King Shark, Captain Cold, And Cheetah (?!) Are Not Enough To Save "Infantino Street"

The Good: Good performances, Special effects
The Bad: Forced H.R. plotline, Huge continuity issues, Disturbing lack of attention to detail.
The Basics: "Infantino Street" is a real mixed bag for fans of The Flash with a delightful return for Leonard Snart and huge problems with continuity.


The Flash has had a rocky third season and as it races to its climax, it faces a tough overlap with Legends Of Tomorrow. At the climax of the second season of Legends Of Tomorrow, the temporal remnant of Leonard Snart was returned to his native time right before "Aruba" (reviewed here!) revealed that the Waverider crew had broken time and it set the third season up to virtually undo (at least) the second season. So, when The Flash announced casting for "Infantino Street" fans of the larger DC Television Universe had to wonder just how Wentworth Miller could possibly be returned to the narrative.

"Infantino Street" follows the events of "Cause And Effect" (reviewed here!) and continues Barry Allen's desperate attempt to save Iris West's life from Savitar. Unfortunately, "Infantino Street" begins burdened by the conceit of the final scene of "Cause And Effect." "Cause And Effect" ended with King Shark being revealed and the pretense was that the power source on King Shark's containment tank could be used by Dr. Brand to power her Speed Force Bazooka. The burden comes from King Shark being inorganically returned to The Flash; at the point at which King Shark appeared on screen, Dr. Brand had created her means of trapping Savitar and all the S.T.A.R. Labs team needed was a way to power it. Why, the more creative and sensible viewers might ask, doesn't The Flash simply go into the future and steal that power source? So, "Infantino Street" has to make a sensible explanation for why Barry does not do that.

Twenty-four hours before Iris West will be killed by Savitar, the S.T.A.R. Labs team is desperately trying to find a way out of what feels inevitable. Cisco and Barry are contacted by A.R.G.U.S. and they reveal that A.R.G.U.S. has enough power to power the Speed Force Bazooka. Lyla refuses to let Barry use the power source, which is technology left from the Dominator invasion. Realizing that it would be impossible to break into A.R.G.U.S. alone, Barry enlists a master thief to break in. Barry runs to Siberia, 1892, where he locates Snart working on a Legends mission. Allen convinces Snart to come with him back to the future to aid him in breaking into A.R.G.U.S.

As Savitar prepares his armor, Killer Frost discusses his plan with him. Savitar has a vision of Barry's memories of going back in time to get Snart, but he shows no fear that Barry and Snart might actually accomplish their goal. While Iris is taken to Earth-2, Barry and Snart infiltrate A.R.G.U.S. In the depths of A.R.G.U.S., the pair discovers that King Shark is incarcerated and is guarding the Dominator power source.

Very early on in "Infantino Street," H.R. pitches the idea of simply getting Iris away from where they know Savitar will be. At that moment, the trip to an alternate Earth seems more obvious than audacious. In fact, why Dr. Snow and Iris were not simply removed from Earth-1 to prevent the spiral of events the moment Barry saw the future seems like a dramatic oversight by otherwise very smart people.

By having The Flash appeal to Leonard Snart during a Legends Of Tomorrow mission, The Flash viewers get an acceptable return of Captain Cold to the narrative. Unfortunately, in the larger continuity of the DC Comics Television Universe, bringing Snart back in this fashion is ultimately self-defeating to viewers. In the time it takes for Barry Allen and Leonard Snart to get from Central City to A.R.G.U.S., the Time Wraiths should have caught up with Snart. Snart is, alas, a time remnant in this form and would be hunted by the Time Wraiths.

In a similar way, travel between universes is cheapened in "Infantino Street." Cisco's vibing power is what allows the speedsters to travel between universes. So, how Savitar makes that leap is frustratingly not-presented. The details are also way off when Allen and Snart arrive at the Dominator technology. The device in King Shark's cell is pretty big; how Allen knows exactly what to remove from the device is not satisfactorily explained. The devil is in the details and while it is delightful to see that A.R.G.U.S. has the Wonder Woman villain Cheetah in custody, the episode gets a number of details very wrong.

