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The View from the 5:35

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Mark | Corporate Accountant | 40

Monday. My therapist said I should decompress on my commute home and “journal”. Not sure if I’m doing this right, but here goes. The 5:35 train in “lovely” Krawen Nepp Station rolled up to the platform around 5:25. I knew this because it was humid as hell, and I looked at my watch as I was sweating through my suit. After a long day crunching numbers I really didn’t want to stand around waiting and sweating. This is probably one of the things that Dr. Hunter would classify as “small stuff” that I should probably just get over.

Anyway, I got on the double decker train and went upstairs to grab a single seater in the back (front?) of the car. I usually sit in the quiet car and listen to music or podcasts on my way home but now I’m adding this whole journaling exercise. When the doc told me to write about the things around me to decompress from work, I immediately thought of “Joe.” Not sure what his real name is, since I’ve never spoken to him, but there’s a guy I see almost every day, who looks like he could be a boy scout leader. He always wears a baseball cap with a backpack and looks like he could be out of a magazine.

I saw Joe get on the train but he was a few cars ahead of me, backpack and baseball hat intact. There were a bunch of people I saw regularly, and there are some interesting characters, for sure. There’s a woman who always talks on her phone, loudly, in the area between cars. She’s usually yelling at her husband or her kids and sometimes listening to her makes me happy to be single. Today this woman is asking one of her kids where his laptop is – apparently he left it at school. #FirstWorldProblems.

The conductor just came by to check my (digital) ticket. I always pull it up as soon as I get on the train out of paranoia – you never know when the conductors will come by to check. This is also something I’m working on with the doc. If the person checking tickets has to wait a few seconds for my phone to pull up the ticket, such is life. I just really hate confrontation and/or holding things up. #WorkingOnIt (#WOI – I like it, still coming up with some ‘journaling’ lingo). That’s gotta be a thankless job – working hard to check everyone’s paying their way and then having to fight with people on wrong trains or kids trying to get free rides. I always try to smile and be pleasant to the train workers.

Slotsberg, Garfield, Haddonfield… my stop on this express train is number 6: Longfellow. There’s always a mass exodus around Easthaven, probably because it has a great parking lot. Longfellow’s parking lot is not great, but I deal with it (#smallstuff). Pavonia, Brookdale. We’re pulling into the Longfellow station, and I’m hanging up the keyboard for now. This certainly made the commute a little faster and I’m definitely not stressed. Maybe that degree from that Ivy league school the doc has is good for something…

TV

Veronica Mars: Where Was I?

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In 2004, the upstart television network known as UPN premiered a plucky little show about a teenager who had a knack for solving mysteries. Set in the fictional Neptune, California, our heroine struggled with the usual high school hurdles: homework, angst, parents, love and… murder? Also, rape, racism, child molestation, trans-phobia, alcoholism, and suicide. Sounds like feel-good TV, doesn’t it?

In a way, it actually was. The show effortlessly blended heavy topics with normal everyday situations and a little comedy – and somehow made it all believable. Veronica Mars, starring a young Kristen Bell as the titular sleuth, was an anomaly – and one that I missed completely. I’m not sure what I watching in 2004; looking at Wikipedia’s article on the 2004 TV season, I’m pretty sure it wasn’t According to Jim. Veronica was, sadly, nowhere on my radar.

This all changed earlier this year when Hulu revived the show for a fourth season and posted the 3 previous seasons – that’s 64 episodes – which I then promptly binge-watched in the span of 2 weeks. “Binge-watched” may not accurately describe what I did – obsessively black-hole watched? I’ll workshop that… Let’s just say after the first episode, I was hooked.

We were introduced to Veronica, her father and former Neptune sheriff Keith Mars, and her estranged mother Lianne. Veronica’s best friend, Lilly Kane was murdered; Keith bungled the investigation, blaming her grief-stricken father, Jake Kane. Lianne skipped town, Keith got ousted as sheriff and became a private investigator. Further complicating things were Veronica’s ex-boyfriend and Lilly’s brother Duncan Kane and his buddy and Lilly’s boyfriend, Logan Echolls.

