Elle2’s TV Week in Review, April 27th – May 1st

The season is counting down relentlessly making for a better than average week of television.  All the season’s storylines are coming together, unless you’re iZombie, which is just getting going and remains surprisingly fun and fresh.  This week I chat about The Flash, iZombie, Person of Interest, Arrow, Supernatural, The Vampire Diaries, and Grimm.  There’s much goodness to enjoy, so let’s get right to it.


The Flash

I love the core group of characters on this show, but  I am surprised at how quickly the creative team has chosen to spend its capital.  Now, perhaps my amazement comes from not knowing anything about the comic series, so perhaps all the reveals are to be expected.  Still, in comparison to Arrow, which only in its third season revealed the titular hero’s identity to all of the core characters, The Flash is, well, living up to its speedy name.  I am very happy that Iris is finally in the know – and truly enjoy the fact that she put all the pieces together herself through coincidences.  She will not be playing nice come next week when she gets to confront everyone for lying. 

I have no idea where things go from here forward, but this show in its first season has grown on me greatly, and this is one of three finales I expect to have me eager for the fall.

iZombie

Liv Moore – a great play on words with her name, by the way, is a fun character who works well with everyone she is paired with.  I enjoy her in the morgue, with Clive, on a date that’s not really a date because…you know, and then watching her reconnect with her family, thanks to this week’s brain noshing which brought out her maternal and familial side.  I’m enjoying this light, fun, somewhat frothy show that has darkness, currently, in small doses.  It’s there, after all there are plenty of zombies who are feeding on unwilling brain donors, and the end of this episode revealed that the head of the police, who we already know to be a zombie, is more than a little complicit in hiding the evidence, but overall it’s fairly light, at least for now.  Yes, it is heavy on the procedural elements, but those are what bring the character of Liv into sharp focus each week as she deals with her new life, or is it unlife?  Either way, I’m glad iZombie will be running into June a little bit.  It will help take the edge off the upcoming, inevitable season known as summer hiatus – hellatus for those truly addicted to television.

Person of Interest

Once again PoI shows how easy it is to juggle three storylines, without a single one of them being boring.  It does help to have excellent actors to carry the writing, but the writing still has to be topnotch.  Granted a 22 or 23 episode order isn’t always friendly to this show, there are usually three or four episodes that are less than memorable each season, but this show does know how to pull it all together when it really counts. 

There’s so much goodness in this episode, so I’ll list some of my favorite moments, and hopefully you’ll hit the comment section and share some of yours:

Root and Finch going undercover:   The truth really does set you free – or in this case, get you locked up in an asylum:  “It’s not paranoia if they’re really out to get you.”  Hunted by the Brotherhood, the government, and an artificial intelligence, uses many aliases all bird names, and living in the subway – yep, the truth works every single time.

Then there’s Martine finally getting what is her due:  death by the hands of Root:  “What do you know?  Not a peep.”  Simply sublime. 

Camryn Manheim is intense as Control – who was very much in control in this episode.  Control and Shelley’s scenes were excellent.  I knew Shelley was going to snap, but when she did, it was fantastic…and then she became a spot on the wall.  Clearly Control has spent her time since her last encounter with Finch very, very wisely. 

John and Elias:  “I took a trip to the mountains.  I saw an old friend, who reminded me what I had been missing.”  The whole conversation expressed the depth of their relationship for four seasons.  If Elias is to go at the end of this season, he will be greatly missed, but, oh, what a character this has been to enjoy.

Elias making Dominic answer for Anthony’s death — RIP Scarface!–:  “Ooh, oh man.  You can take my title but you can’t hold onto it.  You can’t trust anyone, and now your men won’t trust you…I might have lied about a few things, like the message your men intercepted.”  Elias, you are brilliant!

The Machine giving itself up to Samaritan to save Root and Finch was dramatic, and it all played out with words appearing on a screen as the two machines ‘talked.’  Remember back in Season 2 when the Machine tried to ‘save’ its memories by printing them out in code and hiring a score or two of people to input the data each day?  How about Season 3 when the Machine wanted Reese and Shaw and Finch to kill the congressman so Samaritan wouldn’t come online?  And now the Machine gives itself up, sacrifices itself so that Root and Harold can live. 

What a great show.  I know this finale will be one of three that I expect to keep me on pins and needles until the fall.

Arrow

Meh.  League of Assassins, meh.  Once again Starling City is on the threshold of extinction, been there done that.  We know it won’t happen.  Since I love the chemistry of the core characters, it should be no surprise I’m not a fan of the lack of chemistry now that Oliver isn’t Oliver anymore.  I do have to give Stephen Amell props for his acting, something I’ve always enjoyed with this series.  He plays Oliver as utterly cold and without emotion.  It is chilling.  Where all this goes, I have no idea.  Seeing Laurel and Felicity come into their own, as well as Thea finally taking a stand and not allowing everyone around her to tell her what to do and ‘protect her for her own best interests’ are great moments for me.

Supernatural

I really enjoyed this episode.  I’m not a fan of Claire and Castiel’s storyline thus far, but this episode, to me, brought good closure that makes sense.  I never believed that Amelia abandoned her daughter, so I’m glad to discover that the plan was something much different.  It is sad that Amelia had to die, but I am glad she got her reunion with Jimmy in heaven.  I’m fine with them being soul mates and sharing a heaven.  Ash stated there were some special cases; Jimmy and Amelia can be one of those special cases. 

As for Claire, I’ll begin with the ending, I’m really glad she’s going to live with Jodi Mills.  It’s a nice little bit of universe building for Sam and Dean, something that the show has frequently shunned.  Also, I enjoyed each of her scenes with the brothers; it brought out a little bit of their past sorrows but also allowed them to give voice to the reason why they do what they do.  I remember in Seasons 6 and 7 we discussed a fair bit over at WFB that we didn’t even understand why Sam and Dean still hunted.  Here, in Season 10, the brothers seem to have settled in on why they still do what they do:  They help people.  That harkens all the way back to Wendigo when Sam wondered how Dean and dad kept going and Dean stated flat out that it was because of helping people – saving people, hunting things, the family business.  That each brother said it separately to Claire speaks volumes to how they really feel; they do believe what they’re saying.

I thought it telling the differences each brother had regarding being together or being alone.  Dean wondered if alone wasn’t what makes someone stronger.  I don’t think that’s him changing his mind about being stronger together, as he told Sam last week in the Werther Project.  I think Dean feels alone, since the Mark is his alone to carry, and so he’s struggling with what that means when what he really wants is to be with Sam fighting the good fight.  As for Sam, he so often believes he is alone, and has often gone his own way alone, but in his heart of hearts he wants a family.

There was a surprising amount of balance in this episode with both Sam and Dean sharing in the research as well as with introducing the ‘finer points’ of hunting to Claire.  I don’t think either of them wants Claire to be a hunter – which is why sending her to live with Jody is the best possible outcome, but they also do know what is “out there” and they want her to be safe, and safety often means preparation.  Also, it was fun watching Kathryn and Jensen play mini golf, since both of them are avid golfers.