Finally a TV rundown
Mar. 5th, 2018 10:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jedi_of_urthSo maybe before starting on this week’s shows, I should post the last several weeks’ worth of reactions. It was a slow couple weeks during the Olympics.
Arrow 6x13
I thought it was pretty obvious who was going to turn out to have been playing Kaden here. If it was one of the three left standing, it wasn’t going to be Siren, and it wasn’t going to be Anatoli, but it could sure be the new guy who showed up randomly this season with no backstory as one of Kaden’s inner circle. I think Team Arrow could have come to that conclusion too, since killing Kaden’s son happened last season while Siren was in ARGUS custody and before Anatoli and Oliver fell out.
Also, this is the kind of shit that makes me hate having William around. I never wanted a kid on this show, could he at least have a brain? Oh, he’s scared...so he’s going to leave the safe space of the bunker to follow Oliver into a standoff between gangsters and supervillains when he knows a bomb could go off at any moment?
It wasn’t a terrible episode (aside from the William stuff) for all it was an obvious gear changing episode shifting us into act 2 of the season with a new big bad and all that. But I never really felt much tension, so many of the things felt either obvious or like foregone conclusions (I’m so shocked they didn’t blow up the city in the middle of the season). It was...fine, but it should have been more than that.
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend 3x12
Again, I’m not that into the music the show is offering. I didn’t like the cat song, hardly at all and it came on way too fast in the story (although I do like cat lady 1/cat lady 2 getting in the way of the idea), the one with Paula wasn’t bad but it wasn’t great either. Since that happened less than halfway through I kept expecting there to be a third song this week, and it definitely seemed to be gearing up for it at the end but then just ran credits instead of a closing number.
As usual I feel conflicted with Trent shows up, because the show invests us in Rebecca and there’s very little fundamental difference between what Trent does and what Rebecca does but the show treats Trent as buffoon and a threat and I don’t feel entirely comfortable with that. I’m not actually faulting the show too much, because it clearly knows that fact as it has always given Trent reprises of Rebecca songs (including giving him the credits here) so that we’re very clear that he’s basically her mirror, but that doesn’t mean I exactly like it.
Supergirl 3x11
I guess I’m trying again to catch up on this, and I might manage it...before it comes back. I’m seeing more clearly all the time that I don’t miss this show when I put it on the back burner, and also don’t really care to marathon it to catch up. It’s so meh, so very meh.
I also don’t remember enough of this show’s history to be invested in any of the things going on here. I don’t remember Psi though I feel like she should be back more often now since she can actually do something against this enemy; I barely remember Live Wire and certainly not enough to care when she dies; and the fact that Fort Ras is so far away sounds wrong if Kara just launched it into space a couple seasons ago. I think the obvious girl power message of the episode is undermined by having to be saved by the men back home. Also, what happened to Lyra? And while I don’t suppose the leads should jump to a conclusion about Sam being Reign, I feel like in this universe they should definitely question the kind of thing that could be going on with her from wat she says, if they don’t from here on it’s their own fault what happens.
Supergirl 3x12
You know, while I still didn’t love that episode, I liked it a lot more and I think it’s because it was a largely episodic plot based around human characters. I was thinking as the episode started and they were talking about finding the Worldkillers that I’m tired of the way modern arc plots work and how they move so slow so that the big events happen at the right times each season, and then we got an episode that actually moved away from the arc and it was a lot better. The arc plot this season is boring, but the Luthers are still interesting; maybe they wouldn’t be every week, but they’re better than Reign who really isn’t a character. And Sam’s plot was as slow moving and ultimately pointless as I’m tired of things being (also, one would assume they would be getting on with the tests within a couple days but Alex’s leg is all healed up apparently, some things move too fast).
My ultimate problem with the episode is the preachiness we get in J’onn’s speech, and that Edge seems to only be bad because he’s a rich white man, or at least the writers are piling all the ‘rich white men are bad’ feelings onto him and it’s pretty boring. Also, if you want to make a point about not grabbing women, maybe don’t make it a bouncer/bodyguard who’s just trying to do his damn job.
