Supernatural 'Into The Mystic' Review

This review WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS for the episode to be discussed, if you do not want certain plot points or story spoilt for you, please do not read further.

After a couple of main story heavy episodes Supernatural takes a break from the Darkness story to give us one of the shows infamously fun monster of the week episodes.  At eleven seasons in the series knows how to deliver these great stand alone episodes, and this week's offering doesn't disappoint.

The episode opens with a flashback to thirty years in the past, where we see a family attacked and killed by this weeks guest monster, a Banshee.  As usual Supernatural has decided to do their own version of a classic creature from mythology, and their version of the Banshee is definitely an interesting one.  The Banshee's victim is the only person who can hear her famous scream, and the scream drives those who hear it to bash their own brains out in order to make it stop, allowing her to come along and feast on the contents of their skulls.  It's an interesting and fairly unique depiction, even if the special effects aren't quite up to standard.

Jumping forwards to the present day and the Banshee has taken to hunting for victims in a retirement home not far from the Winchester Bunker, encouraging our heroes to go along to find out what's happening, expecting to encounter a vengeful spirit.

Whilst searching the retirement home Dean manages to make something of an impression on Mildred, one of the residents, who takes a shine to Dean and flirts shamelessly with him.  Whilst the brothers believe Mildred to be the Banshee's next victim she isn't relegated to the 'elderly victim' stereotype, seemingly taking the events in her stride and finding the time to joke and flirt with Dean some more.  The interactions between the two of them are fun and lighthearted, and the show doesn't stoop to reducing Dean to being disturbed by having an older woman flirting with him as some others would, instead having the character taking it in his stride and even teasing the audience that if he wasn't on a case he and Mildred may very well have ended up doing something.

Elsewhere Sam makes a connection with a deaf member of the cleaning staff, Eileen, who it turns out is another hunter undercover, and the baby from the start of the episode.  Sam and Eileen share some very sweet emotional moments together as Eileen describes what it's like hunting a monster that killed her family whilst she was just a baby, a family she doesn't even know outside of a few photographs.  This instantly bonds the two, as Sam went through a very similar experience.  It's also great to see that Sam knows a little sign language and even tries to use it to speak with Eileen, despite not being all that good at it.

Elsewhere in the episode we get to see what Lucifer is up to in Castiel's body, and it's not really anything that bad, surprisingly.  The first time we see Lucifer (Luciel?) he's just hanging out in a park, enjoying the pleasant weather, watching a family play.  Not exactly what we'd expect from the devil.  Things only change when Lucifer is confronted by another angel who recognises who he is.  Lucifer tries to avoid violence, but when the angel attacks him Lucifer makes him explode in a shower of blood.  

We also find Lucifer going through the files in the Winchester Bunker looking for information on Amara and how to draw her out.  Being interrupted by Dean Lucifer manages to put on a convincing Castiel impression and is able to get away without Dean learning who he really is.  The two of them share a heart to heart moment and Dean reveals his connection to Amara, giving Lucifer a choice piece of information to use.

It's quite surprising that so far it would seem that Lucifer was telling the truth, that he's given up his thoughts of world domination, for now at least, and actually seems to want to fight against and stop The Darkness.  I'm sure that things won't be that simple, and I don't trust Lucifer at all, but so far if he has another scheme up his sleeve the show runners aren't giving anything away yet.

'Into The Mystic' is a great example of a standalone episode that combines monster of the week, whilst still giving us tiny pieces of the season arc.  It's an episode that gives us a new and creepy monster, but also gives us enough fun interactions and laugh out loud moments.  Supernatural has always had this great ability to produce incredibly dark episodes alongside ridiculously funny ones, and hopefully they will continue to recognise that we need these light episodes every now and then.

Amy.

xx

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Arrow 'A.W.O.L.' Review

This review WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS for the episode to be discussed, if you do not want certain plot points or story spoilt for yourself, please do not read further.

One of the biggest flaws with Arrow is the extended characters not getting enough time to explore their own stories, with much of what they go through just becoming part of Oliver's bigger story.  Thankfully, with 'A.W.O.L.' we get an episode all about Diggle and Felicity, with actually very little screen time given over to the shows lead compared to normal.  

Felicity's story this episode focuses on the fallout of her being injured by Darhk, taking the time to explore how the loss of the use of her legs is effecting her directly, rather and seeing this through Oliver's eyes.

Felicity doubts herself, she doubts her usefulness to the rest of the team and even considers giving up on her mission, a big step considering that she was the one who wanted to rejoin Team Arrow when she and Oliver had a new life for themselves.  The kind and fun Felicity we'd come to know over the last few years was gone, at least for a while, instead replaced with someone who was having to face the serious repercussions of her choice to be a hero.  She'd seen the fallout of Oliver's mission in the past, seen friends hurt before, but this time it feels like it finally hit her just how serious things can get taking on villains like Darhk.

