My name is Barry Allen and I'm the fastest man alive: THE FLASH tv show

It's not worth it. If you want to jump back in then do and if there's something you're missing then ask here or wiki. Your life will be better for it.

I'm with aldo, the more Silver Age silliness, the better. I'll take it over grimdark Savitar plotline and Draco Malfoy any day of the week.

Their take on Ralph Dibney is . . . something, though.

The Thinker could easily be overplayed and a bit G&G but if his masterplan is to reintroduce 80s throwback bad guys like the Kilg%re and Hazard then I'm totally on board with it.

Wow this last season was horrible more or less start to finish. Elongated Man was just awful. Even Devoe wore out his welcome well before his demise.

Elongated Man was

just had my first 3 seconds ever of interest in seeing a DCU TV show

New series, hope this isn't a rerun of Devoe with a twist or something.

The daughter character is great.

The disappearing Flash they've been alluding to for several seasons, is that a reference to Crisis on Infinite Earths? (Not up on DC continuity, though I own the CoIE issues). Or something developed for the show?

Waiting for Wayne Dyer to guest-star as the giver of the Motivational Speech of the Week.

Anyone else still watching? The daughter being tangled up with (spoiler) is both tedious and befitting Barry's "everyone's redeemable" outlook. Seeing a plot reliance on "let's try this" met with failure (curing Cicada's niece, getting a black market stasis field generator - the last two weeks), with a minor portion of the season's arc being advanced. Feels like filler, when they could wrap up Cicada in at least a half-season, and move on to CoIE, which is coming either this or next year. Need more character growth to justify all the padding.

Savitar, Devoe, Cicada - picturing these seasons with writers' room index cards for the first episode ("tease the Big Bad") and last episode ("our heroes win!"), with the other 20 cards being "hammy, glowering villain beats team", "character has personal crisis", "motivational speech", "heroes beat villain" plus "advance season arc by 1/20th".

That said, liked the Goldface character and was good to see Kimberley Williams (?) (who I think of as the perky Gabrielle Anwar) in this latest ep.

I'm finally caught up with the current seasons but still several episodes behind. Flash has actually kinda taken a backseat this year for me as Legends and Supergirl step up to knock it out of the park. Legends is hella fun and funny and I cannot say enough good things about them bringing Matt Ryan's Constantine into the fold (dude is like the perfect distillation of everything I love about the character). And while Supergirl's 'aliens = immigrants' plot may be a little sledgehammer, it's also on-the-nose enough to make for some compellingly uncomfortable viewing at this particular point in time. And also, mad kudos to Berlanti & co. on adding a transgender actress to the cast.

I am still on the previous season of Supergirl, which has been p good but I'm kinda tired of how drawn out this Reign plotline is.

Yeah, that was pretty wheel-spinny. The overarching 'can Supergirl's optimism overcome America's frothing rage?' plotline this season is a vast improvement. I especially appreciate that the origin episode where the new alt-right villain slowly discovered his inner xenophobe ended with his adoption of the standard Richard Spencer haircut.

It's really something that I'm currently finding Supergirl almost as anxiety-inducing a watch as Black Mirror.

I would say the silliest low point so far is when Mon-El (finally) got a costume so that he could teach Supergirl the ancient Kryptonian art of cool cape-fighting moves

Yeaaaaah, that was a little too Silver Age in a not-good way.

Supergirl's optimism is appreciated, since that was my main dislike of Snyder's Superman movies. He *should* be the big blue Boy Scout.

Along with the transgender actress, having a Muslim character on Legends was a nice move, not to mention the various gay relationships given the same screen time as straight ones.

It's nice that, with 472 shows across various networks and streaming platforms, Berlanti now has the cachet to push TV in as progressive a direction as he likes.

Benoist sells the character's plucky optimism and deep commitment to "doing the right thing" no matter what the cost, and that is a really strong anchor of the show imo. At their most basic level, the Super-family is an ideal, and the characters should be handled that way.

Could not agree more. Every 'Superman/-girl gets daaaaaaark' story prompts a 'you should not be writing this character you so fundamentally misunderstand' from me.

