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!
And since the summer is here, check out our 2022 Summer TV binges, where Multiversity staffers reach back in time to review comics/comics-adjacent/nerdy shows all summer long. (Here’s a handy list of what’s being covered too.)
Dead End: Paranormal Park – “Into the Fire” (S1E10, NETFLIX)
Read our full review of the season one finale by Elias Rosner.
Harley Quinn – “Joker: The Killing Vote” (S3E6, HBO Max)
We get our first episode sans Harley, Ivy, 9r their lackeys, and it’s quite a banger. The show I’ve been pining for finally takes shape, Joker. Decked out in full TGIF sitcom dressings, we get a glimpse into the life of stepdad, Mr. J, as he runs for Mayor against our hapless Jim Gordon.
I just want the Joker animated sitcom now. Full laugh track and 22 minutes of hijinks. The writers expertly pivoted Joker’s penchant for dealing with an arch nemesis to antagonistic, bigoted PTA members. What a fantastic outing and a refreshing break from the drawn-out relationship back and forth between Harley and Ivy. Best episode of the season so far. – Carl Waldron
He-Man and the Masters of the Universe – “The Heirs of Grayskull” (S3E1, Netflix)
Read our full review by Henry Finn.
Locke & Key – “The Snow Globe” (S3E1, Netflix)
In case you missed it, read our full review of the season three premiere by Alexander Manzo.
Locke & Key – “Wedding Crashers” (S3E2, Netflix)
Read our full review by Alexander Manzo.
Paper Girls – “It Was Never About the Corn” (S1E4, Amazon Prime)
Larry informs Adult Erin that she is the only one who can drive the giant mech suit revealed at the end of last episode, which turns out to be a robot that can travel through time via “time folds.” They plan to take the time displaced girls back to 1988, but there’s unfinished business to take care of in 2019 before they can jump. Young Erin witnesses a fight between her older self and her sister, Missy (Jessika Van), over their mutual resentments regarding their mother’s death. Meanwhile, Mac grapples with her brother Dylan’s changes and maturity when he offers to adopt her and bring her into his new family. Just as she seems to feel like she’s settling in, KJ arrives to rescue her from Prioress and bring her back to the ship; to protect her brother, Mac leaves, quietly breaking down into tears as they drive away. As the group reunites and successfully enters the time fold, Prioress is confronted by a man who seems to be her Old Watch superior (Jason Mantzoukas), expressing his disappointment in her failure.
If the similarly sci-fi 80s-steeped show Stranger Things is ultimately rooted in nostalgia, Paper Girls curdles that nostalgia into regret, honing in on a version of both the past and the present that feels somber and very personal to these characters. True to its episode title, “It Was Never About the Corn” is all about subtext; it’s the first episode that feels comfortable letting the girls’ emotional arcs play out with subtlety rather than fully voicing all its themes. This is also the first episode that fully drives home that these are children – they’re not wise beyond their years or dropping witty barbs that put the adults in their place. The camera often lingers on recognizably childlike moments – from the cold open flashback featuring Young Erin and Missy making a cootie catcher, to Erin and KJ’s handshake promise, to Tiff’s look of confusion and panic when Larry forces her to consider that her friends are dead.
That subtlety is played out in the performances of the 2019 adults as well, all of whom are given fascinating dimensionality. It’s a stroke of genius that Dylan isn’t fully a square, and that Erin and Missy’s fight is emotionally fraught and unsolvable – none of the adults fit cleanly into simple types. They fall short of the girls’ expectations not because they are the opposite of who they are “supposed” to be, but because they are more complicated, layered people than a 12-year-old is able to dream up. – Reid Carter
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Resident Alien – “The Ghost of Bobby Smallwood” (S2E10, Syfy)
Read our full review by Christopher Chiu-Tabet.
The Sandman – “Dream a Little Dream of Me” (S1E3, Netflix)
Read our full review of the series premiere by august (in the wake of) dawn.
She-Hulk: Attorney At Law – “A Normal Amount of Rage” (S1E1, Disney+)
Read our full review of the series premiere by Quinn Tassin.
The Umbrella Academy – “Seven Bells” (S3E9, Netflix)
Once again, the show returns to the main plot of the entire universe and world being destroyed by the Kugelblitz. Reginald calls a family meeting and goes around the hotel, making sure all of the children are going to attend and hopefully go with his mission to save the universe. The way he goes around gives the show some reality television vibes because he’s essentially campaigning for them to join him in his plan by saying whatever they want to hear. The only consistent thing he’s mentioned to all Umbrella kids is apologizing for the Reginald they grew up with and that he is different. To us, the audience, it does feel like this man has more heart and honor than the one we know, but there is still something up his sleeve.
While the main point of the episode is about the vote on whether everyone will try to save the world or not, we do get a good amount of Five trying to piece his drunk night together. One of his last foggy memories is seeing Reginald talking to someone about a deal to convince everyone to join him. As an audience member, you quickly realize it must be Allison. She is apologizing to everyone, even Viktor, and pushing to give this suicide mission a shot. However, she doesn’t end up keeping her end of the deal, and Reginald is forced to take things into his own hands. He decides to kill Luther and uses it as a rallying cry to convince the others that The Guardian from the other side must have snuck over and killed him. It’s a bit of a rough plan, but once the Kugelblitz starts rocking and destroying the hotel, everyone has no choice but to go into the portal to the next universe. – Alexander Manzo
