Massive TV show thoughts post
Well, the TV season is pretty much over. Sure, there are some summer series, but they aren't as plentiful.
- Supergirl's second season was much better than its first season, but I didn't realize how much the show needed Cat Grant until she re-appeared for the last two episodes. Cat's role was always to give sage advice to Kara and I always thought it was so repetitive. But you know what? Kara didn't have anyone to turn to this year. Everyone in her circle was involved in her Supergirl world, so no one had a view from the trenches, so to speak. Suddenly, here's Cat, and she's offering the other side of the argument that Kara lost sight of. I doubt the show can tempt Calista Flockhart back for a full time role, but it'd be nice if they could contrive of a way to have her back for more than four episodes a season.
They also seemingly lost a main character, so there is space in the roster. I'm not sad to see Mon-El go. His characterization was never quite right. Sure, he was fun, but his whole "I'm going to be a better man to impress Kara and win her love" was just stupid. You shouldn't become a better person just because you meet a cute girl. My ideal scenario would have been Kara and Mon-El not getting together and it's only at the end, when Mon-El shows some actual growth as a person and acts nobly from the right place, that Kara realizes that she loves this guy. You still get the same sad ending, but at least Mon-El's leaving isn't just for added angst. I like to think that the vortex that swallows up his ship is actually a time portal and he ends up in the 31st century and meets the Legion of Superheroes. They've actually shown us a Legion ring, so it's pretty plausible.
As for the finale itself, it felt kind of similar to last season's finale. The whole city is immobilized and a inspiring speech is used to win back hope. Kara has to fight a brainwashed relative. This time around, though, the fights were much better. Supergirl vs Superman was pretty damn cool. I feel like if the budget had been a bit bigger, they could have gone for a real slug match, with Kara and Clark just flying all over the place. Kara and Rhea's fight was a bit more subdue, but you had some banana balls stuff like how Rhea bleeds Kryptonite. The lead dust solution was a tad weird. So, everyone one Earth is now breathing in lead dust? Yes, there's a line about how it's a minimal amount and it won't affect humans, but still.
I hope they resist pairing Kara up with another love interest. There are enough happy couples on the show right now that Kara doesn't need to be bogged down with relationship woes. I also felt like Kara was never the focus of the relationship. It was all about Mon-El pining for Kara and then he lied and then they were together but here's his evil parents, and so on. If they do have another love interest for Kara, there's more drama if they're human and they don't know about her being Supergirl. Sure, you'll get the cliched storyline with Kara lying to her love interest about where she was and other things, but hey, it's traditional when it comes to a superhero story. ;-) It's more likely that Mon-El will pop up at the mid-season, magically cured of his lead allergy, and he and Kara can continue dating.
So who, or what, is in the other pod that left Krypton? Jeez, that'll be three pods, plus Mon-El's from Daxem. Who didn't leave Krypton before it exploded? I want to say it's Doomsday, since he has a Kryptonian connection in his background, but the emphasis on the word "reign", seems to suggest it's someone else. io9 speculates it's a character called Reign from Supergirl's New 52 comic line. Whatever the case may be, it'll be another Kryptonian villain for Kara to fight, which seems the norm. Barry fights other speedsters, Ollie fights other archers, and the Legends fight other time travellers.
Random: Zod cameo! Totally wasn't expecting that. It's so weird to think that this Superman has been having adventures for 12 years in Kara's world. He makes a reference to War World, too. But really? Silver Kryptonite? Why are there different colours to begin with? Well, I know why, it's a comic book, but wouldn't Red Kryptonite make more sense? Isn't that the one that causes Superman to go bad? Cat had the best line after everyone found out that Lynda Carter's character is an alien; "Please tell me you're still a Democrat." I still don't get why the President needs to be an alien, but any excuse to keep Lynda Carter around is good by me. :-) Also loved that Cat was able to tell that James was Guardian from just the eye slit in his helmet. The show finally acknowledged that Cat knows that Kara is Supergirl! She's probably been faking ignorance since she figured it out last season. Are Alex and Maggie getting married? Look, there needs to be a wedding at some point on one of the CW DC shows. Barry and Iris can't pull their crap together, so please let have Alex and Maggie have a wedding.
- The Flash this season... I don't know what happened. I think the massive retcon just screwed everything up. I mean, kudos for tackling alternative timelines, but it was a lazy way to have character development. The whole thing with Savitar also got super muddled. He was vaguely interesting as a villain, but then it got weird when it was revealed that he was an evil Barry time remnant from the near future. Seriously, that was the best they could come up with? These masked villain types either have good reveals or they don't. This is the third so far on The Flash. They need to switch up the formula.
If Savitar really needed to be an evil Barry, why not have the time remnant that Barry created at the end of season two be the evil twin? We saw his creation and his death. He already has a reason to have a burn scar on his face and a reason to resent actual Barry. No need to create a time remnant we've never seen and you also avoid the weird time loop thing.
