Firstly, I'm going to say it does look like a cute idea for a show. Though I'd dispense with the strict and actual police procedural portion and reframe it as a "night club owner who helps people get what they want," there will be plenty of people who get their lives back together and on track, marriages and families saved and then a smattering of bad people who get to do their bad things, because it's the Devil, dammit, and he's all about actual Free Will and not Love Me Or Else. Secondly: "Where do you think all of those demons and etc go?" Let me tell you: Nowhere. According to the source material, there is no escape, the pain and torture is eternal and unending. And finally: Despite my stupid thought that this actually looks cute, I know it does not in any way resemble the Vertigo comics or the character as created by Neil Gaiman. And that is terrible.
I have no idea whatsoever why something like this would be a police procedural. That's about all I have to say. Well, that and he should totally be blond.
__________________
"freedom to differ is not limited to things that do not matter much. That would be a mere shadow of freedom. The test of its substance is the right to differ as to things that touch the heart of the existing order."
- Justice Robert Jackson, West Virginia State Board of Ed. v. Barnette
I just hope they don't turn it into Superman with a girl character, because really I'm getting tired of superman.
I'm not up on my lore, exactly how stupid are the Kryptonians? Part of the point of space travel is so your planet exploding isn't a species ending event. Also did they know yellow suns would basically make them Gods?
Arrow:
Um... ok.
It was almost like the writers were like 'Yeah we weren't really sure either, better luck next season!'
I don't think I've seen a season finale I've had less to say about, pretty much the only thing is,
I
I'm not up on my lore, exactly how stupid are the Kryptonians? Part of the point of space travel is so your planet exploding isn't a species ending event. Also did they know yellow suns would basically make them Gods?
Obviously, there's been a lot of backfilling and retroactive continuity-ing done for this. Originally there wasn't much known about Kryptonians other than Jor-El was a brilliant scientist and a desperate father. It's been expanded so that Kryptonian science and society was very advanced but also selfish and xenophobic. In various continuities, exploring other galaxies and seeding other planets is forbidden. Also, the "destiny" of the Last Son of Krypton has been expanded. It's gone from simply doing whatever it takes to save his son to knowing how he could inspire people and lead them into tomorrow. It's never really been a singlular, all inclusive story. Writers and creators add to and subtract from it depending on the needs of their story and how the continuity is perceived at the time.
I don't care just how did Arrow have enough time to end up on Flash last week and get Flash to help him this week. I don't even want to waste even more time thinking about there has to be a transwarp portal between Starling City and Nanda Parbat. All I wanna say is that the Flash rescue opener made me giggle with glee.
As for the rest, I'm still not loving Arrow, but don't hate it. I kinda love hating it?
I know that explosion didn't kill Ray, because of Legends of Tomorrow. But, it only serves to make me hate this Atom more. First, he should have been the Blue Beetle. Second, Ray Palmer wasn't a tech genius or a poor man's Tony Stark. He was a genius physicist. Third, this Ray Palmer could have stayed a cut-rate Iron Man and that would have been fine, but to now force him into a shrinking gimmick is stupid.
I guess they don't have to make him shrink. I mean, if Ant-Man flops, they can just forget the whole thing.
Diggle. Will he be the John Stewart of this univese? On the one hand, I don't think so, as I assume Green Lantern is tied up in movie rights. On the other hand, there have been a lot of Green Lantern Easter eggs lately.
I don't want Katana to go. No.
I'm worried that I like the Canary Cry in comics more than I could ever like it in live action. That being said, I don't hate Laurel as Black Canary so much anymore.
Speedy was awesome, I really want to see more of her (not in that way!) She's not exactly joyful and cheerful, but at least having her smile doesn't feel like a series ending event.
Which leads me to Ollie's "happy ending". Sure, I guess he's earned it. I hope this also means the end of the flashbacks. I've only watched one season of this show and I'm already tired of the flashback device. I can't imagine how others have gone through 3 (4?) seasons of it.
I haven't watched it yet so I can't comment on all of it. But the flashbacks in previous seasons were useful and important to the story. Most of the stories of his time actually on the island are okay enough.