On the character front, Killer Frost's arc continues to be unfortunately ridiculous. Dr. Snow showed doubt in "Cause And Effect," but in "Infantino Street," she leaps into embracing being a flat-out villain. Danielle Panabaker, sadly, fails to play Killer Frost's abrupt transition in the episode's climax in a convincing fashion. The lack of creativity by the S.T.A.R. Labs team shines painfully bright in "Infantino Street." For example, Cisco tells Barry that he foresees a confrontation between him and Killer Frost and suddenly there appears an absolute way to change the future; have Barry go and thwart Killer Frost and send Cisco to confront Savitar (would Savitar bother to kill Iris in front of a different audience than what he expects?).

"Infantino Street" contains an unfortunate time gap, which seems to serve to set-up the resolution to the Savitar problem. Fifty-three minutes before Iris is slated to be killed, Barry returns to Earth-1 with the wounded Kid Flash. When Savitar appears at the climax of the episode, it appears that Savitar and Iris have come directly from Earth-2. The idea that there might be a gap in time between Iris encountering Savitar and the episode's climax is enough to make any fans' imagination burst with yet another obvious solution to the "Savitar kills Iris West" problem. In fact, I am embarrassed it took me to "Infantino Street" to consider the solution to the problem that now seems obvious. Just as Savitar was created as a temporal remnant that was intended to be killed in the battle against Savitar, the way "Infantino Street" develops makes it seem like the best way to save Iris was to hide Iris somewhere and send a temporal remnant to die in her place.

Ultimately, "Infantino Street" has a lackluster heist plot that degenerates into exactly where viewers have waited for the season to go. The performers - outside Wentworth Miller in his delightful reprisal of Leonard Snart and the always-awesome Jesse L. Martin - play their parts like they are going through the motions. That makes "Infantino Street" a penultimate episode that does not exactly make viewers excited about returning for the finale.

For other works directed by Michael A. Allowitz, please visit my review of:
"Exodus" - Supergirl
"The Reverse-Flash Returns" - The Flash
"Abominations" - Legends Of Tomorrow

[Knowing that single episodes are an inefficient way to get episodes, it's worth looking into The Flash - The Complete Third Season on DVD or Blu-Ray, which is also a better economical choice than buying individual episodes. Read my review of the third season here!
Thanks!]

3.5/10

For other television reviews, please visit my Television Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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An Anti-Alien Agenda Collides With An Unproffesional Agent In "Exodus!"

The Good: Good performances, Decent themes, Moments of character for J'onn J'onzz, Awesome villain
The Bad: Bad science, Moments of character for Alex and Maggie
The Basics: Supergirl makes a timely episode and gives Chyler Leigh a big chance to shine with her performance in "Exodus."


Despite having an almost entirely new formula from the first season, Supergirl has almost no dangling plotlines lingering into the second season. The major plotline and character thread that has been outstanding since the first season is the distant past characterization of the Danvers family and Hank Henshaw. Since the first season, the long lost father, Dr. Jeremiah Danvers, has been a narrative time bomb waiting to go off. In the first season, it was revealed that Dr. Jeremiah Danvers sacrificed himself to save the life of J'onn Jonzz while working for the DEO after leaving Kara Danvers in his wife's custody. His has been a story of self-sacrifice. Dr. Jeremiah Danverse returns again in the Supergirl episode "Exodus."

"Exodus" is directly preceded by "Homecoming" (reviewed here!), which saw Jeremiah Danvers returned to the Supergirl narrative. "Exodus" is impossible to discuss without some references to the events of "Homecoming." After all, "Homecoming" saw Dr. Jeremiah Danvers return and found him both cybernetically-enhanced and working pretty much directly for Cadmus. It also featured a delightful out-of-universe joke in getting the God's Not Dead star Dean Cain to play Jeremiah Danvers as accepting of his out and proud lesbian daughter Alex! "Exodus" continues the attempt of Alex and Kara to rescue Jeremiah from Cadmus as Jeremiah stole the U.S.'s National Alien Registry to give to Cadmus.

