Season in Review: the DOA -- Castle, Agent Carter, and Supergirl

There have been so many shows this season, I van't even keep track, really.

So let's start with the dead, or the dying.

To start with, Yes, Castle has finally bit the bullet. But let's face it, we knew that it was dead the moment that Stana Katic wasn't going to come back. It has been eight seasons of utter insanity, and I enjoyed every minute of it. You could say that it taught me how to do romance ... though not quite as drawn out. Hell, you could even say that this was the tv show that taught network television that, yes, you CAN have a man and a woman get married and grow together as a couple, and not kill the show.

But, alas, it couldn't go on forever. You knew it was on its last legs when Season 7 ended neatly. I knew it was on it's last season with the incredibly shaky opening this season.

Oh well. All in all, it was a fun ride. And it will be missed.

Agent Carter, on the other hand, won't be. While I like the character of Peggy Carter, the show ... oh my God, the show. It had two modes: fun or brain dead. While the second season cut back on the out and out man-hating from season 1, there was a lot of talking and not a lot of actually doing anything. Seriously, people, the secret to a tv show is that STUFF ACTUALLY HAPPENS. As strange as that might be. In Europe, it is "the cinema" so we could see all the things on screen. In America, they're movies, because THEY MOVE. Remember that.

Of course, the past of Peggy Carter was completely irrelevant to the story. While it was amusing to see them at least acknowledge that Carter was a Bletchley girl, I didn't need to know that she was going to be a normal woman at one point. Who cared? Get on with the story. And then, in one of the last episodes, we had a 10-15 minute musical number while she was knocked out.

I will not miss this show. Good night, Miss Carter. You missed every opportunity to surpass Agents of SHIELD, and I look forward to when I can write the obituary on that show, too.

On the other hand, then there's Supergirl -- a preachy, whiny, wussy little show that somehow manages to spend over $3 million an episode. How does it do that? They don't really have an awful lot of stunts. Not even a ton of special effects. The sets might cost that much, but I'm a little curious where all that money went, because it wasn't on the screen.

Season 1 was a massive disappointment to me, and it can be summed up in the last two episodes. Yes, the last two episodes boiled down to "STOP TALKING AND DEBATING AND JUST DO SOMETHING. ANYTHING."  I didn't quite throw things at the tv, but it was close.

Also, there is something truly wrong with the show when it has a crossover with The Flash, and wastes it. I'm reasonably certain that they made Barry Allen dumber for his appearance on ths show -- it's the only reason I can imagine they had him throw lightning at someone made from pure electricity. And similarly stupid things. The only reason to watch that episode boiled down to watching the dynamic of Flash and Supergirl interacting.

The sad thing is that the entire point of the last two episodes, "Hope conquers all," is being covered to better effect on Arrow at the same time.

It's especially disappointing when the final fight scene for Supergirl was Kara and her uncle Non blasting at each other with eye beams. The result was for Non's eyes to explode, and him apparently dying. Please consider that the actor for that was Chris Vance, the same man who did some great Jason Statham fight scenes on a weekly basis in a Transporter TV show. And no one figured out that maybe having an epic knock-down drag-out for a season finale might, just might, have been a good thing.

Can you tell I'm annoyed?

While this show is not dead, it is moving to The CW, which is a good thing. I suspect that 90% of the problems with the show come from direct studio interference. They had one demographic, and guided the show for that demographic and that alone, completely ignoring every other type of possible viewer. Maybe whoever was jerking it around at CBS will be hands off when it comes to CW, and maybe the 8 million viewers will follow along with it.

And, with that show, Greg Berlanti will own Monday-Thursday at 8 pm on the CW, with Friday as a day off. Just imagine that crossover between Arrow, The Flash, Supergirl, and Legends of Tomorrow. You'd think that crossover might be a bit of a mess.

You might even call it .... a Crisis.

BWAHAHAAHAHAA

DC comics death from Above: writing for management

Starfire, bad ass.

In the not too distant past, I did an article about how DC comics seems to have a pathological problem with sex.

This month, the problems have really started to hit me.

Keep in mind, the last DC comic story I read was "Final Crisis," and that one didn't even make sense.  Once they went to the New 52, "One More Day"ed every relationship, and started warping the very nature of their characters, I have only glanced at the comics from time to time, usually to my horror.

