Pop Culture Princess

Pop Culture Princess
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Thursday, October 22, 2015

A new foe arises in Gotham, The Flash slows down for a family affair and how S2 of HTGAWM is going

While the presence of Jerome is still missed on Gotham, there is plenty of devious plotting going on as Penguin is forced into obeying the orders of Theo Galavan, who is keeping his mother prisoner.

One of those orders involves arson on a grand scale, so Cobblepot's number one henchman Butch has Selina give him an introduction to the Pike brothers,whose sister Bridget was an old friend of hers.

When one of the Pike boys is taken down by the cops, Bridget is reluctantly recruited as their new front man and finds that fire setting is rather liberating. After another confrontation with the police that leaves one officer fried, Bridget is quickly abandoned by her so-called "family", she takes off with Selina and judging by next week's trailer, they plan to become partners in crime.

Bridget's role as Firefly(a villain who has been portrayed by men in two different incarnations) is an interesting twist here and one that I hope develops as a more than a two or three episode nemesis. We could use some serious girl power on this show, even if it's on the wrong side of the law:



I know that some folks were worried about the fast pace of the first two episodes of The Flash, particularly in setting up the multiverse elements of the main arc, but this week, things went back to a more leisurely pace in character focused story lines.

As Joe struggles with the need to tell Iris the truth about her mother, who is not dead and back in town, Barry and the gang wind up assisting Captain Cold and his sister, with one being threatened by their vicious career criminal father into committing robberies with dear old Dad in order to protect the other. Those two stories mirrored each other nicely and also set up a possible redemption arc for Captain Cold(who is meant to join up with the upcoming D.C.'s Legends of Tomorrow series).

The whole "Earth 2" story was not ignored, as Jay Garrick agreed to stick around for a whole in order to prevent Zoom from attacking Barry(not to mention Caitlin has a serious crush on him there!).  All in all, this looks like The Flash will be in fine form as the rest of this season rolls out:


 With several episodes of season two having aired, How To Get Away With Murder has proven to still be an addicting show. So far, we've had the cliffhanger murder mystery from last time solved(yet known only to a few), Famke Janssen show up in a great guest star role as a former college friend/lover of Annalise and a new enemy in the form of a bitchy DA determined to take our leading lady down.

The big tease this season has been a series of flashforwards(in contrasts to the flashbacks of S1) where we see Annalise bleeding out in a mansion and seemingly abandoned by her students.

 This near death experience is connected to a major case  that has the firm defending a pair of adopted siblings accused of brutally killing their rich parents(and yes, there are also accusations of an illicit romance as these kids are not related by blood to each other). Is this all a soap opera? Yes and no, as the tension arising from the situations,along with the dialogue at times, does bring HTGAWM up to a higher level of must-see TV. It's certainly retained that element of "what the hell just happened?!" that made the first season so engaging and hopefully, that pace will be well maintained:


RANDOM NOTES:

HOME FIRES: This PBS series about how small town women in WWII England are coping with life and dealing with the internal politics of their community organization is really quite the gripping program. Based upon a nonfiction book, this fictional take on such a small corner of that world relates to so many wider subjects like domestic abuse, fraud against the government and the march of progress being fought by those more comfortable with the status quo that it does deserves a broader audience out there and I hope that it's getting one:


3 comments:

Thaddeus said...

Nicely done, lady t! The big winner here (as usual) is Jesse L Martin. He's the best actor on the show, and he's as charismatic as a teddy bear.

I was also impressed with what they did with Wentworth Miller and the actress who plays his sister. They're not the most impressive characters on the show, but they're given some genuine depth, and their dialogue doesn't sound fake/the CW's unique brand of fake.

Still, much as with the "why do they never let anything breathe" concerns I had before, there are still little oddities in the writing:
Stop using the word "speedster" so much, seriously. Last week, it occurred 4 times in 1 minute. People don't talk like that, only mediocre writers do.
Victor Garber's line about taking a "wellness hiatus." I can't believe his actor's instincts didn't prevent him from speaking such an awkward phrase.
They build the stabilizer thingie so flash can go into Earth 2... And then they leave it attached and active all the time? And how the f--k could J Jay have any idea how to build this? By himself? IN A DAY?

Finally, The Flash expects me to believe that a woman who has a gun that turns things into GOLD needs to rob stores. Doesn't she need an angle, like stealing for personal reasons and not money?

lady t said...

Actually, Jay had Caitlin's help in building the Speed Cannon and he is a scientist,after all, so him knowing how to do that makes some sort of sense there.

Also, do agree that "speedster" is a bit overused but when it comes to comic book adaptations of the superhero kind, you have to expect a touch of corn in the dialogue(I did miss that "wellness hiatus" line but it does sound like something the character would say,to me).

As for Golden Glider, it might be difficult to constantly be selling large quantities of gold without catching the attention of the authorities, not something career criminal types want! Plus, I think that both she and her brother view robberies as a mental challenge more than money making(as well as thrill seeking).

Jesse L. Martin's scene with Iris,...there was no way you could get mad at Joe West and not look mean, no way! He is so the best:)

Thaddeus said...

I swear, if cops aren't actively after GG, she could just turn things into gold and sell them in a store. She'd attract wealthy clientele in no time!

There are problems with the speed canon, but I'll accept your opinion on that one... I still have no idea why they'd leave the cannon in place *all the time* AND *totally unguarded*