A family is on a vacation when they are stopped by the police and taken away for being extraterrestrials. Back at the DEO, Jeremiah Danvers is declared an enemy combatant and the organization works to let aliens know that the alien registry has been compromised. Kara attempts to get Snapper Carr to write an article on the threat to the aliens and has to offer him an interview with Supergirl. The alien bar is attacked and Lyra - Winn Schott's alien girlfriend - is abducted by Cadmus personnel. Snapper Carr interviews Supergirl and is frustrated when she is unable to give him any credible leads on her information.

When Jeremiah Danvers visits Alex at her apartment, he appeals to his daughter to save the aliens by stealing DEO tech. Unfortunately for Alex, she fails J'onn J'onzz's test and he suspends her from duty. While Kara turns to Lena Luthor for help, Alex and Maggie go rogue to find Cadmus. When Alex finds and infiltrates Cadmus, Jeremiah reveals that the aliens who have been rounded up are being deported from Earth instead of killed. As Alex and Lillian Luthor square off, Cadmus plays its power move against the extraterrestrials living on Earth.

The relationship between Alex and Maggie continues to be subservient to the plot. Maggie, unfortunately, seems unwilling or unable to stand up to Alex at the outset of "Exodus." Alex believes entirely that Jeremiah Danvers is good and being coerced. Maggie ought to be the voice of reason, who is able to point out to Alex that fifteen years in Cadmus custody is long enough to break anyone. Regardless of who Jeremiah is now, Alex only has emotional reasons to trust him at all and she has no proof that Jeremiah has not been turned or was even working for Cadmus all along! In fact, Maggie supporting Alex makes even less sense given that she was completely betrayed by her own parents when she came out.

"Exodus" is pleasantly surprising in that torture is not proven an effective way to get information out of the Cadmus prisoner and that the show addresses the fact that J'onn ought to be able to read the prisoner's mind. Unfortunately ridiculous is that Alex fights against her suspension instead of seeing clearly that she is far too close to the Jeremiah Danvers case to be an effective agent. It is frustrating seeing so many smart people who are so emotionally dumb that they just continue to make the worst decisions they possible could.

The Alex-heavy episode turns late when Alex finally encounters Jeremiah. "Exodus" is a very timely episode of Supergirl as it features a strong example of what happens when immigrants are forcibly rounded up and deported. It is not pretty at all. The writers of "Exodus" have some fun with irony in that Lillian Luthor's anti-alien plan relies upon using alien technology to deport the extraterrestrials from Earth.

Lillian Luthor rises to the occasion of being a truly great villain if for no other reason than she plans ahead and does not build a failsafe into her sinister plan. Lillian did not leave L-Corp in her daughter's hands without having fallbacks and her master plan to deport the aliens does not come with a stop code, making her a clever, determined, adversary for Supergirl! Somewhat ridiculously, the alien freighter is not outfitted with weapons that shoot Kryptonite, which would have made sense given that Cadmus has the Earth's remaining stock of Kryptonite . . . or the next best, synthetic, thing.

"Exodus" climaxes in a scene that hinges entirely on the audience being neither scientifically literate, nor being able to tell time (20 seconds lasts quite a bit longer than that), but the whole "woman power" aspect of the episode is refreshing and well-executed.

Chyler Leigh rises to every occasion in "Exodus" presenting Alex Danvers as incredibly well-rounded. Throughout much of the first season of Supergirl, Leigh had to play Alex and very stiff and often unemotional to a point that made hyperbole out of "professionalism." In "Exodus," Alex is flawed and smart, determined and dependent, all at once and at various times throughout the episode. Leigh plays Alex with impressive range in "Exodus."

