Oh, The Metahumanity! (Feb 6-9)

The Internet needs to up its Agents of SHIELD screencap game.

No big swings on any of the shows this week. SHIELD is competent with some iffy stuff, Flash is flailing around and not settling in to any kind of groove, Arrow is trying to go somewhere but stumbling a bit along the way,


Agents Of SHIELD: "Boom" (10% Stupid)

I'm running into a bit of a problem in this run where the bad guys' plans and motivations are constantly shifting. This week, of our three main antagonists, Senator Nadeer got unceremoniously blowed up, Radcliffe is now obsessed with putting people inside a completely simulated world called The Framework, and The Superior is now apparently in charge of the Watch Dogs and wants Coulson. It's a bit messy. A couple other things upped the dumb factor this week, like Coulson and May being in love being a thing that even Mack knows about for some reason even though it's not necessarily a thing yet. Oh, and the Mace plot was off-putting and predictable. The show still remains solid despite this, though.

The Flash: "Untouchable" (30% Stupid)

OK, even within the very loose boundaries of plausibility regarding superpowers required for a show like The Flash, my suspension of disbelief was dangling by a thread during the last 10 minutes of this episode. The phasing through stuff while somehow not phasing a tiny bit of blood that managed to instantly neutralize the villain's powers. The phasing "training" that somehow became effective when it shifted from "do it" to "do it because you have to". And Iris using the phrase "when you saved me yesterday" to Barry when I'm almost positive everyone except Barry saved her. Caitlin saved her by freezing her arm. Julian saves her with an "antidote" so rote they developed it during a commercial break and presented it as the world's easiest fait accompli. Wally saved her by actually capturing the villain whose blood helped them create the antidote. Barry phased a train, which is cool and all, but didn't help Iris in the slightest. Oh, and also they have to work together and be strong and not keep secrets and the woman playing Joe's girlfriend's daughter who loves Kid Flash was not a very good actress. And it still sucked less than some of this season's episodes.

Arrow: "Bratva" (18% Stupi)

OK, Arrow. Sometimes establishing a motivation isn't enough to make a character's behavior believable. The show wants to make its umpteenth point about "crossing the line", which is fine, I guess. And the motivations for both Diggle and Felicity "crossing the lines" are established and presented, which is fine, I guess. But especially in the case of Felicity, I didn't buy it. If Diggle had been maybe 15% less obsessed and Felicity like 40% less obssessed, that wouild have fallen in line with how the show has presented the traumatic experiences that motivated them. It was a bit much.

Do still love nuCanary and Curtis, though. And Wild Dog connecting with Lance was a surprise both in and of itself and how effective it was. Of course, Oliver has to be SUPER DUMB for this whole plot about him getting played by the reporter to work, so I hope there's a twist to it I don't see coming. On the other hand, I've been hoping for two seasons they'd go twards the version of the Green Arrow where everyone knows he's Oliver Queen, which would mean no secret identity plots ever again.

Powerless: "Wayne Dream Team" (40% There)

No reali improvement in the second episode, I'm afraid. I mean, Alan Tudyk is still killing it as Van Wayne, and his plot is insane and funny. But the main plot is such a stock office comedy trope that I couldn't help thinking how much better it was done on NewsRadio, and with almost as many nerdy references.

Unfortunately, if the show keeps centering on Vanessa Hudgens' boss character, and that character doesn't develop some character traits that aren't Optimistic and Naive, I'm gonna have a tough time picking this over other, better comedies.