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Re: Flash

Any idea who the guy in the mask in the prison cell on Earth-2 was?  My first thought was Earth 2 Diggle (when we briefly saw him in the first Earth-2 episode) but now I have no idea.

Re: Supergirl.

I actually really like this show.  I'm surprised at how much heart is in it.  It definitely feels like the Flash to me, and that's a great thing.  And the introduction of some other DC characters really helps the show click.  Maxwell Lord is a good analogue for Lex Luthor, and "Henshaw" is a great character.

Two things bother me.  First, I hate the casting of "James Olsen" and it has nothing to do with racial-swapping.  If they wanted Jimmy Olsen to be black, that's fine with me.  My problem is that Jimmy Olsen apparently chose photography as soon as he was done with being a GQ model.  Changing Jimmy's race doesn't really affect the character - changing his personality does.  And the actor does a fine job, but he's playing the wrong part.  When Jimmy admits that he was always scared in Metropolis, I don't buy it.  He's a physically-imposing, in-shape, attractive guy.  There'd be virtually no reason for him to be the coward that he claims to be.  I can understand wanting to hire an attractive guy to be the male lead, but it'd make more since for Winn to be the tall, handsome one.  Or make it another character.  Changing his character like that seems wrong.

Second, I'm not sure I like the way they're using Superman.  I love that he's not on the show - that would be too much.  And I'm sorta glad they didn't go the "Birds of Prey" route, where Batman was just missing.  I like the use of instant messenger to make him a presence on the show without actually showing him.  I like that he's essentially giving Kara her space to be her own hero (I liked how it was handled in both episode 3 and episode 9, where Clark checks in but promises to stay out unless she asks).

But when there's an army of Kryptonians?  When Kara's lost her powers?  Aren't these situations where Clark should show up? 

If I sorta put those two things to the side, I really like it.

http://www.ten50bbq.com/

It's East Texas style barbecue - you can/should order by the pound, and they just cook as much meat as they have.  Really good sauce, really good sides, delicious desserts.  They also have bacon-wrapped stuffed jalapenos (chicken or brisket) that are fantastic.,  They're supposed to have the best fried okra in Texas, but I'm not a fan of fried okra.

Had the exact same thoughts.  I'm from Texas too, and it was annoying to see the same, tired stereotypes.  Has Carter really never been?  I don't own a pair of boots or a Cowboy hat.  I was born in Texas, and I've lived here my whole life.

The first movie drove me crazy with their version of "Dallas"

What was weird about this one, outside of the honkey-tonk stereotypes and the overtly-racist Texans, was the oddity of the location - where was it supposed to be?  I think they mentioned "southwest Texas" at the beginning, but every other reference was just "Texas."  "Our flight to Texas."  "You'll have to meet me in Texas" Then, to top it off, the airport just says "Welcome to Texas."  I wouldn't put it passed a Texan airport to say this, but "Texas" is a pretty big place with a diverse geography.  Not that Carter would know anything about that.

Ha, well I'm sorry about that.  As we've chronicled here, I'm *very* worried about this movie.  I could list a dozen creative decisions that I'd label as missteps - but it's still Batman and Superman on the same screen.  It's still fun Dark Knight Returns imagery, Wonder Woman on the big screen, and a move towards the Justice League.  It's awesome.

I hope Snyder made a great movie.  I hope he can make a great Justice League movie.  But based on his prior track record (in my opinion), I'll unfortunately have to see it to believe it.

It's hard to say that Civil War was affected, at all, by DC's plans.  Tony and Cap have been bickering since the first Avengers movie, and it's pretty obvious that Marvel has wanted to go in the direction of Civil War since the beginning (it's one of the biggest events in recent history - they're, of course, going to want to take things there).  Also, there's no way Civil War can compete with Batman vs Superman on a cultural level.  The Avengers are having their biggest moment in the sun, and they're possibly still not on the same level that Batman and Superman have been on for decades.  So that's really not a competition (at least, as far as most adults are concerned).