"Exodus" makes some over-the-top political statements that are incredibly obvious for today's current environment. Snapper Carr stands up for journalistic integrity and makes a remark about how the media can aid in putting a despot in the White House. "Exodus" manages to work in that it illustrates well the realism of aggressive deportation and has a deeply flawed human character at its center.

For other DC movie and television works, please visit my reviews of:
Batman V. Superman: Dawn Of Justice
Green Lantern
The Flash - Season 1

[Knowing that single episodes are an inefficient way to get episodes, it's worth looking into Supergirl - The Complete Second Season on DVD or Blu-Ray, which is also a better economical choice than buying individual episodes. Read my review of the sophomore season of the Kryptonian superheroine here!
Thanks!]

7.5/10

For other television season and episode reviews, please visit my Television Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Thematically Complex, "Abominations" Is A Great Standalone Legends Of Tomorrow Episode!

The Good: Performances, Special effects, Dr. Stein's character arc, Plot, Theme
The Bad: Continuity in the season-long arc
The Basics: Legends Of Tomorrow makes an interesting blend of temporal misadventure and zombie horror in "Abominations!"


As Legends Of Tomorrow progresses, it comes under an implicit burden that fans of the DC Television Universe might not yet have recognized. The primary villain for the second season of Legends Of Tomorrow is the Reverse-Flash, an adversary who became shockingly well-defined in the first season of The Flash (reviewed here!). As such, viewers who would actually appreciate the Reverse-Flash as a decent enemy are hampered with foreknowledge of who the character is and how far Legends Of Tomorrow has to go in not screwing up the character. The Reverse-Flash on Legends Of Tomorrow is a temporal remnant from "Flashpoint" (reviewed here!), a paradoxical remnant of an individual who never existed. Legends Of Tomorrow bears the pressure - at some point - of explaining how the Reverse-Flash is now moving through time influencing events without the Time Wraiths coming after him and evolving the character to either explain how his current machinations lead to his previous primary motivation (returning home to his own time!) or moving the character beyond that motivation in a compelling way. So far on Legends Of Tomorrow, Eobard Thawne has done enough alterations to the time line to indicate that his goals might well be to rewrite time in a way that his version of the future would not exist. So, entering "Abominations," the pressure is on Legends Of Tomorrow to start making sense of Thawne and his motivations in changing history. So, naturally, Legends Of Tomorrow does an episode that does not even include Eobard Thawne.

"Abominations" is preceded by "Shogun" (reviewed here!) and given the massive character changes remaining from that episode, it is tough not to reference some of the events from "Shogun" in talking about "Abominations." After all, as "Abominations" begins, Nate Heywood is still adapting to having super powers as Steel, Vixen has joined the Legends team to try to track down the time traveler who killed Hour Man in 1942 and Ray Palmer's Atom suit has been destroyed, leaving him simply a genius without powers aboard the Waverider. The weight of those events play on the character elements included in "Abominations."

Opening with a time pirate escaping a time ship and traveling through the time vortex using his drop ship, he arrives in Mississippi in 1863. On the Waverider, Dr. Stein and Jax consider the message from Barry Allen when Lance calls them to view the message from the time pirate. After arriving in 1863, the Waverider crew destroys the crashed time ship and discovers that the time pirate infected the people he encountered with a zombie virus. In fighting the zombies, Mick Rory is wounded and infected and the Union spy Henry Scott is accidentally killed. The Waverider crew learns that because of the incursion, the Union lost the war.

Amaya and Jax take up the mission of Henry Scott to spy upon the Confederates, while Lance and Heywood get Scott's tactical plans to Ulysses S. Grant and try to warn him about the zombies. Aboard the Waverider, Palmer and Stein attempt to cure zombie Rory. Jefferson makes a social faux pas which results in him being imprisoned with the house slaves on a plantation he was infiltrating while Lance and Heywood go to war against the zombie Confederates!

"Abominations" finally includes characters addressing realistic racism by having Dr. Stein suggesting that Amaya and Jefferson remaining on the Waverider to avoid them having to interact with Confederate soldiers. This is a prudent piece of advice that is immediately swept aside, though the episode continues to address interethnic relations and sexism during the American Civil War.

