Still sick, so I’ll keep it brief. I’ve also decided since Flash and AoS both air on Tuesdays I’d streamline my reviews into one column. So on that note, introducing the Tuesday TV Two-Fer!
Before I get into the reviews, a quick comment on the Playstation Originals “Powers” adaptation; I shall NOT be adding it to my weekly Comic Book TV reviews. I got two episodes in and it just wasn’t grabbing me. It’s dreadfully insipidly boring. I nearly fell asleep halfway through episode 2. It’s a sad dreadful waste of the talent involved. Honestly it felt like an excuse for Eddie Izzard to finally get to play the Grampa Munster NBC robbed him of, and for Sharlto Copley to spend an hour a week cussing excessively whilst doing a shaky impression of David Tennant in Broadchurch with the Gracepoint accent, all whilst pretending to react to lacklustre special effects. Honestly, the JLA pilot is wrapping an arm around Powers in a bar right now buying it a drink and saying “I feel your pain Bro”.
Anyway, onto the reviews! HERE THERE BE SPOILERS!!!
The Flash 1×15; “Out Of Time”
In the pilot Barry’s first foe was Clyde Marden, the prototype for the Weather Wizard. Many comic fans noted that in the comics, it was Clyde’s brother Mark who was actually the Weather Wizard, and that the younger Clyde simply made his brother’s weaponry and weather controlling tech. Well as it turns out, in Flash TV land, Clyde was a red herring. It seems his smarter, wiser, more collected brother Mark also survived the plane crash caused by the explosion that created metahumans. He’s all healed up from the crash and seeking revenge on the cop that killed Clyde.
As Mark interrogates a coroner with huge hailstones HA*DO*KEN style, Wells and Cisco have their Classic Movie night interrupted by a silent alarm at said morgue. So Cisco calls Barry and mercifully interrupts the single most uncomfortable date ever. Barry and Linda ran into Iris and Eddie at a bowling alley, leaving Linda and Eddie both all too aware of the chemistry that’s just suddenly there between Barry and Iris. And I know we’re supposed to root for Barry and Iris as the CANON COMIC COUPLE!!! (™ & ©), but honestly Iris fawning over Barry out of nowhere after spending the whole series thus far treating him like a brother, in front of her live-in boyfriend AND Barry’s new girlfriend who is also Iris’ bloody CO-WORKER? Yeah no, I’m not feeling the ship, I’m only feeling the sinking.
Barry runs off to the morgue, but gets freaked out when he suddenly gets passed by himself. We get a “There WILL be a Quiz Later Kids!” moment of Barry stopping and looking around to see three distinct things just happening nearby and I will bet MONEY we see this exact shot again by episode’s end.
Later at the crime scene Barry tells Joe that the coroner was pummeled by giant hailstones based on the impact bruising and the melting ice fragments. Then Eddie plays them back the late Coroner’s automated note-taker and Joe recognizes Mark Marden’s voice.
As always Joe plays “My daughter must never be exposed to anything anywhere EVER” dad and tells Barry not to fill her in on the looming threat to his life despite the very real likelihood that Iris is also a potential target. As he and Joe leave for STARLabs, Eddie tells Iris he’s noticed the difference in how she and Barry act around each other lately that has literally only been actually shown THIS episode. All we’ve seen until now was Iris being weird about Barry finding a girlfriend after confessing love so he could move on. But until this week the closest she came to showing non-sisterly affection for Barry was trying to break him and Linda up. I am SO not shipping this.
(For the record, if anyone cares, my Flash TV ships are Barry/Caitlyn and Cisco/Pied Piper)
Meanwhile, Iris’ mentor at the news office turns her on to the idea that Wells might be a murdering sociopath, while Cisco creates a new toy that will supposedly cut off Marden’s ability to manipulate weather. Barry mentions Iris asking him about Wells in connection to the disappearance of Simon Stagg at lunch, and while Caitlyn dismisses the idea as absurd, Cisco looks at the folder Iris gave Barry and realizes Joe’s suspicions about Wells may have had some weight to them.
Marden attacks the police station and one cop is seriously injured. There’s a subtle gut punch moment in the hospital after where Joe has to throw his weight as a cop around just so his gay co-worker’s fiance can go sit with his husband to be after the nurse tries to pull a “family only” thing. It’s short and unobtrusive and makes it’s point quickly and moves on, but it hit me hard.
Joe ignores the captain’s orders to lay low and goes looking for Marden and Eddie follows him, insisting Joe needn’t do it alone. Cisco meanwhile convinces Caitlyn to take Wells for coffee to distract him so he can do some snooping. Cisco discovers that the Reverse Flash they thought they had trapped a few months earlier was a holographic projection speaking lines. And just as Cisco realizes with a sick look on his face that the person Reverse Flash was supposedly talking to had to know his lines in advance to pull off a believable interaction, Wells appears behind him and recites his lines, having figured out Caitlyn was stalling him and ditching her at the coffee shop.
