Star Trek: Discovery Ep 3 (TV Show Review)

The great grand premiere of the first Star Trek series in some fifteen odd years fell rather flat last week when Discovery premiered its first two episodes, The Vulcan Hello and Battle at the Binary Stars. In what was a mess of characterization and plot, closely matched by some intentional technological leaps that should not exist, the premiere was deeply unsatisfying. It was doing too much of the unconventional without justification, presenting too much history without justification. None of which set a good tone for episode 2.

However, some of my hopes did pan out and episode 3, Context Is For Kings proved to be a much better episode in many ways although some of the core concepts behind the show are still flawed. With some better acting, a return to some of the roots of Star Trek and an interesting mystery and mission for the USS Discovery, I think that this episode can be a vital pivot for the show to survive and improve in what it should be.

Note: This review contains major spoilers for the first two episodes.

Star Trek: Discovery Eps 1 & 2 (TV Show Review)

It has been some fifteen odd years since last we had a Star Trek series on-air. While often looked down as a weak successor to the legacies of the Star Trek legacy in the 80s and 90s, Star Trek: Enterprise nevertheless covered one of the most interesting periods of human history in the franchise, the years before the Federation existed and when humans were still finding their way in a complex Alpha Quadrant. As such, Star Trek: Discovery aims to capture a similar feeling since it starts some ten years before the events of Star Trek: The Original Series and is thus another prequel in an ever-expanding universe.

Debuting last night on CBS’s premier streaming service, CBS All-Access, Star Trek: Discovery posits itself as a hard-hitting action series set in the Star Trek universe. Covering as it does the years of a Federation-Klingon war that, to my knowledge, has not been mentioned before in the lore, this was perhaps inevitable and is also exciting because it carries on a theme from ST:E that being mere explorers is not enough. You need some big guns too. With a brand-new crew and a new ship, it is a ripe time to dive back down into the franchise, given the parallel lines of the rebooted movies, but unfortunately much of the series opener falls flat, either due to the writing or production choices.

Note: This review contains major spoilers for the two episodes.

The Defenders Season 1 (TV Show Review)

It has been two and a half years since Netflix began releasing shows based on Marvel’s various superhero characters. It all began with Daredevil, then moved to Jessica Jones, then Luke Cage and rounded off the introductory cast with Iron Fist. And all of this has now culminated in The Defenders, which brings these four heroes and their supporting cast together for what’s meant to be a big explosive start to a shared television programming from Netflix.

Sure, we’ve had some crossovers in the superheroes’ individual series, but it has been rather light aside from Luke Cage debuting on Jessica Jones as a main character. And now The Defenders takes it all to a whole new level as each of these four heroes follows their own investigations and then teams up for the greater good, realizing they are better off when working as one unit. The Defenders is a fairly good show with lots of fan-pleasing and wonderful moments throughout, but often it suffers from terrible villains and a rather weak overall plot. Undeniably however, it is still a far better outing than either Luke Cage or Iron Fist, both of which were rather lackluster.

Note: This review contains  some spoilers for the four individual Marvel Netflix series and also for this show.

Supergirl Season 1 Eps 1-2 (TV Show Review)

Let’s not mince any words here. Ever since the show’s pilot got leaked online a few months back, I’ve been pretty damn excited for this. The trailers were promising, though a bit weird, but I had faith in the show and what it promised to deliver, and the leaked pilot did set me up on the positivity train. Well now, now we are in the second week of the show, and all those months of waiting has definitely been worth it. From the people who’ve brought us so many comic-book properties on television in recent years, Supergirl is a great addition to the line-up.

I reviewed the leaked pilot back in May, which you can read here, and it was a pretty good experience for me. As I said in that article, I found the actual pilot to be much better than the trailer let on, and it made me fall in love with Melissa Benoist’s portrayal of the Maid of Might all over again. Supergirl is one of my favourite DC superheroes, and it is great to see such a perfect portrayal here, which easily matches what Grant Gustin has been doing for close to two years now as The Flash. The supporting cast is also working fairly well together, and though there are a few kinks here and there in terms of story and general character-writing, this show has started off great.

