Picking up from the end of "Starting Over," Torres (Wilmer Valderrama) and Tennant (Vanessa Lachey) survive the attack that leaves a military contractor who was their lone witness to events in Afghanistan that left a Marine dead. The search for answers uncovers another military contractor (Teddy Sears) believed to have died five years ago which the company blamed what they called an accident.
At its highwater mark it was the best of the Arrowverse. At its weakest moments it was marginally watchable (although, even at its worst, was still better than Batwoman). All six seasons of The CW's Supergirl are collected here on 24 discs. While the quality over the full run make be inconsistent, there's quite a bit here for fans of the characters starting with Melissa Benoist as Kara.
The eventually bloated supporting roster didn't do any favors to the show or to Benoist, but is worth noting for introducing Nicole Maines as a transgender hero on a network show, even if that show struggled to find interesting things to do with her, and making some smart decisions where the casting of the Luthors (Katie McGrath and later Jon Cryer) was concerned.
The latest machinations of Elena Federova (Morena Baccarin) involve her minions breaking a man out of prison and kidnapping a federal judge to bring her corruption to light. Of course this raises a very, very important question the show has no answer for. If it's so easy for Federova's men to get someone out of prison why are Sergey (Costa Ronin) and Owen Turner (Kamal Angelo Bolden) still languishing there? Given that Sergey's release seems to be one of the primary goals, it's certainly odd that he remains in prison where circumstances could reveal his identity to the larger world.
Created by Doug Moench and Don Perlin in 1975, Moon Knight has offered several variations on the character of a mercenary with multiple lives turned into the avatar of the Egyptian Khonshu. The first episode of the new Marvel series plays up the character's dissociative identity disorder by introducing us to one of his personalities who is only dimly aware other events are happening during his blackouts which leave him with vivid waking dreams and large gaps of missing time.
Set immediately after the Battle of Springfield, G.I. JOE: A Real American Hero #290 offers another single-issue spotlight. This time around the subject of the issue is the elite Russian special mission force the Oktober Guard. The severe injuries to the team's sniper in Springfield offers a look back in flashbacks to the origin of their transformation from regular soldiers to cyborgs.
The two-part NCIS crossover introduces an excuse for Torres (Wilmer Valderrama) to hop a jet to Hawaii where Tennant (Vanessa Lachey) and her team have found a witness on a case he's been working for five years. The thread is picked up at the end of the episode with an attack on the two NCIS agents that leaves their witness dead and an angry Torres with several unanswered questions.
Kicking off a new arc, Red Sonja #7 opens with an introduction to Baroness Drang who has locked away Red Sonja in her dungeon for a week proving on drugged food and water which the She-Devil with a Sword has refused to consume. Meanwhile, Sitha is working with Kebra others to loot Drang's treasure chamber bidding her time waiting to break out Sonja.
The six-episode First Season of Dragons: The Nine Realms concludes by turning its attention to the earthquakes that have been rocking the the ICARIS research station since the show began. While the adults come up with a plan to collapse the fissure, our intrepid dragon riders discover the source of the quakes is a burrowing Fault Ripper dragon. With all the kids of ICARIS now having their dragons, this episode acts as the first real mission for the group working together for a common goal while still keeping their secret from their parents.
Three more tales of Elektra through the years, all presented in black, white, and red, are collected here. My favorite from Elektra: Black, White & Blood #3 is "Weapons of Choice" which sees Elektra, when still working as an assassin for the Hand, attack the Red Room whose students at the time included Natasha Romanov. This is a thread that I'd like to see pulled on and a rematch of the pair, at some point, on more even terms.
On his father's birthday, Barry (Grant Gustin) comes across a murder caused by a fire metahuman. An overwhelming amount of evidence, including motive and opportunity, points to recently-released two-time loser Jaco Birch (Max Adler). However, Barry isn't sure the police have the right man and continues to investigate the crime while being haunted by memories of his own family torn apart by a father incarcerated for a murder he didn't commit. While Barry is able to eventually prove the man's innocence, and prevent him from doing something that would send him back to Iron Heights, Team Flash isn't able to find the meta behind the attacks.
