'Legends of Tomorrow' Season 3, Episode 11: 'Here I Go Again'

After a trip to the 70's Zari finds herself stuck in a one hour time loop.  It's very "Groundhog Day", something even the show notes.  The movie is referenced repeatedly and is even later used as a way for Zari to expedite the process of explaining what she's going through.  Amusingly enough, Nate says that it was only a matter of time before they got themselves in this kind of scenario.

Surprisingly enough, the time loop manages to advance the characters on several fronts.  We see Nate and Amaya grapple with the concept of getting back together.  Sara and Ava's ship is also pushed forward.  The scene with Sara on the jump ship talking to Ava was, oddly, one of the episode's highlights.  She hasn't been in this adorable a pairing since Nyssa.  After a string of random hookups, it's nice to see her forming a more serious bond again.  Oh, and Mick is writing a sci-fi romance epic, who knew?

It should come as no surprise that the episode delivers a healthy dose of comedy.  The character interactions are spot on and it makes for a very fun and entertaining episode.

The episode doesn't go too far into wacky territory, though.  It makes the episode's more heartwarming moments feel more genuine and the eventual darker turn that much more potent.

Zari's been an uneven character, but when she hits that breaking point at the episode's climax, you feel it.  I was actually surprised at how heavy it got.  Credit to Ashe as far as performance goes, her weary despair is palpable.

This is somewhat undercut, sadly, by the way the episode resolves the loop.  When Gideon showed up, I figured Zari's simulator was going to play a role, but for some reason, the script made it much more convoluted than it needed to be.  While Zari does start to form stronger bonds with the crew, it does feel like a bit of a cop out.

Still, it's a well paced, well-written, and well acted episode.  It's a fun one and one episode that, while light on the season's myth arc, moves things forward for the Waverider crew.

I also loved the stinger, which showed Rip attempting to recruit Wally West into the coming fight with Mallus.  Even though I knew that Lonsdale was going to join the cast, his appearance here was still a surprise.  I'm quite glad that they kept both his and Darvill's names out of the opening guest stars crawl.  Had they been, that stinger wouldn't have packed the punch that it did.

All in all, this was a fun one.  I'm looking forward to seeing where things go from here.

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'Jessica Jones' Season 2, Episode 10: 'AKA Pork Chop'

With the killer caught and Hogarth healed, one wonders where this episode can go.  I thought that having four more episodes to go would result in unnecessary padding.  While this episode does move a bit slower, it still brings some interesting developments to the table.

There isn't as much forward plot progression, at least not initially.  However, the episodes makes up for it with more emotional moments.  Jessica is still devastated by her mom being locked away and becomes determined to do everything in her power to keep her from being sent to "the raft".  Life in prison is a given, but at least Jessica would be able to see her.  Unfortunately, the presented deal means turning in Karl, and Alisa just won't do that.

At first, I figured Jessica's best course of action would be to turn Karl in.  Interestingly enough, she knows that this is a bad idea and instead arranges to have him moved to another country, thus making Alisa's confession useless insofar as the government wouldn't be able to get to him.  For his part, while Karl is initially skeptical of the idea (he doesn't want to leave Alisa), Jessica is able to convince him to go with it.  While it's been talked about, I think this episode has done the best job showing how committed these two are to each other.  These are some of the most extenuating circumstances imaginable and these two just refuse to give up on each other.  It's oddly, nice.

Speaking of nice, Hogarth's sudden cure has given her a new lease on life. She's more optimistic and wants to do more good for the sake of good.  Not only does this give her earlier depictions a much better payoff, as it was setting up her growth here, but it also makes the later plot twist that much more heartbreaking.

Karl reveals that he never experimented on anyone named Shane or ever gave anyone healing powers.  My first thought was that maybe he was an inhuman.  It would've been a cool way to integrate the extended MCU (much like how one episode of "Agents of Shield" had a character use a Judas bullet).  Even putting that aside, it isn't like IGH is the only source of metas in the MCU.  Alas, it turns out the whole thing was a con.

The sequence of Jeri coming home to an empty apartment was indeed breathtakingly heartwrenching, I'm not so sure about the twist itself, though.  I know placebos are a thing, but I have a hard time buying that nothing happened or that there weren't earlier signs that something was amiss.  In any event, it'll be interesting to see Hogarth unleash her focus and fury on the pair.  What once was her greatest weakness in earlier episodes could become something to look forward to in episodes to come.

