jedi_of_urth (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
jedi_of_urth) wrote2016-10-25 04:03 pm
jedi_of_urth) wrote2016-10-25 04:03 pm
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Return of the TV rundown
I thought maybe I’d get going on a few more of my shows (and there’s few new ones I’m planning on giving a shot) once the baseball playoff got to a more manageable level, but instead...I started a new project (points at icon). So for now, three weeks’ worth of Flash, Arrow, and Legends of Tomorrow (I plan to get caught up on Supergirl before we get to some kind of epic crossover I’m sure is coming, but it’s still on the back burner)/
The Flash 3x01
Well, this season did not get off to a good start, I really didn’t like that episode. There were moments that were okay, but there was no real effort to establish this flashpoint world, nor honestly any reason to leave it. This was not the craptastic world of comics Flashpoint, nor was it even something sinister in its seeming to be better, it was just an different version of reality where some things were better and some were worse. Nor does it feel like Barry had any reason to really want to leave, I just find the whole thing very unsatisfying, especially as a season premier. Nothing in it really matters, I suppose when looking back on it it will kind of have set some things up, but so far it’s just a nothing story. Also, this verse continues to not have any idea how to handle time travel (it was vaguely amusing that Barry was just drawing the Back to the Future diagram to explain things, but not satisfying); if I allow them a *lot* of leeway, maybe I can say that say FP-Caitlyn ended up in such a different life because ThWells (since I’m pretty sure we’ll ultimately get yet another version of Wells, and Thawne who hasn’t lived the Wells life is such a different character I’ve decided ThWells for s1-Wells) somehow had shaped our Caitlyn’s life so she ended up where she’s at and without that subtle factor things were different, but that feels like me thinking things out that the writers didn’t. But my bigger issue is that since Thawne brought Barry back to...approximately the prime timeline that probably happened after killing Nora, then Thawne must have gone back in time *again* to end up trapped and having to become ThWells?
On one hand I’m glad they didn’t drag out the Flashpoint world, but on the other it ends up just feeling bleh. I guess since the prime world has still been changed at least somewhat, it will be this changed timeline we actually explore while the other world of this episode was left so shallow and undeveloped, but I still wish this had been a better story, especially since it starts the season off on such a meh to bad note.
Arrow 5x01
That was pretty good, perhaps a little crowded and kind of functional, but I liked it. I don’t really have a lot of thoughts, and since it’s all setup I’m not sure I should have a lot of opinions yet. Oliver killing again seems like a weird step that I’m not sure why the writers went there, but it doesn’t seem like a stretch in character just a weird direction to go writing wise. Diggle remains shipper-in-chief for Oliver and Felicity (really Oliver, we all know the answer to if you accept things won’t go back to the way the way they were is ‘no’ or at least a still depressed ‘yes’) and as much as I will miss Dig being around I’m still hoping we’ll get extra Lyla out of the deal. I don’t exactly want there to be a new team either, but I hope they have some good plans for the newbies (I’m confident in Curtis, but he’s already a character so I don’t have so much reason to be worried). Even the flashbacks are off to a good start, but I have hopes for this round of flashbacks because the writers finally know where they need to end up with them and have it in sight (although having rewtached s4, those flashbacks may not have covered that much time and this could still be the same year, leaving the option of another season to finish catching up in time, but they’ll have to make that more explicit). I apparently find Anarchy utterly forgettable, because I keep thinking he must be dead and being surprised when he shows up again and again.
The Flash 3x02
I only liked that marginally better than the premier and I’m not convinced it made any more sense. I liked it a little more on the basis of the guest stars (even though it’s not real clear when Barry went to Star City) and starting to actually set up this season’s plot arc instead of random diversion like last time. I also so far refuse to believe that Arrow is going to take place in the same altered universe as baby Sara does not deserve to un-exist this way (also...wouldn’t this have been taking place around the time of last year’s finale, why wasn’t the lair more messed up?) so I’m working on the speculation that all the series are going to take place kind of in their own universe (Arrow in universe and timeline A, Flash in universe A timeline B, Supergirl in universe B, and LoT in...I’m not even sure yet) at least until the big crossover event that’s likely to happen. I still don’t like timeline B as it shortcuts so much character stuff and then made it way too easy to put things back to rights, I find the whole story going on here really unappealing so I suspect it’s going to be while before I give an episode high marks, but I’m not exactly surprised I feel that way.
