TV Review: Arrow (Season 5)

**Contains spoilers**

With a revamped Team Arrow, more focused flashbacks and one of “Arrow’s” strongest villains, season 5 breathed new life into the Arrowverse’s flagship series.

The biggest change this season was giving Oliver a new group of heroes to fight alongside him. The previously established characters of Curtis Holt and Evelyn Sharp, Mr. Terrific and Artemis respectively, are joined by newcomers Wild Dog and Ragman. Mr. Terrific floundered most of the season, only beginning to tap into his potential once his patented T-Spheres are introduced. He’s still an awkward character, but if they can work a few more kinks out he can be a strong addition to the team. Artemis mostly fell off the map after her betrayal of the team, while Ragman, the member with actual superpowers, left the show out of the blue. Wild Dog was grading for all his early appearances, constantly ignoring Oliver’s orders and screwing up multiple missions. Once he began to play ball and bond with the other characters, Detective Lance in particular, he became the most interesting new member of the group. The new Black Canary was a late addition to the series, and so far she’s been bland and uncharismatic. Hopefully she can be fleshed out some next season.

The other returning cast members held up their end. As far as standouts, Paul Blackthorne’s Detective Lance still brings the deepest emotion to his scenes when called for, while Stephen Amell as Green Arrow has some strong moments as well. Josh Segarra really nails it as the primary villain, Adrian Chase. He comes off a bit unhinged in his early appearance, but this plays into the red herring that he’s the new vigilante, well, Vigilante.  Once his identity is revealed as Prometheus, he gets to cut loose and just ooze evil charisma.

The flashbacks on “Arrow” have been a double-edged sword. They’re either interesting and add to what’s happening currently on the show, or they’re just tacked on and stretched out over the length of the season just to have flashbacks. For better or worse, they won’t be returning next season.

The finale had an interesting conclusion. While chances are things weren’t as catastrophic as they seemed, it’s very possible that some characters have bit the dust. And after a spectacular and long awaited return, I’m hoping to see Deathstroke find his way back for more appearances.

The final word: this season of “Arrow” saw some retooling, that after some growing pains, showed potential for a fun new status quo. Next season can take a dramatically different direction after we say goodbye to the flashbacks, Adrian Chase and possibly almost all of Team Arrow.

*** out of *****

TV Review: The Flash (Season 3)

**Contains spoilers**

This season started off with strong possibilities, beginning with an adaption of the popular “Flashpoint” storyline and the anticipated “Invasion” crossover event. While they seemed to miss the mark a bit on the earlier part of the season, the final stretch began to pull things together in time for a solid conclusion.

The Flashpoint episode was a bit of a letdown. Going in, it became apparent that the new reality would be primarily contained within “The Flash.” The comic book that inspired this story featured some dramatic character shift, for example Bruce Wayne died and his father became Batman while Superman was held in a government lab his whole life and never got his powers. Obviously, I didn’t expect to see these characters, but they could’ve had a bit of fun with some of the other Arrowverse shows. The real letdown with “Flashpoint” was that it was quickly wrapped up. Fortunately, the new timeline featured some interesting twists. Some of them were things I assumed they we revert back to normal after a few episodes. It was a pleasant surprise to see them keep many of them the rest of the year.

Some of the bigger changes to come out of this new status quo were the transformation of Wally into Kid Flash, Caitlin becoming Killer Frost and the addition of Julian (played by Tom Felton.) While just an annoying thorn in Barry’s side at first, he eventually finds his groove and truly becomes part of Team Flash. While not quite a new character, Tom Cavanagh plays yet another version of Harrison Wells. He was a bit too odd at first, but soon became a fun character.

Once again, the show had to rely on another evil speedster as the main villain. Although Dr. Alchemy initially seemed to be this season’s major bad guy, that wouldn’t be the case. He wasn’t really the most interesting character, but it was a nice change of pace until Savitar showed up. The fully CG design looked too much like a poor man’s Transformer. And besides his arm blades, he brought very little new besides being yet another bad guy that’s faster than The Flash. After painfully dragging out the reveal of his true identity, his motivations became clear and he became somewhat sympathetic.

Now to one of the biggest spoilers of the season. We were teased for months about the impending death of Iris. When it finally came time to pull the trigger, the show gave us an emotional and extremely well put together moment as Iris couldn’t outrun fate. The only problem was that these shows have become infamous for the bait-and-switch. All I could think as I watched this was that her death was aa trick or something that would be undone. It made it impossible to totally buy into the drama. It made the reveal the following week lack any emotional punch and what really transpired just didn’t garner any reaction.

Overall, this was probably a better season than the previous, but still nowhere near as good as the amazing first season. The main villain was probably the most complex on the show so far. The cliffhanger wasn’t the most engaging, and we’ll have to see if they just rush through the conclusion at the start of season four.