While we're on the topic of focus and fury, Alisa's stay in prison doesn't go so well.  One of the guards turns out to be a little extra-sadistic. At first it seemed like he was just dishing out payback for Alisa raging out and spooking him, but we later learn that staging prisoner suicides is his thing.

The discovery comes courtesy of Jessica, who finds his trophies while investigating his house.  This scene was a little telegraphed.  With the voiceover spelling it out, you knew that he was going to pop out and confront her.  Sure enough, he does.

The element of surprise turns out to be a game changer as he manages to subdue Jessica rather easily.  She really hasn't fared well in skirmishes as of late.  She barely held her own against the Hand, she lost every encounter with her mother, she got beaten pretty badly here; poor girl needs a win.

She does manage to land a single blow in the end.  It's bittersweet, however, as it was a fatal one.  You can see Jessica's horror and sadness plain as day on her face.  Killing a person is harrowing enough, but it's also clearly bringing back memories of the Kilgrave confrontation.  It makes for a strong ending.  It isn't really a cliffhanger in the traditional sense, but it does leave you wanting to see what happens next.

I'm a little iffy on the Mal/Trish subplot.  Mal cutting ties and saying that the two were no longer friends was actually a heavy moment.  It's sadly undercut by the fact that the two hookup again later.  It's nice that the two have more than just a friends with benefits thing, but I think they could've held the tension on that one a bit longer and shown some emotional turmoil over the severing connection.

While I rather enjoyed the tense confrontation between Trish and Alisa, I did find myself struggling to remember how these two even have such animosity for one another.  The scene works well, McTeer is especially strong; and if you think about it for a few minutes, little details will come back to you, but it still seems like a plot aspect that went undeveloped.  Maybe that's something that you gain from binge watching as opposed to watching sporadically as I have been doing.

It does look like Trish is attempting to get superpowers for herself.  Some have called this out of left field, but I always remember Trish wanting them.  She encouraged Jessica to take a crack at superherodom back in the day and it was also one of the reasons she started using Simpson's drug.  I'm not sure where her plot will go from here, but we'll have to see.

This episode wasn't quite as strong as the ones that came before it.  There are problems here and there, but there's some good stuff to be seen as well.  A lot of it comes from the character moments, but I also think the episode did a good job of setting up future plot points for the remaining episodes to explore.  I wasn't sure what else could be done before, but now there's enough fodder where I can see what the next couple of episodes can explore and examine.

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'Legends of Tomorrow' Season 3, Episode 10: 'Daddy Darhkest'

As teased in the last episode, this has John Constantine join up with the Legends to once again confront Mallus.  It's always great to have Matt Ryan reprise the role and it should come as no surprise that he continues to shine as the master of the mystic arts.

This easily could have been a Halloween episode as it is much creepier than what the show is used to.  Considering the team is battling a bona fide demon, it makes perfect sense and it is done quite well.

While Mallus is still arguably fairly generic at this point, you still feel the weight of the threat.  John Noble's voice adds quite a bit, but Mallus proves to be formidable even taking that out of the equation.  It says something that he's able to rattle both Sara (a hardened assassin) and John Constantine himself.

Still, the episode manages to inject quite a bit of humor into the mix.  It keeps things interesting and fun.  If done badly, it could have been a detriment, but the writers knew how much to add and when.  It makes for a well balanced episode that delivers a bit of everything.

There's even a bit of romance in the air.  Constantine naturally flirts with both Sara and Leo, the latter of whom admits to being taken.  The subtle hints of a potential ship with Sara and Agent Sharpe are also elaborated upon, albeit more bluntly.  It's a little weird how everybody is suddenly on to it, even making jokes, but maybe there were more interactions between the events of the last episode and this one.

Speaking of romance, Leo decides to leave the crew and go back to his original Earth and reunite with (The) Ray.  It's a pity as he was an interesting addition to the team dynamic.  Considering that this was supposed to be Wentworth Miller's swansong in the Arrowverse, it's a bit abrupt.  There's no big good-bye.  Instead, it's more of a casual "see you later".  I guess that leaves the door open, but I still feel like the farewell could have had more of an impact.

