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!
The Flash – “Wildest Dreams” (S9E07, The CW)
The first thing I have to say is that we are already two episodes in with a new hair style for Iris. Way back in season six, she wore a similar style for only one episode, and I remember reading an interview where Candice Patton expressed her excitement because that time they did allow her to do her hair in a black style. But after that one occasion, everything went back to normal and she continued with her traditional hair style that she wore for most of the series. Now, she apparently will end these last few episodes with a new hairstyle and I’m glad to see expressions other than the white-TV norm.
This chapter brought Nia Nal back, who has been exploring the limits of her powers to improve as a superhero, but a dream turned into a nightmare, and there, she found Iris, so she decides to travel to Central City to discover the reason for his connection with her.
Back in our city Iris finds out that her article on Red Death’s attack is the first one that will grant her a Pulitzer, I don’t know why this villain would give her the award, when they have had more compelling stories, but all right, reasons.
The problem is that she is not sure about publishing it, throughout the episode in the different dreams that she shares with Dreamer, she realizes that she is still insecure about deserving the award, she questions what is the line between destiny and the power of her actions.
I honestly don’t know why they chose to do this plot line where Dreamer and Iris have an adventure, I didn’t really notice much chemistry between them, although I think Patton is done with the show, plus the characters had never shared much (if any) moments together before.
Despite that, I am very happy to see Nia Nal again, one last time in the Arrowverse and the story helped Iris understand that the set of actions and choices that she has taken in her life are what builds her destiny, and in this way, achieve what she deserves, in this case her first Pulitzer.
We also had a b-plot where Blaine asks out Khione, thinking that maybe with her he could revive the romance he had with Frost, until she confronts him and makes him understand that they are not the same person. In the end, he apologizes and decides to go on a journey of self-discovery. – Ramon Piña
The Mandalorian – “The Pirate” (S3E5, Disney+)
Read our full review by Brian Salvatore.
Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur – “Teacher’s Pet” (S1E8, Disney Channel)
Devil takes center stage in this episode, where the big red dinosaur becomes anxious when Lunella brings home a hamster called Angel. During a nightmare about being replaced as Lu’s sidekick, he accidentally breaks Angel’s cage, causing the fearful critter to flee into the city. Despite Devil’s best efforts, he’s forced to come clean, driving a wedge between him and Lu. In the sewers, Angel encounters Rat King (Daveed Diggs), who’s basically a wannabe Professor Ratigan with a craving for a pizza, and is used as bait for Lunella, whose hubris causes her to be captured by the world’s slowest Rube Goldberg machine.
Angel overcomes his fear of D to find him and bring him to the rescue. The pair and Lu work beautifully in tandem to save her, retrieve her tape deck, and humiliate Rat King before returning home. Lu forgives D, before revealing Angel is the class pet, and that he was only with them for the weekend, so he shouldn’t have been so worried. All in all, this was another fun episode, with minimal dialogue that really lets Devil’s personality shine, and the excellent use of emoji bubbles as subtitles for all the animals. Also of particular note was Casey’s manga-style fantasy about the villain she believed kidnapped Angel – I never realized how dapper Devil would look as a “Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure” character until now! – Christopher Chiu-Tabet
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Quantum Leap – “The Friendly Skies” (S1E17, NBC)
It took almost the entire season, but Quantum Leap has finally found a marriage between the original run and the reboot that feels like it is something entirely new, but something that is clearly indebted to its past. “The Friendly Skies” is one of the more impressive episodes of the series thus far simply because it doesn’t play anything safe. This episode is full of chances and fake-outs, hard decisions, and bold storytelling. The epilogue at the end is something that I cannot imagine the show having he balls to attempt even a few weeks ago. It’s a shocking and satisfying way to end an episode that was already incredibly fun and exciting.
Plus, this episode we get Ben dressed as a stewardess from the early 70s, so we get plenty of that Scott Bakula struggling in heels nonsense that the fans loved so much the first time around.
The episode itself, which features an attempted hijacking of an airplane, was done really well, and introduced a few new tricks up the sleeve of Team Quantum Leap, but after seeing the epilogue, it is almost impossible to discuss anything else. Ben finds himself in a future, where he encounters both a nuclear winter and an older Ian, who confirms that he’s been waiting a long time for Ben. This is the furthest the show has ever leaped, and also the furthest into hard sci-fi it has ever delved. While this could be a total flop of a storyline, it appears like it could be something very special, too. I’m just happy to see them – wait for it – leaping without a net into season 2. – Brian Salvtore
Riverdale – “Don’t Worry, Darling” (S7E1, The CW)
Read our full review of the season 7 premiere by Elias Rosner
Star Trek: Picard – “Dominion” (S3E7, Paramount+)
It is 36 hrs until Frontier Day, when the whole of Starfleet will assemble in the Sol system and the Changelings unleash whatever atrocity they have planned, and the Titan is fast running out of allies, as an utterly cruel cameo from Tim Russ as a Changeling posing as Tuvok, and then Riker, demonstrates. Picard and the others suspect that the Changelings stole his original body to impersonate him, but need Jack’s DNA to fill in the gaps. However, Data is not forthcoming, struggling to maintain control of his body from Lore (seriously, what the hell was Dr. Soong thinking? Was he naive enough to believe Lore could be redeemed?) With time running out, Jean-Luc and Jack hatch a scheme to lure Vadic aboard and capture her.