Arrow 5x02
I liked that episode well enough, it’s maybe not great, but it’s still laying foundation for the season. I wish the new recruits were getting a little more development, but I suspect that’s coming; and they’re doing fine with Curtis, where I like that there’s an exploration of how it’s different this time building a team where once they were family (Curtis at least knows what it used to be, the others don’t). One thing I like is that finally the world start to seem like it’s changing based on things that have happened, having Genesis Day and the metas influencing people and things outside of the base cities of the shows. I’m not sure I buy the direction Lance is moving in, he’s been a drinker while having a career before, but I guess I can see the probably-moral being that he’s living up to Laurel’s example by overcoming his problems and serving the city; iffy in terms of believability, but he’s a good actor so it might work even if I’m right. I don’t see how Dig gets out of this mess, but I want to see it. While not getting a ton of focus, this episode is setting major plot pieces up for Felicity; we don’t know much about what she’s doing outside the Arrow lifestyle or what detective boyfriend even thinks she does with her time; but things with detective rebound seem pretty doomed to failure for any number of reasons already being hinted at besides the fact that she’s still clearly in love with Oliver; and Ragman seems pretty dangerous to Felicity both physically and psychologically so I don’t see that going all that well. The flashbacks were...okay I guess, still doing better than last season, but this wasn’t much of a scene. I do think at some point this season we have to get the old band back together to show the new team the family that it used to be (maybe Sara can stand in for Laurel, she’s still family); at the moment I’m really thinking Roy as much as anyone (“At least he didn’t try and make you slap water for days on end”) as he’s the only one who at all came in by way of the Arrow as opposed to Oliver and that didn’t last long. Apparently I did have a lot of thoughts on this one, even though it’s not an episode of much in the way of answers, that’s definitely fine for now.
Legends of Tomorrow 2x01
I definitely liked that more than I didn’t, but I did have some issues with it. I loved a lot of the character stuff but the whole things seemed weirdly put together. The framing device was particularly odd, and the Louis XIII stuff had such a weird tone that I wasn’t sure for a while if I would like this. But once we got settled in with things it improved a lot, Sara especially seems set up for some great stuff this season (she’s clearly the most Time Master-y of all of them whether she knows it or not in addition to continuing her still only quasi-official role as first officer), and I end up giving it a net positive review. I’m reserving judgment on Rip going missing until I see how long it lasts for; I’m okay with showing the rest of the crew having to stand on their own for a few episodes as long as we get movement on finding Rip and do ultimately get him back, but I love Rip so I’m not okay with this being a long standing situation. I don’t really have much opinion on new guy yet so reserving judgement on that too. I haven’t quite made up my mind yet on whether it’s too contrived to have known villains working together in this plot, but I definitely don’t find Darhk to be a contrived baddie for them to face, so I guess my issue is Thawne and it’s hardly new that he can time travel so could be involved in Legends stories, so maybe it’s all okay. It probably says something about me that while Sara is Kirk-ing her way through time sleeping with all the ladies I’m torn because I started off the show thinking I could see Sara/Ray being a thing but then let it go and ended up shipping Sara/Rip only now the show seems to maybe be doing something along the Sara/Ray lines (it may not be shippy, but they finally have something significant going on) and I don’t know how I feel. I guess I don’t know how I feel about a lot of things yet, but I liked the episode pretty well overall.
