DC Superheroes on TV (CW & HBO Max) (Page 14 of 14)

https://comicbook.com/tv-shows/news/bat … runner-cw/

Well, we have an official statement now. Kate Kane won't be in Season 2 with a new performer. It's going to be a new character as BATWOMAN.

*sigh* I hate to dismiss any show without giving it a chance, but after SLIDERS, I'm simply not receptive to shows aborting their unfinished arcs in this fashion and I'm not in favour of a Batwoman who isn't Kate Kane. I don't know if I'll feel this way when BATWOMAN is back on the air, but right now, I'm not inclined to watch the second season.

The impression I got is that if Ruby Rose shows up on the BATWOMAN set again, it's with a flamethrower and a tank of gas. It was an acrimonious departure.

My feeling is that the creators have panicked and overreacted to losing their lead actress. In trying to fill the hole left in their series, they are now burying the park entirely and they have severely misread their audience, thinking that people would consider any new performer as Kate a Ruby Rose impersonator. But in this case, it looks like the fans would accept a Kate Kane who isn't Ruby Rose, but they won't accept a Batwoman who isn't Kate Kane -- much in the same way fans would likely reject a Superman who wasn't Clark Kent or a Batman who wasn't Bruce Wayne after a mere 20 episodes of leading their own show. Fans will accept a new person as (Green) Arrow after eight years of Oliver Queen, but not before that. There has been decades of R&D in comic books to

I don't consider the creators malicious; few modern day showrunners have a David Peckinpah level of contempt for their own properties, but I think they've made a mistake.

They could change their minds; they are months and months and months from starting production on Season 2. Sonic the Hedgehog was redesigned (or un-redesigned) due to fan outcry; the Snyder Cut is being released and like BATWOMAN, these projects depend on a certain level of goodwill from a devoted audience to function. BATWOMAN is currently being flattened under a ceiling of negativity from its devotees that that any show would struggle to overcome; I can't imagine a general audience being keen on BATWOMAN when even the diehards are so adamantly and uniformly against its new direction.

I think the fact that a new character would have no connection with Alice, Jacob, Mary, Sophie, Julia and Luke is precisely why it makes absolutely no sense to remove Kate Kane from the series. It can't work.

The other problem is that the Season 1 cliffhanger left us with Jacob hunting Batwoman, 'Bruce' about to approach Kate, Sophie and Julia pairing up, Parker in the cave and looking to Kate for leadership, Luke at a degree of odds with Kate -- and if next season, Kate is just gone, there is no way the show can possibly pay off any of these arcs. Season 1 will be a pointless build to nothing. Not only are the fans of Season 1 unenthused about Season 2, they won't even want to rewatch Season 1.

I think this is a mistake and I don't doubt that Ruby Rose's sudden departure was a shock given that she was in the original Season 2 press release announcing the storylines for next year, but this is an extreme and destructive solution that will alienate existing viewers and likely repel new ones. It is a convoluted, fragmented path that will damage both the past and future of the show.

It really speaks to how what happened to SLIDERS with the cast attrition is possible with any series. Shows like ARROW, FLASH, SUPERGIRL, BROOKLYN NINE NINE, PARKS AND RECREATION and others are very fortunate to have been able to keep most of their cast together for so many years. The vetting process on those shows to choose performers who would stay seems largely successful.

Stephen Amell, Grant Gustin, Melissa Benoist, Caity Lotz, Andy Samberg and Amy Poehler were/are in it for the long haul. But that system seems to have failed with Ruby Rose and now the show and its creators are badly rattled.

Hartley Sawyer (Ralph Dibney on FLASH) has been fired from THE FLASH due to racist and misogynistic social media posts.
https://tvline.com/2020/06/08/the-flash … ic-tweets/

**

Regarding your BATWOMAN pitch: It's not that I dislike your writing or your ideas. I am simply disengaged from any season of BATWOMAN that doesn't feature Kate Kane as Batwoman and I have no enthusiasm for a follow-up on Season 1 that doesn't have Kate Kane confronting Alice, confronting her father and confronting Hush. It's just depressing for me. I just don't need this kind of grief from a TV show. I don't want to engage with a story that can ultimately only be resolved if Sabrina Lloyd / Jerry O'Connell / Ruby Rose returns to the series.

They've decided not to recast Kate Kane and move on from the character, so I'm going to move on from BATWOMAN and find another TV show to love and obsess over. I've made some contributions to the #KateKaneIsBatwoman effort on Twitter to offer a template for how fans could politely make their case to the creators without namecalling and attacks. And now, I need to just step back now lest this become another SLIDERS-level fixation for me. Unless you want to know what I think of something BATWOMAN related (yes, you, only you), I'm not going to even allow myself to think about BATWOMAN anymore unless they issue a press release in the next few months saying that, after some consideration, they feel Kate Kane is too central to the fans and show to remove and they've elected to recast Ashley Platz / Wallis Day / Brianna Hildebrand / whoever. I am just going to block it and forget about it.

I never want any show to fail and I hope it does great because if BATWOMAN succeeds, then SUPERGIRL and SUPERMAN AND LOIS and THE FLASH and LEGENDS and GREEN ARROW AND THE CANARIES (pending existence) also succeed along with every other superhero production out there. I love superheroes. But I'm not going to make myself watch anything that upsets me to this degree outside of 13 REASONS WHY and that's finally over.

