What I’m Currently Watching #27

Howdy ladies and gents, and welcome to What I’m Currently Watching where I give you a tiny update on what TV-based stuff I’m watching and give mini reviews/impressions on them. This is the 27th week and I’ve got a good few shows to cover,  but since I’m feeling a little tired this week I’ll be focusing on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., The  Flash, Arrow, South Park and Star Wars Rebels. With that out of the way let’s talk about some TV! 😀 Oh and careful for minor spoilers…

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (Season 4) “Uprising”

This episode was pretty intense, for the first time in a while this show presented a threat that had a some stakes, danger and potential no-win scenarios for everyone involved. This revolved around the Watchdogs attempt to create chaos and control by posing as Inhumans, creating blackouts and taking over several key locations across the world in a short space of time. For the first time in a while the Watchdogs felt like a threat, for a while now we’ve known they’ve existed, but they’re primarily a faceless enemy that felt was all talk and no action, but this episode did well to illustrate how formidable, strategic and dangerous they can be when required. I also loved how the blackout created several interesting scenarios like: 1) Yo-Yo being at her friend’s party and being forced to use her powers. 2) Coulson, Mac and Fitz attempting to stop the Watchdogs without their convention electronic equipment. 3) Having Simmons and Radcliffe attempt to save May without electricity to power the defibrillator. All of these situations were pretty handled well and required the characters to make think on-the-spot and make tough decisions. I really enjoyed how this episode addressed the prejudice towards Inhumans, how it was still very fresh in the minds of many humans and how some just weren’t ready to trust those who were different, and this created some create/uncomfortable moments between Yo-Yo and her friend and Daisy and Gabe. The action in this episode was also pretty good with two especially fun sequences involving Mac, Coulson and Yo-Yo taking out the bad guys. But my favourite sequence was when they went into that one room, Yo-Yo took all the weapons and everyone just wrecked shop on those Watchdogs dudes, it was wonderfully choreographed and the lights going on and off in between the action scenes was great. Finally it was also great to see Radcliffe and Simmons bring May back to normal (though I thought that AIDA may have been discovered by Simmons) and seeing SHIELD finally back in an official capacity makes me happy and intrigued for what comes next for the organisation especially considering the reveal Senator Parminder Nagra been in cahoots with the Watchdogs (she’s gonna be someone to look out for).

The Flash (Season 3) “Paradox”

This week The Flash kept its momentum going, and this whole tampering with the timeline stuff created some really interesting changes for what both Barry and us as the viewers know to be reality, all this crazy stuff with Cisco mourning the loss of his brother, Iris being at odds with Joe because the situation with her mother and other minor/notable characters either being alive or totally new altogether makes me say “Huh?” in the best and most curious of ways. And I liked how things started with Barry talking to Felicity about what he did in the timeline and what’s changed for him in this variation of his normal reality, that was fun and quirky and just highlights how important their connection still is. And I couldn’t help but shake my head at Barry’s poor attempts at understanding what’s changed in his life and how he interacted with those close to him with the worst kind of responses. That conversation Barry had with Earth-2 Flash was very important and beautifully worded as it not only gave a good account about what happens when you tamper with time travel but also how in life certain things happen that can’t/shouldn’t be changed and one can only learn from the experience rather than trying to go back and fix them. I also enjoyed seeing Tom Felton as Julian Albert, this guy is a bit of a snobby douche, but in some ways I like his attitude and distrust of Barry, feels like he’ll discover Barry’s secrets if he gets too sloppy. And while it was nice how Barry’s close friends and family forgave him, at the same time I felt like some of the issues in this world were resolved in too much a happy-go-lucky neat bow. But hell it doesn’t matter as the action was solid with the return of Clarence, plus Alchemy seems to be setting up some interesting events for the future which I’m down for.