The Flash 3x03
Well that was a better episode, 90% of that owing to Harry and Jesse who remain 20x more interesting than any of the main universe characters. I do think some of the other character stuff was at least better than the eps so far this season if still kind of meh. Barry/Iris remains a ship I do not like but am still giving time to grow on me (one day I’ll have to make a final call on whether it’s a total waste or not, but for now I continue to allow it to exist in ‘It could be made to work but it doesn’t so far’ territory that’s it has basically always been in); and I do think I like it better than Jesse/Wally, I can tell they’re supposed to be shippy but I do not like it, but a lot of that may for now be because Wally’s being a big stupid baby. His reaction isn’t completely unreasonable (until he walks in front of a car, that put it over the big stupid baby line), feeling disappointed even upset okay, but Joe is 100% right that if powers were guaranteed then everyone who was in Central City back in the day would have them, and he leaves out the point that there’s no guarantee that even if he got powers it would be speed powers (we and Barry know they probably would be, but Wally might want to consider that he could get Ronnie’s powers or Cisco’s which wouldn’t help him standing in front of a car. I find myself disliking Barry more and more, which may be the intended way for me to feel but I’m not sure; which is making it iffy for me to know how to take new lab guy, because I find it kind of nice to have someone who doesn’t think the sun shines out of Barry’s ass, but I feel like we’re supposed to think he’s in the wrong when even if he is I don’t entirely care. But if we can keep Harry and Jesse I’ll be probably be pacified for a bit.
Arrow 5x03
So they completely played me with Deadshot, I was trying to figure out if this was something else Barry changed (Barry, unforgiven until Sara Diggle exists again) or if it was just comics logic where we shouldn’t have assumed he was dead anyway; up until Lyla and John were having a conversation at the cell and she didn’t react to Deadshot being there, that seemed pretty weird to see a response, so it all made sense those couple minutes later that he wasn’t actually there. Now that Rory’s joined the team, I realize I don’t like the fact that the team skews so young now, this show has always been about adults, and if they are going to go young I want Sin back damn it. I’m a little torn on that reaction depending on the intent; if it was just to skew the show younger them I’m completely against it as it doesn’t seem to fit with what the show has been; however, if it was done as the way to make Oliver and Felicity seem all the more like parents of the baby team members, or to make Oliver feel all the more like he is working with the true next generation (possibly handing more and more of it over to the next generation as the season progresses so that he can build his own life again; but as stated before some of that depends on whether this is meant to be the final season), then those reasons could save this choice, but I’m not quite buying that myself yet. I also don’t like that two of them use guns, I was always had a bit of an issue with even Dig using guns in the field and he had military training; Oliver isn’t training the kids with guns (he doesn’t seem to be training them with any weapons, by this point wasn’t Roy at least slapping water?) so they’re just kids with guns and I don’t like that. I can’t decide if I liked the episode or not, it had a lot of range between the highs and lows and I’m not sure which there were more of just yet. I do think I’m ultimately glad they didn’t drag out the Havenrock secret (it would have been kind of hypocritical of Felicity to sit on it for very long, and once Curtis put the pieces together secret was bound to get out, I’m still not sure how Curtis isn’t telling Paul everything), and I’ll be interested to see the further fallout.
Legends of Tomorrow 2x02
So I spent a decent chunk of this episode afraid TPTB were going to make Stein find his inner leader or have new guy step up to the challenge or something, because I’ve been saying since like episode 3 last season that Sara was clearly the second in command of this crew so in the absence of Rip that would put her in command, I just wasn’t quite sure the writers were going to follow through on what they so clearly set up. I was also a little bothered by Ray and Maya’s (was that her name?) plot, because I kind of want to slap her for acting like being brainy over brawny makes him that much less than them, and I kind of wanted to slap Ray for not standing up to her on the subject, or pointing out that Mick has even less power as he didn’t even build his own weapon. If it had focused more on the fact that the Legends just sort of barge in places and don’t really think about the consequences as much as they really should then she had a point. And I think this adventure maybe should have been a two-parter because we hardly got to know the JSA at all, I couldn’t tell you what basically any of their names were (though to be fair I still haven’t picked up new guy’s name either and I know that’s been said). It wasn’t a bad episode by any means, I just wish it was better for such an event that this was clearly meant to be rather than the pretty decent to good episode it turned out to be.
Also, there’s a level of meta weirdness in Ray not being able to Hiel Hitler when called too, because the actors are both American or Canadian I’m sure, where we’re pretty well indoctrinated with anti-Nazi feeling in our lives (as is much of the world I’m sure), and yet there is an actor who is Hiel-ing just fine, but Ray in character undercover when lives depend on it can’t bring himself to? Thing is, I sympathize with Ray on it, especially since they’re in this without real cover identities so it feels like it’s just him suddenly called on to act like he supports it, and I feel like the best I would do (and fitting with the scene) is Captain von Trapp half-hearted wave and mutter; but it draws attention to something on a meta level that I don’t often think about.
