Arrow - League of Assassins - Review

Intro

Took a short break from reviewing things yesterday and found out, annoyingly, that my internet or computer hates me. I managed to watch last week's episode of The Originals, with many stops for loading and things. When I went to watch Once Upon a Time in Wonderland, I was too annoyed to wait while it did much the same. It even stopped an annoyingly long time to load while I was watching Once Upon a Time last night, luckily, though, I was able to watch most of that episode unhindered.

Today I had better luck watching Once Upon a Time in Wonderland on Chrome so I think I'll just use that to watch everything else I have to. However, I do have to work today so I've just got this one review for you.

If you actually read that little rant, thanks. If not, well, it was rather inconsequential so... meh.

SPOILER WARNING

The following review is for Arrow, Season 2, Episode 5: "League of Assassins." If you have not seen the episode, you should go do that before reading this review. Even my character lists contain spoilers.

Arrow - "League of Assassins" - Review

Characters:

• Oliver Queen - Played by Stephen Amell. Main character. Also known as "The Hood" or "The Vigilante" or "The Arrow."
• John "Dig" Diggle - Played by David Ramsey. Oliver's bodyguard/driver.
• Felicity Smoak - Played by Emily Bett Rickards. Oliver's Executive Secretary/techie.
• Thea Queen - Played by Willa Holland. Oliver's younger sister. Roy's girlfriend. Runs Verdant.
• Moira Queen - Played by Susanna Thompson. Olly and Thea's mother. Currently in jail.
• Dinah "Laurel" Lance - Played by Katie Cassidy. Oliver's ex-girlfriend. Works for the DA.
• Sara Lance/Black Canary - Played by Caity Lotz. Laurel's sister. Olly's ex. Currently vigilante-ing around Starling City.
• Officer Quentin Lance - Played by Paul Blackthorne. Laurel's father.
• Adam Donner - Played by Dylan Bruce. The District Attorney. Laurel's boss.
• Jean Loring - Played by Teryl Rothery. Old friend of Moira's and her attorney.
• Al Ow-Al - Played by Navid Negahban. League of Assassins member. Trained Malcolm Merlyn. Deceased.
• Dr. Anthony Ivo - Played by Dylan Neal. Runs the boat off the Island.

Review:

I was actually really happy with this episode. It had a lot of what I was expecting and some things I wasn't. I enjoyed getting some Sara back story, but I'm glad we didn't get everything all at once. In my opinion, Caity Lotz did a better job portraying her younger counterpart than Stephen Amell does. That's also really saying something since Stephen does an awesome job portraying young Olly. I honestly can't wait to see what happens/happened to Sara down the line.

Speaking of which, I really ended up liking Sara. I've heard people talk about how Caity Lotz's portrayal is rather wooden, but it works for me. I figure Sara's been through some really horrible stuff and been trained as a warrior so her emotions had to get buried deep. Olly, in comparison, hasn't been through as much, or at least not the same level of stuff, and is better at playing up his "civilian" persona when need be. He's also got Dig and Felicity to help soften him. The place where both Olly and Sara allow their true emotions to be seen is around their families, which Sara did.

"League of Assassins" was lousy with fight scenes. When I say that, I don't mean that the fight scenes were horrible, I just mean there were a lot of them. As usual, the fighting was very well done and showcased the skills of each character without going over the top. I felt like the fights carried more weight this time around, mostly because we could worry about Sara or Officer Lance getting killed. I'm pretty sure Olly's not gonna get killed any time soon as he's the title character so... that always takes a bit out of the suspense for me.

I'm back to being really annoyed with Laurel. It's great she's mostly off The Arrow's case, but this grief/guilt kick she's on isn't doing her any favors. The fact that she's ended up on Moira's case is annoying. Apparently there wasn't really another way to keep her relevant to the story. I honestly don't have anything more than that to say about Laurel.

Miscellaneous Notes:

• Sara being at Olly's was initially weird. Can't wait to see how he explains the destruction.
• I love that Felicity is awkward around more than just Olly.
• I'm glad Lance had a conflict of emotions over Sara leaving.

Favorite Lines:

"She always did have the worst taste in friends." - Lance

"Guns are a coward's weapon. What are you without your side arm?"
"A guy with a spare." - Al Ow-Al and Lance

"Who do you think you raised." - Thea

Housekeeping

Uh... I'm only really putting this here because I need a breaker-thing before I sign off.

Love ya, Jessie

Arrow - "Crucible" - Review

Intro

Please read the intro from the previous post because I don't feel like a) retyping it or b) copying and pasting it  into multiple posts.

SPOILER WARNING

The following review is for Arrow, Season 2, Episode 4" "Crucible." If you have not seen the episode, I recommend you do so before reading this review. I spoil things.

Arrow - "Crucible" - Review

Characters:

• Oliver Queen - Played by Stephen Amell. Main character. Also known as "The Hood" or "The Vigilante" or "The Arrow."
• John "Dig" Diggle - Played by David Ramsey. Oliver's bodyguard/driver.
• Felicity Smoak - Played by Emily Bett Rickards. Oliver's Executive Secretary/techie.
• Thea Queen - Played by Willa Holland. Oliver's younger sister. Roy's girlfriend. Runs Verdant.
• Roy Harper - Played by Colton Haynes. Thea's boyfriend. Works at Verdant. "The Hood"'s eyes and ears in the Glades.
• Dinah "Laurel" Lance - Played by Katie Cassidy. Oliver's ex-girlfriend. Works for the DA.
• Sara Lance/Black Canary - Played by Caity Lotz. Laurel's sister. Olly's ex. Currently vigilante-ing around Starling City.
• Sin - Played by Bex Taylor-Klaus. Black Canary's friend.
• Officer Quentin Lance - Played by Paul Blackthorne. Laurel's father.
• Adam Donner - Played by Dylan Bruce. The District Attorney. Laurel's boss.
• Isabel Rochev - Played by Summer Glau. Vice-President of Acquisitions for Stellmoor Industries.
• Sebastian Blood/Brother Blood - Played by Kevin Alejandro. An alderman for the Glades.
• The Captain - Played by Jimmy Jean-Louis. Captain of the ship off the Island.
• Lyla Michaels - Played by Audrey Marie Anderson. Dig's friend in the FBI.
• Xavier Reed/The Mayor - Played by Cle Bennett. Attempted to take over The Glades.

Review:

I'm not sure whether or not this will come as a surprise to anyone, but I thought this episode was rather bland. I'm not really one for filling up episodes with big fight scenes and I honestly don't care that Laurel's starting to have a drinking problem. I don't really have much to say about the episode, but I'll attempt to pull some things from my notes.

Oh, but wait, there's this thing that I've been alluding to in my reviews for the last couple of episode. The Black Canary is Sara Lance! Thank you IMDB for spoiling that a while back. Not sure if they fixed it or not, but I was already spoiled so... meh. It wasn't surprising. I was more surprised by the mention of Ras Al Ghul last week than I was about Sara.

Of course, with the revelation of Sara's "alive" status, we got her showing up on the prison ship in the Island flashbacks. This was also unsurprising given the banter between she and Olly during the episode. So, yeah, all the surprises weren't that really.

I like that Roy has become attached to Sin. Hopefully that won't kill his relationship with Thea. Thea, however, seems surprisingly not jealous of Sin. I'd kind of like to see the pair of them become friends. It would be a bit fun, I think.

The villain of the episode was boring. I was much more interested in what Blood thinks he's doing behind the scenes there at the end.

But yeah... this episode was rather forgettable, in my mind. I'd actually mostly forgotten what went on before I reread my notes, so you can see about how much I was bored with it.

Miscellaneous Notes:

• Queen Consolidated must really be in it deep, for what Rochev is hinting at.
• Lance showing up to ask Olly for help with Laurel must really have taken a lot for him, considering how much he hates Olly.
• Loved Felicity's air-quotes.
• So now Sara's going to come home?

Favorite Lines:

"No woman should suffer at the hands of men." - Sara

"Living is not for the weak." - Olly

Housekeeping

Next up: Review of last night's Grimm, like there should be. Of course, I'm taking another break to do more daily stuff.

Love ya, Jessie

Arrow - "Broken Dolls" - Review

Intro

As you could probably tell, this didn't make it out before tonight's episode of Arrow. However, as this review was written before I saw the episode, you don't have to worry about spoilers from tonight's episode.

SPOILER WARNING

The following review is for Arrow, Season 2, Episode 3: "Broken Dolls." If you have not seen it, I recommend you do that before reading this review. There are spoilers for the episode.

