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 one last plug for our recently concluded 2022 Summer TV binges, where Multiversity staffers reached back in time to review comics/comics-adjacent/nerdy shows all summer (and the first half of fall) long.
Andor – “One Way Out” (S1E10, Disney+)
Read our full review by Brian Salvatore.
Dead End: Paranormal Park – “The Ride of a Lifetime” (S2E5, NETFLIX)
Ah, the time loop. You can’t have a series with magic without one. Well, you can but it’s unlikely that you will. It’s too fun a concept and too easy a set-up, especially when your characters all have anxiety about the future. You’d think I was talking about Barney or Norma but NOPE, we’ve got a Pugsly-centric episode and it is wonderful.
Pugsly has been having bad dreams about a mysterious circle that’s going to obliterate the park and kill his friends so he goes on a quest to protect them like any good dog would do: by stealing, eating, chasing and destroying every potentially circular object in their vicinity. Then he gets trapped on the ultimate circular object, the ferris wheel, and spends the next half of the episode trying and failing to make everything go perfectly with angel time magic. Fun!
I, too, hate ferris wheels so I’m glad to see Dead End showing the world their evil. Romantic symbol MY BUTT. It’s a wheel of death full of seagulls, demonic rubix cubes, couple fights, and broken hearts. Take that Ferris.
Anyway, I had a blast watching Pugsly devolve not because I’m mean but because the show does such a wonderful job of creating a darkly humorous scenario, selling it, and then twisting it enough at the end to make it just dark. Pugsly has to learn a hard lesson about life and it doesn’t come easy. Lessons like these usually don’t but in a lesser show, it would’ve.
Also, Courtney casually talking about how Deathslide aka Badiyah doesn’t actually have a crush on Norma like it was obvious had my brain explode. I was ready to watch her get comeuppance but she was right! I totally misread her extroverted nature and interest in Norma as romantic. Can you blame me!? I’m bracing for the next couple episodes because anyone who’s ever been turned down by a friend knows that even in the strongest friendships, things will be awkward for a while and I don’t know if I can handle that.
I can handle the Chandelier of Damocles/Checkov’s Chandelier being caused by a Rube Gordberg though. What is 5 Fingers up to?! And does this mean we’re going to have another musical episode? Please say yes. Please. – Elias Rosner
Pennyworth – “Red Marauder” (S3E8, HBO Max)
This week is all about the PWEs (People with Enhancements for those just joining us), a plot thread that has been ignored for most of the season. The public sentiment has soured on them with mass protests straight out of X-Men comics. Lucius feels responsible for them and we find out he is the one who supplied Martha with the information about John Salt’s death. He wants Martha to stop the government’s experimentation on these people, but feels like he can’t do it himself because he’ll lose his ability to protect the PWEs he is working with. Lucius ends the episode determined to stop General Thursday’s exploitation of PWEs himself.
Daveboy gets in a fight with his new girl Sally and leaves while she’s setting up a party for Frances. Dr. Glubb is not happy with how Frances has been using the lullaby drug on his followers. It was designed to control people and make them kill, not as a party drug. They have one of those conversations where a character tells another character something they both already know, but the audience doesn’t. The drug can cause a shared delusion when taken together with a group of people. When Patricia Wayne shows up late to the party she’s greeted by a room of people on lullaby wearing the Guy Fawkes mask. The trailers hyped this because of the V for Vendetta connection, but the payoff here isn’t satisfying. Surrounded a panicked Sally warns Patricia to not drink the tea and we see Glubb has been stabbed many times.
Continued belowSpeaking of Patricia she tells Martha that Thomas has been working 18 hour days and will come home as soon as he can. Martha has been calling and leaving messages for Thomas, but he hasn’t responded. Patricia drops the best line of the episode: “I wouldn’t recommend having your father murdered in an alley” within earshot of the young Samantha Wayne. The show casually laughing at what I consider the worst story decision they could have made.
To turn public opinion around on PWEs and keep Captain Blighty seen as a hero, Aziz sends Alfred and Daveboy out with Blighty on a mission to stop a rogue PWE at a power station. Our action centerpiece. As they are preparing Alfred gets the message from Sandra that Daveboy wasn’t able to deliver due to his inebriated state. She’s pregnant. Alfred’s been moping since last episode about Zahra and is pretty shocked by this.
The news of Alfred’s impending fatherhood inspires Captain Blighty to sacrifice himself to save Alfred and stop the PWE Darren Thompson at the power station. His last request to Alfred is for him to be a good father. We are left with a cliffhanger of Alfred proposing marriage to Sandra. We all know what happened last time, Alfred. – Matthew Vincenty
Quantum Leap – “Stand by Me” (S1E8, NBC)
After a week when we saw Ben get most of the spotlight, this week, we get a random side plot for one of the Team Leap characters that is, I guess, trying to make the character more sympathetic and relatable? But it doesn’t really work, as the tactic just seems like a quick diversion for no real reason. I suppose, in theory, we should learn more about Jenn, but having her deadbeat dad somehow have Magic’s phone number and him calling for help reconciling with his daughter felt incredibly dumb and forced.
The leap itself was a very difficult one for Ben, but the most difficult part of the episode was watching the writers absolutely refuse to come up with a way for Ben and Addison to communicate without just openly talking. The other kids in this leap are quite understanding for a 16 year old kid having an ‘imaginary girlfriend’ he talks to, but that’s not going to work every time.
