The Flash - Plastique

"I'm not a bad person."
"We appear to have accepted that on trust, largely because
you're much cleaner than our villains."

The Flash continues to pile on characters from the DC back-catalogue as 'Plastique' features the eponymous metahuman of the week as well as General Wade Eiler, DC's answer to 'Thunderbolt' Ross and infamous dick to metahumans.

The episode is notable for introducing a non-hostile metahuman in the form of Bette Sans Souci, an Army EOD tech with the uncontrolled ability to convert inanimate matter into unstable explosives. You can tell she's good because she's not all grubby, but although Cisco is willing to take her on trust because she's hot, Barry connects with her on a more emotional level.

Also this week, fanservice.

The villain of the piece is General Eiler, a super-soldier nut whose mind control experiments (conducted with Dr Wells before Wells pulled the plug) were hinted at in the wreck of STAR Labs in the pilot. He is every ultra-hawkish general ever, viewing people as assets and metahumans as weapons. The emotional core of the episode comes not directly from a confrontation with Eiler, however, but from the clash between Barry's desire to help Bette and Wells' willingness to sacrifice anyone and anything to protect him.

'Plastique' is a good episode, although hampered by the continuing focus on Iris and Barry, which really needs to have something happen if it is to be interesting. 

Dominion - The Flood

"I just want to know... Where did you get that coat?"

Rushing Michael back to Vega for surgery, Alex is immediately arrested for desertion. And thrown in the clink, choosing solitary confinement rather than a tat revealing strip search, because that's how good this system is.

"What have you got against Vega?" a guard demands whilst kicking Alex in the ribs*. The irony is too delicious.

Meanwhile, a senator takes Alan Dale and Evil Giles hostage, demanding to meet with the Chosen One. This provides a chilling view of the future, as Claire and William step up to assume their fathers' mantles and fail to convince as leaders at all, basically leaving the ball in Sexy Lady Senator's court.

Speaking of Sexy Lady Senator, she gets some dimension, nicking the sword fragment from Michael's wound to analyse (unless that was Pseudosapphic Diplomat; it was dark.) Michael himself is healed with an angel feather and then runs into his sister Uriel, a higher angel apparently intent on playing Michael and Gabriel off against one another. Uriel may or may not have been the one who healed him; I wasn't sure.

"You've fought before, but never like this!" she accuses them, apparently having missed that time in the movie where they basically killed each other.

Oh, and you know how I predicted orphan waif would be sacrificed around Episode 5? Does the end of 4 count?

'The Flood' is an aptly named episode, not for the attempted flooding of the farming towers but for the absolute deluge of character development. Alex goes from total rejection to pretty much full acceptance of the Chosen One role, a development which might have benefited from a whole episode in solitary and perhaps some visions to externalise the internal conflict. It would also have helped not to be sharing screen time with the introduction of Senator Frost (he's been in before, but his importance was not previously made clear) and Uriel.

On the plus side, with pretty much all of the character development out of the way, next week may settle into plot and action mode.

* As a note, I'm not rechecking my quotes, so they may not be spot on and also the guard may actually have been punching or slapping him or something.

Gotham - The Penguin's Umbrella

Well you can tell by the way I use my walk
I'm a mama's boy and I'm gonna squawk

Oswald Cobblepot is out of the shadows and Gotham is bracing for gang war. Now that his deception is revealed, Gordon must make a hail Mary throw, and Bullock must decide who to back.

If 'Spirit of the Goat' was Bullock's show, 'The Penguin's Umbrella' is, unsurprisingly, Cobblepot's. This is his first grand scheme, as with one throw of the dice he moves to eliminate half of his enemies and neutralise the rest. Everything is good in Penguin Town.

Oh, shit! It's Victor Zsasz; and there are only about fifty of us.
Cheese it!