Legends of Tomorrow 3x10
On one hand I’m glad Legends is back and this was a pretty good episode that I enjoyed a lot maybe even most of elements of; on the other it was a little too much Constantine and I need Rip back. Rip had better be back soon, now that he’s broken out of time jail. I ship Sara with one emotionally damaged, self-destructive, British man...but this was okay until Rip comes back. Plus I might be up for some Rip-Sara-Ava love triangle if we have to. But I need Rip back now; Sara is still connected to Mallus, what does Rip do when the person he probably loves is also probably the best way to get to his white whale? That is the type of angst I live for.
I also have mixed feeling on Leo leaving, he did nothing while he was here, so why even bother. Yes there was some emotional resolution for Mick, and that’s good, but it kind of feels like the Legends got stuck with him for a couple episodes for no good reason; that said the “Not your Ray” moment had me laughing (especially since everyone is super bi in this episode; not that they aren’t usually, but it seemed very out there this ep).
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend 3x13
I think I liked that episode, I actually had to let it sit for a while before writing about it so I’m probably less sure of that than I should be.
Musically I though Paula’s song was only okay, but I loved Nothing is Ever Anyone’s Fault. As a grand romantic duet you don’t get much more ridiculous. I wasn’t sure how I felt about having the Jewish Rebecca singing about how it totally wasn’t Hitler’s fault, but the more I think about it, I think that’s completely in line with how wrong the message of the song is. But those two really do have good chemistry, both in song and not, so I think I have finally decided I ship them, even if they still have a lot to learn.
I did get a bit of a kick out of how much Josh has just become an afterthought on this show at this point.
Legends of Tomorrow 3x11
I’m probably in the minority, but I thought that episode was just okay. And my main reason for that is I have very little feeling regarding Zari, everything I liked was how it related to other people; mainly Sara, Gideon, Mick, and of course the ending with Rip (I suppose Wally was there too, but I’m refusing to admit for as long as possible I’m going to have to watch Wally on this show).
I’m glad the end revealed that this was happening in Zari’s mind, because I was kind of confused how it was working when they were in contact with the outside world. I was wondering if the entire universe was being reset each time, because if it wasn’t then surely Ava would have noticed that Sara kept calling with no memory of having done so before. But while the show made that aspect work, I call bullshit on Sara’s attitude toward Zari wanting to change her time. Is Amaya allowed to have the same attitude Sara takes? Because 2018 is well in Amaya’s future, she could change any number of things if that’s allowed. And at that point, just go full time pirate and change whatever you want, because as I’ve wished this show understood for...well the last season and a half (Rip understood this), future history is still history when you’re a time traveler.
I definitely got the feeling in the beginning that Sara is missing Jax and Rip and probably Martin (she surely does, I just felt that one less powerfully). She doesn’t want to make Zari the ship’s engineer, that’s Jax’s job, but Jax is gone. And while the Legends that have been there for longer have grown out of the initial bad behavior of time travelers that they all kind of went through back in s1, with Zari, Sara is getting a better view of what Rip went through with the rest of them (and especially her); someone whose commitment to the mission is far from absolute (how many times did they wander off the reservation to go get in bar brawls?), who doesn’t take the time travel rules seriously or with as much care as they should (how many missions went far south before they got to even their present level of screwing things up in a good way?). I still think Ava is largely just a Rip stand-in, both in and out of text; the dynamic has been hijacked by Ava since Darville is around so inconsistently, but Ava is still an extension of Rip’s presumed authority that Sara is both drawn to and rebels against; Ava also doesn’t have the baggage that Sara and Rip’s relationship does, but that baggage is why I really want them back together.
While I only thought the episode was okay, I also kind of want to rewatch it knowing the end, and parse everything though it being Gideon’s view of the crew. That is probably the single most interesting part of this story to me. As much as the final reveal makes sense of some things, it makes a lot of what we see pretty meaningless, except when viewed as an insight into Gideon, and I suspect it’s pretty good for that. Gideon really loves Sara, and wants everyone else to love her to.
But the best thing in the episode was the end. RIP, baby, come home.