On other fronts, we got quite a bit of development for both Amaya and Kuasa. There are times where it seems like Amaya is picking up what the tropers refer to as "the idiot ball".  From an outsider perspective, her freeing Kuasa is a dumb move, but you can at least understand the why.  Kuasa is family and Amaya thinks she can reach her.  I know critics love to nitpick and armchair quarterback character decisions in stories.  From a meta-standpoint, you probably could.  Still, giving her good reason mitigates that to an extent.  She made the wrong decisions for the right reasons, essentially.

This does lead to some development for Kuasa herself.  We learn why she's on-board with this new villain team up and she even gets to air some grievances regarding Amaya herself.  Kuasa chastises her for not using the timeship to a greater extent (namely, saving their village).  The episode doesn't get bogged down in the morality debate, but it does give a "both sides have a point" impression.

This was a great start to the season's second stretch.  It was creepy, funny, and brought quite a bit of character development.  It also gave the season's big bad a strong introduction after several episodes of buildup.  It was great to see Ryan back in the Constantine role.  I remember when he first showed up on "Arrow", the producers were quick to emphasize that it was just a one-off.  I'm happy to see that that didn't turn out to be the case, as it really would have been a waste.  His show might not come back, but just having him as a recurring presence is plenty to satisfy viewers.

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'Jessica Jones' Season 2, Episode 9: 'AKA Shark in the Bathtub, Monster in the Bed'

This episode rewards the binge watcher as it picks up right where the last left off, showing the last moments from the sniper's perspective.

It turns out that the sniper is none other than Pryce Cheng.  You'd think he'd be targeting Jessica, as he had beef with her, but it turns out that he was, in fact, trying to take out Alisa.  As you can imagine, she does not take kindly to this.

While Cheng's urge to cheese it is understandable, I did find it weird how he forgot he had a gun.  You'd think that he would at least try to use it to keep some distance between him and the crazed woman pursuing him, but he instead lets her get close enough to toss him around like a ragdoll.  She would have killed him had it not been for Jessica's intervention.

This does, to some degree, wrap up the cliffhanger, though this does put the two characters into the prisoner debate.  Alisa wants to kill him so that the two can get away, but Jessica's a bit too lawful for that and decides to keep him tied up in their bathroom until they can figure out a plan.

Once again, the show thrives off of the performances of both Ritter and McTeer.  Said performances are bolstered by solid writing.  The episode manages to bring plenty of emotional drama, but also throws in more than a few great one-liners.  It doesn't get to the point where the comedy undermines the more serious material, but it does keep it from falling into the "grimdark" trap.  It makes for a much more entertaining episode overall.

It's a shame that the show couldn't get these two together sooner, because it really has added a whole new level to the proceedings.  The dynamic, just as it was before, is fascinating to watch.

This episode is also probably the most "superhero" episode to date.  Seeing Jessica and Alisa chase down, and subsequently stop, a bus was a crowning moment of awesome.  The cherry on top was the Stan Lee "cameo". It's a blink and you'll miss it thing, but when you see it, it's fantastic.

It also gives Alisa a sense of pride, knowing that she helped people.  Like Kilgrave before her, she puts forth the idea that she can use her powers for good.  She theorizes that repression is the problem and that maybe by embracing it, she can channel it better.  It does have some psychological merit and it's not too dissimilar to what they did with Bruce Banner and the Hulk.  Sadly, the episode doesn't get to explore it too much, but I do love the prospect.

Similarly, Trish is filled with an urge to do stuff.  After seeing her ex doing a report in Syria, she becomes vexed by the state of the world and rips into a guest on her talk show for putting focus on seemingly superfluous matters like gluten when there's war, sex trafficking, and crime.

Oddly enough, she doesn't bring up any MCU Earth problems.  You know: aliens, ninjas, killer robots, Hydra, villainous metas.  It seemed like a prime opportunity for some mythology nods, but I guess the writers thought it would be more powerful to keep it realistic. 

Trish does rage quit, but it seems that another network liked her approach and wants her to go on the air regularly with that.  Alas, her inhaler is empty, we've seen how she takes to withdrawal, so this is a problem to say the least.

On a brighter note, Hogarth manages to convince that healing convict to do his thing.  He notes that it shortens his own lifespan (which is why he was so reluctant to do it) but is ultimately swayed by what Hogarth is putting on the table.