I won't even go into the whole time paradox thing. Well, maybe a little. The second Iris didn't die, Evil!Barry should have ceased to exist because the circumstances of his creation had changed. You could argue that this is in line with how time is treated on Legends of Tomorrow; Rip always said that takes time for a new timeline to take hold. Fine. Time was settling. And yet, back in season one, when Eddie shot himself, Eobard immediately disappeared. Which one is it? Maybe with Eddie and Eobard, that's a family line, while Evil!Barry is more a result of a divergent timeline. Anyway...
Speaking of Iris not dying, of course they wouldn't kill her off. She's the main love interest and none of the shows so far have killed off a love interest while they were still the love interest (i.e.: see Laurel). Sure, Iris was killed off in the comics at one point, but man, they retconned the heck out of that event, so it's not like death is a permanent thing for Iris West in any incarnation. Since I'm not a huge fan of Iris on the show, I found the whole thing with her impending death kind of tedious. Throwing in H.R. as the noble hero of the hour was also very random. I get that he was trying to make up for his mistake with Savitar, but I feel like H.R. barely knows Iris. I guess H.R. is just a romantic at heart and he wanted Iris and Barry to have a happy ending.
At least this paves the way for another Harrison Wells! I know it's silly, having a new Harrison each season, but Tom Cavanagh is just so good at playing the different Harrisons. I do hope Harry, the Earth-2 Wells, is back for a bit. That would also mean Jesse could come back for a bit, now that she doesn't have to protect Earth-3 in Jay's absence.
Hey, I just realized that everyone got a love interest this season. Barry and Iris. Joe and Cecile. Cisco and Gypsy. Caitlin and Julian. Wally and Jesse. Hell, even H.R. and Tracy. The show actually managed to balance most of them. Joe putting himself out there again was cute. Most shows wouldn't have bothered giving the dad figure a dating life. Caitlin and Julian was a bit random and Julian went for the "I love you" way too soon in my opinion, but it was nice to see Caitlin happy for a little bit. Cisco and Gypsy? Eh, I couldn't really see it. Especially at the end of the season, when Gypsy shows up again because she could Vibe that Cisco was in danger because they have a "connection". Really? We're going with that wishy-washy excuse? Wally and Jesse needed more screen time and H.R. and Tracy just came out of nowhere. I think most of the relationships work since they're mostly contained within Team Flash so you're not wasting time with new characters.
Anyway, the resolution to the season finale. Evil!Barry just fades away. Later, the Speed Force suddenly starts going nuts because there's no one in the Speed Force prison and Barry opts to take up the vacancy. What? Why? Fans have commented that there was a much better ending the writers' missed and I totally agree. Since Barry was trying so hard to reach out to his evil twin, it would have made more sense to have Evil!Barry sacrifice himself so he was the one who entered the Speed Force prison. Thus, Evil!Barry redeems himself and proves he's still a good guy.
Or, you know, they didn't need to have the Speed Force going nuts at all. They just needed something big for Barry for the end of the season. Here's his big sacrifice since he screwed everything up with Flashpoint. That's fine and all, but why does his Speed Force prison get to be all sunshine and roses while Wally and Jay's experience was literally a living hell? Barry needs to learn a lesson, but he won't get that while hanging out with his Speed Force mom.
Now, Grant Gustin is the star of the show, so it doesn't seem likely that they wouldn't have him show up for a while, but they really shouldn't have him escaping the Speed Force in the first episode of season four, either. Maybe just give us a glimpse of Barry in the Speed Force at the end of the first episode, and then have him ask for help at the end of episode two. By episode three, Barry needs to be rescued, and then episode four is the big prison break. Rushing things with the Flashpoint storyline was not great, so I hope they remember that while planning season four.
Random: Can we please visit Earth-3 for an episode? I really want to see Jay in action in his city. Make it look like the Central City from the 1990 The Flash show, with all of the art deco stuff, and I will be so happy. Are they inviting Tom Felton back as a regular? It was weird that he wasn't around for the penultimate episode. I suppose he can keep going as a recurring, but that doesn't really work when he's on Team Flash. I have no idea where they're going with Killer Frost / Caitlin. Apparently Killer Frost in the comics is an anti-hero right now. Are they setting that up here? Just have her back on the team, dang it! It's no fun if she's moping around on her own. Seeing as Barry will be back at some point, does this mean we're going to get a wedding episode in the near future? There's already been one failed wedding on Arrow with Ollie and Felicity. I'm rooting more for Alex and Maggie's wedding to be honest.
- Switching comic book universes for a moment. I'm continually surprised with how far Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. has come since the show premiered. I wasn't in love with Ghost Rider, but everything after that, they just knocked it out of the park. The Framework stuff was so timely and chilling, especially after everyone got out. How do you reconcile these two lives in your head?
I should clarify that Ghost Rider was cool, but his inclusion felt very forced, like Marvel couldn't wait to use him in something; it didn't matter what. The transition from the Ghost Rider arc to the LMD arc wasn't as smooth as the transition from LMD to the Agents of Hydra arc. In my mind, the Darkhold was just a persistent MacGuffin that never really gained any traction. The thing with Robbie's uncle was separate from Aida's desire to use the book. Had they found a way to tie to two ideas together, beyond Robbie coming back to take the book away, then maybe I would have liked the Ghost Rider arc more.