One of the core strengths of these shows is the casting of their respective leads.

Legends is so far ahead of the rest of the pack it's incredible and this season has been tremendous. Zari at the end of the New Orleans ep with the Constantine Reality Wave was A++++++.

Supergirl next best but could be way more Silver Age than it is BECAUSE THAT'S WHAT I WANT TO SEE DAMMIT. Seasons half the length would suit it much better though.

Flash has dropped right off for the reasons noted above. I want dumb monster of the week storylines and more Ralph goofiness. The relationship between Nora and (spoiler) is ridiculous and I don't think it's clear at all why it's there.

I thought I was done with Arrow but the first few episodes (the prison ones) were banging. But now it's back to shit again.

For Black Lightning, read the Arrow entry.

Lots of beautiful people on these shows but Zari is the first I've straight-up crushed on. Her Groundhog Day ep last season was tops, love the actress and hope she sticks around for a long time.

And actually if I have one complaint about Legends at the moment is that it's getting more musical chair-y than I'd like. Just when I get used to a character, they split. Stop it, you guys.

(Also re: Zari, I'm torn between wanting them to just go ahead and call her Isis and realizing that that's probably not the best idea.)

eyyy uhhh did we know beard hunter and danny the street are gonna be in this doom patrol dealie?

https://youtu.be/6wtGnnLfTqA

I'm hard-pressed to think of anything that in theory I want so much and that in reality I do not want at all.

still pretty baffled to see cyborg in there, and it’s kinda weird/lol that the ideas and character designs are largely being taken wholesale from a comic that’s now four decades in the past (gulp) but they seem to be coming at it from a place of genuine admiration of morrison/case so i’ll give it a chance

why do you have a five-person superhero team and put the same guy on twice

always good to have a backup

so this doom patrol show... it actually kinda rules?

i've watched the first six episodes and it's doing a great job of capturing the vibe of the morrison run - it's surreal, unsettling, sad and funny and the cast are really good

very unexpectedly, joivan wade as cyborg might be the best of all of them - he plays vic stone as an upbeat, capable minor-league superhero whose deep well of personal tragedy makes him both a motivating figure for the group and also a good fit for their unique brand of fuckedupness

alan tudyk as mr nobody might be veering a bit too close to hamill's joker occasionally but he's good fun

really keen to see where they go with this over the rest of the season - it's a very pleasant surprise

Yeah, it's pretty great. Apparently Flex Mentallo before the end of the season too.

The dating app Cyborg sequence might have been one of the season highlights.

Goddamn it, I was trying so hard to hate-avoid this thing, you guys. Although I'm currently 100% sold on the utterly sacrilegious notion of John Constantine as part of a time travelling superteam so maybe I can relax my crack.

I am probably one of four people in existence who are hoping they eventually pull some elements from Rachael Pollack's run.

four people seems generous tbh

it's a lot of fun, you should def give it a try, if only to see how many ways brendan fraser can utter robotman's immortal catchphrase 'what the fuck?!?'

the worst thing i can think to say about it at this stage is that it seems to be a little too in love with having the freedom to have the characters swear, which is a very small complaint balanced against the knowledge that danny the street will be appearing in the next episode

There's a lot of swearing, sure, but there was maybe as much in Titans with much less joy.

ah, i haven't seen titans yet

It was definitely... variable. The Hawk & Dove stuff was pretty good and the main Raven arc held up but Dick's search for the Wang was way too grim 'n' gritty. I didn't really care for the whole Who Is Starfire thing either, or rather it was way out of balance in that it was a very slow build then just sort of tossed away.

Obviously, the Doom Patrol ep was the highlight by some margin.

I watched like the first 15 minutes or so of DP a little while back, and it was fine as far as it went but also it looked and felt a little too Berlantiverse. Now, speaking as someone who has watched almost all 915,293 hours of the CW shows, I can clearly roll with that aesthetic in the abstract but it feels like a bad fit for DP. I was hoping for something a little more disjointed, a little more visually psychedelic. And to the extent that they overtly make mention of them as superheroes...like the tone I'd prefer is that one scene early in Morrison's run where Jane randomly enters a store by crashing through a plate glass window and Cliff is like, 'don't worry, we're superheroes'. Maybe the show totally captures that steez, I dunno. I will give it a shot, though, guys. I'm nervous but I will.

can i soothe your concerns by letting you know that at one point they enter another dimension by disappearing - in a point-of-view shot - into a goat's aesophagus?