Agents of SHIELD Season 3 Eps 1-2 (TV Show Review)

Agents of SHIELD is a show that has had a rather roller coaster ride since it debuted in 2013. It got off to a really shaky start and didn’t get better until well into the first season, around the same time that the phenomenal Captain America: The Winter Soldier movie came out. The first season ended on a good note, and then the second season last year beat most of my expectations with how good it was and how it introduced the Inhumans to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which was an excellent move on the part of the showrunners.

And now, after Avengers: Age of Ultron, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has gotten more dangerous, because people with powers are being feared all over the globe, and because the misguided actions of Skye’s mother have released the Terrigen mist to spread all over Earth. New powered people are popping up everywhere, and it is up to SHIELD to keep them safe, and perhaps even put them in the field against those who would harm them. That’s the basis for the new third season of the show, which steps up the action and intrigue to a whole new level, and is the better for it.

Supergirl Pilot (TV Show Review)

Last year DC/WB announced that Supergirl aka Kara Zor-El would finally be making her way back to live-screen this year, with the character getting an ongoing show on CBS, which is part-owned by CW, the network that airs the hit-and-successful superhero shows The Flash and Arrow with a joint spin-off Legends of Tomorrow launching later this year as well. As a huge fan of the unfairly maligned Supergirl movie with Helen Slater, this was great news for me, especially since I love the character, and because the current creative team on the Supergirl comics is also just totally rocking it right now.

Through all the casting information and plot details that were revealed about Supergirl, it came across as a decent addition to the DC/WB television DC universe, and I was certainly excited by the prospect. And then just a few days ago we had what was an awesome 6-min trailer that introduced Melissa Benoist as Kara Danvers aka Kara Zor-El aka Supergirl. The trailer had some flaws, but it was promising, and I couldn’t wait to see more. Which I did last night since the pilot episode got “leaked” onto the internet everywhere, and I saw for myself just how good this show was really going to be, and that the trailer didn’t do the show enough justice.

The Flash Season 1 Eps 21-23 (TV Show Review)

Since October last year, this has been coming, the end of one of the best shows on television in the last five years. Something that a lot of people hoped would be great, but doubted would actually get to that stage. But CW’s The Flash beat pretty much every expectation that fans had of it. It breezed by, changed the landscape, and maintained one hell of a consistency week after week. Sure, there were the occasional silly things such as the Bug-Eyed Bandit and what not, but by and large, and for me at least, The Flash was so much better of a show than Arrow, and I don’t say that lightly.

In episodes 21 through 23 (“Grodd Lives“, “Rogue Air“, and, “Fast Enough“), we see some of the most incredible moments of the show as yet. The first of those is pretty obvious. Gorilla Grodd was hinted at as being a villain on the show since the pilot and much of my fascination with the show was because of that expectation, which this episode met in a really great way and did justice to one of my favourite villains from the DC verse. The second switched things around a bit when Barry got Snart and his gang involved in his fight against Harrison Wells, with some truly tragic results, but which also solidified his moralities. And then, and then we have the finale from last night, which was beyond incredible. I had such huge expectations from the finale, and I certainly wasn’t disappointed. It was what fans needed and deserved after a season’s worth of trust and promise.

Note: This review contains some major spoilers for all three episodes, though I’ll try to keep things simple for the finale.

The Flash Season 1 Eps 19-20 (TV Show Review)

CW’s debut superhero spinoff show has been going all-out of late. While things have been heating up with regards to the overall mystery of Dr. Harrison Wells and the Reverse-Flash, the various characters’ lives have also been affected a great deal. Some characters have come out of it positively, while others haven’t. But that’s fine I suppose since the cast of the show is so big. And through all of it, there’s always that strong sense of optimism that the good guys, even while the villain of the show carries out his inside-man job.

Last week’s “Who is Harrison Wells?” and this week’s “The Trap” showcase really well how things are changing on the show. For the good guys, Harrison Wells’ secret is out in the open, they just have to find some solid proof of all the criminal things he has done so that the biggest mystery of the show can be finally solved as far as the CCPD is concerned: did Barry’s father really kill his mother? That has certainly been the driving force for Barry since that fateful night, and we are finally getting some major revelations, with these two episodes leading the way as The Flash
‘s debut season moves into its final stretch with just three more episodes to go.

