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!
Avatar: The Last Airbender – “Omashu” (S1E3, Netflix)
Read our full review by Ramon Piña.
Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur – “Roller Jam!” (S2E11, Disney Channel)
It’s time for a big community event at the Lafayettes’ skating rink, except Lunella has accidentally invited Vernell Lewis (Arsenio Hall), Pops’s old colleague-turned-bitter rival. In the spirit of Roller Jam, Pops decides to tolerate Vernell and let him stay with them, only for it to become clear their relationship is far too disruptive. Learning both men are huge Moon Girl fans, Lu decides to use her alter-ego to reconcile the two, only for it to become clear neither is willing to understand why they fell out, and to declare they’ll have a skate-off, where the loser will be banned from all future skating events. The two’s continuing disruptive behavior causes many to leave Roller Jam, leading Moon Girl to finally lose her patience, and scold them for ruining the event, saying she expected better from her elders.
It’s then Brian Glory/Blue Streak (Manny Jacinto), a villain obsessed with proving he’s a better skater than Moon Girl, appears to truly ignore the spirit of Roller Jam. As he holds everyone hostage, Pops and Vernell finally recognize where they went wrong, and apologize to each other, before teaming up to distract Blue Streak, allowing Lu to land a decisive blow against the narcissistic creep. Despite the slight plot, this was another solid episode that injected a bit of social commentary again, with Lu making a point that events like Roller Jam essentially hold the line against gentrification, and that sometimes it’s members of our own community who can be our worst enemies. I also really enjoyed Blue Streak’s anime-inspired animation, something that was especially striking in the wake of Akira Toriyama’s passing; it makes me want to rewatch the whole series to recognize how much anime influence there has been. – Christopher Chiu-Tabet
Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur – “Dancing with Myself” (S2E12, Disney Channel)
Lunella’s grade is having their first school dance, and she soon grows anxious about everyone except her having a date. When Melvin/Mel-Varr returns to Earth fleeing the moth-like Zargarians, led by General Hyles (SungWon Cho), Lu takes the opportunity to hide him amidst the ball as her date, only to slowly realize she and Mel aren’t enjoying all the things they believe couples are supposed to do on a date. (The part where Mel tried to compliment her by saying, “Your [eye] socket-to-face ratio is mathematically pleasing” absolutely killed me.) The Zargarians show up to capture Melvin, but Lu manages to persuade them to let them have one more moment, giving them the opportunity to slip into superhero mode, and let the party carry on the way it was supposed to, all while Lu and Melvin recognized they shouldn’t have tried to rush their relationship.
This was a really sweet episode about the pressures kids often face to already be in romantic relationships, while they’re still figuring out who they are. Speaking of, there was a lot of LGBTQ+ representation here, with many previous characters shown as not being straight, including Merle and Matsuye while Lu explains the concept of courtship to Mel (alongside Korg and Dwayne!) There were tons of other fun stuff amidst the poignant message, from Eduardo’s “Sailor Moon”-inspired fantasy after Lu asked him out, to Lu and Casey being rendered as puppets whenever they lie, and Cho’s hilariously affable performance as Hyles. (Yeah, earthling is a rather vague phrase isn’t it?) It also really reinforced how good of a friend Devil can be, despite being unable to speak English. Last but not least, God bless Blobby the Myth: what a delightfully messed-up addition to the cast. – Christopher Chiu-Tabet
Resident Alien – “Avian Flu” (S3E4, Syfy)
Continued belowRead our full review by Christopher Chiu-Tabet.
Star Wars: The Bad Batch – “The Return” (S3E5, Disney+)
With all due respect to the first four episodes of the season, this feels like the first episode of The Bad Batch season 3 that touches on the emotional core that made season 2 a success. In this episode, each member of the team has to deal with the actions of their past and either forgive someone else, forgive themselves, or at least attempt to make peace with what happened. All of that happens against a relatively expected backdrop. Not specifically a new snow-planet, but these episodes tend to bake the introspection into a relatively simple mission that doesn’t require too much to follow it.
The integration of Crosshair back into the fold has been a little smoother, both in-story and functionally, than expected. Even Echo’s (temporary) return didn’t feel as forced and stilted as it could have. But ultimately, the same issues that popped up in the first four episodes are here, too. The first five episodes could’ve easily been condensed down to two without too much trouble. The only real loss would be some of the bleakness that was felt in those first three by the repetition of their situations, and with that tone already discarded, I’m not really sure it’s too much trouble. – Brian Salvatore
The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live – “Gone” (S1E2, AMC)
Read our full review of the series premiere by Alexander Manzo.