While there is the potential for "Abominations" to seem pretty thematically heavyhanded on the ethnic relations front, but against the obvious horror of the zombies, the episode does a decent job of illustrating the realism of American slavery during the Civil War. The sociological horror of the setting is much more potent than the zombie storyline. In fact, it is a bit of a wonder why the producers decided to mix the two types of horror in a single episode as opposed to committing to the relevant sociological commentary of just having the exploration of how terrible conditions were for blacks during the Civil War.

As for the zombie horror aspect of "Abominations," it is adequately freakish and surprisingly graphic for a television episode set in the DC Television Universe. The make-up for the zombies is appropriately disgusting and zombie Mick Rory is well-made (especially the bite on his shoulder). Mick Rory bashing a zombie's head with a rock is handled with the event mostly out of frame.

Dr. Stein gets the most character development in "Abominations" as it turns out he has an incredible fear of zombies. Victor Garber gets the chance to play Dr. Stein as incredibly uncertain and afraid, which he has not actually done on Legends Of Tomorrow. In "Abominations," his arc of overcoming his fear is much more developed than Palmer actually reacting to losing the Atom suit.

Jefferson Jackson gets the chance to experience a horrific amount of racism in "Abominations" and Franz Drameh delivers his most emotive and complicated performance to date. Drameh illustrates range in simple reaction shots and through emoting with his eyes at some of the episode's key moments. Drameh has a good role that does not require him to simply give a physical performance in "Abominations" and that is very cool.

Ultimately, the blend of the two main storylines comes together surprisingly well . . . even if the episode has ridiculously little to do with the main thrust of the season. The story of "Abominations" is incredibly well-contained and it breaks what little momentum there was going for the Reverse-Flash to actually have a purpose of his own. The result is an episode that allows Legends Of Tomorrow to make an important statement and show off some of the talents of its cast, but has little to do with the overall narrative of the show.

For other works with Warren Belle, please visit my reviews of:
Total Recall
Max Payne
Flash Of Genius
Dark Water

[Knowing that single episodes are an inefficient way to get episodes, it's worth looking into Legends Of Tomorrow - The Complete Second Season on DVD or Blu-Ray, which is also a better economical choice than buying individual episodes. Read my review of the sophomore season of the time traveling hero team here!
Thanks!]

8/10

For other television season and episode reviews, please visit my Television Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2016 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Cramming More In Makes For Unsatisfying The Flash When "The Reverse-Flash Returns!"

The Good: Decent performances, Moments of character
The Bad: Scientifically bogus, Slow plot, Crams a lot of characters in (poorly).
The Basics: While viewers might be exccited about "The Reverse-Flash Returns," the result is less-than-stellar.


This year, I've had a lower tolerance for devoting my time to things that do not grab me. For example, my devotion to the Marvel Cinematic Universe (and reviewing all of its contents) ended abruptly when I realized I missed the first two episodes of the new season of Agent Carter. Faced with the decision of whether or not to play catch-up or let it go, I decided not to waste my time on the program I was already biased against. Fortunately, The Flash still grabs me and it is not about to lose me even for a less-impressive episode. "The Reverse-Flash Returns" is an unimpressive episode, though it works to resolve several lingering plot threads.

"The Reverse-Flash Returns" picks up right after "Potential Energy" (reviewed here!) and it is impossible to discuss the new episode without some references to the prior one and first season episodes. The episode follows up on the capture of the Turtle and his murder and works to progress Jay Garrick's story while wrapping up loose ends with Francine West and Patty Spivot. The episode has a lot of work to do and it neglects any sort of direct conflict with Zoom with a divergent story involving Cisco's vibing and the return of the first-season nemesis, Eobard Thawne.

