The Flash Season 8 (CW, 2021-22)

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Caught the first episode of Flash Season 8, "Armageddon Part 1."

It's a strong beginning for a superhero show, in that all the actual superhero focus is on the Flash and his one visiting ally, The Atom.
No other member of Team Flash suits up or does any fighting despite having their own subplots. Things are also interesting conflict-wise because there are *two* foes in the debut episode: Royal Flush Gang (not a big fan of the costume designs, but their group dynamic is fairly spot-on, with the constant jokey card game puns) and the three-eyed fury of Despero (who, in the comics, is stronger than both Kryptonians and Amazons, so Barry has his work cut out for him!).

I wondered if the writers of this show learned their lesson about diluting the focus on the title character too much (a la the final two seasons of Supergirl), and maybe they have. But they haven't learned *all* the lessons about what not to do from Supergirl: they still make time for a bit of progressive preaching, when Allegra talks about wanting to have the Citizen's readers "see themselves" in their stories. As her disgruntled employee points out, that's not objective news journalism, that's activism.

What I enjoyed about the episode:
- Focus is back on the Flash with nice guest spot by Ray Palmer in costume as The Atom.
- Great shout-out to "filk music" by the actress playing the tech convention organizer.
[unfortunately it may be outdated: filk is not a big feature of Cons like it used to be. These days it seems the musical entertainment is often about bands who play video game theme song covers, etc.]

I hope for one aspect to be developed in the future - and I think I've already said this regarding previous seasons - they are not doing that much with either the Chester or Allegra characters, so they have to keep them busy with self-interested side plots. But Kayla Compton, who plays Allegra, is beautiful and shapely, and she would look great if the producers finally assigned her a tight battle costume like her deceased sister Ultraviolet had, and hopefully a cool codename (I would suggest Wavelength, who is the father of the comics version of Allegra Garcia from Teen Titans). Let's hope this happens - it'd be more exciting to see her fighting in uniform rather than editing articles for the Citizen.

Looking forward to Episode 2 as Barry tries to figure out how to neutralize the uber-powerful Despero.
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Spoiler
I like how he actually used his powers like he should against the Royal Flush gang - and then will probably never do that again.

I also like the main bad guy probably has a legit reason to kill Barry cause of all the crap he causes with the timeline and reality.
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Did a deep dive into the four-part "Armageddon" arc vs Despero. How it resolves is a bit weak, but I won't spoil the ending of course.

Plus, you probably won't be missing much if you actually skip ahead to Episode 4 (Armageddon Part 4). The story is very decompressed by characters talking to each other in hallways about their feelings, people "turning and looking", and other soap opera-style subplots which are mainly there for the CW's female fanbase. And of course, lots of 'love' this and 'hope' that as befits these CW shows.

For peril and heroine fans, the only thing interesting in Episode 3 is when Cecile and The Top (played by the very beautiful Ashley
Rickards) suffer a bit in peril while they are undergoing a psychic link that Chunk induces with a machine (he even calls it 'Cerebro' - I didn't know it was legal to just use Marvel terms in DC shows like that, but I guess it counts as a joke). There are a couple shots where The Top actually looks like she is deriving pleasure from it, plus she's in a tight outfit. That's about it.

The meat of the costumes, the action, and the peril is all in Episode 4. I'll place all these photos in spoilers so it doesn't give too much away. But you can peek if you like! This whole arc seemed like a "mini-season" unto itself but it's clear that both Thawne and Despero will be giving Barry more trouble soon.
Spoiler