Magic and the mystical also doesn't really jive with AoS' premise. Spy fi / superhero stuff works, but when you add magic, you're drifting into another genre. Thor's magic is easily explained away as advanced technology, but how do you explain magic? Integrating Doctor Strange into the rest of the MCU is going to be interesting.
I was worried they were going to kill off a bunch of characters. Mack seemed likely for a while. For a second, I thought they had killed Simmons. Though, when did they have time to make a Simmons LMD? Aida never made one for the takeover of the base. Creating a life-like robot from scratch doesn't seem like something you could do in a couple of hours within a blown up base. They did wimp out on Talbot. A shot to the head? He should be dead, not in a coma. Robot Daisy is a poor shot if that's the case. In the end, we only really lost Mace from the team and he wasn't a season regular. Not that I want the show to kill off characters. Please god, don't kill off any of the main cast.
So, next season is set in space? Is this set-up for Thor: Ragnarok? Or maybe the Inhumans TV series? I could imagine Coulson and Co. being kidnapped by Black Bolt and his people because of how bad things went in regards to S.H.I.E.L.D. and Inhumans. But I don't see a crossover happening between the two shows at this point; Marvel TV doesn't have that kind of synergy. So, other possibilities. Actually, I don't know. I'm not that familiar with Marvel's space faring races. Maybe the Kree grabbed the team? For some reason, I keep thinking Star Jammers, but they're tied up with Cyclops and his dad, so that probably makes them off bounds. Ooh ooh, maybe this is S.W.O.R.D.! In the comics, they're the branch of S.H.I.E.L.D. that handles aliens and stuff. Maybe General Talbot set them up in secret. Oh crap, they were introduced in the X-Men comics, so maybe not. But I think Selvig mentioned them in a cut scene from the first Thor movie, so maybe S.W.O.R.D. is still on the table. Joss did create S.W.O.R.D. for his run on Astonishing X-Men, so maybe they would allow him to have it.
Random: May was totally not happy that Coulson opened that bottle of Hague with Robot May. My gosh, Coulson was so embarrassed. His suggestion of starting again where they last left off is sweet, though, of course, it slows down the development of any romantic relationship. Poor Fitz and Simmons. Their time in the Framework totally messed things up. Why can't people be happy on this show? Is Elena a regular for next season? I hope so. So that Russian guy is still running around? He said his head is hidden somewhere, so he can keep creating copies of himself until the cows come home.
ABC has moved AoS to Fridays. Please don't let this become your typical death slot.
- Arrow season five was a return to basics. I don't think the show will ever reach the same level of storytelling that they had in season two, their best season I think, but this season was certainly an improvement from last season. And no more flashbacks! Well, I'm sure there will be flashbacks, but no more flashbacks to Ollie's five year absence. More on the flashbacks in a sec, but first, let's talk about this season.
Things started off fairly well with the new recruits, and before we found out who Prometheus was, that was kind of interesting, too. Ollie's early mistakes as the Hood were coming back to haunt him. The bait and switch they did with Adrian Chase and Vigilante was actually a decent twist that I don't think fans saw coming. You assume Vigilante is Chase, because that's Vigilante's alter ego in the comics. Then Ollie found out about Chase well before the end of the season and that ramped up the tension. But after that... Ollie was just floundering. Chase was always one step ahead of him and Ollie never caught up. I know the heroes can't figure everything out right away, or that would be the end of the season, but Ollie could have had a win here or there so he wouldn't look so dumb.
Even in the finale, Ollie still had no idea what was going on. I swear, he only outsmarted Chase once, with making it seem like Slade had switched sides. And now, everyone is potentially dead, except Ollie and his son. As a way to wipe the slate clean, well, this is a doozy. Let's blow up an entire island! I thought it was pretty cool they brought back a lot of old characters, like Slade and Nyssa, but then, once the island exploded, I realized it was also a way to whittle down the recurring characters. In the definitely dead column, I say Captain Boomerang is dead, mostly because of the Suicide Squad movie. Hell, they didn't even say or call him Captain Boomerang; you're expected to remember who he is. Malcolm is probably dead, too, since John Barrowman said he's not involved with any of the DC CW shows next year. But he's also the Magician, so there is a chance he could come back. Evelyn Sharp is probably dead, too, as she's a bad guy and she was also stuck in a cage when the explosions happened.
I wish they were using the finale as a way to whittle down the recruits, too, but it sounds like Rene will be a regular next season (boo). Dinah will also be a regular, but I actually like her, so that's good news. Of the remaining characters, I'm sure Felicity and Dig will survive. Probably Curtis, too. Samantha, Williams's mother, well, that's a toss up. She's really not that important. I have my doubts about Thea. She hasn't been around a lot this season, but to kill off Ollie's one remaining family member is not cool. Lance seems like an easy target. I've been expecting them to kill off his character since season one. Though, now that Lance knows about Earth-2 Laurel, that gives him a good storyline for next season so who knows. Black Siren is not dead because they announced that Katie Cassidy will be a regular across all shows next year.
Slade and Nyssa and Talia are unique since they are tied up with Batman. Slade is scheduled to appear in the solo Batman movie and Nyssa and Talia are part of the Batman mythos. I don't know if there's a Bat embargo on right now, but I can see the show killing off all three if required. I want to see more of Slade, though. Now that he's not crazy, his character is interesting again. We'll see. The Batman movie is a ways off, so maybe Arrow can have Slade for the time being.