Legends of Tomorrow 3x12
I think I liked this episode; I definitely liked it more than last week’s and I liked a lot of pieces of it, but I’m feeling a bit hesitant to just say that I liked it. I always like Amaya and Mick stuff, I’ve never been sure if I ship it but I love their relationship regardless of whether I want it to be shippy. This is probably the most I’ve believed Sara and Ava even if I still mostly feel like it’s mostly wrapped around Rip (for reasons that we’ll get to in a moment). I mostly buy the end with Ray, although part of me feels like the writers have bought into their own hype that Ray is too good and pure for the world; in this case I think it manages to squeak by as believable, since he points out that he did bond with Nora and would feel it was wrong to kill her outright, but it’s right on the edge of believability. Gideon also continues to be entirely on Sara’s side in things; it makes me a little sad for Rip since he was Gideon’s Captain but has destroyed that relationship so that Sara is completely Gideon’s Captain now.
I do have a weird feeling about just like the back half of last season we’re turning the plot into a series of fetch quests, for totems this time rather than pieces of the Spear. It’s not terrible, but it makes me worry about the show long term if they basically always resort to the same formula. Last year I found the formula easier to deal with because at the same time we were dealing with all the intense Rip stuff that sucked me so deep into the show, this time...I’m still waiting for something to grab me that hard.
I did enjoy the Rip plot, it may even be the most I’ve ever liked Wally even if I feel like the show thinks I should be watching Flash and I still refuse to go back. It was great to have Rip back, and that it looks like now they’re going to go find the Legends, but I end up thinking how, as much as it was good to hear Rip pass on the Legends as a refuge for outcasts thing, I wish we could have seen him really accept that he was part of that; it was a great scene with him and Sara last season, but then he left for poorly explained reasons and said he wasn’t part of that team, and he hasn’t acted like it since. I care too much about Rip’s character to be satisfied with how this was handled.
Also, on the subject of what I hope will be a Rip-Sara-Ava love triangle, there were a few bits I need to parse through. For one, I think this confirms that for Rip, Ava was always replacement-Sara (his two favorite protégés); which then throws me back to how at the start of the season I got a distinct feeling of how Ava was torn between envy and resentment for how Rip loves the Legends in a way he doesn’t love the Bureau . That in a way, Ava has always known she’s the replacement goldfish and in pursuing something with Sara there’s an element of validation (probably not consciously, but it’s how I see it). And while I’m less committed to the idea, it could be true for Sara too, that if she can be replaced by Ava, Ava must be worth it. Also, I hope the choice of karaoke was not a coincidence, Rip’s never gonna dance again cause guilty feet have got no rhythm, when the only person we’ve seen him dance with is Sara, and they should absolutely dance again when he’s been forgiven.
Now for a bit of wardrobe talk. For one, now that Rip has got the blue suit and the browncoat, he looks more like the Tenth Doctor than ever. The space cowboy look I didn’t connect as a Ten look; the blue suit on its own...I never made the connection but the resemblance was there; but together, it’s very in my face, especially since his air seems more Ten-like too. But mainly, I’m have to do a lot of fanwank to figure out why he would need his coat out of storage; there is almost no way that that is the original coat he stole from Jonah. Even assuming he’s never had to replace it in the years between stealing it and the start of the series, I thought through this last season. He was wearing the browncoat when he time-shocked himself; it is possible (even probable) that Phil was using Rip’s coat as a prop in the Legends movie, but Phil was not wearing it when the real Legends picked him up; he then was wearing another fabrication of the coat when Eobard abducted him, which he was not then wearing when the Legends found him again. Now, it is possible, if it’s important to you, that the Legends had raided the movie props to get the (possibly) original coat back, and that was what they gave Rip after he regained his memories, and was then wearing the rest of last season; and maybe I can allow the Time Bureau confiscated his things when he was arrested, but I’m not buying how Wally figured it out that easily.