As usual, one of the first thing you notice is Candace Patton's eternally epic beauty. When her hair is pulled back like this,
and she is in a semi-tight and revealing outfit, that's the best, since it's the closest we'll get to seeing her in a costume.
flash s8 e4 candace patton beauty.jpg
flash s8 e4 candace patton beauty.jpg (115.68 KiB) Viewed 3506 times
Danielle Panabaker has a fight with a returning villain (hint: he comes from both Arrow and Legends) and there are some nice
sexy poses of her in the Killer Frost costume, such as it is.
flash s8 e4 killer frost pose.jpg
flash s8 e4 killer frost pose.jpg (131.97 KiB) Viewed 3506 times
Maskripper will like this one: We see quite a bit of Cecile, and although she never wears a costume per se, she shows up a few times in tight leather pants, and there's one scene where she wears the 'Cerebro' type mask.
flash s8 e4 cecile wearing mask.jpg
flash s8 e4 cecile wearing mask.jpg (114.6 KiB) Viewed 3506 times
There is a nice peril scene where Despero has all of the "Flash Friends" knocked out and posed in chairs (they're not tied up, nor are any of them in costume, though, which is unfortunate). In the meantime, Despero briefly mentally tortures Cecil and puts her under some peril duress.
flash s8 e4 flash friends knocked out.jpg
flash s8 e4 flash friends knocked out.jpg (147.16 KiB) Viewed 3506 times
flash s8 e4 cecile in peril.jpg
flash s8 e4 cecile in peril.jpg (110.58 KiB) Viewed 3506 times
There is also a scene where, in an alternate timeline, three females beat the shit out of Barry Allen because they think he's evil.
I'm sure that the producers of this show have wanted to make this kind of 'empowerment' scene happen for a while. It's also the closest we'll probably ever get to seeing the comely Allegra in a 'costume' of sorts - her 'fancy dress' glows very brightly for a few moments as she becomes a 'being of energy' (not shown here). If you like femdom and power this scene is for you.
flash s8 e4 his female opponents.jpg
flash s8 e4 his female opponents.jpg (127.4 KiB) Viewed 3506 times
Anyway it's worth taking a good look at Episodes 1 and 4 for sure, for the Royal Flush gang, and the intense concluding action.
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Batwoman looks HOT in that pic!!! Wow...although I loved and miss Kate/Ruby, this Batwoman looks kinky as hell!!
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Just a quick post about the final fifth episode of the Armageddon event (Flash, season 8, episode 5).
Sadly, no more Batwoman/Ryan but at least the (new) Green Arrow finally showed up!

Here are some pictures:
Image
Image
Image

-
She had some nice scenes but without any secret identity issues at all, as they (team Flash) know who she is under her tiny mask and the villains don't care (at least the hood adds a bit extra disguise).
I'm still a little sad that she didn't get her own show as they canceled the Spin-off with her and the canaries.
So I guess this may have been her last appearance as Green Arrow unless she will make appearances in other future crossovers. :-(

All in all the Armageddon event was ...well....nice. Entertaining with some odd story aspects here and there.
Lately, they come up with way too many convenient crazy sci-fi gadgets whenever they are needed.
There is basically no problem they won't have some sort of gadget for.

The Flash is now on break until March 9.
Batwoman will return on January 12.
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Wow, great minds think alike, Maskripper, because I was going to post two of the three photos you posted above!
But here are two more.

Full body costume shot of the lovely Cat MacNamara without hood and mask. Not sure if she would have been a strong enough actress to carry her own show, but I guess we'll never know now. Like you said, whether she appears again as female Green Arrow remains to be seen, but there was a definite purpose to having her take over that costume near the end of Arrow's run.
mia queen.jpg
mia queen.jpg (105.2 KiB) Viewed 3393 times
And the purpose is easily observable. Yes, all of them are hot, I'm quite aware.
flash is mostly women.jpg
flash is mostly women.jpg (162.68 KiB) Viewed 3393 times
So, this Part 5 of Armageddon wasn't particularly necessary for anyone to watch unless you want a good look at Cat MacNamara.
It's more of a denouement - the peak of the action happened in Part 4. We'll see what new villainy happens after the hiatus.
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shevek wrote:
2 years ago
Did a deep dive into the four-part "Armageddon" arc vs Despero. How it resolves is a bit weak, but I won't spoil the ending of course.

Plus, you probably won't be missing much if you actually skip ahead to Episode 4 (Armageddon Part 4). The story is very decompressed by characters talking to each other in hallways about their feelings, people "turning and looking", and other soap opera-style subplots which are mainly there for the CW's female fanbase. And of course, lots of 'love' this and 'hope' that as befits these CW shows.

For peril and heroine fans, the only thing interesting in Episode 3 is when Cecile and The Top (played by the very beautiful Ashley
Rickards) suffer a bit in peril while they are undergoing a psychic link that Chunk induces with a machine (he even calls it 'Cerebro' - I didn't know it was legal to just use Marvel terms in DC shows like that, but I guess it counts as a joke). There are a couple shots where The Top actually looks like she is deriving pleasure from it, plus she's in a tight outfit. That's about it.

