TV Reviews

Smallville – Scion Review

Smallville jumps back into the task at hand with little Alexander being revealed to be Smallville’s version of Connor Kent. A very horny, psychotic, schizophrenic Connor Kent, but still Connor Kent.  It
was nice to have a little bit of a break from the overly dark story so
we could kick back for an episode or two. The downside to this is that
we forget just how dark this show can get. Not that I’m complaining, I
loved this episode, but even I was a little weirded out.

The
relationship between Clark and Connor was very much a throwback to the
season two and three days. Similar dialogue that was shared between
Jonathan and Clark (who we’ll see next week) is shared between him and
Connor. I always had a theory that if they ever brought Connor onto the
show, he would be a really crazy version of his comic book counterpart
with all the Luthor DNA inside him. Yes, in the comics there was a story
were Lex took him over and he nearly wiped out the Teen Titans, but
they haven’t done as much with that as they could. They should have
taken Connor and made him more of a Luthor in the beginning and then a
Kent and had him learn his lesson over the course of his story (which we
can assume will only be this episode unless he comes back in the end).
But I honestly loved what they did with Connor, and Lucas Grabeel did an
amazing job as crazy and not crazy Connor.

Young Justice – Downtime

This week’s episode of Young Justice focused on the new Aqualad, and turned the show’s spotlight on the comings and going of Atlantis, along with how the various members of the team spend their time when not fighting evil.  Fans of Aquaman, and his submarine kingdom will most likely take some extra enjoyment from this episode and the many Aqua-cameos.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars – Counter Attack

The Clone Wars reviews are back! Sorry for the delay, but I’m back in full force now (see what I did there?). Anyway, we’re jumping into the middle episode of a story arc with this week’s episode, “Counter Attack”. Picking up where last week left off, Anakin and Obi-wan have broken into their respective groups to guide the captured Jedi mater/representative of the lolly pop guild and their troopers. Meanwhile, R2 sneaks out of the citadel with the help of the droids he’s re-programmed.

Young Justice – Denial

The first six episodes of this season served to introduce the members of the team, their enemies, and mentors.  Every story performed some important function in terms of establishing the foundations of the series.  Eventually every superhero show will have to get down to the business of the team’s everyday war on evil and, unfortunately, this means that most shows will end up doing a few filler episodes where nothing tremendous happens.  Such was the case with this week’s episode of Young Justice: Denial.

Archer – Tragical History

Archer continues its trend of character-based flashback episodes with this week’s “Tragical History”. Today’s episode focuses on the (alleged) sex addict, comptroller Cyril Figus. You could tell right off the bat that this was going to be tragic, not only because of the title, but also because everyone at ISIS hates him. The episode’s main plot focuses on Cyril giving in to pressure and uploading an virus to the ISIS mainframe just so he can look like a hero. What he didn’t expect was people to hate him so badly that they wouldn’t even let him help.

Bob’s Burgers – Sexy Dance Fighting

Tina is distraught when a boy from her school moves away. It’s clear that she had a crush on the boy and now only wants to lie down and die. Too bad she’s sitting in the kitchen of the restaurant while she’s doing this. The entire family attempts their version of comfort by standing over her and staring at her. Gene asks what’s wrong with her to which Linda is quick to respond, “Puberty.” Louise responds saying that she’s pubing out and once again stealing the scene. After Tina explains the situation Louise suggests that she kill herself. Gene and Louise begin chanting, “Kill yourself, kill yourself” before Linda tells them that one day they’ll go through puberty themselves. Gene and Louise begin freaking out over this.

Young Justice – Episodes 1-6 Review

The Cartoon Network has previously taken on DC Comics superteams with the Justice League andTeen Titans.  Justice League Unlimited was the last installment of Paul Dini’s run at the helm of the DC Animated Universe, and it was a relatively mature and serious take on the superhero genre, whileTeen Titans was much more lighthearted.  The latest adaptation of the DC Universe on that network isYoung Justice, which is loosely based on the comic book of the same name, but also has many elements of recent Teen Titan comics, as well as some original characters and interpretations. Judging from the first six episodes which all serve to introduce the main characters on the team, the show is off to a good start, especially for teen viewers.

The Cape – Razor

What might be the final televised episode of The Cape aired tonight, and what a finale it was!  This week our hero had to go undercover as a mad bomber in order to infiltrate the lawless scum that choke the gutters of fair Palm City.  The Cape’s nemesis Chess has struck a deal with the reptilian reprobate Scales, and the two of them are dividing up the city like slices of a delicious cake.  Only Earth’s mightiest hero can stop them!

Supernatural – The French Mistake

Once again Supernatural goes after the fourth wall, but this time they
freaking demolish it. The brothers have had a spell cast that put them
in a TV show before and even god himself wrote a book about their
adventures. However, this week they surpass even that. The brothers are
sent to; I guess we can say an alternate universe, even though that
ironically feels like Fringe territory. That said universe is ours and
includes the show Supernatural literally being the show Supernatural,
along with the actors and producers being themselves. It’s great to see
that the show and actors aren’t afraid to make fun of themselves, since
if they can’t do that then it would be pretentious for them to call out
other shows, like they did for their old time-slot rival Grey’s Anatomy
several times. The self-deprecating humor included the show being on its
sixth season, the power shift with the show creator moving on, the lead
actors not getting along, the series not having huge ratings, and many
other potentially touchy jokes. Of course, that begs the question if
there really is truth behind every joke or if these circumstances are so
exaggerated that they aren’t afraid to bring them up; it’s probably a
bit of both but more so the latter.

Fringe – Subject 13

Do you remember the “Peter” episode from season two? It was hands down the greatest episode of Fringe. It explained how Peter came to fall into Walter’s hands and showed us a younger Walter, and it had the best script to be made for a sci-fi show. So naturally, the writers decided to capitalize on their most critically acclaimed episode by making a sequel to it. Was it as great as “Peter”? It only just fell a little short of the mark, but it was still Fringe at its best.