But I will continue to love the implication that Rip hates Barry as much as I do and that’s why he went and picked up Wally. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
Arrow 6x14
I don’t think I liked that one very much, but it might have more to do with mood, and is influenced by the gap between episodes and I can see it playing better in season review watch. But right now I think it’s just going too far with how everyone is being an asshole. Literally everyone is in the wrong, and obviously so (except maybe Thea, but it’s a near thing even there). Because yeah, OTA is way too trusting in this scenario, but the Offshoots are being pretty unreasonable (especially blaming OTA for Vince’s death; actually they made the right call in the moment, you guys were problem). I’m not even sure any of these attitudes feel quite in character (aside from Oliver self-deprecatingly pointing out he has no business telling someone not to go on a murder spree), so they just feel like the writers want everyone to be wrong and fighting each other. And it’s just not as interesting as it probably thinks it is.
Agents of SHIELD 5x11
If I had to sum up my feelings on that one, it would be underwhelmed. I don’t even know that I had that many expectations, but I thought it would be...better. The more I think about it (and I suddenly can’t remember if I’ve already talked about this this season or not) this show kind of has a huge problem letting things breathe. This wasn’t even an episode crowded with material, but it also doesn’t take the time to address anything. Deke probably got more time to simply be than any of the other characters, and that’s kind of frustrating since I’m not even all that glad that Deke is here, but I enjoyed seeing him enjoy being on Earth.
I was going to make a point about how I don’t recall Yoyo being armless in Robin’s flashbacks, but I don’t remember for certain, and even if she was shown with arms (which I think she was) they could be artificial that got taken away from her when captured by Kasius. Also, there was no need to do that in the very first episode after they came back to the present.
I don’t like that the Lighthouse was a SHIELD base that somehow Coulson never knew about so couldn’t turn over to the government before now; it seems pretty cheap and needs more thought. I also don’t like not-Enoch; Enoch is alive at this point, he won’t die for 70+ years, they could still be dealing with Enoch. I may allow them to have that one, if Enoch went with Fitz out into space to wait until rejoining events, but I don’t believe that’s been said. I didn’t stop to examine things in detail, but there should be two new monoliths in addition to the time one, the original monolith was destroyed back in s3, even the scraps used to bring Hive back have been buried or destroyed; that kind of goes back to it not working that this is a SHIELD base, if SHIELD was storing stuff in the Lighthouse, why wasn’t the first monolith down there?
Hmm, as much as my instinct it to object to it for problems I do see with the show as a whole, maybe I didn’t like this one in specific for some more practical reasons.
Arrow 6x13
I thought it was pretty obvious who was going to turn out to have been playing Kaden here. If it was one of the three left standing, it wasn’t going to be Siren, and it wasn’t going to be Anatoli, but it could sure be the new guy who showed up randomly this season with no backstory as one of Kaden’s inner circle. I think Team Arrow could have come to that conclusion too, since killing Kaden’s son happened last season while Siren was in ARGUS custody and before Anatoli and Oliver fell out.
Also, this is the kind of shit that makes me hate having William around. I never wanted a kid on this show, could he at least have a brain? Oh, he’s scared...so he’s going to leave the safe space of the bunker to follow Oliver into a standoff between gangsters and supervillains when he knows a bomb could go off at any moment?
It wasn’t a terrible episode (aside from the William stuff) for all it was an obvious gear changing episode shifting us into act 2 of the season with a new big bad and all that. But I never really felt much tension, so many of the things felt either obvious or like foregone conclusions (I’m so shocked they didn’t blow up the city in the middle of the season). It was...fine, but it should have been more than that.
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend 3x12
Again, I’m not that into the music the show is offering. I didn’t like the cat song, hardly at all and it came on way too fast in the story (although I do like cat lady 1/cat lady 2 getting in the way of the idea), the one with Paula wasn’t bad but it wasn’t great either. Since that happened less than halfway through I kept expecting there to be a third song this week, and it definitely seemed to be gearing up for it at the end but then just ran credits instead of a closing number.
As usual I feel conflicted with Trent shows up, because the show invests us in Rebecca and there’s very little fundamental difference between what Trent does and what Rebecca does but the show treats Trent as buffoon and a threat and I don’t feel entirely comfortable with that. I’m not actually faulting the show too much, because it clearly knows that fact as it has always given Trent reprises of Rebecca songs (including giving him the credits here) so that we’re very clear that he’s basically her mirror, but that doesn’t mean I exactly like it.
