The Flash: Revenge Of The Rogues - Some time has passed since Barry's fight with The Reverse-Flash and while Joe wants him to continue dealing with Central City's criminal element, Dr Wells (boo! hiss!) is urging Barry to stay focussed on his training, so he is better prepared for his next encounter with The Man In The Yellow Suit.
Meanwhile, the wonderfully cool Captain Cold (Wentworth Miller) has teamed up with hot-headed Heat Wave (Wentworth's Prison Break compadre Dominic Purcell) to bring down The Flash, so they can be become the main men of Central City.
Wells' lends STAR Labs tech to the sceptical police to face off against Captain Cold, but the appearance of Heat Wave throws a spanner in the works and Barry has to suit up... and reveal himself to the general public!
Revenge Of The Rogues was pure comic book joy, with the Flash fighting Captain Cold and Heat Wave, but it wasn't perfect. There were some clunky moments, particularly the revelation that "Firestorm" - an ongoing sub-plot to introduce The Nuclear Man into The Flash 'Verse - is actually a convoluted, and clearly contrived, acronym (that includes another acronym within it!).
Why couldn't Ronnie Raymond have been involved in something just called Project Firestorm, rather than "Fusion, Ignition, Research Experiment and Science of Transmutation Originating RNA and Molecular Structures"?
Given that DC Comics' own Geoff Johns co-wrote this episode, with Kai Yu Wu, you might have hoped for something more in sync with the source material.
But that aside it's going to be fantastic to see another super hero in the shared world of Arrow and The Flash.
Next Time:
Arrow: Left Behind - Oliver hasn't been seen for days (since he disappeared off to confront Ra's Al Ghul in the mid-season finale) and Diggle and Roy are doing the best they can to fill in for him, with support from Felicity.
And Felicity is truly the emotional heart of this episode, as she exhibits various states of grief from self-denial to anger as Oliver's apparent fate becomes clearer.
Meanwhile, there's a new gangster in town, Brick (played with gusto by the force of nature that is Vinnie Jones), who's building an 'army' to take control of The Glades.
As ever, there's the mandatory Arrow flashbacks, now to Oliver's time in Hong Kong reluctantly working for Amanda Waller, and right up until the final revelation this strand felt like a lot of filler - but then it tied nicely into the ongoing story of Oliver's whereabouts.
Left Behind also had some great scenes between Felicity and Ray Palmer about his plans to (become the ATOM and) 'save the city' as well as the début appearance of a new Black Canary - complete with (technological) sonic scream.
Next Time (beware spoilers):
Constantine: Waiting For The Man - Tonight (in the States) and this weekend (in the UK) is the grand finale of the first (and only?) season of Constantine.
Much like Gotham (which returns at some unspecified time next month to Channel 5), I can't help feeling that I should like this more than I do. Again, like Gotham, it has its moments of near-genius but it's also quite pedestrian at times.
All being well, as Emmett J Scanlan is back as Jim Corrigan in Waiting For The Man, we might get some proper Spectre action in this story and the show will go out in such style that NBC has to give it a second season (although, honestly, that's not looking very likely at present).
Agent Carter - The adventures of Captain America's best gal reaches its season one finale (in the States) on February 24, but still no news as to when, and where, we'll be able to see it over here. Netflix would be good or a straight-to-DVD release...
Flash-it's way more complicated than that.
ReplyDeleteArrow-I'm beginning to like Laurel more, she sort of becomes comic relief for a bit. The flashbacks have gotten some criticism lately as they are super-relevant to the main story; I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt and assuming they are leading up to something (although one of those things seems obvious).
I do wish they'd answer how Slade & co. are being fed in the island prison.
Flash - oh, I hoped it would be ;-)
ReplyDeleteArrow - I have hopes for Laurel now she's "turned a corner" in her character development. What always annoyed me about the 'flashbacks' was their parallel development with the contemporary story - hitting the same plot points in the same order. I still wish (although it'll never happen) the show would do away with them, at least in their current form. It's the element of the show that, for me, stops it being truly great.
As to the feeding of the prisoners, perhaps Oliver has a team of natives who pop in every day with a sandwich cart?
Actually, I meant to say the flashbacks aren't super-relevant, so maybe you'll like them. I grew to hate the island ones, and am enjoying (or at least not hating) the Hong Kong (Shanghai??) ones more.
DeleteMaybe he borrows Merlyn's boomtube or whatever allows him to travel halfway around the world and back in what seems like mere hours, to get to the island.
The island flashbacks annoyed me pretty much from day one and never got any better. There were "flashback worthy" moments there, but Oli could have just 'recalled' them as necessary.
DeleteThe Meryln "boomtubing" to and fro was simply a bad piece of editing that needed a line somewhere to suggest an amount of time has passed.
Apparently, A.R.G.U.S. is providing food services to the prison.
DeleteI guess that makes sense. I'm surprised A.R.G.U.S. hasn't popped up in Central City yet, I'd have thought all that metahuman activity would have been on their radar.
DeleteThere is that General who's got the history with Wells, maybe he's staked his claim and is keeping ARGUS out.
DeleteGood point!
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