The Human Target #6 marks the halfway point of the twelve-issue maxi-series which begins with Christopher Chance telling Ice that he suspects her best-friend of the murder attempt on Lux Luthor's life (which poisoned Chance instead). Let's just say she doesn't take his suspicions all that well.
We may not get much in the way of moving the case forward (with Ice continuing to be a distraction), or any new cameos from the Justice League International, but we do get a return in the jealous Guy Gardner who attempts to break-up the pair of squabbling lovers and faces Ice's fury. The scene, and its aftermath remind us that we are in a Black Label comic, separate from the current continuity of the DC Universe. As for the case, Chance needs to get back to work with only a handful of days left to find his answers.
The French teen sci-fi series makes its way to Disney+. The opening episode, "Hard Awakening," introduces us to four teens hanging out one night in some kind of abandoned bunker (which still has electricity) in the middle of the forest. The best way to put it is "something weird happens" and Sam (Thomas Chomel) finds himself alone in the creepy bunker with a strange old man (Omar Mebrouk) who is actually the future version (but with only present memories) of his pal Bilal (Timoté Rigault) whose mother works at some kind of research facility (perhaps some kind of particle accelerator) which was running during the incident.
There's a scene in The Lost City where romance cover model Alan (Channing Tatum), his hired mercenary (Brad Pitt), and captured romance novelist Loretta (Sandra Bullock), who is tied to a chair inside a wheelbarrow, are all racing from the background explosions of the jungle encampment of a rich madman (Daniel Radcliffe) while pop music plays. That scene perfectly incapsulates the kind of dumb fun The Lost City provides.
On their travels, Miyamoto Usagi and Yukichi encounter a young woman, Shizuye, at a shrine in the woods. From an old man, the pair learn that the shrine is dedicated to another young woman, Midori, who met tragic end in the haunted woods at the hands of a merchant who eventually also ended the lives of himself and his family. After fending off three men hired to kill Shizuye, the ronin stick around to watch and make sure history doesn't repeat itself.
In terms of ongoing storylines, "Breach" continues to explore the post-break-up relationship of Lucy (Yasmine Al-Bustami) and Whistler (Tori Anderson). As for the threat of the week, that comes from a ransomware attack that threatens to shutdown all power on the island. The episode tips its hand with the rather obvious mastermind of the plot being an inside man, and relies on the quick fix of super-hackers which has become its own cliché at this point in movies and television. Still, there is some fun with Ernie (Jason Antoon) meeting his somewhat unnecessarily hippie idol and we finally, maybe, have a cordial end to the tension between Lucy and Whistler. While I think the show is better exploring them as a couple, this at least (hopefully) ends the recurring awkward and angry sequences between the pair.
Continuing its stumble towards WrestleMania, the 2022 Royal Rumble offered few surprises, a number of older faces, a glut of mid-card talent, the absence of several big names, and a smattering of "celebrity" appearances.
Brock Lesnar, after being cheated out of the title in a match earlier in the evening, entered the lackluster main event Men's Royal Rumble Match securing his spot against Roman Reigns (who successfully defended his title earlier in the evening against Seth Rollins) in the main event at WrestleMania. The Woman's Rumble wasn't much more interesting, nor was the winner any shock to fans, but did feature a number of former WWE Superstars returning including Melina, Kelly Kelly, Mickie James, and Sarah Logan.
"Gold Rush" is another of those episodes where even when the FBI win a victory over Elena Federova (Morena Baccarin) they still lose. The episode, mainly dealing with the terrorist group's control of the Federal Reserve, does see Val (Ryan Michelle Bathe) and Doak (Noah Bean) able to work together in the short term to save the country's gold supply, at least for now. Doak's moment of not being a corporate-ladder-climbing ass is short-lived, however, as things quickly go back to normal.