Arrow - "Broken Dolls" - Review

Characters:

• Oliver Queen - Played by Stephen Amell. Main character. Also known as "The Hood" or "The Vigilante" or "The Arrow."
• John Diggle - Played by David Ramsey. Oliver's bodyguard/driver.
• Felicity Smoak - Played by Emily Bett Rickards. IT specialist at Queen Consolidated. Oliver's techie behind the scenes.
• Thea Queen - Played by Willa Holland. Oliver's younger sister. Roy's girlfriend. Runs Verdant.
• Roy Harper - Played by Colton Haynes. Thea's boyfriend. Works at Verdant. "The Hood"'s eyes and ears in the Glades.
• Dinah "Laurel" Lance - Played by Katie Cassidy. Oliver's ex-girlfriend. Works for the DA.
• Slade Wilson - Played by Manu Bennett. Oliver's mentor on The Island.
• Shado - Played by Celina Jade. Oliver's Island girlfriend.
• Moira Queen - Played by Susanna Thompson. Olly and Thea's mother.
• Black Canary - Played by Caity Lotz. Another vigilante.
• Sin - Played by Bex Taylor-Klaus. Black Canary's friend.
• Officer Quentin Lance - Played by Paul Blackthorne. Laurel's father.
• Adam Donner - Played by Dylan Bruce. The District Attorney. Laurel's boss.
• Tony Daniel - Played by Andy Thompson. Mathis' Attorney.
• Jean Loring - Played by Teryl Rothery. Moira's Attorney and friend.
• Barton Mathis - Played by Michael Eklund. "The Dollmaker."
• Detective Lucas Hilton - Played by Roger R. Cross. In case you were wondering who arrested Lance.

Review:

After watching two episodes of The Originals, this episode of Arrow was a breath of fresh air. I really enjoyed it, even if bits were kind of predictable.

The Barton Mathis story line was wonderfully creepy. It vaguely reminded me of an episode of Dollhouse and one of Criminal Minds. I'm with Felicity with the porcelain dolls sentiment. People who turn other people into dolls creep me out... and so do actual dolls. I found Mathis' weird mix of creepy and grand-stand-ish-ness nice, for a villain. It was also nice to find out what Lance was doing after Sara died. I found Laurel's revelation/epiphany/break down at the end of the episode somewhat dramatic and somewhat annoying. I mean, it's nice to know why she was being all "grr" toward  "The Arrow" all of a sudden, like beyond the Tommy thing. Hopefully she'll stop with that now.

Originally, I could not have cared less about Mrs. Queen's case. I think I kind of forgot about it, to be honest. However, I'm with pretty much everyone in thinking that the death penalty is ridiculous. Hopefully that won't come to pass. I'd hate to see what it would do to Olly and Thea.

So, uhm, The Island flashbacks... I found it really convenient that Shado was pre-med. I found Slade to still be annoying with the "don't get attached" schtick. I'm more interested in why there's a well-armed prison ship off the coast. Also, does Slade start wearing the mask now his face is burnt? Or did he die?

And finally we come to the Black Canary. She was cool, but got much more interesting at the end of the episode. I found it really strange that she's connected to Ra's al Guhl, though that does explain the IMDB spoiler I mentioned in my last Arrow review. Seriously, cast lists on IMDB can be evil.

Miscellaneous Notes:

• Starling City has a Bisque Museum?
• Love Lance being around for the quips and what not. He's funny when he's not being a giant jerk.
• Felicity steps up again with the undercover-ness.
• A clock tower? How very Oracle.

Housekeeping

So, that's three more reviews in the bag. Now I just need to catch up on three more episodes and five more reviews... just so you know where I'm at and are interested.

There may or may not be reviews tomorrow. It depends on how my early babysitting and then work evening go. If I don't get to blog tomorrow: HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Love ya, Jessie

Arrow - "Identity" - Review

Intro

Okay, I might have lied a little on the last Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. review. This particular review is going out on time and I should be able to get tomorrow's out on time, too. So sue me, I was extrapolating based on general tiredness.

As with yesterday, there will probably be more than just this review going out today. I've got one episode of both Supernatural and The Vampire Diaries and a couple episodes of The Originals to blow through. Not sure if those will all be up this evening, but I'll get as many done as I can. I might even lump The Originals reviews together into one. Who knows.

Stay tuned after this review for a little bit of Housekeeping.

SPOILER WARNING

The following review is for Arrow, Season 2, Episode 2: "Identity." If you have not seen the episode, please don't spoil yourself by reading my review. Or at least don't complain about the spoilers. The episode is available at cwtv.com if you'd like to watch it before you read my review.

Arrow - "Identity" -Review

Characters:

• Oliver Queen - Played by Stephen Amell. Main character. Also known as "The Hood" or "The Vigilante."
• John Diggle - Played by David Ramsey. Oliver's bodyguard/driver.
• Felicity Smoak - Played by Emily Bett Rickards. IT specialist at Queen Consolidated. Oliver's techie behind the scenes.
• Thea Queen - Played by Willa Holland. Oliver's younger sister. Roy's girlfriend. Runs Verdant.
• Roy Harper - Played by Colton Haynes. Thea's boyfriend. Works at Verdant. "The Hood"'s eyes and ears in the Glades.
• Dinah "Laurel" Lance - Played by Katie Cassidy. Oliver's ex-girlfriend. Works for the DA.
• Sebastian Blood - Played by Kevin Alejandro. An alderman for the Glades.
• Slade Wilson - Played by Manu Bennett. Oliver's mentor on The Island.
• Shado - Played by Celina Jade. Oliver's Island girlfriend.
• China White - Played by Kelly Hu. Triad leader/assassin.
• Ben Turner/Bronze Tiger - Played by Michael Jai White. Triad fighter/assassin.

 

Review:

Word to the wise, don't look at IMDB cast lists if you don't want to be spoiled. I just did that and... yeah... not sure whether to be excited or really annoyed.

"Identity" was both a lot of fun and really nerve-wracking. On the one hand, it was fun to see how Felicity, Dig, and Olly are fitting into their roles as Executive Assistant, Driver, and CEO. I especially loved Felicity being not at all impressed with being Olly's assistant. However, she should probably know by now that Olly most likely won't treat her like your average executive assistant. That said, the nerve-wracking parts came when Olly was in situations as Oliver Queen where he was essentially helpless. Also that bit at the end where he had to choose between stopping China White and appearing at his benefit.

I've quickly become exceptionally annoyed at Laurel's new anti-vigilante stand-point. It's such a turnaround from last season and it makes me want to hate her. I don't want to hate Laurel. I like Laurel. She's not the annoying whiny girlfriend. However, blaming "The Hood" for Tommy's death is dumb. There was obviously nothing anyone could do because Tommy was impaled on rebar. Just... ugh!!! She really needs to lay off. Her father came around, didn't he?

I thought Roy was exceptionally stupid this episode. Yeah, he sort of had a point after the police decided to not send anyone after the medical shipment, but it was still stupid of him to get involved with that in the first place. While I was impressed by his balls, I was unimpressed by his methods. I do like, however, that he's staying with Thea and not becoming a superhero at the moment.

I think it's good that Felicity had a chance to a) shine and b) give Olly a piece of her mind. I really enjoy Felicity as the conscience of our trio. Sometimes the boys need a little push in the direction of being humans beings and not soldiers. That said, the apology scene was both touching and hilarious.

I was ambivalent toward China White and confused by "The Bronze Tiger." I will admit I had no idea who he was supposed to be and referred to him in my notes as "The Wolverine Guy." He was okay as a minor villain, I just hope we don't see him back. Speaking of villains, or at least antagonists, I'm sort of middling on where I stand with Sebastian Blood. He seems like an okay guy, but at the same time, his temper seems to get the better of him more than it probably should.

Island Flashbacks... yeah... Slade's apparent jealousy of Olly over Shado was just weird. On the one hand, he's pushing them together, but on the other he doesn't want them to actually be together. I honestly don't know what to make of that or the Japanese soldiers they found. It's slightly more interesting that the Fyres thing last year, but I still don't like "The Island."

Lastly... looks like Olly's going to have a heck of a time in both his Oliver Queen role and his "Hood" role. I'm really looking forward to seeing how he gets out of the situation with the SWAT team.

Miscellaneous Notes:

• I love that Felicity hates being Oliver's executive assistant.
• Roy got to have the "Robin discussion."

Favorite Lines:

"I'll always think of you fondly." - Thea

"And I love spending the night with you." - Felicity

"Could be worse. My secret identity is his black driver." - Diggle

"You know, I've been meaning to tell you it weirds me out to no end the way you refer to yourself in the third person like that." - Diggle

"You're not the only one allowed to bring a friend." - Olly

Housekeeping

I have officially decided not to watch The Tomorrow People or The Crazy Ones. The Crazy Ones I'm not watching because I really didn't like the first episode and can't bring myself to watch any more. The Tomorrow People I'm not watching because I got bored watching the first one and bored watching the second one. Heck, I turned off the second episode last night because I was so bored.

