There has been some pretty big news in terms of movies lately but first I want to talk about TV shows. First Agents of SHIELD, I
wasn't fussed on it at the start but thankfully as it has gone on it has
improved. That said it still could be better, the problem is that it is part of
the Marvel universe on a TV show budget so even though it ties in with the
Winter Soldier for example (unlucky for anyone who hadn't seen it before
watching the show) it feels a bit disjointed and limited. That said the first two episodes of season 2 have been much improved, they've made some tweaks in terms of characters, there has been some pretty cool effects, a cool bad guy and interesting plots and mysteries set up. They have
teased some pretty cool things since the start of season 1, it will just be interesting to see how they all pay off.
Arrow season 2 continued the progress of the second half of season 1 to be great, managing to balance
numerous plot lines with great acting and great fight scenes not to mention a
great villain. Stephen Amell deserves special praise for successfully
portraying three characters, Oliver in the present, Oliver in the flashbacks as
well as the Arrow. The writers also deserve praise for not going down cliche
routes, there have been a number of times over the course of the show when I've
expected something cliche to happen only for them to do something better or
unexpected. My only criticism of season 2 is that at times it felt like
there were maybe too many characters and some were being neglected as a result
but that has improved as the season went on. The first episode of season 3 was good although it had to fit a lot in.
The first episode of the Flash (which is in the same tv universe as Arrow) was good, I like Grant Gustin as Barry, hopefully the side characters will be more developed as the show goes on. The special effects are decent but obviously not as good as a high budget movie. My only criticism is that it packs a lot in so it seems a bit rushed but its good to get the origin out of the way and the tease at the end of the episode is very interesting indeed.
If three superhero shows a week wasn't enough we also have Gotham (and Constantine though I haven't watched it yet and its only available on amazon instant in the UK). To be honest I was very skeptical about this show, a Batman prequel, not connected to the Arrowverse nor a prequel to Ben Affleck's Batman, not to mention hearing about all the villains that were apparently going to show up before Batman even existed. That said I've quite enjoyed watching it so far, its not amazing or anything. It could do with being a bit more subtle for one thing (yes we get it Bruce will one day become Batman, Selina will become Catwoman etc.) but it is a decent start and it will be interesting to see if it improves with time.
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| Where's Jim's moustache? |
I also want to praise two animated shows, Young Justice and Spectacular Spider-man, two great shows that were cancelled after their second seasons for stupid reasons and from what I've seen are miles better than the current Marvel and DC cartoons. Spectacular Spider-man although it looks a bit childish is actually a very good modern take on the Spider-man story. It was cancelled because the animated rights reverted back to Marvel from Sony who replaced it with the awful Ultimate Spider-man which is nothing like the comic of the same name. Young Justice is set in a world where the Justice League have been around for quite a while and are well established. The show focuses on a group of sidekicks who are not ready to join the League yet but who want to form their own team and go on missions. Do not let the fact that the show is focused on a team of sidekicks dissuade you from watching it as it is amazing. There is great action, drama, tragedy, comedy, there are appearances from a vast range of DC characters both good and bad, there are androids, aliens, clones, betrayals, double agents and time travel, not to mention strong female characters which made the show popular with girls as well. Apparently they base a show's success on toy sales and apparently girls don't buy toys, and this was one of the reasons they cancelled it, it wasn't the fact that they put it on at weird times, had large gaps between episodes or that the toys/merchandise for the show was mostly rubbish. There have been social media campaigns to bring it back but it doesn't look likely we will get a third and final season, the writers must have thought they would since the final episode of season 2 sets up the story for a third season. I still highly recommend it though and I hope even if it does remain cancelled that they take inspiration from it for their movie universe as it does so many things very well.
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| How was this replaced by Teen Titans Go?! |