I, on the other ham, don't know how to feel about it. I mean, it's saddled with the Not Blue Beetle, the miraculously resurrected now White Canary, both of which are forgivable, I guess. I'm torn, see. I like Caity Lotz and it's great to have her back in universe but they're white washing a character to do it. And we both agree about what's not right about the Not Blue Beetle. The inclusion of actual non-repentant villains though really sticks in my craw. At least I can get hyped for Hawk Woman. I mean, it'll be tough not comparing her to the one I already know, but I can manage that.
Believe me, I hate that Not-Blue-Beetle is front and center, I do. But, I don't really mind Lazarus Pit-revived White Canary. I'm not vested in Arrow enough to let that get to me. I like the actress, I like the character. Not sure about the villains, to be honest. Maybe they are temporary, is what I am thinking.
What got me psyched was the villain. The quips. The faceless legions.
It's all very 4-color comic book without being campy. It's what a comic book adaption should be.
This is a bonus of not knowing any of the canon, when they change things it doesn't anger me.
It looks like the in part picked based on actors
Also the white canary seems oddly colored for an assassin, like all it's missing is silver reflective tape.
Overall it does look cool, at this rate Arrow is going to be overrun by better written, more interesting spin offs.
Boom tubes are the only logical explanation for how anyone gets between Starling City, Central City and Panda Bearbot. Sure, we see planes sometimes, but even non-stop flights would take half a day, probably longer if they have to avoid certain air spaces on the way. Yeah, even Barry at his current fastest speed needs a boom tube to get back and forth. There is no logical explanation for Oliver appearing in Central City before he needs Barry in Panda Bearbot. None.
I'm sort of okay with the Arrow finale. A lot of bad plans piled on bad plans that somehow expected a bad plan to half work. All very comic book if frustrating to watch. A question that doesn't have an answer is what happened to Ra's Al Ghul's body. Did the authorities recover it and put it in the morgue. Not that it exactly matters because a rogue faction of the League can still get hold of the body and Hot Tub Time Machine it back to life. (Which is how I assume White Canary is brought back for Legends.)
With Oliver, Felicity, Diggle and Ray gone from Starling, who's left to protect Starling? It's just Speedy and the Canary. Maybe they can form a proto Birds of Prey team. Although hopefully Starling isn't the major target of big bads now. I mean, according to the guys what run things this isn't the last season or anything - at least the show is just called Arrow so it doesn't matter what color the central protagonist is.
And then there's Flash. Poor, dumb Barry Allen. You didn't need Snart's snart-ass to execute your plan. In fact, it would have gone off without a hitch without him there. It's an unneeded complication just to seed season 2 with bad guys we already have on hand. Speaking of the bad guys in permanent lock-up: The TVWBDCUniverse can never create a super friends team called the Justice League. Not until you fix something.
WE DO NOT PERMANENTLY DETAIN PEOPLE, EVEN DEMONSTRABLY POWERFUL AND POWERFULLY BAD PEOPLE, WITHOUT DUE PROCESS.
It's a dirty little secret that even the wonderfully comic book and bright uplifting The Flash show keeps sweeping under its rug. I'm glad Joe is uncomfortable with it. At least for this first season it can be explained by super criminal, time traveling Eobard poisoning the well and pushing everyone think this was the only solution.
In other "I Guess It's Good News" I'm glad everyone's cards are on the table. Iris knows Barry is the Flash. Eddie told Iris what Eobard showed him about the future. This may not mean it's clear skies for Barry + Iris 4ever, but at least it's not exactly a triangle. I'm also glad that Iris said that she gets to make her own choices, regardless of what some "future" says should happen. (Much like how Stewart and Shiera settled what would/should/might happen between them.)
One episode left for their season. We'll see what happens.
The show timelines are a bit confusing as well, since they kept calling Lyla at ARGUS I was assuming that most of the Flash happened before the episode she said she quit, or she lied about quitting.
From what I've heard, they messed up the timing so that Arrow is a week ahead of Flash. That means Oliver went to Central City around the time he was in Starling hunting for Nyssa. That doesn't help much, but it is a little more reasonable. Now, when in there he had time to get Ray to make him nano arrows to stop Reverse Flash at a time when Ray thought he was evil we can't know. My personal favorite fan-wank is the idea that Oliver is as paranoid as Bruce Wayne and had Ray create them a while back on GP.