Arrow (Season 5) “The Recruits”

Arrow was. As the title of this episode suggested it was all about Oliver getting his new crew together and having a new threat in Star City which causes some trouble for Oliver not only as the mayor but also as Arrow too. The episode wasn’t even 10 minutes in and Oliver as his alter-ego was schooling the new recruits, beating them up as they tried to ring the bell behind him. I can see how some would view his methods as harsh/unfair, but this is classic training 101; train your newbies by dishing out the pain in the most brutal way without killing them to toughen them up for the road ahead. But it was interesting to see Felicity and Oliver butt heads over his training methods, and it really came to a head when Curt gave that tough yet truth about Oliver’s trust and leadership skills, it was a good scene, and then it led to another great scene about why Oliver acts like he does, because of his training in Russia and the losses he’s had over the last few seasons of the show. I love this retrospective/personal material, it really hammers home how difficult it can be to be hero, to build a crew and have trust, and have them follow you with death being a possibility at any point. But I was happy that Oliver revealed himself to the team and that we’re getting the origins of the new team Arrow! And there’s a few other things of note like: 1) I also liked how the flashbacks were relevant to what was happening in the present. 2) While Diggle’s side mission got interest towards the end, I wasn’t overly engaged since he’s not longer part of the Arrow crew, so whatever’s going on with him felt irrelevant. 3) The introduction of the dark archer known as Prometheus attacking Church was cool and I’m curious to see how close he gets to killing Arrow himself.

South Park (Season 20) “Wieners Out”

This week’s episode was decent one, nothing overly hilarious, but it certainly had its moments. So this episode was all about the uprising of Butters and his campaign to make boys to pride in their manhood, while Gerald felt the pressure and paranoia of his online trolling as he was contacted by a fellow troll about the upcoming plans coming from the Danish to take out trolls permanently. I liked how this episode focus on gender equality, the complications/loopholes in modern political correctness and trolling and internet anonymity. Can I just say that I love how this episode opened with the narration, wonderful cinematic visuals and the Danish views on traditional trolls and how they basically became questionable human beings behind computer screens. I also loved seeing the progression of Cartman and Heidi, how they’re going out and show all the horribly cheesy elements of a modern PC relationship and I didn’t expect to see Butters start a revolution in school but that was pretty funny/amazing. Oh and seeing the mess Gerald had to go through trying to distance himself from the troll stocking him, then trying to stay away from electronics and then lying to his wife about porn that lead him to get peed on, that was some bizarre/funny stuff too. I think my only major gripe with this episode was the lack of super funny jokes, I don’t mind smiling or chuckling at stuff in South Park, but I do miss laughing my ass off on a consistent basis or at least having one major LOL moment.

Star Wars Rebels (Season 3) “Hera’s Heroes”

So this episode dealt with Hera teaming up with her father and the Ghost team to go back to her home world to save her family heirloom. I like how this episode started out with an action scene, it was pretty cool to see the Stormtroopers chasing after Cham Syndulla and his companion across the lovely desert scenery. Just like with season 2 it was nice to have another character-driven episode where the Jedi and Sith weren’t the primary storyline. And then bloody Grand Admiral Thrawn comes into play and that’s when things got really interesting. I liked how in this episode was got to see much more of him in terms of his overall demeanour and learning about how dangerous a man like him can be to the Rebel Alliance. Thrawn was calculated, classy and chilled out, but how he was also was a good few steps ahead of our heroes and knew who Hera was and the significance of her family heirloom too. You don’t mess around with this guy. I also enjoyed how he let the heroes escape saying that he found the overall experience enlightening, so this clearly shows that 1) He learns from the people he encounters. And more importantly 2) He’s playing the long game so he’ll probably come back a lot harder down the road. Now I will admit that I though more would have been done on this mission, there could have been more than Hera and crew could have taken maybe with supplies or maybe take down a calculated amount of the Empire’s forces on the planet, but alas that wasn’t the case. Even though in the grand scheme of things the episode felt a little inconsequential by the end, the episode had some good character moments and Thrawn’s appearance definitely made this episode more a highlight than I expected.

Well that’s what I’ve been watching. So have you seen or plan to watch any of these shows? If you have any thoughts be sure to drop a comment below and let me know what TV shows you’re currently watching  too. Until next time, laters! 😀