The meat of the costumes, the action, and the peril is all in Episode 4. I'll place all these photos in spoilers so it doesn't give too much away. But you can peek if you like! This whole arc seemed like a "mini-season" unto itself but it's clear that both Thawne and Despero will be giving Barry more trouble soon.
Spoiler

As usual, one of the first thing you notice is Candace Patton's eternally epic beauty. When her hair is pulled back like this,
and she is in a semi-tight and revealing outfit, that's the best, since it's the closest we'll get to seeing her in a costume.

flash s8 e4 candace patton beauty.jpg

Danielle Panabaker has a fight with a returning villain (hint: he comes from both Arrow and Legends) and there are some nice
sexy poses of her in the Killer Frost costume, such as it is.

flash s8 e4 killer frost pose.jpg

Maskripper will like this one: We see quite a bit of Cecile, and although she never wears a costume per se, she shows up a few times in tight leather pants, and there's one scene where she wears the 'Cerebro' type mask.

flash s8 e4 cecile wearing mask.jpg

There is a nice peril scene where Despero has all of the "Flash Friends" knocked out and posed in chairs (they're not tied up, nor are any of them in costume, though, which is unfortunate). In the meantime, Despero briefly mentally tortures Cecil and puts her under some peril duress.

flash s8 e4 flash friends knocked out.jpg

flash s8 e4 cecile in peril.jpg

There is also a scene where, in an alternate timeline, three females beat the shit out of Barry Allen because they think he's evil.
I'm sure that the producers of this show have wanted to make this kind of 'empowerment' scene happen for a while. It's also the closest we'll probably ever get to seeing the comely Allegra in a 'costume' of sorts - her 'fancy dress' glows very brightly for a few moments as she becomes a 'being of energy' (not shown here). If you like femdom and power this scene is for you.

flash s8 e4 his female opponents.jpg
Anyway it's worth taking a good look at Episodes 1 and 4 for sure, for the Royal Flush gang, and the intense concluding action.

Why has there been such a long time stretch from episide 5 to the remainder of season 8?
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dragontigerandhorse1985 wrote:
2 years ago

Why has there been such a long time stretch from episide 5 to the remainder of season 8?
Covid probably
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Mr. X wrote:
2 years ago
dragontigerandhorse1985 wrote:
2 years ago

Why has there been such a long time stretch from episide 5 to the remainder of season 8?
Covid probably
And now the Olympics.
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You can probably skip Episodes 7 and 8 of The Flash Season 8.

The plots are boring and there's absolutely no consequence from anything that has happened.
They also continue to spend an inordinate amount of time on the journalism angle with scenes that feature Candace Patton.
I understand that they want to give her as much screen time as possible (reasons) but there's really nothing to it - it's like a repeat of all the Cat Grant scenes from Supergirl. In a world where "everyone gets powers", they'd be better off just giving Iris some kind of
power, or powered costume, which would at least allow us to see Patton flexing head to toe in some tight uniform instead of sitting behind a desk playing Editrix-in Chief.

Also (no spoilers) yet another main character in the series finds out that Barry is The Flash. That has to be at least a dozen people
who know his identity by now, and I'm surprised that nobody's figured it out who can threaten Barry's family yet.

The only reason you might want to watch Episode 8 "The Fire Next Time" despite its insipid (but conventionally heartwarming, at least) premise is that Danielle Panabaker appears for a long period of time in the tight Frost costume. Again, it'd be so much better if it had been designed without the "dress" that obscures the shapeliness of the bottom half of her body, but it is what it is. She's gorgeous in it nonetheless.

Next week, we get a guest appearance from Phantom Girl (Tinya Wazzo) of the Legion of Super-Heroes played by actress Mika Abdalla who has a cute Mediterranean look (she's Bulgarian/Greek/Lebanese) so hopefully they'll do a decent job with that costume and have her in some worthwhile scenes. The Flash series has been so dominated by female characters for a while that you might as well just keep adding them, as long as they're fun to watch.
Damselbinder

Season EIGHT?

Who in God's name is still watching this?
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Damselbinder wrote:
2 years ago
Season EIGHT?

Who in God's name is still watching this?
I am still watching the show. The writing is not the best, it is clearly not in my top 10 TV shows, but I think it is OK. The Flash in my quality wise is in line with the rest of the shows in the CW Arrowverse more or less. Grant Gustin is a likeable lead and Candace Patton is beautiful. I will not fight you in a losing battle to extoll the virtues of the show because lord knows it is not perfect, but it is a CW Arrowverse show in that the casting is fairly good, the writing and plotting range from halfway decent and mediocre to worse than that. I think if you buy into the Arrowverse shows, you might think it is OK, if you don't, then it is not one's cup of tea. Different strokes for different folks. I don't want folks to paint me as defending the show as a great work of art, because I don't believe that it is, but it is the CW, but for a few exceptions, the CW has never been the home to great and inspired writing or Emmy winning television fare, it is the CW, the home to passable superhero fare targeted to 18–49-year-old demos. I came to terms with that reality a long time ago.
Damselbinder

bushwackerbob wrote:
2 years ago
Damselbinder wrote:
2 years ago
Season EIGHT?

