Arrowverse

Batwoman – An Un-Birthday Present

  • Title: Batwoman – An Un-Birthday Present
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Batwoman - An Un-Birthday Present television review

Batwoman offers up one of the better episodes of the series by introducing a new Beth Kane (Rachel Skarsten), one that grew up on a parallel Earth who never went crazy and became Alice (Skarsten). While at first wary of another Alice trap, Kate (Ruby Rose) eventually comes to terms with a sane version of her twin sister arriving on their birthday. While she isn’t introduced to the the wider cast, Beth does make good impressions on both Mary and Luke. The final scene suggesting one of the two Beths must die for the other to live feels more like the show falling back into bad habits. While the death of Alice would certainly help the show drop dead weight and offer Batwoman room to grow and take on other villains, and still give Skarsten a role on the show, I’m not sure I see the courage in the show’s writers to be willing to make such a drastic shift (though I would be happy to be proved wrong).

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Legends of Tomorrow – Meet the Legends

  • Title: Legends of Tomorrow – Meet the Legends
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Legends of Tomorrow - Meet the Legends TV review

Sara (Caity Lotz) returns from Crisis to discover the Legends have become famous and there is a documentary film crew aboard the Wave Rider. “Meet the Legends” makes full use of the crew, often framing scenes through those cameras with the Legends talking directly to the filmmakers. The latest trouble sends the Legends to early 20th Century Russia where Rasputin (Michael Eklund) has risen from the dead (as one of several souls which have escaped Hell). After screwing up several times, the team finally manages to defeat Rasputin thanks in large part (pun intended) to Ray (Brandon Routh) and his new catchphrase. The conclusion of the episode, removing the crew’s celebrity, feels far too easy (although quite funny). I hope to see someone from that audience, perhaps a small group of firm believers, not taking the denouncement at face value and continuing to believe in the time traveling heroes opening up a storyline down the line.

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Arrow – Green Arrow & The Canaries

  • Title: Arrow – Green Arrow & The Canaries
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Arrow - Green Arrow & The Canaries television review

“Green Arrow & The Canaries” is an oddly constructed episode set 20 years after the events of Crisis. Following Oliver Queen‘s (Stephen Amell) sacrifice, Star City has lived in blissful peace for two decades, with Mia (Katherine McNamara) and William (Ben Lewis) growing up together in rich luxury. All that is threatened when evil starts to stir again with the kidnapping of Helena’s daughter (Raigan Harris) whose death could be the domino to lead Star City back down the dark future seen in previous episodes (although given the number of baddies the new Deathstroke, and the not-so-hard-to-guess woman behind him put together, it looks like future version of Star City has plenty of killers and malcontents to deal with).

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Supergirl – The Bottle Episode

  • Title: Supergirl – The Bottle Episode
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Supergirl - The Bottle Episode television review

I didn’t expect the first episode of Supergirl coming out of Crisis would be a Brainy (Jesse Rath) episode, but it works (and not only for mercifully killing the puppy-dog romance that had been used too often this season as B-story filler). With National City’s hero, CatCo, and the DEO all transplanted to the new Earth, Supergirl (Melissa Benoist) struggles with the machinations of Lex Luthor (Jon Cryer) who has managed once again to take advantage of the Crisis (this time setting himself up as the world’s most famous humanitarian). While Lex, and his team-up with Lena (Katie McGrath), is a looming threat to be dealt with later in the season, the more immediate threat is the sudden arrival of multiple versions of Brainac-5 all from former Earths who are slowly being killed off one by one.

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Batwoman – How Queer Everything is Today!

  • Title: Batwoman – How Queer Everything is Today!
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Batwoman - How Queer Everything is Today! television review

Batwoman begins it’s post-Crisis adventure with another awkward Alice (Rachel Skarsten) story and an introduction of a talented young hacker (Malia Pyles) lashing out at the world. While the message at the heart of “How Queer Everything is Today!” is admirable, like so many of the episodes from the show’s First Season, the execution leaves much to be desired. For instance, the show opens with Batwoman (Ruby Rose) saving a runaway train using a single cable from her grappling gun which, even a basic undertanding of physics tells us, would have either had no effect whatsoever or, at best, derailed the train. From there Batwoman tracks the hacker responsible to her old high school where Alice has plans to force the hacker to reveal Kate’s secret (not that Alice couldn’t do that on her own or that Batwoman couldn’t have disarmed Alice one of a million ways before she could have done any harm).

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