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!
Bodies – “You’re Dead Already” (E1, Netflix)
Read our full review of the miniseries premiere by Christopher Chiu-Tabet.
Bodies – “Do You Know Who I Am?” (E2, Netflix)
Through the intersecting narratives in 2023 and 2053, we’re introduced to Stephen Graham’s main villain, Commander Elias Mannix, the founder and commander-in-chief of the Executive that rules United Britain in the future, who is — also — the troubled foster kid who gave Syed the pistol. Mannix came to power after an attack in London in 2023, where Hasan is trying to find the boy, and discovers (much to her disbelief) he’s keeping tabs on her. Mannix’s foster parents aren’t honest, but Hasan, speaking as one mother to another, manages to break through to his mother Elaine (played, surprisingly, by Shaun of the Dead’s Kate Ashfield.) However, in a turn worthy of the Joker, it becomes clear Elaine’s a True Believer, and she double crosses Hasan while literally biting her tongue off.
In 2053, Iris Maplewood is stonewalled by her superiors over what happened to the man she saved, and persuades her estranged brother Alby to identify him from the blood sample on her clothes instead. (I appreciate the irony that Iris has an artificial spine, while Alby can’t afford one because he has too much integrity.) She learns the man is Gabriel Defoe, at which point Mannix “summons” her to the hospital he’s being operated on. Informing her Defoe is a Professor of Quantum Gravity Theory, and the founder of a supposed terrorist group called Chapel Perilous, Mannix gives Maplewood his own pistol to investigate the group. At his workplace, Iris is shocked to see an apparently amnesiac Defoe — his left eye good as new — walking into work, and places him under arrest.
The men’s stories progress at a slower pace: we meet Hillinghead’s wife and daughter after the case gets closed in 1890, only for Henry Ashe to be invited in under false pretenses, asking if the inspector still has the photograph of their prime suspect. Hillinghead tells him he burned it, and Ashe responds with a report accusing the police of a cover-up. Ashamed, Hillinghead admits he stopped himself, and proposes he and Ashe work together to salvage the force’s reputation. Over in 1941, Whiteman’s own cover-up begins to crumble as the girl who witnessed him find Defoe enters her testimony; clearly Farrell was right about Whiteman, but not because he was Jewish. The lack of screentime, and relevance so far to the Mannix story, meant I couldn’t help but wonder what it’d have been like if the male detectives had been saved for next time. – Christopher Chiu-Tabet
Daryl Dixon – “Coming Home” (S1E6, AMC)
In case you missed it, read our full review of the season finale by Alexander Manzo.
Gen V – “The Whole Truth” (S1E4, Amazon Prime)
The last episode ended with Emma killing a guard inside his head when she was tiny and helping Sam escape from The Woods. The episode picks up right where it left off, but from Marie and Andre’s point of view, she is still trying to figure out where she is and if she’s okay. Given it was a secret meeting for a site that no one is supposed to know about, it’s hard to ask for any additional help aside from Cate and Jordan, who are pissed that a freshman was given this assignment. The next day everyone has to act normal and go to their classes, but try to avoid the TV film crew of a true crime show hosted by a supe named Tek Knight. His powers are more like heightened senses that allow him to see all lies during an interrogation to help him solve crimes for his TV show. Now, he’s at Godolkin University to unravel what happened to Golden Boy.
Continued belowDean Shetty gives Knight access to anything he needs throughout his investigation but warns him to leave the “Top Five” alone, but he doesn’t listen because he needs a scapegoat. Vought sent him to see what’s going on at God U, so he has to find an answer somewhere, or he’ll point the finger at her. This makes her nervous because he quickly realizes something happened with The Woods. After all, she immediately started to sweat and get nervous when he first brought it up. Sam and Emma are hiding out at a nearby abandoned drive-in theatre. There’s some mild flirtation going on, but it gives the audience a chance to see the psychotic breaks in Sam’s mind as he imagines a puppet and Josh Ritter talking to him through a broken TV about the next steps he has to take since he’s out. Emma tries to talk him down, but after he finds out about Luke’s death, he goes out on his own in search of one of the doctors who experimented on him.
Since Sam is out on the hunt, it gives Emma a chance to get back to campus to warn the others about what will happen. Luckily, she walks in on Marie and Jordan, making out that they know where he lives, and warns him when she mentions the doctor’s name. The confrontation turns hostile quickly when Sam recognizes Marie and Andre as the two who helped sedate him on campus. It was mentioned briefly in a previous episode, but Sam is stronger than Luke but without any training, so he’s more dangerous to everyone. Thankfully, Emma is there to calm him down by growing to the size of a house and literally holding him down on the lawn. – Alexander Manzo
Loki – “Breaking Brad” (S2E2, Disney+)
Read our full review by Robbie Pleasant.
Loki – “1893” (S2E3, Disney+)
Read our full review of by Robbie Pleasant.
One Piece – “The Girl with the Sawfish Tatoo” (S1E7, Netflix)
Read our full review by Robbie Pleasant.
One Piece – “Worst in the East” (S1E8, Netflix)
Tune in tomorrow to read our full review of the season 1 finale by Robbie Pleasant.
Quantum Leap – “Closure Encounters” (S2E3, NBC)
After a pure leap premiere, and an almost purely home-team second episode, “Closure Encounters” finally puts Quantum Leap back into the formula that we’ve come to know from the rebooted series. There wasn’t as much intrigue and mystery from the Project Quantum Leap crew, which was good. Ben’s leap, into a UFO-chasing G-man from the 40s, was interesting enough to not need too much of the home team drama.
What was there was a good acknowledgement of the tension that is felt between Addison and Ben and, specifically, how Ben feels given up on. While it is easy to rationally justify what Addison did – moving on after two years – for Ben, who didn’t have the three-year gap that Addison did, it feels like a bridge he’d never cross. That’s easy to say when you’re on that side of the ‘betrayal,’ but he’s being a bit unreasonable. Not totally, mind you, but enough that it takes the bite out of his claims just a hair. But narratively, that’s good. If we didn’t at least somewhat dismiss his claims, we’d hate Addison and the crux of the show’s tension would fall apart.
Overall, this is one of the better leaps of the series thus far. Giving Ben a little more edge is a fun tough, too, which allows the writers to go in more unexpected directions. Let’s hope that the mythos keeps building, that Al’s daughter returns, and that the series can keep up the quality. – Brian Salvatore
Star Trek: Lower Decks – “Caves” (S4E8, Paramount+)
Read our full review by Joe Skonce.
Werewolf by Night in Color (Disney+)
Marvel Studios’ first Disney+ special is back, and this time you can see the blood in all its lurid red glory! It’s a shame the magical Wizard of Oz homage is lost in translation at the end, but all in all Michael Giacchino does a great job of redressing his Universal Horror homage as a Hammer one, with the cinematography now bearing the hazy feel of a ‘60s or ‘70s descent into madness. If anything, the transition makes the contrast in several pivotal moments much less starker, especially when the title character finally arrives, rendering even him more mysterious.
We also get to see Man-Thing in all his green glory, and discover the MCU’s Elsa Bloodstone does in fact have some red in her hair! All in all, it was a joy to rewatch Werewolf by Night, even if it wasn’t as stylish the first time round. It makes it even more of a shame we still don’t know when we’ll see these characters again, or that Marvel didn’t prepare another Halloween special for this year (heck, the fact we didn’t even get another special this year was a real shame), but at least Hammer Horror got its due this time round. – Christopher Chiu-Tabet