The gamble pays off, but the resentful Lore manages to breach the ship’s systems, and begins depowering the shields activated in the corridors, while preventing Geordi and Alandra from beaming Jack and Sidney out of where they’ve been pinned. Beverly and Picard interrogate Vadic, who reveals that during the Dominion War, she and nine of her siblings were imprisoned and experimented on by Section 31, in a plot to create the perfect spies. It’s why Vadic hates the Federation, and why they’re better at mimicking other species than most Changelings; it’s also shown that she took her default appearance from the whistling scientist who tortured her, a constant reminder of her hatred. This information gives Picard and Crusher knowledge of how to track the Changelings via a chemical Section 31 used.
Alas, the shields fail, and Vadic escapes, despite a touching moment where LaForge reminds Data of how much he meant to him, giving the android the strength to overpower Lore. Jack and Sidney escape their pursuers, the former using his burgeoning psychic abilities to help her do so, which understandably unsettles her slightly. Vadic and her thugs take control of the bridge, and as the terrorist sits in the captain’s chair, she announces she’s going to reveal what Jack truly is. Could Jack be… a literal and figurative Changeling? Well, whatever happens, this was a really nail-biting episode, that saw Beverly and Picard reckoning with the terrible things their kind did during the war, and hopefully next time we’ll see them reaffirm the Federation’s commitment to being better. – Christopher Chiu-Tabet
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Star Wars: The Bad Batch – “The Summit” & “Plan 99” (S2E15-E16, Disney+)
Read our full review of the two-part s2 finale by Brian Salvatore.
Superman and Lois – “In Cold Blood” (S3E3, CW)
I haven’t been too hot on the action in Superman and Lois this season, and doing characters with Superman’s powerset on a weekly TV budget is a tall order. For the most part, the production apparatus of the show specifically, and Berlanti Productions institutionally, have done a good job evoking a sense of scale with these kinds of powers. It is when that sense of scale runs into repetitive staging that it no longer feels effective. The Superman action sequence “In Cold Blood” has probably 5x the budget of the other sequence in the episode and is not 5x more thrilling. Meanwhile, the kids in this episode get into some trouble, and it is a thrilling display of filmmaking that evokes the efficient and effective B movie-making sensibilities that the Arrowverse is built on.
While Superman is being blasted by kryptonite rays, his kids and his cool niece Natalie, deal with the local chop shop that’s stolen Jonathan’s truck with the watch they are gifting their cancer-fighting mom inside! I can’t find who does the stunt coordination for the episode/season whoever they are, along with director Gregory Smith, and the VFX team, make a lean and effective sequence. After actually thinking through the logistics of storming into the warehouse from the feasibility of Jordan taking out the men to needing to take out the surveillance system, Natalie comes up with a third way. That third way is a smoke bomb; Jonathan holding his breath and running to the truck. All in essentially two shots, the extended tracking shot that follows Jonathan running through the warehouse as his siblings take out the guards until he finally takes out the last one, is just excellent filmmaking. It gave everyone something to do. The whole sequence is maybe 2 minutes but unlike the VFX induced wide shots that Tyler Hoechlin’s Superman is often captured by, this sequence has a materiality and scale to it that is more effective in this medium.
“In Cold Blood” in general has just better unity across its various plot threads, though it sadly does not evoke the Capote classic, the book or the film. A feeling of medical anxiety pervades most of this episode that centers on Elizabeth Tulloch’s Lois Lane and the fallout of her cancer diagnosis. That anxiety turns into horror as Lois and Chrissy get further pulled into the Intergang plot and discover they’ve been injecting Henry Miller with Superman’s blood. (Gee I wonder where they could’ve gotten that.) Clark meanwhile is having “Superman: Up in the Sky” like nightmares of his wife dying. The emotional loadstone of this episode is Tulloch’s performance and it all finally comes out after skipping her first chemo appointment. This series is at its best when it manages to mix the science fiction aesthetics with family melodrama and it now has that thread for the season. – Michael Mazzacane