Add in arrogant but clueless sheriff Don Lamb, public defender Cliff McCormack, biker club leader Eli “Weevil” Navarro, and Veronica’s BFF Wallace Fennel and you’ve got a binge-worthy TV season.

Who murdered Lilly Kane? #NoSpoilers, but I certainly didn’t see it coming. The mystery was solid, but the relationships – Veronica and Keith above all – kept me coming back for more. Veronica herself was at the center of a mystery, being drugged at a party and subsequently raped, not knowing exactly what happened or with whom. The first season was a wild ride, all while making the viewer guess (and second-guess) how Lilly met her end. The reveal was satisfying, and made me wonder how they would up the ante for season 2.

To up said ante, they killed a bus load of kids. Season 2 was the season of the Casablancas – making series regulars out of Dick and Cassidy “Beaver” Casablancas, and introducing step-mom Kendall Casablancas. Also introduced were Neptune mayoral hopeful Woody Goodman, his daughter, Gia, new student Jackie Cook as well as an increased presence of computer nerd Cindy “Mac” Mackenzie. Also along for the ride were Deputy Leo D’Amato and sleazy PI Vinnie Van Lowe.

While I didn’t find the mystery of the bus crash as compelling as Lilly’s murder, it kept my interest, and the reveal of who did it (and sadly, why) was genuinely jaw-dropping. Again, I won’t spoil the mystery, but you have to imagine a character with the name “Goodman” is probably somehow involved. In another exciting twist, Veronica’s rape story was also revealed at the end of the season, creating a retcon of sorts, as events as Veronica and the viewers knew them turned out to be untrue.

Season 3, or Veronica Mars: The College Years, saw the show experiment with mini-mystery arcs, each getting a few weeks’ attention. This definitely changed the pacing of the show as the storylines were wrapped up more quickly. New characters Stosh “Piz” Piznarski and Parker Lee joined Veronica, Wallace and Mac at Hearst College where PI Veronica continued sleuthing. While the mysteries of rapes, murdered deans, and extra-marital affairs waxed and waned, Veronica’s relationships took more of a prominent role.

And then the show was canceled. The UPN and WB networks had merged into The CW, and Veronica Mars couldn’t find a stable audience. Cut to 8 years later where, due to the magic of the internet, a feature film was Kickstarted. Veronica – now an adult – was back, along with old friends and new, to solve another mystery that nicely tied in with the original run of the show. While the mystery itself and resolution weren’t quite as sharp as the original, it was great to see where the characters ended up and get the gang back together.

Revival and reboot fever being in full swing, Hulu brought Veronica Mars back for an eight-episode fourth season in 2019. The new season retains the charm of the original show, again mainly due to Veronica and Keith’s relationship – the one constant through the show’s iterations. The now fully-engrossed-in-PI-work Veronica, along with some familiar faces, tackles mystery bombings plaguing Neptune. Guest stars like J.K. Simmons and Patton Oswalt are engrossed in the mystery, which results in a somewhat predictable reveal, and a truly sad ending. Creator Rob Thomas has said he has some ideas for an Agatha Christie-like season 5, but whether or not he’ll get to tell that tale remains to be seen.

I’ve thoroughly enjoyed watching 72 episodes and a feature film with these characters and hope enough people get on the bandwagon for Hulu to bring it back for season 5. The show could continue on for several more seasons in its current incarnation, and Kristen Bell has taken the character from defiant teen to mature private investigator. I’m certainly on board for more, though I probably won’t be taking the bus any time soon.

M

TV

The State of the Arrowverse – Supergirl

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The latest in the set of Arrowverse shows is CBS transplant Supergirl. I really wanted to like this show, especially since lead Melissa Benoist is charming as Kara Danvers and kick-ass as Supergirl. Season 1, for me, was a total train wreck. Season 2 seemed to right the ship a little bit, before devolving into a big mess once again. And season 3 feels like a chore, because I genuinely do not like 95% of this show. How could they get the Girl of Steel so right but the rest of the show so wrong? Let’s explore. Spoiler alert: anything up until 2017’s winter finales is fair game.