Now have they been at each other's throats?  No....but sorta?  In the first Avengers, they are about to fight numerous times.  In the second Avengers, they disagree time and time again.  The only reason they don't fight is because, basically from the beginning, they have bigger fish to fry (Strucker - then Ultron).  In fact, the second-oddest scene in the MCU is the final scene between the two of them in Age of Ultron because they're acting much friendlier than they ever have.  The oddest will be the scene in Civil War where Cap says "...but (Bucky's) my friend." and Tony will respond "....so was I." because they haven't liked each other since the moment they ran into each other.

"War" is probably a bit of a misnomer because, in the original comics, neither side wanted the other to die.  Just to surrender.  When Cap dies in the end, Tony is devastated.  The Super Bowl spot sorta confirms this.  Bucky looks to try to assassinate Tony in his street clothes, and when he fails, Tony's shocked.  It looks pretty clear to me that Bucky crossed a line that Tony didn't think they'd cross - actually trying to kill each other.  I'd expect it'd be the same thing if, say, Rhodey tried to kill Cap.  So I think the "Civil War" will be a "Civil Spar" just like it was in the comics.  And just like in BvS, the actual "title match" will only be in the first two acts before they unite to fight a bigger enemy.

Well I did a bit more research and Eisenberg definitely said it.  And the Fortune article, if canon, definitely says it.  Makes it seem like Lex Sr. is dead and Lex Jr. inherited the company.  No idea if Lex Sr. will play into the movie at all, or if he even survived to see Superman show up.

Yeah and that'd work.  I just like the idea of throwing these guys into a situation they can't control.  Because, let's be honest, they're basically Superman when it comes to most monsters.  To the point where the actual fight in the episode is the most boring part.  I meant to mention it, but I'd definitely *seriously* injure one or both brothers in their first fight.  Not dead and not even something that would be ongoing for too long.  But I'd want to raise the stakes.  Imagine Dean walking into a den of vampires, limping a bit, with Sam acting sorta like Oracle because he's too hurt.  All by himself.  Armed to the teeth but with no idea how to take them out.  Rock salt shotgun blast?  Nope - tosses it to the side.  Bronze knife?  Incapacitates him but nope.  Golden bullets as he's surrounded?  Nope.  One jumps him from behind and is about to bite him when he grabs a crystal dagger which kills the vamp immediately.  After that, it's a piece of cake as usual.

No, I get that.  I didn't really hate any of the Phase 1 movies for the reasons you and ireactions didn't like them.  Especially since I don't necessarily care for Thor or Captain America as characters, the fact that they were living in a world with Iron Man (a character I did like) was pretty cool. 

The issue I see is with a foundation.  Iron Man set up the MCU really well.  It's fun but a little fantastic.  It's sarcastic and doesn't take itself too seriously.  And, for the most part, people loved Iron Man.  So even though their movies weren't great, Thor and Captain America followed a similar lead.  It also was fun and didn't take itself too seriously.  And the MCU was able to succeed with these movies that are fun but not necessarily great.

The problem with the DCCU is that it's foundation is Man of Steel.  A movie that is, at best, mixed.  It's an odd tone for a Superman movie, and the way Superman was represented wasn't universally accepted.  So if BvS also has a mixed reception, then I totally agree with the HitFix video, and everything will ride on Suicide Squad, Wonder Woman, and the Batman solo film.  Because if the foundation of the universe doesn't work, then there's nothing to build on.

I think the part of the video I agreed with the most was the idea that the DCCU needs a Kevin Feige.  Say what you will about the MCU, but it definitely feels like a streamlined universe.  X happens in Movie 1, and it affects Y in Movie 2 and gets played on in Z in movie 8.  It might cheapen all eight movies, but it makes the universe feel real and contained.

And I disagree that BvS isn't just a prequel to Justice League in the same way that Iron Man 2/Thor/Captain America were prequels to Avengers.  In fact, Zach Snyder has come out and confirmed that BvS is exactly that.

That would be interesting.  I still really like my idea for a season where the rules get rewritten somehow.  Maybe they defeat the Darkness, and it throws the universe into chaos to the point where all the lore is worthless.  Wooden stake doesn't kill vampires.  Silver doesn't kill werewolves.  Nothing that used to work works.