The Flash 3x01
Well, this season did not get off to a good start, I really didn’t like that episode. There were moments that were okay, but there was no real effort to establish this flashpoint world, nor honestly any reason to leave it. This was not the craptastic world of comics Flashpoint, nor was it even something sinister in its seeming to be better, it was just an different version of reality where some things were better and some were worse. Nor does it feel like Barry had any reason to really want to leave, I just find the whole thing very unsatisfying, especially as a season premier. Nothing in it really matters, I suppose when looking back on it it will kind of have set some things up, but so far it’s just a nothing story. Also, this verse continues to not have any idea how to handle time travel (it was vaguely amusing that Barry was just drawing the Back to the Future diagram to explain things, but not satisfying); if I allow them a *lot* of leeway, maybe I can say that say FP-Caitlyn ended up in such a different life because ThWells (since I’m pretty sure we’ll ultimately get yet another version of Wells, and Thawne who hasn’t lived the Wells life is such a different character I’ve decided ThWells for s1-Wells) somehow had shaped our Caitlyn’s life so she ended up where she’s at and without that subtle factor things were different, but that feels like me thinking things out that the writers didn’t. But my bigger issue is that since Thawne brought Barry back to...approximately the prime timeline that probably happened after killing Nora, then Thawne must have gone back in time *again* to end up trapped and having to become ThWells?
On one hand I’m glad they didn’t drag out the Flashpoint world, but on the other it ends up just feeling bleh. I guess since the prime world has still been changed at least somewhat, it will be this changed timeline we actually explore while the other world of this episode was left so shallow and undeveloped, but I still wish this had been a better story, especially since it starts the season off on such a meh to bad note.
Arrow 5x01
That was pretty good, perhaps a little crowded and kind of functional, but I liked it. I don’t really have a lot of thoughts, and since it’s all setup I’m not sure I should have a lot of opinions yet. Oliver killing again seems like a weird step that I’m not sure why the writers went there, but it doesn’t seem like a stretch in character just a weird direction to go writing wise. Diggle remains shipper-in-chief for Oliver and Felicity (really Oliver, we all know the answer to if you accept things won’t go back to the way the way they were is ‘no’ or at least a still depressed ‘yes’) and as much as I will miss Dig being around I’m still hoping we’ll get extra Lyla out of the deal. I don’t exactly want there to be a new team either, but I hope they have some good plans for the newbies (I’m confident in Curtis, but he’s already a character so I don’t have so much reason to be worried). Even the flashbacks are off to a good start, but I have hopes for this round of flashbacks because the writers finally know where they need to end up with them and have it in sight (although having rewtached s4, those flashbacks may not have covered that much time and this could still be the same year, leaving the option of another season to finish catching up in time, but they’ll have to make that more explicit). I apparently find Anarchy utterly forgettable, because I keep thinking he must be dead and being surprised when he shows up again and again.
The Flash 3x02
I only liked that marginally better than the premier and I’m not convinced it made any more sense. I liked it a little more on the basis of the guest stars (even though it’s not real clear when Barry went to Star City) and starting to actually set up this season’s plot arc instead of random diversion like last time. I also so far refuse to believe that Arrow is going to take place in the same altered universe as baby Sara does not deserve to un-exist this way (also...wouldn’t this have been taking place around the time of last year’s finale, why wasn’t the lair more messed up?) so I’m working on the speculation that all the series are going to take place kind of in their own universe (Arrow in universe and timeline A, Flash in universe A timeline B, Supergirl in universe B, and LoT in...I’m not even sure yet) at least until the big crossover event that’s likely to happen. I still don’t like timeline B as it shortcuts so much character stuff and then made it way too easy to put things back to rights, I find the whole story going on here really unappealing so I suspect it’s going to be while before I give an episode high marks, but I’m not exactly surprised I feel that way.