That said, I will attempt to keep up with the rest of my reviews to the best of my ability.

Love ya, Jessie

PS: I'm being a ghostie for the rest of the month. Happy October!

Arrow - "City of Heroes" - Review

Intro

Just wanted to let you know, due to the overwhelming sense of having nothing to say about the Pilot episode of The Tomorrow People, I will not be reviewing the Pilot episode of The Tomorrow People. Although I do have to say that it's not good that I have nothing to say about the episode. Perhaps I'll have something to say next week.

SPOILER WARNING

If you have not seen the first Season of Arrow, please leave the blog and return after you've seen it. The following review is for Arrow, Season 2, episode 1: "City of Heroes." There will be spoilers. There always are.

Arrow - "City of Heroes" - Review

Characters:

• Oliver Queen - Played by Stephen Amell. Main character. Also known as "The Hood" or "The Vigilante."
• John Diggle - Played by David Ramsey. Oliver's bodyguard/driver.
• Felicity Smoak - Played by Emily Bett Rickards. IT specialist at Queen Consolidated. Oliver's techie behind the scenes.
• Thea Queen - Played by Willa Holland. Oliver's younger sister. Roy's girlfriend. Runs Verdant.
• Moira Queen - Played by Susanna Thompson. Oliver and Thea's mother. Currently in jail.
• Roy Harper - Played by Colton Haynes. Thea's boyfriend. Works at Verdant.
• Dinah "Laurel" Lance - Played by Katie Cassidy. Oliver's ex-girlfriend. Works for the DA.
• Officer Quentin Lance - Played by Paul Blackthorne. Laurel's father.
• Slade Wilson - Played by Manu Bennett. Oliver's mentor on The Island.
• Shado - Played by Celina Jade. Oliver's Island girlfriend.
• Isabel Rochev - Played by Summer Glau. Vice-President of Acquisitions for Stellmoor Industries.
• Walter Steele - Played by Colin Salmon. Moira's ex-husband.

Review:

Be advised, most of this review is going to be me gushing about how awesome the Season 2 return of Arrow was.

I have to say, the beginning of "City of Heroes" had be incredibly confused. I had no idea Olly was back on The Island. It made sense for him to be there after the destruction of The Glades and Tommy's death, but it was really random. That said, I quite enjoyed that entire exchange, especially Felicity freaking out randomly.

It was really cool to see how those who stayed in Starling City were picking themselves up after the destruction of The Glades. I was pleasantly surprised to see Thea running Verdant in Olly's stead. I'm glad she didn't go back to her druggy ways after CNRI was destroyed. Speaking of which, Laurel's now working for the DA's office and hating on "The Hood." I think it's gonna be interesting to watch that play out.

I quite enjoyed the Felicity and Diggle double act. They were amusing to watch as they got Olly back in the saddle, so to speak. My favorite scene with them was Felicity showing off the revamped "Arrow Lair" or whatever you wanna call it. The set looks just as awesome as the scene was.

I liked the further development of Roy's character. I'm glad he's giving Thea a grounding influence and I'm glad he finally decided to work at Verdant. I thought his crime fighting hijinks were par for the course, though it's kind of sad to see the crap getting kicked out of him. The scene where he attempts to save everyone from "The Hoods" was cool, even if it did lead to Thea getting kidnapped.

I actually enjoyed Thea during this entire episode. It was awesome to see she got her act together. Even though her kidnapping was kind of meh, I liked that her fears in that moment made her realize she couldn't keep herself distant from her mother. Thea and Moira's scenes together are usually heartwarming and this one did fail to disappoint. Thea's explanation to her mother made me cry.

I thought the sparse business scenes were fun. Stephen Amell looks very good in a suit and Summer Glau was stunning. Of course, that's not to say I didn't enjoy their performances. It was fun to see the business side of Olly go up against Ms. Isabel Rochev.  I thought it was clever of Olly to bring in Walter at the last moment. I'd actually forgotten Walter existed, since we've been so focused on other things, so seeing him kind of shocked me.

I would talk about "The Hoods" and The Island but... both kind of annoyed me. "The Hoods" reminded me of the rag-tag group of "Batmen" in The Dark Knight, while The Island is more of a constant annoyance.

I thought Arrow came back swinging, which is extremely good. I'd forgotten how much I enjoyed watching it. I can't wait for next week's episode.

Miscellaneous Notes:

• Dudes with machine guns are never good.
• I'm glad Olly's growing a conscience about the killing. Him not killing is an awesome way to honor Tommy.
• Moira looks really good in that prison outfit, as weird as that is apparently.
• "She's seen out face." Yup, nice job, moron. You took off your masks and hoods. It's your own fault Thea saw your faces.
• So... that chick who save Roy's butt is either The Black Canary, Black Cat, or China White. My money's on Black Canary.

Favorite Line:

"What I lack in height, I make up for with wicked good hearing." - Roy

Housekeeping

Tonight is the series premiere of Once Upon a Time in Wonderland. I will definitely be watching it and then reviewing it tomorrow.

Love ya, Jessie

The Penultimate and the Season Finales

SPOILER, LENGTH, LANGUAGE WARNING

If you have not seen this week's episodes of Grimm, Arrow, Supernatural, or The Vampire Diaries, please lave the blog and come back later. My reviews are always peppered with spoilers. Also, there are Buffy references in The Vampire Diaries review so... if you haven't seen the end of season three of Buffy: The Vampire Slayer, you've been warned.

This is gonna be a long one, folks. If you're uninterested in certain reviews, there's a "Page Down" or "Pg Dn" button on your keyboard and a scroll button on your mouse... assuming you have these things, of course. Reviews will be in the order they aired.

Also, I curse a bit in some of the reviews. I don't really believe in censoring that part of myself while writing so... yeah. It's there. Be aware of it. Or not. Your choice.

Grimm - "The Waking Dead" - Review

As a zombie episode, this one fared a lot better than zombie episodes done by other shows. *cough* Once Upon a Time *cough* It was also a fairly original way to do zombies, in the whole scheme of ways to do zombies. The thing with the puffer-fish Wesen is based off actual voodoo rituals involving making "zombies," if what I learned a long time ago watching Taboo is correct anyway. I was pleasantly surprised to see it used here.

I also thought this episode was surprisingly funny. I somehow didn't expect the Wesen reveal to be amusing at all. Bud's freaking out over showing Juliette made me think he was going to vogue at any moment pretty much from the moment Monroe mentioned it. I liked that Rosalee was both apprehensive and really calm about vogueing for Juliette. I enjoyed all the "No, you'd better go first" stuff regarding Monroe. I agree he's not the best Wesen to see first. I'd somehow forgotten just how freaky Blutbaden are compared to the other Wesen. I also really liked Juliette's reaction to her first vogue. I thought the reaction was completely normal and I didn't think for a second that she wouldn't come back to see more than Rosalee vogue.

Lastly, we've got the Adalind and Eric stuff. Adalind is in way over her head with Stefania. Stefania, by the way, is played by Shohreh Aghdashloa. Ms. Aghdashloa played Dr. Kavita Rao in X-Men: The Last Stand, just like I thought. But anyway... I think the weird interplay between Stefania and Frau Pech is interesting and creepy. As for Eric... I think he's got his shriveled heart set on taking over Portland via zombie apocalypse. Without the apocalypse part, of course. And what was up with his hair in this episode? It was all over the place....

Overall, awesome penultimate episode. I can't wait to see how things go down in the finale next week.

Arrow - "Sacrifice" - Review

Okay so... imagine my surprise when I opened up the Arrow and Supernatural Wiki pages to check the episode titles and found them both the same. Kind of a weird thing to have happen, especially with shows airing the same night.

But anyway, the episode.

We got to see Olly's first kill with the bow. we got to see Olly manage to not blow up a plane just in the nick of time. We got to see Fyers die. All of these things I personally could have done without in this already packed episode. But the Arrow writers have a thing with showing us Olly's backstory straight off and where it doesn't mesh with the rest of the episode so... bleh. I wasn't happy with that.

I thought it was interesting that Malcolm did not tell Moira about Olly's "hobby." Might have been the only good thing he did this episode. I had fun watching John Barrowman yell angrily at people. He really does have the best angry faces. I'm kind of sad to see his character killed off, though I completely understand why. I was actually more surprised by Tommy's death than Malcolm's. I know Tommy's been a royal douche to Olly lately, but I don't think he deserved to die. His sacrifice for Laurel was awesome and heartbreaking. I'm really sad to see him go.