SUPERGIRL – Current Season: 3

Season 1 of Supergirl oddly aired on CBS, home to many NCIS’s and the baffling “comedy” that rhymes with Mig Mang Meory. As I said, I really like Melissa Benoist in the role, but 3 aspects of the show’s first season really failed:

(1) The Setup
Kara’s adoptive sister Alex works for the DEO, a secret government agency that deals with aliens – a truly solid way to set up a Supergirl series. Inexplicably, the DEO base is in some remote desert that Kara has to fly to whenever there’s trouble. I can suspend disbelief for a TV show quite easily, but Kara left her job so many times that Cat Grant hired another assistant to do Kara’s job instead of firing her. I think it might have been better if they didn’t address that issue, because making Cat oblivious is not as stupid as hiring 2 people to do 1 job. HR department on line 1, Miss Grant. Speaking of…

(2) The Supporting Characters
I am in the minority as someone who never liked Calista Flockhart as Cat Grant. I think she was miscast, and never believed that she was some high and mighty publishing maven; she was just louder than everyone else in the room. Winn Schott and James “Don’t Call Me Jimmy” Olsen were okay as Kara’s coworkers, but shoehorning them into DEO adventures rarely worked. James as a love interest and Winn pining for Kara also fell flat – James and Kara had zero chemistry (anyone remember Lucy Lane?), and the nerdy-guy-with-a-heart-of-gold drooling over the cute girl bit has been done to death. Super soldier Alex was solely a super soldier and supportive sister; Martian Manhunter was a cool addition, but was usually relegated to a command center instead of using his abilities to help Supergirl. Ultimately Supergirl’s Scooby gang didn’t come together organically because the show was trying to live in both the DEO world and the CatCo world.

(3) The Villains
Besides the villains of the week (including the aforementioned second assistant, Siobhan Smythe, aka Silver Banshee), Kara’s Kryptonian aunt Astra was the big bad of season 1 – though I think she was around for a total of 4 episodes. Astra was trying to take over everyone’s mind to destroy them for… reasons. But then she died, and her husband Non and evil robot Indigo took over. I don’t really remember what their plan was, but it was evil. Only an impassioned speech by Supergirl could free the public from… whatever it was. Yeah, it didn’t make much sense.

There were many welcome changes in season 2. James/Kara/Winn decided to just be buddies. Cat Grant chose her family over her career (as Calista chose LA over Vancouver). The DEO moved to National City, so Kara didn’t have to leave her job for days at a time to fight evil. Winn became a DEO agent so he’d actually have a reason to be involved with things. Kara got a real love interest in Mon-El, and Alex got a real love interest in Maggie.

Just when I thought things were on the uptick, we had these developments:
After a Cadmus tease, Lillian Luthor was a big bad, sort of? (Metallo was pretty cool)
Way too much time was devoted to Alex and Maggie. I got the emotional heft, but it just dragged on for me, and seemed like filler after a while.
That whole Guardian sub-plot (sub-not?)
Kara just becomes a reporter? Also cranky Ian Gomez is not good Ian Gomez.

And in the case of 1 step forward, 2 steps back:
Superman, for me, was just meh. I didn’t dislike him, but he didn’t add much either.
Casting Kevin Sorbo and former Lois Lane Teri Hatcher as Mon-El’s parents was genius… and then they were both killed off. Rhea forcing her son to marry Lena Luthor felt forced, as did Mon-El’s banishment by lead poisoning.
Ex-Superman Dean Cain as Jeremiah Danvers also disappeared without a trace.

Now in season 3, we have Reign to deal with. It was an interesting choice to have Samantha Arias integrate into Kara’s life and have her become Reign before our eyes. Again though it feels like the story is moving too quickly; as with the first two seasons it seems like the writers are teeing up another story for the back half of episodes.

On a side note, at one point in this current season, Lena refers to Kara as her “best friend.” I guess this a “show, don’t tell” moment, because if anyone asked me who Kara’s best friend was, my first response would be Alex. End side note.