*** out of *****

TV Review: Supergirl (Season 2)

**Contains spoilers**

With the move to the CW, “Supergirl” sees some improvements….and takes a few steps back. The biggest loss is Calista Flockhart’s Cat Grant. Due to the show’s filming locations switching from Los Angeles to Vancouver, it was announced that she would be having a reduced role. Ultimately, that meant only appearing in two or three episodes. Not only did that mean Supergirl would no longer have her maternal bonding and sage advice from Cat Grant, but we would also see the Catco sequences reduced to a handful of scenes. It seems as if they wanted “Supergirl” to have their own hero’s lair like “Arrow” and “The Flash” to keep all the shows consistent.

Another about-face was the screeching halt to the Jimmy Olson/Kara romance. After building it up all last season, it was quickly scrapped with little explanation. It seems it was done to set up Kara’s new love interest, Mon-El. While a bit obnoxious at first, and a big departure from the comic book version, Chris Wood’s grows more charming with each episode. His chemistry with Kara is believable and carries a lot of episodes when the writing fails.

This season also saw the Alex coming out story. While this seemed to come out of leftfield as season one she seemed to be into men, it was fairly well thought out and there was some good dialog explaining Alex’s lifelong confusion. The biggest beneft from this change was giving the character more depth while allowing her to have storylines not tied to Supergirl.

One thing that never gelled was having Jimmy Olsen suddenly become the vigilante, Guardian. This really added very little to the show and seemed to copy the other Arrowverse shows by having as many superheroes as possible.

Speaking of heroes, there was the much-hyped “Invasion” crossover. The “Supergirl” portion was a huge letdown. It was one quick scene at the end of an episode. A scene that would be repeated anyways later in the crossover.

The greatest asset still is Melissa Benoist. She brings so much depth to Supergirl. She is what holds the show together. Even fighting alongside her more famous cousin, Superman, she is the star. (Solid performance by Tyler Hoechlin as Superman. He may not be the most muscular version of the Man of Steel, but he captures much of the classic charm.)

Finally, the show had one major flaw this season: A lack of a clear villain. Early episodes set the stage for Cadimus to be the big threat. But, they mostly got shove off to the side. The midseason brought us what would eventually be the true threat, but they were built up so slowly that the show was on the final few episodes by this point. The lack of focus really hurt, and allowed all the other flaws to stick out.

**1/2 out of *****

Movie Review: Alien: Covenant

After a slow start, things suddenly pick up before reaching a suspenseful, but familiar, climax. With the exception of one brief harrowing sequence, the fist portion of this film moves quite slow. While this would be the ideal time for character building, it’s used more for sci-fi imagery. Spacewalks, equipment checks, and tech talk are the focus. Only one character has any significant backstory established. When things finally go south, and they do fairly quickly, it’s hard to care too much as bodies start piling up and nobody is established much beyond being a soldier or one of the other characters spouses. Things slow down again briefly to introduce the film’s villain, whose motivations aren’t quite a clear as they should be. The final action sequences are fine, but by this point it’s fairly obvious who will survive and who will not. Even the final twist can be seen a mile away. Aside from filling in a bit more on the origin of the Aliens, and nothing new on the Engineers, we have the same basic “Aliens” plot we’ve seen before.

**1/2 out of *****

TV Review: Agents of SHIELD (Season 4)

*Contains spoilers*

This show has improved every season, and the latest is some of the best TV this year. Great acting, top-notch special effects, and three distinct story “pods” all contribute to creating a fantastic, and thankfully not final, season.

The opening pod, subtitled “Ghost Rider” features the Robbie Reyes version of Ghost Rider. While not the best known iteration of Ghost Rider, there are enough similarities to the more popular versions to create something familiar yet unique. The flaming skull effects are perfect, easily surpassing the mediocre special effects that have plagued the series in the past. While there were some story beats that detracted from the cool visuals, the pods finale wrapped up strongly and had an intriguing cliffhanger. 

The second pod, LMD, started off a little slow and seemed somewhat unfocused. However, the final few episodes were phenomenal, with multiple plot twists and a suspenseful “who can you trust” vibe. There were definitely some weak episodes in this arc, and quite a few things that never paid off later on.

“Agents of Hydra,” the final pod, was practically perfection. Thanks to the alternate reality of the Framework, we had an opportunity to see twisted versions of some of our favorite characters. Nothing was harder to watch than seeing lovable Fitz transformed into one of the series most hated villains. We also had the chance to see some fan favorites return, in particular, Grant Ward. They really put the heroes backs against the wall here, and it was that much sweeter to watch them overcome the odds. Although there were some loose ends and there were some wasted opportunities, the finale tied up all the threads from all three pods into a satisfying ending. 

What stood out more this season than any other was the acting. While almost everyone contributed to this, the strongest moments came from Elizabeth Henstridge’s Jemma Simmons and Mallory Janson’s AIDA. Henstridge had her character put through the wringer and she really sold her emotional journey. Janson brought depth to an emotionless android, and then brought nuance the all the various incarnations of AIDA.

Great acting, seamless special effects, and the three “pod” season all elevated what was once a mediocre TV show to possibly the best superhero show on right now.

Season’s best episode: “Self-Control” (Episode 15)

Season’s worst episode: “Hot Potato Soup” (Episode 12)

****1/2 out of *****