Supergirl 3x11
I guess I’m trying again to catch up on this, and I might manage it...before it comes back. I’m seeing more clearly all the time that I don’t miss this show when I put it on the back burner, and also don’t really care to marathon it to catch up. It’s so meh, so very meh.
I also don’t remember enough of this show’s history to be invested in any of the things going on here. I don’t remember Psi though I feel like she should be back more often now since she can actually do something against this enemy; I barely remember Live Wire and certainly not enough to care when she dies; and the fact that Fort Ras is so far away sounds wrong if Kara just launched it into space a couple seasons ago. I think the obvious girl power message of the episode is undermined by having to be saved by the men back home. Also, what happened to Lyra? And while I don’t suppose the leads should jump to a conclusion about Sam being Reign, I feel like in this universe they should definitely question the kind of thing that could be going on with her from wat she says, if they don’t from here on it’s their own fault what happens.
Supergirl 3x12
You know, while I still didn’t love that episode, I liked it a lot more and I think it’s because it was a largely episodic plot based around human characters. I was thinking as the episode started and they were talking about finding the Worldkillers that I’m tired of the way modern arc plots work and how they move so slow so that the big events happen at the right times each season, and then we got an episode that actually moved away from the arc and it was a lot better. The arc plot this season is boring, but the Luthers are still interesting; maybe they wouldn’t be every week, but they’re better than Reign who really isn’t a character. And Sam’s plot was as slow moving and ultimately pointless as I’m tired of things being (also, one would assume they would be getting on with the tests within a couple days but Alex’s leg is all healed up apparently, some things move too fast).
My ultimate problem with the episode is the preachiness we get in J’onn’s speech, and that Edge seems to only be bad because he’s a rich white man, or at least the writers are piling all the ‘rich white men are bad’ feelings onto him and it’s pretty boring. Also, if you want to make a point about not grabbing women, maybe don’t make it a bouncer/bodyguard who’s just trying to do his damn job.
Legends of Tomorrow 3x10
On one hand I’m glad Legends is back and this was a pretty good episode that I enjoyed a lot maybe even most of elements of; on the other it was a little too much Constantine and I need Rip back. Rip had better be back soon, now that he’s broken out of time jail. I ship Sara with one emotionally damaged, self-destructive, British man...but this was okay until Rip comes back. Plus I might be up for some Rip-Sara-Ava love triangle if we have to. But I need Rip back now; Sara is still connected to Mallus, what does Rip do when the person he probably loves is also probably the best way to get to his white whale? That is the type of angst I live for.
I also have mixed feeling on Leo leaving, he did nothing while he was here, so why even bother. Yes there was some emotional resolution for Mick, and that’s good, but it kind of feels like the Legends got stuck with him for a couple episodes for no good reason; that said the “Not your Ray” moment had me laughing (especially since everyone is super bi in this episode; not that they aren’t usually, but it seemed very out there this ep).
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend 3x13
I think I liked that episode, I actually had to let it sit for a while before writing about it so I’m probably less sure of that than I should be.
Musically I though Paula’s song was only okay, but I loved Nothing is Ever Anyone’s Fault. As a grand romantic duet you don’t get much more ridiculous. I wasn’t sure how I felt about having the Jewish Rebecca singing about how it totally wasn’t Hitler’s fault, but the more I think about it, I think that’s completely in line with how wrong the message of the song is. But those two really do have good chemistry, both in song and not, so I think I have finally decided I ship them, even if they still have a lot to learn.
I did get a bit of a kick out of how much Josh has just become an afterthought on this show at this point.
Legends of Tomorrow 3x11
I’m probably in the minority, but I thought that episode was just okay. And my main reason for that is I have very little feeling regarding Zari, everything I liked was how it related to other people; mainly Sara, Gideon, Mick, and of course the ending with Rip (I suppose Wally was there too, but I’m refusing to admit for as long as possible I’m going to have to watch Wally on this show).