A Paraguayan donkey.

aldo otm, i apologise for the mischaracterisation

What's a mammal between friends.

Morrison schtick best captured I think in the showdown between the Great Destroyer and the other [redacted spoiler], especially the crowd who turn up out of nowhere and do exactly what Jane told them to.

The city Cliff and Jane go to felt more like The Invisibles if I'm honest.

I also loved the Admiral Whiskers story this week.

yeah, the resolution of the decreator story was a nice twist on the version from the comics, and the show's version of willoughby kipling was good, even if i was a bit disappointed he didn't look exactly like richard e grant in withnail and i like he did in the comics

the city of nurnheim was straight from morrison's doom patrol iirc?

It's been a long time since I've read it. Might dig them out at the weekend.

Arright, okay, you can stop piquing my interest now.

Wishlist: Rhea undergoing metamorphosis, Larry becoming Rebis, Dorothy Spinner and the Candlemaker, the Beard Hunter (obviously), Cliff with spider legs. Plz don't spoil if these things have come to pass.

Mostly wrt Pollack's run, I'd like to see someone eventually do something with Coagula (afaik the first openly (and traditionally, if we're excluding like Rebis et al) transgender superhero).

beard hunter is on the way this season, apparently!

re: cliff with spider legs, did you know that morrison did a dry run for that look in an issue of the comic he wrote for marvel uk based on the zoids toy-line? it's one of those indelible images from my childhood - god knows how he got away with the very weird and disturbing image in a comic aimed at small children but hey it was the 80s, it was a different time etc

I've always been curious about those Zoids comics. Maybe I should see if I can (ahem) find them somewhere totally legit and above board.

It's real weird to suddenly have these proto-Vertigo books which were so personally impactful coming to life on the small screen. I guess it remains to be seen what they're planning to do with Swamp Thing (his recent employment as a Justice Leaguer does not bode well but we shall see).

Hey DC Direct, if you promise not to fuck them up, I would cautiously encourage you to consider adapting Shade the Changing Man and Sandman Mystery Theater.

(I know the streaming service isn't called DC Direct so I don't know why I called it that.)

morrison's zoids comics are kinda funny cause they blatantly steal ideas and images from the alien movies and the terminator and only very slightly attempt to hide their inspirations

but they're interesting juvenilia for morrison fanatics, and there's already evidence in some of the stories of the themes he'll keep returning to over and over during his career

i may well have (ahem) acquired those issues in a perfectly legal digital format and stored them on an old external drive somewhere, let me look into it

BEARD HUNTER KLAXON

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwnClzXiMV0

Last week's Jane-centric ep was really good.

haven't gotten around to watching that one yet but i did v much enjoy danny the street episode

uh-oh

Production on DC Universe's Swamp Thing has unexpectedly shutdown as the show will be shortened, according to Wilmington, North Carolina's Star-News newspaper. According to several unnamed "sources within the local industry," Warner Bros. Television suspended work on the show Tuesday, April 16 and said the show was being re-written to end with episode 10. The series was announced as a 13-episode first season, to finish filming in May 2019.

According to the newspaper, Swamp Thing actor Virginia Madsen posted (but later deleted) a message on Instagram saying: "I’m beyond sad. What a terrible decision. We have been cut to the core by those who have never set foot into the Swamp. And despite the rule I am going to use the hashtag. #swampthing."

Star-News goes further, saying that the "currently in-production project is being shut down earlier than expected as its producer, Warner Bros., evaluates the future of its DC Universe streaming service".

This was updated by a different story that said it was nothing more than creative differences between DCU (who is ultimately Johns I think) and the creative team.

Of course, the same thing happened to Titans but was less widely reported because it was the first one to hit.