So Sam is Reign, Maggie broke off her engagement, Mon-El is back with a wife (and soon a Legion of Superheroes), and Kara is out of commission after Reign beat her up. We’ll see how the rest of the season shakes up with Mon-El and company since I have a funny feeling Supergirl will defeat Reign (with Ruby’s love, of course). I’m not hate watching yet, but this may be the season that tips me over the edge…

MxM

TV

The State of the Arrowverse – LoT

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Third up in the Arrowverse shows is Legends of Tomorrow. After a rocky first season, the show has found its footing and continues to grow and evolve with each episode. Ex-Black Canary Sara Lance leads a ragtag crew around time trying to right the wrongs… that they created. How did these heroes become legends? Spoiler alert: anything up until 2017’s winter finales is fair game.

LEGENDS OF TOMORROW – Current Season: 3

The first season of LoT was not great. The core “Legends” were fine: White Canary, The Atom, Firestorm, Hawkgirl, (sometimes) Hawkman, Captain Cold, Heat Wave, and Rip Hunter. But that was problem #1 – too many characters. None of them were able to develop properly because there were just too many people on screen at once. Personally I could have done without Captain Cold and Hawkman, and maybe Atom, just because the other characters seemed so much more interesting (and Captain Cold, for me, ran his course on The Flash). I was very much looking forward to seeing Arthur Darvill take his turn behind the wheel of a time machine, after being on Doctor Who as lovable sidekick Rory. Although he’s still on the show in a diminished role, he is still very enjoyable as Rip.

The main antagonist for our Legends was Vandal Savage, a classic from the comics, and his quest to… honestly I don’t remember. They just kept saying he was immortal, which is not an ideal quality for a villain in a show’s first season… The backstory about Savage, Hawkman and Hawkgirl being reincarnated over and over fell flat, since there weren’t really consequences for them; they even killed off poor Hawkman, who was a capable  version of the character.

Predictably, the Legends stopped Vandal Savage, and lost a few people along the way. Captain Cold and Hawkgirl (along with a missing Rip Hunter) bounced off the team in season 2, and we welcomed Vixen and Steel. The Arrowverse created a Legion of Doom with Damien Darhk, Malcolm Merlyn, and Eobard Thawne fighting to find and use the Spear of Destiny to alter reality. This led to some fun along the way (the 80’s! Shogun! Jonah Hex! Camelot!), and Vixen and Steel quickly fit well into the team. The overall tone of the show changed during this season to be much more lighthearted (instead of all the death and destruction of season 1), and learned to play with time travel instead of just using it for gloom and doom.

With the Legion defeated and Rip found, the Legends inadvertently broke time, and are currently tasked with fixing their anachronisms while battling a newly resurrected Damien Darhk and a currently unknown enemy named Mallus (voiced by the great John Noble). Rip formed the Time Bureau, an FBI – for time – and has been popping up here and there, along with obviously-an-eventual-love-interest-for-Sara Agent Ava Sharpe. Along the way we met younger versions of the Legends and even an imp named Beebo who temporarily took over Christmas.

What usually doesn’t work with other shows does seem to work for LoT: a somewhat rotating cast. With Firestorm no longer a thing, thanks to Stein’s death, there are 2 vacancies on the WaveRider; I hope they’ll be filled with The Flash’s (underutilized) Wally West, and supernatural sleuth John Constantine. It definitely keeps things interesting when Legends can come and go at any time, and is a fun way to explore new team dynamics like Ray and Nate’s bromance or Amaya and Mick’s friendship.

What hasn’t really been working for me in season 3 is the seemingly disjointed villains/storylines. I’m hoping Darhk, Mallus, and Kuasa come together at some point – hopefully Mallus is pulling all the strings? But overall it’s been an interesting ride for the Legends, and I’m happy to stay aboard the WaveRider for some more jaunts through time, if only to see some more DC classic characters come to life.

MxM

TV

The State of the Arrowverse – The Flash

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It seems like we’ve heard “Run, Barry, run” a lot over the past few years on The Flash. The first Arrow spin-off officially created the shared universe, and has brought laughter, tears, time travel, and murderous apes (and sharks!) to our screens. How have Barry Allen and company fared? Spoiler alert: anything up until 2017’s winter finales is fair game. Let’s explore!

