Pop Culture Princess

Pop Culture Princess
especially welcome to extensive readers

Thursday, March 26, 2015

The Flash hits the reset button,a couple of bad pennies turn up on Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and a taste of iZombie

The huge happenings on last week's episode of The Flash were reversed,as Barry quickly captured the Weather Wizard and altering the time line for both better and worse.

Those two elements went hand in hand,especially for Cisco as he avoided meeting a gruesome demise at the hands of his mentor yet was kidnapped by Captain Cold's crew and forced to make new weapons for them. The painful cherry on top of that suffering sundae was being made to reveal The Flash's true identity to Cold, due to Cisco's brother also being a hostage of The Rogues as well.

That group has a new member,by the way-Cold's sister Lisa, who has yet to be given a villain title(the one she had in the comics was Golden Glider, which explains why she had Cisco make her a gold ray gun, I guess) but she's pretty bad ass regardless of name:


Also, as predicted, Barry didn't get a declaration of love from Iris(but a punch in the face from Eddie for his trouble). All of this time rearranging might be seen as a bit of a letdown but I feel that it's setting the table for a more magnificent feast to come.

For one thing, Barry is a lot more suspicious of Dr. Wells(who eliminated a snoopy reporter on the sly) than he was before, a good sign indeed. Also glad that Cisco is still with us but I do wonder just how long his good natured self will last here.

 However, that will have to wait as next week, The Trickster(Mark Hamill, who also played that role in the 1990s TV version of The Flash) will be entering the arena to toss our hero a new brand of super villain hijinks:



Who should show up on Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. this week but Ward, who has a former enthralled follower of Whitehall's in tow.

 That new partner of his is Agent 33, who has a shape shifting "nanomask" fused to her face after a fight with Melinda May, is very grateful to him for providing her with some direction as well as a plan that involves capturing a former Hydra agent held by the government. How this will play into the bigger picture at the moment is yet to be seen but it should be interesting to see where this particular piece of the puzzle will fit in:



Meanwhile, Skye was sent to a remote location in order to figure out what to do next about her powers. Simmons made her a pair of gauntlets that might help but despite that bit of assistance, Simmons and Fitz are in serious disagreement about the potential for Skye's  new abilities.

Skye does need some time away from the tension but judging by next week's promo, she's not going to get it. The folks over at "the real Shield" are planning a takeover that will most likely be hostile. If I were them, I'd take a very calm approach to Skye as even the slightest debate tends to set her quake meter close to high:


I managed to catch up with the first two episodes of iZombie, the new CW series based loosely on the DC/Vertigo comic book series, and have to say that's not bad.

The premise is that former workaholic med student Liv Moore(yes, the names here are not too subtle) is trying to deal with her new half zombie state by using her brain eating need to help humanity.

Liv, who now works at the coroner's office, gets flashes of memory from the minds she feeds on that gives her and a police detective(who thinks she's psychic) clues to solve the murder of that particular person. In addition, she's broken off with her fiance Major,afraid of infecting him, and is somewhat disconnected from most of her family and friends.

The set-up is good so far and there's a lot of quirky humor between the characters(not surprising since Rob "Veronica Mars" Thomas is one of the brains behind this show). What really makes this show a must watch for me is the introduction of the true villain of the piece.

Liv was infected at a party by Blaine, a smarmy drug dealer who is also part zombie as well. Despite his attempts to convince her otherwise, Blaine does not share Liv's lingering respect for human life and is already planning to use his "raging" abilities to bad ends. It also helps that David Anders is in this role, as he is pretty much awesome in evil mode.

Blaine is quite the manipulate cad and could become a serious problem, which is good for a crime fighter show. Your hero is only as good as your adversary and if things keep going along like this, iZombie should have some new to offer the typical undead scene:


RANDOM NOTES:

GOING CLEAR: HBO has been riding a strong wave of good PR due to the real world impact of their Robert Durst documentary and the fall out from the upcoming film that looks into Scientology ought to be just as engaging.

 Based on the nonfiction book by Lawrence Wright, the movie not only talks about the celebrity members of this cult but what has been done to their regular followers as well. Yep, water coolers should be a-buzzing this Monday morning:






1 comment:

Thaddeus said...

Nice write-up! I also felt a bit let down by what The Flash did in that episode - I hated them taking back everything they did the week before - although I have to say that the episode was executed very well, all things considered. And I did like the fact that things played out differently. I guess part of it comes down to the oddness of the Barry-Iris situation - they grew up like siblings, for Pete's sake!

Shield continues to surprise me. Last season had, like, 0 stakes until they shook everything up. Now, the series has stakes all the time. Skye remains the week link, but the addition of Mack and Bobbi is solid, and has paid off nicely.

I will try to check out iZombie soon, as I've promised a few times now. But, Damn Liv Moore? I think a pun that bad makes one an honorary British person...

But, hey, bonus points for casting Anders. Yet I can't help but add "Blaine! That's an appliance, it's not a name!"