Who in God's name is still watching this?
I am still watching the show. The writing is not the best, it is clearly not in my top 10 TV shows, but I think it is OK. The Flash in my quality wise is in line with the rest of the shows in the CW Arrowverse more or less. Grant Gustin is a likeable lead and Candace Patton is beautiful. I will not fight you in a losing battle to extoll the virtues of the show because lord knows it is not perfect, but it is a CW Arrowverse show in that the casting is fairly good, the writing and plotting range from halfway decent and mediocre to worse than that. I think if you buy into the Arrowverse shows, you might think it is OK, if you don't, then it is not one's cup of tea. Different strokes for different folks. I don't want folks to paint me as defending the show as a great work of art, because I don't believe that it is, but it is the CW, but for a few exceptions, the CW has never been the home to great and inspired writing or Emmy winning television fare, it is the CW, the home to passable superhero fare targeted to 18–49-year-old demos. I came to terms with that reality a long time ago.
Pretty sure your opinion automatically wins because I haven't tuned in for six seasons. It could be a masterpiece for all I know. I'm just shocked it's still going.
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The CW doesn't have a lot of great television, anymore. Nothing like Seventh Heaven or Original Charmed that had ratings comparable to the big three networks.The superhero shows are all from one company so there is a great need not to anger the producer so he doesn't take the all to cable or streaming. They have reboots of Charmed, Roswell, and Walker: Texas Ranger. Most of the shows are coming up on cancellation because it will be too expensive to pay increased salaries as the acting contracts come up for renewal.

I still watch, but it's more as background noise while I surf the Internet on my computer. I can't recall the last episode that I liked more than a few minutes.
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Damselbinder wrote:
2 years ago
Season EIGHT?

Who in God's name is still watching this?
I agree. How many times can the show be "its the reverse flash!!"
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Still watching it, but it's just mildly entertaining now for me.
When I have my phone in my hands several times during an episode it's not the best sign I guess.
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Damselbinder wrote:
2 years ago
bushwackerbob wrote:
2 years ago
Damselbinder wrote:
2 years ago
Season EIGHT?

Who in God's name is still watching this?
I am still watching the show. The writing is not the best, it is clearly not in my top 10 TV shows, but I think it is OK. The Flash in my quality wise is in line with the rest of the shows in the CW Arrowverse more or less. Grant Gustin is a likeable lead and Candace Patton is beautiful. I will not fight you in a losing battle to extoll the virtues of the show because lord knows it is not perfect, but it is a CW Arrowverse show in that the casting is fairly good, the writing and plotting range from halfway decent and mediocre to worse than that. I think if you buy into the Arrowverse shows, you might think it is OK, if you don't, then it is not one's cup of tea. Different strokes for different folks. I don't want folks to paint me as defending the show as a great work of art, because I don't believe that it is, but it is the CW, but for a few exceptions, the CW has never been the home to great and inspired writing or Emmy winning television fare, it is the CW, the home to passable superhero fare targeted to 18–49-year-old demos. I came to terms with that reality a long time ago.
Pretty sure your opinion automatically wins because I haven't tuned in for six seasons. It could be a masterpiece for all I know. I'm just shocked it's still going.
LOL! Definitely not a masterpiece. Maskripper said mildly entertaining, and I think that goes for me as well. The Flash has the advantage of being on the CW where the ratings threshold for success is much lower than ABC, NBC, CBS, or FOX. That is why the middling Supergirl found a home on the CW rather than face an almost certain cancellation on CBS after season one because of that higher ratings threshold and demo numbers. Heck, CW's Arrow lasted eight seasons, long after it jumped the shark as well. When you have modest ratings expectations, mediocre shows can last a while if your show is at the right network.
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The CW when it was still the pre-merger of UPN and WB networks had lower ratings expectations in line with the first years of Fox. However they were still able to get shows in the top 50 for the year. Now they don't even try and settle for cable show viewer numbers.
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"Eskimos love blubber because that's all they serve at the all you can eat arctic buffet"
Damselbinder

Mr. X wrote:
2 years ago
"Eskimos love blubber because that's all they serve at the all you can eat arctic buffet"
That's not a perfect analogy. It's all the CW has going for it, sure... but people can always change the channel.
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Damselbinder wrote:
2 years ago
Mr. X wrote:
2 years ago
"Eskimos love blubber because that's all they serve at the all you can eat arctic buffet"
That's not a perfect analogy. It's all the CW has going for it, sure... but people can always change the channel.
yes but how many other stations carry CW like shows? I guess Picard. The Boys isn't really out yet is it? So if you want that content you're kind of stuck.

