|
Post by Incandescence 112 on Aug 15, 2017 17:32:34 GMT -8
Turns out that Arrow will again have a non-super-powered Big Bad for its next season: martial-arts master Richard Dragon. This is a good sign. Now let's just hope he doesn't just spend the first 20 episodes of the season sitting around making evil faces. And he can totally outsmart the heroes at every turn as long as it's actually smartly written, and not just 'well he's the villain, so he literally knows everything!'. But personally, I'm more excited about Michael Emerson. It'll be interesting seeing him interact with everyone else, considering he's on an entirely different level from most of them.
|
|
|
Post by Jeremy on Aug 15, 2017 17:42:02 GMT -8
That will be interesting. I kind of wish he was playing the Big Bad.
(Although his role is being kept in the dark, so who knows what the story is.)
|
|
|
Post by Incandescence 112 on Aug 15, 2017 22:16:13 GMT -8
That will be interesting. I kind of wish he was playing the Big Bad. (Although his role is being kept in the dark, so who knows what the story is.) I have a feeling he'll be playing Caden James, that hacker who Helix broke out of prison last season. That seems to play to his strengths. (But still, can you imagine if they had Michael Emerson as the villain, and they filmed scenes of him fighting one v one against Steohen Amell? Damn, now I'm sad they didn't do that..........)
|
|
|
Post by nathan on Aug 18, 2017 23:23:47 GMT -8
I have watched the two seasons and it just got worse. I like Kara and Melissa plays her well but she just can't save it. Season Two was just going through the motions with the Guardian story falling flat straight away, Cat missing, a forced relationship with Alex and Maggie (even though Maggie said she wasn't interested in a relationship with Alex) and an on-the-nose final two episodes in which for some reason they made Superman say he was weaker than Supergirl. Why couldn't they be the same strength? A decade ago they would make a female character strong without comparing sexes and now they make her strong by comparing sexes. Buffy was able to show strength without blowing its own horn which Supergirl was doing okay in its first season but just became so political in the second.
I did enjoy seeing Teri Hatcher again after being a fan of Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman and wish she was given better material.
The saving grace was Martian Manhunter's storyline and the return of Cat. Those last episodes with Calista really drove home how much the show loses without her. There is something about the way she delivers dialogue that makes her magnetic. It probably comes from the Ally McBeal days.
The other CW shows: Arrow S5 was the best for years and in my mind finally beat The Flash as best concurrent season. Not that the Flash S3 was bad it just repeated itself too much from previous seasons.
I might watch the first couple of S3 Supergirl episodes and see if it takes.
|
|
|
Post by Incandescence 112 on Aug 19, 2017 16:02:03 GMT -8
I have watched the two seasons and it just got worse. I like Kara and Melissa plays her well but she just can't save it. Season Two was just going through the motions with the Guardian story falling flat straight away, Cat missing, a forced relationship with Alex and Maggie (even though Maggie said she wasn't interested in a relationship with Alex) and an on-the-nose final two episodes in which for some reason they made Superman say he was weaker than Supergirl. Why couldn't they be the same strength? A decade ago they would make a female character strong without comparing sexes and now they make her strong by comparing sexes. Buffy was able to show strength without blowing its own horn which Supergirl was doing okay in its first season but just became so political in the second.
I did enjoy seeing Teri Hatcher again after being a fan of Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman and wish she was given better material.
The saving grace was Martian Manhunter's storyline and the return of Cat. Those last episodes with Calista really drove home how much the show loses without her. There is something about the way she delivers dialogue that makes her magnetic. It probably comes from the Ally McBeal days.
The other CW shows: Arrow S5 was the best for years and in my mind finally beat The Flash as best concurrent season. Not that the Flash S3 was bad it just repeated itself too much from previous seasons.
I might watch the first couple of S3 Supergirl episodes and see if it takes. I beg to differ. The Flash Season 3 definitely sucked! I mean so did Season 2, but this one was almost unwatchable.
|
|
|
Post by nathan on Aug 23, 2017 0:02:56 GMT -8
I would not say it "sucked". It was "a little sucky". It is strange how the best season of a 3-seasoned series is its first. That is not meant to happen. It was watchable and Cisco remains the best part of the series for me, it just repeats itself each season. It was nowhere near as bad as 'Supergirl' S2 of course.
|
|
|
Post by Incandescence 112 on Aug 23, 2017 16:25:40 GMT -8
I would not say it "sucked". It was "a little sucky". It is strange how the best season of a 3-seasoned series is its first. That is not meant to happen. It was watchable and Cisco remains the best part of the series for me, it just repeats itself each season. It was nowhere near as bad as 'Supergirl' S2 of course. I have lots of glaring flaws with The Flash Season 3: -Barry is the worst -Savitar is a weak villain with lame special effects and mediocre writing -Large portions of each episode are now dedicated to forced developments. Forced developments don't make for good drama. -Speaking of which, the drama on this show is awful. It's usually romantic drama between two actors who have no chemistry, but cringeworthy dialogue and subpar acting don't help -Characters are really flat. Another reason why the drama falls flat is that the characters have 0 depth. When internal conflict arises organically from complex characters, that's when character drama works for me. But the "internal conflict" is just the characters being dumb and/or romance that makes DS9's "Meridian" look like Gone With the Wind. The show's clearly at its best when it embraces the joy and wonder in its premise (Season 1). It could actually stand to be a bit more like Legends of Tomorrow Season 2 in that regard. Not as immature or silly, but c'mon. It's a show about a man who runs really fast, not The Sopranos. Also, it is really weird that S1 was its best. Supergirl S2 wasn't much better, but I do enjoy Melissa Benoist.