I think Sawyer deleted his account before he was up for his now former job or he was hired during the period when noted sexual harasser Andrew Kreisberg was still running the show and noted sexual harasser Andrew Kreisberg was fine with ignoring Sawyer's remarks. After the massive scandal surrounding noted sexual harasser Andrew Kreisberg, the Arrowverse productions are probably in no position to have any kind of tolerance for this and have no desire to deal with this sort of public relations struggle. They don't want the optics, they don't want the trouble, they don't want to go through another round of Kreisberg antics -- they just don't want to be associated with this sort of behaviour whether years ago or days ago. They wouldn't survive it.

I don't really *know* anything about Hartley Sawyer. Why would someone think it's alright to make homophobic slurs? I can't imagine myself doing that. But as a former sexual harasser of women in college who stalked three classmates and pestered one barmaid, all when I was in university, I have to believe Sawyer's apology is genuine because otherwise, I wouldn't be able to believe in my own capacity for change.

At the same time, it's foolish and always has been to think that social media is not a platform where everything we say will not come back to haunt us, so we should never say things we wouldn't be proud to say an hour later or a year later. We should ask ourselves how it would impact us. Or how a woman or a person of colour or a member of the LGBTQ community or a prospective employer would feel if they found our words. Or if they were reproduced all over Twitter.

I don't anticipate ever being a celebrity, but if I ever became one and you investigated me, you would find creepy messages from me to women that I wrote back when I was in university. You would also find messages to them from a few years ago where I tell them that I am very sorry for stalking and harassing them and that I've befriended a lot of women and been in a lot of psychotherapy and realized how threatening and intrusive and hurtful my behaviour must have been and that I'm very sorry and ashamed. Anyone in the public eye, for their own job security, should look at everything they've put in public and if it is reprehensible, they should out themselves before someone else does it and apologize for it.

In 2013, comic book writer and artist MariNaomi blogged about how she was on a panel at a convention and a writer next to her started flirting with her inappropriately in front of an audience, making oral sex jokes about her microphone, asking her if she orgasmed when eating a mango, etc.. She didn't name him. Not even 24 hours later, prolific comic book writer Scott Lobdell made a statement to the comics press and identified himself as the harasser and apologized. It wasn't a great apology; he apologized for his humour not being understood and directed far too much of his apology to MariNaomi's husband. But he stood for his misdeed and his career survived it because he came forward himself.

Hartley Sawyer probably does not hate women or black people or gay people -- he likely just saw those areas as a place to say shocking, ridiculous things in a similar spirit that a SLIDERS fanfic writer might declare that Maggie Beckett is a wonderfully versatile character or declare that his next SLIDERS story will feature the rock star vampires, the animal human hybrids, the fat craving zombies, the underground predators, the dinosaurs, the dragon, the killer robots and the remote controlled cars that shoot lasers -- a form of humour that is based in absurd overstatement so exaggerated that it is meant to amuse.

The problem is that the subject matter Sawyer chose is treating certain segments of our society as less than human, a real world mentality that harms and even kills people every day. His jokes, however insincerely intended, were threatening and hurtful to the women, people of colour and homosexuals who might watch THE FLASH and THE FLASH desperately does not want any more accusations that could alienate their audience.

What could Sawyer do at this point? Well, his job is definitely gone. He could focus on... he seems to have a love for animal shelters, maybe he could get into that field. But his career might be over. As an actor, you have to be a chameleon; your public persona needs to be positive but also not interfere with disappearing into whatever roles you'd want to perform. Sawyer could teach acting classes. Sawyer could be an acting coach. Sawyer could do PR behind the scenes for actors and let them learn from his social media mistakes and guide them in the opposite direction.

I wish they could have kept Sawyer on the show. Had him come out and apologize, say that he'd changed, that he would atone, that his work on THE FLASH had made him realize the person who'd made those tweets wouldn't be allowed to exist on THE FLASH. I don't wish Sawyer any ill -- but I completely respect THE FLASH's showrunner, Eric Wallace, not wanting to associate himself or his show with Sawyer any further. Wallace had his show to think of and it had already weathered one scandal. It would be foolish to think it could survive another.

Sawyer could have scrubbed his tweets; he had years to do it. He left them there.

If my shameful homophobia in the SMALLVILLE fandom where I raged against Clark/Lex shippers were still online, I'd destroy it. Why leave that there to continue to harm others?

In terms of James Gunn: his jokes were not making light of other people's suffering (although that's how they came off). Gunn was trying to present a joking version of his grief over how his teacher raped him when he was a boy. All of his rape 'jokes' were about how he was assaulted; when he dressed up as a pedophile priest, he was dressing like the man who molested him to try to control the imagery of his nightmares.

With Sawyer -- what sympathetic reasoning can there be for 'joking' about cutting off women's breasts or saying they shouldn't vote? Why good reason could there be for putting that out into the world? Nobody forced Sawyer to communicate those sentiments; I'm not sure anyone is obligated to insulate him from the blowback and consequences of saying what he said -- although I wish they could have found a way to let him pay a price but still keep his job.

If someone could operate on my brain and take away my social awkwardness and the handicaps that prevent me from writing Torme and Weiss/Temporal Flux style SLIDERS stories and the inherent misogyny that I only cast off at age 24 and my racism (I keep dating androgynous looking white women, it's a serious problem), I'd take it.

That's just me, of course.

My initial judgment would be that he hated or hates women. The question is why?  Something led him there unless he is just a charming Ted Bundy style psychopath.  I will admit there is that possibility.