Dry up the tears and move on to Felicity and Detective Lance. Despite their never having met before this episode, I thought they had really good chemistry. I was a lot of fun watching Felicity be not-so-smooth in the interrogation room. Kind of weird after last week's not-a-heist, but I liked it anyway. Her little speech about Olly to Detective Lance had my eyes welling up with tears of "Felicity is awesome." Beyond that, though, both Paul Blackthorne and Emily Rickards had some great scared/panicked faces while they were disarming the device and during the aftermath.

Speaking of which, I was not at all expecting there to be a second device. Good villains have back-up plans. And apparently, decide to come out as villains to their children before they both die. I was really shocked by that.

It's going to be interesting next season to see all the characters dealing with the various backlashes from the Undertaking. Moira's going to be in jail or out on bond. Roy's most likely going to come out of this alive, despite stopping to help the dude stuck between the car and the bus. Olly and Laurel are going to be dealing with Tommy's death. And Thea... is going to be... I don't know, it's going to be interesting.

Speaking of Thea, I must now rant about shoe-horned-in PSAs. I understand that texting and driving is a problem and will get you dead. However, the two seconds spent on the subject in this episode were ridiculous. Roy was not texting. He was looking at a map. Drivers have been looking at maps for longer than cell phones have been around. Yes, it's dangerous. You know what else is dangerous? Distracting the driver by stealing their phone and squabbling about it and coming out with a really stupid, out of character line about how "It's not worth it." Come on, really?

Okay, rant over. It's safe to come out.

I think I've prattled on about Arrow long enough for now. My closing remark: The fight scenes were awesome, as usual.

Supernatural - "Sacrifice" - Review

Most extremely obvious end to a story arc EVER. Supernatural was picked up for a 9th season so there was no way in Hell that the Gates to Hell were going to be slammed shut. The demons, Crowley especially, are just too damn interesting to get rid of. Also, of course Sam was going to die in order to slam the Gates. Had has stuff physically wrong with him that Cas couldn't fix. How was that not a giant red flag to Dean that Sam was going to die finishing the trials? Really Dean? How fricking stupid are you? Also, now that Sam's stopped the trials and Cas doesn't have his powers, how is Sam going to continue living with all the shit that's wrong with him?

All that said, the whole fallen angels thing was a surprise. It's actually pretty clear in my Initial Reactions that I actually felt sorry for Metatron until I realized he'd used Cas. The effect of the angels falling was pretty cool. Sucks for them, but it looked cool. I'm now wondering how the Winchesters and Cas are going to find each other now that Cas' angel-juice is gone.

Abbadon was fairly disappointing. I sincerely thought she'd have a bigger role here. Like, actually stop Sam from being able to finish the trials instead of Dean. Apparently, Abbadon got broken out of her boxes to end up dying pretty spectacularly as a tied-up loose end the next episode. I'm extremely disappointed because I thought she was fun to have around.

I thought the extremely convenient way in which the Winchesters caught Crowley was fun. I stress the extremely convenient part because it was just that. I'm also wondering what will happen to Crowley now he's a) stuck in a devil's trap and b) mostly cured. I don't want him to go away or stop being evil because Mark Shepherd is awesome and Crowley's one villain that actually makes good on his threats.

Overall, this season finale was a fun ride. Not particularly full of substance 'till that last bit, but fun nonetheless.

The Vampire Diaries - "Graduation" - Review

Buffy did it better. That is to say, "Graduation Day Part One" and "Graduation Day Part Two" were much more exciting and fun and filled with less cameos that "Graduation" was. Most of "Graduation" was epic, poignant speeches that mostly failed to jerk a tear from my eyes. I much preferred the giant demon snake to cameo-palooza.

Okay so... the only parts of the episode that made me cry even a little were the Rebekah/Matt parts. I loved that Rebekah basically wants to do with Matt what Klaus wants to do with Caroline, except she doesn't have any ulterior motives. I loved that she essentially sacrificed herself for Matt, even if she didn't die permanently. I'm also really glad they're going to go on a road trip together. Good for them.

I enjoyed Alaric getting to be a "bad ass vampire," though I again forgot that he'd been turned into a vampire during his last episodes. when he showed up at the Grill to whisk Connor away, I was like "What? What? How? Ooooohhhhhhh. Duh." I'm really gonna miss Alaric now.

I'm not sure how I feel about Jeremy being alive again. On the one hand, I'm really happy because I like Jeremy. On the other hand, if he'd have stayed dead, it would have made his death in the first place more poignant. So there's that.

I was really surprised to see Klaus back. I was also really surprised that he's allowing Tyler to return to Mystic Falls. He was certainly less of a brat this episode, though there was less of him as well.

The fight between Elena and Katherine was awesome. I'm sure Nina Dobrev had a wonderful time filming that. That fight's been a long time coming and I'm glad they were both mostly able to hold their own. It's going to be interesting seeing Katherine be human again. I wonder if she'll end up in New Orleans with Elijah while Klaus uses her blood to make more hybrids... nah, she wouldn't stand for that.

The rest of the episode, as I said, was just kind of... meh. Elena loves Damon. Obvious declarations from both of them were obvious. Bonnie's dead. Hooray for that. She annoyed me to no end. The rest of the supernatural "living dead" weren't much of a threat at all. All attempts to create a threat with them fell flat. The only weird/interesting thing was at the very end with Stefan and Silas. But, since I have no fucking idea what any of that actually means nor do I think you can kill a vampire by drowning... I'm not touching it. Gonna just let that sit and fester 'til next season.

Housekeeping

Not really much to say here... over the summer I'm hoping to catch up on some shows, keep watching others, and do some actual reading. Stay tuned to find out what's next... well... Saturday should see Doctor Who season finale Initial Reactions so... there's that.

Love ya, Jessie.

Sacrifice - Initial Reactions

SPOILER WARNING

If you have not seen tonight's episode of Arrow or Supernatural, please leave the blog and come back later. The following initial reactions, like live Tweets, will most likely contain spoilers.

Arrow - "Sacrifice" -Initial Reactions

• Flashback to the raft?
• So Merlyn's decided to torture Olly?
• I'm sure there are fangirls going crazy cuz Olly's shirt's off... again.
• Yeah, the two times you guys fought.
• Oh joy, island flashbacks.
• This is why you don't make noise when you're killing people.
• Bye bye plane.
• I would not survive that, I don't think. That looked like it hurt a lot.
• Hey, Diggle.
• This would be when Felicity gets picked up by Detective Lance.
• Suddenly, daylight.
• Well this all kind of sucks for Felicity.
• Go Felicity! You're totally gonna make me cry.
• Well hello, Tommy.
• Well duh.
• Yeah, that was a good plan, Tommy.
• And that's what breaks Tommy completely from Olly.
• Good thing you're there than.
• Why had no one come up behind Slade?
• Yay, they saved the plane. And blew up the camp. Nice.
• Okay, not so much hating on Detective Lance anymore.
• Got to love it when the superiors don't listen to you.
• Poor Moira... having to hear that all of a sudden.
• Of course he did. The bad guys always get impatient at the last minute.
• Well hello, Laurel.
• No, no he won't.
• Well that's a nice way to put it. This music is not necessary.
• Got to love those CW dramatic kisses with the sunlight blurring out the shot.
• Go crying back to Daddy, Tommy.
• Yeah, Tommy, your father's a gigantic jerk.
• Why is that in a weird bowl?
• Uhmmm... there's no evidence people were walking by.
• Gotta love John Barrowman acting angry.
• Well DUH. Of course it's gonna be underground.
• Go Moira!
• Well that was a lovely reaction to her outing you.
• There you go, annoying Lieutenant.
• Go Thea.
• Time for Tommy to see the Black Archer outfit.
• Ouch.
• He broke a bow.
• Dude, who else is gonna take on Merlyn?
• So who's gonna track down the device?
• Tear-jerking moment, there.
• Not who I thought Olly was gonna call in, but it makes more sense than who I thought.
• All the feels!
• There's Roy.
• Mass panic is extremely scary.
• Diggle needs his own costume.
• Yup, let's break up the crazy with some superfluous flashback.
• Well, there's Slade, being a jerk as usual.
• Except no one really wants to listen to you, Fyers.
• Good boy, Olly.
• Hello weapons cache and Merlyn.
• Those boys really needed to work on their team fighting skills.
• It  looks kind of like the central column of the TARDIS console.
• Looting is in full swing.
• Go Roy.
• Hi, Thea.
• Cute.
• Ouch. Gotta love those trick arrows.
• That's really very not good.
• T_T
• The only thing I hate about season finales are the tears.
• Also, gotta love the no-texting-and-driving-thing.
• This is why Roy's gonna be a hero someday.
• Good going, Diggle.
• Owwwwww...
• Shut down!
• That seriously sucks and was really unexpected.
• And of course Laurel would get trapped and be covered in debris.
• Tommy to the rescue!
• Okay, so now Tommy's dead. Lovely.
• Rebar through the chest, never a good thing.
• T_T
• All my feels, damnit!