THE FLASH – Current Season: 4

What I’ve always loved about The Flash is its humor. While Arrow was always dark and brooding with some comedy sprinkled in, The Flash was far lighter and more fun in tone and content. Rightfully so: the Flash of the books and cartoons was typically used for comic relief. The first and second seasons of The Flash artfully combined comic book elements with humor, while not only crafting one world, but a whole multi-verse to boot.

Season 1’s reveal that the Harrison Wells who had been Barry’s biggest champion, was in fact Eobard Thawne/Reverse Flash, was just brilliant. It was one of those twists that made you want to go back and re-watch every episode to see if there were clues you may have missed. The introduction of iconic characters like Captain Cold, Trickster, Firestorm, and Gorilla Grodd to name a few, was so much fun – only made better by the terrific core cast of Grant Gustin, Danielle Panabaker, Carlos Valdes, Jesse L. Martin and Candice Patton.

*Special shout-outs to John Wesley Shipp, Amanda Pays, and the Mark Hamill (Pays and Hamill reprising their roles from 1990’s underrated The Flash show on CBS).

I also enjoyed season 2, constantly guessing at the identities of Zoom, and “the man in the iron mask.” Those reveals were good, though not on the same level as Wells-Is-Thawne; Zoom was a decent villain, and it was this season that introduced us to the multi-verse, allowing for evil versions of Caitlin, Cisco, and even Arrow’s Laurel Lance. But there were a few missteps, here: Barry and Patty never had real chemistry, that backdoor Legends of Tomorrow pilot, and the season kinda ending with a thud, since Zoom just wanted to… race? But the standout developments were the introductions of Jay Garrick, Wally West, Jesse Quick and Wells 2.0. The season was capped off with a jaw dropping tag in which Barry saved his mother from being killed by Thawne, thereby creating Flashpoint. You’d expect the next season to be the ‘Flashpoint fallout season’, right? Well…

Season 3 spends exactly 1 episode fixing Flashpoint, and while there were certainly lasting effects, (CSI coworker, Julian! John Diggle’s son! Killer Frost/Vibe! Pied Piper [remember him?] being a friend!) I wish they would have lived in Flashpoint a bit longer. The rest of the season got dark and broody, since Alchemy was running around transforming people into metas, trapping Wally in a… cocoon (?) and being all scary voiced, thanks to Saw villain extraordinaire, Tobin Bell. The reveal that Alchemy was Julian was pretty anti-climactic, since he was pretty much the only new character/only one it could have been; also dividing up the season into Alchemy-Is-The-Villain then No-Really-Savitar-Is-The-Villain ultimately just slowed down the story.

The story continued to be a bummer, since it revolved around Savitar killing Iris. By the time Savitar’s identity was revealed, I was pretty bored with the story, and having it be a ‘time remnant’ of Barry’s was also pretty weak. Here I’ll note that Savitar was a character from the comics, but the show didn’t use the source material at all – only the name. So, what’s left to say but ultimately they defeat him by sacrificing one of the Wells (Wellses?) pretending to be Iris. Then Barry just abandons everyone by going into the speed force. Yay?

There were a few great things in this season: meeting Caitlin’s mom and Caitlin finally becoming Killer Frost, the introduction of Gypsy, and Anne Dudek as Tracy Brand. I also enjoyed the cutesy “Duet” episode/Supergirl crossover/mini Glee reunion of Gustin with Darrin Criss and Melissa Benoist. In that episode, there were are a lot of people who have some serious singing talent: John Barrowman, Jesse L. Martin, Victor Garber, and Jeremy Jordan.

Currently in season 4, The Flash has seemed to err on the side of comedy and bring the series back to its roots. Barry’s malfunctioning new suit and the unwitting metas created by Barry’s return from speed force jail have been great to watch. The villain is, thankfully, not a speedster, but a genius named Clifford DeVoe/The Thinker (nicely foreshadowed in season 3) who seems to always be a step ahead. Though the show retconned DeVoe back to include him in season 1, he is an interesting and compelling villain, along with his wife, Marlize DeVoe/The Mechanic.

