Episode Title: Kinbaku
Originally Aired: March 18th 2016
The fifth installment to Daredevil’s second season is decidedly different from the previous four. The violence was at a minimum this time around contained to two scenes instead of throughout the episode. The main activity in this episode was flirting, between Foggy and Marci, Matt and Karen as well as Matt and Elektra. Continue reading Daredevil S:02 E:05
Episode Title: Helpess
Original Air Date: January 19, 1999
“If I was at full Slayer power, I’d be punning right about now.” – Buffy
One of the great things about revisiting this show with a more critical eye is that it really makes you realise how certain seasons play out which seemingly so far has been completely different than I remember. This is also something which can be certainly said for this season were I was sure at this point the Mayor was much more involved than he currently is. Of course this isn’t a bad thing, especially knowing what is still to come and more so when we get classic episodes like this one.
Here we find Buffy approaching her 18th birthday and looking forward to going to an ice show with her father, which she is also using to distract herself from the feeling that her Slayer powers appear to be fading more so when she is almost killed by a vampire attempting to use her own stake on her. Little does she now that her fading powers are all part of a test being setup by head Watcher Quentin Travers who plans to test the now weakened Buffy by locking her in a building with the powerful and insane vampire Zachary Kralik played here with gusto by Jeff Kober and making it little surprise they would bring him back as rack in Season 6, another advantage of heavy make up I guess.
I had planned on reviewing this episode and the finale together, since they aired back-to-back, but after a few minutes, I realized I wasn’t giving this episode enough attention, so I split them up.
Episode Title: Dead Beat
Original Airdate: 4-12-16
With Major arrested for the Chaos Killings, Ravi tells Liv everything Major has been up to. Hoping to save Major, they decide to thaw one of the victims (Drake, of course), to prove that Major couldn’t have killed him, only to discover the deep freezers empty. After Major’s bail hearing gets him out of jail for the Chaos Killings, Clive is then able to rearrest him for the Meat Cute Massacre, after someone in lock up confesses to having sold Major all the weapons, for a plea deal. After not having a “proper” meal for several days, Major is on the verge on turning “Romero,” which would be far worse behind bars with plenty to snack on and, in turn, infect. A desperate Liv confesses everything about the secret world of zombies to Clive. He doesn’t believe her at first, until she stabs herself in the chest and turns. That night Major is released, thanks to Clive’s tampering, effectively destroying both the Meat Cute and Chaos Killer cases, plus his relationship with Bozio. After Van du Clark sends his henchman to kill Liv and Major, Ravi accidentally gets in the way, killing Janko, whose brain his targets then devour in order to gain info on where the newly thawed zombies are being held, which Liv glimpses in a vision, seeing a very living Drake in the basement at Max Rager, of course.
Episode Title: Prisoners
Original Airdate: 3-28-16
If you’re following along with these reviews as I’m writing them you might be able to tell how much I’m getting into these episodes as I’m breezing through them to try and catch up to yesterday’s new episode. Apparently I was right to a certain extent, but not quite as much as I would have thought. There was a bit of a time jump while Jim Gordon has been in prison, but it wasn’t a matter of years, merely a matter of weeks to months. It’s not entirely clear exactly how much time passed while Gordon was in Blackgate prison aside from one comment that he had spent “weeks” in there and there was a moment where they showed a snowy prison which suggests months rather than just weeks.
Continue reading Gotham S:02 E:16
Episode Title: Mad Grey Dawn
Original Airdate: 3-21-16
On Gotham I’m actually making some real headway towards catching up to today’s current episode. The biggest thing about this episode is that it features Paul Reubens as Penguin’s father, and something that I had completely forgotten about was that he also played Penguin’s father in Batman Returns. Having recently seen him in both Pee-Wee’s Big Holiday and a revisit to Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure it was a little bizarre to see him do a complete 180 and play a seemingly normal character. There’s also a little bit of penance for both Penguin and Gordon while Bruce continues to use what he learned in the previous episode in his quest to understand the underworld. Though if I didn’t know that this was still a ways away from the end of the season, I would have thought that this was a set up for a big time jump going into season 3.
Continue reading Gotham S:02 E:15
Episode Title: Monster
Original Airdate: 4-10-16
It’s back. The prequel spinoff to that really popular show that’s two years ahead of it in the timeline. It’s all very strange when you think about it. Anyway, the second season premiere kicks off just a few hours after the first season finale. With no hope left for LA, the military (we assume) are just bombing the hell out of the city, driving a lot of Infected to the coastline, where the small band of survivors is preparing to sail out to Strand’s boat, the Abigail. They barely escape, with Liza’s dead body, and head for open water, hoping to make it to a naval base in San Diego.
A bit of a nutty season, no? As much as I still love Rick, maybe he shouldn’t plan things anymore. First his plan to lead the quarry herd away from Alexandria got a lot of people killed in the first half of the season, which led to the walls collapsing and more deaths, like his girlfriend. Then he planned to kill all the Saviors with zero information about them or their compound, and ends up on his knees with his son, new girlfriend and 8 besties all at the mercy of Negan. I think maybe we should put someone new in charge for awhile.
Episode Title: This Ball of Mud and Meanness
Original Airdate: 3-14-16
Finally starting to catch back up with this season of Gotham here on the site, which is weird because this season really has caught on with me as one of the best shows out there right alongside the Flash. I think it’s just a product of my mood lately where the Flash is still much more of an upbeat show while Gotham is much darker and not exactly the type of show that you just throw on with a whim. When I last checked in with Gotham, David Mazouz was well on his way to catching up with his parents’ killer, and Penguin was going through an odd series of treatments with Hugo Strange. One of these things I enjoyed, while the other I’m still not so sure of. And just a quick note, I’m taking the events in the episode at face value, I have not cheated and looked ahead at what may have happened in the previous episodes that I’ve yet to catch up with.
Continue reading Gotham S:02 E:14
Episode Title: Penny and Dime
Originally Aired: March 18th 2016
The Punisher’s past was revealed in the newest episode of Marvel’s Daredevil. This week’s story focuses on three characters Matt, Karen and Frank, as the truth of what drives Frank is slowly drug into the light. We find out what happened to Frank to turn him into the man that we have seen in the last three episodes, and hopefully, we will find out why it happened in the remaining episodes. Continue reading Daredevil S:02 E:04
Episode Title: Reflections of the Way Liv Use to Be
Original Airdate: 4-5-16
The case-of-the-week has Liv and Clive looking into another murder at the local university, where Liv runs into some of the old frat bros from earlier in the season. The dead girl whose brain Liv turns into stir fry was incredibly Type A, running for Student Senate and a CI for Seattle PD after being busted for selling Adderall, so we get to see Det. Benedetto from Vice again (Enrico Colantoni), but he’s not exactly the good guy one would hope for in a cop. When busting dealing college kids, he turns them into CIs, without approval from higher-ups, in order for them to get their charges dropped and him to bust more drug dealers, which is all very dangerous.
Channel: Superhero 