As for how everyone will survive... I don't know. There wasn't time to get to the ARGUS supply boat. One fan theory I read speculates that Slade took everyone to the ARGUS prison. One can imagine it would be strong enough to stand up to a massive explosion. It's already established, too, so you don't have to come up with something new.
So Ollie's flashbacks are done. Thank god. The producers always claimed that they had the five years mapped out, that Ollie's scars and tattoos were a literal road map, but I feel like that was a generous lie. Case in point: they forgot to give Ollie his Chinese tattoo during the season three flashbacks. If you guys had everything planned out, you would have had a show bible written up with all of the details. Towards the end, they were just throwing in injuries just so Ollie's scars lined up. Random shark attack in season four. Last minutes burns in the fight with Kovar. That last one made me shake my head. I'm pretty sure in the pilot episode, a doctor said that Ollie had third degree burns over 30% of his body or some such line. Yeah, the burns were just on Ollie's lower back; I'm pretty sure that's not 30% of Ollie's body. Also, the scars looked old by the time Ollie got back to Starling City, but he had just got them in the fight.
Oh man, and don't get me started on his stupid wig and fake beard. When did Ollie have time to glue on a Castaway beard?!? He was late as it was to rendezvous with the boat. I can understand that the writers were trying very hard to tie everything together with the flashbacks from the first season, but in actuality, the resolution was kind of ridiculous.
Random: Going forward, I don't know where the show can go. Ollie needs a new foe. Vigilante is still running around and his identity needs to be resolved, but I don't think he's a big enough threat to be the main villain. Maybe they'll borrow some more villains from Batman's roster. Also, how is Ollie still the Mayor? He's got to be the worst Mayor ever. Ollie's birthday cake was the cutest. I liked that they used some art from a noted fan artist and named the bakery after him, too. So, Ollie and Felicity are getting back together? Make up your minds, writers! That's one problem with the show. They make a decision, and then they see the fan backlash, so they try to change things back. I hope they keep the flashbacks to a minimum next season. I mean, they can still have flashbacks in some stories, ones that they match up with the theme of the episode, but for the most part, the writers need to leave them alone. Without flashbacks, more of the episode can be devoted to the present day storyline. Just think of the extra scenes they could have.
- I'm hard pressed to remember what happened this season on Legends of Tomorrow since the finale was such a long time ago. What is obvious is how much the show improved from last season. Once the Legends were free to go wherever and whenever in time, it really opened up the show and made the storylines way better.
The only thing I didn't like was how they wrote out Rip. He'll pop up next season apparently, but he won't be a season regular. Some people might say good riddance, but I really liked him. He was just written poorly in the first season, partly due to the fact that the first season arc was no good. You have to wonder what this season might have looked like had Arthur Darvill not had a filming conflict with season three of Broadchurch. Would Rip still have disappeared? Or would he had stayed around for the entire season as captain of the Waverider? Given a chance, the writers probably could have turned the character around. As is, he didn't get any character growth due to memory loss and a turn as a baddie and now that he's gone, he probably won't get any meaty storylines. Sigh.
But we did get Sara as captain of the Waverider, which was great. The team definitely felt more cohesive this season. Or, at least, the writers had somewhat valid reasons for why characters sat out on adventures. LoT is a hard balancing act since all of the characters are superheroes and have unique skills. If everyone was on the top of their game, the bad guys would be done with within the first 20 minutes. The roster right now its pretty strong, but it would be nice if they added another female character. Gideon doesn't count since she's just a voice.
Oh, and the villain, or rather villains, were much improved over last season. Vandal Savage never felt threatening. Reverse Flash, along with Damien Darkh and Malcolm Merlyn, they actually seemed competent and kind of menacing. I say kind of because Damien and Malcolm bickering like little girls was such a delight. :-) I don't know what they're going to do for next season. You need a time travelling foe for sure or the team won't have a reason to go hopping around time and space. Since time is broken, I am looking forward to some weird mash-up eras. Dinosaurs with lasers! Or something. That was the most outlandish thing I could think of.
Random: The MacGuffin with the Spear of Destiny was kind of random, but it led the Legends to so many awesome places that I can forgive it. The show is basically Doctor Who with superheroes and I totally love it. Nate and Amaya getting together came out of nowhere, but it's a CW show, so of course there has to be romance. At least their romance is less annoying than Kendra and Carter's. Rory got to meet Captain Jack (in a way)! Too bad Rip still had his hippy hair at the time. Everyone punching Mick in the face in the finale was wonderful. The fact that he takes it just show how far he's come; he knew he made a mistake and that he hurt his only friends.
Can't wait for the massive four show crossover. Hopefully this time around, Supergirl will get to kick things off and Kara can bring more of her cast along for the ride.
Whew, that was a lot of TV to talk about. Lots to look forward to next season, too. Marvel is finally expanding its network TV presence with Inhumans, Gifted, Runaways, and Cloak and Dagger and the CW-DC verse is adding Black Lightning as well. I'm not sure if I'll check out everything, but it's nice that there are so many options.