Arrow Season 3 Eps 18-20 (TV Show Review)

Since it premiered back in 2012, Arrow has not been a show to ignore the dark corners of the superhero psyche. Again and again we have seen some really horrible things happen on the show, whether it is torture or mutilation or what have you and betrayal of the self and betrayal of the family is something that has been a running theme on the show. Season 3 itself got off to a really grim tone last year, and recent episodes have shown that this theme isn’t going anywhere and that the times are indeed wholly dark for Team Arrow.

Episodes 18-20 of the show have been very interesting from a story perspective. Oliver’s secret is once again out in the open as Ra’s al Ghul intensifies his… pressure on Oliver to become the next Demon’s Head, and with this come some true heroics from the team. And not only that but we also get to see Ray Palmer become a hero himself, as he begins to embrace the difference he can make alongside Team Arrow and even perhaps as a part of it. But that is all overshadowed by what is happening in the flashbacks, where Oliver and the Yamashiros’ freedom has become anything but.

The Flash Season 1 Eps 17-18 (TV Show Review)

Two episodes back The Flash finally addressed the question of whether Barry would get to time travel or not when he accidentally went back in time for about a day, and then ended up repeating that day (to a degree). The writers also did well in addressing the notion of what happens when you time travel, how you do it, and what the consequences can be. Of course, the time travel was important in more ways than one since in the “repeat” events unfolded in a manner conducive to Dr. Wells not killing Cisco, so that was a thumbs-up in my eyes. Some of the other things though, well, they really didn’t sit well with me.

And the two most recent episodes, “Tricksters” and “All Star Team Up” haven’t really done much to address those issues. If anything, things have kind of gotten worse, at least as far as Iris and her relationship with everyone is concerned. In last week’s episode we saw the amazing Mark Hamill return to the franchise as the Trickster, though now aged and past his prime when the CCPD gets him to consult on a case that ties into his legacy. Suffice to say, it was an explosive episode in the way that only an episode with the Trickster can be. And in this week’s episode, we saw yet another crossover with Arrow when Ray Palmer and Felicity arrive in Central City to consult with the STAR Labs team on Ray’s suit, and all sorts of hilarious shenanigans follow, including one of the most… well, weird villains the show has had to date.

Game of Thrones Season 5 Ep 1 (TV Show Review)

The finale of Game of Thrones Season 4 came at the end of a rather troubling season in general, with the writers making some really questionable departures from the source material and the directors being a bit too convinced of their own infallibility with respect to the final product. Still, as such things go, the finale wasn’t all that bad and it ended on a fairly positive note for many of the arcs that it touched, such as where Arya ends up after she disposes off of The Hound and sets out for herself, or even Tyrion killing his father and Shae both, for betraying hmm in the worst ways possible.

And this all brings us to season 5, which began this past Sunday, and generated an immense amount of controversy from the get go, namely that the first four episodes had been leaked together from sources that HBO had sent them to for review purposes. Hardly generates confidence, that. Either way, the season 5 premiere is of the grim and somber variety. Nothing really happens in this episode other than he viewers getting to touch base with some of the storylines and seeing what consequences past events have wrought on the world of Westeros and beyond. The characters are trying to find their feet once again, and moving forward, things should be… interesting.

Arrow Season 3 Ep 17 (TV Show Review)

In recent weeks, CW’s Arrow has taken a somewhat darker turn, and it all has to do with how the metaplot concerning the League of Assassins has developed and the large shadow that the season villain, Ra’s al Ghul, has begun to cast on the characters. He is a downright manipulative bastard and since Oliver has refused to take up his offer of becoming the next Ra’s al Ghul, the current incumbent has seen fit to take it upon himself to make sure that Oliver does what he wants, no matter who has to die for that, criminals or innocents or both.

Last week’s “Suicidal Tendencies“, while it involved the Suicide Squad for much of the episode’s running length, was pivotal in what it made Oliver confront when it came to the League. Maseo is wholly sworn over to the League and he is now on a mission to destroy the Arrow’s reputation in Starling, on orders of Ra’s al Ghul. And this creates problems, not the least of which is Ray confronting the Arrow while decked out in his brand-new ATOM suit. And on the other side of the world in Kaznia, the Suicide Squad team does a few really unexpected things, things that really made me love the likes of Deadshot and Cupid. Oh and there was a wedding involved, which was kind of fun amongst the darkness.