But then you wouldn’t be you.  People are messy; we are the sum of our experiences just as much as we are the vessel of our genetics.   Certainly some need to be removed from society because they act on an impulse to hurt or kill others; but for most, our quirks and backgrounds lead to humanity's evolution as a whole.  Someone saying hurtful things may not be redeemable; but them saying it likely led someone else to think about something differently and change who they were.  It started the conversation.

Anyway, I can’t claim to know you well, and I don’t always agree with you; but I like you for who you are.  If I knew someone was about to cut open your brain and artificially change that forever, I would fight it.  It is like John Donne’s work “No Man is an Island “ - “Any man’s death diminishes me...”.  Such a brain surgery would be the death of you as a personality, and we would all be cheated out of what you may have discovered and shared on your natural journey through life.

I don't know a ton about Hartley Sawyer.  In 2014, he was already a cast member on Young and the Restless so it isn't like he was a guy on twitter who knew all of his followers personally.  I do think, especially before cancel culture really kicked in, people posted things on social media that might've been inside jokes or references that only his friends care about.  I don't know about some of his more angry-sounding tweets, but the "women shouldn't vote" tweet could've just as easily been about a female friend of his who was the deciding vote to get Mexican food when he wanted pizza.  A story he might not even be able to remember now.  I know that happens to me with my facebook "on this date" stuff....I have no idea what I meant sometimes.

I would think that we should judge Sawyer on his current life now.  But unfortunately, he works on the wrong show at the wrong time for that to matter right now.  If he's truly changed, I hope his castmates come to his defense...if not for his career, at least so people don't demonize him.

Javicia Leslie is the new Batwoman.

I'll be watching for sure.  I'm fascinated to see how it works out, especially since the show was so much about Kate.  I also hope the fans are nicer to Javicia than they are to Candice Patton.

*****

Regarding Sawyer, I just saw your previous post about the cast not supporting him.  I wonder if they can't publicly.  Grant Gustin didn't support him, but he also didn't condemn him.  I think he's toeing the line because he can't appear to support what Sawyer said, and he can't support Sawyer without appearing to do that to some people.  I think a brief but firm statement is the best he can do.  I hope if they genuinely thought he'd changed and was a good person and a friend that they'd call him personally and try to help out in some other way.

I don't think Sawyer is an amazing talent, but he's likeable.  I think he'd actually be a pretty decent Quinn Mallory in the right circumstances - he gives me a 1995 Jerry O'Connell vibe - someone who is obviously classically attractive with action movie star qualities, but who seems a bit too quirky to pull it off.

I only watch Stargirl, I find it quite refreshing.  As it seems the pandemic will probably keep me home for quite some time, I am likely to do a massive CW DC rewatch.  I have wanted to rewatch Smallville particularly the high school years as I missed a lot of eps.  Then I'd move to the others.  Legends of Tomorrow and Supergirl of course have quite a bit of scifi and parallel universe stuff in them.  What sucks is that most of it is on stupid Hulu which I don't have.

https://variety.com/2020/tv/news/superg … 234779394/

Interesting.  So Arrow and Supergirl will be gone.  Batwoman is obviously in some sort of state of chaos.  Legends is only *barely* in the Arrowverse (like Stargirl or Black Lightning).  Flash seems to be on its last legs, narratively.

I wonder if this is the beginning of the end.  There's a scenario where Flash ends soon.  Superman & Lois is about to start and Batwoman is rebooting with their season two so those two shows could keep it going for a long time.  But I wonder if, like the DC movies, these shows might not be all that connected.  There was a tie between Supergirl and Batwoman but all that ended with Kate Kane.

I'll be interested in what they decide to do.  Does this make Green Arrow and the Canaries more likely to move forward?  Or less likely?  Will Stargirl join Earth Prime?  Will Swamp Thing get picked up and added?  Or will they let this thing run its course on a smaller scale once Flash ends?

I feel six years is just right for SUPERGIRL. I'll miss it, but after a shaky but enjoyable start, SUPERGIRL has been a winner for just about every season except the awkwardness of Season 3 when it fired its own showrunner for sexual harassment and fumbled its way to the finale. SUPERGIRL has been so topical, so aware of the world in which it is watched, so earnest in its social justice values -- and I would have worried that SUPERGIRL continuing for a SUPERNATURAL-length period could have overstretched its earnest statements into formula -- a bit like how THE FLASH and ARROW had Barry and Oliver deliver an inspiring speech about something or other every year whether they had anything inspiring to say or not.

No idea what's going on with BATWOMAN or how they can possibly make the show without a recast Kate Kane, but Javicia Leslie is awesome so I'll support her in anything despite my reservations.

THE FLASH lost its way in Season 3 and I don't think it can find its way back because what made THE FLASH a unique TV show was that it was so ridiculously fast, telling stories in 1 - 2 episodes that other shows would tell in 1 - 2 seasons. But with Season 3 and 4, THE FLASH started slowing down its pacing. Without the speed, the characters feel thin and the villains feel disposable and the central theme of the show (speed) is absent and there has never been anything to replace it other than Barry and Iris being cute and Ralph Dibney being funny and now we don't have Ralph Dibney. It's a shame, but it does speak to how Andrew Kreisberg was a pretty great showrunner even though he was rightly and correctly fired off his show for sexual harassment.

Hopefully, SUPERMAN AND LOIS will do well, GREEN ARROW AND THE CANARIES will be picked up, LEGENDS will have a few more seasons and BATWOMAN will... uh, well, like I said, I'll watch Javicia Leslie in anything.