I believe this is called a "Hobson's choice"
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For the benefit of non English speakers, "Hobson's Choice" refers to having no choice at all.

Hobson was a horse trader in northern England who, if you went to hire a horse would always just give you the horse nearest the door as that made his life easier. So you had no choice in what you got even though you were the paying customer.

I got fed up of the exposition show downs were he would get surprised and taken down by waiting for the villain to either explain the trap and then spring it or lead up to it and then hit him with whatever it was. Why wouldnt he just move from wherever he was standing to somewhere else, especially when its happened 5 or 6 times.

Ive seen up to season 6 but I couldn't tell you why.
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tallyho wrote:
2 years ago
For the benefit of non English speakers, "Hobson's Choice" refers to having no choice at all.
I remember that phrase from an Alfred Bester story!

But there definitely is a choice. We are inundated with superhero content like never before.
HBO has Peacemaker, Harley, Titans, Doom Patrol, coming up Green Lantern etc.
Disney has relentless Marvel shows all the time with Moon Knight debuting on Wed and She-Hulk & Ms Marvel coming up soon.
Then there's The Boys, Invincible, Jupiter's Legacy, Hyperions and more on the other services.
And I didn't even start mentioning anything sci-fi like Foundation, Star Trek, Raised by Wolves and so on.
It's difficult to keep up with all of it (although I've generally been able to).

So no, this isn't really Hobson's Choice in my opinion, unless you consider that unlike all this other stuff, the CW is always free
to anyone who streams directly from their site. That might be the equivalent of choosing the horse nearest the door, I dunno.

As I said earlier, looking forward to the Arrowverse debut of Phantom Girl!
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Peacemaker - short run season. Is there a second one? And you have to join a channel.
Harley - A show? Really? You mean the animated one? That's over
Titans - Not a whole lotta hub bub about that show.
Doom Patrol - Is that even renewed? Plus it was wackadoodle nonsense.
Green Lantern - On CW? Isn't that going to be just another bad written CW show.
Moon Knight - Not joining a channel for a show that looks meh.
She-Hulk & Ms Marvel - yeahhhhh the previews look like stinkers.
The Boys - Ok.
Invincible - That's a show?
Jupiter's Legacy - Cancelled.
Hyperions - OK
Star Trek - You can't be serious.
Raised by Wolves - You mean High on Mushrooms?
I notice no one seems to watch Legends of Tomorrow.

Seems like all the crayons come out of the same box. Except for Superman and The Boys, most of these are either cancelled, on several pay sites or just more bad shows. Hawkeye was a stinker, so was Falcon and Winter Soldier.
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Harley Quinn: The Animated Series is going to air a season 3.
I watch Legends of Tomorrow, but that's on the bubble for another season even after the reveal of the new character.

But most of them require payments for being able to watch a few short run series. I suppose Disney+ gives the most other things you can watch for your money.
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Visitor wrote:
2 years ago
Harley Quinn: The Animated Series is going to air a season 3.
I watch Legends of Tomorrow, but that's on the bubble for another season even after the reveal of the new character.

But most of them require payments for being able to watch a few short run series. I suppose Disney+ gives the most other things you can watch for your money.
Yes and that cuts down on the choices. Someone has to join like 3 or 4 pay sites to see all of these.
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Mr. X wrote:
2 years ago
Peacemaker - short run season. Is there a second one? And you have to join a channel.
Harley - A show? Really? You mean the animated one? That's over
Titans - Not a whole lotta hub bub about that show.
Doom Patrol - Is that even renewed? Plus it was wackadoodle nonsense.
Green Lantern - On CW? Isn't that going to be just another bad written CW show.
Moon Knight - Not joining a channel for a show that looks meh.
She-Hulk & Ms Marvel - yeahhhhh the previews look like stinkers.
The Boys - Ok.
Invincible - That's a show?
Jupiter's Legacy - Cancelled.
Hyperions - OK
Star Trek - You can't be serious.
Raised by Wolves - You mean High on Mushrooms?
I notice no one seems to watch Legends of Tomorrow.