Starfire, fashion victim

It was bad enough when DC comics took Starfire -- an alien who was fairly open about her sex life, and was completely monogamous -- and turned her into a .... I'm not entirely certain that the word "slut" is a strong enough word. Not only did they have to go out of their way to make the character amoral when it came to sex, but also gave her a costume redesign to match.

I mean, really? Who comes up with this stuff?

Then Catwoman's character redesign was .... also horrible.

I figured, okay, not a problem, that's two comics out of 52, and one of those writers is Judd Winick, who is a crappy writer to start with (Really? Let's bring back Jason Todd? That's a good idea by you?).

And then some of the most recent stupidity hit the fan.


Take, for example, Batwoman, a "Lesbian hero in the DC universe."  That, in and of itself, doesn't effect me. After all, I figured out a while ago that the DC policy on women created since the late 80s is simple: if you're not a woman dating a Superhero, or if you don't have superpowers in the DC universe, you're a Lesbian (Footnote: see Maggie Sawyer, Metropolis cop; Renee Montoya, Gotham Cop, Batwoman... you get the idea).

Here's the problem.  After building up for months the concept that "Oh, Batwoman's going to get married to her girlfriend," DC pulls the plug on the whole concept.

Now, I don't know if you're aware of this, but comic books are usually planned out at least one year in advance. This allows for planning, crossovers, editing, illustrating, etc. You can't start a 6-12 month story arc without approval.  You can't start something and blink at the last minute.

And yet, this is what DC comics has done.

If you told me that, at the last minute, someone had old religious feeling kick in and they felt they had to swerve away from a lesbian marriage .... I wouldn't believe you.

Why?  Well, aside from the fact that a lot of people don't give a crap about gay marriage (my opinion on it is here), you have.....

1) As I said above, the "new 52" imposed a "One More Day"- like idiocy on the DCU.  No one in the entire DC universe is married anymore.  Barry Allen, married forever? Not anymore. Superman and Lois married for all of the 90s? He's now dating Wonder Woman.  Marriage is, after all, for old people. Who cares if your loyal readership of decades have grown up with these characters in solid, committed relationships? Teenagers are where [DC thinks] the money is.  (Personally, I'd wager my money on the middle aged professionals doing a 9-5 and have a few bucks to catch up to Superman this week)

2) I can't see religion being a factor, given what was done to Catwoman and Starfire.  And, after cancelling any wedding for Batwoman, DC decided that they wanted artwork of a naked Harley Quinn committing suicide. Which leads me to...

3) Is it just me, or is every active writing decision that DC Makes centered around pandering?

• "Hey, we'll have some gay superheroes!" And make it a green lantern from an alternate universe who gets almost zero screen time, as well as one of a hundred interchangeable green lanterns.
• "We'll make a title heroine who's a Lesbian, yay!" as long as she doesn't get locked into a stable relationship, but we can see her make out with her girlfriend.
• "Let's have two of our strongest female leads turn into sex crazed women!"
• "Naked Harley Quinn!"

Seriously? Who's in charge of DC comic nowadays? The same five year olds who swear on MMORPGs because they just discovered these great new words?

My point? I'm not sure if I have one, short of "top-down control is bad."  I used to think it was deranged when there was an infinite amount of crises at DC.  "Oh, hey, we're going to continually shake up the DC universe every month."  But those at least created some interesting stories and some good writing along the way, such as the three year War of the Rings in Green Lantern, or the series 52.

This .... all this has just resulted in bad writing. Does anyone know what's going on anymore?  Once it was editorial lockdown from above, where everyone was in lockstep with the crisis du jour. Now, it looks like no one is in charge except for refugees from my old high school.

The Infinite Crisis of DC Comics.

Ah, DC Comics..... You didn't think I had a grudge with Marvel, did you?

Last week, I took a look at Marvel comics, and how they've tried for yet another Marvel “event” every other week.

At the other end of the comic book universe, in DC Comics, there has been a crisis or two … hundred. They had an Identity Crisis, an Infinite Crisis, a Final Crisis, and one, three year War of the Rings (a Sinestro War, a Corps War, a Blackest night).

Spoiler Alerts all around.