Over the course of the episode Felicity faces these internal demons and finds the strength to rejoin the fight, finding a confidence and strength in herself without the need of Oliver or any of her friends to do it.  Whilst some people will surely complain that things were resolved fairly quickly, that this story could have played out over the course of many episodes, or even the rest of the season, it was already fairly apparent just how dependent on Felicity Team Arrow had become and how much her absence would effect the show.  

Sadly, Felicity coming to terms with the events of her attack meant that she was having hallucinations of her old self, the goth version of Felicity we got to know last year.  I think her back story from the last time we saw goth Felicity was a pretty poor one, and this just reminded me of that.  Plus, the younger version of Felicity didn't exactly feel like another version of Felicity, but more like a completely different character.  This made the scenes where Felicity was hallucinating feel less like a character talking to themselves to find a resolution as Felicity just talking to someone else, and if the show runners wanted that the scenes could have been better served with Laurel or Thea in the hallucinations place.

Thankfully, 'A.W.O.L.' gave us two supporting character stories this week, and the second was definitely the stronger of the two.  The evil organisation Shadowspire appears in Star City, and thanks to some shady goings on with ARGUS and Amanda Waller Lyla and Diggle get drawn into events.

We get to see more from Diggle and Andy this episode when it becomes apparent that the two brothers have a connection to Shadowspire in their military past, and this also gives us a break from the Oliver flashbacks too.  Whilst the Andy/Diggle flashbacks aren't particularly illuminating as to the characters pasts, it just showing us things that we know about the two of them already from dialogue, it does bring up an interesting connection to Oliver's story on Lian Yu as it is revealed that Andy was indirectly working for Baron Reiter.

The Diggle/Andy story is a fun break from the overarching Darhk story and gives us some good development with the two characters, even resulting in Andy proving that he's out of Darhks control and can be trusted again, moving in to live with Diggle and Lyla.  Getting to see Lyla again was also a welcome treat as she continues to be one of the better recurring characters the show has in its back pocket to bring out every now and then.

One character we did lose this week though turned out to be Amanda Waller.  Whilst her death came suddenly and took audience members by surprise it was something that we should have really been expecting.  With the upcoming 'Suicide Squad' film using Waller her departure from the Arrowverse seemed to be a long time coming, after all, they killed off Deadshot for the same reason.  Might we be seeing Katana again just so that the writers can kill her too?

The inclusion of a codename for Felicity came slightly out of the blue this week too, after three and a half seasons without one the writers suddenly felt the need to give her a name to use in the field, Overwatch.  The name's a bit lame if I'm being honest, and the fact that it came accompanied by a crappy joke about Oracle already being taken feels like the whole concept of the Overwatch name was done simply for those fans who would jump straight to the idea of her being Oracle simply because she's in a wheelchair and uses computers.

Whilst 'A.W.O.L.' is definitely a filler episode it's a thoroughly entertaining one, and one that gives some of the shows more loved side characters the chance to explore their own stories rather than having them squeezed into other episodes.  Hopefully the series will continue to give it's supporting cast this kind of care and attention in the future.

Amy.

xx

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The Flash 'The Reverse-Flash Returns' Review

This review WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS for the episode to be discussed, if you do not want certain plot points or story spoilt for you please do not read further.

The end of the last episode of 'The Flash' gave audiences a shock as season one villain The Reverse-Flash made a dramatic return following his apparent death at the end of the last season.  Viewers were left with many questions, was this the same man from the end of season one, was this a Reverse-Flash from earlier in his timeline, or was this another Earth-2 counterpart?

Luckily fans didn't have to wait long to get their answers as those questions were quickly answered.  This was the same Reverse-Flash that we knew and loved/hated from season one, but a long time before he experienced those events.  One of the many beauties of telling a time travel story we get to revisit one of the shows best characters and tell their origin story, even after having them as a central character for more than 20 episodes already.

It's not long after arriving in 2016 that Eobard Thawn, the Reverse-Flash of the title, is discovered by team Flash, thanks to some handy vibing by Cisco (more on that later) and becomes their target.  It was to be expected that the return of Thawn would open a lot of old wounds in our heroes, after everything he'd done in the past it would be impossible not to, but none more-so than Barry and Cisco.

Even after seeming to have some kind of resolution at the beginning of the season, thanks to the message left by the older version of Reverse-Flash that saw Henry Allen freed from prison, it would appear that the pain Thawn caused Barry is still extremely raw.

The best emotional moments of the episode comes not from Barry though, but Cisco and the return of Iris' mother.  The West family are given the chance to show that they are more than just a part of team Flash and a surrogate family for Barry as they had drama of their own to deal with this week as Francine lays dying in hospital.  We get some beautifully written and acted scenes from Iris as she prepares for the death of a mother she should hate, but manages to find a way to love in some small way.