- Supergirl's second season was much better than its first season, but I didn't realize how much the show needed Cat Grant until she re-appeared for the last two episodes. Cat's role was always to give sage advice to Kara and I always thought it was so repetitive. But you know what? Kara didn't have anyone to turn to this year. Everyone in her circle was involved in her Supergirl world, so no one had a view from the trenches, so to speak. Suddenly, here's Cat, and she's offering the other side of the argument that Kara lost sight of. I doubt the show can tempt Calista Flockhart back for a full time role, but it'd be nice if they could contrive of a way to have her back for more than four episodes a season.
They also seemingly lost a main character, so there is space in the roster. I'm not sad to see Mon-El go. His characterization was never quite right. Sure, he was fun, but his whole "I'm going to be a better man to impress Kara and win her love" was just stupid. You shouldn't become a better person just because you meet a cute girl. My ideal scenario would have been Kara and Mon-El not getting together and it's only at the end, when Mon-El shows some actual growth as a person and acts nobly from the right place, that Kara realizes that she loves this guy. You still get the same sad ending, but at least Mon-El's leaving isn't just for added angst. I like to think that the vortex that swallows up his ship is actually a time portal and he ends up in the 31st century and meets the Legion of Superheroes. They've actually shown us a Legion ring, so it's pretty plausible.
As for the finale itself, it felt kind of similar to last season's finale. The whole city is immobilized and a inspiring speech is used to win back hope. Kara has to fight a brainwashed relative. This time around, though, the fights were much better. Supergirl vs Superman was pretty damn cool. I feel like if the budget had been a bit bigger, they could have gone for a real slug match, with Kara and Clark just flying all over the place. Kara and Rhea's fight was a bit more subdue, but you had some banana balls stuff like how Rhea bleeds Kryptonite. The lead dust solution was a tad weird. So, everyone one Earth is now breathing in lead dust? Yes, there's a line about how it's a minimal amount and it won't affect humans, but still.
I hope they resist pairing Kara up with another love interest. There are enough happy couples on the show right now that Kara doesn't need to be bogged down with relationship woes. I also felt like Kara was never the focus of the relationship. It was all about Mon-El pining for Kara and then he lied and then they were together but here's his evil parents, and so on. If they do have another love interest for Kara, there's more drama if they're human and they don't know about her being Supergirl. Sure, you'll get the cliched storyline with Kara lying to her love interest about where she was and other things, but hey, it's traditional when it comes to a superhero story. ;-) It's more likely that Mon-El will pop up at the mid-season, magically cured of his lead allergy, and he and Kara can continue dating.
So who, or what, is in the other pod that left Krypton? Jeez, that'll be three pods, plus Mon-El's from Daxem. Who didn't leave Krypton before it exploded? I want to say it's Doomsday, since he has a Kryptonian connection in his background, but the emphasis on the word "reign", seems to suggest it's someone else. io9 speculates it's a character called Reign from Supergirl's New 52 comic line. Whatever the case may be, it'll be another Kryptonian villain for Kara to fight, which seems the norm. Barry fights other speedsters, Ollie fights other archers, and the Legends fight other time travellers.
Random: Zod cameo! Totally wasn't expecting that. It's so weird to think that this Superman has been having adventures for 12 years in Kara's world. He makes a reference to War World, too. But really? Silver Kryptonite? Why are there different colours to begin with? Well, I know why, it's a comic book, but wouldn't Red Kryptonite make more sense? Isn't that the one that causes Superman to go bad? Cat had the best line after everyone found out that Lynda Carter's character is an alien; "Please tell me you're still a Democrat." I still don't get why the President needs to be an alien, but any excuse to keep Lynda Carter around is good by me. :-) Also loved that Cat was able to tell that James was Guardian from just the eye slit in his helmet. The show finally acknowledged that Cat knows that Kara is Supergirl! She's probably been faking ignorance since she figured it out last season. Are Alex and Maggie getting married? Look, there needs to be a wedding at some point on one of the CW DC shows. Barry and Iris can't pull their crap together, so please let have Alex and Maggie have a wedding.
- The Flash this season... I don't know what happened. I think the massive retcon just screwed everything up. I mean, kudos for tackling alternative timelines, but it was a lazy way to have character development. The whole thing with Savitar also got super muddled. He was vaguely interesting as a villain, but then it got weird when it was revealed that he was an evil Barry time remnant from the near future. Seriously, that was the best they could come up with? These masked villain types either have good reveals or they don't. This is the third so far on The Flash. They need to switch up the formula.
If Savitar really needed to be an evil Barry, why not have the time remnant that Barry created at the end of season two be the evil twin? We saw his creation and his death. He already has a reason to have a burn scar on his face and a reason to resent actual Barry. No need to create a time remnant we've never seen and you also avoid the weird time loop thing.
I won't even go into the whole time paradox thing. Well, maybe a little. The second Iris didn't die, Evil!Barry should have ceased to exist because the circumstances of his creation had changed. You could argue that this is in line with how time is treated on Legends of Tomorrow; Rip always said that takes time for a new timeline to take hold. Fine. Time was settling. And yet, back in season one, when Eddie shot himself, Eobard immediately disappeared. Which one is it? Maybe with Eddie and Eobard, that's a family line, while Evil!Barry is more a result of a divergent timeline. Anyway...