Arrow 5x02
I liked that episode well enough, it’s maybe not great, but it’s still laying foundation for the season. I wish the new recruits were getting a little more development, but I suspect that’s coming; and they’re doing fine with Curtis, where I like that there’s an exploration of how it’s different this time building a team where once they were family (Curtis at least knows what it used to be, the others don’t). One thing I like is that finally the world start to seem like it’s changing based on things that have happened, having Genesis Day and the metas influencing people and things outside of the base cities of the shows. I’m not sure I buy the direction Lance is moving in, he’s been a drinker while having a career before, but I guess I can see the probably-moral being that he’s living up to Laurel’s example by overcoming his problems and serving the city; iffy in terms of believability, but he’s a good actor so it might work even if I’m right. I don’t see how Dig gets out of this mess, but I want to see it. While not getting a ton of focus, this episode is setting major plot pieces up for Felicity; we don’t know much about what she’s doing outside the Arrow lifestyle or what detective boyfriend even thinks she does with her time; but things with detective rebound seem pretty doomed to failure for any number of reasons already being hinted at besides the fact that she’s still clearly in love with Oliver; and Ragman seems pretty dangerous to Felicity both physically and psychologically so I don’t see that going all that well. The flashbacks were...okay I guess, still doing better than last season, but this wasn’t much of a scene. I do think at some point this season we have to get the old band back together to show the new team the family that it used to be (maybe Sara can stand in for Laurel, she’s still family); at the moment I’m really thinking Roy as much as anyone (“At least he didn’t try and make you slap water for days on end”) as he’s the only one who at all came in by way of the Arrow as opposed to Oliver and that didn’t last long. Apparently I did have a lot of thoughts on this one, even though it’s not an episode of much in the way of answers, that’s definitely fine for now.
Legends of Tomorrow 2x01
I definitely liked that more than I didn’t, but I did have some issues with it. I loved a lot of the character stuff but the whole things seemed weirdly put together. The framing device was particularly odd, and the Louis XIII stuff had such a weird tone that I wasn’t sure for a while if I would like this. But once we got settled in with things it improved a lot, Sara especially seems set up for some great stuff this season (she’s clearly the most Time Master-y of all of them whether she knows it or not in addition to continuing her still only quasi-official role as first officer), and I end up giving it a net positive review. I’m reserving judgment on Rip going missing until I see how long it lasts for; I’m okay with showing the rest of the crew having to stand on their own for a few episodes as long as we get movement on finding Rip and do ultimately get him back, but I love Rip so I’m not okay with this being a long standing situation. I don’t really have much opinion on new guy yet so reserving judgement on that too. I haven’t quite made up my mind yet on whether it’s too contrived to have known villains working together in this plot, but I definitely don’t find Darhk to be a contrived baddie for them to face, so I guess my issue is Thawne and it’s hardly new that he can time travel so could be involved in Legends stories, so maybe it’s all okay. It probably says something about me that while Sara is Kirk-ing her way through time sleeping with all the ladies I’m torn because I started off the show thinking I could see Sara/Ray being a thing but then let it go and ended up shipping Sara/Rip only now the show seems to maybe be doing something along the Sara/Ray lines (it may not be shippy, but they finally have something significant going on) and I don’t know how I feel. I guess I don’t know how I feel about a lot of things yet, but I liked the episode pretty well overall.
The Flash 3x03
Well that was a better episode, 90% of that owing to Harry and Jesse who remain 20x more interesting than any of the main universe characters. I do think some of the other character stuff was at least better than the eps so far this season if still kind of meh. Barry/Iris remains a ship I do not like but am still giving time to grow on me (one day I’ll have to make a final call on whether it’s a total waste or not, but for now I continue to allow it to exist in ‘It could be made to work but it doesn’t so far’ territory that’s it has basically always been in); and I do think I like it better than Jesse/Wally, I can tell they’re supposed to be shippy but I do not like it, but a lot of that may for now be because Wally’s being a big stupid baby. His reaction isn’t completely unreasonable (until he walks in front of a car, that put it over the big stupid baby line), feeling disappointed even upset okay, but Joe is 100% right that if powers were guaranteed then everyone who was in Central City back in the day would have them, and he leaves out the point that there’s no guarantee that even if he got powers it would be speed powers (we and Barry know they probably would be, but Wally might want to consider that he could get Ronnie’s powers or Cisco’s which wouldn’t help him standing in front of a car. I find myself disliking Barry more and more, which may be the intended way for me to feel but I’m not sure; which is making it iffy for me to know how to take new lab guy, because I find it kind of nice to have someone who doesn’t think the sun shines out of Barry’s ass, but I feel like we’re supposed to think he’s in the wrong when even if he is I don’t entirely care. But if we can keep Harry and Jesse I’ll be probably be pacified for a bit.