The impending death of Francine also helps to bring Wally further into the family, as he discovers that he needs the help of his big sister in order to find the strength to say goodbye to the only family he has ever known up until that point.  The West story doesn't tie into the Reverse-Flash story in any way, and is better for it.  It's given its own space in order to play out naturally and mean a little something, rather than being part of so supervillain story.

The person who tied into Reverse-Flash's story the most was, surprisingly, Cisco.  Whilst Thawn betrayed and hurt a lot of people in the first season one of the people who suffered the most was undoubtedly Cisco.  Barry lost his mother, Caitlin lost her fiancé, but Cisco was actually killed, and even though those events were wiped out when Barry changed the timeline Cisco can still remember it thanks to his powers.  He can remember what it felt like when the Reverse-Flash vibrated his hand into Cisco's chest and burst his heart.  That's something that will undoubtedly leave a mark on someone.

The scene where Cisco gets to confront the younger version of the man that killed him is a powerful one, and Carlos Valdes does a fantastic job in portraying the myriad of emotions that Cisco is going through.  You get to see the sense of triumph and joy at helping to catch Thawn, you get to see the sadness of him confronting a man who he once say as a father figure, and you can see the trauma of someone coming face to face with the man that hurt him in a way no one else ever has.  It's not an easy scene to do, there's so much going on that it's a surprise that Valdes pulls it off so well, but this easily becomes one of the stand out moments in the episode.

Unfortunately for team Flash things never go as planned and they ultimately have to free Thawn, and help him to return to his home time of the 25th century.  With everything that Thawn comes to learn in this episode, that he eventually dies in the 21st century, that he helped to give Cisco powers and his brief encounter with Harry it raises some questions as to whether or not these events were always meant to happen.  Did the Thawn we see in season one also travel to this point and live these events too?  And if so, and he knew that he was going to die in this time period, could that mean that the Reverse-Flash from season one have somehow prepared for the events of the finale and not actually be gone?

A sad development for the viewers this week though was the loss of fan favourite Patty Spivot.  Patty was a great character, and she was written wonderfully and played in such an amazing way by Shantel VanSanten, but she was always doomed from the beginning.  We all know that Barry and Iris are destined to end up together, the show told us that in the first episode, so we all knew that Barry and Patty would only be a passing thing, however, the way the show used the character and the way that VanSanten played her made me genuinely sad to see her go.  She's more than proven that she could fit into the cast dynamic already, she's charming and sweet, funny and smart, and willing to run into danger for the right reasons.  I think the show will be poorer for her loss, but sadly her fate was already set.

My one criticism for what would be an almost perfect episode of 'The Flash' would be the scenes involving Jay and Caitlin.  Don't get me wrong, these weren't bad scenes, not at all.  They added to the unfolding Jay Garrick story, they gave us a nice nod to the comics by making his Earth-1 counterpart Hunter Zolomon, but it felt to me that these scenes could have been better in another episode, where they could be given more time to themselves.  The writers clearly have an idea where they're going with Jay and Caitlin, and write some great scenes with the two of them, but they keep getting put into episodes that already have a lot of things happening in them.  Give Jay the time and spotlight the character deserves rather than squeezing his scenes in.  He's the original Flash, he deserves that much at least.

All in all 'The Reverse-Flash Returns' is a great episode of 'The Flash' that gets to show just how fun and funny yet emotionally hard hitting the show can be.  I can't wait until we get to meet Eobard Thawn again.

Amy.

xx

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Legends of Tomorrow 'Pilot Part 2' Review

This review WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS for the episode to be discussed, if you do not want certain plot points or story spoilt for you, please do not read further.

The second half of the pilot story for the new CW superhero show 'Legends of Tomorrow' takes all of the good moments from the first episode and adds to it, taking the time to address some of the criticism that people had about the first half and showing that despite being a show made up of recurring sideline characters and one off guest stars 'Legends of Tomorrow' definitely has the chops to stand side by side with both 'Arrow' and 'Flash' as a great show in it's own rights.

Whilst part one was light on action part two give not only one big action set piece, but two, with big scale fights that not only bookend the show nicely, but eclipse what it's parent shows have been able to do in the past.  We've got the fistfighting and martial arts of 'Arrow', the super powers and spectacle of 'Flash', but here it's all thrown in together with multiple heroes all battling on screen at the same time.