After getting off-track for a couple of episodes, The Book of Boba Fett concludes its season with a return to the main storyline involving Boba Fett's (Temuera Morrison) attempts to become the new crime boss of Mos Espa and fight off the invading the Pyke Syndicate. Oh, and there's that last-minute revenge for the Tusken Raiders (well, sort of). The finale certainly doesn't skimp on action and offers the payoff of Fett riding his Rancor (something we were told was extremely difficult and didn't see him train for even once). Most of the episode takes place in the streets of the city as Fett's crew fights the superior numbers and firepower of the Pykes. Most of Fett's crew, that is.
Batman and Superman (and Robin!) are back together in a new World's Finest team-up that gives me Batman in his classic 70s & 80s costume (with some unnecessary seams, seriously what is DC's fetish with adding seams to all its heroes costumes?). Our main story features Poison Ivy and Metallo attacking Metropolis and Batman and Robin showing up to help the Man of Steel who ends up getting injected with Red Kryptonite.
The two-part premiere continues, answering some of my questions from "Part 1." Zhilan (Yvonne Chapman) finds a bit of her old spirit and leaves China, although it's still unclear what her new path will be. Mia (Vanessa Yao) continues to be painted more of a frenemy that family for Nicky (Olivia Liang) as she continues to search for answers about her past. And Nicky's plan to take down Russell Tan (Kee Chan) fails, but we do discover some clues to what the businessman is after in his theft of ancient relics.
Rereleased on home video as part of the Alpha Video Retrograde collection with VHS-inspired art, 1978's Magnum Cop returns to DVD. The (poorly) American dubbed version of the Italian film Poliziotto senza paura, our story centers around former cop turned private investigator Wally Spada (Maurizio Merli). After inexplicably spending the first half-hour of the film in overalls, Wally locates a missing young woman who escapes again and turns up kidnapped and held for ransom.
More shyster than great detective or action hero, Wally tells lies both large and small to enlist local help in Vienna to find the girl while uncovering a secret sex trafficking ring of school-aged prostitutes turned out by a high-class stripper (Joan Collins). The film is more notable for Collins' nude scenes than any plot or action.
With the show entering its final three episodes, "Papier" starts to answer questions and fill in gaps to the larger picture about the counterfeiting ring working out of Margrave. Reacher (Alan Ritchson) and Finlay's (Malcolm Goodwin) stakeout may not give them what they expect, but it does explain what Finlay is doing in Georgia and the past which continues to weigh on him. If the stakeout fails, Reacher does get answers from one of two returning professors (the other ends up dead before our hero can reach them). Here he learns about the importance of $100 bills and begins to make ties to what he knows about the pollution and the money shipments to Venezuela.
Radiant Red is a spin-off of an Image Comics mini-series I never read, Radiant Black. As expected, this creates some challenges for the reader. The main character is middle school teacher Satomi Shen, and super-powered criminal and bank robber Radiant Red. Since the comic doesn't go that in-depth on how her powers and costume work, I'm assuming that knowledge would have been part of the Radiant Black series. The gist seems to be, she's done bad things in the past and has attempted to put that life behind her.
No Exit offers your basic braindead low-budget thriller when a group of strangers find themselves stuck together at a visitors center on the side of the highway during a blizzard. Havana Rose Liu stars as a recovering addict who ditches rehab on hearing that her mother is in the hospital. What she discovers is at least one of the people snowed-in with her (Danny Ramirez, David Rysdahl, Dennis Haysbert, and Dale Dickey) isn't who they are pretending to be.
Rather than confronting the group, our protagonist attempts to play amateur detective. This turns into another in a line of really bad life decisions which will end up getting people killed. Not all that thrilling, and burdened with some lackluster twists, No Exit doesn't offer much beyond the bare bones of its cliched plot offering a group of characters but providing no reason for us to care about their survival.