Speaking of Iris not dying, of course they wouldn't kill her off. She's the main love interest and none of the shows so far have killed off a love interest while they were still the love interest (i.e.: see Laurel). Sure, Iris was killed off in the comics at one point, but man, they retconned the heck out of that event, so it's not like death is a permanent thing for Iris West in any incarnation. Since I'm not a huge fan of Iris on the show, I found the whole thing with her impending death kind of tedious. Throwing in H.R. as the noble hero of the hour was also very random. I get that he was trying to make up for his mistake with Savitar, but I feel like H.R. barely knows Iris. I guess H.R. is just a romantic at heart and he wanted Iris and Barry to have a happy ending.
At least this paves the way for another Harrison Wells! I know it's silly, having a new Harrison each season, but Tom Cavanagh is just so good at playing the different Harrisons. I do hope Harry, the Earth-2 Wells, is back for a bit. That would also mean Jesse could come back for a bit, now that she doesn't have to protect Earth-3 in Jay's absence.
Hey, I just realized that everyone got a love interest this season. Barry and Iris. Joe and Cecile. Cisco and Gypsy. Caitlin and Julian. Wally and Jesse. Hell, even H.R. and Tracy. The show actually managed to balance most of them. Joe putting himself out there again was cute. Most shows wouldn't have bothered giving the dad figure a dating life. Caitlin and Julian was a bit random and Julian went for the "I love you" way too soon in my opinion, but it was nice to see Caitlin happy for a little bit. Cisco and Gypsy? Eh, I couldn't really see it. Especially at the end of the season, when Gypsy shows up again because she could Vibe that Cisco was in danger because they have a "connection". Really? We're going with that wishy-washy excuse? Wally and Jesse needed more screen time and H.R. and Tracy just came out of nowhere. I think most of the relationships work since they're mostly contained within Team Flash so you're not wasting time with new characters.
Anyway, the resolution to the season finale. Evil!Barry just fades away. Later, the Speed Force suddenly starts going nuts because there's no one in the Speed Force prison and Barry opts to take up the vacancy. What? Why? Fans have commented that there was a much better ending the writers' missed and I totally agree. Since Barry was trying so hard to reach out to his evil twin, it would have made more sense to have Evil!Barry sacrifice himself so he was the one who entered the Speed Force prison. Thus, Evil!Barry redeems himself and proves he's still a good guy.
Or, you know, they didn't need to have the Speed Force going nuts at all. They just needed something big for Barry for the end of the season. Here's his big sacrifice since he screwed everything up with Flashpoint. That's fine and all, but why does his Speed Force prison get to be all sunshine and roses while Wally and Jay's experience was literally a living hell? Barry needs to learn a lesson, but he won't get that while hanging out with his Speed Force mom.
Now, Grant Gustin is the star of the show, so it doesn't seem likely that they wouldn't have him show up for a while, but they really shouldn't have him escaping the Speed Force in the first episode of season four, either. Maybe just give us a glimpse of Barry in the Speed Force at the end of the first episode, and then have him ask for help at the end of episode two. By episode three, Barry needs to be rescued, and then episode four is the big prison break. Rushing things with the Flashpoint storyline was not great, so I hope they remember that while planning season four.
Random: Can we please visit Earth-3 for an episode? I really want to see Jay in action in his city. Make it look like the Central City from the 1990 The Flash show, with all of the art deco stuff, and I will be so happy. Are they inviting Tom Felton back as a regular? It was weird that he wasn't around for the penultimate episode. I suppose he can keep going as a recurring, but that doesn't really work when he's on Team Flash. I have no idea where they're going with Killer Frost / Caitlin. Apparently Killer Frost in the comics is an anti-hero right now. Are they setting that up here? Just have her back on the team, dang it! It's no fun if she's moping around on her own. Seeing as Barry will be back at some point, does this mean we're going to get a wedding episode in the near future? There's already been one failed wedding on Arrow with Ollie and Felicity. I'm rooting more for Alex and Maggie's wedding to be honest.
- Switching comic book universes for a moment. I'm continually surprised with how far Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. has come since the show premiered. I wasn't in love with Ghost Rider, but everything after that, they just knocked it out of the park. The Framework stuff was so timely and chilling, especially after everyone got out. How do you reconcile these two lives in your head?
I should clarify that Ghost Rider was cool, but his inclusion felt very forced, like Marvel couldn't wait to use him in something; it didn't matter what. The transition from the Ghost Rider arc to the LMD arc wasn't as smooth as the transition from LMD to the Agents of Hydra arc. In my mind, the Darkhold was just a persistent MacGuffin that never really gained any traction. The thing with Robbie's uncle was separate from Aida's desire to use the book. Had they found a way to tie to two ideas together, beyond Robbie coming back to take the book away, then maybe I would have liked the Ghost Rider arc more.
