Review: Constantine, “Danse Vaudou” (S1E5)

Constantine was just given a 13-episode first season with no guarantee of a second season by NBC. It’s quite apparent why.

Constantine is a show brimming with potential given Matt Ryan’s acting, the overwhelming popularity of Hellblazer and the big-money network behind the project. But it’s been a slow, grueling start to the season. Five episodes in, and there are still far too many questions to answer.

The demon-of-the-week story arc was modified in “Danse Vaudou,” but that’s only because there were three separate cases to handle. So, not really any different.

And the stories weren’t even compelling, and that’s probably because the characters (outside of John Constantine) aren’t really that memorable.

Zed and Chas are incredibly forgettable. Papa Midnite has potential, but we need to see a lot more of him. Jim Corrigan will continue to appear, but we need more backstory on him.

The rising darkness was finally addressed in some depth in this episode, but it’s still difficult to see the overall direction of the series. Will the writers even have time to flesh that all out in 13 episodes? Probably not.

This show has all the makings of a series that won’t reach it’s end. It will reach an untimely conclusion, just like many of the poor souls Constantine has had the misfortune of dealing with.

This is a pretty short review for me, but that’s only because I really don’t even want to think about this train-wreck of an episode anymore. I’ll continue to watch this show because I’m invested in it, but don’t expect any rave reviews in the future.

Grade: D

Character of the Day: Arsenal

Nerdgasms’ Character of the Day (COTD) will examine a different Marvel or DC character every day of the week. Be sure to check back each day to learn about someone new. Today’s COTD is DC’s Arsenal.

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Roy Harper lost his father at a young age and was taken in by Brave Bow, a Navajo chief who taught him archery. Roy’s skills as an archer won him the trust of Green Arrow, and he became his sidekick (known as Speedy).

He later joined the Teen Titans.

The Weapons Master is known for turning anything around him into a weapon. He’s one of the most accurate and deadly archers in the world, hence the natural fit next to Green Arrow. His real arm was cut off by an enemy in battle, so he wears a bionic arm that is useful in fights.

Now known as Arsenal, Harper still has a propensity for getting himself into trouble.

Harper has also gone by the name Red Arrow while with the Justice League of America.

Review: Power Rangers Super Megaforce, “Legendary Battle” (S1E20)

The final installment of Power Rangers Super Megaforce was far from “legendary.”

“Legendary Battle” started strongly in the first half. Troy and Orion’s battle against the Armada leader was great. Any scene featuring Orion in this season was instantly made better—he was far too good to be on such an underachieving show.

I very much expected Mavro to return in the second half to take on the Rangers with an army of X-borgs. Instead, all we saw was an army of X-borgs.

They brought every Ranger in the history of history back to fight an army of minions? You’re telling me it couldn’t have been more epic than that?

Sure, it was cool seeing Tommy, Damon, Wes, Carter and the gang again, but I was expecting them to be utilized in a far more important capacity. They were simply used in the background. Tommy and the rest of the unmasked legendary Rangers had just a few lines each. Nothing major.

This finale speaks to the overall effectiveness of the season. It was almost there.

I enjoyed the character development of the Rangers from Megaforce to Super Megaforce, but the acting was still horrible—even by Power Rangers standards.

The show was far too cartoon-like. I miss the gritty aspect of older seasons like Time Force or the original six seasons. I know the show airs on Nickelodeon, but enough of this childish stuff.

The season had so much potential given the source material, but it simply wasn’t up to stuff. Hopefully Dino Charge can hit the ground running in February 2015.

Grade: D

Character of the Day: Justice

Nerdgasms’ Character of the Day (COTD) will examine a different Marvel or DC character every day of the week. Be sure to check back each day to learn about someone new. Today’s COTD is Marvel’s Justice.

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Vance Astrovik was just a teenager when he met with his future self, Vance Astro, revealing his mutant telekinetic abilities. This drastically shaped Vance’s future.

He began calling himself Marvel Boy, using his new powers to fight crime. His powers include a encyclopedic knowledge about superheroes, as well as the ability to move objects with his mind. He can even send mental blasts at his enemies.

He joined the New Warriors with Night Thrasher, Nova and Firestar, even becoming engaged to Firestar for a time.

A reserve member of the Avengers for a long time, Vance changed his name to Justice and became a full-time member of the new line-up.

Character of the Day: Metallo

Nerdgasms’ Character of the Day (COTD) will examine a different Marvel or DC character every day of the week. Be sure to check back each day to learn about someone new. Today’s COTD is DC’s Metallo.

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Metallo is one of Superman’s greatest foes. The Armored Adversary used to go by John Corben when he was a respected member of the U.S. Army.

