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!
Babylon 5 – “The Gathering” (Pilot, Tubi/Roku/PTEN/TNT)
In celebration of it’s 30th anniversary, read our full review of the pilot movie by Elias Rosner.
The Flash – “The Mask of the Red Death, Part 1” (S9E4, The CW)
I just realized with this episode that the season will be split into three “graphic novels”, and this is the second to last episode of this particular one. It’s strange that we’ve had so little time with the Red Death but, on the other hand, it gives us the oportunity to have two more complete stories, which is fine by me.
In this episode Barry discovers that the Red Death is not a he but a she, in fact, she’s is the Batwoman of a parallel universe where she replicated the powers of the Flash from her world to have a more radical approach in the fight against crime: eradicating the bad guys; if there is no one who commits crimes, there is no crime. She argues that the Flash from her universe turned bad and she needs Iris, the lighting rod to defeat hum, but Iris uses his journalistic knowledge quite skillfully this time to discover that Ryan Wilder is the bad guy, in fact, we hadn’t seen such a strong focus on her journalistic skills in a long time, as we were rather focused on the business side of journalism.
In this episode we see Chillblaine build the cosmic threadmill, I find it funny that after being painted as a rebel and perhaps dumb guy, we now discover in past episodes that he is actually an engineer with deep knowledge, to the point of being capable of building such a unique machine in the universe that had only been built once before by Cisco. I am very impressed with the work that the actor Jon Cor has given us on this episode,bhis character is a man who debates himself whether his actions are good or not, to the point of realizing that it is not worth living with his beloved girlfriend but after he betrayed the family to which he, without knowing ir, belongs to.
In the end it is with the sacrifice of Mark Blaine that Flash manages to escape, but it was a heavy sacrifice, because apparently Chillblaine ended up murdered. The rogues that extracted Barry and Iris debate whether they should go back to pick him up, Khione asks them to go back for him as he is a living person, even though he was willing to sacrifice her to get Frost back, this is a message we seem to tend to forget in real life sometimes, every life is important. Now, without her treadmill, we will have an unhinged evil-Ryan Wilder, if she can’t have her the world again, she will own this one. – Ramon Piña
The Mandalorian – “The Apostate” (S3E1, Disney+)
Read our full review of the season 3 premiere by Brian Salvatore.
Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur – “Check Yourself” (S1E4, Disney Channel)
Turns out Lunella Lafayette has a competitive streak that renders family game night no fun for anyone. She meets her match in LOS-307, a sweet, friendly AI (who’s explicitly non-binary like their voice actor, Asia Kate Dillon), who’s brought to the school to play chess with the kids. Although their match drags on for hours, Lunella sneaks back in at night to finish their game. Unfortunately, the stress of processing while charging turns LOS evil, causing them to trap Lunella inside, take control of the school’s machines, and kidnap Casey with a fake text, for a real challenge.
Fortunately, Casey uses her toes (heh) on a rotary dial phone to summon Devil, who promptly defeats the gestalt machine LOS has created. Lunella then uses the sprinkler system to deactivate LOS, but their reversion to their original self causes our heroine to realize they pushed them too far. After a thoughtful grunt from Devil, our lead trio constructs a giant rice box to dry out LOS. (Devil is such a good boy.) The damage means LOS’s owners won’t pick her up, but Lunella persuades Principal Nelson (Craig Robinson) to appoint them their new school counselor. Hurray! – Christopher Chiu-Tabet
Continued below
Quantum Leap – “Family Style” (S1E13, NBC)
When the Quantum Leap reboot began, one of the things that didn’t work was the emphasis on the ‘team QL’ folks, instead of Ben’s journey. The series has gotten better at adapting their balance so that Ben is firmly the focus, with each episode having just one sub-plot per week. It has made for a much better show, and with a second season renewal already guaranteed, has allowed the show to play the long game. In this week’s b-plot, Ian realizes that one day in the future, they will leap into the past to speak to a pre-leap Ben, which we saw the results of in “Leap. Die. Repeat.” It allows the viewer to spend a little more time with Ian, allowing not just a better sense of who they are, but also to give a peek into why Ian may want day leap. It was a really effective, yet understated b-plot.