Supernatural - "Sacrifice" - Initial Reactions

•  I quite honestly hate this song.
• Season long recaps are kind of boring for those of us who've watched all season.
• Okay... this is just kinda really weird.
• Because he's the King of Hell with a bunch of books!
• He's gonna kill you now like.
• Why is that their ringtone?
• Ah, Dean. Ever the diplomatic one.
• Of course, Supernatural finales make me giggle...
• That was an interesting place to hide it...
• Get real, Kevin's never going back to that.
• A bit of a sexist? A bit?
• Of course the contract is ridiculously long.
• Where have you been, Crowley? There's always trouble in "paradise."
• That's fun. I like it.
• That reveal probably would have been more fun if it wasn't in all the previews.
• So checking the personals was a good plan?
• He never has been.
• Ouch.
• Well that's a nice place for some torture.
• How many times have you said that, Sam? Or Dean for that matter?
• Okay, that's why you don't ever ask Dean for advice.
• Oh, I do love that turn around-ness.
• Nothin' like a creepifying confessional.
• Do not surprise people who are fixin' to load guns.
• Of course he'd show up just then.
• Forgot the incantation there, Sammy.
• No one's ever out, Kev.
• Geez, Cas.
• That worked?
• Cas, you are hilariously inept sometimes. It's hilarious.
• Dude, Dean's always been drinking on the job.
• And of course Cas doesn't get that reference.
• Lol, of course he'd be gay and Cupid would be a girl.
• Well that traps been sprung.
• Hello Abbadon.
• Ow. Poor Sam.
• Bye bye Abbadon. Or not. Of course not.
• Poor Metatron.
• That was totally not what happened, Crowley.
• That's Crowley's humanity showing.
• I seriously love Mark Shepherd.
• Of course it is.
• Well duh. Of course he was gonna die doing that.
• Seriously?
• Well then, I take back what I said about "Poor Metatron."
• Dude, knock it off. Well OBVIOSULY.
• I agree with Sam. It's fracking worth it.
• Well that seriously sucks for Cas.
• Metatron is batshit crazy.
• Never thought Dean would move me to tears.
• It's really not good when all the electronics go off at once.
• So pretty but so very, very bad.

Kiss of the Clip Show on the Edge of Town

Preamble-y-Stuff

I have not been feeling well the last couple of days. My head's just not where it usually is or would like it to be. That's why there wasn't a review of Tuesday's Grimm or Initial Reactions for last night's Arrow put up yesterday. By the time it was time to do these things, my head was off in la-la-land. Or actually, it was closer to being in what I recognize as my "writer's funk." But did I do much writing then? No, I didn't. I did, however watch Arrow and Supernatural so there's that, at least. Without further ado, I give you:

SPOILER WARNING

If you have not seen Tuesday's episode of Grimm or last night's episodes of Arrow and/or Supernatural, please leave the blog and return later. I'm horrible at giving non-spoiler-y reviews of individual episodes.

Grimm - "Kiss of the Muse" - Review

"Kiss of the Muse" was interesting, to say the least. It was mostly about getting Juliette and Nick back together, mostly by having Nick act like a hormonal teenager because of interactions with a particular Wesen. No one else really had much to do besides act like they were playing a game of Telephone, passing messages back and forth and freaking out.

I quite liked both the new Wesen introduced in this episode. The Luisant-Pêcheur was kind of cute in his, and I'm not even sure how to spell this, volged form. The otter face was just so cute. The character, however, could have been a younger, Muggle, rocked-out version of Severus Snape for all that's worth. I thought the Musai was beautiful in the volged form. The way her powers worked was interesting, though I'm really coming up confused on her characterization. She seemed really into using her powers at some points but freaked out when she realized Nick was a Grimm and she'd used it on him. Maybe it was just the Grimm thing, though... I don't know, she was pretty.

I'm glad Juliette and Nick are apparently back together now. Having them apart saddened me since they're both so right for each other. I really enjoyed the parts where Juliette was talking to Monroe and Rosalee in the shop. The looks exchanged between the couple during the conversations made me laugh. I also liked that Juliette has now pretty much accepted what Nick had been trying to tell her at the end of last season. It makes me so happy! Looks like next week she's going to be seeing the Wesen she knows in the volged forms so that should be even more interesting.

The very end of the episode had me grinning. Captain Renard pulling out the "Hexenbastard" as a threat was just awesome. I wasn't expecting that to happen, but it's handy.

Arrow - "Darkness on the Edge of Town" - Review

Let me just say how much I loved this episode. It was fun without being overcrowded, which I liked. It was great getting to see everyone interact as they individually investigate The Undertaking. And by "individually" I mean the individual groups, not individual people. Although watching them all individually was fun, too.

The not-a-heist at Merlyn Global was amazing to watch. I really felt for Felicity when she was climbing through the walls/elevator shafts with Olly. I'd be freaked out, too. Though I did think it was weird that she didn't have a backpack of something for her tablet. Carrying it while climbing around inside a building didn't really seem like a good idea to me. Also, she seemed strangely comfortable playing her role through that whole sequence. Made a big change from her gambling thing last week. I thought Diggle was amusing in his security role. Any time he gets to kind of let loose is great.

And speaking of Diggle letting loose, I'm sure it felt good to punch Olly in the face a few times, even if he was pulling his punches. I was completely taken in by the ruse of Olly and Moira getting kidnapped, too. Like, I didn't realize it was Diggle under the hood until he asked about The Undertaking and they showed him about to hit Olly. For some reason I thought it was Malcolm under there... which would have been weird, but that's where my brain was at.

I thought Roy and Thea's bit was both cute and heartbreaking. Thea's quite the con artist with the police... though that bit might have been last week. My head's a little weird so it's hard to remember. That the storyline is blurring together from episode to episode that much is a good thing, I think. Olly threatening Roy had me grinning. Roy breaking up with Thea made me want to slap him, especially seeing the look on her face when he said what he did.

Which then brings me to the relationship things going on. I completely understand how angry I perceived Tommy to be at the end of the episode. Olly just got done telling him he was free to get back together with Laurel and then goes and sleeps with her. Tommy has every right to be angry about that. Moira and Walter's impending divorce took me by surprise, actually. I'm not entirely happy with it, but it makes sense why Walter's delivered the divorce papers.

Lastly, I'm wondering what's going to happen as Detective Lance starts to investigate Felicity. I'm assuming he will, seeing as she seems to be his only lead on the Merlyn Global thing at the moment. I do kind of wonder how his computer guy got Felicity's name off of that hacking stuff. Knowing nothing about hacking myself and having a few assumptions about it makes me wonder how her name would be attached to it at all.

Supernatural - "Clip Show" - Review

I have to say, there's a reason in-universe fiction about the main players in the universe is never a good thing. I do kind of wonder why the Supernatural books haven't been picked up by Crowley or someone like him before now. As it is, I'm glad they're being used for something other than hilarity, even if that does mean characters we met way back when are getting killed off. That said, there's also a reason Crowley is my favorite villain on TV right now. He's no-compromising about actually being a bad guy. There's no "redeeming qualities" about him at all. I really, really like that in a villain and especially on Crowley.

On to... Cas. Cas is back! Yay! He's always good for a bit of random comedy, which this show needs a lot of. My favorite part from "Clip Show" was Cas freaking out the cashier guy over the pie. It was clear he's trying to get back in Dean's good graces. The way he's going about it amused me to no end. That said... I'm not so sure about Cas teaming up with Metatron and closing Heaven. There are several reasons for why I have a problem with this. First, locking the angels up together to have them argue things out is clearly not going to end well. That sort of problem solving rarely gets anything done, even when we're not talking about angels. Secondly, Cas completing the "First Task" seemed to me more out of interest of saving Metatron's life than Cas actually doing it to do it... if that makes any sense. I don't think Cas would have killed the Nephilim if she hadn't been trying to kill Metatron. Also, what the hell Metatron? You come out of hiding and your first thought is to lock all the angels in Heaven?

On a side note: the Nephilim gave me Charmed flashbacks. Whitelighters are essentially angels so... Chris and Wyatt was Nephilim. I don't know why, but it made me laugh a little.

