While the Third Season of The Flash feels a bit too familiar with the introduction of yet another evil speedster, the show does provide several memorable moments including a dark turn for Caitlin (Danielle Panabaker), the death of a major character, a musical crossover episode featuring Supergirl (Melissa Benoist), and the shake-up of The Flash’s world following his Flashpoint adventure. There are a few clunkers here, but when it’s good The Flash can be awfully good.
Other highlights include a fun Christmas episode, characters dealing with the complexity of what Savitar is, a trip into the future, the season finale, meta-humans altered by Doctor Alchemy to match characters from the Flashpoint reality, Jesse Quick racing into action, the Invasion crossover, the two-part return of Grodd, the introduction of Gypsy (Jessica Camacho), and the first appearance of a classic Flash villain.
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The Flash
In a year where both The Flash and Arrow found themselves recycling different versions of the same story (evil speedsters and archers), Supergirl took a definite step forward as the best of DC’s television line-up. Sure, the exit of Cat Grant (Calista Flockhart) as a regular after the first couple of episodes left a huge hole to fill and there were some clunkers early on, but this season saw Kara (Melissa Benoist) grow considerably over the course of the year take on Cadmus, get a boyfriend (Chris Wood) and deal with his evil mother (Teri Hatcher), and make an unlikely friend in Lena Luther (Katie McGrath).
Highlights from this year include the two-part season finale, the show taking a hard stand against anti-immigration policy, the first appearance of Mr. Mxyzptlk (Peter Gadiot), exploring what’s next for Superman’s best friend, Kara flexing her reporting muscles and standing by her friends, the return of Livewire (Brit Morgan), the introduction of Superman (Tyler Hoechlin), and a super-team-up against Metallo.
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Batman & Harley Quinn is Batman: The Animated Series Lite. Co-written by Jim Krieg and Bruce Timm, featuring Kevin Conroy as Batman, and set in the later style of BtAS, the straight-to-video feature has some of the feel of lesser episodes of the animated series. Sadly, it also has some stunningly bad dialogue, odd tangents (super-hero-themed restaurants and bars for henchmen) which are only loosely connected to the plot, juvenile fart jokes for the kiddies, and an over-sexualized nature that’s certainly not directed at the same audience. In other words, it’s something of a mess – although starting out be recasting one of the most iconic roles from the TV-series was a good hint that something would be amiss.
In our tale, Batman (Conroy) and Nightwing (Loren Lester) enlist the help of a reformed Harley Quinn (Melissa Rauch) to stop her gal-pal Poison Ivy (Paget Brewster) and her new partner the Floronic Man (Kevin Michael Richardson) from unleashing a virus to turn all animal life on the planet into plants.
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harley quinn
Although it’s hard by any objective standard to classify 1985’s Teen Wolf as a “good movie,” the star vehicle for a young Michael J. Fox written by Jeph Loeb and Matthew Weisman is undeniably entertaining.
The story centers around average high school student Scott Howard (Fox) who discovers he’s a werewolf. Rather than hiding this fact, which gives him speed, agility, and power for the first time, Scott brings out the wolf on the basketball court making the sorry team instantly better, and turning himself into a celebrity – something his best friend Stiles (Jerry Levine) is only too happy to exploit for profit.
If you remove the werewolf, Teen Wolf is a pretty generic high school film. We get a good kid, the hot girl he lusts for (Lorie Griffin), her evil boyfriend (Mark Arnold), and the girl (Susan Ursitti) who likes him. Between scenes of the werewolf surfing on top of a van and playing basketball, there’s also Scott learning a life lesson about accepting himself for who he is.
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There’s an interesting premise to this adaptation of the Dave Eggers novel about a woman forced to redefine concepts like privacy and community after being hired by one of the world’s largest technology companies. The Circle (think Apple meets Facebook, but more cult-ish) provides Mae (Emma Watson) with all she’s every wanted, including healthcare for her ailing father (Bill Paxton). However, the level of intrusiveness the company not only engages in but celebrates opens the door to some big questions (which, unfortunately, the film doesn’t really do much to explore).
It would have been very easy for The Circle to be a thriller about the invasion of technology and destruction of privacy, an evil corporation out to do bad things with data, and a world seeming unaware at what they are giving up. The film, however, has bigger aspirations than that, bringing some intriguing questions to the forefront while constantly fighting off the tendency to fall into easy cliche.
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Based on the manga series of the same name, the live-action Hollywood Ghost in the Shell stars Scarlett Johansson (whose casting caused fan backlash). In a world where people are enhanced with cybornetic implants, Major is the first police officer whose brain (or ghost) is housed within the shell of the most advanced robot. While working for the corporation which built her, Major begins to learn disturbing secrets about them and herself that have little to do with keeping the peace. And, if any of this sounds familiar, it’s pretty much the plot of Robocop (without the humor).
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Given the ending of Season One in which Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke) is literally reborn in fire while returning dragons to the world, I had high hopes for Season Two of Game of Thrones to raise its game. Sadly, this isn’t the case. Daenerys has become my favorite character, but due to circumstances beyond her control mean she spends nearly all of the show’s Second Season begging and whining (“Where are my dragons!”). Thankfully, by the end of the season, she seems to throw off her belligerent tantrums and take another step forward in her goal.
It’s the season’s penultimate episode which is the most memorable. While previously skirting around the larger battles around control for the Seven Kingdoms, the attack on King’s Landing provides the most action we’ve seen in the series so far. The episode also offers a big hero moment for Tyrion Lannister (Peter Dinklage). I can’t say the same for the boring Stannis Baratheon (Stephen Dillane) whose goal to lay siege to the city ends in disaster thanks to Tyrion’s cunning and bravery.
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Writer/director Cameron Crowe‘s quotable film is re-released on a 20th Edition Blu-ray set. Tom Cruise stars as sports agent Jerry Maguire whose late night epiphany about working better for fewer clients (and less money) costs him his job, his fiance (Kelly Preston), and all but a single client. Leaving his firm and striking out on his own, Jerry builds a new life supporting the difficult wide receiver (Cuba Gooding Jr., who took home and Oscar for his role as Rod Tidwell) and falling for the one woman (Renée Zellweger) and her son (Jonathan Lipnicki) who follow him to his new enterprise.
20 years later the film proves to still be highly entertaining. Cruise and Gooding are terrific, her role would make the fresh-faced Zellweger a star, and young Jonathan Lipnicki is ridiculously cute. Schmaltzy at times but with a big heart, the film is worth seeking out if you haven’t seen it in awhile. It may not be Cruise’s best, but it’s certainly one of his most watchable films.
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Set some time after the events of the end of 
Lucifer‘s Second Season introduces us to 
