The Flash: Season 1, Episode 2

The Flash

Episode Title: “Fastest Man Alive”

Channel: CW

Director: David Nutter

Writers: Andrew Kreisberg and Geoff Johns

Genre: Action, Adventure, Drama, Fantasy, Sci-Fi

Runtime: 45min

Rated: TV-PG

Original Air Date: October 14, 2014

The best part of this week's episode of The Flash were my many father/son interactions that we saw. Barry and Joe have what would have to be a complicated relationship, and the audience is exposed to many of the different facets of it. There's all the aspects of it you'd expect, the trouble of raising a child not your own and the rebellion that can bring, the love that grows between a father and son in everything but genetics, and the pain and hurt all of that can impart upon them. Gustin and Jesse L. Martin are both remarkable in those scenes, bring a real depth of emotion that you can see in their faces.

In Arrow, we see a support structure built around the hero of people that are already competent and confident in their abilities. Conversely, we are seeing in The Flash that Barry's support system is learning along with him, sometimes reluctantly. Cisco and Caitlin are still a little too cookie-cutter for me, they don't seem to be much more than the two stereotypical sidekick oddballs; both intelligent but one with a zany side and one always by the book. I hope to see a little more out of them going forward, but it's not a big issue at this point, the audience is still meeting The Flash at this point, no need to delve too deeply into the side characters yet.

The same can not be said for the villains though. I feel like I should know a little more about them before they're defeated. Stagg especially seemed like a villain that could hang around for a bit, not quite The Flash's Lex Luthor, but someone approaching that status. Of course, without Stagg, as is, we wouldn't have gotten that ending, and what an ending it was. After last week, I thought I had a good idea where things were going to go with Dr. Wells, now I'm not so sure. That mystery will be one of the things that keep me tuning in

Conclusion: This was a solid follow up to “City of Heroes.” I do feel like the audience needs to see that everyone that was affected by the particle accelerator disaster didn't turn into a homicidal madman, but other than that I had few issues with the episode, and what minor ones I did have can be attributed to how early in Barry's story we are, the audience has to understand him pretty well before we can starting caring about side characters and villains too.

Rating: 7.75/10

Gotham: Season 1, Episode 4

Gotham

Episode Title: “Arkham”

Channel: Fox

Director: T.J. Scott

Writer: Ken Woodruff

Genre: Crime, Drama, Thriller

Runtime: 45 min

Rated: TV-14

Original Air Date: October 13, 2014

Here we go again, and it's even more obvious than it has been previously. The audience should have seen the work the Waynes were doing leading up to their deaths. Endless anecdotes about what the Waynes were striving for will never replace the power that those scenes would've held for the audience had they been part of the first season. It would also have made their deaths mean something to audience, beyond the fact that a boy lost his parents. Even there though, all we've seen is this obsessed and depressed young man delving into his parents' plans and murder, I would have preferred to see a Bruce full of hope and love for his parents, and the way that the murders changed him, that would have been an opportunity to actually develop his character more. As much as this production decision bothers me, I think this will be the last time I mention it, I've simply got to accept where they began the story and sit through the clunkier storytelling that is a result.

Robin Lord Taylor was again a high point for the episode, Cobblepot is at times endearing, ruthless and deeply cunning. It has already been fun to see the evolution of the character, and I'm looking forward to seeing it continue. Nygma popped up again, but in a way that made much more sense in regards to his role as a forensics specialist. They also managed to keep him away from misplaced riddles this time around. Hopefully this means the audience won't be continually hit over the head with winks and nods to what is coming. The scenes with Fish Mooney seemed mostly wasted this time around; I know what she's planning is important to the show going forward, but the auditions scenes felt like something that could have happened in the background.

Barbara keeps being Barbara. There seems to be a struggle for the writers to devise something important for her to do, so she's quite unreasonably grilling Gordon over aspects of his job that he can't discuss, and finally she delivers an ultimatum. Maybe if they take a break from her for a few episodes they can find something worthwhile for her to do, so far she hasn't added much to the narrative and only serves to annoy the audience, which is no way to endear her to us, or get us to take her side.

The story itself was all right, nothing we haven't seen before. Gordon and Bullock manage to stop the hitman before he kills his final target, but things don't go as expected and now the only people happy are the criminals. The set up was different, but it's not too different from the plot of the previous episode, just more politically motivated than pure vigilantism. There was one whacky bit of editing that I had to laugh at. Gordon watched the first part of the mayor's press conference at Arkham from the station, and the last part of it with Bruce Wayne at Wayne Manor, oops.

Conclusion: Taylor is again excellent, but the rest of the episode feels like a rehash of things we've seen already. That is a feeling that the audience shouldn't be experiencing so early in the series' run. There needs to be more variety in the events of Gotham for it to be very interesting going forward.