So I've been watching some of the DC Universe shows.  I watched Doom Patrol on HBO Max, Harley Quinn on SyFy and then HBO Max, and I've been watching Swamp Thing on CW and Stargirl on the CW app.

I'm actually fairly impressed with the shows they've come up with.  I watched Titans season one last year and thought it was fun (although it felt a bit restrained).  I really liked Harley Quinn - it's my favorite of the batch (but also gets the most freedom with animation).  Doom Patrol was a lot of fun, but again, I feel like that show would've been better if it was more tied with Titans.  Even just a cameo here and there would've been nice.

Swamp Thing and Stargirl are a little harder to read since they've edited for CW.  I'm sure it's much worse with Swamp Thing, but as I'm currently watching Stargirl, something was bothering me.

Mainly....what is this universe they've created?  It doesn't feel at all like a superhero universe.  It feels like the JSA/ISA were completely underground, but at the same time, Wildcat had a Wikipedia page with all of his powers?  A world where there used to be superheroes and then the villains killed them all is interesting - they seem to want the world to be identical to others but also there used to be open superheroes but most people don't seem to care/remember anymore.

They're all wildly different shows, both from each other and from Titans.  So it makes sense that they haven't crossed over.

Titans is a coming of age story in a brutal and dark world.  I haven't seen season two.
Doom Patrol is a redemption story in a bright and colorful comic book world.
Swamp Thing is a mystery in more of a mythical/horror world.
Harley Quinn is a very adult, very funny animated story that flexes its DC muscles quite a bit.
Stargirl is more of a teenage/CW coming of age story that tries to live in a comic book world merged with a hyper-realistic one.

I've been very impressed, actually.  They created a number of fun shows that feel different but also work in different ways.  Want a brutal, cinematic look at the DC universe from the fringes?  You have Titans.  Want a funny and fun look at the DC universe from some of its more bizarre corners?  You have Doom Patrol.  Want horror and mysticism from the dark corners of the DC universe?  Swamp Thing.  Want a fun Rick and Morty-like show that sticks you right in the middle of the DC universe?  You have Harley Quinn.  And want a cute and more child/teen-friendly look at the DC universe from a Golden Age perspective?  You have Stargirl.

They all give you something a little different with at-least Arrowverse level of quality (and in some cases, much better).  The DC universe dying is a bummer because I think it could've been really cool if it'd thrived a bit more.

I don't know what to say about Guggenheim. LEGENDS has mostly been run by Chris Fedak, Sarah Schechter, Phil Klemmer and Keto Shimizu. Certainly, Guggenheim has been present throughout ARROW, but during Seasons 1 - 2, he was working closely with noted sexual harasser Andrew Kreisberg. Season 1 was a CW attempt at a Christopher Nolan movie; Season 2 went more into SMALLVILLE-esque larger than life superheroics on a street crime level. It's hard to say which one was Guggenheim's style.

With Season 3, Guggenheim was paired with a new producer, Wendy Mericle and the series began stretching from street crime to assassin death cults and magical resurrections and Iron Man style battle armour that were an odd fit. Guggenheim and Mericle were also showrunners for the Season 4 dive into fantasy with magical totems and telekinetic villains at which point Stephen Amell declared that if he had to fight a magical villain for another season, he was out. One would think that perhaps Guggenheim had lost his way without the steadying hand of noted sexual harasser Andrew Kreisberg who, in Season 3, had been devoting more his attention to running THE FLASH and sexually harassing the writing staff of THE FLASH.

With Amell's support, Season 5 - 6, Guggenheim and Mericle shepherded two of ARROW's finest seasons which returned to the Season 2 style of heightened street crime stories while re-establishing the Oliver and Felicity romance as a partnership of equals rather than the peculiar Harlequin it had become. Guggenheim left as showrunner after this, with Season 7 run by Beth Schwartz who did an excellent job of maintaining the street crime adventures of Seasons 5 - 6. Guggenheim returned for Season 8 and with Schwartz, produced a human-perspective prologue to the cosmic events of CRISIS.

It's hard for me to say what Guggenheim's style is as when left to largely his own devices, he steered ARROW into a fantasy direction for two years, but he and Mericle also steered ARROW back to its roots for the two years after that. I will say that it takes humility and vision to shift a show in one direction but then decide to reverse course, although I'm sure it helps if the star of the show is demanding that reversal.

I'm sure Temporal Flux would have a much more coherent take on Mr. Guggenheim.

There was almost a surprise Arrow season 9 due to COVID logistics:

https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainmen … ppen.html/

I'm glad you liked it!  I think Stargirl has the most heart of all the DC Universe shows.  I think it'll slide pretty easily into the Arrowverse, but I agree with you - I think the production value will suffer in the same way (maybe more?) that Supergirl did.

I'm now halfway through the second season of Titans.  It's my favorite of the DC Universe shows (although Harley Quinn is so good), and I'm excited to see how it continues to grow.  I thought it was nice to bring Bruce Wayne in, although I don't buy Iain Glen in the role....at all.  I know he's supposed to be an older Bruce, but he's also supposed to be an active Bruce.  Iain Glen is almost sixty - was Batman 40 when he took in Dick?  Seems like a really weird casting choice, and I just can't see him being Batman.

It's a lot of fun.  I look forward to it every time I get a chance to watch.

I do remember that now (and almost certainly based some of my opinion on that memory).  I didn't read all of it so I'll respond back next week or so once I've finished season two.

The CW is showing Swamp Thing.  Like with Stargirl, the episodes are edited so I'm not sure if I'm getting the full show as intended, but it kinda drags a bit.  I still think it's watchable and compelling enough to stick with, but I think it's certainly the weakest of the DC Universe shows and I can see why it wasn't renewed.