Inez is convinced that this would mark the end of her tryst, props to her for being skeptical about Hogarth's intentions, but it seems that the latter may indeed pursue a legitimate romance.  It could still go sour, but so far, it looks like Hogarth was playing this one straight.

Sadly, the episode ends on a serious down note.  It's shown that Alisa still isn't ready to be out in the world.  On the plus side, she allows herself to be arrested; but, as Jessica herself notes, she's lost her mom again.  That one line of voiceover packed a hell of a punch and it was a great way to end.  It wasn't a cliffhanger in the traditional sense, but it still made an impact.

I do wonder where the show is going to go from here.  The killer is caught, Hogarth is cured.  I can see there being one episode of epilogue/aftermath, but the only lingering plot thread is regarding Trish's addiction.  I don't see that being 4 episodes worth of plot for the season.  Honestly, it could have even worked as a sub-plot hook for the next one.  I suppose they could go after Karl, but even that isn't enough to fill four hours in my opinion.  We'll have to see where it goes, I guess.

All in all, I rather enjoyed this one.  As was the case with season one, it seems like the show really gets into its groove in the tail end. So far, the show has seemed to find said groove, here's hoping it keeps up.

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'Attack on Titan' Season 3, Episode 4: 'Trust'

While the gap between my viewing of this episode wasn't quite as long as before, I still had a hard time getting into this one.  It spends a lot of time with characters who I'm not all that interested in, trying to resolve a plot that I'm not all that interested in.

Armin, Levi, and Hange pop in and do stuff from time to time, but it seems like a majority of the episode is spent with largely peripheral characters who either didn't appear before, or I just flat out don't remember.

Ultimately, the focus of the episode is to clear the name of the Scouts, which the team does by tricking some interior police into admitting to shady dealings before they attempt to tie up a loose end.

There seems to be a running motif of the scouts leaping out of nowhere at just the right moment.  I mean, it's a cool visual, but at the same time, I'm not sure it really makes a whole lot of sense.  It's a nitpick, but I couldn't help but notice it.

The "test" was a somewhat interesting scene.  At first it looks like Jean (a character I legitimately forgot and wouldn't have remembered if I didn't look it up online) is going insane and/or rogue, as he makes an attempt to kill Marlo and Hitch after Levi orders him to tie them up.  It was probably the only scene in the episode that had any tension, which is impressive as these are three characters whom I barely remember.

It also provides one of the episode's best laughs, as Hitch (who had managed to escape and run off) comes back to make a surprise attack against Jean via hitting him in the back of the head with a club.... after the showdown had come to a peaceful resolution.  You can't fault her for it.  Based on the information she had, she thought she was doing something heroic, but ultimately it was for naught.  It's both awesome and amusing.

I do hope we're getting to the end of this subplot, however.  I'd like to think we are, but it's too soon to say.  It really didn't work the way the writers may have thought it would.

In any event, this does bring us one episode closer to being caught up, so there's that at least. 

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'Legends of Tomorrow' Season 3, Episode 9: 'Beebo the God of War'

While the team is still reeling from the loss of Martin, a new anachronism pops up that just happens to involve...one Martin Stein.  It seems that a younger version of him got transported to the past while he was evading an angry mob after him for nabbing a popular holiday toy, the titular Beebo.

On a random note, I did love Stein's method of acquiring said toy.  Having the "Arrow" theme play as he pulls back the quiver on that cheap little toy was a hilarious and nice touch, but the results themselves are legitimately awesome as well.

The timing is oddly convenient, but even the characters acknowledge it and add it to the list of coincidental run-ins that can't just be coincidence this season.  It also provides great character fodder, as Jax is now tempted to change things.  Given that this is a time travel show, the urge is natural.  Heck, Sara herself had to fight it (she doesn't bring this up when talking to him oddly enough.)  It was still well done and it gave Jax some sense of closure as even past Stein is content with the way things play out in his life.  Credit to Graeme McComb.  He does a great job stepping in Garber's shoes.  He gets the general mannerisms, but also manages to hit the more emotional scenes out of the park with his performance.

