Oh, The Metahumanity! (Another Catch-Up Post)

IT’S FULL OF TINIER MEN!

Right. A bunch of TV to catch up on because I didn’t have time to write/post over hte week.


The Punisher: “Memento Mori”

Turns out Billy didn’t get captured in Episode 12, somehow, so that was episode 13 - the final showdown beetween Frank and Billy, the origin of Billy as Jigsaw, and Frank ending up at the vet center with Curtis, looking for peace at long last until Season 2 starts.

Overall, a solid series. I’d rank it below Daredevil S1 and Jessica Jones, about tied with Luke Cage, and above Daredevil S2, Defenders, and Iron Fist. They did a good job of balancing Punisherian ultraviolence with Netflixean “flawed people” grounding, but I’d like season 2 to be a bit more...Punishy and a bit less Franky.

Arrow: “The Slow, Tedious Death Of Vigilante”

This is two episodes, of largely dull pointlessness, as the “we thought he was evil then we thought he was goon then we thought he was evil” Vigilante ended up being good after all, and went on a dangerous undercover mission and got killed by Black Canary who we thought was evil and then though twas evil and then thought might be good but is probably evil but there was a bit of hesitation so maybe good?

I think I’m just burned out on the same issues of trust and loyalty and lying and secrets that’s played out over five other seasons of Arrow. Cayden James is still coming off as MIddle Management Promootheus, his team of supervillains is so bland that I still don’t know which one Vigilante killed, And the split team dynamic is just fucking ridiculous at this point. It’s all being executed with basic Arrow competency, but I don’t care.

The Flash: “Honey, I Shrunk Team Flash”

See, this is what I mean about the right level of dumb fun. If you ignore all the stuff with Barry and Jaaaaaaaaaaaailbeeeeeeeerg and about 25% of the “Cecile Has Telepathy But We Won’t Park Her Outside Devoe’s House To Figure Out his Plan Using Telepathy”, what you have left is a genuinely funny, fun little shrink ray romp. Which, for a Flash episode, is an improvement.

Agents Of SHIELD: “Best Laid Plans / Past Life”

This is why AoS’s recent trend of splitting the season into two separate but interconnected arcs is a good idea. Just as we started to hit diminishing returns and repetitive themes in the otherwise exceiting space section, just as enemies were starting to wear out their welcome, they blow everything up and make it back or mostly back to the past to see if this time they can break the time loop they’re stuck in. And a month from now we start back with a new status quowith the team on the run and pursued by government psychos. Just in the nick of time.

Black Lightning: “Lawanda, The Book Of Burial”

Another solid outing, although the superhero stuff is starting to feel a little... small. When BL is in his suit, the episodes actually get a little less interesting, while the unpowered character stuff (or the newly-powered, in the case of Incipient Thunder):is where all the interest and excitement lives. I especially like the incredibly non-traditional, relatively patriarchy-free way Jefferson confronted his younger daughter’s boyfriend about their plans to lose their virginity together. Good stuff.