Gordonsville is looking a lot less rosy. Allen and Montoya are established as allies, but Barbara is promoted this week from merely useless to an active liability and the rest of the GCPD show their true colours: bright yellow. If nothing else, the appearance of Victor Zsasz (currently on kill 28 of lots) at GCPD HQ proves that the real problem with the cops in Gotham is not that they are corrupt, but that they are beaten. Perhaps Gordon's achievement in the series will be to get them at least to a stage where they aren't cowed without a struggle.

We're big damn heroes! Good thing neither of us has a useless
idiot girlfriend who could completely screw this up for us.

On the upside, the wary alliance between Gordon and Bullock seems to be blossoming into full blown bromance. It's adorable. Gordon's face when Bullock is setting out to have sex with a hooker in his and Barbara's bed is priceless.

As a note, it's now established that Captain Essen has a family, so I don't know if they're going to go with the comics relationship. I'm really worried that they're going to try to make a go of this relationship with Barbara, who drags the quality of Gotham's female characters down several notches. Part of me can't escape the feeling that there's going to be a surprise guest appearance from Emily Brett Rickards, who will have staggering chemistry with Gordon and then go back to Arrow leaving the irritating canon romance intact.

Some other notes:

They're really building up this 'sons of Gotham' idea, with Falcone, Gordon and Cobblepot all very strongly identifying with the idea that Gotham is their home, however shabbily it treats them. I guess the same applies to Bruce. I don't know if it will work out long term, but at least it's a concept.

Zsasz is a fan of Lipps Inc.

Atlantis - A New Dawn Part 2

Series 2 of Atlantis will have an increased Medea
presence.

The conclusion of Atlantis series 2's two-part opener begins with Knosstroytlantis besieged by the Calchean army, its only hope the return of the Palladium and the returners struggling through cyclops-infested tunnels with a wounded Jason. There will be blood before this is done, and secrets will be learned that can not be unlearned.

Much like Merlin before it, Atlantis series 2 is going more political and establishing a larger human ensemble in place of its earlier jolly small-band adventure and monster of the week format. It remains to be seen if Jason of the Fluffy Hair can carry this, as he is struggling to look seriously pained each time the insuperable barrier of his breeding comes between him and Ariadne, while she seems to only ever look pained.

The addition of Medea to the series suggest that they may be about to go love triangle on us, which might be no bad thing, although alas Jemima Rooper's Medusa is off in her cave trying to work out what conditioner works on snakes.

Perhaps the greatest strength of the opener has been taking a chance on Hercules. Although played by the very talented Mark Addy, he's been written slightly one-note until now, and moving him more centre stage could be the saving grace of the series.

Agents of SHIELD - A Hen in the Wolf House

I'm glad Bobbi Morse is already Mockingbird, because it would be just
embarrassing to have to call her the Caucasian Cavalry.

And speaking, as I was in my Constantine review, of throwing characters in for the fans, it's time for the somewhat spoiled introduction of sometime West Coast Avenger and occassional Mrs Hawkeye (although not necessarily in this continuity) Bobbi 'Mockingbird' Morse in Agents of SHIELD.

Simmons has uncovered some seriously doomsday-type shenanigans in her undercover work at HYDRA, but Raina threatens her cover in an attempt to resolve her own troubles, leading to security expert Morse being called in for a mole hunt. Caught between her HYDRA handlers and Morse when Coulson refuses to make a deal and let Raina take Sky to her father, Simmons' only hope is that the Director has a plan.

Which he does (the next section will necessity include spoilers.)



Morse is pretty kick ass, but I can't help noting that she is a lot like May. The cynical part of my brain notes that she is a lot like May but white, but the hopeful part suspects that she and Lance Hunter are being brought in as part of the new forward team with Coulson and May easing back into more executive roles within the fictional organisation. That or she'll turn out a triple agent and have to fight May, which admittedly would be way more awesome than the two of them wailing on Kyle MacLachlan.

Much less convincingly badass than either Adrianne Pailicki
or Ming-Na Wen, which is unfortunate as there's a climactic
fight in the making there.