Yeah, I thought that was strange too.  I also don't know what Starman had to say about it, either.  Especially since the staff seems to react to certain people and not to others.  Sylvester could've passed the staff to Pat, and it could've rejected him.

I thought the joke was funny, but it was also unnecessarily cruel.

* Spoiler for one of the final 3-4 episodes *

S
P
O
I
L
E
R

I wonder if part of it was to sell the idea that Sylvester could be the kind of guy who could essentially be a deadbeat dad that lied to his family.  If he was kind of a jerk to his friend at the end, you could see him having a daughter and not being around until he died.  He wasn't on screen enough to get any sense on why Sylvester and Pat were even friends.  I got the idea that maybe Sylvester just let him tag along but probably made fun of him behind his back.

I'd be interested in seeing flashbacks to see what their partnership really looked like.

I really liked Titans season 2.  I think Harley Quinn gets to have the most fun of the DC Universe shows and all of them have their own charm (even Swamp Thing, which is my least favorite of the bunch), but I think Titans is the best one.  It's believable that the DC universe is out there, and it does a great job of teasing it without actually showing it.  I think the characters are strong, and I loved finally seeing Nightwing come to life.

The Donna death was....bizarre.  Beyond bizarre.  I get that she's probably not really dead, and they did enough to tease that Rachel is going to help her.  But they literally had two different Big Bad fights.  If they didn't want Connor to kill her, they could've easily had Slade do it.  And the fact that she randomly died way after the fight was over - especially when she wasn't even the most qualified to catch the beam.  Or even catch it in the first place.  That's not even lazy writing - that's....all I can think of is "bizarre"

But I'm glad it's back for season 3.  I liked what I've seen of the concept art.  I have to ask that they bring in Tim Drake, though.  Maybe they will.  I think he could be great, and it might be the best place for a Bat-family.

I liked these scenes with Bruce.  I'm still not 100% sure that I see him as Batman, but the fighting scene was cool.  It's hard, since it was a hallucination if that's how Dick sees Bruce or how he is.  In the finale, Bruce is hijacking Luthor's auction, but he's just hanging out in the cave.  He seems more like Batman Beyond Bruce than "active" Bruce.

I wonder if he's essentially retired, maybe running some sort of Batman, Inc.  Maybe he's just a consultant for the Justice League now.  The only time we saw him as Batman was also in a dream.  I'd be interested if we could ever get Diana or Clark or Arthur on the show.

Finished STARGIRL. It was good, but the lavish fight choreography and extensive computer generated effects and single-shot action moments are so very, very expensive for a show that's moving to the CW. I can only think that they'll cut costs by (a) limiting the use of the STRIPE robot (b) moving to a slightly diminished level of action with shorter CG shots and (c) losing all the expensive licensed music.

I liked how the Injustice Society didn't see themselves as villains; in Icicle's mind, they face injustices and view mass murder as an acceptable means of correcting society's disregard for environmental catastrophe, prejudice and inequality, but his grief over his wife has warped his noble intentions into a vendetta of hatred and total disregard for the lives he thinks he's saving.

There's an odd emphasis on how killing is 'wrong' with Hourman chastised for planning to kill Solomon Grundy by Wildcat who then kills Brainwave while conceding it was a moral failure. In reality, superheroes refuse to kill villains because superheroes are published over multiple decades and killing off recurring supervillains means cutting off avenues of storytelling that might be needed again at some point.

There is nothing wrong with killing a wild, homicidal monster like Solomon Grundy who has murdered multiple innocent parties. There was also no real alternative to stopping a telepathic and telekinetic supervillain like Brainwave other than killing him and his twistedly impersonating the son he killed shows him to be an unrepentant murderer. It's ironic that his sadistic wish to toy with Yolanda by mimicking his dead son is what allowed Yolanda to get close enough to slash his throat. As Professor Arturo would say, Brainwave is a genocidal maniac, not a social worker.

Stargirl telling Pat that she is his daughter was quite beautiful.

I worried about Stargirl destroying the satellite which might have fallen on innocent people.

The closing scene of Stargirl and Pat flying through the sky is lovely and joyful and everything I want out of a superhero show and I was also happy to watch it on a giant IMAX sized screen (sort of) via the magic of an Oculus Go virtual reality headset.

I think CW just bought Stargirl from DC.  It was still produced for DC Universe.  Kinda like how Swamp Thing is airing on the CW even though it was produced (and released on DC Universe).  I think DC probably saw the writing on the wall and decided to sell it off, but I'm pretty sure it was already complete when CW got involved.

I do think there are ways to make the show work without changing much, but we'll have to see.

*********

On Titans.  I get what you're saying.  I think the show hasn't done a great job of explaining why any of them work together.  The "multiple generations working together" aspect doesn't truly work, but I think the younger generation with Dick does.  He wants to prove he can lead a team, and they look to him for guidance.  I think it would make more sense if Kory was a teenager, but that's really the only issue I have with it.

I just like the vibe of the show.  It feels like it belongs.  I buy that it's a universe with Superman and Constantine and Green Lantern.  I buy that the sidekicks decided back in the day that they wanted their own Justice League.  It all made sense to me.

I hope it goes well. I love STARGIRL.