Rating: 6.5/10

The Walking Dead: Season 5, Episode 1

The Walking Dead

Episode Title: “No Sanctuary”

Channel: AMC

Director: Greg Nicotero

Writer: Scott M. Gimple

Genre: Drama, Horror, Thriller

Runtime: 44 min

Rated: TV-14

Original Air Date: October 12, 2014

Wow, that was an action packed season opener! It just felt like it started and never even slowed down. Gareth and company are, I think, the scariest villains we've run into so far on The Walking Dead. What they're doing is clearly evil and heartless, but they do it so dispassionately that it makes their heinous action seem like another day at the office. The trough scene highlights this perfectly, encompassing outright butchery and book keeping all at once.

Carol's reunion with the rest of the group is amazing as she single-handedly causes more destruction and chaos than any character on the show has thus far without the benefit of a tank. The emotional rollercoaster reaches a new high as the reunions at the end of the episode should leave everyone feeling at least a little misty. I'm not sure I like the flashback scenes that almost seem to be trying to evoke some sort of sympathy for the citizens of Terminus. Their side of the story was told to the audience already, let us decide how reliable their version is.

My one major problem with this episode is that I don't believe the group's reaction to Rick's suggestion at the end. The survivors that have been with Rick for a while have seen what happens when you hurt an enemy and don't finish them off. They lick their wounds and then they come after you. How could they think it's a good idea to leave any possibility of pursuit from those calculating killers? They've been burned before, and without some serious discussion among them about a course of action I can't believe they'd willingly leave the proverbial knife to their back.

Conclusion: Other than the one issue I took, this was a great opener. I'm glad to see that after the second half of season four, where every episode seemed like it followed a different set of two or three survivors, we seem to have gained some cohesion for the time being. The only thing this episode didn't do is delineate a clear path for the season to take, but that isn't always necessary, especially when you begin with such a bang.

Rating: 8.5/10

Sidenote: After the show, there was the typical, “scenes from the next...” followed by a short little teaser, featuring a character that we haven't seen in a very long time. My first thought was of a return, but I'm not sure if, distance-wise, that's feasible. I'm not sure how far into production the spin-off series is, but what if that was what we saw there? That would allow the fans to continue the story of one of the early series favorites, without trying to find a contrived way to reintroduce them to the main arc. I don't know that that's how it's going to go, but I'd be happy if it did.

Doctor Who: Season 8, Episode 8

Doctor Who

Episode: “Mummy on the Orient Express”

Channel: BBC

Director: Paul Wilmshurst

Writer: Jamie Mathieson

Genre: Adventure, Drama, Fantasy, Sci-Fi

Runtime: 45 min

Rated: TV-PG

Original Air Date: October 11, 2014

That's the way all one-off Who episodes should be. I'll be honest, the previews for this week's episode did not excite me, in fact I may have actually groaned during the TV spot. Just as last week's disappointing “Kill the Moon” showed that good previews can lead to bad episodes, “Mummy on the Orient Express” shows the audience that horrible previews do not a bad episode make.

It didn't start out on the highest of notes, but by the first commercial break I was actually invested in the episode. The twist it takes halfway through sold me completely, it's not just another monster of the week episode, there's some devious workings going on in the background that have been pushing the Doctor into this moment for quite some time. It's always fun when tidbits from the past are lined up and the audience gets to discover the implications along with our heroes. While connections are mentioned nothing is explicitly spelled out for us yet, meaning we get to look forward to at least a week of speculation. Since it's actually something I look forward to thinking more on I'd say the episode did it's job in a way that many of this season's have not.

In addition to hinting at some previous dots to connect this was a great episode for the Doctor and Clara. The Doctor states more clearly than he has in the past what it takes to make the decisions that he makes, and Clara seems to understand that his sometimes cold detachment is the only way he can make those decisions. It's something that they perhaps should have come to sooner, but at least it's out now and we can hopefully skip any more 'break-up' drama. They also meet an entertaining side character in Mr. Perkins, he had just the right amount of snark and intelligence to hang with the Doctor for a while, and I hope he'll be back.

Conclusion: “Mummy on the Orient Express” is one of my favorite episodes from the eighth season of Doctor Who. Between the understanding reached by the leads, a surprisingly solid story and some memorable co-stars it was a very enjoyable episode. For the first time in three or four episodes I was into the episode enough to forget all the nagging questions I've had about the mystery woman in 'heaven.'

Rating: 7.5/10

Saturday is Haul Day 13!!

All right, this week brings us Minecraft on the PS4 by Mojang and 4J Studios.  It really doesn't need any more introduction than that.  It's an indie sandbox game that struck gold, selling millions of copies over the past five years on a multitude of platforms.  It's also the cause of countless lost hours in many a gamers' lives, mine included.