One of the AV Club commenters pointed out that Barry could have brought each metahuman to the plane one at a time and still have made it long before they woke up or got the truck half way there. Now I cannot forget how much more stupid his plan is than I even thought while watching the show. I hate stupid Barry. Not as much as I hate the implication that Iris is required to fall in love with Barry because all the men tell her to, though. That's just all kinds of wrong.
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"freedom to differ is not limited to things that do not matter much. That would be a mere shadow of freedom. The test of its substance is the right to differ as to things that touch the heart of the existing order."
- Justice Robert Jackson, West Virginia State Board of Ed. v. Barnette
Not as much as I hate the implication that Iris is required to fall in love with Barry because all the men tell her to, though. That's just all kinds of wrong.
There are problems with these established continuities. Iris and Wally end up together because Wally and Iris end up together. Instead of creating a narrative where it happens in a natural way - like the comics that took years to build. It's especially bothersome with Gotham because of its pre-history nature. Well, that and they can't seem to write for Iris anyway.
I think these writers have a terrible time with love interests. They write Thea fine and did for Moira, and Felicity was great before she became a love interest. But Iris, this season's Felicity and Laurel in the past were just horribly written. Laurel is the best example because this season, when they have dropped her as a love interest and started pushing Olicity, she's actually been written quite well. I don't really know why it's so hard for them, but it's consistently bad.
__________________
"freedom to differ is not limited to things that do not matter much. That would be a mere shadow of freedom. The test of its substance is the right to differ as to things that touch the heart of the existing order."
- Justice Robert Jackson, West Virginia State Board of Ed. v. Barnette
It's so annoying because it's not needed. There's no reason we need any of the main cast dating any of the others!
I also don't buy it in the sense that running a secret anti-crime unit against literal trained assassins probably means there's occasionally times where you need to be asshole to the other people and that's what saves the day. I'm not quite sure how long a relationship can last that on top of the constant potential death.
I sometimes wonder if it's Damsel in Distress sydrome where they need a cheap hook, so they stick two main characters together just to kidnap one.
ETA: And it's not casting & actor time issues when two of their guest stars (Deadshot and his wife) had a more believable tragic romance in a single episode than I've seen with any of the main cast.
The Flash season finale -- GAAAHHHH!!!! Stupid, stupid, stupid.
It's Looper all over again! Eddie shooting himself means the Reverse Flash is erased from time, but it somehow doesn't mean all the things the Reverse Flash did are erased from time? If you erase him, you erase his going back in time to kill Barry's mom too... they all should have disappeared! GAH! Inconsistent time travel stories are a major pet peeve of mine
That was a pretty poor finale in general though, way too schmaltzy for me and there were so many 'that's too stupid even for a comic book show!' moments. I found myself hoping they would all
I'm unsure how I feel about the Flash Finale.
A bit too much talking especially if time is going to go all bobs your uncle on us.
Why did the wormhole suddenly reopen? I was partly assuming that was time erasing them as well.
Also I know drama and all but um... just get a vasectomy!
I expect we will see things get all timey whimey on us again and things to change around multiple times. Afterall this is created by the same people doing Arrow and main villains just can't seem to stay dead on that show and there's no time travel reset.
It's Hawkgirl, a easter egg drop in for the new Legends of Tomorrow show, as was Well's mention of Rip Hunter, a time traveler.
Consensus opinion seems to be that the wormhole is time erasing them because of Reverse Flash's death. One of the more interesting theories I've heard about next season is they will introduce Rip Hunter for Legends of Tomorrow by having him come in and fix everything.
But if you can't take joy in a show ending by ripping a hole in the space-time continuum that will kill everyone and leaving it as a cliff-hanger, I can't help you.
Also, THE HAT! How can you not be happy about the hat and Wells'/Thawne's reaction to it?
__________________
"freedom to differ is not limited to things that do not matter much. That would be a mere shadow of freedom. The test of its substance is the right to differ as to things that touch the heart of the existing order."
- Justice Robert Jackson, West Virginia State Board of Ed. v. Barnette