The first fight scene of the episode displayed just how grand and dynamic this show can be, with a team of variously skilled and powered characters fighting together.  Yes, 'Arrow' has become a team show, but it's a team consisting of two archers, a street fighter and a marksman, it's not very visually dynamic.  Here, however, we have Firestorm flying around shooting blasts of nuclear energy whilst White Canary stick fights terrorists.  You see a miniaturized Atom zipping around a hanger throwing people around before returning to normal size to beat the crap out of people.  Captain Cold and Heatwave fight back to back with streams of fire and ice, looks of pure joy on their faces, while Hawkman and Hawkgirl swoop in and beat the crap out of people with medieval weaponry.

It's big, flashy and it's a feast for the eyes.  It also gives us a little cameo from Damian Darhk, the current 'Arrow' villain, that raises some interesting questions for that show, such as how has Damian Darhk not aged in 40 year?

This single action scene gives us something that has been lacking from every other superhero show we've had, a team of people all doing different things in spectacular fashion.  It felt more akin to small screen Avengers rather than a regular comic book show.

The second action sequence went on to show that this kind of action wasn't just a one off though, as it threw the entire cast into the fight, this time will Rip Hunter and his amazing laser revolver (have I said how much I love that gun already?!) and a change in visual style as we get a closer quarters night fight.  The visual difference to the early daylight hanger fight makes a good contrast and makes sure that it doesn't feel dull or a straight copy of what we'd seen already.

Despite the addition of two big action sequences the show also managed to continue to deliver great character moments and some time travel hijinks, along with some serious emotional moments.

We get to see Professor Stein, Jackson and Sarah track down a younger version of Stein in order to get their hands on some tech the young scientist was developing, and get some fun Back To The Future moments as they struggle to achieve their goal without interrupting the timeline and stopping the younger Stein from going on to meet his future wife.  Once again we get to see the fragility of the timeline as Steins wedding ring vanishes from his finger, erasing his marriage from future events.  Thankfully with some help from Rip things get nudged back onto the right course and Steins past is repaired.

These scenes are great to watch, as they not only go to show just how much Professor Stein loves his wife, despite leaving her to go have adventures through time, but we also get some fun moments from Sarah.  The back and forwards banter with Stein and Sarah, and her being high yet cocky enough to still be able to beat up a bunch of terrorists shows us that maybe being on this unlikely team really is a good thing for her after what she went through on 'Arrow', and just what she needs to start to rebuild and enjoy her life.

Elsewhere we get to see a little more of Captain Cold too (something I'm always happy about) as he and Heatwave get teamed up with Atom on a heist.  Whilst I'm starting to like the Atom less and less with his very cocky and self righteous attitude he does get knocked down a few pegs by Cold, a man that he sees as being beneath him, which will hopefully go towards some positive character development.  We also get to see that unlike Heatwave, who's in this purely for the money, Cold might actually have a bit more depth to him, that maybe he does on some level really want to be a hero and change his destiny.

The biggest moment in the episode is once again the emotionally shocking one, as Vandal Savage murders Hawkman right in front of Hawkgirl.  No sooner had Carter helped Kendra remember a key part of her first life, and that she does deeply love him, then he's snatched away from her by Savage in a rather brutal scene.  I didn't expect any team deaths at this point of the show, or even at all really, so the sudden departure of Carter was definitely a shock.

It might be an easy choice, or even a cheat by the writers to chose him as the first man to go down, as they could in theory find another version of Hawkman from further in the future, but I hope they don't.  Kendra lost her son and her lover in a single day, and the effect of that should not be lessened by bringing another version of Hawkman into the show.  Let's have her dealing with that loss, with that anger and sadness without taking it away.  Plus it will give her a chance to interact with the other members
of the team, which so far hasn't happened yet.

The second half of the pilot really shows what 'Legends of Tomorrow' is capable of, fun and entertaining characters, big emotional scenes and some of the best super hero action on television.  Anyone who doubted the shows ability to stand up on it's own or break away from its parent shows will surely have their minds changed by the end of this episode.


Amy.

xx

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Legends of Tomorrow 'Pilot Part 1' Review

This review WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS for the episode to be discussed, if you do not want certain plot points or story spoilt for you, please do not read further.

The latest show based on the popular DC Comics line, and newest member to the CW's Arrowverse, is the superhero team based 'Legends of Tomorrow'.  'Legends of Tomorrow' is an ensemble show featuring a roster of side characters from both 'Arrow' and 'The Flash', brought together by newcomer Rip Hunter, played by Doctor Who's Arthur Darvill.

The basic premise for the show follows Rip Hunter, time traveller and former member of the Time Masters, as he recruits a special team to travel through time and defeat the immortal villain Vandal Savage to save the future of the human race, and Hunters family.