Magic and the mystical also doesn't really jive with AoS' premise. Spy fi / superhero stuff works, but when you add magic, you're drifting into another genre. Thor's magic is easily explained away as advanced technology, but how do you explain magic? Integrating Doctor Strange into the rest of the MCU is going to be interesting.
I was worried they were going to kill off a bunch of characters. Mack seemed likely for a while. For a second, I thought they had killed Simmons. Though, when did they have time to make a Simmons LMD? Aida never made one for the takeover of the base. Creating a life-like robot from scratch doesn't seem like something you could do in a couple of hours within a blown up base. They did wimp out on Talbot. A shot to the head? He should be dead, not in a coma. Robot Daisy is a poor shot if that's the case. In the end, we only really lost Mace from the team and he wasn't a season regular. Not that I want the show to kill off characters. Please god, don't kill off any of the main cast.
So, next season is set in space? Is this set-up for Thor: Ragnarok? Or maybe the Inhumans TV series? I could imagine Coulson and Co. being kidnapped by Black Bolt and his people because of how bad things went in regards to S.H.I.E.L.D. and Inhumans. But I don't see a crossover happening between the two shows at this point; Marvel TV doesn't have that kind of synergy. So, other possibilities. Actually, I don't know. I'm not that familiar with Marvel's space faring races. Maybe the Kree grabbed the team? For some reason, I keep thinking Star Jammers, but they're tied up with Cyclops and his dad, so that probably makes them off bounds. Ooh ooh, maybe this is S.W.O.R.D.! In the comics, they're the branch of S.H.I.E.L.D. that handles aliens and stuff. Maybe General Talbot set them up in secret. Oh crap, they were introduced in the X-Men comics, so maybe not. But I think Selvig mentioned them in a cut scene from the first Thor movie, so maybe S.W.O.R.D. is still on the table. Joss did create S.W.O.R.D. for his run on Astonishing X-Men, so maybe they would allow him to have it.
Random: May was totally not happy that Coulson opened that bottle of Hague with Robot May. My gosh, Coulson was so embarrassed. His suggestion of starting again where they last left off is sweet, though, of course, it slows down the development of any romantic relationship. Poor Fitz and Simmons. Their time in the Framework totally messed things up. Why can't people be happy on this show? Is Elena a regular for next season? I hope so. So that Russian guy is still running around? He said his head is hidden somewhere, so he can keep creating copies of himself until the cows come home.
ABC has moved AoS to Fridays. Please don't let this become your typical death slot.
- Arrow season five was a return to basics. I don't think the show will ever reach the same level of storytelling that they had in season two, their best season I think, but this season was certainly an improvement from last season. And no more flashbacks! Well, I'm sure there will be flashbacks, but no more flashbacks to Ollie's five year absence. More on the flashbacks in a sec, but first, let's talk about this season.
Things started off fairly well with the new recruits, and before we found out who Prometheus was, that was kind of interesting, too. Ollie's early mistakes as the Hood were coming back to haunt him. The bait and switch they did with Adrian Chase and Vigilante was actually a decent twist that I don't think fans saw coming. You assume Vigilante is Chase, because that's Vigilante's alter ego in the comics. Then Ollie found out about Chase well before the end of the season and that ramped up the tension. But after that... Ollie was just floundering. Chase was always one step ahead of him and Ollie never caught up. I know the heroes can't figure everything out right away, or that would be the end of the season, but Ollie could have had a win here or there so he wouldn't look so dumb.
Even in the finale, Ollie still had no idea what was going on. I swear, he only outsmarted Chase once, with making it seem like Slade had switched sides. And now, everyone is potentially dead, except Ollie and his son. As a way to wipe the slate clean, well, this is a doozy. Let's blow up an entire island! I thought it was pretty cool they brought back a lot of old characters, like Slade and Nyssa, but then, once the island exploded, I realized it was also a way to whittle down the recurring characters. In the definitely dead column, I say Captain Boomerang is dead, mostly because of the Suicide Squad movie. Hell, they didn't even say or call him Captain Boomerang; you're expected to remember who he is. Malcolm is probably dead, too, since John Barrowman said he's not involved with any of the DC CW shows next year. But he's also the Magician, so there is a chance he could come back. Evelyn Sharp is probably dead, too, as she's a bad guy and she was also stuck in a cage when the explosions happened.
I wish they were using the finale as a way to whittle down the recruits, too, but it sounds like Rene will be a regular next season (boo). Dinah will also be a regular, but I actually like her, so that's good news. Of the remaining characters, I'm sure Felicity and Dig will survive. Probably Curtis, too. Samantha, Williams's mother, well, that's a toss up. She's really not that important. I have my doubts about Thea. She hasn't been around a lot this season, but to kill off Ollie's one remaining family member is not cool. Lance seems like an easy target. I've been expecting them to kill off his character since season one. Though, now that Lance knows about Earth-2 Laurel, that gives him a good storyline for next season so who knows. Black Siren is not dead because they announced that Katie Cassidy will be a regular across all shows next year.
Slade and Nyssa and Talia are unique since they are tied up with Batman. Slade is scheduled to appear in the solo Batman movie and Nyssa and Talia are part of the Batman mythos. I don't know if there's a Bat embargo on right now, but I can see the show killing off all three if required. I want to see more of Slade, though. Now that he's not crazy, his character is interesting again. We'll see. The Batman movie is a ways off, so maybe Arrow can have Slade for the time being.
