Boomb Tube, The Week in Comic Book Television: 9/3-9/9/2023

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!

Ahsoka – “Fallen Jedi” (S1E4, Disney+)

Read our full review by Brian Salvatore.

Daryl Dixon – “L’ame Perdue” (S1E1, AMC)

Read our full review of the series premiere by Alexander Manzo.

Futurama – “Rage Against the Vaccine” (S8/11E7, Hulu)

Of all the episodes announced for the new season, this one was definitely the most controversial, since the current pandemic (which has apparently still been going on until 3023) is no laughing matter. In any case, there were still a lot of fun moments in this episode, where Leela accidentally brings EXPLOVID-23, a virus that turns people into violent jerks, from the sewers onto the surface, where conspiracy theories — created by the Omicronians — cause people to refuse Farnsworth’s vaccine (which does use 5G chips and space lasers.) Things get so bad Amy even denies the Moon landing, and she’s from Mars!

Hermes deduces the virus is a form of zombie-ism, and heads to New New Orleans to find a voodoo practitioner to cure it. There, reunited with his rival Barbados Slim, he learns the best person equipped to create the magic version of the vaccine is his own wife LaBarbara, who is blatantly cheating on him again with Barbados. (Ouch.) In any case, they manage to end the pandemic, with the episode ending on a surprisingly sincere note, as Hermes tells the skeptical Farnsworth that any sufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from science. Of all things, I was not expecting this episode to be a take on how scientists can be real dicks about indigenous knowledge.

All in all, this is my least favorite episode of the season so far, since it was more about buffoonish chaos than sweet character development, but it’s fine. Also of note: Bill Nye’s cameo, where he uses his bow tie to fly away; Fry’s violently heartwarming conjugal visit to Leela during her quarantine; holographic technology getting advanced to the point she can attack people from the anger dome; Bonebot, the robot made of bones with a puntastic way of pronouncing bon; Kif declaring war on Zapp; and the mother of all Omicron variant puns when the virus mutates after infecting the Omicronians – sweet Zombie Jesus, I really should’ve seen that coming, but goddamn! – Christopher Chiu-Tabet

Good Omens – “Every Day” (S2E6, Amazon Prime)

Read our full review of the season 2 finale by Mel Lake.

Harley Quinn – “Potato Based Cloning Incident” (S4E9, Max)

Now there are two Harley’s. One is a potato. That’s a sentence. Lex gives Ivy his evil plan breakdown and mansplains photosynthesis to a plant woman. You know, for comedy. We then get a sepia-bathed montage of Ivy trying to convince a bunch of evil people, a.k.a board members, to vote against Lex and oust him as CEO. It’s as exciting and intriguing as I just described.

Harley locks herself in eternal combat with her French fry doppelganger and makes mash out of her. The kicker of this season’s penultimate episode is the Joker totally Oracle’s Batgirl with a gunshot to the future. The Bat Family is in shambles, and it’s all Harley’s fault. Actually, if we are being honest, it’s Bruce’s fault. Everything is Bruce’s fault. One more episode for the season, and I hope it’s a doozy. I don’t know what the whole point of this season is, but I am praying for a tight bow on the whole thing. – Carl Waldron

Heartstopper – “Sorry” (S2E7, Netflix)

Elle gets accepted into Lambert, who also decide to display her art at an exhibit. While picking clothes for prom, Isaac goes to meet James at a bookshop, where the latter expresses understanding that Isaac’s not into him, as heartbreaking as it is. Isaac subsequently gets frustrated at his friends for assuming it’s going well. When he attends the exhibit, he bumps into an aromantic and asexual artist, who finally gives him the terminology he needs to understand himself, and after Elle’s painting is unveiled as being a portrait of her with her friends from Truham, he firmly reconciles with her, Charlie and Tao, hugging them. Afterwards, Elle tells Tao she hasn’t decided to accept Lambert’s offer yet, although he tells her not to decide based on what he wants.

Continued below

Ben corners Charlie and Nick as they leave, trying to tell Charlie he’s sorry, and that he’s going somewhere else for sixth form, so this is the last time they can talk. Charlie tells him he doesn’t forgive him, and that he only hopes his apology is genuine for the sake of other people in his life. This message, that you don’t owe anything to anyone who’s hurt you, carries through to the next major scene, when the Springs attend dinner with the Nelsons during Stephane’s visit, and Nick comes out as bi after his brother’s sarcastic comments, stating he really doesn’t care what his dad thinks, because he’s been so absent in his life.

