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!
Dead Boy Detectives – “The Case of the Devlin House” (S1E3, Netflix)
Edwin, Charles, and Crystal investigate the site of a family’s murder-suicide in 1994, where they discover the Devlin ghosts are trapped in a time loop, constantly reliving patriarch Brandon (Jason Deline)’s rampage. It’s an unpleasant sight, and especially upsetting for Charles, who is further reminded of his abusive father when he discovers Brandon slaughtered his family because he found out his daughter had got into college. Charles soon gets so fed up seeing the murders play out repeatedly that he tries to intervene, and becomes trapped in the loop too. I must say, the whole thing felt like a dig at the proliferation of true crime media, reminding us of how upsetting their subjects are, and that they should not be for casual consumption.
Edwin and Crystal discover Brandon’s surveillance system, which is what has trapped his family’s souls, and despite Edwin’s unfamiliarity with the technology, he manages to record over the tape, finally freeing them – and a good thing too, as a demon feeding on misery showed up, prompting David to try to possess Crystal, making it harder for her to evade it with happy thoughts. For a case-of-the-”week” show, this series sure has a lot of ongoing villains! In any case, they manage to free everyone trapped, allowing Death to send them on their way; I’ve no doubt Edwin would’ve given Brandon a piece of his mind if he didn’t have to leave before she arrived, but at least he could take solace in him being dragged to Hell.
Meanwhile, the sprites’ bullying inadvertently causes Niko – who continues to be supremely adorable – to find her courage. I expected her to intervene to save Crystal, but nope, she finds the others in the morning – oh well, she’s still adorable. Monty “bumps” into her and Edwin at the library, where he feigns being able to see ghosts because of a car accident, and Niko starts pushing Edwin to take an interest in him. It’s so ironic the girls can see Edwin is gay, but his best friend is oblivious to his jealousy, or that Edwin doesn’t understand why this case affected Charles so much. Back in the afterlife, Brandon’s daughters are questioned by the Lost and Found department about their arrival, where they excitedly extol the virtue of their saviors; well, as the old adage goes, no good deed goes unpunished. – Christopher Chiu-Tabet
Star Trek: Discovery – “Whistlespeak” (S5E6, Paramount+)
The Disco crew is having trouble with their next clue. A seemingly unremarkable vial of distilled water gives them no answers as they run every test and try to run through various historical and anthropological data. This a really fun and frustrating conceit as last week they literally hopped universes to obtain this vial that is giving them absolutely nothing to go on when every other clue gave them at least a sort of direction to look in.
While the science and engineering gang keep working on that, Culber is still going through it and for the first time this show hit me with a real emotional wallop. He’s still having this blended crisis of faith and existence, and in searching for comfort he turns to his abuela. A woman now many centuries gone, but using a new holo-therapy program he’s talking to her to help work out his issues and get the scoop on the family’s Mofongo recipe. In doing so he gets some unexpected answers that make him laugh and give him some strength to move forward and work things out. I came away from this scene of two minds. One: while possibly a helpful tool, this holoprogram allows you to call up a very faithful facsimile of your lost loved one. Thus, never allowing you to fully process the loss. I know this show will never fully interrogate something like this, but if you never had to let someone go, even an imitation of that person, would you? It’d be way too easy to get pulled into that fantasy and keep them around. Unhealthy at best. And two: My mom passed a few months ago, and across the last 7 years I lost my remaining grandmother and a great aunt that I was very close with. So, all the important women from my family are gone. I would do anything to be able to talk to them, get advice, or get just one more recipe from one of them. On that end this whole sequence spoke to me deeply. In the way the show intended. It’s tough to let go and if this program could be used in only a positive way, it would make sense to have. But for now, I’m torn. I guess it says something that this brief scene was what left the biggest impact with me out of the entire episode.
Continued belowThe meat of the episode is pretty fun and makes for a good watch, but for the most part ended up being quite predictable, especially for long time Trek fans. On a pre-warp planet, a people who use no technology and still exist in a more or less tribal society look to make their way to a nearby temple to pray for the rains to return. For now, the planet is very dry and dusty, while still being quite verdant; an interesting juxtaposition to be sure.
