Boomb Tube: The Week of Comic Book Television, 5/22/22 – 5/28/22

Welcome to our newly revamped 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 – “The Curious Case of Bartholomew Allen” (S8E16, The CW)

Okay, I gotta admit it. I was expecting to see Grant Gustin on grampa-make up, and I was pretty disappointed to see only a few touches of gray hair.

This is the third “interlude” episode of four planned before a new “graphic novel” begins, which might be only three episodes long unless it continues in the next season. This time, The Flash tries to defeat Dr. Pytor Orloff, a man obsessed with discovering a “fountain of youth” through science.

And, although we didn’t see a grampa Flash running around, it was an interesting-enough exploration of what it means to get old through the eyes of both Barry Allen and Joe West. Here, Barry fought against his decaying body and his declining superpowers; this time, his moral guide was Cecile, who told him about her grandma, who never let her age stop her.

On the other side, Chief of Police David Singh is back, to help Joe with both his robot vacuum and with his feeling of stagnation. Singh reminds him that he is a stubborn man, and that he just has to learn to embrace the new things of life, like D&D.

To be honest, I think the most important part of the episode was the ending, Barry goes to visit Caitlin, who had been missing a couple of days, and she reveals her plan to bring back Frost. Barry doesn’t agree with her mad-scientist plan, and destroys the whole place and any advancement that Snow had. I’m eager to know what happens next, see how this new tension develops and affects the rest of the team.

Next week, it’s Danielle Panabaker’s yearly time to direct an episode, and this one will be focused on Allegra. – Ramon Piña

Obi-Wan Kenobi – “Part 1” & “Part 2” (S1E1 & S1E2, Disney+)

Stay tuned for our full review of the 2-part series premiere later today by Brian Salvatore.

Riverdale – “Chapter 110: Things That Go Bump in the Night” (S6E15, The CW)

Read our full review by Elias Rosner.

Samurai Rabbit: The Usagi Chronicles – “Common Sensei” (S1E5, NETFLIX)

Now we’re getting somewhere.

While the show is still struggling to find its footing as we introduce yet ANOTHER set of baddies, “Common Sensei” manages to be a fun episode that’s not too unfocused and is a step above the last four. Picking up from the end of last episode, we focus mainly on Chizu & Yuichi, both of whom are on their own parallel journeys of discovery: Chizu on if she is, in fact, a baddie and Yuichi on how to be less, well, Yuichi.

On the Yuichi end, he needs a sensei so he does what any good student would do: looks for the last person to thoroughly kick his butt and beg them to take him on. In this case, it’s Karasu Tengu. They fight, Yuichi gets in enough hits with his yo-yo to get a begrudging “yeah sure whatever do this thing first” and we’re off to the races! He’s tasked with hunting down three Urban Yokai – Destruction, Distraction, and Devastation – and is told that his yo-yo is also a dowsing rod for yokai.

One thing leads to another, they spend a fun montage in an arcade that’s totally not a casino, no way, gambling? What’s that?, and then they end up fighting a construction botto that’s possessed by Hakai aka Destruction. Chizu spends this whole time being sour and trying to keep the crew away from the ki-stone so they’re not there when Lady Fuwa and the Neko Ninja attack at midnight. Spoilers: she fails and that’s the episode’s stinger!

This is the kind of balance between long-term and short-term I was hoping for from last week. . It only took them half a season but I think Samurai Rabbit has improved enough that I’m invested. Certainly I’m invested enough to want to see if Chizu will betray the Neko Ninja, if Yuichi will ever learn what really happened with his ancestor, and if Gen and Kitsune will get much focus soon.

Continued below

The jokes were fewer but hit more often – Budget Bunji not being a one-off gag gives me hope – and I’m growing on Lady Fuwa’s Dr. Evil schtick; she’s no Lord Kogane but I appreciate the commitment to the bit. On the animation side, the team seems to have a better grasp on how to make things less floaty and more emotive. There were significantly fewer shots of Yuichi’s 1000-yard stare and Chizu gets some good scowls, smirks, and guilty floor glances.

The action was better too! Still not great and I could’ve done without the final botto fight but Yuichi vs Karasu Tengu had fun camera shots only CG can pull off easily and had a good weight and flow to it. I had a lot of fun with this one. All in all, a solid episode.

But if we never meet Budget Bunji, I will be highly disappointed. – Elias Rosner

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds – “Memento Mori” (S1E4, Paramount+)

It is a day for remembrance throughout Starfleet, for those who lost their lives in the line of duty. For an organization like Starfleet or the United Federation of Planets, those lives lost were in the spirt of exploration and knowledge over war or any sort of fight. It adds a a very different kind of power and sadness to those losses. While the Enterprise is exploring deep space the crew takes part in acknowledging the dead, but their quiet day is cut short when a distress signal comes through asking for their assistance after an attack on a nearby settlement.

La’an’s past trauma is a major focus on this episode as she quietly tries to push off the losses she witnessed on the U.S.S. Puget Sound, and the deaths of her family at the hands of the dreaded Gorn. An evil reptilian species that patrols the darkest reaches of space with the sole purpose of destruction. It happens that the Gorn are responsible for this current issue and La’an uses her experience with them and her skills as a security tactical officer in myriad ways to help save the entire ship from this horrifying enemy that hardly anyone in Starfleet has actually laid eyes on.

The Gorn use their sinister tactics to hunt down the Enterprise and inflict as much damage as possible at every turn. As a seemingly unbeatable enemy, they nearly capture our heroes until a dangerous and nearly absurd plan comes to light.

Unlike other recent Trek shows, the use of trauma and a deep range of emotion is used to propel the overarching story rather than slam it to a halt as the crew try to work through it all at that very moment. The writing of this episode also gives us a deeper look at how each member of the crew handles the heaviest of scenarios. From Pike having to make a Kobayashi Maru level decision, to La’an making a fundamental change to how she handles her personal issues, to how lower deck crew members handle themselves in the darkest of times. There are a few deaths in this episode, and while they’re all crew members and settlers we didn’t know prior to this week, it doesn’t make their sacrifice and murders any less powerful or poignant. I found myself mourning them along with the crew. I was shocked by how overwhelmed I was by the time the episode came to a close, welling up as I watched this crew not fully succeed against the Gorn, but simply make it out alive through their sheer will and ability to work together.

From a visual standpoint, this is a more action based episode with a lot of ship to ship combat, interior dangers such as explosions, and breached bulkheads, but the energy of the story remained strongly emotional, never sacrificing the heart of it just to show cool action sequences. We are never allowed to forget why we love these characters, the Enterprise, and the ideals of this future civilization. – Christopher Egan