I’m glad the end revealed that this was happening in Zari’s mind, because I was kind of confused how it was working when they were in contact with the outside world. I was wondering if the entire universe was being reset each time, because if it wasn’t then surely Ava would have noticed that Sara kept calling with no memory of having done so before. But while the show made that aspect work, I call bullshit on Sara’s attitude toward Zari wanting to change her time. Is Amaya allowed to have the same attitude Sara takes? Because 2018 is well in Amaya’s future, she could change any number of things if that’s allowed. And at that point, just go full time pirate and change whatever you want, because as I’ve wished this show understood for...well the last season and a half (Rip understood this), future history is still history when you’re a time traveler.
I definitely got the feeling in the beginning that Sara is missing Jax and Rip and probably Martin (she surely does, I just felt that one less powerfully). She doesn’t want to make Zari the ship’s engineer, that’s Jax’s job, but Jax is gone. And while the Legends that have been there for longer have grown out of the initial bad behavior of time travelers that they all kind of went through back in s1, with Zari, Sara is getting a better view of what Rip went through with the rest of them (and especially her); someone whose commitment to the mission is far from absolute (how many times did they wander off the reservation to go get in bar brawls?), who doesn’t take the time travel rules seriously or with as much care as they should (how many missions went far south before they got to even their present level of screwing things up in a good way?). I still think Ava is largely just a Rip stand-in, both in and out of text; the dynamic has been hijacked by Ava since Darville is around so inconsistently, but Ava is still an extension of Rip’s presumed authority that Sara is both drawn to and rebels against; Ava also doesn’t have the baggage that Sara and Rip’s relationship does, but that baggage is why I really want them back together.
While I only thought the episode was okay, I also kind of want to rewatch it knowing the end, and parse everything though it being Gideon’s view of the crew. That is probably the single most interesting part of this story to me. As much as the final reveal makes sense of some things, it makes a lot of what we see pretty meaningless, except when viewed as an insight into Gideon, and I suspect it’s pretty good for that. Gideon really loves Sara, and wants everyone else to love her to.
But the best thing in the episode was the end. RIP, baby, come home.
Legends of Tomorrow 3x12
I think I liked this episode; I definitely liked it more than last week’s and I liked a lot of pieces of it, but I’m feeling a bit hesitant to just say that I liked it. I always like Amaya and Mick stuff, I’ve never been sure if I ship it but I love their relationship regardless of whether I want it to be shippy. This is probably the most I’ve believed Sara and Ava even if I still mostly feel like it’s mostly wrapped around Rip (for reasons that we’ll get to in a moment). I mostly buy the end with Ray, although part of me feels like the writers have bought into their own hype that Ray is too good and pure for the world; in this case I think it manages to squeak by as believable, since he points out that he did bond with Nora and would feel it was wrong to kill her outright, but it’s right on the edge of believability. Gideon also continues to be entirely on Sara’s side in things; it makes me a little sad for Rip since he was Gideon’s Captain but has destroyed that relationship so that Sara is completely Gideon’s Captain now.
I do have a weird feeling about just like the back half of last season we’re turning the plot into a series of fetch quests, for totems this time rather than pieces of the Spear. It’s not terrible, but it makes me worry about the show long term if they basically always resort to the same formula. Last year I found the formula easier to deal with because at the same time we were dealing with all the intense Rip stuff that sucked me so deep into the show, this time...I’m still waiting for something to grab me that hard.
I did enjoy the Rip plot, it may even be the most I’ve ever liked Wally even if I feel like the show thinks I should be watching Flash and I still refuse to go back. It was great to have Rip back, and that it looks like now they’re going to go find the Legends, but I end up thinking how, as much as it was good to hear Rip pass on the Legends as a refuge for outcasts thing, I wish we could have seen him really accept that he was part of that; it was a great scene with him and Sara last season, but then he left for poorly explained reasons and said he wasn’t part of that team, and he hasn’t acted like it since. I care too much about Rip’s character to be satisfied with how this was handled.