Stephane apologizes to Nick before leaving for the airport, although Nick reminds him he should mean it. David complains to a friend on the phone about Nick’s behavior, insulting Charlie as he does so, which prompts Tori to knock it from his hand, and give him a stern warning. (She’s so cool, honestly.) Charlie’s mum thinks Nick is pretty cool too now, and that they should invite him and Sarah round for dinner. As always, things seem well, except Sarah’s started to notice Charlie’s eating disorder too… Meanwhile, we get a lot more insight into Darcy’s home situation, learning her mother’s a control freak, who thinks she’ll get mocked for her masculine choice of clothing for prom, further sending us into the finale on a downbeat note.

Song of the episode: “Cry!” by Caroline Rose – Christopher Chiu-Tabet

I Am Groot – (S2, Disney+)

Groot may have had his growth spurts and returned to maturity in the Guardians of the Galaxy movies, but that’s not going to stop Disney from getting as much mileage out of Baby Groot as they can. As such, we’ve got another season of I Am Groot, and by “season” I mean “about 20 minutes of content divided into five mini-episodes.”

With that said, what is this new season of I Am Groot about? Well, the same thing as last time: Baby Groot being cute and doing silly things. We get episodes with concepts like “Groot gets a nose,” “Groot wants ice cream,” and “Groot builds a snowman,” leading to hijinks ensuing and maybe just a bit of destruction in Groot’s wake. Some of the hijinks are a little lowbrow (Groot stepping in brightly-colored animal poop isn’t my idea of clever comedy), while others are more entertaining (a killer robotic snowman is always a good time), and some suggest Groot might be a bit of a tiny psychopath.

But you know what? That’s all fine. These are meant to be short, humorous snippets, and that’s exactly what they are. In spite of that, they didn’t skimp on the set and creature designs, as it still looks quite good and well-animated overall. Obviously not at full studio quality, but for what it is, it looks just fine.

And for a show with only one major actor and two guest stars, they still made sure to bring in the original actors. Vin Diesel still voices Groot, even if it’s brought up to a high pitch, and he makes sure to provide every breath, exclamation, and variance of “I am Groot” he can. Bradley Cooper only gets one off-screen line as Rocket, so his cameo isn’t much to speak of, but then we get Jeffrey Wright reprising his role as The Watcher for what is arguably the best episode of the series. No, it’s not a “What If?” episode for Groot, but The Watcher observing him in the proper MCU and narrating as he goes about simultaneously ignoring, failing, subverting, and achieving some grand prophecy in an ancient temple. Jeffrey’s narration not only helps carry the episode, but adds a surprising amount of humor to The Watcher in how seriously he takes Groot’s shenanigans.

At 3-5 minutes per episode, I Am Groot is not a heavy time investment, and has no impact on the MCU, so it’s in no way required viewing. But if you like the character and have 20 minutes to kill, it’s still an amusing way to pass some time, and made with affection for the character. – Robbie Pleasant

Continued below

Mech Cadets – “Veritas” (S1E6, Netflix)

Ava brushes off Olivia with an excuse, while General Park acknowledges the extraordinary situation they’re in, and reinstates Stanford despite his subordination. The others are happy to see him back, and decide to help him on janitorial duty, ignoring their orders to do so. Tanaka commends their spirit, but informs them they weren’t going on another training excursion, but to do a perimeter sweep while he heads into space to scan the Sharg ship. While patrolling, the four become closer over roasted marshmallows, and Frank and Maya hold hands for the first time. Ava also installs what used to be Frank’s prosthetic leg into his mech suit as a workaround – dang, I know the academy is low on manpower, but Hero Force are real jerks if they can’t lift a hand with that.

Things become more tense after Ava uncovers the existence of a Robo named Veritas, who was declared KIA after initially being damaged and scheduled for repairs. With Max and Stanford’s help, she uncovers its body in Hero Force’s labs, where they discover its core was torn out and used to power Hero Force’s mechs. Olivia is angry and bewildered when Stanford and Ava tell her, but she still goes to confront her father, who gives her a spiel about having to make tough decisions, admitting he loathes how the Robos endanger their young pilots, and that he never wanted her to become one. Meanwhile, Max reviews the footage from Buddy’s memory now stored in the sabotaged link mod, and informs Tanaka that there are Sharg eggs spread across the planet. – Christopher Chiu-Tabet