|
|
|
Supergirl
Aug 23, 2017 19:02:28 GMT -8
via mobile
Post by ThirdMan on Aug 23, 2017 19:02:28 GMT -8
Whatever its faults, I thought the MVP on Supergirl in Season 2 was Chyler Leigh. She did some pretty nuanced work with an otherwise unsubtle character arc. Yeah, it'll likely never be more than a middling series, and the political commentary on the show is heavy-handed, but its heart is in the right place, and most of the cast is reasonably likeable. Kara was less engaging overall in S2, though, because she spent so much of it bitching out Monel.
|
|
|
Post by Incandescence 112 on Aug 23, 2017 20:24:43 GMT -8
Whatever its faults, I thought the MVP on Supergirl in Season 2 was Chyler Leigh. She did some pretty nuanced work with an otherwise unsubtle character arc. Yeah, it'll likely never be more than a middling series, and the political commentary on the show is heavy-handed, but its heart is in the right place, and most of the cast is reasonably likeable. Kara was less engaging overall in S2, though, because she spent so much of it bitching out Monel. Yeah, I agree with that also. I heard they got a new show-runner for Season 3, so maybe it'll become genuinely good? To be honest, all the CW shows could use better writing teams. I mean, I know they have a super tight schedule and a minuscule budget, but they could still probably do better. Good writing can hide that stuff.
|
|
|
Post by nathan on Aug 24, 2017 18:39:27 GMT -8
A problem I have with 'The Flash' is the speed differences. Barry can go around town picking up items and returning to the house/apartment in one second yet most times you see his blur. If he can go as fast as the first scenario then he shouldn't be caught by a non-speedy villain. Of course that would not make an episode. They shouldn't have shown us he can go that fast. Also..... as people have pointed out...... what happens to the metas that are held in containment. They have no way of being charged. They have no bathroom or bed (by the looks of the cell) and the cell is really small. That is less humane than killing them........... but the hero cannot kill so it happens. Also, they need to escape again to make another episode in the future. That is what I liked about 'Arrow' is that he did what had to be done sometimes in S5 by killing.
I only watched the first couple of episodes of 'TLoT' season 1 and it was boring so I stopped. I did hear it picked up and season 2 is much better.
For 'Supergirl' I agree Melissa is fun to watch. There is something about her smile. I don't know what they were trying with the Guardian storyline as Jimmy was good enough in the first season. And what happened to the shortest romance ever between Kara and Jimmy at the start. Supergirl has the similar problem to 'Smallville' in that the hero is against killing and yet is super strong so has to hold back when fighting a human villain. This makes most episodes go: Villain shows up and Kara attempts to fight them but loses somehow. Goes back to strategize with gang. Returns and beats baddie. 'Smallville' was more successful at this.
|
|
|
Post by Jeremy on Aug 24, 2017 19:02:49 GMT -8
Smallville suffered from the fact that it was deadlocked into repeating the same story beats every episode, and every season. The status quo remained painfully intact, year after endless year.
Supergirl can be formulaic, but it's thus far shown more interest in developing its characters and plotting out coherent story arcs. I do hope the writers have learned from Smallville's mistakes, and don't succumb to the same redundant storytelling that was always plaguing that show.
|
|
|
Post by nathan on Aug 24, 2017 19:22:55 GMT -8
When the best part about a series on Clark Kent was Lex Luthor then you probably have a problem. (I have a much better ending for season 7 that makes sense) It did repeat itself, although it did go for 218 episodes so it was bound to. I feel the difference is that 'Smallville' had a character like Lex that you were drawn to and that made up for the blandness of Clark and that 'Supergirl' doesn't have a character like that. Come to think of it, either does 'Arrow'.
|
|
|
Post by Jeremy on Oct 9, 2017 20:08:48 GMT -8
The new Supergirl premiere was... about as good as I expected it to be. Supergirl's attempt to downplay her alter-ego was an interesting follow-up to the S2 finale, but it was also pretty heavy-handed and dispensed with too quickly. The action scenes remain competent, but nothing more. And the political commentary is still pretty jarring. (Is Morgan Edge going to be a regular Trump stand-in? Oh dear.)
The series has some new showrunners this season - Jessica Queller and Robert Rovner, who previously wrote the best episode of Season One ("Falling"), and a handful of strong episodes in Season Two. The media buzz indicates that they plan to take show in a darker direction this season. We'll see what develops.
|
|
|
Post by ThirdMan on Oct 10, 2017 11:12:14 GMT -8
It kind of felt like the Supergirl version of BtVS's When She Was Bad, minus the sexuality.
And Supergirl pushing that torpedo back into the submarine before it fired was some veeeery subtle symbolism...heh. Take that, patriarchy!
Re: Morgan Edge, it's not like Trump is the first rich media type to try to control the message/shut down any dissent.
|
|
|
Post by Jeremy on Oct 10, 2017 13:39:55 GMT -8
it's not like Trump is the first rich media type to try to control the message/shut down any dissent.
Aww. That's probably the nicest thing you've ever said about him. Admittedly, because Supergirl isn't very subtle with its messages - the occasional submarine torpedo notwithstanding - it becomes easy to read almost anything on the series as political commentary. And previous media incarnations of Morgan Edge (e.g. Smallville) have portrayed him as a straightforward crime boss, so it was unusual that Supergirl is taking him back to his 1970s capitalist roots. Then again, I like that the show embraces some of the older elements of the Superman mythos. It satisfies the little fanboy inside me.
|
|