**

I don't think TITANS is a bad show. It's compellingly acted, drivenly filmed, intensely scripted and even absurdities like Dick Grayson being tried, convicted and sentenced in a few days work for a dark superhero reality. It's probably fine. It's probably just not for me. There's definitely an audience for more nihilistic superheroes with WATCHMEN, THE BOYS and now TITANS. As Transmodiar once said, I'm not the final arbiter of taste.

https://variety.com/2021/tv/news/arrow- … 234881450/

Sorry, ireactions

Yeah, luckily we still got plenty of her on Arrow.  I don't feel like this is a Wayward Sisters situation.  We got a good taste, not just a tease.

BATWOMAN works. [spoilers]

The creators made a very interesting choice: just as Ruby Rose abruptly ripped herself out of the show, Kate Kane is suddenly torn out of the show in a plane crash, presumed dead (no body) -- leaving Kate's supporting cast reeling from the shock just as the viewers are stunned, hurt, confused and disoriented.

When Ryan Wilder, played by the brilliant actress (and stunningly beautiful woman) Javicia Leslie finds the suit in the plane's wreckage and puts it on, Luke and Mary are furious and angry, calling Ryan a thief and impostor and unworthy to wear the cowl just as the viewers are angry to see a new person in the lead role of the series. Alice is furious that she has been denied her revenge on Kate. Jacob Kane, Kate's father, is forced to confront how his last scene with Kate had him holding a gun on her and vowing to hunt her down with no chance to ever take it back.

It reminds me of "Applied Physics," the only script in Season 5 that truly addressed Jerry O'Connell's absence with the characters horrified at Quinn's disappearance and his replacement by a stranger, except in this case, the entire episode and seasonal arc is about everything Kate brought to Gotham City by observing its absence. Kate's military training and precision is gone; Ryan's deranged ferocity is dangerous and a liability. Kate's militaristic sense of duty is gone; Ryan is a malfunctioning seeker of vengeance. Kate's confidence in her team is gone; Ryan doesn't trust Luke and Mary and doesn't want to work with them.

And at the end, Kate's father and ex-girlfriend Sophie collapse in grief, having to mourn Kate without ever getting closure and resolution with her -- just like us.

Stories can often get away with difficult or unworkable premises if they can reflect truth -- the truth of what the performers or the storytellers or the audience are experiencing individually or collectively. In this case, BATWOMAN has captured the feelings of the audience, and has committed to working through these feelings with the viewers.

I hope they can keep it up. I strongly disagree with their refusal to simply recast Kate Kane, but they've done a good job with removing Kate from the show.

I think that in the future, it will be jarring to go from the BW Season 1 finale to the Season 2 premiere. But in the moment of a first viewing, the premiere gave voice to all the fans’ frustrations. Jacob Kane is just as upset as the viewers that he won’t get to face Kate/Batwoman and address how he unknowingly declared his beloved daughter his enemy. Alice is just as furious as the fans that she won’t have a final confrontation with Kate. These scenes, while powerful, operate on the audience already knowing that Ruby Rose is out and not being recast (yet). The premiere doesn’t even get Rose to read her letter to Sophie in a voiceover and bows to the reality of a terrible and unthinkable casting situation.

I suspect that a rewatch won’t put the real world situation at the forefront and the story will have to stand for itself and... well, it’s an anticlimax. It’s a disappointment. And it’s something of an unavoidable failure even if the writers are doing their best.

The premiere gave a very strong argument for why they couldn’t recast Ruby Rose: we saw Ruby Rose’s Kate face down Jacob and Alice, so to have the subsequent confrontation feature __________’s Kate resolving issues originating with Rose’s Kate would have been mismatched and jarring with an uncanny valley effect of seeing someone who isn’t Ruby Rose address Rose’s supporting cast and emotional arcs. So they had the new Batwoman be someone who within the story isn’t Ruby Rose and isn’t Kate Kane addressing those characters and storylines.

The Batmobile was made for Season 1 and I’m guessing Tommy would have stolen the car and Kryptonite and forced Kate to pursue him for both. But when the pandemic shut down filming, production kept the car for Season 2. I imagine they only planned to use it for the Season 1 finale without necessarily insisting on reusing it for Season 2 since Kate’s motorcycle is so associated with her. Now it’s an open question.

BATWOMAN, FLASH and LEGENDS have gotten early renewals for a 2021 - 2022 season. SUPERMAN AND LOIS are getting boosted from 13 episodes to 15.
https://bleedingcool.com/tv/cw-renews-w … s-add-eps/

I don't get it.  Why are they hinting that Kate is alive?  And then doing a storyline where finding her is key.

They had "find Bruce" when they didn't know whether or not they could use Bruce.  Now they're pulling a Sliders Season 5 and making a storyline about a star who probably won't come back.  Why do shows do this?  Unless Ruby Rose might do guest spots, this is just setting up for a storyline that goes nowhere.

I think Kate dying is fine.  Characters mourned her.  Ruby Rose doesn't seem like she wants to go back.  It's tragic but Kate has no superpowers.  She survived the Anti-Monitor but dies in a plane crash.  It sucks, but it's life.

... has there been any news as to who is playing Plastic Man in the next season of THE FLASH?
https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/the-flash … t-season-7

Well, the showrunner has said: she doesn't object to recasting Kate. What she objected to was:

• Having Ruby Rose's Kate trick Alice into locking herself into Arkham Asylum and earning Alice's vengeful wrath.

• Having Ruby Rose's Batwoman try to ally herself with Jacob Kane only for Jacob to turn on her, pull a gun on her and vow to hunt her down and kill her.

Followed by

• Having Wallis Day's Kate Kane be the one to face down Alice now trying to kill her.