In this twisted take on modern dating from director Mimi Cave and screenwriter Lauryn Kahn, Daisy Edgar-Jones stars as Noa, a young woman with bad luck in dating (and worse taste in men). After a meet-cute with Steve (Sebastian Stan) in a grocery store, the pair get together uncharacteristically quickly for Noa to the concern of Noa's bestfriend Mollie (Jojo T. Gibbs).
It turns out there is good reason to worry when Noa turns up drugged and chained to a wall in Steve's basement. Steve has plans for Noa, or at least parts of her, for his unusual fetish and business he chose not to disclose during the twenty questions they shared over their first few dates getting to know each other. Awakening in captivity, Noa discovers Steve abducts women like her (and the other women chained up in separate rooms) and slowly removes and sells off their meat to his clients.
The games of Elena Federova (Morena Baccarin) continue as the latest puts Doak (Noah Bean) in danger and in prison Owen Turner (Kamal Angelo Bolden) and Sergey (Costa Ronin) deal with an unforeseen problem. Val (Ryan Michelle Bathe) tracks down one of Federova's lieutenants, giving her a small win (and also ending the Doak stalemate without any big takedown by Federova). That isn't the only win, as Val discovers how someone is communicating with Federova inside the black site. Now, can the FBI find a way to use this knowledge to their advantage?
Three more tales of Red Sonja in black and white, and more than a little red thrown in, are collected in Red Sonja: Black, White, Red #8. In "Last Words," my favorite of the three, Red Sonja confronts Master Valik the Merchant known for finding lucrative, but dangerous, jobs for thieves. These jobs are so dangerous, Sonja wonders just why any thief (including a few she knew) would ever take them.
When NCIS connects a hitman to a local restaurant, Kai (Alex Tarrant) goes undercover in the kitchen where he uncovers the owner and head chef being pressured into laundering money for a local drug dealer as well as the connection to the hired killer who arrives and begins killing everyone in the operation. While providing most of the action, and getting NCIS onto the case, the hitman is somewhat of a red herring for the trouble at the restaurant which Kai uncovers. Family drama fills in the various B-stories as Tennant (Vanessa Lachey) and her ex deal with her son (Kian Talan) considering a college scholarship far from home and Kai's troubled history with his father resurfaces on the eve of his mother's birthday.
The contents of not one but two cases will be revealed in Seven Secrets #15, although there's a lot of explanation needed of what exactly the final reveal means. The Sixth Case's opening reveals a baby demon with the power to destroy, but instead just looks a bit lost, leading to the death of another of the Order and a strategic retreat by Amon to the land of Faerie where he may have just stumbled on some unexpected allies. Releasing a demon on the world, and they still think themselves the good guys?
After another public run-in, that gets a bit more comedic than it needs to (but still entertains), Mary (Isla Fisher) comes to dinner in an episode that suggests maybe having a girlfriend who is a werewolf isn't the worst thing in the world. "Episode 4" continues to build on Mary's relationship with Emma (Ariel Donoghue) and, despite his objections and insecurities that eventually drive her out of the house, Gary (Josh Gad) continues to fall for her as well. I will assume the final two episodes will explore if this relationship will work, and what happens when Emma learns Mary's secret?
The various drama at the school is put on hold in "Not All Those Who Wander Are Lost" as Hope (Danielle Rose Russell) and Lizzie (Jenny Boyd) torture Aurora de Martel (Rebecca Breeds) and, in Limbo, Alaric (Matthew Davis), Landon (Aria Shahghasemi), and Ted (Ben Geurens) make a deal with a genie getting three wishes that don't go as anyone expects. The Limbo storyline, with its various twists, turns out to be the better of the two stories returning on character to his villainous alter-ego, one character back to the land of the living, but leaving two of them trapped in Limbo. As for the Hope/Lizzie storyline, I can't help question whether Lizzie's big breakthrough moment, leading to a team-up with Aurora), is merely another of Hope's plans. I guess we'll wait and see.
