Spoilers might be CGI.
Supergirl re-imagines a classic Superman villain in Mr. & Mrs. Mxyzptlk but the effort gets lost with a cringe fest drama. Yes, I really wanted to some light-hearted fun this week. I even thought the appearance of Mr. Mxyzptlk (Peter Gadiot), re-imagined as a Pepe-Le-Pew-ish wizard trying to woo Kara was actually well crafted to be a hit. But the fun was overshadowed by two stories.
One, quite fitting, was the obvious reaction of Mon-El at being upstaged by a flashier rival. Yes, he obviously becomes jealous but he also shows his true colours, and proves himself a most unfitting match and at his chauvinistic worse. In a single episode, he regresses back to frat boy status, ignoring Supergirl’s wishes and intentions. Yet, he ends up with Kara in the end when the entire episode is proof he’s not ready for a relationship.
The second one is actually something that has gone on for a while. Maggie and Alex have another silly, unfounded and completely out of the blue fight. At this point their fights seem to be taken out of Saved By The Bell’s script from the 80’s, complete with unfounded misunderstanding and grand gesture at the end. It’s such a pity because after the amazing Luthors last week, I would’ve thought this cringy by the numbers teenage drama interludes would feel less afterschool special and more grown-up.
For Maggie and Alex, there was never a reason to fight in the first place and the grand gesture (Maggie, since it was literally her turn) felt shallow. Let’s try for more mature relationship issues? There’s a ton out there. For Kara, her relationship was tested and proved to fail, by which I mean it was a complete contradiction to have her hook up with Mon-El at the end.
I wanted to see something better, and then The Flash went all Phantom Menace this week with CGI galore for Attack On Gorilla City. I know I’m supposed to have some leniency on the CGI budget for TV series, but the show did a much better job with Grodd the first time around, keeping him to the shadows of the sewers. When it comes to CGI, less is more.
Instead for this episode we go for the big arenas, the crowds and the gorilla armies. It took me completely out of the episode. I was just not invested at all. Didn’t get a sense of dread or any risk to the lives of anybody. The whole Grodd versus Solovar political scheme was lame. The battle between Barry and Solovar in the open arena was not exciting.
There’s a second story as Jesse Quick and Wally West rekindle- Wait, did they really had anything last time? I mean, other than flirting? I don’t recall anything serious. And what pissed me off royally was Wally taking all the glory of capturing criminals by himself. We haven’t had Jesse in a long time and we don’t get to see her capture a single crook. That was such a letdown.
To top it off, this is the first of a two-part episode duo. For that reason, we get a brief glimpse of Gypsy as Grodd’s back up plan. So, other than getting rid of Solovar, what did Grodd accomplish that he couldn’t have on his own?
Arrow brings back a villainess trio: China White, Cupid and Liza Warner. It’s been a while for Chien Na Wei aka China White (Kelly Hu) who used to be such a badass rival for Ollie. Now she’s relegated to D status. I see what they were going with for Liza Warner (Rutina Wesley), and her history with Quentin. But I don’t have a clue what was the idea of bringing Carrie Cutter aka Cupid (Corina Akeson) who has yet to have a consistent agenda and yet she has more comebacks than the others.
But the meat of the show this week was Susan Williams getting discredited and fired via Thea Queen and Felicity. A dirty, but fine trick of hacker incrimination. That was dark on Thea’s part and yet I support it 100%. The other side was the Green Arrow becoming a target of the ACU (Anti-Crime Unit) due to the death of Billy Malone. That was something bound to come out.
So, that cover up – because you can’t call it something else – might become the footnote of Oliver’s impeachment. The thing is, justice wise he’s bound to go down because of it and it would be 100% fair. There’s no way to justify it.
Highs/Lows/CGIs:
- Not much to add this week, except I just want Greg Berlanti’s properties to research and better develop relationships and relationship issues. I’m sure there’s a lot of real issues that we could have the couples dealt with maturely, and probably over a number of episodes.
- Supergirl’s Mr. Mxyzptlk had potential. I hope he’s back one day.
- Supergirl’s Mon-El just lost the little potential he had. Why is Kara hooking up with him?
- Cool it with the CGI, Flash. Hopefully you’ll impress me with the second part.
- Dr. Caitlin Snow and Julian Albert. Now don’t die on her, Julian.
- Quentin Lance still gets the best lines. Nice scene with Dinah Drake (aka Black Canary 3.0).
- Mayor Queen broke the law. Actually he more or less breaks the law every week. He should eventually face at least this crime and pay for it.
That will do for now.
Never Think Impossible 