Seems like all the crayons come out of the same box. Except for Superman and The Boys, most of these are either cancelled, on several pay sites or just more bad shows. Hawkeye was a stinker, so was Falcon and Winter Soldier.
Whether or not an individual show is a stinker, a lot of people are watching these shows. Enough to inspire cosplay (I've seen plenty of Starlight, Invincible, and Raven/Starfire at Cons) and panels at conventions (such as when the Poison Mary actress recently appeared at a Con, noted in the Batwoman thread).
As noted above, Harley continues.
Pretty sure there'll be a Peacemaker spinoff if there isn't a second season. James Gunn doesn't run out of energy.
Green Lantern is on HBO, not CW. It will need that extra production value attention.
Titans had 3 seasons and is continuing. 'hubbub' or not. (The most attention it got was for Starfire. At first there was some noise, but then after 3 seasons people finally saw how hot both she and the Blackfire actress are in the full costumes. Agreed!)
A lot of people have Disney - many join just to watch Marvel or Star Wars and then drop it.
Yes, Invincible is a show, and the best animated one at that. We've discussed it. Great Atom Eve depiction. Check it out.
Jupiter's Legacy is still available to watch, and it spawned the 'Super Crooks' animated show, too. Which has its moments.
I'm not 'serious' about any new Star Trek, but it's there and some people watch it.
Raised by Wolves is surprisingly great despite its heavy religious tones, and I'm getting through finishing it this week. This season it's delving into body horror, and there's lots and lots of killing. There's some peril/torture as well, but everyone who endures it is male (natch).
And yes, the CW shows are the only ones which are really 'free', but there are plenty of ways to watch all of these things.
There are plenty of crayon boxes. It's perfectly OK if you don't like those boxes, but they're there.
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Yes, Invincible is a show
OH YEAH That one. I was confused with the M. Knight movies.
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The actress who's playing Meena Dhawan looked rather sexy in that spandex suit.
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Nykron wrote:
1 year ago
The actress who's playing Meena Dhawan looked rather sexy in that spandex suit.
Yes, that's going to be Bengali actress Kausar Mohammed playing Meena Dhawan, aka Fast Track, an Indian-American speedster who
was created as a love interest and ally for The Flash in 2016.

You'd have known she was eventually coming if you noticed Chester reading a book by "Meena Dhawan" in the first episode of Season 7 - not sure if I remember to mention it in the Season 7 thread or not....

In the comics, Meena is indeed very beautiful, wearing tight black spandex and sporting gorgeous long hair typical of the beautiful Indian heroines (you'll notice I follow that archetype closely in Heroineburgh with our Indian characters).
meena-dhawan-1266470-normal.jpg
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Unfortunately, even though Kausar Mohammed was known to have beautiful long hair for a long time, it looks like she has more recently shortened those locks, and we are probably going to wind up with this..just so you're forewarned. Chances are that the short-haired version of Meena will appear sometime in the 8th Season after the "second interlude" pair of episodes (which I think are 15 and 16). Hopefully the costume will be tight as advertised.
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In the meantime...Episode 14 sees Deathstorm return, although this time he's part of the main universe, and not just an "evil Firestorm counterpart" from Earth-2 like he was several seasons ago.

That's pretty much the only thing of interest which happens in EP14 - the debut of 'Tinya Wazzo' was a huge disappointment:
1) she's not an alien; she's just some girl from Coast City.
2) she wears no costume, just a boring jean jacket.
3) her character is under-developed, basically consisting of "Leave Me Alone!"
4) when she phases through walls, she shorts out electric circuits (which is a Kitty Pryde thing! not Phantom Girl)
5) her subplot violates the rules of metahuman tracking which were established by The Flash show itself (she wasn't created by the
accelerator accident so she has no detectable levels of dark matter!)

So I don't see the point of introducing a version of Tinya Wazzo other than the showrunners' apparent need to march endless female characters across the screen (gives us yet another chance to see Sue Dearbon, too. For what reason? Who knows. Maybe we'll find out.)

The current Deathstorm costume is badass, though:
deathstorm.jpg
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Danorian
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As a long term fan of the LSH, I have been APPALLED by how the LSH membership has been misappropriated by the writers of the Arrowverse, and trodden upon by them!
From Dream Girl being made into a brunette trans woman that is 1/2 Naltorian(it should've been the set up for her sister to become the White Witch, and Mordru being the big bad for a season of Supergirl), to Brainiac 5 being the dumbest smart guy around, often outsmarted by Lena and Lex Luthor, mere 4th level intellects vs his 12th! Oh, and that's logarithmic BTW. The girl they used for Saturn Girl was hot, but having her be part telekinetic? And now they're fucking with Phantom Girl?
Almost makes me look back fondly on-NO! Not gonna stoop that low! Just that there was an LSH inspired animated series briefly. Ugh. Horrible!
Well, there's my 2 cents.
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Given the sad state of DC in general and the fact Discovery acquired Warner and the massive debt Warner had, its doubtful they can or will uphold any copyright claims on these characters. Most comics are done now just to renew the copyright. That's why you see the Beefeater or some D lister show up from time to time. The heavy hitters like Superman and Batman and Wonder Woman and Flash will probably get protected but others will just be let go.