However, despite how frustrating this episode was in the moment, it has been revealed why Ben leapt in the first place: to save Addison. We don’t really know what that means yet, but that adds some interesting stakes to the episode. But this an episode that felt extremely forgettable, even in the moment, until its final seconds. – Brian Salvatore
Samurai Rabbit: The Usagi Chronicles – “Invasion!” (S2E10, NETFLIX)
In case you missed it, read our full review of the season 2 (and perhaps series) finale by Elias Rosner.
Stargirl – “Frenemies – Chapter Ten: The Killer” (S3E10, The CW)
This episode was the first of Stargirl‘s third season to really give off the impression that the series is beginning to wrap up. However, it did this in a way that felt both surprising and well-thought out, and so thankfully avoided some of the traps that tend to befall a show fighting to close its book earlier than planned.
Last week’s reveal, which I kept out of this for spoiler -prevention reasons, of the Ultra-Humanite being involved gave this episode its overarching shape. The JSA feels that the mysteries of this season are coming to light, and the path to the ‘next real evil’ is clear. But the last minutes of this episode throw that all away, and reveal the architect behind this season is a familiar, but unexpected one.
The reveal itself was a little groan-inducing, if only because this part does feel a little rushed. This very much feels like a final season’s worth of story shoved into four episodes to close the book on the overarching Blue Valley narrative. But that said, the scene itself was a touching farewell to some characters that have become far more important than you may have thought when first introduced. In addition, the family dynamics of the Mahkents have blown up, Courtney has put herself on the line to protect her brother, and Cindy has a plan to clear her name.
Continued belowFor an episode that had four different ‘let’s put the good guys and the Mahkents in a tense situation’ scenes, a lot more happened in this episode than at first blush. – Brian Salvatore
Star Trek: Prodigy – “All the World’s A Stage” (S1E13, Paramount+)
Opening the episode is a brief follow up on the Diviner’s amnesia, Janeway’s growing obsession with finding the Protostar, and Barniss Frex’s fate. It’s a quick paced, but necessary and well done catch up so the bulk of the episode can focus on this week’s adventure.
Moving on to the Protostar, Rok Tahk is still taking care of Murf, who is sinking further into illness. Soon after, the ship comes across a planet sending out a distress call and upon beaming down, are greeted in a ‘stunning’ fashion by “Star-Flight” officers, who had clearly come in contact with the crew of James Kirk’s Enterprise over 100 years ago.
In one of the longest games of telephone, or an allegory for both history and religion getting passed down verbally through generations, the colony the crew finds has formed their entire existence and ideology around a partially failed Enterprise mission.
What starts out as a comedically uncomfortable look at a humorous and bizarre imitation of the Federation becomes a poignant dissection of what makes someone want to join Starfleet and do good for the galaxy. The mystery around something called The Gallows that has brought a disease to the village is an enjoyably spooky plotline, but makes for a perfect lesson for Dal to reflect on the exact reason why he and the crew are worthy cadets and their imposter syndrome is unfounded. Not only is this a beautiful look at the best aspects of Starfleet, it also changes the idea of a “red shirt” ensign; lifting them above a punchline and shows us that, live or die, they aren’t just expendable nobodies. Everyone in Starfleet (or anyone in the universe) can make an impact in any shape and size when given the opportunity.
Blending this new story with the history and canon of Star Trek makes for one of the best episodes of the season and delves into exactly what makes “Star Trek” story. – Chris Egan
Titans – “Jinx” (S4E3, HBOMAX)
Titans feels slightly like its titular character this week, everything is just a little off and not as cohesive as you’d want it. Structurally the logic of splitting the team up makes sense as it allows them to service the individual threads that have been seeded in the prior episodes, but there isn’t anything to focus individual plots or the shared motif of magic and self-improvement. Dick gets to go on an ultimately kind of pointless 10-minute magical adventure. Starfire has vague discussions on the astral plain. Beast Boy and Raven begin heading in the direction of Gar’s connection to the Red. Tim begins his training and Connor has some self-doubt. There is a fannish interest in the Timber moments and how Tim learning to wield his staff is solid, if obvious, visual comedy but none of these things Individually these make sense and mostly work if you watched the club sequence on Youtube it would be enjoyable, but nothing about them is all that engaging.
The episode’s treatment, or more accurately the lack thereof, of Magic is what turned this episode into a meandering 45 minutes. Magic can do anything, but it shouldn’t do everything; it is one of the core tenets of this kind of fantasy and without any ground rules to all the magic and hidden worlds it becomes a cheap trick. A fact highlighted by Dick using the magic at his fingertips: money and just whipping it out to buy Jinx’s allegiance as they investigate the mysterious Mother Mayhem. A move that invalidates the previous 8 minutes of screentime. The episode’s lack of explanation begins with the confused, half a “Yu-Gi-Oh” that is pulled as it relates to Raven. Everyone seems to recognize they’ve put Teagan Croft in a Targaryen wig, but no one seems to notice that the gem that contains TRIGON has been ripped from her forehead! Much in the same way Yugi’s friends never noticed he turned into the Pharaoh, or other protagonists throughout the series.
Continued belowThe episode has stuff to recommend individually. Lisa Ambalavanar is charming as Jinx, here positioned as a magical cat thief with a Catwoman-esque relationship to Dick Grayson. The Timber stuff is dry and funny, Connor ignoring Bernard’s lunch plans was the funniest bit in the show. The series going to full Un Chien Andalou as Peter Blood continues to depressively walk through the plot of Rosemary’s Baby gave the episode a much-needed jolt.
At best this was a table setting episode, but it wasn’t an engaging table setter. – Michael Mazzacane
The Walking Dead – “Faith” (S11E22, AMC)
Read our full review by Chris Cole.