But then Lex Luthor got to him.

He was drafted by Luthor to join a top secret project hellbent on destroying Superman. When Corben was injured in battle, Luthor replaced his heart with several different pieces of Kryptonite. Red Kryptonite can alter Superman’s powers. Gold can take them away. If his Kryptonite heart is removed, he will die.

Corben became a criminal bent on taking revenge against Superman using his streamlined armor to protect him from attack.

Review: The Flash, “The Flash is Born” (S1E6)

A clichéd episode of the Flash was actually pretty good this week, even if it poorly handled a villain who could have potentially had longevity in the series.

The iron-fisted Girder was introduced in “The Flash is Born.” He was a former bully of Barry’s in school, and still torments him and Iris. Iris only knows him as Tony Woodward. Barry knows more.

Much of the episode is spent trying to figure out how to defeat Woodward. He’s made of a nearly impenetrable metal, and Barry struggles to injure him throughout most of the episode.

It takes some serious thinking by Caitlin, Cisco and Dr. Wells to figure out how fast he has to go to build enough momentum to leave a mark. Cisco calculates that he has to travel faster than the speed of sound in order to create a sonicboom with enough power to do damage.

Barry doubts his abilities, something crucial for a superhero show to establish with a young hero—especially one with the temperament of Barry Allen. It takes Iris’ kidnapping by Tony to really spark Barry into running the five-plus miles necessary to generate mach speeds.

It works—much to Cisco’s delight—and Barry defeated the latest villain of the week.

It didn’t have to be that way, though. It was interesting to see Barry develop even more knowledge about his powers, but Tony was a character who hit home for Barry. The bully storyline is overdone, but Tony could have plagued Barry again and again until a final altercation episodes later. Instead, he was just another bad guy.

There was a secondary storyline focused on Dr. Well’s relationship with Joe West. It appears as if Joe seeks to build a friendship with him, but it turns out he’s only using Wells as a mechanism to find out more about the killer of Barry’s mother, Nora.

Joe pins Wells as somewhat of a suspect given his convenient appearance in Central City just one month after Nora’s murder. Given his intelligence, Wells realizes this is what Joe is doing and convinces him that he is not responsible.

But hold on just a second.

The strange red and yellow streak/whirlwind made an appearance at the West household later that night, stealing Joe’s files on the murder. That’s not all, however. He leaves a picture of Iris on the wall with a knife through the photo, threatening to kill her if Joe continues to research the once-closed case.

Was this Wells? Does Wells simply know this mysterious person (who is the Reverse-Flash, by the way)? Will Joe continue to research the case anyway?

There are a ton of questions left to be answered, and for that reason only, this episode was a success. The initial storyline with Barry and Tony was just OK, but the fact that so many questions were raised leaves us waiting for more.

Don’t miss next week’s episode.

Grade: B+

Review: Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., “The Things We Bury” (S2E8)

“The Things We Bury” was perhaps the busiest episode of the second season of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. because of how several different storylines came together into one.

SHIELD has been rather inconsistent in how much action it delivers. Sometimes there’s plenty. Sometimes there’s none at all. They walked the middle ground this week, and it was refreshing to see the writers realize that they don’t need to hit us over the head with intense action scenes to captivate the viewers.

We learned so much about so many characters this week.

For one, Hunter and Bobbi Morse aren’t exactly done with each other. The “demonic hell beast” and Hunter had a little personal time, showing that there are clearly still feelings between the two.

Morse showed us her incredible interrogation skills, and they aren’t exactly the type of skills we would have expected from the hard-hitting agent. She used logic and reasoning to get information out of Bakshi, rather than using force and intimidation. Of course, he could have killed himself because of how she got into his head.

Grant Ward is still on the loose, and it looked as if all he wanted to do was meet with his brother, Christian, and get to the bottom (literally) of what happened to their brother. He had Christian dig up the well where the frightening moment from both their pasts occurred. Christian was given the option to tell the truth or find himself at the bottom of the well, and he chose the former.

Ward, now presumably happy to know that he wasn’t at fault for the death of his brother, walks chummily with his brother to their parents house.

We later find out that Ward lit the house aflame with his family members inside. What a psycho.

Pretty much all of this happened before we dealt with the main crux of the story, finding the lost city. Coulson and his team plan a mission to link up their satellites to get an image of where the city might be, but the plan is met with danger.

Agent Trip is shot during the shoot out, and only The Doctor is there to save him. Of course, he’s really only there to look Coulson in the eyes. He says multiple times during the episode that one “should always look their enemy in the eyes.”

Long story short, the two men discuss Skye, the Diviner and the city. They discuss what’ll happen to each other the next time they meet (you get a threat! and you get a threat!) and they go their separates ways. Trip lives.