Seriously, the look of utter horror on Caitlyn’s face when she turned to see the empty wheelchair and realized Cisco was right was perfect.
Wells murders Cisco after explaining that he’s actually Eobard Thawne, descendant of Eddie, trapped in the present for the past 15 years and trying to get Barry to a state with his powers where he can use Barry to get home. Finally Marden breaks Joe’s leg and handcuffs him to a bench on a pier, and calls Iris to tell her to come see her dad. She and Barry head to the waterfront, where Iris inexplicably decides right now is a good time to tell Barry she loves him. They kiss and my skin has taken up residence under my bed. Barry then changes into his Flash duds right in front of her, (and everyone else on the bloody beach), and starts running back and forth along the beach to create a “wind wall” to deflect Marden’s tidal wave/tsunami and runs so fast he ends up a few hours in the past running past himself.
I collect on my imaginary bet as the same 3 specific shots show, and Barry realizes he’s time travelled.
And thus ends the Flash this week, as we await next week’s Timey Wimey BS that we’ll all tolerate as long as Cisco is alive by the end of it.
Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. 2×13; “One of Us”
Skye’s Dad is recruiting people from the Index, S.H.I.E.L.D.’s list of enhanced people. He plans to call Coulson’s crew into the light and reveal them to the world as the monsters he thinks they are. He’s already picked up a super hacker and a muscly thug, now he’s recruiting a poor man’s Lady Shiva.
Skye meanwhile is eating Grilled Cheese with Coulson, who both guards the secret of the sammich, but also tells Skye up front that he’s putting her on the Index. He later asks May to go ask her ex-husband, a psychiatrist, to come give Skye a psyche eval. Skye is at first vehemently opposed to the idea until May confesses their past relationship, and the good doctor is able to trade Skye May Gossip for her taking the interviews seriously.
Bobbi talks to Mac on the phone about his having had to choke out Lance last week, hearing Lance cursing her lying @ss existence in the background. They discuss how to proceed and Bobbi tells Mac to give him a beer.
Skye’s Dad meanwhile breaks into an asylum to free another indexer, a guy with a voice that can induce comas in any living thing that hears it. He then drives to Coulson’s hometown to set a trap for him.
Fitz and Simmons briefly overcome Simmons hypocritical tantrum, (“He lied to me to protect our friend from my borderline Naziesque levels of xenophobia against people with powers! I cannot forgive his breach of my trust! Even though I previously lied to him about going undercover with Hydra solely to get away from him because I couldn’t deal with his brain damage he got saving my bloody life!”). They do so whilst gossiping about May and her dreamy ex. Then the room starts shaking and everyone runs to the Bus to find Skye having a nightmare and projecting tremors. They wake her and May’s Ex resumes their session.
Coulson grills Bobbi about Lance’s vanishing act and Bobbi covers reasonably well. Then Coulson figures out where Skye’s Dad is going and leaves, calling May for back-up. May takes the bus with Skye and May’s ex both still IN it, instead of, y’know, leaving them be and just taking one of the spare jets. He scolds her for her inconsiderate BS, and Skye insists on going with May to save Coulson, swearing her powers are under control and figuring they can use her father’s obsession with her to their advantage.
Coulson and Bobbi arrive to find a football field full of comatose teenagers and birds, and Skye’s Dad demanding he surrender. But just as Bargain Basement Blackbolt is about to scream into a microphone broadcasting to anyone in the whole town listening to the radio station, Not Nightcrawler bamfs in and kidnaps Skye’s dad, leaving May and Bobbi to capture his team. Skye gets so stressed watching them beat up the enhanced folks, that her powers start to shake the ground, so she turns it inwards and causes bruises and microfractures all along her hands and arms.
Simmons jury-rigs some braces for Skye, while May’s Ex recommends Skye leave S>H.I.E.L.D. entirely to get a handle on her powers alone and free from the stress. May vehemently disagrees with that idea. May’s Ex says that S.H.I.E.L.D. really hasn’t changed at all and leaves.
Dual stingers show Mac revealing to Lance that he and Bobbi work for the “real” S.H.I.E.L.D., and I’m as confused as you are. Meanwhile Not Nightcrawler tells Skye’s Dad he’s too loud and he was kidnapped to get him to stop drawing attention to empowered people. He dismissively calls Skye’s Dad a lab experiment, suggesting that the Inhumans have a disdain for those whose powers come from artificial means rather than those who possess the Inhuman genes that reacts to the Terragin mist. He tells Skye’s Dad his fate isn’t up to him, and gestures to the door. Skye’s Dad seems to sink at this, suggesting he knows who he’s about to go talk to and is unhappy with it.
See you lot tomorrow for a look at recent Joker and Batgirl controversies.