Though I think too much time has been given to Ralph Dibny, (destined to be Elongated Man) at the expense of Kid Flash. Wally just disappears for a while and honestly, who noticed? Move that guy over to Legends of Tomorrow! Ralph’s sleaziness also doesn’t fit the show; dragging Barry, Joe and Cisco to a strip club, and Joe seeing Cecille’s daughter on stage… what was that about?! If they toned Ralph down by 20% and gave him a purpose, I think he’d be fun to see once in a while.

Someone who I love seeing on my TV screen is Katee Sackhoff, who looks like she’s having a blast playing Amunet Black (though why is the American Sackhoff playing British Amunet?) and I hear she’ll be back later in the season.

The Flash has become my favorite of the Arrowverse shows, and after a depressing third season, it’s rebounding in season 4. Despite the hijacking of Barry and Iris’ wedding by a certain other couple, this season has been enjoyable because of the humor that’s been injected back into the show, and the willingness to explore another type of villain. The latest twist, in which The Thinker has framed Barry for his murder, was jaw dropping, and for the first time, Barry hasn’t run out on a terrible situation.

MxM

TV

The State of the Arrowverse – Arrow

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I’ve been watching the ever expanding list of shows of the Arrowverse for years now, and there have been a lot of interesting developments in over the past few years: team shakeups, breakups, and betrayals (Hi Evelyn!), the introduction of Supergirl (and Superman), Dominators, Legends of Tomorrow, Legion of Superheroes, and big bads galore. How have these changes shaped the DC superhero shows? Spoiler alert: anything up until 2017’s winter finales is fair game. Let’s explore.

ARROW – Current Season: 6

The show that kicked it all off has been through a lot over the past few years. Olicity fans were thrilled that the couple got engaged, enraged that they broke up, then thrilled again when they got back together. After too many seasons of “will they, won’t they?”, Olicity finally tied the knot (after hijacking another super couple’s wedding). Laurel was killed by Damien Darhk, a new team was formed with a new Black Canary, and Oliver Queen somehow became mayor of Star City and gained a son in the process.

After a rocky season 4 – Thea and Sara in the Lazarus Pit, the Andy Diggle detour, a wasted Anarky, Oliver’s season ending city rally, etc – season 5 seemed to right a lot of wrongs. There was a functional team again, decent storylines, and a great villain in Adrian Chase/Prometheus. There were still a few problems – Anatoly, Vigilante, Talia Al Ghul, and (for me) Black Siren – but overall it seemed like a return to form that led to a captivating finale that saw Oliver sacrifice everything for his son.

I think the biggest issue with Arrow lately is there are no consequences for anything. That captivating finale, in which almost everyone on the show was in danger of being blown up on Lian Yu, resulted in exactly 3 deaths: Malcolm Merlyn (RIP, the only true loss), Digger Harkness (Captain Boomerang), and William’s-mom-I-can’t-even-remember-her-name. Thea was put in a coma, but recovered in seven episodes, or so. Other than that, no one else had a scratch on them, even Evil Laurel.

Can we talk about Evil Laurel for a second? I’m sure Katie Cassidy is just lovely, but I’ve hated the character of Dinah Laurel Lance from the very beginning of Arrow. It’s like no one ever knew what to do with her. Love interest? Not really. Hard hitting attorney? Meh. Bad-ass district attorney? Sorry, no. Kick-ass Black Canary? Not even close. Killing her off seemed like the right choice, since she never really fit into the show. But wait! Now Laurel from Earth 2 is here and she’s EVIL. KC sure looks like she’s having fun, but she still serves so little purpose. I just wonder what the end game is with this version of Laurel. I suspect they will eventually turn her from her evil ways through (not-really-her-dad) Quentin, but… then what? Two women with sonic screams on the team? Love interest for Rene? Just keep her evil and running amok forever? They should have let Laurel go, in my humble opinion, because she never really worked in the first place.