It is what it is. None of this foolery brought in more viewers so at this point its just a check list that has no meaning. Let it die. Don't fight for it. Just let it die.

On a side note what this whole experience proves is money is NOT the motivator for behavior. The idea of "follow the money" isn't always true as you can see these people literally burn their own profit machine down for some other belief.
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shevek wrote:
2 years ago
tallyho wrote:
2 years ago
For the benefit of non English speakers, "Hobson's Choice" refers to having no choice at all.
I remember that phrase from an Alfred Bester story!

But there definitely is a choice. We are inundated with superhero content like never before.
HBO has Peacemaker, Harley, Titans, Doom Patrol, coming up Green Lantern etc.
Disney has relentless Marvel shows all the time with Moon Knight debuting on Wed and She-Hulk & Ms Marvel coming up soon.
Then there's The Boys, Invincible, Jupiter's Legacy, Hyperions and more on the other services.
And I didn't even start mentioning anything sci-fi like Foundation, Star Trek, Raised by Wolves and so on.
It's difficult to keep up with all of it (although I've generally been able to).

So no, this isn't really Hobson's Choice in my opinion, unless you consider that unlike all this other stuff, the CW is always free
to anyone who streams directly from their site. That might be the equivalent of choosing the horse nearest the door, I dunno.

As I said earlier, looking forward to the Arrowverse debut of Phantom Girl!
Is this overkill. Jut like the panned Lord of the Rings that is on
Damselbinder

"Panned Lord of the Rings"?

It's not even OUT yet!
Dazzle1
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Damselbinder wrote:
1 year ago
"Panned Lord of the Rings"?

It's not even OUT yet!
I am just reading reviews.

Disclaimer I have not seen or even watch previews
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Danorian wrote:
1 year ago
As a long term fan of the LSH, I have been APPALLED by how the LSH membership has been misappropriated by the writers of the Arrowverse, and trodden upon by them!
And you didn't even mention the travesty that was Mon-El. :) (I'm sure it's painful to recall.)

There are so many beyond-gorgeous, just ultra-sexy female characters that were in the Legion of Super Heroes, and not a single
one has been done even remotely correctly in terms of casting, characterization, or costume.

Can you imagine what a mess they would make of Dawnstar, for example? I would shudder to think of it!

And yet..the CW did quite well with their approaches to the Justice Society. It just doesn't make much sense. Sometimes they care (maybe just when Geoff Johns is involved??), and sometimes they just don't at all.
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Well, for Stargirl we have a series written by someone that actually knows the source material, since Geoff Johns actually made Stargirl and Stripe.

For the Flash series, it feels to me like they are to busy finding every speedster they can find, and bringing them in, clustering the place up! I'd rather have the Rogue's Gallery causing mischief for the Scarlet Speedster!

As for the Supergirl series, I have to concur that the writers had NO clue about Kara's history, and just made her Superman with a skirt! At least for the '84 Supergirl movie, we had a real blonde that wore a brunette wig in her Linda Lee alter ego! Dunno why they couldn't have Melissa Benoist keeping her natural brunette locks, and wearing a blonde wig as Supergirl, just hiding when she "changes her hair". I daresay Hollywood has mastered hair technology well enough to pull that off! After all, it probably got many people to believe over six years that Melissa's real hair color was blonde! :O

Oh, for the Dawnstar question, I'm shuddering with you! She's one of the loveliest LSH ladies IMHO in her classic costume. Hmmm. Thinking the lass they used for Saturn Girl may have done the Dawnstar role well.

My 2 cents.
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Danorian wrote:
1 year ago
As a long term fan of the LSH, I have been APPALLED by how the LSH membership has been misappropriated by the writers of the Arrowverse, and trodden upon by them!
From Dream Girl being made into a brunette trans woman that is 1/2 Naltorian(it should've been the set up for her sister to become the White Witch, and Mordru being the big bad for a season of Supergirl), to Brainiac 5 being the dumbest smart guy around, often outsmarted by Lena and Lex Luthor, mere 4th level intellects vs his 12th! Oh, and that's logarithmic BTW. The girl they used for Saturn Girl was hot, but having her be part telekinetic? And now they're fucking with Phantom Girl?
Almost makes me look back fondly on-NO! Not gonna stoop that low! Just that there was an LSH inspired animated series briefly. Ugh. Horrible!
Well, there's my 2 cents.

