In my quest to title each Into the Badlands recap after lyrics from a Hamilton song, the writers did me a solid by letting Nathaniel Moon, played by veteran actor Sherman Augustus, say a line from the classic George Washington showstopper:
Continue reading “NOC Recaps Into the Badlands: Teach ‘Em How to Say Goodbye”
AMC’s Into the Badlands might have gotten a ten-episode second season (up four episodes from season one), but there’s no slowing down narratively. Episode 2 — which is actually chapter 8, proving just how propulsive the story of the Badlands is — wastes no time getting Sunny out of the mines, after a pretty awesome, and gruesome, fight scene to open the show. I would put the rest of the episode into three distinct buckets, that just so happen to coincide with a line from Hamilton‘s “My Shot.” And yes, I’m keeping up these #IntoTheHamLands recap titles all season!
Continue reading “NOC Recaps Into the Badlands: Young, Scrappy, and Hungry”
After more than a year off the air, AMC’s dystopian martial arts epic Into the Badlands has finally returned! And with it, so have these NOC Recaps. Speaking of which, I’m going to try to title each recap with a line from Hamilton because 1.) seriously, have you met me?; and 2.) the Badlands writers have basically challenged me as much. So, appropriately enough, the Season Two premiere is named after a lyric from “Yorktown.”
Continue reading “NOC Recaps Into the Badlands: Friends All Scattered to the Winds”
“I ran back in time because Zoom and my dad and things and I got to live with my parents and it was all good but then it wasn’t so I came back but everything is different and I want everything to change back.” – Barry Allen during this week’s panicked voiceover
Barry flips his shit so hard that he flips it all the way to Star City. All over Felicity. Who, like us, is like, “You just, like, run back in time? All the time?”
We’re back! I think? Barry Allen is living an alternate reality with both of his parents. He’s retained his powers, but he’s spent the last three months laying low, summoning courage to speak to Iris West, hugging his mom and dad, and watching a yellow-clad Flash take care of Central City for a change.
Continue reading “NOC Recaps The Flash: It’s a Wonderful Reverse Life”
When Netflix announced a reboot of the Voltron franchise, the inner child in me jumped for joy. More, I felt an instant connection to my identity as an Asian American. You see, when I think of Voltron, I’m instantly transported back to the 5th grade where I spent my time insisting to my American friends that, in the Philippines, Voltron (and a live-action TV show that turned out to be Super Sentai) was a thing before the Power Rangers. My friends wouldn’t believe me and would only laugh harder when I’d proffer that not only was Voltron a thing, but that it was actually better than the Power Rangers.
Voltron is tied, then, to that part of me that identifies as distinctly Asian American and to finally see a reboot that introduces this great franchise to a new generation is such a treat. That the first episode starts off with such great quality makes it like TV lumpia for me. Clocking in at just over an hour, the ambitious attempt to set and sketch the universe that this iteration of Voltron in is not only given space via quality writing and animation, but also time in this outsized episode. More, a roster of recognizable names lead by The Walking Dead’s Steven Yeun as Keith, along with delightful surprise Rhys Darby as comic relief via Princess Allura’s (more on her in a bit) right-hand man, Coran.
Continue reading “NOC Recaps Voltron Legendary Defender: Get In Formation”
One of the more enjoyable parts of Supergirl’s inaugural season is the refreshing and bold decision to place this National City hero squarely in the present as a Millennial. The bright and optimistic (and inclusionary!) perspective is drawn clearly in Kara’s idealistic worldview and personified by the bright and hopeful characters she has chosen to surround herself with (more on that in a minute). If Arrow is about the fight against a cold cynicism with The Flash about overcoming tragedy via the love of family, then Supergirl is about staring down the challenges of life with hope and optimism.
Continue reading “NOC Recaps Supergirl: A New Kind of Hope”
In the penultimate episode of the season, Barry can’t stop the feeling that he’s invincible since the Speed Force told him that it loved him and read him a Night-Night book about a dinosaur. He’s got that sunshine pocket. Got that good soul in his feet.
Even #Metapocalypse 2016 won’t throw off his game. The metahuman army that rallied together when Zoom outed the “disappearance” of the Flash on broadcast TV. Barry swoops in — a little too late, in my opinion — to bail out the Central City Police because EVERYTHING IS LITERALLY ON FIRE. And did I spy Earth-2 Hawkpeople?
Continue reading “NOC Recaps The Flash: Running on Sunshine”
“The Runaway Dinosaur” is a children’s book that our Flash’s mom used to read to him when he was younger about a lost dinosaur. Our Barry-saur is also lost, but in a place we’ve only been in passing: in the Speed Force. I think. What kind of noun is the Speed Force, anyways? Only Kevin Smith, the director of this episode, knows.
“My name is Barry Allen and I am the fas– nope, not yet.”
Now I know that there is a certain amount of suspended disbelief when it comes to this show, and this is one of those times when I can’t help but yell, “REALLY?” at my TV. In the absence of The Flash, Team Flash is using a hologram to trick the city and the city’s criminals into believing that Central City is still under Barry’s speedy protection. In reality, Cisco is using his Warcraft skills to control the projection as Barry runs around in a Tron suit. Iris is being as helpful as she can, but it’s just too damn ridiculous.
Continue reading “NOC Recaps The Flash: Hoodlums and Holograms”
My name is Barry Allen, and I am the saddest man alive. The title of the episode is “Back to Normal,” but this is not the normal Barry Allen that we met on Arrow years ago. He hates buses and putting on clothes and when his coffee cup breaks, he looks like he’s going to burst into tears.