Lastly, Abbadon being free and not immediately going to kill Sam and Dean was a little suspect to me. She could totally have sneaked up on them. If I'm guessing correctly, though, she's going after Crowley now... or something. She was really surprised when she found out he was the King of Hell now so I just figure that's what she's going to be doing.

Housekeeping

I am planning on watching The Vampire Diaries tonight. Not sure if I'm gonna be doing Initial Reactions for it as of right now so... if I do them, they'll be up. If I don't, I'll just review the episode tomorrow.

Love ya, Jessie.

The Undertaking - Review

SPOILER WARNING

If you have not seen last night's Arrow, please leave the blog and return later. The following review will undoubtedly contain spoilers.

Arrow - "The Undertaking" - Review

After an entire season of mostly lack-luster flashbacks, we actually get something interesting and relevant to the episode! And yes, I'll be starting with the flashbacks. I think the events leading up to the wreck of The Queen's Gambit really highlight just how evil and desperate Malcolm Merlyn really is. I think listening to his wife dying over and over broke him. He blames everyone in The Glades and himself for her death. I thought that was necessary insight into his character because he was coming off as rather one-note. The revelation of his motivation and his part in the sinking of The Queen's Gambit gave him more than that one-note thing.

Moira also got some character development through the flashbacks. I was surprised to see that she wasn't originally in on the planning of The Undertaking. I do wonder what exactly happened between her begging Robert to stop it and Olly's return to make her support The Undertaking. Perhaps we'll get more on that next week. I thought it was very true to her current character to immediately run to Malcolm when Olly brings her the news of Walter's supposed death. She's gone back to ultimately caring about her family, even if that means screaming at the most dangerous man in her life.

I thought Olly and Laurel during the flashbacks were amazing. Kind of creepy how a wardrobe change, some makeup, and some stellar acting can de-age the characters we know and love in their current state. I do have to say, though, the last part of the flashbacks had me cringing. It's nice to see tangible change in Olly's character. Though I was initially for seeing how the change came about, the previous flashbacks have left me wanting for more than just day-by-agonizing-day of boring island crap.

This brings me... in a somewhat convoluted and nonsensical fashion that only makes sense to me... to Felicity. She is really the most adorkable thing. Her going undercover was a nice touch, since neither Olly nor Diggle could do it. I think she did an excellent job at portraying a card-counting gambler, up until she got caught. Her return to babbling was, well, a little over the top. I wonder how exactly the casino-owner didn't notice her placing the bug. It was really obvious she was doing it. Other than that, though, I enjoyed how Felicity played "relationship counselor," as Diggle put it. She also did the most amusing babbling in her scene interrupting Olly and Laurel and the scene in the hospital at the end.

Now on to the last part of the episode. I thought Walter's rescue was really well done, though it was somewhat convenient for Olly to just have a plane to jump out of. I thought the sort-of confrontation between Malcolm and Olly was interesting. Malcolm clearly has no idea that Olly is the vigilante and so that conversation must have seemed very different. I thought it was nice that Laurel finally got a confession of love out of Olly, though that seemed kind of squeezed in. Last, but not least, I like that Olly now knows for sure that his mother is working with Malcolm. It should create more tension between the two leading up to the season finale.

Let me know what you thought in the comments below, if you would. I'd love to get some dialogue going about this.

Housekeeping

So... my nephew is officially sick. I just not got finished watching Arrow and typing this up so I could get this out before midnight. I did not get to watch The Vampire Diaries or Supernatural today. I'm not sure when that's gonna be happening exactly, but it should be sometime this weekend... I hope, anyway.

Love ya, Jessie.

Pac-Man Home Invasion Fever

SPOILER WARNING

If you have not seen last night's episodes of Arrow or Supernatural, please leave the blog and return after you've watched them. I'm terrible at reviewing things without spoiling them.

Arrow - "Home Invasion" - Review

This episode had a lot of interesting elements to it. They meshed very well and were pulled off quite nicely without making the episode seem cluttered. If only The Vampire Diaries could pull this off more often.

In the beginning of the episode, I thought Tommy came off as a jerk. Olly has every right to randomly show up at Laurel's place of work; they are still friends, after all. However, my feelings about Tommy were completely reversed at the end of the episode. His self-sacrifice in giving up Laurel was heart-wrenching, especially being an audience member. We know how much he cares for Laurel and seeing him breaking both their hearts was just... I cried. No joke. That said, I'm glad the writers decided not to drag that out forever.

I thought the little bits of the backstory were slightly fun. The Olly and Shado kissing bit was so telegraphed it hurt. I have no problem with them having a bit of a fling, but Slade's right in reminding them how much time they don't have. The end of the flashbacks this episode was seriously lacking tension. We know Olly doesn't get off the island for a long time so him getting captured and Yao-Fei telling him that his time on the island was short lacked punch. I find myself wishing they either did specific flashback episodes or an entire season just for telling the flashback story.

Those of you who actually read my Initial Reactions might have noticed I mentioned J. August Richards a couple of times. He played the assassin throughout the episode. I know him primarily from Angel, where he played Charles Gunn. I thought Richards was wonderfully creepy. The perfect amount of politeness, crazy, and menacing all rolled into one package. I'm kind of sad his character's been killed off, actually. I would have liked to see that crazy developed a bit more.

I think Roy and Thea looking for "The Hood" is gonna be interesting. It'll be even more interesting if Roy finds out and Thea doesn't, which I think is the most probable outcome. Though it would be nice if Thea were brought into the loop... a bit. I think she's more fun as a side-character than a main one.

That's what I thought of "Home Invasion." Let me know what you think in the comments.

Supernatural - "Pac-Man Fever" - Review

I will be the first to say that I wasn't expecting Charlie back. It was a pleasant surprise and I'm glad she's sort of becoming part of "the gang" as it were. I also thought getting more on her backstory was interesting. I liked that the writers were able to parallel Charlie's mom and Sam. I also thought it was fun just having Charlie around. She makes everything seem less dire than the boys usually make it seem.

I thought the sub-species of Djinn were somewhat interesting, though the concept of a sub-species at all caught my attention much more. I adore the mythology of Supernatural so much and this was just icing on the mythologic cake.

My favorite part of the episode was when Sam, Dean, and Charlie were sitting around the table researching the Djinn. Sam and Charlie wanting each other's "tech" (for lack of better terms) was amusing. "I hate that thing. I want it." I think Charlie would make an awesome "Woman of Letters" *cough* Watcher *cough.*

Uhmm... not much else to say about this episode... except that Sam looked really sick throughout the entire thing, which was awesome from a production standpoint. Let me know what you thought of the episode in the comments.

Housekeeping

You might have noticed a lack of Initial Reactions for tonight's The Vampire Diaries episode. That will be happening and it will be getting it's own post. I thought putting these reviews in their own separate post would be best considering my splitting headache at the moment.

Love ya, Jessie.

Arrow - Home Invasion

SPOILER WARNING

The following initial reactions contain spoilers for tonight's episode of Arrow.

Arrow - "Home Invasion" - Initial Reactions

• Oh hey, Diggle's training again.
• Mass panic.
• Yay for Felicity's "cyber terrorism."
• Everyone is suspicious of Olly's relationship with Laurel.
• Of course you were.
• Have I mentioned that I like her?
• So... why can't she just hunt down Deadshot? Yeah, Diggle wants him dead, but that doesn't mean he shouldn't be in the ground.
• Edward Rasmus... sounds familiar to me. Gonna have to look that up.
• OMG it's GUNN! Being and assassin. Awesome. And by awesome I mean horrible, but awesome.
• That's J. August Richards, for those who don't know.
• Wow, Laurell.
• They're friends, Tommy. His calling is slightly ridiculous, though would have been quicker.
• Aiming arrows is not that hard. I've done it before.
• Hello sexual tension.
• What are you doing, Roy?
• Huh, weird.
• Tommy bonding with the kid over parents being murdered. Fun fun.
• Okay, not what I was expecting...
• Good thing Olly's coming over.
• Laurel with a rifle. Awesome.
• Hi Olly.
• He wouldn't let anything happen to either of you.
• Huh, that's a nice thing for Tommy to say.
• Lol, Laurel not being in the loop.
• Tommy is not happy about that at all.
• Lol, Roy.
• Good job being a sitting duck, Roy.
• Just a little ironic.
• And the choice is... *drum roll*
• Deashot maybe?
• Does Lila know Diggle's there?
• Okay, Rasmus.
• Dude, he's a sniper. Why would he not be in position already?
• This is where Diggle gets super angry at Olly.
• Felicity does wound clean-up now?
• Well duh.
• Except that's not always the case, Dig.
• Oh look, oft forgotten backstory.
• Hello making out in the forest during training. Good job.
• Tommy makes things awkward.
• Awww... tear-y Tommy isn't so much fun.
• That's kind of a brilliant way to kill someone.
•  Lol, Wonder Twins.
• Well that's a nice lesson there, Detective.
• The best things happen on dark and stormy nights... and by best I mean deadly and awesome at the same time.
• Jealous Tommy is jealous.
• Well that's nice.
• Okay, J. August is seriously creepy when he wants to be.
• Bye bye electricity.
• I love watching Olly fight.
• Now who gets to take the credit for that kill?
• A dead man. Go figure.
• Good boy, Tommy.
• DUH!
• Of course she would. Poor Tommy.
• So Tommy's just up and leaving?!
• And throwing himself under the bus to break up with her.
• He's totally lying. Of course he is.
• I really, really like Roy.
• Yay Thea! You're awesome.
• Diggle's leaving?! That's so not cool!
• He's totally not alone, though.
• Called it!
• Except it's not, so there goes the tension.

