Tuesday, November 8, 2016

Oh, The Metahumanity! (Nov 1-5)

OH NOES SPOOKY EYES
With all the shows taking Election Week off for some reason, I totally decided to wait and post this late and it had nothing to do with laziness and/or stomach flu. No, really. Gonna take the opportunity to get a couple more deep into Luke Cage this week.

Luke Cage: "Just To Get A Rep" (8% Stupid)

This one plays out fairly slowly, against the background of Pop's memorial service and Cage's daylight street justice. Cottonmouith squeezes the people of Harlem, so Cage squeezes back. This culinates in a weird, but mostly effective Dueling Eulogy sequence where Luke Cage wins over hearts and minds.

In other news. Claire Temple arrives in Harlem, after the events of Daredevil Season 2, possibly to start her path toward Night Nursing. And the Knight-Scarfe  subplot starts heating up, as some cops are suspicious that Scarfe is dirty. Which, of course, he is.

Agents Of SHIELD: "The Good Samaritan" (16% Stupid)

Normally, AoS strikes a solid plot and characterization balance. Characters change and move forward slowly, but the progression is consistent and plots are (usually) not rehashed. I mean, yeah, this week we have Origin Story, Secret Revelation, and Clashing With Authority, but it's all fine. But this one was all plot, no character.

Jeffrey Mace is becoming a problem. I mean, I know it's a bit early in the season for them to lay all his cards on the table, but his contant shifting from vague ally to vague nemesis is making me a bit seasick. Is there a method to this madness or is he shifting in the wind to make plots work?

I'm OK with the plot twist of Ghost Rider's uncle being the actual bad guy, but it's a situation where the only way to keep the viewers from seeing the twist coming is to leave it almost completely unsupported.

The Flash: "Monster" (5% Stupid)

I enjoyed this episode so much I looked up the writer, Zack Stentz. His only other episode, "The Runaway Dinosaur", was one of the biggest turds of Season 2, but that one had a bunch of other writers on it. It's possible other writers will be added to IMDB later, but the point is, whoever wrote this, MORE LIKE THIS.

This is that rarest of Flash episodes, one in which nobody has to be dumbasses for the plot to work. In fact, everyone in this episode acted almost uncharacteristically sane and competent. The interpersonal angst was, for Flash, antural and not overplayed. Some of the Julian stuff resolved awfully quickly, yes, but it was reasonably well supported and very well acted, so it worked. This is the most I've enjoyed a Flash episode in like a year and a half. Good job.

Arrow: "Human Target" (10% Stupid)

And there's the character pees that was missing last week. Man, it's great having Diggle back, and his character and Wild Dog's really play well off each other. All their scenes together were wuper appealing.

Plus we get the villain shift this episode, as Promootheus kills Church after Team Arrow catches him. And while I certainly could have lived without Felicity's New Boyfriend drama, they handled it very competently. And hey, Ollie gets to be a halfway decent character. Also, HUMAN TARGET! Played by Nuke, of all people.

Next week, though, it seems like Star City journalists are doing their first journalism.

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