The team consists of billionaire inventor and vigilante Ray Palmer/The Atom (played by Brandon Routh), former assassin Sarah Lance/White Canary (Caity Lotz), both halves of the nuclear superhero Firestorm (Victor Garber as Professor Stein and Franz Drameh as Jefferson Jackson), the villains Leonard Snart/Captain Cold (Wentworth Miller) and Mick Rory/Heatwave (Dominic Purcell), along with the reincarnated Egyptian lovers Hawkman and Hawkgirl (Falk Hentschel as Carter Hall and Ciara Renee as Kendra Saunders).

Despite being initially told by Hunter that they were chosen because in their future not only would they be heroes (including the two members of Flash's Rogues Gallery) but because they'd be legends.  Unfortunately this turns out to be not exactly true, as Hunter reluctantly reveals to the group that the real reason he picked them was not only their skill sets, but the fact that if things go wrong and they die very little will actually happen to the timeline.  Rather than having the effect of knocking the team back though, this actually goes on to inspire them, to get them to want to change their fates and becomes the legends that they were told they could be.  Well, except for Captain Cold and Heatwave, who are just out to grab some expensive loot from various time periods.

Whilst the first good portion of the episode is focused on the bringing together of the team, the rest of the episode shifts the action to 1975, where the team go looking for clues to Vandal Savage's location.  Rip Hunter takes Professor Stein, Ray Palmer and the Hawks to track down Dr Aldus Boardman, an expert on Vandal Savage, who eagle eyed fans will remember from the Flash/Arrow crossover that introduced the characters of Savage and the Hawks.
In an unexpected turn of events Dr Boardman turns out to be the son of Hawkman and Hawkgirl from one of their past lives, who were murdered by savage when Boardman was just ten years old.  This is something of a welcome addition to the episode, as it not only helps to add some depth to both the the history of Vandal Savage and the Hawks, but it gives some emotion over to what could have been a fairly standard 'adventure in time' story.  It gives Ciara Renee a chance to stretch her wings (no pun intended) as far as her acting goes, where despite having no memory of that life or Dr. Boardman, she instantly feels a maternal instinct towards him and cares about him.

Unfortunately, it's through Dr. Boardman that both the audience and the characters learn a valuable lesson about time travel, that it's not something to be done lightly.  Upon learning that he will be found dead the next day Kendra and Carter insist on bringing Boardman with them.  Despite some reluctance, Hunter agrees to take him along with them.  Sadly, before they can even get to The Waverider (Hunter's timeship) Boardman is killed by a time travelling bountyhunter called Chronos.  Whether this is how Boardman was always destined to die, or if it's the timeline trying to 'fix' Carter and Kendra trying to change things is left unclear, but it shows that certain things will happen no matter what, which raises some questions as to the possible success of the whole plan to change the future.

Elsewhere the episode is given some levity as Captain Cold, Heatwave and White Canary chose to ditch The Waverider and hit a bar.  Their drinking session quickly turns into a bar room brawl where we get to see that despite the hero/villain division at least some of these characters can get along quite well.  The fight is quick, but well orchestrated, and made me see just how Cold and Heatwave might fit into a team made up of heroes.  As usual it helps that Wentworth Miller just seems to absolutely love playing Captain Cold, hamming up his performance in an almost over the top way, yet making the character massively endearing.  I'm hoping that we get to see a lot more of these kind of fun moments from the ensembled cast.

The standout moment of the first episode definitely goes to Arthur Darvill though.  Despite being introduced as a confident gun wielding time agent (and just for the record, his laser gun revolver is so awesome I'm already eagerly awaiting the toy version) it's the moment where we get to see his humanity that really stands out.  Once the team finds out that he lied to them about their futures he lets his guard down, he tells the team that he's no longer a Time Master, that he's essentially on the run and after revenge against Savage for brutally killing his wife and son.  

This moment could have been a bad one, it could have felt forced and cheesy, Darvill delivers it with such a genuine and understated performance that it feels very real.  It makes Rip Hunter less of an arrogant jerk and a man that our legends are willing to follow.  It's the scene that brings together a collection of people and starts to make them into a team.

Over all this is probably the best pilot episode that the CW has produced for their DC shows, and it's still not even finished yet.  Hopefully the second part of the pilot will try to pack in a little more action to even out the slowness of the first half, and hopefully without losing the character moments and emotion that we've been given already.

Amy.

xx

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75,000 Hits!

Wow!  I never expected to get to this point,75,000 hits on my little blog!  Thank you to everyone who has visited, to everyone who has subscribed and everyone who has shared my work with others.

I would have never reached this milestone without your support.  You're all amazing!

Thank you so much.

Amy.

xx

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Maria Miller Shocked By Trans Report Hostility From Feminists

Maria Miller, former Culture Secretary and Chair of the Women and Equalities Committee spoke to The Independent on Sunday to discuss her shock at the negative response to the Trans Inquiry from a 'minority of women purporting to be feminists'.