So you have this situation where Sam and Dean are fighting, say, a wendigo (because that's the example they always use).  Something they could kill with their eyes closed.  Except it doesn't work.  They find a way to kill it, but they have to get creative.  Reading a book and finding the magic bullet doesn't work anymore.

But while Sam and Dean are able to survive because they're the best, a TON of hunters around the world are dying.  They show up expecting one thing, and it isn't working.  I can see this montage of hunters from all over the place using tricks we've seen and then dying.  So Sam and Dean look around and things are bad.  And they realize that the hunter community needs them.  So they start working together.  They're traveling around, establishing a network of hunters, and they're sharing info.  Every week, they'd pair with a new hunter or face an old monster in a totally new way.  "We heard Linda in the Czech Republic says gold bullets work on vampires.  And Hideo in Japan says that rugaru can be taken down by iron weapons"

And what would be cool for me is the idea that you'd have this international community of hunters.  You could spin off a show, or you could keep the show going indefinitely once Jensen and Jared get tired of it.  Or if you just want to end it there, you have these boys really living John's legacy - literally writing the book on hunting like John's Journal 2.0.  The season would be almost all monsters - very small and intimate with not much tying it together besides building this community and learning what kills what.

And, yeah, maybe heaven and hell get closed off during this time.  So no angels and no demons.  But my favorite part would be watching these two guys struggle again.  Because whenever it's a ghost episode, the conflict is always just figuring out what it is.  Once they see it's a ghost, they get salt and iron and it's over.  But what if figuring out it was a ghost was only half the problem because they had *no idea* how to kill it?  So they're using gold and silver and wood and water and throwing everything they can think of until it works.

And maybe you'd even get the monsters figuring things out.  Because werewolves know to stay away from silver - it's in their DNA.  But what if it wasn't dangerous anymore?  But literally anything else could be.  You could have an episode where vampires are dying out because human blood is poisonous now (like dead man's blood was before).  They don't know what to eat anymore.  They're starving. 

I know I've thrown this idea out before, but it's so cool to me.  And I know reaction to it has been lukewarm, but I think it hits so many areas that you'd want in a season, Info

So the final BvS trailer came out.  An, honestly, I'm surprised we didn't get a trailer from Superman's perspective.  In every single trailer we got, Superman is pretty much the bad guy.  Batman thinks he's the bad guy.  Lex thinks he's the bad guy.  The US government thinks he's the bad guy.  You have the weird dreamlike sequence where Superman is menacing with guards and rips off Batman's mask.  You have him walking/standing alone in a defendant's podium in a courtroom.  There's the weird sequences where he's hovering over flood victims and standing/doing nothing while people worship him.  There's the threats to Batman "If I wanted it, you'd be dead already" and "The Bat is dead."  There's even the odd scene with Ma Kent where she tells Clark that he never owed the planet anything.

The only truly heroic thing we've seen in any of the promotional materials is him saving the NASA-looking rocket.

Snyder has said that this isn't a sequel to Man of Steel.  And we all know the controversy regarding the end of that movie where audiences have criticized how Superman handled the last fight.  But I'm just really surprised that we haven't seen much defending Superman in this movie.  Clark tries to vilify Batman, but it seems like Bruce and Perry are there to defend Batman when he does. 

So I wonder if that's what this movie is.  Batman's story where Superman is sorta distant so it seems like he's worse than he is, Superman convinces Batman that he's good, and they team up with various Justice Leaguers to fight Doomsday.

Because that's just another weird artistic choice that I don't necessarily like.  Just throw it on the pile, I guess.

Well, I don't want every episode to have a mention.  And you're right, they have plenty of throwaway lines to show that they're a united universe.  Heck, last night's episode had nods to every part of the DC TV multiverse, including the original Flash TV show and Supergirl (would've loved a Smallville reference, though). 