 Housekeeping

Hey look, I kept up for once! And now I'm watching Supernatural, which looks like it's gonna be really interesting, so I'm gonna just focus on that.

Love ya, Jessie.

Giant Rage Monsters With Unfinished Business

A Giant Rage Monster Appears!

No No No, The Other Giant Rage Monster.

There, That's The Right One

Okay, yeah, that's not exactly giant, but, let's face it, I'm no Hulk.

Why am I a Giant Rage Monster, you might ask? Because The Vampire Diaries tonight is a rerun.

The one time in a couple weeks I manage to be all ready to watch TVD and do Initial Reactions, it's a rerun. For No Discernible Reason! Gah!

A Wild Spoiler Warning Appears!

Rage Monsters aside, I have managed to watch and review last night's episode of Arrow. So if you haven't seen the episode, please leave the blog and come back later. The following review contains spoilers.

Oh! And there's a Housekeeping section with some announcement-y type stuff in it.

Arrow - "Unfinished Business" - Review

The very end of "Unfinished Business" was really creepy. I did not like the looks on either Merlyn's face.

I really enjoyed the flashbacks this time. Olly's training is much more interesting and doesn't jar as much as they other things have. Not to mention how much I love watching people be confused by Eastern training techniques. As they say, there's method to the madness. Also, I'm glad Olly couldn't completely draw the bow after just a day, or at least it seemed like a day, of water slapping. It takes time to build up that muscle strength.

I'm getting rather tired of Detective Lance hounding Olly and Tommy every other episode. Yes, it usually serves a purpose, but it's getting old. I'm also kind of tired of these super packed episodes. I can't properly get my thoughts about them together in a coherent order because they're all over the place.

I thought the twist on the Vertigo story was fun. I didn't suspect the Doctor until Olly had the thought about The Count never leaving the hospital. Interesting Olly didn't think of that before he got hit 'round the head. Also, wouldn't adding anti-psychotics to Vertigo sort of negate the psychotropic bits of it? I'm not at all up on how the different substances work or interact, but it sounds as if that would be the case. Hmmm... I'd research it, but my mind's numb enough as it is.

Final Batch of Thoughts:

• Looks like they used a hospital or hospital set from Supernatural episode. At least, the entrance looked really familiar.
• How has Fyers not found their hideout? It's a giant plane wreck and the island isn't that big, is it? It would make sense to go look for places the annoying pests would hide, right?
• Diggle doing his own investigating is interesting. Also, who's that Lila chick?

Housekeeping

I'm going to Dallas again this weekend. I may or may not get to watch Doctor Who on Saturday. I'm pretty sure that's the only show I'll miss since Once Upon a Time is also on hiatus/showing reruns.

I might be doing slice-of-life/trip blogs, but I'm not sure, so... yeah. I think that's pretty much it from me for tonight.

Love ya, Giant Rage Monster.

The Salvation of Saint John

HAPPY EASTER EVERYBODY!  

I would like to apologize for the blog post title. The titles of Arrow and Doctor Who this week just don't mash together well. That said, I've got some reviews for you today so quickly on to the obligatory:

SPOILER WARNING

If you have not seen last week's episodes of Arrow or Doctor Who, please leave the blog and come back later. The following reviews will contain spoilers. And yes, I am considering last night's episode of Doctor Who last week's episode due to it having aired on a Saturday and now it's Sunday so... there you go.

Arrow - "Salvation" - Review

I really loved this episode. But first, I have to get a random cross-fandom observation out of the way: It's really kind of strange hearing Alex Kingston speak in an American accent. I kept expecting an English lilt to pop out, and then was slightly disappointed when it didn't. Thank you, Doctor Who, you've made things weird for this show, again. Okay, onto the episode.

I thought Thea and Roy's relationship was rather realistic. She's changed from her druggy ways and excepts him to change, too. He's grown up in a bad part of town where all he knows is the bad stuff. It's what he goes home to and wakes up to everyday. And then he gets kidnapped in the middle of their fight. I'm extremely glad Roy didn't die, though I didn't actually expect him to. I'm glad he and Thea have sort of patched things up after his almost death. Looks like Roy's gonna have to solves the mystery of "The Hood." Ya know, since he has the mini-arrow and all.

I thought Felicity was amazing. She was her usual tech-brilliant self with a couple of amusing bits thrown in. I'm so glad she's joined the... these guys really need a name, I can't call everyone "Scoobies"... Olly's team. I thought her reaction to the DA's death was realistic and I'm glad Olly's gonna be her person to talk to. Those moments were very sweet.

I liked the way Laurel showed her parents that the girl in the photo wasn't Sarah. I liked Tommy doing the big brother thing with Thea, freeing Olly up to be the hero. I'm really happy Olly's decided not to isolate himself anymore.

Speaking of which, the going on in the island flashbacks were... uninteresting. I feel like the small bits being fed to us aren't enough. They aren't holding my interest as they should be. I feel like they need to be focused on more. That said, I hope we find out what Fyers is up to sooner, rather than later.

Lastly, Mrs. Queen is getting herself in way over her head. It's clear from the end of that scene that things are just now hitting home for her. Having her husband and son killed and then her new husband kidnapped just hasn't done it, I don't think. Having someone killed in front of her, I think, has shocked her system, as it were. I did like that she pleaded with Mr. Merlyn, who she didn't know was Mr. Merlyn, not to kill her friend's daughter.

Doctor Who - "The Bells of Saint John" - Review

Turns out, the concept's much more interesting than I thought it would be when I heard what it was on The Doctor Who Podcast. Also, dude! The Great Intelligence! I did not see that coming! It was a wonderful surprise at the end of the episode.

I absolutely love love love Clara. She's cute, she's quick, she's clever, she's - as Sarah Jane Smith says about Rose - more than a match for The Doctor. I think my favorite parts of the episode were the tug-of-war across the table and when she tells him to come back tomorrow at the end. Those moments just made me grin. I can't wait to have her doing the companion thing for real.

I thought the way people had their personalities/feelings/minds hacked was pretty cool. However, a hike in IQ doesn't correlate to increased creativity. I feel like that's a completely different area of the brain, even if he was trying to reverse hack things. Anyway, not sure exactly what they wanted with Clara, seeing as they tried to get her a) before she met The Doctor and then b) were going out of their way to get her. She's either connected to The Great Intelligence somehow or he knows she's special. Hmmm...

I thought The Doctor was brilliant, as he usually is. I seriously thought he'd been taken over by the Spoonheads till I saw him come up behind it. That was a very tense commercial break when I watched it the first time, I tell you what. The Doctor also had me completely taken in by the switch he pulled with the Spoonhead. I probably would have cheered if I'd been watching by myself. That bit was just... Gah! Brilliant.

Couple things about technical show details:

• LOVE the new TARDIS "desktop theme." Like, a lot.
• LOVE the new title sequence. It's all spacey and stuff.
• Really liked the new music.

In closing, I can't wait for this Saturday. I want more!

Love ya, Jessie.

The Stranger Returns

Oh, it's another crappy title mix up. That must mean there are some reviews to be had. Just reviews tonight, I'm afraid. I missed The Vampire Diaries due to a birthday dinner for the eldest of my little sisters.

SPOILER WARNING

If you have not seen yesterday's episodes of Arrow or Supernatural, please leave the blog now and return later. The following reviews contain spoilers.

Arrow - "The Huntress Returns" - Review

I was a really big fan of Huntress last time she showed up. I was really excited she was coming back and wasn't just a one-off thing. That said, I'm somewhat disappointed in Ms. Bertinelli this time around. She came across as much more of a villain this time. Yes, I know Huntress has never really been completely White Hat, but I didn't think she'd go for using people as leverage. In my opinion, that was going too far. I know she wants her father dead and all, but to drag Olly into it like that? Nuh uh. Do not like.

