Amph Cue The "Super Friends" Theme! - DC "CW-verse" Discussion

Matt Nable has been fantastic as Ra's Al Ghul. His exchange with the blubbering Merlyn was magnificent, especially the line "Face your death with honor. Or at least dignity. There is a price you must pay for your crimes, that can only be measured in agony and blood - but know I will take no pleasure in this."

I don't doubt these writers, or anyone affiliated with the show, but I didn't know how Nable would turn out at first glance. Another brilliant casting decision.

 

Re - Penguinator - not sure. It's implied, but I don't think they named it, or anything.

However -

Spoiler

Just think about the decision Oliver's going to have to make. If he accepts the mantle of Ra's al Ghul, and the Laz pits are an option, he can bring back his father, his mother, and Tommy, and fix his percieved wrongs. I wonder if that will be brought in.

 

Ah, okay. I didn't know that there was a point where it would no longer work, as long as you have the bones.

 

Alright, finally caught up! Unfortunately it seems my initial impressions were pretty spot on- the show is totally predictable- like, more predictable than anything else I've watched within recent memory. All the big twists from the identity of the Reverse Flash to Ronnie's survival to the time travel to the individual episode stories and the character behaviors are all telegraphed or obvious long, long before they are revealed. There have been no actual surprises or suspense throughout the series- it's kind of just going through the motions of an outline (the only exception to this is Wells's ultimate fallen-Booster-Gold-goal/origin/mystery).

The good news is that the majority of the problems of the series come down to the terrible writing- sure, a lot of the cast do not sell their supposed intelligence/occupations, but that's at least partially the fault of the dialogue they're given to deliver and the scenarios they're forced to deliver it in (the rest is just the overall younger casting of a CW show, but that's something you just have to accept going in). Everything else is executed pretty decently.

Usually any scenes with Shipp are pretty good (even though several of his appearances have just been redundant moments of him just talking teary-eyed through glass to Barry) and Cisco tends to get interesting whenever his subplot or flashback doesn't involve him having to play the geeky fanboy excuse for the rogue's gallery names (which isn't often but has begun to redeem the character for me beyond the schtick role he was designed to function in).

Oh, and the Arrow crossover was actually pretty decent (how was the flipside of that? Didn't record it since I haven't watched Arrow yet and couldn't record it because it had aired long before I knew about it)- and the actor playing Arrow seems more interesting/has greater range, which bodes well for that series (though the nerdy girl sidekick is a warning sign...).

And, as dp pointed out in another thread, it is nice that the show has avoided making the show dark and gritty as it just wouldn't have fit the character.

Though a lot of the villains of the week have been hit or miss (mostly miss), a few have stood out as genuinely interesting- most notably Cold and whoever that clock guy was that held the police station hostage. Oh, and thank god the whole Return of Ronnie story arc is over (at least for now)- it really derailed the season over something I couldn't care less about.

So, overall, I kinda characterize the show as a bad show that is competently executed. Or at least a badly written show that is competently executed. It just feels like it's aimed at a much younger demographic than it's supposedly intended for (as I said in another thread, it almost feels like it should be on the Disney Channel or Family Channel, but that's a bit too harsh- it's just that it has that same plain oatmeal feel)- and if it kinda owned up to that it would probably be passable as children's entertainment, but it just falls way short of teen or adult audience viewing standards, IMO.

That probably came across a but more negative than I intended, but it has been a bit of a slog- I've since regulated the show to background viewing status (since the plots/suspense generally do not matter, its episodes lend themselves well to not needing to be watched in a single sitting). I'm going to stick with it til the end of the season (I'm still curious to see the Tricksters and to give the series a fair season shake) but I'm almost certainly not coming back for next season unless the show pulls off something miraculous by the season finale.

 

Yeah, I remember your comments in the Gotham thread, T2Q. Certainly a different opinion than most, but I've read your commentary enough to know that you are an honest and thoughtful reviewer (not a blind fanboy), so I am intrigued.

I am a huge fan of the writing on Flash and Arrow, so I would just offer this - Flash needed to make a sharp turn to separate themselves from the very successful CW franchise, and they needed to strike a different tone than the Batman Begins-ish one taken by Arrow. So they picked DC's version of Deadpool, the goofiest of the well-known characters, and gave him a relatively lighthearted show - with some drama to temper things here and there, such as Barry's relationship with his father. They've also been quite bold by introducing a plotline as complex as time travel in the first season, and certainly in taking on Grodd - a villain that no live-action show or film has ever approached - and they're working on the budget of the CW.

Just offering a bit of my own perspective - thanks for sharing your thoughts.

 

I definitely give it credit for what elements it has included- like you said, Grodd has never been in anything live action before, and it isn't avoiding the more outlandish elements. The broader stuff is not one of the show's faults by any stretch (nor is the lighter tone)- like I said, I think it's more the individual episode writing that is coming up short for me. Which is a shame, because I really want to like those broader elements they're working with more, but it's difficult when you don't really care about the characters.

And apologies again if the initial post was harsh- not trying to rip down anyone's enjoyment of it (I was a little surprised it's been received so well, which made me hesitate slightly, but I had to be honest) though I think kinda condensing my impressions of the entire season up til now into a single post might have accentuated that a bit with the length somewhat.