In the A-story, Ben has to deal with a situation not unlike his own background. We’ve seen Ben’s guilt over his mom’s death before, and this episode lets him perform a bit of a familial exorcism on both himself and the Prasad family. While this episode continues the trend of Ben being a little too proficient in…well, everything, the tonal pieces hit properly. The leap itself is a bit sloppy, with too many ideas fighting for attention: grief, insurance fraud, overbearing mothers, people refusing to ask for help. But the strength of the emotional underpinning carried the episode above the murky story. Plus, when an entire episode is focused on cooking delicious looking Indian food, it is hard to be too upset, because you’re too busy being hungry. – Brian Salvatore
Star Trek: Picard – “Seventeen Seconds” (S3E3, Paramount+)
This intense, emotional episode begins with Picard confronting Crusher over keeping their son a secret from him. She claims his dangerous life meant Jack would’ve never been truly safe, establishing a key theme here, which is how Jean-Luc may’ve grown arrogant from years of successfully saving the day. Captain Shaw is injured after the Shrike finds the Titan in the nebula, and transfers command to Riker, but in spite of the ship’s limited specs, Picard insists they fight back, instead of running and hiding. Jean-Luc is also informed Jack made the decision to avoid him when he became old enough, causing the bitter admiral to subsequently ignore him.
After a cryptic comment from a delirious Shaw, Jack realizes they may be leaving a trail, which he and Seven of Nine discover is the result of sabotage in engineering. Said saboteur attacks Jack, removing his oxygen mask and leaving him to be poisoned by the vapor leak. Seven brings him to sickbay, and Jean-Luc, on hearing the news on the bridge, heads down to be there for him, demonstrating he still loves him. When Jack comes around, he tells them the saboteur was a Changeling.
Elsewhere, Worf and Raffi interrogate Titus Rikka (Thomas Dekker), the true perpetrator of the attack in San Francisco, and also discover he is a Changeling. Worf tells Raffi that a close friend (Odo, in other words) informed him that, after the events of Deep Space Nine, a vengeful faction of Changelings broke away from the Great Link, vowing to reignite the Dominion War. This isn’t the first time the Federation has been infiltrated like this, but it is funny Starfleet is having a “Secret Invasion” the same year as the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Riker and Picard continue to argue over what to do, and Jean-Luc crosses the line when he indirectly accuses Will of being emotionally compromised by the death of his son several years ago. The saboteur detonates a bomb, disabling the warp drive, and forcing Riker to go on the offensive: unfortunately, Vadic uses portal tech to turn the Titan’s torpedoes into a self-inflicted wound, and the ship begins to be pulled into a gravity well inside the nebula. Riker blames Picard, ordering him off the bridge, and leaving this Trekkie distraught by the fracturing of a decades-old friendship. – Christopher Chiu-Tabet
Star Wars: The Bad Batch – “Metamorphosis” (S2E11, Disney+)
Continued below“Metamorphosis” continues the theme of The Bad Batch‘s second season, which is when the story is more broadly focused on the idea of clones in Star Wars, it produces better episodes. This episode returns us to Nala Se, the scientist behind the cloning facility on Kamino, and introduces Dr. Hemlock, an Imperial scientist who is now working on cloning for the Empire. This episode foreshadows the cloning of Emperor Palpatine, long a piece of the Extended Universe and, of course, a key piece of bad writing in The Rise of Skywalker. The episode also brings back a Clone Wars creature in the Zillo Beast and, overall, is furthering a bigger story than the ‘job of the week’ format that Cid’s presence provides the show.
Speaking of Cid, Tech correctly states that they have to tread carefully with her, as she knows a lot about them. But he and the others are coming to the realization that Cid may not be exactly on their side at all. They are useful pawns for her to use. The confluence of their disillusionment with Cid and the realization that cloning is continuing seems to be leading Cid away from the center of the story and, honestly, that’s fine.
The episode begins with a truly harrowing opening that sets the stage for the episode nicely, and with Jimmi Simpson voicing Hemlock, the episode took on a particularly dramatic tone. That is somewhat undercut by the silliness of the Clones not recognizing the Zillo feeds on energy and some of the campier moments of that battle, but overall, this episode struck a nice balance between expository information and action that felt consequential. That’s the word I keep coming back to with this series: when the action feels consequential, these episodes really work. That isn’t to say there can’t be fun in those episodes, but there has to be stakes. “Metamorphosis” provided those stakes with aplomb, hinted at future stories, and had some throwbacks for good measure. This is what the best of The Bad Batch looks like. – Brian Salvatore