Talking to The Independent on Sunday from her offices in Westminster, Miss Miller said that she was expecting to be attacked from within her own party by right-wingers once the Trans Inquiry was published, but was surprised by the reaction she received.

'The only negative reaction that I've seen has been from individuals purporting to be feminists', she said.

Just a quick glance at Twitter reveals that there has indeed been a negative reaction towards the Trans Inquiry, and Maria Miller, from people who are raising concerns over the notion of allowing people they view as men into women's spaces.

Maria Miller has been accused of exposing women to 'violent men hiding behind the mask of being transgender', she has been told that trans women are 'not real women' and that they are often 'violent offenders or sex offenders'.  She has been told that she is a 'traitor' to women and that she is failing in her duty to protect women.

Despite these vocal disagreements from certain sections of the feminist community Maria Miller has refused to back down from her position and has painted a target for hate and abuse on herself by insisting that these views are not only wrong, but that they go against the very notion of feminism.  She even went on to point out research by the Fawcett Society, a think tank campaigning for women's rights, that says that roughly two-thirds of feminists believe that gender is fluid, rather than binary.

'I think that all of us who are feminists know that equality for other groups of people, and a fairer deal for other groups of people, is good for us as well.  If we live in a fairer society, where opportunities are not cut off because of your gender or sexuality or race or religion, then it's going to be good for women as well as good for everyone else.'  She said.

'We should be fighting for a fairer society.  I find it extraordinary that somebody wouldn't acknowledge that.  But there seems to be an undercurrent of opinion amongst some that trans people shouldn't be treated equally, even when they've had a legal change in their gender, and that in some way is a threat to women; I simply reject that.'


Amy.

xx

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Supernatural 'Devil In The Details' Review

This review WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS for the episode to be discussed, if you do not want certain plot points or story spoilt for you, please do not read further.

With the way that Supernatural left off at the Christmas break the show needed to step up and deliver something awesome to be able to compete with their cliffhanger, and boy does 'Devil In The Details deliver.

In an episode that explores the eleven seasons long mythology and manages to give us brand new and interesting stuff, the opening episode of the second half of the season delivers some laugh out loud moments, genuine tension, great character moments and a twist ending that will leave viewers picking their jaw up off the floor.

The episode opens with a bizarre and surreal scene as Crowley, acting like a child, opens his presents of Christmas morning as a depressed looking Rowena looks on.  It's only when Lucifer, dressed as Santa gatecrashes that we realise this is a dream, or as Rowena laments a recurring nightmare, and we discover this is how Lucifer began to communicate with her from within the cage, organising the whole scheme to trap Sam with him.  It's a throw away scene, despite showing us an important piece of the puzzle, but succeeds in the way that it delivers what has become a staple comedy scene of Supernatural, in which we get a little fourth wall breaking as Crowley gets a Sam Funkopop for Christmas.

Back in the real world Dean searches for confirmation that heaven were able to kill Amara with the equivalent of an Angel Nuke, where we discover that smiting from heaven causes a fallout that can kill humans, leaving Castiel as the only member of the team who can reach the blast point and discover Amara's fate.

In Hell Lucifer starts to take Sam on a tour down memory lane to try and make the point that Sam and Dean have gone soft, that the days where they'd be willing to do whatever it took to save the world had passed in an attempt to get Sam to agree to let Lucifer use him as a vessel in order to fight the Darkness.  I can't help but feel that in some ways Lucifer has a point, that in the past Sam would have agreed to let Lucifer in in order to beat the even bigger bad, but the characters have moved on since those days and matured, knowing when not to make those kinds of choices.  Unfortunately not everyone knows when not to make those stupid mistakes. 

Castiel agrees to let Lucifer use him as a vessel in order to fight Amara, in a move that strikes me as massively stupid and immature.  You'd think by now Castiel would have enough experience with the Winchesters to know that that kind of choice is definitely going to come back to bite them all in the arse.  Can we fully blame the character though, is it because he apparently hasn't learnt anything?  Or is it perhaps because the writers still don't know what to do with the character?

That being said, it's a hell of a development.  It gives the season a whole new and interesting angle, it raises the tension and it makes things incredibly uncertain.  Will Lucifer be true to his word to help fight the Darkness, and even if he does, what will the Winchesters do to get the Devil out of their friend.

Once the cat is out of the bag, for the audience and Crowley at least, Misha Collins is amazing in his new role.  The second his facial expression and body language change it feels like Mark Pellegrino on screen.  They way he acts and the way he talks if spot on and you can tell it's instantly the Devil in a Castiel suit.  

