This Week in DCTV
Welcome to This Week in DCTV, where the Twisted Cape examines, breaks down, and gives a quick review of all the original shows that DC has released this week. This will run weekly and start on Sunday and end on Saturday, so we catch everything on the CW, Fox, and the DC Universe streaming service. We will eventually be incorporating all of it, including the content from other networks, like Syfy. We’ll also include an average on the week to help determine whether the week was a success. Keep in mind there will be spoilers on a regular basis so read on at your own risk.
Weekly Score (Out of 5) – 3/5
Solid week for DCTV, but unpredictably, Titans has really been the standout yet again. CW shows are making progress, but they all kept their foundation. Twist of the week easily goes to Robotman of the Doom Patrol in Titans.
The CW
Supergirl - 3/5
“Man of Steel” deals with the immediate fallout from last week with Kryptonite in the atmosphere disabling Kara. Then, it tells a flashback story of how this season’s villain came to his villainous nature. SPOILERS – I’ve had a longstanding theory that unless we get some sympathetic, deeper storytelling surrounding the villain, it will not work. Supergirl opted to travel this road this week. After immediately dealing with Kara being able to exist in our atmosphere (what about Clark?), they focus on Agent Liberty, which is exactly what I wanted, if you saw last week’s TWIDC. Ben Lockwood goes from a family man and teacher, to someone who doesn’t like aliens, to someone who is actively working against them. This transformation does enough to bring in enough real-world situations to make things interesting without preaching, which has been the show’s problem over the last 2 seasons. It’s an improvement over what we’ve had recently, but there’s still some work to do.
Arrow - 3/5
Oliver continues his stint in jail and begins to seek someone named the Demon. Felicity gets involved trying to help Ollie and further complicates matters. SPOILERS – The meat of this episode dealt with the brutality of prison and its effect on Oliver. He is willing to do whatever it takes to take down Diaz, especially since his family has been targeted. I loved the prison fight scene and you get to see what Oliver is capable of in defending himself. On the outside, Team Arrow works with Agent Watson to try to take down Diaz in the CDC, but it backfires and costs Watson her position. Rene captures Silencer at Felicity’s request but keeps it off the books. While this episode fleshed out the Longbow Hunters a little, it didn’t really do much to advance the plot, but the set up for the next episode feels important.
The Flash – 3.5/5
Nora and Iris continue to butt heads and drives them to a breaking point. The team makes strides toward discovering Cicada’s identity. SPOILERS - This week’s Flash was quite strong. We finally find out why Nora has issues with Iris, which was long overdue in my opinion. Turns out she suppressed Nora’s powers and didn’t even bother to tell her that she had powers. This is amplified by the discovery that there is now Meta-Technology from the satellite crash. I suppose this is a new way to keep villains going rather than crafting new metas. Ralph and Sherloque follow up a hunch Ralph has about Cicada’s mask and it puts them perilously close to the villain. This episode had a lot of emotion, humor, and action to keep me engaged, so I feel like it’s on an upswing.
Black Lightning – 3/5
The turmoil in the Pierce household reaches a fever pitch and the next phase takes shape for Tobias. SPOILERS – Jefferson butts heads with the new principal at Garfield. He also butts heads at home with Anissa, leading to her leaving home over her Robin Hood act. These two arcs have been the driving factor of the show to me and keep me coming back. Jennifer’s arc, however has the opposite effect. It feels too often that the writers don’t exactly know what to do with her and her powers after late last season. Her on/off relationship with Khalil hurts the show to me. Finally, we see Tobias Whale get out of jail with no problems and gets completely exonerated, much to Jefferson’s dismay. He’s clearly driving towards retaking control of the 100 and moving on Black Lightning. Oh yeah, Kara Fowdy died this episode, finally succumbing to her injuries from being shot with a harpoon.
Legends of Tomorrow - 3/5
The Legends deal with the arrival of a new shipmate as they also deal with the Salem Witch Trials. Ava seeks budget approval from a surprising source and seeks out help. SPOILERS – The Legends writing room opted to use the Salem Witch Trials to parallel injustice from our history up until now. In addition, they used a fairy godmother as the source of magical distress. This provides a little bit of humor as the episode progresses, but then takes a dark turn as things become more dire for her host’s mother. Constantine joins the crew and frustrates Mick Rory and turns out to be a pairing that worked out well. Speaking of odd pairings, Nate and Ava, who may be working together more now, are very fun to watch. Ava needed help with a budget presentation and needed approval from Nate’s dad which added some emotional tension to the episode. It was a little sad when Nate opted to stay in 2018 and told Ray about it. It seems like the two have bonded both as characters and people, so it had emotional weight. It’s also a way to save on some budget for magical creatures VFX. Good episode, but a step back from last week.
DC Universe
Titans – 4/5
Rachel reconnects with Gar as she makes her escape and meets his “family.” Dick and Kory do their best to track Rachel down. SPOILERS – This show is displaying no signs of slowing down, as evidenced by this episode. There is far more development of Rachel in this episode making her more likable, but much of that may be due to Gar. Gar finds Rachel running away from the church and takes her to his home and introduces her to his family – The Doom Patrol. This episode excited me for the Doom Patrol series. This may have served as a backdoor pilot, but managed to maintain a fun, interesting tone. Dick and Kory have begun to establish a bit of a connection. Admittedly, I had concerns about how they would write Starfire, but I’m thrilled with how she’s turned out. One small point of concern – if she’s wanted by the police, why is she still in the same outfit she was in way back in episode one? That feels like a mistake. Despite that, Dick and Kory finally “rescue” Rachel and our base team consisting of Robin, Starfire, Raven, and Beast Boy is united for the first time. Again, this show has been a strong performer all the way through. And Robotman is a scene stealer, emotionally and comedically.