instead of going back downhill as it had been going up and down the past few episodes, I was pleased to see another good episode following last week’s good episode. Last week was a bit of a cliffhanger where Gordon was arrested by the MCU for the murder of Oswald Cobblepot when Penguin himself walked through the GCPD doors to vindicate him. So this episode was all about how Gordon deals with being in deep with the wrong people. Everyone is out to get him from Falcone, Mooney, and even his partner. There is a lot of great moments where Gordon finally gets to act like a total badass even when Falcone sends one of his best men Victor Zsasz. Zsasz is a Batman villain I am actually very vaguely familiar with, while he did have a very minor appearance in the Nolan trilogy, I best know him from Kevin Smith’s Cacophony where he plays a minor role in the story. His thing is that he keeps track of the people he’s killed by carving a tally mark into his own skin. In the Batman era, his body is completely covered with them, though here he has only a handful on his arm. But otherwise he didn’t really stand out as being a future Batman villain, instead he was just another mob enforcer with a recognizable name. What I loved about this episode is how it actually started bringing together some of the threads it has been tossing around throughout these early episodes. While I knew Penguin had a larger plan in mind, it was explained quite nicely here. He is a snitch, through and through, and it wasn’t a surprise that he’s playing both sides towards the middle, but it did help explain some of Falcone’s odd actions towards Mooney and her plant in the past couple episodes. But Gotham wouldn’t be Gotham without throwing a couple headscratcher moments like the entire scene with little Bruce. It was such an infuriatingly unnecessary moment in an otherwise great episode that annoyed me to no end, that along with the complete stupidity that Barbara showed when she came back to Gotham to plead with Falcone. She’s presented as a smart and strong woman in this show, it baffled me that she could do something so completely stupid whose only purpose was to back Gordon into a corner. It would have been a better character moment if Falcone used his network or influence to find out where she was rather than this. But again, overall it was a good episode that is taking the show in the right direction.

Constantine S:01 E:02

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Episode: The Darkness Beneath
Original Airdate: 10-31-14

After getting interested in this show through the pilot which introduced us to a female lead that has gone away, this episode almost feels like a secondary pilot as it introduces the actual female lead through the rest of the season with Zed. Honestly, even though I only got the chance to see each character through one episode. An episode where they were both introductions where they each have a mystical power that can help Constantine with his investigations, and he can help them control and/or understand their powers. I have to say that I like Zed much better than Liv. Even though Liv gained some confidence by the end of her episode, Zed starts off the episode with much more confidence and charisma than Liv ever did. Even though Zed doesn’t fully understand her powers or have full control over them, she isn’t a complete novice when it comes to what Constantine is doing and already feels like she is helping him rather than slowing him down. As for the episode itself, it’s hard to tell if it was actually trying to go for a real scare or not, as the actual horror portion of the show did feel a little weak. But I also didn’t think that hindered the show too much because the overall tone feels like it’s more of an action show than a horror show. Or technically, it feels a bit more like a supernatural procedural where Constantine is solving the mystery of the supernatural element in a way that Gotham feels like it should be doing. While the solution to the mystery was a little bit unfulfilling, especially as Constantine’s deduction was all pulled from clues near the beginning of the episode though he didn’t play his cards until the very end. But he did have a great moment as he turned the woman’s own dark magic against her in an ending reminiscent of a Tales From the Crypt episode. I’m honestly a little tired of the talk of the coming darkness already, but I suppose it’s one of those necessary story elements to help explain the premise of the entire show. It’s still fun, and I am glad that they went with Zed over Liv.