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Reviews
Roadie (2011)
A Beautifully Nuanced Show
Roadie is a very well photographed - and acted - show. In the world of show business, all that counts is appearances, and all Jimmy has left for himself is keeping up appearances. And at the same time that he appears back home, his mother is herself DIS-appearing, seemingly to Alzheimer's or some other form of dementia. He can no longer even count on coming home to the "womb," because the womb is itself disappearing into nothingness in the form of a terrible disease. Poignant, moving and real. The dialogue is well enough done that you actually listen TO it, instead of just hearing it, a la "The Sounds of Silence": "People hearing/without listening." The dialogue makes you want to not miss anything. And "Jimmy" himself could be anyone who reached for - and missed - the brass ring. And, just like his mother's slow loss of touch with reality, Jimmy is disappearing too, in a world that barely noticed him even during his "roadie" days. One recognizes a decay that is all too prevalent in today's society: the invisibility of the individual who walks to the beat of a different drummer.
The Flash (2014)
The Flash In the Pan
There must be something in the CW Network's drinking water: nearly ALL their superheroes are angst-ridden - and slow. And the Flash moves slower than the hour it takes to move thru one episode. It must be the lot of those of us who have been reading comic books for century, that when a series is made, we find nothing resembling the original. And so it is with The Flash. The secret identity? None. Exactly the same as Supergirl, where at least 10 people in the lives of the protagonist know his "secret identity." The Flash, along with other DC heroes featured on CW, comes equipped with a "team" who help them. The team always has one or two geniuses barely past puberty, who cannot seem to think ahead, despite that genius. Cisco is absurdly dumb. blurting out Barry's name in front of Kendra, and, when confronted with a dangerous foe, is not smart enough to get out of the way, instead preferring the "
Dude-you-are-going-down" approach, as though he's speaking to a high school rival. Barry is hopeless in battle, as is Supergirl: punch, stop, wait to get knocked down, gets whipped the first time. Repeat as needed until the last 10 minutes when he finally wins - not because of his speed (the "real" Flash could circle the Earth in less than a second: Barry takes an average of two minutes to arrive anywhere in the same city). Iris goes from a blog to becoming a reporter for the largest city newspaper in the space of two months. Her acting is passable, but no more than that, as is Barry. The writing is weak, and for people who work as detectives, they are astoundingly slow to arrive at conclusions and, the whole team could do with some quick thinking, which is not their forte. A barely passable series with poor writing, and certainly not written for adults with any deductive capabilities.
Supergirl (2015)
Worser, and worser
After yet another bad episode, I wonder: how long can this last? The writing is just so very, very bad. For Supergirl to give a speech in the middle of a fight is just mindless. I'm reminded of a scene in the movie 'Van Helsing,' when one of Dracula's vampire wives is going to kill the princess (Kate Beckinsdale), she taunts her, finally ending "What do you think of that?" And Beckinsdale's character stabs her with a pointy stake and responds, "I think if you're going to kill someone, just kill them, don't talk them to death." THIS is how so many scenes in Supergirl are: punch, give a speech (usually, "You don't have to do this"), get knocked down/ thrown 100 feet away, get up, fly back, get punched again, fly out of the way just as the killing blow is about to be administered, then punch her adversary ______(fill in the villain) and end the fight. The Supergirl character is simply too dumb to be believable.
Add to this the many DEO agents who, by now, must know her 'secret identity," if it can be called that, since, in the course of 4 episodes, at least 3 people learn of her identity, not to mention Maxwell Lord, who is far too smart to not put 2 and 2 together and realize she's related to "Agent Danvers." Chalk this up to the writers, who write for a first grade level (no insult intended to the many (much) smarter 1st graders out there. One minute she's angry and the next scene, she's happy and smiling even though she she's had to watch someone killed/maimed/tortured. The recovery time of her emotions would work for a sociopath, but not the kindhearted human being she is. It's too weak for words. Speaking of weak, her powers are abominably poor for a 'Super Girl.' She's been on earth for a decade or so, yet can't even lift a plane finger, struggles to get out of quicksand,can't dodge a gun, fist, or bomb at all, and, just plain slow in her use of her powers. If she was in a boxing ring, she'd be out after the first round. I like Benoit, because I can see her goodness, but in something like Supergirl, to use Mae West's phrase: "Goodness has(d) nothing to do with it."
Legends of Tomorrow (2016)
Legends of Tomorrow
This could be a decent series, were it not for the plethora of problems: Poor writing, poor acting, weak end-of-the-world premise.
Typical action sequence is slow-moving actors with such long reaction times to immediate danger, one could predict who will get knocked out in a scene (usually the "heroes"). This makes the writers appear to be very puerile, instead of smart writing, a la Joss Whedon. As a result, too much time is wasted - the same as in Supergirl - in pausing before delivering a knockout blow. and the-10-minutes- until-the-next-commercial format, stalls the momentum. The exception to this in most instances is Caity Lotz, who is much less talk and more action, which, in an action series, should be the norm, not the exception. Franz Drameh's character is poorly written, and the guy is unconvincing as any believable character, as is Ciara Renee. Wentworth Miller has an entire tree on his shoulder instead of the proverbial chip, which also makes his character one dimensional. Only Victor Garber and Brandon Routh demonstrate any complexity - or more than 3 facial expressions - of any of the actors. a lack of nuance, or any type of subtlety=no genuine acting.
CW, in general, seem to have poorly written scripts, suitable for the non-thinking viewer. But Legends of Tomorrow takes this to a new level of mediocrity.