Opening with Barry Allen running away from his problems with Patty (literally) by running around as The Flash to solve crimes around Central City, Barry suddenly finds himself trying to rescue the city from a truck filled with explosive chemicals. The runaway truck is a trap from Thawne who has arrived in 2016 and is now nailing down an origin time for The Flash. When the Turtle is found dead and Cisco hits a wall with trying to seal the ruptures in time and space around Central City, Wells dresses up as the Reverse-Flash to scare Cisco into using his vibe powers. When that happens, Cisco realizes that the Reverse-Flash is alive and the team's priorities change.

When Eobard Thawne abducts Dr. McGee, Cisco and Wells work together to find him. While Iris visits her dying mother, which leads her to contact Wally and get him to visit her, Wells develops Cisco's dream vision glasses to make it possible for him to vibe more reliably. Using them, Team Flash discovers that Thawne will kill McGee in his attempt to return home. But thwarting his plan has an unintended consequence; Cisco's body becomes unstable and he begins phasing in and out of reality. Barry must learn to let go of Thawne to save Cisco.

"The Reverse-Flash Returns" is a mess of loose-ends being tied up and established and it plays much more like a soap opera than prior episodes of The Flash. Because there is so much going on on the plot front - there are at least four distinct plotlines, not all of which converge - none of the plotlines allow the characters to breathe and truly develop. Instead, "The Reverse-Flash Returns" feels like the story was put together by a shotgun approach, attempting to service so many disparate parts.

The relationships in "The Reverse-Flash Returns" are all pulled at with the idea of letting go, save the relationship between Wells and Ramon and Iris and Wally West. But Barry belabors letting go of Thawne and Spivot, Iris must let go of her mother and even Dr. Snow is compelled to surrender her hope for saving Jay Garrick's life. There is an agonizing quality to watching Barry lie to Spivot, especially as she is proven to be exactly as smart as viewers hoped. Given the new information that Barry works with S.T.A.R. Labs from time to time, Spivot is able to quickly piece together that Barry is The Flash and when she confronts him directly, it is a frustratingly-bad scene.

Moreover, while the introduction of Wally West is being handled with a surprising amount of realism, it is making for incredibly dull television. For an entire season, viewers lived with the idea that Iris's mother was dead and that was fine; belaboring the death of Francine West plays as melodrama, as opposed to anything compelling.

Also frustrating is the actual execution of the return of the Reverse-Flash. The death of Eddie Thawne made perfect sense; killing himself erased Thawne from the timeline because there was no lineage to create Eobard Thawne. The Eobard Thawne who appeared in Barry Allen's past and killed his mother WAS the temporal remnant, an anomaly. "The Reverse-Flash Returns" includes an incredibly dimwitted attempt to retcon Thawne in order to make his return seem even partially plausible. The ridiculous aspect of the attempt to explain the Reverse-Flash continuing to exist is that the show has a built-in opportunity to explain him; the portals to other Earths provide a simple explanation that makes sense. On some other Earth, Eddie Thawne did not kill himself and Eobard Thawne in that universe comes into existence, becomes the Reverse-Flash and goes back in time to try to find The Flash's origin, in the process traveling between universes as well as time. Instead, the lame attempt to re-generate Thawne is poorly explained and the idea of him is retconned to include all of the smart characters at S.T.A.R. Labs feeding him the ideas that would make him go back and kill Barry's mother!

Perhaps the best acting in "The Reverse-Flash Returns" comes from Tom Cavanagh. His portrayal of Wells explaining the technobabble surrounding Thawne sounds credible, even though it is ridiculous. But it is Cavanagh's deliveries at the episode's climax that come across as engaging and informed. For sure, the episode still makes no genuine sense - Thawne's return to the 24th Century would still not genetically create Thawne or stabilize Cisco. The power of the Eobard Thawne anomaly created the Central City singularity and the breaches; the collapse of the singularity would not have allowed Reverse-Flash to return or re-exist.

The result is a lackluster episode that is packed with "stuff," but not containing enough substance to keep the engaged viewers impressed with The Flash.

4/10

For other television season and episode reviews, please visit my Television Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2016 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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