• Having Wallis Day's Kate Kane be the one to unmask as Batwoman in front of Jacob Kane and reveal her true identity.

The tacit argument made by "Whatever Happened to Kate Kane" in having those arcs resolved by Kate's plane crash is that to have a new face confronting Alice's now-murderous feelings towards Ruby Rose's Kate is visually disconcerting. And that to have Batwoman unmask before Jacob Kane to reveal Wallis Day's face instead of Ruby Rose's face is also visually disconnected. (I'm just throwing in Wallis Day's name as a fan based dreamcasting.)

There's also the issue that Ruby Rose spent a whole year working with Rachel Skarsten and Dougray Scott. There is a familiarity and rapport and sense of family that was created over the course of many, many, many episodes. A new actress could fake it, that's what acting's all about -- but there's a naturalism that takes time to build and it's not going to exist after a one-week readthrough. There would be the odd sense that an arc that originated with Ruby Rose's Kate Kane is now concluding with some other Kane daughter.

However, if Kate is offscreen for awhile, the creators would then have the option of bringing in a new actress to play her, explaining that the plane explosion required some facial reconstruction and skin grafts (to explain why the new actress looks a little different and doesn't have the tattoos) -- and because of her absence, the performer would be building her relationships with Ruby Rose's supporting cast just as the character would be rebuilding them.

Looking at Season 2 so far: Kate's diary entry and letter were read by the character reading the message when TV convention usually has the person who wrote the message reading the voiceover. This tells me: BATWOMAN cannot get Ruby Rose to do so much as a voiceover, that every effort to send her a microphone and a voice recorder has been rebuffed. This tells me that the relationship between Rose and production is so hostile and acrimonious that she is never returning to that set.

If they don't want to recast Ruby Rose, then I think the simplest solution is that Safiya is lying, she doesn't have Kate and Kate really did die -- but in some brief LEGENDS crossover, Ryan gets sent 80 years into the future and discovers an in-her-60s Kate Kane (played by another actress who is older but looks and sounds like Rose) who reveals that some CRISIS-related whatever transported her out of the plane explosion and 50 years into the future where she resumed her career as Batwoman after Ryan had retired, becoming the Bat of the Future that the Monitor called her, then retiring herself and training a successor.

Ryan can return to the present and assure Mary and Luke that Kate will return some day. Just not today. (Like Sisko in DEEP SPACE NINE!) And fans are assured that Kate will return (off camera, in the future, long after the actual BATWOMAN TV series concludes).

Watching it tomorrow!

I guess that makes sense.  So in Arrowverse continuity, he had those kids the entire life of the Arrowverse.  When Oliver returned to Starling City and started his quest, years before Barry Allen got his powers and Kara Danvers showed up on the scene, Clark and Lois were already married and had 6-year-old (ish?) twins?

In fact, Kara is only a few years (max ten?) older than his second cousins (is that what second cousins are?)

Considering the reboot, that really doesn't change much.  And I assume the pandemic will make it almost impossible for them to do any crossovers with this show so they may just never reference that.

For months, I waited urgently for the season premiere of THE FLASH. And... I'm still waiting because what aired as Season 7, Episode 1 is clearly not a season premiere of any kind. To be honest, this isn't a review because I genuinely don't remember where we left THE FLASH in Season 6 except that Iris was trapped in a mirror dimension and the Flash had lost his speed while Caitlin was away for Reasons (the actress was pregnant) and Cisco was away for Other Reasons (can't remember why). Now Ralph is also away for Other Other Reasons.

Look, I watch THE FLASH because I want to see the Flash running around engaged in superheroic supersaves at superspeed while working alongside his team: a tempermental genius (Wells), a tech-driven engineer (Cisco), a compassionate biochemist (Caitlin), an intrepid reporter (Iris) and a conniving wildcard (Ralph). And I simply I can't remember who Allegra and Chester are or what they're doing at STAR Labs. What I do see, however, is that Barry is largely passive throughout the episode, not being the lead, not being the Flash -- and it's ultimately Wells once again sacrificing himself to restore the Flash's powers.

At this point, Tom Cavanagh dying or supposedly leaving is fairly meaningless. We know he's on contract and that the writers are too enamoured with him to let the actor ever leave, so that's an emotional point that's been played so many times over six seasons that it's fairly pointless for Season 7.

So what we have here is a season premiere of THE FLASH where the Flash is mostly not being the Flash while other characters (who could be great, but I had trouble remembering their names) seem to be doing all the work. We have Iris continuing to be trapped in the mirror dimension. We have the lead villainess making shocking discoveries that aren't particularly relevant to the Flash and his friends.

This isn't a season premiere. Maybe, if it had played as a penultimate episode, it would have been acceptable, but as it's presented, it's a mediocre lead up to a season finale that never aired. And this is a terrible place for a season premiere. The season premiere should set the tone for what's to come, re-establish the series and its characters and concept, clear the slate of the past to lay out the future.

Instead, this episode seems to be meandering around whatever happened last year and I don't remember and while I don't blame the episode for that, this episode is devoid of the flair, spectacle and purpose that one expects to open a new season of a TV show.

I'm also having trouble connecting with the Flash.  I know they had difficulties since they had scripts written (presumably that they liked) but couldn't film.  So I'm sure they just used those scripts and continued telling the story.  I don't know if Mirror Master can be the villain for a season and a half so I'm sure they'll resolve this quickly and move on to whoever the villain is this year.