Something that did work was introducing a meta human with a sonic scream – such an easy solution for the Canary shaped hole in the team! Juliana Harkavy brought a certain attitude that worked so well – a grizzled cop who took no prisoners. And then… they decided to make her real name Dinah Drake – a nice nod to the comics, for sure, but a little eye-rolly. I’m enjoying her interactions with Diggle, and like her on the team much more than “throw some spheres” Curtis or “shoot everyone in sight” Rene. Her relationship with Vigilante is certainly a creative way to link the characters, but seems like it should have been a story from last season, when Vigilante was more relevant. Since Canary, Wild Dog and Mr. Terrific all just “quit” the team, the jury’s still out on how she’ll fare in the long run.

So far season 6 has been highly inconsistent:

  • I don’t know why they keep shoving Anatoly into the story, and it seems like they’re setting up a mini Legion of Doom with all the bad guys converging to… well, we don’t know yet.
  • Michael Emerson is great as Cayden James, but I wish they’d explain what he’s up to, since stealing a bunch of stuff and blackmailing people is just boring; it seems like the story is being made up as it’s going along, which is never a good sign.
  • Now that Deathstroke is off limits for TV, due to DC’s bizarre movie universe policies, we probably won’t be seeing Slade Wilson for a while. It’s a shame because Deathstroke Returns and Promises Kept were great Slade-centric episodes, and Manu Bennett is perfect in the role.
  • The team “breakup” obviously won’t last, and Oliver-as-mayor and being investigated by the FBI storylines are just absurd. It’s understandable that Oliver can’t be mayor/Arrow/dad to William at the same time; it’s just sad the writers chose to sideline Oliver as Arrow, when the mayor storyline is so ill conceived.

I still enjoy Arrow, and despite the folks at Reddit changing their support to The Punisher, I’ll keep watching. However, I think it’s time the CW starts to think of ways to wrap up the series with season 7, as this arrow lately misses its mark more often than not.

MxM

TV

My Love of FaceOff

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When a reality competition show has been on for a few seasons, the viewing experience could become a little tired. Challenges become repetitive, contestants struggle, (and sometimes) overcome struggle, get praised then chewed out by the judges, go to hell and back, and ultimately one person takes home the grand prize. Yawn. How many times can we see a rocker on American Idol fail during R&B week? How many times can you listen to the judges on Chopped say that an appetizer made of goose liver, gummy worms and banana peels isn’t creative enough?

Enter FaceOff, SyFy’s “movie monster” makeup competition. Currently in its 9th season, with 2 cycles per year, special effect artists on the show are tasked with creating makeups and characters that range from angels and demons to fish people, to aliens, to whimsical Tim Burton-esque organisms. What these people can do with silicone and prosthetic noses!

Hosted by actress McKenzie Westmore (whose father, Michael Westmore is a mentor on the show and legendary Star Trek special effects artist), each week usually consists of a Foundation Challenge, a mini competition that awards immunity to the winner, and a Spotlight Challenge – the basis for which an artist is eliminated. Each challenge is unique, and tasks the artists with showing off their makeup/prosthetic/painting skills. And boy, do they!

This season, the show added Focus Challenges, which task the artists to get certain aspects of a makeup just perfect, “focusing in” on a character’s facial details, for example. Also introduced this season: The Gauntlet, a series of 3 Foundation Challenges back to back, in which the artists are scored and ranked; the lowest ranked artist is eliminated.

What the show does really well is it focuses on the actual challenge, and the artistry. It’s not (or it least it doesn’t feel) contrived; there’s no “Here are the artists at home, fighting after a long day.” It’s leave the studio, quick B-roll of a sunset, a sunrise, then back in the studio. The focus is on the artists and their talent, as it should be! Maybe they don’t fight at home; maybe they do. I don’t care, because I’m more interested in how they’re turning Bob into a crab man from Mars.

FaceOff also does social media right; viewers are encouraged during the show to talk about the artists’ creations on Twitter, but I doubt anyone really needs the reminder. The show tweets out GIFs and videos of the models’ transformations into their characters, and really tries to make it an interactive experience.

Words can’t really do the show justice; to see is to believe. While there are still reality competition shows that I really enjoy (why are there not 2 cycles of Top Chef a year?), FaceOff is just getting better, and weirder, with age.