I did, however, like Huntress' outfits. The "stripper" outfit felt very comic-book-y to me, toned down though it was. I liked her little mask, though when she went from full-on Huntress to just a touch of goth-y eye shadow in the interrogation room... that was a bit odd. Apparently in Starling City they allow prisoners to pretty-up before being interrogated. I liked that she gave up Olly without giving up Olly. That was clever and amusing to watch.

Now on to Tommy and Laurel. I thought Tommy's reaction to processing Olly being "The Hood" was very realistic. I like that he came around after Helena used him against Olly. I'm sort of annoyed at Laurel for expecting Tommy to be her rock after he'd clearly hurt himself. Big arm braces usually mean "give me slack," but apparently not to Laurel. At the same time, she didn't know exactly what happened to him so... that's why I'm only sort of annoyed. I thought Laurel was wonderfully sneaky about getting her dad to see her mom. That made me smile. I also thought Detective Lance's reaction to the stuff about Sarah was spot-on.

Finally, Roy and Thea got some air-time together. Roy got to be both a jerk and a hero, which was nice. Not sure exactly why he told Thea to go ahead and get him the job and then tell her off for doing it... well, not tell her off exactly, but, ya know, he wasn't happy about it. I think their chemistry is really nice. The distracting kiss was cute.

So, that's what I thought of the episode... oh, wait... there was some flashback story stuff? It was essentially really boring? Oh, okay. Olly did something somewhat clever and Slade was happy about it and now they're blackmailing Fyers... joy. Could probably have done without that this episode, but whatever.

Let me know what you thought down in the comments, that'd be great.

Supernatural - "Goodbye Stranger" - Review

This episode was really interesting. There were lots of interesting plot developments not involving Sam and Dean. I really had fun watching this episode. Wonder what that says about me as a Supernatural fan?

Okay, so... Meg and Castiel... Megstiel, since Dean, or was that Sam?, so wonderfully put it. That... came out of nowhere for me. Yes, Castiel kissed her in a previous episode and now Meg wants to jump his bones. I get it, but... now apparently he's her "unicorn," as she puts it? Yeah... not sure I'm buying that exactly. It doesn't help that she's dead and so not coming back to develop that further.

Naomi. I'm really enjoying hating her. Amanda Tapping has just hit the bureaucratic, brainwashing angel bit out of the park. I'm wondering what exactly she's up to.

Crowley was back! I love Crowley. He's pretty darn awesome for an evil S.O.B. I thought he had some really funny lines and was properly menacing... at least at Meg. Other than that, I was just enjoying him being in the episode at all.

Castiel this episode was, well, Cas. I thought it was interesting that he'd apparently been brainwash-training to kill Dean and then couldn't. By the way, that image of all the dead Deans in the Angel Danger Room was disturbing. I also thought he argued really well with Naomi against killing Dean and bringing the Winchesters in on what he was searching for. The effect when he grabbed the Angel Tablet reminded me very much of Twilight Sparkle when she's channeling the Elements of Harmony. Yup, pony reference in a Supernatural review. Deal with it.

That reminds me, references! There were a few funny ones. The big one that stood out to me was the "Shut up, Meg" thing. It made me laugh when I realized the boys had said it a few times. For those who don't know, that's a Family Guy reference. Everyone always tells Meg to shut up. I also liked the Lord of the Rings reference at the end, though I didn't realize what that was until Sam said something. Not a giant fan of LOTR so that's probably why.

Anyway... that's what I thought of the episode. Let me know what you thought in the comments, please.

Housekeeping

Yes, I missed The Vampire Diaries tonight. I should be able to watch it tomorrow and put up a review with my Grimm initial reactions. Hopefully. No promises.

You might have noticed I changed my site-theme back to it's blue self. Yeah, since the Neopets event is essentially over, I figured it'd be nice to go back. I did find a nice starry background to go the the Pleiades theme instead of an abstract blue thing.

Also, comment, please. I'd really like to know that I'm not shouting into the void... ya know, like I don't check my site stats... but really, comments would be nice.

Love ya, Jessie.

Shakespeare Code Returns

Yes, I know, crappy title mix up, but hey, there's a surprise there. I've been re-watching Doctor Who with my dad, who's watching it for the first time. We finally caught up to where I stopped reviewing so... I have a surprise Doctor Who review for you!

SPOILER WARNING

If you have not seen tonight's episode of Arrow or the third season of Doctor Who (2005-present series), there will be spoilers.

Doctor Who - "The Shakespeare Code" - Review

Oh, where to start on this one? "The Shakespeare Code" was fun, I'll say that. This was one of those episodes that got some flack from older Whovians, I noticed. After watching it for what seems like the zillionth time, I've got to agree with some of their points. I haven't really outlined what those points are, but there are some of them in the following paragraphs.

Martha Jones was rather... I dunno, a mix of boring, brash, and pouty. She goes through some of the normal "first time travel" bits and then up and starts randomly blabbing stuff she shouldn't. The Doctor telling her not to step on butterflies apparently means she can just say whatever she likes without worrying about the timeline. Gah! And then she gets all pouty when The Doctor doesn't give her the time of night while he's thinking. I just want to strangle her sometimes!

I thought Shakespeare was awesome. This "rock star" interpretation of him was amusing, though The Doctor quoting randomly at him was annoying. I did not like the Carrionites, though I found the explanation of their "witchcraft" interesting. But can anyone use words that way then, or just that race? And how does it work exactly?

The whole thing together was fun, though. I enjoyed the running around. I enjoyed Shakespeare for once. I even enjoyed the Expelliarmus to get rid of the Carrionites. With witches on the brain, I'd probably have blurted that out, too.

Arrow - "The Huntress Returns" - Initial Reactions

•  W00T strip club...
• Hello bit of the comic outfit.
• The club is finally finished?
• That was corny, McKenna.
• See, Alex Kingston I can take seriously. Ian Somerholder, not so much.
• Because it creates drama! Can't have a show without drama!
• Roy's back. Yay.
• He called the club Verde? Did I hear that right?
• Significantly nerve-wracking?
• Well Olly looks disappointed.
• Awkward...
• Gee, confrontations are fun.
• Saw that coming a little bit.
• Much smoother liar than Olly.
• Oh! Verdant! Not as green referencing as I thought. I'm slightly disappointed.
• Don't know why you thought he'd be the same when he got back anyway, Tommy.
• Always a pertinent question...
• Gonna blow that puppy up.
• When in doubt, hit it.
• Does Olly keep calling her "Speedy" or "Sweetie"?
• And apparently he doesn't even get a mention during that scene.
• Even simulated clubs on TV give me a headache.
• Angry Olly is scary Olly.
• He didn't do anything to try and stop her in the first place...
• And Felicity meets Helena and instantly gets shot down.
• This again?
• He's a really good shot.
• Because it's not his secret, Laurel. You should really just tell her that.
• Cute, Roy, real cute.
• This is where Roy gets to be the hero.
• If he's quipping, he's probably okay.
• Car chase time.
• Of course Olly got the decoy. It wouldn't be fun otherwise.
• She looks a bit Catwoman with that mask.
• Apparently that eye-makeup came off easily, but just enough to leave tasteful eye-makeup.
• Starling City has a bar instead of a metal look for the handcuffs.
• Hello breakout.
• I'm sure the teen-girls are being all "OMG, his shirt is off!"
• Nice, Thea.
• So why send her to Rome, then?
• Oh hey, that B-story/flashback thing...
• So now Olly's gonna break up with McKenna...
• Or not.
• Good girl, Felicity.
• Hello really obvious plot-thing.
• Gee, that's a nice way to greet people who come into a semi-public office, even if it turned out to be Diggle.
• Helena vs Olly. Fun fun.
• That was an awesome jump, there.
• McKenna's probably going to get seriously hurt here.
• Nice, she caught it.
• You were being a bad guy, of course he'd have killed you.
• Called it!
• And now Olly's all broken up about it.
• And there's the break up, 'cept she's breaking up with him.
• Good on you, Detective Lance.
• Yup, that sucks... and really, being in a relationship does not make you automatically happy.
• Apparently their mistake is not looking close to where they are.

Gaiaonline Easter Event

It has officially begun! The war for or against cute is... interesting, but not nearly as fun as it could have been. There's essentially a lot of thread-spamming and egg-hunting. Egg-hunting is... difficult without a list of eggs. I'm having fun with it, anyway.

Love ya, Jessie.