As Burnham and Tilly become integrated into the tribe, they see some natural healing work in a miraculous way (a surprise to them and me), they begin to understand how this society works, and they learn that the weather, and some other things, have been controlled by ancient technology left by an advanced race of aliens. The tech is breaking down, stopping these special towers (or temples) from creating rain. In short, a foot race that felt very much like a Survivor challenge ends with the winners heading into the temple as a sacrifice to bring the rain. An obvious reveal, and one that our heroes should have figured out way sooner, but that is ok. It kept a nice amount of low-key tension through every scene. Burnham tries to fix the alien tech, convince one of the tribe leaders the sacrifices aren’t necessary, and not completely destroy the Prime Directive in the process. Absolutely classic Trekkie goodness throughout the entire episode. Probably the weakest episode of the season so far, but still a great watch, and the closest to a bottle episode this season will most likely have. Even with some heavy moments and quibbles with the writing and the lack of interrogating some ideas, it was still an incredibly enjoyable episode that really moved. And the season long mystery is still going strong! Something I couldn’t say about some past seasons. – Chris Egan
Star Wars: The Bad Batch – “The Cavalry Has Arrived” (S3E15, Disney+)
Read our full review of the series finale by Brian Salvatore.
X-Men ‘97 – “Tolerance is Extinction – Part 1” (S1E8, Disney+)
Cyclops, Jean and Cable uncover Bastion’s origins in his childhood home, uncovering how Nimrod created the first human hybrid Sentinel by infecting the fiend’s father with nanites Hamlet-style. Bastion himself explains to Val Cooper that he perpetrated the genocide on Genosha to create a chilling effect among human allies, and – in the first of several very pertinent scenes – talks about how economic anxiety has allowed him and Sinister to gather so many human guinea pigs. It’s then we see how horrifyingly many they’ve created, as the da Costas’ butler, Ford, Beast’s girlfriend Trish Tilby, and even Bastion’s elderly mother are revealed to be among the sleeper agents. Much to my glee, Wolverine and Nightcrawler get to cut loose with the purple-blooded cyborgs at the mansion, while the Summers clan really prove how much of a family they are escaping Bastion’s neighborhood, and Jubilee makes a wry joke about how sick she is of getting attacked at the mall.
Unfortunately, Roberto’s mom proves to be a sell out, buying the Sentinels’ nonsense about being there to protect him from himself. Bastion is unable to revel in the mansion’s destruction though, as Sinister alerts him to Val Cooper releasing Magneto from his prison. As Bastion confronts her, Val articulates a strange sense of deja vu and apathy induced by tragedies like Genosha – one that is especially topical given the ethnic cleansing in Gaza – before declaring, “Magneto was right.” Erik, who understandably must feel like a complete fool right now, flies to the North Pole, and unleashes an EMP wave that affects the whole world: it’s clear Bastion has overplayed his hand, and he’s grossly underestimated his sleeping giant of an opponent. It’s then Xavier crashlands at the mansion, expressing hope he’s not too late: boy does he have the worst timing.
Like the two prior episodes, the show is continuing to revel in the wider world of the ‘90s Marvel Animated Universe, with Baron Zemo and Doctor Doom both shown to be in communication with Bastion: I’m not going to get my hopes up, since Doom makes it clear he’s just being diplomatic, but a fight between him and Magneto would be incredible. Meanwhile, the Wall-Crawler himself, Mr. Spider-Man ‘94, as well as Silver Samurai and Omega Red, are shown reacting to Magneto’s disruption of the world’s electrical grid. There also seems to be an intriguing bit of foreshadowing for Krakoa, or more specifically its resurrection protocols, with Nightcrawler reassuring Jean it doesn’t matter if Madelyne’s memories aren’t actually hers, reinforcing how they are arguably what constitutes a soul – something that’s bound to be relevant after the number of mutant lives lost. – Christopher Chiu-Tabet