MxM

TV

The Last Man on Earth S2 E3

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Dead Man Walking

I had hoped that every season Carol and Phil would find new people to hang out with.That route probably would have been much more interesting (and provided the chance to bring in different actors/comedians) and much more funny. Instead they find the Tuscon crew in Malibu.

After accidentally killing Gail’s lover Gordon Vanderkruik (Will Ferrell) after scaring him in the last episode, Carol and the crew hold funeral on the beach. They welcome Carol back, and she tells them Tandy (still easily the worst nickname ever) is dead, from a fall off the Grand Canyon.

The Tuscon crew doesn’t seem to care that Tandy’s dead, and honestly who could blame them? As they’re on the verge of giving him another chance, Tandy comes in waving a gun in their faces. Whenever I want people to forgive me, I apologize at gunpoint, too. /sarcasm. Tandy ends the episode in stocks (yes, like medieval stocks), and apparently he’s going to stay that way until next week. Sigh.

Quotes:

Gail: (To Carol, about Phil) Did you scare him to death, too?
Carol: Well hardy har har, Phil. You’re like a regular Brad Garrett today.
Carol: Maybe hello would have been a little less… death-causing.

TV

Family Guy S14 E3

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Guy Robot

A pretty standard episode of Family Guy. Brian becomes a stand up comic and uses Stewie’s social media feed as material. Stewie builds a robot, Lyle, as a friend. Lyle, in turn, builds some robot friends for himself and they end up bullying Stewie. Lois and Peter get a new mattress, but after Lois won’t sleep with Peter on it, he goes to get the old mattress back. Brian destroys the robots, and Peter and Lois ditch the old mattress.

Miscellany:

H. Jon Benjamin voicing Carl impersonating Bob Belcher and Sterling Archer, all in the same voice, was amazing.
Children in trench coats pretending to be adults is still funny in 2015.
Meg was only seen from behind in a cutaway and not voiced in the episode.
Peter found a thrill on Blueberry Hill.

Quotes:

Peter: (Drunk) We act like we didn’t take a lot from The Simpsons, but we took A LOT from The Simpsons.
1950’s Doctor: (Referring to Joe) All cripples are insane. Euthanize this man!
Brian: It’s done; I sprayed them with the hose.

TV

Brooklyn Nine-Nine S3E3

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Boyle’s Hunch

The phrase “The bloom is off the rose” is what I think about when watching this show this season. It’s still funny, but the 2 previous seasons were just – funnier. It’s enjoyable, but I don’t find myself laughing. This week they abandoned the “Who’s the Captain this week” gag, which I thought had a lot of potential, even though Bill Hader and Dean Winters weren’t exceptionally funny, IMO. We’ll see how and when Holt gets back to the 9-9, but hopefully they’ll have some knock-out guest stars before that happens.

Boyle meets his perfect woman – sorry, Mary Lou Henner – in Genevieve (Mary Lynn Rajskub), who is unfortunately on the wrong side of the law. He and Jake get on the case to clear her name, after making up a song to the melody (?) of Fergie’s My Humps, naturally. They prove her innocence and save the day…

Holt asks Amy to be part of the NYPD’s new positive image campaign, much to her delight and Gina’s annoyance. It fails, and he comes up with a very modern take on the very real NYPD. Gina’s reactions were the highlight of this story, and makes me want her back at the 9-9 ASAP.

Rosa and Terry try to figure out who’s stealing ice cream at the precinct; Hitchcock and Scully are the prime suspects. Hilarity doesn’t ensue.

Miscellany:

Jake gets a spider-partner with questionably funny names.
Rosa likes Moose Tracks ice cream, thanks to Marcus.
James Urbaniak (as Genevieve’s ex Nick) is everywhere these days!

Quotes:

Rosa: Step one: put a delicious pie in the fridge and cover it with poison.
Terry: That’s step one? What’s step two?
Rosa: Tell their widows they were thieves.

Gina: Because this campaign, like 3 out of 5 Backstreet Boys, is inconsequential.

Jake: If she farts in that thing, does it blow up like a balloon?

Gina: It’s tacky to take credit for stuff.