Welcome back to Boomb Tube! Here, we will be catching you up on the week in comics TV, both through micro-reviews, as well as links to our full-length TV reviews. We also tend to review series that are dropped all at once weekly so there are a few ‘older’ shows mixed in for good measure. Are we missing your favorite show? Let us know in the comments!
Dragon Age: Absolution – “Will of the Maker” (S1E2, Netflix)
Read our full review by Laura Merrill.
Star Wars: The Bad Batch – “Faster” (S2E4, Disney+)
The trend of splitting up Clone Force 99 and allowing various characters to have more time in the spotlight continues with “Faster,” an episode that focuses on Wrecker, Omega, and Tech. With Hunter and Echo off on a different mission, this allows some different voices to act as the ‘lead’ for the troopers. Despite this essentially being a security gig, Tech takes the lead here, as he gets fascinated with the machinations and techniques behind what is, essentially, podracing by a different name on a different planet.
Yes, I know that these are not pods in the Tatooine sense, but let’s talk turkey here: this is just podracing with some of the more cumbersome elements removed. And that’s fine! There’s no need to reinvent the wheel on this stuff, but it is also sort of silly that they felt the need to call it something else, and that something else was called Riot Racing. But regardless, racing is a fun part of Star Wars, and this episode has a lot of fun visuals with the racing, plus the second Star Wars role for Ben Schwartz, who co-voiced BB-8 in the sequel trilogy as the racing droid ‘Tay-0.’
This episode does two interesting things, in that it sets up Tech as being more, pardon the pun, technologically gifted than a droid – after spending the second episode of this season building up his humanity – and it sows some seeds of doubt in regards to Cid. Her gambling adversary in this episode, voiced by the great Ernie Hudson, taking a break from Quantum Leap, basically tells Omega, Wrecker, and Tech to not trust Cid, because she’ll double cross you in the end. Now, we know that Cid is an underworld figure and likely not the most ethical person on the show, but it is still surprising to see Cid put in a position where we’re even considering her betrayal. Her shepherding of the Clone Force 99 has made her into an almost benefactor role. We’ll see how that doubt changes their relationship. – Brian Salvatore
Wednesday – “Quid Pro Woe” – (S1E6, Netflix)
This is the type of episode I can get behind when it comes to shows with any mystery, the ones where it focuses on solving the crime. Yes, I understand it’s a show filled with characters who are supposed to be teenagers but calm down with the hormones. There’s a mystery a-foot. Now, this episode does start with Wednesday’s friends throwing her a small surprise party in a crypt but quickly jumps into a vision that gets the mystery back in the driver’s seat. Goody’s brief message is that Crackstone is returning in front of old beat-down gates. During Wednesday’s exploration of Jericho, she discovers that it belongs to the Gates family, the same family that had accused Gomez of killing their son.
It gets a little off the rails after that because Wednesday finds the mayor outside of the Gate’s old house and sneaks into the trunk of his car to keep an eye on what he’s doing. When the mayor exits the car, someone runs him over in front of the town diner. The sheriff immediately finds Wednesday and needs an explanation of what she was doing in the trunk, which leads to her off-campus privileges being revoked by Principal Weems. As much as I can appreciate the principal finally realizing the power she has for her campus, it’s all for nothing because Wednesday will always find a way to do what she wants. Wednesday swindles the help of Enid and Tyler under the guise of a hangout/date, and then it turns into Scooby-Doo as they explore the Gates house and find clues of someone staying in the house and all of the missing body parts from the murders around town. Next thing they know, the mystery monster finds them and attacks Tyler leaving a massive scratch on his chest; luckily, Xavier and the sheriff show up to get them some much-needed help. It ends on a personal note for Wednesday as Enid calls her out for not caring about what happens to anyone and decides to move out of their room on campus. – Alexander Manzo
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The Witcher: Blood Origin – “Of Dreams, Defiance, and Desperate Deeds” (S1E2, Netflix)
Read our full review by Laura Merrill.