But instead of a throwaway line about Cisco or a joke about Barry, these were two situations where life was literally at stake because they didn't make the reference.  If Roy had died, Barry would've been *furious* that they didn't call him on something that would've been no problem for him.  If Velocity-7 had killed Jay and people had died, Oliver would've been *furious* that no one called him to help.  The more crossovers they do, the more they're forming a Justice League.  They've all met each other now, and there's no excuse to risk lives when they just need to make a phone call.

And the reason why I think it's a problem in these two situations instead of any other is the fact that they *couldn't* have mentioned it off-screen.  In the Arrow situation, we saw the whole conversation.  There was no time for Felicity to check, and there was no conversation on the team about calling Barry.  In the Flash one, we saw the whole conversation with Caitlin/Joe/Jay, and they didn't consider calling Oliver (caveat - those three characters have had the least interaction with Oliver and they might've legitimately not thought he'd say yes).  Now the part that could've happened off-screen is Barry checking to see if Oliver can watch the city, but two things contradict that.  If Oliver said no (and he would've had to have), Barry still leaves the city unprotected, and even if he did say no, Oliver would've checked in considering Geomancer said he'd been causing earthquakes for days.

Now, of course, they're real-life logistics, and I think these were two situations where they could've made in-world explanations.  Barry can't get to the warehouse to save the day in 4 minutes because villain of the week.  Oliver can't come or spare anyone from his team because they're working on Dahrk.  It's not an argument that they should have more mentions in-universe - just that they should save them for situations like these - where they're being irresponsible by not making the call.

It happened again! 

(SPOILERS for tonight's FLASH)

So Barry is gone, Earth-1 is undefended, and a metahuman shows up.  Immediately, the first thought was to use a formula to give Jay powers to fight him.  Which is fine.  But no thought was given to call Oliver and company.  Which is bizarre for a couple of reasons - first, you'd think Barry would've had someone in place to defend the city in his absence.  He's really worried about protecting Earth-2 Joe and Iris, but he leaves Earth-1 Joe and Iris undefended.  His first call should've been to Oliver.  Second, again, they're risking a life when it's unnecessary.  Geomancer was powerful, but he wasn't powerful enough that Oliver and company couldn't have taken him down (Joe basically does all by himself). 

Now I get why they didn't have Oliver and Team Arrow show up (although this could've been a great time to use Colton Haynes again to step in as Red Arrow to fill in for Barry).  They can't have a crossover every week.  But these are teams that have been shown to work together.  And, in both cases (the one from Arrow and this one), they don't even try.  It's the perfect chance to drop a crossover hint, do some cross-promotion, and explain why they aren't always popping up in each other's stories.

Now that Flash is going to guest star on Supergirl, I started watching it.  Pretty good.  Although I hope Barry has to travel to a parallel Earth to get to her.  I don't think "Earth 1" meshes with the world on Supergirl.

Interesting.  I guess I wasn't paying enough attention to the Malcolm line.

Regarding the writers, I think this is the problem with spinoffs.  You have a strong group of writers for one show, and you split them up to do two shows.  Both shows suffer because neither show has the strong writer's room the original show had.  Add a third group, and it gets even more diluted.  I don't think Arrow is as bad as you think it is, but it's definitely worse since they spun off Barry's show.

My problem with Legends is that the show isn't streamlined.  I get that these are a bunch of people with wildly different goals, but it's really odd to have three stories in one episode that aren't really connected.  Snart is out trying to fix his own past, Ray and Stein are connecting about their shared past while saving Kendra, and Rip is trying to take down Savage.  They're good stories....but they aren't a team.  There are too many characters in the reality of the show (Rip goes to kill Savage by himself at least once...what's the point of even bringing a team when half the team is off doing their own thing) and on the show (they have to find something for Jackson to do, for example, so he tags along on the Cold/Heat Wave story).

If it was me, I'd leave Heat Wave and Firestorm out.  Let Ray be the brains.  Let Sara be the muscle.  Cold is the wild card.  The hawks are the secret weapons.  The other characters are unnecessary if you ask me.

