As was previously foreshadowed in the series, Kang The Conqueror is coming from the future to kill Captain America! This subplot and a couple of others have been lurking in the background of The Avengers all season, and Kang’s story finally takes the mainstage in this week’s episode. It also seems that all the other plot threads are about to come together, just in time for the first season big finale.
Last season left Hank on his way to jail for assaulting a police officer. The truth about his affair with Mia had come out to the world and to Karen, and his daughter received a birds eye view of her father being put in handcuffs. Needless to say Hank’s life had taken a turn for the worst. Hank has never been the most positive influence on the lives of his loved ones but even for him this was bad.
NBC, the network that brought us every bad episode of Heroes is back with a new show about superheroes, less than a year after Heroes went off the air. Did NBC learn anything during the last 11 months about making shows with superheroes? No. The Cape is our earliest contender for worst show of 2011.
The Cape got off to such a terrible start that it literally had nowhere to go but up. The second episode is slightly better, but still awful in every single regard. The high point being Keith David’s scenes. Unfortunately he was used a lot less in this episode than in the pilot. On the other hand, Summer Glau was on screen more this time around, and nerds like to watch Summer Glau do anything. Nerds will tune in for an hour to watch Summer Glau alphabetize her spice rack. Alas, this show is filled with people who aren’t Summer Glau.
I vaguely recall a failed attempt at an Avengers cartoon ten years ago. That time they only used B-List Avengers characters like Wonder Man, and the thing got cancelled after six months. When I heard about Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, I was apprehensive. I was even more concerned when I saw the cartoony character models, and feared we were in for another Super Hero Squad (Not that there’s anything wrong with Super Hero Squad… if you’re eight years old). Fortunately, the storylines are aimed squarely at grown-ups and teens, even if the designs and violence levels are kid-friendly.
Looking back on it, I’m not sure Caprica ever really had a chance. Many of Battlestar Galactica’s biggest fans were disappointed by the ending of the show, and not interested in seeing any more of that universe. People who had never seen Battlestar but who could have been interested in what Caprica was could have been scared away by the baggage that comes with being a prequel to an existing franchise. And there was that weird scheduling, too. The pilot episode was released as a DVD movie almost a year before the actual series premiered, and it may have given people who saw it a bad indication of what the show would be without anything to tell them otherwise for months. Then it went away after nine episodes for months, came back suddenly and almost without warning, and then was canceled after only four more episodes in October. The last episodes were pulled from SyFy’s schedule, a cable rarity, and won’t be seen until early in 2011, unless you live somewhere else or get the DVD. It was a show with a very limited audience that was hardly given an opportunity to cultivate a bigger one, and once SyFy felt they had a better bet with the upcoming Battlestar Galactica: Blood & Chrome, it was gone.
We finally figured out who the father of Sweet Dee’s baby is and I don’t think anyone had guessed that one. This was the season finally of Sunny and was a perfect way to end an inconsistent season 6. This episode had everything. Almost all of the extended Sunny cast was brought back and Dee Gives Birth was not only the best episode of the season but one of the best episodes of the series.
After Community’s absolutely outstanding animated Christmas special and 30 Rock’s hilarious episode, I was pretty hopeful for The Office’s hour long holiday episodes, especially since it would be Michael’s last go around in the Santa outfit. It wasn’t the best episode of the night, but it didn’t embarrass itself in comparison either, and while I think Holly brings out the worst in Michael, bringing her back gives the show an opportunity to really bring a satisfying end to his character arc.
It’s that time of year when every show runs their obligatory Christmas episode, and 30 Rock crammed plenty of holiday cheer up our stockings this week with Christmas Attack Zone. We got quite a few sight gags, an Alan Alda cameo, and a few smaller characters stopped by to further long-running subplots and character arcs.
Appointment in Samarra will definitely go down as one of the most epic episodes of the series. Right off the bat, we have Dean going into a shady doctor office to get a “procedure” done. It turns out that Freddy Kruger is temporarily killing Dean so he can speak with Death.