The shot at "Back to the Future" style time travel was oddly amusing now, what with "Endgame" having come out and making a similar jab.  The weird thing is that this show's rules of time travel are much closer to the film, yet the writers still felt the need to take a potshot.  I don't get why everybody feels the need to bash on it all of a sudden, it's a great flick.

In any event, young Martin's presence in the past causes one of the largest timeshifts to date, as the Vikings declare the toy their new god and never leave the Americas.  Of course, with this comes some who twist even Beebo's innocent words to ill effect.  Mick almost gets burned alive due to the Vikings thinking that their god is hungry...for blood.  Shockingly, nobody pointed out that Heat Wave, of all people, almost got burned alive. It seems like something they'd do, oh well.

Darhk's appearance was a bit on the perfunctory side.  We're still not sure what his overall goal this year is.  As far as this goes, it seems like he just wants to take over the world, but if there is some larger scheme in motion, it's never specified.  Normally, McDonough is able to overcome any shortcomings with his performance, but he's not given a whole lot to do here.  It just feels like he was there just to fill in a slot.

Conversely, I thought Agent Sharpe's inclusion was well handled here.  Simply having her offer her condolences for Stein was heartwarming enough, but she seems to be shifting more towards an ally position.  Going so far as to help the Legends on more than one occasion.  Not only do she and Sara start to come to terms, there is plenty of shipping fodder.  Sara notes that Sharpe looks good in Viking garb and later gives her a once over when Sharpe tells some Vikings that she's not into the whole having a husband thing.

With this being the mid-season finale, we do get something of a confrontation with the season's big bad.  It isn't Darhk, rather, Mallus itself.  We don't see him, but we do get an ominous voice that makes its intentions known when Sara is randomly pulled into what I suppose is it's realm.  I figured Sara's newfound location was going to be the world after he got free, but that doesn't seem to be the case.  We also get to see the reflection of a giant hand coming towards Sara in a close up shot of her eye.  I figured there was going to be some cliff-hanger about her being possessed.  It may still come up later, but so far, that doesn't seem to be the case either.

I did love the appearance of Constantine at the end.  I knew he was going to pop up on the show this season, but I didn't know it was here.  I can only imagine how fans reacted seeing that when this first aired.  I have the luxury of being able to watch the next episode.  Back in the day, though, it would've been at least a two month wait.  That's a heck of a note to end on.

All in all, this was a strong episode.  It brought heart, a fair dose of comedy, and plenty of character development.  True, it did force us to say goodbye to yet another show regular (Jax leaves) but this was on a much happier note.  The farewells were fond and Jax gets to give a nice speech about the formation of this particular family.  It'll be interesting to see how things move forward as we move into the second stretch of the season.

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'IT: Chapter Two' Trailer Reaction

It seems like it's been a good while since we've done a trailer reaction post.  With a trailer for the upcoming 'IT: Chapter Two' (you can read my thoughts on the first film here) having just hit the internet yesterday, it seems like as good a time as any to do one.  Before we can react to it, though, here's the video itself.







That...wasn't what one might expect from a horror movie trailer.

The "slow burn" approach works somewhat well with the first half, though it comes off less creepy and more generally awkward.  I do wonder if the woman is supposed to be one of IT's offspring.  It could just be Pennywise screwing with her, but having IT's children play a role would be an interesting way to change things up a bit.  IT being "pregnant" was a fairly prominent plot point in the book, so it wouldn't come completely out of left field and this could be a way to expand on that, though I might just be reading too much into it.

Also, sorry, but that "charge" scene came off more ridiculous than anything else.

The music choice for the second half was interesting.  It was more on the bombastic side, the sort of thing you'd expect to play in a superhero movie.  It's out of place (the Loser's Club isn't the Avengers, guys), but I kind of dug it? It definitely makes it feel more epic, which could be a hint towards the more cosmic elements that are supposed to come into play. Adding that chuckle was also pretty effective and gave the trailer it's own flavor.

Having Pennywise only pop out of the dark at the end to say hello was also a strong way to end it.

When I first saw this, I was a bit on the underwhelmed side.  The fact that it goes against what you expect is, in some ways, a good thing, but I do also feel like it was a detriment.  Looking back, there were a lot of elements that worked well.  I think the trailer benefits from second and third viewings.  I was likely going to go see this anyway, but this does offer some degree of intrigue to the proceedings.














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