But, yeah, the team feels weird.  Barry has faced pretty much every challenge.  We've dealt with just about everyone having powers and losing powers (although Frost being a speedster was cool).  I guess the next logical step is for them to have a baby, but I don't really know what else the show can do, narratively.

Which sucks.  The show used to be a lot of fun, but it just feels like it's stuck in place.  Even doing something like killing Cisco or whatever wouldn't really shake things up anymore - they replaced Cisco with Chester for the premiere and it wasn't any better or different.

**************

I'm enjoying Superman & Lois quite a bit.  I was worried about the teenage stuff, but it's actually been solid so far.  The one thing is that it doesn't look or feel like the Arrowverse.  At all.  I couldn't imagine Barry running in to save the nuclear plant in Clark's absence, and I have trouble even picturing Kara in this world.  It just feels glossier and more "real"

Although Superman sure gets his butt kicked a lot...

I continue to have absolutely no idea what the hell is happening in THE FLASH. It could be my problem. But. The Season 6 arc seems to be over, thank God. It took three weeks to resolve it, but it is (I think) resolved even if they had to finish it with Ralph Dibney wearing a bag over his head (now there's something "Unstuck Man" might have considered for Quinn). Harrison Wells seemed incredibly convenient for Team Flash, appearing in a cloud of pixie dust to provide a solution to the Speed Force and not traumatized by his last memory being the car crash where his wife died and then a supervillain sucked out his brain and stole his face and buried him next to the highway. But Tom Cavanagh gave him a sincere, gentle presence that no Wells has ever really had with Thawne being sinister, Harry being acidic, HR being goofy, Sherloque being superior and Nash being disgruntled. I assume he'll be back soon enough since Cavanagh is on contract.

I don't know what happened here, but it isn't happening any more and we can move onto something new. I don't know what else to say except I'm sorry the splendid Efrat Dor didn't get a better role in a better season at a better time.

That’s pretty cool! I’m glad this isn’t a dead-end storyline, and I’m really glad that the fans get the actress they want. And could be some really cool stories with Ryan and Kate both on the scene

I did notice it looked terrible -- but I actually felt the same way about King Shark and Gorilla Grodd in earlier seasons although where those characters looked to me like PS3 graphics, the monster looked like an upscaled PS2 graphic. I think it was especially glaring, however, because I'd just watched SUPERMAN & LOIS that week and it's obvious that THE FLASH's CW budget can't measure up to SUPERMAN & LOIS being a co-production between HBO MAX and the CW. It was a bit unfortunate that SUPERMAN & LOIS has such layered, detailed effects with practical work and stunt performers and CG augmentations whereas the Flash is fighting CG plasticine men.

One of the unfortunate realities of many long-running shows: with each season, many shows have less and less money to work with. Cast and crew and creator salaries rise. If the budget doesn't rise accordingly, that means fewer resources to make the show itself. It's possible that the need to regularly test cast and crew and keep everyone distanced into pods with accommodation and quarantine has also taken out a lot of money that would ordinarily go to CGI.

I haven't seen SUPERGIRL yet, but I'm looking forward to it.

BATWOMAN had a very good mid-season finale -- and Wallis Day has yet to make a full debut as Kate Kane. It made sense for the story, but it was a little frustrating. I want Kate!

I agree with that.  Although my biggest struggle, even with the Previously on Supergirl, was remembering what happened last season.  To launch into a season finale like that made me feel a bit whiplashed.  But it definitely feels better now than the Flash, which does feel muddled.

That's on me, not the show.  I get that.

Is there any explanation for why Lex doesn't hate Superman anymore?  He doesn't really mention him.  I sorta wish they'd ended Crisis with Superman on his own world.  I think it would've made sense, pandemic or not.

I once again did not really understand very much of what was going on in THE FLASH this week except to say that Brandon McKnight is absolutely terrific as Chester. I don't really know WHY the show needs ANOTHER scientist when they have Caitlin and Cisco, but Caitlin may be off dealing with Frost this year. Chester has a terrific rapport with Cisco, the actor has a lot of heart and perfect comic timing in reacting to being transported back to the 1990s and he's game for ridiculous outfits and absurd confrontations with time warping football players. Cisco's "Coffee and a cronut" is a bit of an earworm. So, that's fine, I guess.

Side anecdote: Chester is in the comics as a supposed-supervillain named The Chunk whose body can become a black hole to consume/absorb/transport any matter. Writer Mike Baron created him as a minor supervillain, but when William Messner-Loebs took over THE FLASH, the Chunk had reformed and become a disposal specialist who handled overflowing landfills for cities and became a good friend of the Flash (who was Wally West at the time as Barry was suffering from a mild case of being dead from 1986 - 2008).

When Messner-Loebs left THE FLASH, he took The Chunk with him to WONDER WOMAN (but never had a chance to do anything with him) and The Chunk now only appears in comics for party scenes, crowd scenes, and when a writer has a plot that can only be resolved by a human black hole. Most characters like The Chunk get wheeled out for a crossover now and then and killed off to establish how frightening the new threat is; then they get resurrected at some later date so that a subsequent crossover can kill them off again. The Chunk has not suffered this, however, and with Brandan McKnight playing him on TV every week, he'll probably escape such a fate for a while longer.

**

I very much enjoyed SUPERGIRL and was thrilled to see Melissa Benoist sharing scenes with an actor like Jason Behr who has such gravity and graveness that's the perfect balance to Benoist peppy high energy. Not sure why William is still in this show, though. There's a character who could be written out with a bag over his head saying he's off to recover from an injury. The actor's good, though.