Category: TV

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSQ-h_2WGkw

I really the like the new Flash TV series on The CW, but one thing really bugs me:  Their makeshift supervillain prison.  One of the Flash’s main features is how nice he is.  I mean it is crazy.  It is almost one of his super powers.  The video above captures this perfectly, he even cares for his villains in most cases.  However, in the TV show he just locks them up in little glass balls in complete isolation.  The Flash would never do that.  He would find a way to incarcerate is enemies humanely.

Now so far in the show every one of these guys and gals has killed someone, so they do deserve long time lock up, but just not like this.  Not if done by the Flash.  He would find a way to lock them up legally and safely.  Maybe the this whole crazy underground iso-lockdown prison will blow up in their faces, and I hope it does, but I just wish Barry Allen would say something about it.

Netflix gave me a birthday present not to long ago when they launched their new comic book based TV show Daredevil.  This show has nothing to do with the unfortunate Ben Affleck movie, well besides that it features the same character.  It is still Matt Murdock beating up bad guys, but now it takes place in a believable world, and it is not pulling its punches.

It is a tale as old as time (sing it Angela).  An orphan wants to makes his home a better place, so he uses his extraordinary abilities to take down crime.  In this case that orphan is the blind Matt Murdock played by Charlie Cox who I am sure you know from Stardust.  You don’t know him from Stardust?  You are a terrible person!  Well back to the review,  Murdock, a local defense attorney, is trying to cleanup his part of New York City known as Hell’s Kitchen, but he is finding it harder than he anticipated.

What I love about this series is that it is so much more brutal than any other Marvel property as of late.  When the good guys and bad guys go at it, they really go at it.  There is blood and bone crunching, and people will die.  While it fits nicely within the Marvel Universe, you can definitely tell this corner of it was inspired by Frank Miller’s (Sin City) run with the character in the 90’s.  It has that dark washed out feel to it that is quite different than the bright and almost cheery Marvel Movie Universe.

If Daredevil is setting the tone for things to come in the Marvel TV Universe, I am very excited.  It shows that Marvel is finding more stories to tell outside the Avengers.  Not to rag on Agents of SHIELD which has now found its footing, but some separation from the movies will do wonders for these new TV shows.  With the good work they have done with Daredevil, I can’t wait to see AKA Jessica Jones!

iZombie, the CW’s new show loosely based off the Vertigo comic book of the same name, has been on the air for a few weeks, and I have been remiss in my duties by not telling you if you should be watching it or not.  Though after watching the first couple of episodes, I am not sure if I can answer that for you.  The cast is good, and it is definitely charming, but it is still feeling a little too much like a standard police procedural.

The show follows Olivia (Rose McIver) who was once a promising young physician, but after being turned in to a zombie has taken a job as a mortician so she will have constant access to her new favorite treat, brains.  Something interesting happens when she eats a person’s brain, she can see parts of their memories, and use some of their abilities.   Like for instance speak a foreign language that the deceased used to know.  This ability has made her quite useful to the local police.

The writers have set the show up well, and they have made the cast believable, but it still kind of seems like just another cop show.  A show about an undead crime solving mortician should be anything but ordinary.  Though it is still in the early going, so the show may still be finding its footing.  I will give the writers a few more chances to make this world a little more fun.

The cast is pretty good.  Rose McIver makes Olivia “Liv” quite charming, and you really feel for her unfortunate fate.  Her medical examiner buddy Dr. Ravi Chakrabarti played by Rahul Kohli keeps the show from getting too heavy, and he provides a good deal of the humor.  Malcolm Goodwin’s Clive Babinaux a Seattle police detective that is bad at his job is less interesting, but maybe the show will turn him around.

I want to like this show, and it has moments I think it is going to escape its procedural trappings, but so far it hasn’t.  I am still willing to give it more time because I think the premise could be a lot of fun, but we will see if the CW is willing to deal with the low ratings long enough for it to find itself, or if iZombie will shamble off the air.  For now I think it is still worth a watch, just to see if you like the concept.  There are definitely worse things on TV.