I'm sure I've said this before, but long-running series have benefited from this immensely in the past.  The two best examples that I'm aware of are SNL and the Simpsons.  Both were able to have renaissances once the kids/teens that grew up watching the show get old enough to write it themselves.  SNL had a revival in the late 80s/early 90s when people who grew up with the late 70s gang.  Same thing with the Simpsons, as episodes became more about the thing that people loved when the show was new.  A lot of people say the Simpsons sucks now, but they're mostly talking about a similar lull that SNL had in the early/mid 80s.  I've watched the last 3-4 seasons pretty religiously, and the show still is able to hit pretty high notes these days.  It was also harder to notice as much of a dropoff when the whole "Every Simpsons Ever" happened on FXX.

Tonight's episode of Arrow is exactly why there's issues with merging Oliver's world with Barry's.  It's fun to put them together, but Barry is a Deus Ex Machina that Team Arrow is irresponsible for not using more.  I get that Barry has his own life and his own problems, but tonight's situation at the end was the perfect time to call Barry.  Or at least bring up how that's not an option - especially since they made the "just because you're wearing red doesn't mean you're the Flash" joke with Arsenal.  There was plenty of time to radio STAR Labs (which there'd certainly be a communication line open at all times with) and see if Barry could speed down there.  It's been established that Barry could've been there in plenty of time to either detonate the C4 and get out or carry Roy out.  There was simply no reason to risk Roy's life there.

Logistically, I get why they didn't.  And maybe it's better left just left alone and not open up that can of worms.  But, realistically, they need to be calling him if it's life or death and a problem that Barry is specifically set up to defeat.

"Cisco, it's Overwatch!"
"What?  Who?  Felicity?"
"Overwatch!"
"Okay.  I didn't sign off on that one!"
"We need Barry.  Now!"
"Barry's dealing with this week's villain of the week.  No can do."
"It's a matter of life or death."
"So is ours.  Sorry.  We owe you one.  Good luck."

Something like that.  Or even truncated without including Cisco.  "I checked with Cisco.  He says Barry is busy with his own life or death matter.  And he hates my call sign.  Sorry, you guys are on your own."

Well I guess the Arrowverse got a directive to keep things from getting confusing with the new Suicide Squad movie, huh?

What if they'd just set the reboot in 2012?  Do the lead up to December and colonization.

Or what if everything from season 1-9 happened the way we thought, but between the end of the show and 2012 the humans won?  What if the human conspirators found a way to defeat the alien colonists, and then they took over whatever operation the aliens were doing?  So there were aliens but now it's all a bunch of shadowy humans that have already out-smarted more-advanced aliens?

So is Jay Zoom or is "Hunter Zolomon" Zoom?

Wow, that would've been great.

Almost certainly

I don't think it's that bad, but I see your complaints.  And it worries me that the writers don't know who's in the grave or who Zoom is it.  I have NO idea how you can write like that.  My friend and I wrote a TV pilot with TONS of seeds planted, and we had answers for all of them.  Even stuff that wouldn't even be answered for a while.

When they say they have no idea, you have to think it's just a disagreement in the writer's room, right?  Like they were sitting around in the room and they each have who they think would be best to move the story along, but they couldn't agree (it should be Felicity so we can bring in Barbara Gordon to fill her place!  No, it should be Diggle so the danger is real!  Thea!  Take the last family member Oliver has left!)

It reminds me of when the Simpsons said they were going to kill off a major character, and it was Krusty's dad.  I mean he was a somewhat-emotional character, but it's a side character to a side character.  Hardly newsworthy.

Well I've been thinking about it.  If it's Donna, I think Barry would show up for emotional support.  Remember that going to Star City would be like walking down the block.  He could get in a suit in a second and be there in a few minutes.  And Felicity is his friend, so he'd be there to support her.

And maybe it's Donna and Quentin.  They're together, and it'd be emotional for Laurel and Felicity.  But it'd be minor in the grand scheme of things.  If it's not Felicity, then I guess the next best emotional gambit would be Diggle.  It'd be personal but also raise the stakes since Diggle is such an imposing figure.  But I doubt they'd do that.

I felt like maybe some of the better writers went to Flash, but if they don't know who Zoom is then they aren't much better.  I just think they might've spread themselves a bit too thin with two (now three) shows.