Gwen Stacys everywhere. That's the gist of Spider-Gwen: Gwenverse when Gwen gets unintentionally added as an ingredient to a super-villain's plan to overwrite herself into classic Marvel heroes across the multiverse. The result? Spider-Gwen's world goes wonky, and in other times across other dimensions we have the creation of characters such Thorgwen (that was the best name you could come up with?).
"Featherhide" follows the same formula of the previous episodes with the introduction of a new dragon and the introduction of one more of the ICARIS research station kids into Dragon Club. This time it's hacker Alex (Aimee Garcia) whose curiosity over Tom's (Jeremy Shada) recent actions overrules her dislike of the outside world and leads her to making some new friends including her equally skittish dragon Feathers. With all the characters now officially Dragon Riders, the set-up is complete. Now, what adventures do the show have for the new generation of Dragon Riders?
Feeling isolated during the 2020 COVID quarantine, English singer and songwriter Charli XCX decided to create a new album from her home, which would become How I'm Feeling Now, and enlisted the help of her fans to help with the collaboration with plans to create and release the album in a matter of weeks with only what was available to her in isolation. Charli XCX: Alone Together documents the unusual process showcasing the artist's daily life, her relationship, her fans, and the work involved putting together the album.
While likely more of interest to those already fans of Charli, the documentary does touch on several interesting themes and ideas including an artist's relationship with her fanbase, the struggles of the creative process (in most unusual circumstances), and as a snapchat of life in quarantine and the emotional and psychological toll of all the days captured on film.
A tie-in issue to Marvel's Devil's Reign, Devil's Reign: Moon Knight #1 catches up to Moon Knight in prison. Not huddled with the other heroes incarcerated by Wilson Fisk and the Thunderbolts, Marc Spector spends his time frightening those he put in prison and eventually working his way into the facility's secret underground fight club.
The Flash's post-Armageddon season kicks off with a Nora (Jessica Parker Kennedy) and Bart (Jordan Fisher) episode as the Flash children discover their visit to the past caused some temporal fissures which need fixing. Heading back to 2013, the pair are able to set the timeline right but in doing so create more trouble with the far earlier formation of the Royal Flush Gang. While everything is apparently set right by the end of the episode, we do get a tease that there may still be some lingering effects waiting for Team Flash to deal with.
The Batman & Scooby-Doo Mysteries wraps up with the twelfth and final issue offering a smorgasbord of Bat-villains and Bat-Family characters to go off with a bang. It seems nearly all of Batman's villains have gathered just outside of Gotham City for a convention when Mystery, Inc. arrives confused by all the oddness until stumbling into a ball room complete with everyone from the Joker to the Condiment King. And with so many villains, of course the extended Bat-Family also crashes the party.
Kung Fu returns for its Sophomore Season with some new faces and and some unexpected returns. It appears our main villain in Season Two will be Russell Tan (Kee Chan) who still has some interest in all things mystical despite the power of the weapons being returned to the Earth in last season's finale. While comatose for most of the episode, Tan's son Kerwin (Ludi Lin) is apparently still alive and his former girlfriend, who left him for dead, returns as well as we find Zhilan (Yvonne Chapman) incarcerated in a Chinese prison.
Disney's Turning Red is basically an animated remake of 1985's Teen Wolf recasting the main character as a 13 year-old girl who begins turning into a giant Red Panda whenever she gets too excited. Like Michael J. Fox's Scott Howard, the cause for the transformation is a mix of puberty and a family curse which Mei (Rosalie Chiang) only learns about after being freaked out by the horror of the unexplained change. And, as in Teen Wolf, Mei is told by her family to control and hide the Panda within but instead uses it to increase her popularity at school.
Turning Red is slow to get started, relying on cookie-cutter Asian stereotypes of the dutiful daughter breaking out of the mold. Thankfully, once the Red Panda shows up, things get a bit more interesting. However, if we are going to ding movies aimed at kids for dick and fart jokes, it's hard not to do the same here for the numerous cheap jokes the film gets away with around mensuration.