The biggest shame with this twist is that the first thing Devileil does is to kill Rowena, in a move that has sadly become a standard for Supernatural, killing of interesting female side characters.  Yes, I know that some of you might say that's not true, but think about it, Lilith, Ruby, Ellen, Jo, Meg, Charlie, Bela, Hannah, Anna, Naomi, the second Raphael and Abbadon, all killed off over the years in a pattern of Supernatural not giving interesting side characters a real chance to stay around.  It's why I get scared every time Jodie Mills turns up because I'm worried they'll kill her off, and now they've gone and done it to Rowena too.

Other than that one gripe the show comes back to the air in a strong episode that plays true to the characters, introduces some new mythology as well as taking a look back at the history of our main characters.  The twist with Lucifer is one of the more interesting things the show has done and sets the stage for some interesting new story lines to come.

Amy.

xx

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Arrow 'Blood Debts' Review

This review WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS for the episode to be discussed, if you do not want certain plot points or story spoilt, please do not read further.

After an exciting and action packed mid-season finale Arrow returns to the screen with an episode that never really rises above being anything more than just average, despite trying it's hardest to feel like it's being something more.

The episode begins with another flash forward to Oliver and Barry (Allen, the Flash) at a grave four months in the future.  With the attack on Oliver and Felicity at the end of the last episode that left Felicity bleeding in Ollie's arms I'm guessing the show wanted to momentarily fool audiences into believing that it could be Felicity in the grave.  Unfortunately, this seemed to be such an obvious red herring that it all but confirmed to me that she would survive her wounds from the mid-season finale.

Unfortunately, if the Arrow show runners wanted people to genuinely feel worried about Felicity they seemed to be completely unable to do so, as we soon saw her in hospital, awake and talking to her friends.  There was none of the usual 'life in danger' type of hospital scenes where doctors fight to keep her alive.  It all felt very anticlimactic and almost a waste of a plot that she would be so quickly be shown to be in a stable condition.

This lack of drama with Felicity was felt elsewhere too, as Oliver's anger felt a little watered down as he went on a rampage, attacking Ghosts to try and find Damian Darhk.  Yes, his fiancee had been hospitalised and he was angry, but I couldn't help but feel that there could have been more emotional impact from his actions if there was still risk that he might lose Felicity completely.  These scenes just never felt like they had that extra punch they could have, it came across as very flat and dull.

Whilst the whole episode could have easily be given over to Ollie and Team Arrow searching for Darhk they instead decided to bring back an old foe to shake things up a little, and the episode definitely benefited from it.  Lonnie Machin, Anarky, who was last seen escaping from police custody in the back of an ambulance after being set on fire by Thea earlier this season.

The reintroduction of Anarky added an extra dimension to the story, as it showed that Team Arrow have to deal with other criminals all the time, not just when there are lulls in the main story.  It makes things feel slightly more organic, that in the middle of a hunt for Darhk, in the middle of the Felicity drama they still have to worry about other costumed villains too.

The Anarky story took an interesting turn too, when instead of wanting revenge on Thea for almost killing him, Lonnie instead developed a rather unhealthy admiration of her, even going so far as thanking her for setting him on fire.  Instead, his revenge was focused purely on Damian Darhk and Hive.

It adds something a little different instead of being the run of the mill 'villain wants revenge on the hero' trope that a lot of shows have, unfortunately so far Anarky has done very little, which is a shame for a character that's very well established in the comics.  The Arrowverse version of Anarky doesn't feel enough like the comic book counterpart, and doesn't even live up to his namesake.  Perhaps this is all part of something bigger, perhaps the show runners are building Anarky up to be an actual threat, or at least someone who causes anarky.  I hope that's the case, because so far I feel that his role in the series could have been played by any villain or random thug/enforcer.

Despite the episode having multiple focuses, Ollie and Felicity, Anarky and Thea, even John beating the crap out of his brother to get info out of him, it had time to squeeze some more Damian Darhk confrontation into the mix, as he and Ollie face off again.  

It's a strange fight that ensues, on the one hand Darhk almost killed Felicity, and Darhk wants to kill Oliver, but then Ollie had just saved Darhks family too.  You can see that both characters want to kill each other, but both of them feel reluctant to do so.  It creates a strange moment as viewers were expecting a big showdown, but the show chose not to deliver.  The people behind Arrow have said that this season they're going to do something big and different with their villain, something shocking, and maybe this is helping to build towards that, but it just felt jarring as the conclusion to this episode.  Maybe Ollie was less reluctant to fight him just after saving his wife and daughter, but after that happened to Felicity I find it strange that he would not try to kill the man responsible. 

Speaking of Damian's wife, it would appear that she's more than just his wife.  Instead of the innocent wife who has no idea her husband is a villain, or the wife who knows her husband breaks the law but believes he's not a bad person she seems to be 100% absolutely aware of everything.  She even appears to be the one getting Darhk to do the things he's doing.  Is this the twist the shows teasing us with?  Is Darhks wife going to turn out to be the big villain of the season instead of him?