Okay, that's *exactly* what this needs to be.  They could focus on some characters that really need focusing on.  Although if that's the case, it's a little strange that they're doing it with such a big cast.  It might've been a little more fun to do a Captain Cold/Heat Wave crime miniseries on their own.  Sort of a focus on villains in the Arrowverse, which could be interesting.  Like why metahuman villains seem to stay away from Star City.

I watched the pilot for Legends of Tomorrow.  It's okay, although I think they're pressing their luck with this one.  Could be really fun, but it could be an absolute mess.  I really think it should've just been a miniseries or maybe a series of miniseries to fill in the winter gap (sorta like Agent Carter but maybe a smaller scale).

One thing that's bothered me about Hawkman/Hawkgirl: what is the current mythos for them in the comics?  Because in the DCAU, they come from a different planet (Thanagar).  But the origin in the Arrowverse is totally different.  What's the more-correct answer?

Suicide Squad does look fun.  It looks crazy, and I hope that carries over.

My big question is: does it appeal to the general public?  Was Guardians of the Galaxy successful because it was fun, or was it successful because it was in the Marvel brand (so far, there is no DC brand)?  Is Will Smith enough?  Is buzz going to be enough?

Because I see a ton of comics people getting excited, but I wonder if that extends beyond comic people.

BvS seems to be touching a lot of the right bases, but have you heard that Jesse Eisenberg based his Luthor on Max Landis?  I'm a big fan of his and that's still super weird to me.

I've read what you've wrote, and I've really been unable to get enough emotion together to really be upset or disappointed in the series.  It's not good, and it hasn't improved on the mistakes that made seasons 2-4 the disasters they ended up being.  It's television that's entertaining but forgettable. 

"Company Woman" seems to cross over the line to just plain bad.  And it does some things that this show simply doesn't need to do.  I'm invested enough in this series to follow along and not much else.  I don't remember character names, even main ones.  I don't remember what happened to HRG except that he disappeared in the storm.  Was it someone we knew?  Was it clear who it was?  Why hasn't he been mentioned the last couple of episodes?  Isn't he the reason most of us are still watching this?

And in a show like that, when we don't care enough to learn the characters' names, why are they trying to make a 3-dimensional bad guy this late in the game?  I don't care about Erica (whose name I know because it's mentioned 10 times an episode).  When Tommy (a name I had to look up and he's a lead) asks her if it's true that she's been behind everything, she goes "Does it matter?" with an evil grin.  And I thought, okay....at least she's a bad guy now.  But then you throw these weird flashbacks in that makes us try and relate, but it's way too little way too late.  A villain can't be 1-dimensional all the way and then made interesting all the sudden.  She's not an interesting character, and this stuff didn't make her any more interesting.

The sins of the first season finale was that they set things up too well.  We'd seen everything and knew what was going to happen - we were just waiting for the puzzle pieces to finally land.  This one seems like a total mess, and there's just 40-minutes left.  And now that it seems pretty clear that this is the end, I don't think we're going to get any sort of resolution.  It's just another 13-episode glimpse into a world that has a lot of potential that it's failed to tap into over and over again.

Matt as a bad guy?  Is it a betrayal of the character?  Honestly, I don't know.  Or care.  We're talking about a 4.5-season show that has been good for most of one season.  There's probably 30 episodes that are good, and almost all of them were in season one.  Almost every character has been run through the ringer, and I can picture any of them going crazy and evil.  There's no consistency.  Heck, when it was hinted that Mohinder was a terrorist, I believed it.  Why not?

(Side note - I've made same argument about Sliders - there are only a handful of good episodes, and they're all basically the first season, if you count season 1-2 as one season).

Heroes:Reborn was just a bad idea.

SQ21 Complaint 9548 regarding Old Bruce / Young Clark:

In the universe, Bruce can call Clark "son" and it's not super weird.

Ugh.

Yeah but Han was around when Jedi were still active and plentiful.  I have no idea what Han's backstory is, but even if he was raised in a place with no Jedi, Chewie has for sure experienced the Force.  Maybe they never talked about it, but that didn't seem like the first time Han had given that speech.