While the television adaptation of the character continues to flounder on The CW, Naomi returns to comics with a new six-issue mini-series primarily focused on the character's new normal which includes being in the Justice League with the likes of Superman and Black Canary, getting a better control over her powers, continuing her therapy, and struggling with her relationship with her parents given all of the recent reveals.
Director Milos Foreman's 1999 biopic of Andy Kaufman (played by Jim Carrey) is most notable for Carrey's performance of the unusual celebrity that took himself too seriously but nothing else all that seriously at all. The film highlights the big moments of Kaufman's career including his inter-gender wrestling, his reluctance to accept a role on Taxi, his chaotic appearances on Late Night with David Letterman and Fridays and the creation of his grating alter-ego Tony Clifton.
While Carrey is the backbone of the film, the script by Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski never really explores the reasoning behind Kaufman's various antics or hold him responsible for those that fell flat in what is very much a celebration of the unique performer's career.
Leverage targets a green energy CEO (Jon Fletcher) on the verge of selling a battery powerful enough to power a small electric airplane. The problem is, the battery doesn't work. And to keep the secret, the con man has buried the evidence on farmland that has seeped into his neighbor's property, destroying their crops. As an attempt to scare the off, and prevent the couple from doing soil tests which might reveal the truth, the CEO calls on a local hate group to forcibly remove them.
Continuing the Devil's Reign tie-in, Daredevil: Woman Without Fear #3 restarts Elektra's fight with Kraven. Actually, we get two different fights between the pair in the first-half of this issue. The first offers a public spectacle where Kraven gets the upper-hand and the second sees Elektra victorious as she stops attempting to be Daredevil and instead returns to her ninja assassin roots.
Elena Federova's (Morena Baccarin) machinations continue as events in one of the banks lead to uncovering a dark secret of a famous journalist and brings more publicity to the incarcerated criminal who continues to have no trouble leading her complicated scheme from behind bars. In terms of reveals, "Bury the Lede" does provide the first meeting between Val Fitzgerald's (Ryan Michelle Bathe) husband and Elena and her husband when an undercover assignment goes sideways. It also suggests that Elena has been looking for a way to win Val to her side for quite a long time, and that Val may have a very large role to play in Elena's still yet to come.
Batman #121 wraps up the odd three-issue Batman Incorporated arc with Batman revealing to Lex Luthor and Abyss that the various members of Batman, Inc. have been secretly working undercover this entire time (including framing themselves for murder) to get close to Abyss and expose some of Lex Luthor's shenanigans. Oh, and since they never actually signed contracts to work for Luthor (seems like a pretty big oversight), he has no control over the group. To call the reveal awkward doesn't really do it justice.
Taking his daughter (Chloe Csengery) and a group of kids sailing takes an unexpected turn for Jesse (Noah Mills) when their boat his hijacked by well-organized pirates. Managing to get out a distress call and focus the Navy and Coast Guard on finding the boat, an injured Jesse will spend most of the episode hunting down the mercenaries on a small island, making use of some low-key survival skills (sort of Rambo-lite) while working to rescue his daughter and catch the bad guys before they can make off with their prize.
Recently re-released on home video, 1979's C.H.O.M.P.S. was live-action kiddie fare about a robot dog and ridiculous criminals (Chuck McCann and Red Buttons). A struggling young inventor (Wesley Eure) creates a robotic version of his own dog as the next line in home security. While he's still working out the bugs, the Canine HOMe Protection System even impresses his hard-to-please boss (Conrad Bain) whose security company is under attack from a rival (Jim Backus), and a member of his own team (Larry Bishop) sabotaging their product.
Valerie Bertinelli also stars as our inventor's girlfriend, and the daughter of his hot-headed boss. While I remember the film keeping my interest as a kid, it's target audience is limited to that demographic.