The episode ends where it began, four months down the line, at the side of the grave of someone that is clearly massively important to Oliver.  Whilst people have been trying to guess the identity of the graves occupant for months they can now officially scratch Felicity off the list as we see that she is alive and well.  What raises more questions though is the moment she tells Oliver to kill the person responsible for the death of [insert identity here].  Who would have that kind of reaction from both Oliver and Felicity?  Guess we still have to wait to see who's going to be killed off this season.

Despite some strange story choices and an overall lack of tension the episode still manages to pull itself together at the end and adds to the overall season arc, and gives each character a small moment to shine, even Felicity's mother and Quentin Lance get a great little moment when caught by Laurel.  Whilst this episode could have been much bigger and better then it was at least it wasn't a total disappointment.

Amy.

xx

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Jeremy Clarkson Insults Trans Community, Attacks Parents of Trans Children

Former disgraced Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson has attacked the transgender community in his latest column for the Sunday Times, a column that has since been removed from their website.

Clarkson begins his attack on the trans community by claiming that the struggles of transgender community have been over exaggerated, and that left-wing activists 'have decided that we must now turn our attention to the plight of people who want to change their name from Stan to Loretta'.

'As far as I was concerned, men who want to be women were only really to be found on the internet or in the seedier bits of Bangkok.  They were called Ladyboys, and in my mind they were nothing more than a punchline in a stag night anecdote.'

Frighteningly, after these comments Clarkson went on to tell a story about how he wanted to personally abuse the parents of a transgender child at an eight-year-old's birthday party, 'She was born a boy  but had insisted from the age of three that she had a girls name and wore girls clothes, and later, she went to a girls school.  And her parents had simply indulged this whim.  I was horrified.  I wanted to seek them out and explain that they are free to live a lunatic life, washing their armpits with charcoal and liking Jeremy Corbyn's thoughts on how ballistic nuclear submarines must be built by the comrades and then used as flowerpots.  They must not, and I was going to emphasise this with spittle, be allowed to poison the mind of a child.'

'It's what kids do: dream impossible dreams.  You don't actually take them seriously.  You don't take them to a hospital when they're 10 and say 'He wants to be a girl, so can you lop his todger off?'  Because what's going to happen five years later when he's decided that being a man isn't so bad after all and he's in the showers at the rugby club?'

Clarkson also went on to mock the idea of transgender prisoners, a particularly insulting thing to do following the deaths of a number of trans inmates last year, before denying official figures on trans issues.  'I was told there are 650,000 people living in Britain today with some kind of gender 'issue'.  Well, I just sat there shaking my head, because the simple fact is: there aren't'.

The kinds of comments made by Clarkson are the inane, hate filled dribblings of an idiot so desperate for public attention that they will say anything in order to get the spotlight shined on them.  Clarkson has a history of saying homophobic, racist and mysoginistic comments that most people would have expected that it would only be a matter of time before he turned his bigotry towards the transgender community.

His comments have been met with outrage online, with thousands taking to twitter to condemn the things he said, to point out where his facts are woefully wrong and ignorant of scientific data, and where he's being just a downright disgusting human being.

Clarkson feels that children being allowed to live as their true selves and transition are somehow being harmed, and that their parents are 'poisoning' their minds.  The sad truth is that this is not the case, children are born trans, whether parents want it or not, which is evident by the number of young trans people who do not have the support of their parents.  Perhaps Clarkson is unfamiliar with these cases though, and assumes that trans children aren't put through psychological and physical torment by parents who don't support them, perhaps he's unaware of the number of trans children who self harm, the number of trans children who take their own lives because they have no support of parents.  I guess in his mind these statistics simply don't exist, because then his whole view of trans people would quickly fall apart.

Clarkson admits that he likes to view trans people as a punchline, or some dirty sexual object that is best left hidden from sight.  He laughs at our dead, condemns those who want to help and support us and denies our issues are even real.  He even goes on to deny our existence by claiming that government figures outlining how many trans people there are in the UK are lies.

Jeremy Clarkson is a dinosaur.  He's a man stuck living in the past because he's too afraid of the better world around him, a world where a straight, white man like himself, with homophobic, sexist and racist views isn't idolised, where he's held accountable for the things he says and does.  Remember, this is a man who threatened to have someone sacked, then punched them because he couldn't have some hot food when he got back from the pub.  That's the kind of disgusting person Clarkson is.

As said previously in the article, the comments made by Clarkson have already been removed from the Sunday Times website, so they at least understand that the comments made were wrong and have taken them down.  Has there been an apology for it being published in the first place though?  No.  Does there appear to be any consequence for Clarkson's actions this time?  Again, no.

A petition has already been launched to have Clarkson fired from his new show being produced by Amazon.

Amy.

xx

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