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 – “An Alter of Fire” (S1E5, Netflix)
Read our full review by Laura Merrill.
The Flash – “Wednesday Ever After” (S9E1, The CW)
Read our full review of the season 9 premiere by Ramon Piña.
Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur – “Moon Girl Landing” (S1E1, Disney Channel)
Read our full review of the series premiere by Christopher Chiu-Tabet.
Quantum Leap – “Let Them Play” (S1E12, NBC)
There is a very tough line to walk whenever a TV series tries to tell a story about a marginalized group of people. “Let Them Play” is an episode that sees Ben leap into the dad/coach of a trans high school basketball player. The show’s intentions are spot on in telling this type of story, focusing on the right issues, and generally giving the audience a good guide for how to be an ally and an advocate. The spirit behind it gets an A+.
The issue is that episodes like this are cookie cutter in construction and treat their spotlight characters as emblematic of an entire group of people. Sure, Gia seems like a good kid, but there’s no real effort made to give her any depth or nuance. If I’m choosing whether I want Quantum Leap to help people treat trans kids better or make a good hour of TV, it’s not even a question, the former is much, much better. But the thing is, it could’ve done both.
Thankfully, the periphery of the episode leads Magic and Jenn to talk to a bartender about why/how she met up with Ben, which they know from security cam footage. What this subplot reveals is two-fold: one, the people who are leapt into have some sort of knowledge that they weren’t ‘in control’ for a period of time and have a vision of their leapee, and two, that Ian was the one who leapt into her body. This is a legitimately interesting and confusing piece of story that I’m looking forward to exploring. – Brian Salvatore
Star Wars: The Bad Batch – “The Clone Conspiracy” (S2E7, Disney+)
Season two of The Bad Batch is really shaping up to be more of a show about clones – in Clone Force 99 and beyond – than it is about just those few ‘defective’ clones. This episode tackles one of the biggest questions in all of Star Wars, which is why the Empire moved from using clones to enlisted men as stormtroopers. The episode also gets into the politics of the clones, specifically their roles in society after they are decommissioned. This is easily the most nuanced conversations ever had around the clones, and it allows the show to bring in Bail Organa, as well as a Senator Chuchi, to advocate for the clones and to remind folks of the bubbling rebellion that is yet to be fully formed.
This episode also brings Rampart back as the direct adversary of all things clone. Rampart is a very one-dimensional villain, who basically is as flat a space Nazi as you’re likely to get in Star Wars. Chuchi and the clone troopers who know the truth about how Kamino’s destruction are both are all in danger, and it isn’t until Rex shows up that Chuchi seems like she’ll get through the episode alive.
This is the first episode of the series that had no Bad Batch members at all present and, though not for that reason, is easily one of the best episodes the show has ever produced. – Brian Salvatore
Star Wars: The Bad Batch – “Truth and Consequences” (S2E8, Disney+)
Part two of this week’s Bad Batch…batch…is where the titular clones get involved with Rex and Chuchi. This episode doesn’t quite hit the heights of “The Clone Conspiracy,” but is still a damn fine episode. It also sets up a lot of threads that will be followed here and elsewhere. We see Rampart taken down, a patsy for Palpatine, who also makes an appearance. We see the clones officially eliminated from the military due to Palpatine twisting the truth in a particularly clever way. We see Chuchi continue to be committed to the plight of the clones. But most importantly, we see Echo leave Clone Force 99 to go with Rex to try to save/liberate clones across the galaxy.
Omega’s reaction to Echo’s departure is the most emotional the series has ever been by a long shot. Echo was not an ‘original’ member of the crew, but was rather rescued by them back in The Clone Wars, and this departure would’ve been felt a little more if that distance from the rest of his teammates was more developed and teased. But as it stands, this decision seems rather rash and, therefore, doesn’t quite land the way it is intended to.
Having said that, this is still a very good episode of The Bad Batch, featuring really fun action, political intrigue, espionage, an heart. So far, season two has had more hits than misses, but these last two episodes belong, along with the Crosshair/Cody episode from earlier this season, in the upper echelon of Star Wars animation. – Brian Salvatore