Continue reading “NOC Recaps The Flash: Powerless and Pouty”
One of the best things about Barry Allen is how he recognizes and appreciates his support system. From the beginning, he’s been a team player: willing to ask for help, seek guidance, and collaborate. It’s one of his greatest strengths, which probably stems from the roots of the home he was raised in with Joe and Iris West. Barry knows that their support is what shaped him into the man he has become despite the tremendous, life-defining tragedy that struck him — like lightning — as a ten-year old.
Did anyone notice the new voice over intro now includes King Shark, Trajectory, and Jay as Zoom? I love these show runners; you can tell how geeky they get over their jobs. Each week it gets harder for me to come up with increasingly more clever titles than the actual show episode name. “Flash Back,” c’mon! How could I beat that?
I have to admit, the penultimate episode of Supergirl’s first season was definitely not my favorite. I’ve been a big booster for this show, even before it premiered, but last week’s culmination of the “Myriad” storyline was not nearly as satisfying as it could have been. Of course, there were some strong moments — as is the case with every Supergirl episode, Calista Flockhart is the MVP — but I really wasn’t feeling the villains’ evil plot this week, especially considering this was being alluded to all season-long.
When the powers that be at Warner Brothers and CBS finally acquiesced and greenlit a Supergirl/Flash crossover, I wonder if they were intentional about airing it the Monday after Batman v Superman’s opening weekend? Because after two-and-a-half hours worth of self-serious grimdark, it was such a relief to see DC superheroes who actually, you know, enjoy being superheroes.
Continue reading “NOC Recaps Supergirl (and The Flash): Dawn of Sunshine and Ice Cream”
Apologies if you’ve been coming here the last few weeks for our Arrow recaps. I’ve been supposed to be Connie’s back-up, but I haven’t been able to muster the strength to recap a show that, honestly, I’ve been out on all season. Sure, I’ve been watching it (on DVR delay) every week, but this season has been more than disappointing. And if rumors about the death being revealed on tonight’s episode is true, I might be out for good. But more on that later.
Team Flash is dealing with their Post-Traumatic Zoom Disorder in a healthy way. Motivated by avenging Jay’s death and defeating Zoom, they take a team field trip to a cliffside-waterfall–river-canyon to test out Barry’s ability to run at escape velocity. It’s a lot like the first “test runs” with the Core Four pre-supersuit, but there’s a level of familiarity and kinship that can only happen after dealing with all of the bullshit that Barry, Cisco, Caitlin, and Wells, have been through together.
Last week’s Supergirl was the Martian Manhunter origin story we’ve been waiting for all season, and it didn’t disappoint. From a guest appearance by former Superman Dean Cain — no longer the world’s only Asian Superman — to David Harewood giving an excellent performance as Evil Hank (in a silly wig), the episode had everything we could hope for. Unfortunately, with all eyes on tonight’s crossover with The Flash, I don’t have time to do a proper recap, so I’ll leave you with Christelle’s live tweets from the night.
Continue reading “NOC Recaps Supergirl: Is There Life on Mars?”
It’s been a month since Arrow’s last episode, but I’m still thinking about Vixen. How she needs her own show. How I want to know more about her character outside of a 30-minute web series. How awesome Megalyn EK was in bringing the character from voice acting to live-acting. But a few thoughts about the episode before I gush some more.
We knew we were heading here. Besides the fact that the Flarrow crossover showed Felicity getting upset about the Baby Mama Drama, Oliver lying to his fiance about something this big, when he had a choice was definitely going to lead to Felicity wanting no parts of it. It was an episode with an inevitable conclusion and I basically played Name the Trope as we watched.
Just when you thought it was safe to go back to Earth-1… King Shark returns. Also, I learned that there’s no such thing as a “filler episode” for The Flash. I’ll admit that I was wrong and incorrectly assumed that bringing back King Shark after the heavy Earth-2 plotline was a gimmick, but this episode (aka Jaws 2) really sunk its teeth into developing character growth of the members of Team Flash.
Continue reading “NOC Recaps The Flash: (King) Shark Attack”
Sixteen episodes in to the first season of Supergirl and I should probably learn not to underestimate the show. You see, prior to the airing of last week’s Red Kryptonite-influenced episode, titled “Falling,” I assumed we would be getting filler between stronger episodes. Boy, was I wrong! Seeing Melissa Benoist channel Bad Supergirl might be some of my favorite moments all season. It also doesn’t hurt that after the previous episode’s many homages to Smallville and other past Super history, the show kicked it up a notch this week.
After taking a week off, Supergirl returns with an all-new episode on CBS tonight. The episode that aired two weeks ago — simply named “Solitude” — was probably the most easter egg-packed episode of the season. Rather than a traditional recap of the events, I’m just going to geek out over all the cool nods to past Super-lore, including and especially call backs to Smallville since former Supergirl Laura Vandervoort was guest starring. Which is basically what I did while live-tweeting anyway.
Continue reading “NOC Recaps Supergirl: Fortress of Easter Eggs”
It would be an understatement to say last week’s Supergirl was the most anticipated episode of the season. Not only did it follow what was arguably the series’ best ep to date, episode 14 — titled “Truth, Justice, and the American Way” — was directed by the NOC’s favorite director Lexi Alexander.
