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 Mandalorian – “The Spies” (S3E7, Disney+)
Read our full review by Brian Salvatore.
Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur – “Moon Girl’s Day Off” (S1E10, Disney Channel)
Lunella’s having trouble sleeping while balancing her double life, so she lies about breaking her ankle to give herself a break, and asks Casey to stand in for her during a photoshoot. (Devil’s not sure about this, but agrees she deserves time off, so he stays quiet.) Casey quickly becomes overwhelmed by her adoring public, as well as the vengeful Abyss (a reluctant villain voiced by Maya Hawke, who’s only visually similar to the character Jonathan Hickman and Jerome Opena created), while Lunella’s grandma Mimi becomes fed up with all her demands, and exposes her as lying. However, Mimi understands, explaining there was a time she was also afraid of letting others down, but ultimately, asking for help doesn’t hurt as much as being dishonest.
Lunella briefly considers letting her grandma in on her secret, before simply asking her for a lift near Little Italy, where Abyss is trying to draw out “Moon Girl.” In what Lu acknowledges is an ironic bout of karma, she breaks her ankle getting to Casey and Devil, but they still manage to work together to contain Abyss. Lunella confesses everything to Casey, which in turn inspires Abyss to admit she doesn’t really want to be a villain like her ancestors, and calls her mom. Well, isn’t that sweet – still, it was really funny when Devil was like, “No no, this isn’t about you” at Abyss during the denouement. – Christopher Chiu-Tabet
Riverdale – “Sex Education” (S7E3, The CW)
Read our full review by Elias Rosner
Star Trek: Picard – “Vox” (S3E9, Paramount+)
Troi discovers a Borg cube is behind the red door in Jack’s mind, and immediately informs Beverly and Picard. They realize Jean-Luc never had Irumodic Syndrome, but was altered by the Collective on a genetic, biological level, causing the mutations that gave his son superpowers, as well as the presence of the Queen’s voice in his mind. On being told this, Jack abuses his psychic powers to commandeer a shuttle, deciding to find and confront the Queen himself. The Queen (whose face is not shown, but is once again voiced by Alice Krige) allows him on board her cube, where his compassionate nature ultimately renders him unable to assassinate her; he accepts his fate as she assimilates him into the hive as the titular new voice of the Borg.
Geordi confirms the Changelings were working with the Borg, and used the altered genetic code of Picard’s original body in a most diabolical scheme: it turns out it was programmed into the Federation’s transporters to rewrite people’s DNA every time they were reconstituted, so they would also become sleeper Borg. (Dr. McCoy always said there’d be days like this.) Fortunately for our older leads, the process doesn’t work on anyone who’s stopped developing (eg. humans over 25), but it still hurt to see La Forge’s daughters, and the other young crew members transform into black-eyed zombies. Shaw and Fleet Admiral Elizabeth Shelby (Elizabeth Dennehy, reprising her role from TNG for a real twist of the knife) are among those killed, although Shaw dies with honor, using his last words to finally acknowledge Seven of Nine’s preferred name.
The old crew escapes via shuttle to La Forge’s museum, where he reveals the recovered and repaired Enterprise-D, which is now the best ship without any of the backdoors the Changelings and Borg placed in Starfleet (especially after we learn, rather hilariously, that Worf apparently crashed the E.) Despite the subtext in the season premiere, it’s clear the ship is very dear to our heroes, with Picard realizing he’s missed the bridge’s carpet most of all. How incredible that, after all this time, and all the new characters we’ve met, it’s up to the same old seven, on the same ship even, to save the Federation. It’s pure nostalgia at this point, and you know what? It feels entirely earned, as the situation is completely desperate, and I love every damn minute of it.
Continued belowLikewise, I can’t believe how the show’s made a group as overexposed as the Borg exciting and unsettling again, and it’s all thanks to having them win offscreen — like a much better version of Rise of Skywalker’s opening twist — and by exploiting such an established element of Trek that everyone’s always found creepy but ignored. Their return makes sense on many levels, from how similar the Great Link and Collective are, to them being TNG’s greatest villains, although such a late reveal leaves me anxious over whether the finale will stick the landing or not – I feel you need at least an extra episode to defeat them satisfyingly and wrap up 35 years of storytelling. (Picard and friends are going to have to gather a lot of allies.) – Christopher Chiu-Tabet
Superman & Lois – “Head On” (S3E5, CW)
“Head On” feels like a throwback to the old WB network in many ways or perhaps the CW in that 2007-2010 era, wherein the networks were primarily centered around teen-driven family or social melodramas like One Tree Hill instead of Genre driven teen aimed melodramas. You could take out the maybe 10% of Superman stuff that makes up this episode and probably just lightly re-edit the cliffhanger with Sam Lane, and you would still have a functional episode of television. What happens in this episode? There is Lois’ cancer treatment, which is at a Bruno Manheim facility, and they want to investigate it. Which, ok, the latter does give things a bit of a genre edge, but Lois, this episode overall is about finally coming to terms with the emotions that have been building since the second episode. The feeling of physical vulnerability not just portraying the rhetorical understanding of vulnerability. New Mayor Lana Lang has to make a call about exposing corruption or giving the public a fiction that lets them gain some amount of closure. And the kids have Valentine’s Day dance! That is an episode in the vein of One Tree Hill.
And then you have all the Superman stuff wherein he fights James DiStefano aka Deadline (didn’t he get killed in “Suicide Squad”?). The intangible Deathstroke knockoff breaks into DOD headquarters and steals the locations of all their goodies. Resulting in Intergang acquiring the body of Bizarro. The Superman stuff just isn’t as engaging as the above drama. Director David Ramsey, stunt coordinator Rob Hayter, and director of photography Stephen Maier produce one of the more effective action sequences so far this season as Clark tries to deal with the intangibility suit of Deadline. The sequence makes good use of hand-held cameras to keep this one-room fight close but still legible, as Deadline employs a kryptonite knife. The VFX-aided pan right of the wall as Superman and Deadline fight on the other side is great. I just don’t really care about any of it. In the episode, it is a distraction that takes away from the conversation Lois and Clark are having, but this series has shown they are at a point of understanding where such calls are not dramatically suspect. What all of this is adding up to for Manheim and Intergang is just unclear, or any sort of lure to tease me. Manheim, as the shady community forward benevolent dictatorship, is more engaging than Bruno Manheim: Mad Scientist. An archetype that places him closer to the original Ultra-Humanite, recently seen on Stargirl, than the gun runner from the comics.
The Kent and Irons kids’ drama is what you would expect from the high school portion of the show, but it is no less effective. Natalie’s feeling of being left behind everyone else leads to an actually nice scene with her Grandpa from another Earth. Which can only mean he’s about to betray that relationship again. Jonathan is going to get a job at the Fire Department, which should help tie ‘C’-plots in more and make the Lang-Kushing drama feel less isolated. They’re writing Candice off surprisingly fast. All of the human drama in this episode works and is apiece with the network’s brand identity. It’s Superman that continues to be the piece of the puzzle that is held at a reified distance, and in that distance, lacks engaging qualities outside of the spectacular. This show and Tyler Hoechlin do a good Clark and a technically good Superman; the Superman stuff just feels like it’s there because it has to be, not because it supports anything yet. We are a few weeks away from midseason perhaps things will come together by then. – Michael Mazzacane
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Titans – “Caul’s Folly” (S4E7, HBO Max)
Read our full review by Michael Mazzacane.