On that tack, Skye's father meanwhile proves to be some sort of freaking monster, with near-superhuman physical prowess and a real anger management problem. If I could bring myself to give a crap about Skye anymore, this would no doubt hit me in the feels, but as it is my feels are a little numb from Fitz admitting that imaginary Simmons is imaginary right before the real one comes back. When he asks the returning Gemma: "Is it really you?" I choked up a little.

I'm not convinced that continuing to expand the roster is necessarily the way to go, and hopefully we're pretty much done with introductions. I also hope that the newcomers aren't intended to allow the show to start knocking off characters left, right and centre. A little character death can be effective; too much is fatiguing.

Although if they can drop Ward, that would be nice.

Constantine - Danse Vaudou

In a shocking twist, Chas actually does something in this episode.

Using a Victorian zoetrope to kickstart Zed's abilities leads Team Constantine (as seems to be the accepted parlance for DC series ensembles these days) to New Orleans. We can tell it's New Orleans because there's a bar where they're playing 'When the Saints Go Marching In', and because Chas tells us the currently active bloodspot on the map is in 'New Orleans, Louisiana'. Still, props for treating New Orleans the same as, say, London.

Shockingly, the Big Easy appears to have a zombie problem. Local cop Jim Corrigan isn't keen on getting outside help on this, and neither is local magic supremo Papa Midnite (who also bears a grudge for episode 3.) Before long, however, Constantine is in an uneasy truce with Midnite to lay the dead to rest, while Zed and Corrigan try to prevent further deaths. For once, Chas is called on to actually do some stuff this week, and to demonstrate his 'survival skills', making for a truly ensemble episode.

* It doesn't work out so well, yeah.

There's another little Easter egg for the fans, with the presence of Jim Corrigan to tease those who know how his story works out.*

Issues of scope and timing mean that this week's resolution is a little pat, especially compared to the solid gut punch of 'A Feast of Friends'. Sadly, this means that we follow a great episode with a merely decent one, but at least on a par with 'The Devil's Vinyl'. Also, at least John doesn't claim there's nothing blacker than voodoo; that would just be awkward.

Rastamouse

Mouseland's finest

Mouseland is a one-town, paradisaical island state in the Caribbean, with a democratically elected head of state and a police force with a lax uniform code and a sideline as a reggae band.

Rastamouse, Scratchy and Zoomer are, collectively, Da Easy Crew, Mouseland's premier small town reggae band and special crime fighting agents in the employ of President Wensleydale. It may seem odd that there are no police to do this work, but the mysteries that Wensleydale calls in Da Easy Crew to solve are pretty low on the criminal scale, so perhaps the Mouseland Bureau of Investigations are dealing with the island's gang violence or drug problems or what have you.

A typical episode has Rastamouse and Da Easy Crew called in from rehearsal or a jam session because some bizarre upset is threatening the latest in Mouseland's endless parade of civic events. Maybe the carnival is short of ice sculptures, or the orphanage doesn't have enough cheese due to a missed delivery. Da Easy Crew will zip around tow, following clues and, having found the person responsible, Rastamouse will come up with a crucial plan for them to redeem themselves and 'make a bad ting good'.

The show has been criticised by some for parodying West Indian culture and accents. It's a fair cop on the accents, perhaps, but the writer is Trinidadan by birth and steeped in London's West Indian expat culture. I'm not ideally placed to comment, but it seems to me that a fellow has a right to parody his own culture if he wants to.

See! He's like a milkman
caught in flagrante.

What worries me more is the moral conduct of President Wensleydale, a mouse who is forever without pants. Okay, no mouse wears trousers in Mouseland (although women and girls wear skirts,) but it is especially noticeable in light of Wensleydale's other clothes (formal shirt, tie and cap.) Is this the kind of mouse we want to see in charge of Mouseland, especially given that he seems to be largely incompetent and reliant on Da Easy Crew to keep him out of all manner of trouble.

The parody aspect is a thorny one, but overall Rastamouse is a fun little series, and I especially like the focus on making right when you do wrong, rather than either being punished or simply saying sorry. I can think of much worse lessons to teach a child than 'you got to make a bad ting good.'