Also, on the subject of what I hope will be a Rip-Sara-Ava love triangle, there were a few bits I need to parse through. For one, I think this confirms that for Rip, Ava was always replacement-Sara (his two favorite protégés); which then throws me back to how at the start of the season I got a distinct feeling of how Ava was torn between envy and resentment for how Rip loves the Legends in a way he doesn’t love the Bureau . That in a way, Ava has always known she’s the replacement goldfish and in pursuing something with Sara there’s an element of validation (probably not consciously, but it’s how I see it). And while I’m less committed to the idea, it could be true for Sara too, that if she can be replaced by Ava, Ava must be worth it. Also, I hope the choice of karaoke was not a coincidence, Rip’s never gonna dance again cause guilty feet have got no rhythm, when the only person we’ve seen him dance with is Sara, and they should absolutely dance again when he’s been forgiven.
Now for a bit of wardrobe talk. For one, now that Rip has got the blue suit and the browncoat, he looks more like the Tenth Doctor than ever. The space cowboy look I didn’t connect as a Ten look; the blue suit on its own...I never made the connection but the resemblance was there; but together, it’s very in my face, especially since his air seems more Ten-like too. But mainly, I’m have to do a lot of fanwank to figure out why he would need his coat out of storage; there is almost no way that that is the original coat he stole from Jonah. Even assuming he’s never had to replace it in the years between stealing it and the start of the series, I thought through this last season. He was wearing the browncoat when he time-shocked himself; it is possible (even probable) that Phil was using Rip’s coat as a prop in the Legends movie, but Phil was not wearing it when the real Legends picked him up; he then was wearing another fabrication of the coat when Eobard abducted him, which he was not then wearing when the Legends found him again. Now, it is possible, if it’s important to you, that the Legends had raided the movie props to get the (possibly) original coat back, and that was what they gave Rip after he regained his memories, and was then wearing the rest of last season; and maybe I can allow the Time Bureau confiscated his things when he was arrested, but I’m not buying how Wally figured it out that easily.
But I will continue to love the implication that Rip hates Barry as much as I do and that’s why he went and picked up Wally. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
Arrow 6x14
I don’t think I liked that one very much, but it might have more to do with mood, and is influenced by the gap between episodes and I can see it playing better in season review watch. But right now I think it’s just going too far with how everyone is being an asshole. Literally everyone is in the wrong, and obviously so (except maybe Thea, but it’s a near thing even there). Because yeah, OTA is way too trusting in this scenario, but the Offshoots are being pretty unreasonable (especially blaming OTA for Vince’s death; actually they made the right call in the moment, you guys were problem). I’m not even sure any of these attitudes feel quite in character (aside from Oliver self-deprecatingly pointing out he has no business telling someone not to go on a murder spree), so they just feel like the writers want everyone to be wrong and fighting each other. And it’s just not as interesting as it probably thinks it is.
Agents of SHIELD 5x11
If I had to sum up my feelings on that one, it would be underwhelmed. I don’t even know that I had that many expectations, but I thought it would be...better. The more I think about it (and I suddenly can’t remember if I’ve already talked about this this season or not) this show kind of has a huge problem letting things breathe. This wasn’t even an episode crowded with material, but it also doesn’t take the time to address anything. Deke probably got more time to simply be than any of the other characters, and that’s kind of frustrating since I’m not even all that glad that Deke is here, but I enjoyed seeing him enjoy being on Earth.
I was going to make a point about how I don’t recall Yoyo being armless in Robin’s flashbacks, but I don’t remember for certain, and even if she was shown with arms (which I think she was) they could be artificial that got taken away from her when captured by Kasius. Also, there was no need to do that in the very first episode after they came back to the present.
I don’t like that the Lighthouse was a SHIELD base that somehow Coulson never knew about so couldn’t turn over to the government before now; it seems pretty cheap and needs more thought. I also don’t like not-Enoch; Enoch is alive at this point, he won’t die for 70+ years, they could still be dealing with Enoch. I may allow them to have that one, if Enoch went with Fitz out into space to wait until rejoining events, but I don’t believe that’s been said. I didn’t stop to examine things in detail, but there should be two new monoliths in addition to the time one, the original monolith was destroyed back in s3, even the scraps used to bring Hive back have been buried or destroyed; that kind of goes back to it not working that this is a SHIELD base, if SHIELD was storing stuff in the Lighthouse, why wasn’t the first monolith down there?
Hmm, as much as my instinct it to object to it for problems I do see with the show as a whole, maybe I didn’t like this one in specific for some more practical reasons.