There's also Batman #35 by Scott Snyder, Greg Capullo, Danny Miki and FCO Plascencia, Constantine #18 by Ray Fawkes, Jeremy Haun and Richard and Tanya Horie, Hexed #3 by Michael Alan Nelson and Dan Mora, Rocket Raccoon #4 by Skottie Young and Jean-Francois Beaulieu and finally Wytches #1 by Scott Snyder, Jock and Matt Hollingsworth

Changes by Jim Butcher

Changes

Book Twelve of the Dresden Files

Publisher: Penguin Books USA as Roc (2010)

Author: Jim Butcher

Genre: Fantasy, Urban

Pages: 546

Price: $9.99

Long ago, Susan Rodriguez was Harry Dresden's lover—until she was attacked by his enemies, leaving her torn between her own humanity and the bloodlust of the vampiric Red Court. Susan then disappeared to South America, where she could fight both her savage gift and those who cursed her with it.

Now Arianna Ortega, Duchess of the Red Court, has discovered a secret Susan has long kept, and she plans to use it—against Harry. To prevail this time, he may have no choice but to embrace the raging fury of his own untapped dark power. Because Harry's not fighting to save the world...

He's fighting to save his child.

Changes is right. This book ratchets up the sheer unpredictability of Harry Dresden's life. There is no possible way that life as he knows it will remain the same after the events in this book. Dresden is forced to make many tough decisions in this one. Unlike previous books it's hard to read through this one and know that Harry will be okay. He cuts a deal with a power far greater than himself, and is forced to use a horrible weapon that was aimed at him on his enemies, making a huge sacrifice along the way.

Due to the heavier subject matter than usual some of the trademark humor of the series is absent in this book. While it makes sense, I missed some of the laugh out loud moments that have been present throughout the series. One thing Changes has in common with the past books is the sheer number of characters. Jim Butcher does a great job of balancing his attention between a huge cast, giving everyone their own moments to shine. We also learn more about one of the major mysteries of the series, Margaret LaFay, Harry's mother.

It's hard to talk much about this book without revealing major spoilers, suffice to say that it might be my favorite Dresden book to date. The scope of the problem and it's solution, along with the things Harry must do to realize that solution point to big things on the horizon. Another notable thing about this book is that it lacks aftermath portion of the story. Generally the readers of a Dresden Files book can count on ten to twenty pages detailing the ramifications of the story at the end. In Changes we are left instead of with a heart stopping cliffhanger that will leave you begging for the next book.

Conclusion: Changes lives up to its name. By the end it is apparent that nothing will be the same for Harry Dresden ever again. He's made deals and made sacrifices in the past, but never like this before. The ending is infuriating at first, we've never had a Dresden book end that way before, but it does serve to make you want the next one even more.

Rating: 9/10

Arrow: Season 3, Episode 1

Arrow

Episode Title: “The Calm”

Channel: CW

Director: Glen Winter

Writers: Marc Guggenheim and Jake Coburn

Genre: Action, Adventure, Crime, Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi

Runtime: 45 min

Rated: TV-14

Original Air Date: October 8, 2014

I was very excited to have Arrow back on television. The quality of the second season had me anticipating fireworks with the premiere of season three. Perhaps the non-stop action of the second season worked against the premiere a bit, but I found it a little underwhelming.

The drama felt forced. The burgeoning relationship between Ollie and Felicity, and the consequences of their date, are transparent as another attempt to have Ollie forsake his friends and then learn that he really needs them. Must we really retread the same ground again? I also find it a little hard that Ollie is manifesting these reservations now. After the personal tragedy and general destruction that has surrounded him up to this point, why would he suffer from this crisis of identity now?

The newcomers to the cast were a couple of the brighter spots. Peter Stormare as the new Count Vertigo was a good bit of casting, I've always enjoyed his work, and look forward to him being more than a one-shot villain. Brandon Routh as Ray Palmer the smooth talking charmer was excellent. I think he's going to make a big positive impact on the show. Most of the returning cast are all fitting into their familiar roles, aside from Roy Harper, who seemed to have been written into the episode with out much in the way of direction. He seemed an afterthought with little to say or do of interest.

They did manage to set up the rest of the season by the end of the episode, some of the plots will be interesting, some of them not so much. Captain Lance's health problems seem to be an unneeded aside that could take time away from more important arcs. There's a mystery appearance at the end that really makes an entrance, I just hope that the next step takes more time to evolve than I suspect. It is a chance to the show that if hurried can only detract from the story telling.

Conclusion: While not the bang I was hoping for, with the revisiting of past themes, “The Calm” does manage to give clear direction to the rest of the season. With a few tweaks to the existing characters, and the proper usage of the new additions the new season shows some promise, despite the premiere misstep.

Rating: 6.5/10