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 – “A New World, Part One” (aka “Reunions”) (S9E10, The CW)
It seems like a few months have passed since the last episode and we see Iris with her baby bump and receiving her Pulitzer nomination, Khione is discovering her multiple new powers and Chester and Allegra’s relationship is improving; everything seems fine… until once again Barry goes back to the past to the year 2000, no less; at least this time it’s not his fault, he was forced by a new villain.
In the past, Barry chooses to visit Joe West to ask for his help, until he sees the date, it’s the day his mother dies and flees out of the police department, there he runs into his parents and Thawne knocks him out.
That’s a chance for Barry to spend one more day together with his mom and dad before she dies, while Thawne rejoices knowing he’s defeated Flash. In the final battle, the story we know repeats itself, the villain ends up killing Nora and Barry allows it, this time he doesn’t alter the timeline, it’s the worst day of his life but he still manages to also have a meaningful, somewhat positive day, that is because he was able to spend one last day with his parents.
Eobard ends up stranded and powerless in the year 2000. Barry doesn’t have time to stop or arrest or limit the reverse Flash in any way because he once again disappears from that place and we don’t know where our hero ends up.
So, who caused this? We don’t know yet but we are teased a new villain. In one scene, Barry fights against the manifestation of the Negative Speed Force, which possessed Joe. Also, at the beginning and the end of this episode we are presented with a new scientist with the face of the latr Eddie Thawne (Rick Cosnett), who suffers the same fate as Barry when struck by lightning, so we can assume that he will be the last avatar of the Negative Speed Force.
This was a well directed episode by showrunner Eric Wallace, sometimes the year 2000 looked very modern and the actors, who should be in their late 30’s or early 40’s looked way older, but i can’t blame them, it almost looked like they didn’t care if it looked goofy, I think they gave it more importance to advancing the plot and not making it look like a realistic past, and you know? the series is ending, I can give them a pass. Also I can’t help but think that Henry Allen looked like a very loving person with a complete adult male stranger, but I applaud that healthy masculinity in the now distant 2000’s. – Ramon Piña
Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur – “Devil on Her Shoulder” (S1E13, Disney Channel)
Devil becomes insecure about his size after realizing how many activities there are that he’s unable to participate in, and after messing up a mission that allows Rockin Rudy to escape for the second week in a row. He gets upset when Casey expresses excitement over the release of Droom v Torg: Dawn of Demolition, a Godzilla vs. Kong-esque picture based on true events, until Lunella realizes she could create a “Tincture of Tininess” to allow him into the theater. They pull off their scheme without a hitch (especially after painting Devil green so he looks like a Droom cosplayer; maybe it is easier being green), and spend the rest of the day doing more fun activities he couldn’t do before, before the formula wears off.
However, Devil gets upset they ran out of time before he could go play in a ball pit, so he sneakily downs more of the tincture: this causes him to absorb too many “quantum particulates,” meaning he’s going to keep shrinking until he disappears. Lu and Casey manage to track down and contact Dr. Bill Foster (Laurence Fishburne, reprising his role from Ant-Man and the Wasp), who gives them the formula to enlarge him permanently, but before they can, Lu and D are forced to deal with the real Torg (Method Man), who’s raging around the LES about his depiction in the movie. Realizing he’s too powerful, Lu decides to distract Torg while guiding Casey through applying the formula with a rap.
Continued belowThe gambit pulls off, and the restored Devil shows up to battle, picking the climactic song this time too: “Go Big” by Andy Sturmer, an unexpectedly cheerful piece with Elton John-inspired visuals, that demonstrates how he’s made peace with his size. The fight ends hilariously when the two accidentally get stuck in some marble arches, allowing them to just “talk” it out: Torg admits he became a monster because humans assumed he was one, and Devil tells him he understands how he feels. Realizing they’re kindred spirits, the two become fast friends, and eventually go to a screening of a movie by Casey called Devil v Torg: Big is Beautiful. Altogether now: awwwww. – Christopher Chiu-Tabet
Riverdale – “Peep Show” (S7E6, The CW)
Read our full review by Elias Rosner
Superman & Lois – “Forever and Always” (S3E7, CW)
After the revelations from the previous episode, I was curious how Superman & Lois would move going forward. Would things enter a higher, perhaps more action-oriented gear? That isn’t the case in this episode. The writers instead use it to double down and reassert the show’s core identity as a family melodrama by showcasing the now trio of families for this season: Kent, Lang-Kushing, and Manheim’s. The revelation that Matteo is in fact, Matteo Manheim felt right. Is it perhaps a little absurd that he’s going to school out in Smallville? Yes, but it makes television sense. You need a reason to get Bruno and Peia outside of Metropolis and eventually draw in the Twins, Natalie, etc. into the season’s main plot. That isn’t just them suiting up to go help as some sort of rite of passage that they’ve “matured” enough. Now everyone has something in the web of connections for the season.
With flashbacks, this episode turns into a Manheim family episode with more work done on the characters of Bruno and Peia and showing their relationship in general. This was the texture necessary to turn Bruno into something more than just a plot antagonist but a more fully featured mirror antagonist as he and Clark do everything (or maybe not everything) in their powers to save their partners.
The Lang-Kushing drama is more typical of divorce stories and is a useful counterweight to the science fiction-tinged drama of the Kents and Manheim families. This thread feels closer to the quintessential melodrama the WB/CW would program before it turned into a DC network.- Michael Mazzacane
Sweet Tooth – “In Captivity” (S2E1, Netflix)
In case you missed it, read out full review of the season 2 premiere by Alexander Manzo.
Sweet Tooth – “Into the Deep Woods” (S2E2, Netflix)
Read out full review by Alexander Manzo.
Titans – “Game Over” (S4E10, HBOMAX)
The Garfield reunion with the Doom Patrol comes to a mostly satisfying conclusion. After the previous episode was so specifically centered on the character the show needed to at least use some of the runtime to reestablish what the rest of the Titans were up to. As far as a crossover goes, it might not be the cleanest fit. They all just kinda get to STAR Labs via plot magic. But returning to the Doom Patrol, or at least their version of them since the show version is it’s own Earth now, was a necessary step as Titans finishes its run.
The Conner team-up with Sanger and use of the video game should come back down the road. It is too obvious an endgame macguffin to just be deleted from a server. Sanger having doubts about summoning Trigon is an interesting if unsurprising move, and what that means for Mother Mayhem going forward.
This wasn’t a bad episode per se, but it was one that is more about setting the table for the final batch of episodes than providing cathartic moments (barring Kory’s self-affirmation). – Michael Mazzacane