As for how everyone will survive... I don't know. There wasn't time to get to the ARGUS supply boat. One fan theory I read speculates that Slade took everyone to the ARGUS prison. One can imagine it would be strong enough to stand up to a massive explosion. It's already established, too, so you don't have to come up with something new.
So Ollie's flashbacks are done. Thank god. The producers always claimed that they had the five years mapped out, that Ollie's scars and tattoos were a literal road map, but I feel like that was a generous lie. Case in point: they forgot to give Ollie his Chinese tattoo during the season three flashbacks. If you guys had everything planned out, you would have had a show bible written up with all of the details. Towards the end, they were just throwing in injuries just so Ollie's scars lined up. Random shark attack in season four. Last minutes burns in the fight with Kovar. That last one made me shake my head. I'm pretty sure in the pilot episode, a doctor said that Ollie had third degree burns over 30% of his body or some such line. Yeah, the burns were just on Ollie's lower back; I'm pretty sure that's not 30% of Ollie's body. Also, the scars looked old by the time Ollie got back to Starling City, but he had just got them in the fight.
Oh man, and don't get me started on his stupid wig and fake beard. When did Ollie have time to glue on a Castaway beard?!? He was late as it was to rendezvous with the boat. I can understand that the writers were trying very hard to tie everything together with the flashbacks from the first season, but in actuality, the resolution was kind of ridiculous.
Random: Going forward, I don't know where the show can go. Ollie needs a new foe. Vigilante is still running around and his identity needs to be resolved, but I don't think he's a big enough threat to be the main villain. Maybe they'll borrow some more villains from Batman's roster. Also, how is Ollie still the Mayor? He's got to be the worst Mayor ever. Ollie's birthday cake was the cutest. I liked that they used some art from a noted fan artist and named the bakery after him, too. So, Ollie and Felicity are getting back together? Make up your minds, writers! That's one problem with the show. They make a decision, and then they see the fan backlash, so they try to change things back. I hope they keep the flashbacks to a minimum next season. I mean, they can still have flashbacks in some stories, ones that they match up with the theme of the episode, but for the most part, the writers need to leave them alone. Without flashbacks, more of the episode can be devoted to the present day storyline. Just think of the extra scenes they could have.
- I'm hard pressed to remember what happened this season on Legends of Tomorrow since the finale was such a long time ago. What is obvious is how much the show improved from last season. Once the Legends were free to go wherever and whenever in time, it really opened up the show and made the storylines way better.
The only thing I didn't like was how they wrote out Rip. He'll pop up next season apparently, but he won't be a season regular. Some people might say good riddance, but I really liked him. He was just written poorly in the first season, partly due to the fact that the first season arc was no good. You have to wonder what this season might have looked like had Arthur Darvill not had a filming conflict with season three of Broadchurch. Would Rip still have disappeared? Or would he had stayed around for the entire season as captain of the Waverider? Given a chance, the writers probably could have turned the character around. As is, he didn't get any character growth due to memory loss and a turn as a baddie and now that he's gone, he probably won't get any meaty storylines. Sigh.
But we did get Sara as captain of the Waverider, which was great. The team definitely felt more cohesive this season. Or, at least, the writers had somewhat valid reasons for why characters sat out on adventures. LoT is a hard balancing act since all of the characters are superheroes and have unique skills. If everyone was on the top of their game, the bad guys would be done with within the first 20 minutes. The roster right now its pretty strong, but it would be nice if they added another female character. Gideon doesn't count since she's just a voice.
Oh, and the villain, or rather villains, were much improved over last season. Vandal Savage never felt threatening. Reverse Flash, along with Damien Darkh and Malcolm Merlyn, they actually seemed competent and kind of menacing. I say kind of because Damien and Malcolm bickering like little girls was such a delight. :-) I don't know what they're going to do for next season. You need a time travelling foe for sure or the team won't have a reason to go hopping around time and space. Since time is broken, I am looking forward to some weird mash-up eras. Dinosaurs with lasers! Or something. That was the most outlandish thing I could think of.
Random: The MacGuffin with the Spear of Destiny was kind of random, but it led the Legends to so many awesome places that I can forgive it. The show is basically Doctor Who with superheroes and I totally love it. Nate and Amaya getting together came out of nowhere, but it's a CW show, so of course there has to be romance. At least their romance is less annoying than Kendra and Carter's. Rory got to meet Captain Jack (in a way)! Too bad Rip still had his hippy hair at the time. Everyone punching Mick in the face in the finale was wonderful. The fact that he takes it just show how far he's come; he knew he made a mistake and that he hurt his only friends.
Can't wait for the massive four show crossover. Hopefully this time around, Supergirl will get to kick things off and Kara can bring more of her cast along for the ride.
Whew, that was a lot of TV to talk about. Lots to look forward to next season, too. Marvel is finally expanding its network TV presence with Inhumans, Gifted, Runaways, and Cloak and Dagger and the CW-DC verse is adding Black Lightning as well. I'm not sure if I'll check out everything, but it's nice that there are so many options.