The SHIELD agents finally learned what we had known for weeks, that Daniel Whitehall is an extremely old man whose looks are deceptive. After going through Agent Peggy Carter’s old files in their HQ, they find out everything they need to know about the heinous leader of the Hydra faction the team has been dealing with.

SHIELD is off next week before returning for its midseason finale on December 2. In it, we’ll learn about the origins of the blue alien that haunted Coulson and so many others. Stay tuned to Nerdgasms for more.

Grade: A-

Spoiler: Alien Race in “Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” Officially Revealed

The mysterious blue alien in Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is no longer a mystery, but it can remain one if you choose not to read further. The episode in which the race will be revealed will air on December 2.

“Ye Who Enter Here” will reveal that the blue alien is indeed a member of the Kree, as executive producer Jeffrey Bell told TV Guide:

Our people don’t know anything about the Kree or that there’s a planet full of them. What they do know is that the strange carvings created by Coulson after he was injected with the Kree serum are actually the map of a city, and they need to find that city before Hydra does. But where is it? Here or on another planet?

Fans have long figured that the alien was a member of the Kree. The Kree are responsible for creating the Inhumans, making it an obvious connection between Marvel’s TV universe and the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

It also makes it quite evident that Skye is a member of the Inhumans, given how she didn’t react negatively to the serum inside her.

Tune into ABC on December 2 for the full story on how the team finds out about the alien’s home.

Character of the Day: Captain Atom

Nerdgasms’ Character of the Day (COTD) will examine a different Marvel or DC character every day of the week. Be sure to check back each day to learn about someone new. Today’s COTD is DC’s Captain Atom.

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Nathaniel “Nate” Adam, otherwise known as Captain Atom, is a nuclear-powered soldier and member of the Justice League.

He delivers devastating energy blasts which has helped him defeat foes such as Major Force and Plastique. His body is encased in an alien metal that is unbreakable, giving him super-strength and the ability to fly. He can also release fire bolts of atomic energy. His past army training makes him a top-notch fighter.

He can even absorb outside energy and manipulate it, but he can explode if he takes in too much.

During these overloads, the Nuclear Soldier is transported into the future. There, he often struggles to find his way home.

While wearing an experimental suit of armor, Captain Atom bounced around several parallel universes and was left with a fragmented mind. Because of his mental issues, he became the villain Monarch.

Review: Gotham, “Harvey Dent” (S1E9)

Gotham fell hard this week.

After quite the uptick in action over the past few episodes, Gotham‘s “Harvey Dent” fell flat. The story was valuable and the character development of Harvey Dent and Selina Kyle was important, but the delivery of the story wasn’t good at all.

There was also some unnecessary/questionable dialogue to sift through.

We were introduced to famous Batman character Harvey Dent in the episode, who will likely become Two-Face at some point in the show. His character is an interesting one. The writers made a concerted effort to include betting phrases in his lines, and while it’s obvious that they have an understanding of the character, it seemed a little forced at times.

They also made a forced effort at showing both sides of his personality. While dealing with Jim Gordon, Dent is composed, reasonable and honest. During his questioning of the corrupt businessman, Dent goes crazy and makes threats.

While it’s true that Dent’s character is notorious for having multiple personalities, the way in which it was approached here was off.

We also delved into Selina’s character more. It was nice to see her make a reappearance in the series after not having much value recently. She was handled strangely, however.

Now living at Wayne Manor with Bruce and Alfred, Cat does not feel at home. She’s noticeably uncomfortable around the structure and elegance of the Wayne family.

She takes a particular interest in Bruce, making a habit of watching him train with Alfred. She later tells Bruce that he wouldn’t survive in the streets because he isn’t “ruthless” enough.

Um, Cat? You do know he beat the life out of his bully after school in the last episode, right?

That was just one of the many inconsistencies which were obvious in the story.

The most annoying aspect of Gotham through its first nine episodes is most certainly Barbara Gordon. She doesn’t know what she wants, and she’s determined to hold Jim back by being extraordinarily needy and making horrible decisions.

We saw that she left Jim at the end of the previous installment, and know he finds out that she’s gone in “Harvey Dent.” But nobody knows where she went until the final moments of the show.

She’s with Renee Montoya.

Her character is so immensely invaluable that it bothers me to continually see her making dumb decisions and driving Jim up a wall. She’s a character nobody would mind watching leave the show, but that’ll never happen. Barbara Gordon is important in the overarching Batman mythology.

This episode was a far cry from the previous strengths of the past month or so. Hopefully Gotham steps it up again for Episode 10.

Grade: D