Arrow 5x03
So they completely played me with Deadshot, I was trying to figure out if this was something else Barry changed (Barry, unforgiven until Sara Diggle exists again) or if it was just comics logic where we shouldn’t have assumed he was dead anyway; up until Lyla and John were having a conversation at the cell and she didn’t react to Deadshot being there, that seemed pretty weird to see a response, so it all made sense those couple minutes later that he wasn’t actually there. Now that Rory’s joined the team, I realize I don’t like the fact that the team skews so young now, this show has always been about adults, and if they are going to go young I want Sin back damn it. I’m a little torn on that reaction depending on the intent; if it was just to skew the show younger them I’m completely against it as it doesn’t seem to fit with what the show has been; however, if it was done as the way to make Oliver and Felicity seem all the more like parents of the baby team members, or to make Oliver feel all the more like he is working with the true next generation (possibly handing more and more of it over to the next generation as the season progresses so that he can build his own life again; but as stated before some of that depends on whether this is meant to be the final season), then those reasons could save this choice, but I’m not quite buying that myself yet. I also don’t like that two of them use guns, I was always had a bit of an issue with even Dig using guns in the field and he had military training; Oliver isn’t training the kids with guns (he doesn’t seem to be training them with any weapons, by this point wasn’t Roy at least slapping water?) so they’re just kids with guns and I don’t like that. I can’t decide if I liked the episode or not, it had a lot of range between the highs and lows and I’m not sure which there were more of just yet. I do think I’m ultimately glad they didn’t drag out the Havenrock secret (it would have been kind of hypocritical of Felicity to sit on it for very long, and once Curtis put the pieces together secret was bound to get out, I’m still not sure how Curtis isn’t telling Paul everything), and I’ll be interested to see the further fallout.
Legends of Tomorrow 2x02
So I spent a decent chunk of this episode afraid TPTB were going to make Stein find his inner leader or have new guy step up to the challenge or something, because I’ve been saying since like episode 3 last season that Sara was clearly the second in command of this crew so in the absence of Rip that would put her in command, I just wasn’t quite sure the writers were going to follow through on what they so clearly set up. I was also a little bothered by Ray and Maya’s (was that her name?) plot, because I kind of want to slap her for acting like being brainy over brawny makes him that much less than them, and I kind of wanted to slap Ray for not standing up to her on the subject, or pointing out that Mick has even less power as he didn’t even build his own weapon. If it had focused more on the fact that the Legends just sort of barge in places and don’t really think about the consequences as much as they really should then she had a point. And I think this adventure maybe should have been a two-parter because we hardly got to know the JSA at all, I couldn’t tell you what basically any of their names were (though to be fair I still haven’t picked up new guy’s name either and I know that’s been said). It wasn’t a bad episode by any means, I just wish it was better for such an event that this was clearly meant to be rather than the pretty decent to good episode it turned out to be.
Also, there’s a level of meta weirdness in Ray not being able to Hiel Hitler when called too, because the actors are both American or Canadian I’m sure, where we’re pretty well indoctrinated with anti-Nazi feeling in our lives (as is much of the world I’m sure), and yet there is an actor who is Hiel-ing just fine, but Ray in character undercover when lives depend on it can’t bring himself to? Thing is, I sympathize with Ray on it, especially since they’re in this without real cover identities so it feels like it’s just him suddenly called on to act like he supports it, and I feel like the best I would do (and fitting with the scene) is Captain von Trapp half-hearted wave and mutter; but it draws attention to something on a meta level that I don’t often think about.