What does LSH stand for
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dragontigerandhorse1985 wrote:
1 year ago

What does LSH stand for
Legion of Super Heroes.
Danorian
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Mr. X wrote:
1 year ago
dragontigerandhorse1985 wrote:
1 year ago

What does LSH stand for
Legion of Super Heroes.
Yeah, the group that Saturn Girl, Brainiac 5, Phantom Girl(Tinya Wazzo), and Dream Girl originally came from in the 30th century! Oh, and Mon-El did end up with them too, after originally, Superboy put him in the Phantom Zone to save him from lead poisoning! Brainiac 5 came up with a cure, so Mon could come out and be a hero in the future.
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Don't bother with Season 8 Episode 12 "Death Rises" because almost nothing happens.

Sure, there's a lame villain, the flame-skulled "Deathstorm" who is only going to last for one more episode, anyway, but so much of this episode is taken up with talk talk talk: talking in the science lab, earnest mutual validation between friends, talking in expensive well-furnished apartments about 'time sickness', more talk about how to find Deathstorm, talk talk talk.

There's hardly any action. The one scene which I enjoyed was Allegra vs an apparition which looked like her dead relative Esperanza. The dialogue in the scene is almost entirely in Spanish. And the actress who plays Allegra looks very beautiful in this episode. If you see the closeups of her face, they did an amazing makeup job. But I have the same problem I've had with the Allegra character this whole time: she doesn't get to do much; she's there mainly for the representation factor; and she would look incredible in a tight costume but she never wears one (and yet, they put "Deathstorm" in a costume so tight, you can see his family jewels). Who does superheroics in a sweater and jeans? That's right, Allegra does. Boring.

Another tidbit I noticed is that Chester P. Runk has adopted a habit of dropping "black history nuggets" whenever he gets excited and is about to announce a Cool Science Idea. I'm not sure if he did this in previous episodes, and I just wasn't paying attention, but in this episode, he literally says "Holy Paschal Beverly Rudolph" and "Galloping Benjamin Banneker". I guess the idea is that astute viewers will look up the names of these unsung 19th century black luminaries (although Rudolph was an occultist who promoted Sex Magick, so he had nothing to do with science), similar to the appeal of Google Doodles. It's a little Easter Egg encouraged by the writers.

Overall, not enough to recommend that anyone watch this episode. I'm guessing the next one will be in the same vein.
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I was wrong, but only for one reason. Sure, Deathstorm is a lame villain, but it gave the show an excuse to delve into some content
that we don't get to see too often but that we like to enjoy on this forum.

-Superheroine transformation.
-Superheroine romance.
-Superheroine peril.

You have to sit through a lot of non-action (until right near the end in a final battle) and a lot of heart-to-heart talks and
mental illusion scenes, but finally we get to the heart of the matter, and it's all about Frost.

Frost gets transformed into "Hellfrost". Basically, she gets a partially new costume and her hair changes color, but she endures some
transformational agony and also some fun CGI effects during the change. I know the show was trying to be all business and drain all the sexiness out of the transformation, but they didn't succeed. It's hot, and worth viewing repeatedly.
hellfrost transformed.jpg
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Hellfrost is somewhat horny after the transformation, and expresses her desire to Chillblaine with a steamy kiss before speeding off to to save the day. He is quite speechless, and enjoys it. Who wouldn't? Danielle Panabaker is a major fox. Hell, he even calls her "foxy" in the episode.
hellfrost kisses chillblaine.jpg
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As for the peril, I'm not going to give the ending away, but Hellfrost winds up in some serious peril if you want to freezeframe it for posterity, because Lord knows it ain't gonna happen again anytime soon in this show.
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frost on the operating table.jpg
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If you just catch the last 15 minutes of this episode, "Death Falls", you won't be disappointed, and it tugs at some serious heartstrings. We also finally get to see some depth to the otherwise quippy, chauvinistic veneer of Chillblaine, and that's progress of a sort.
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Wow, this show is becoming a complete snoozlefest. I wouldn't recommend that anyone watches episodes 8.14 or 8.15.
It's mostly a huge soap opera about the grief over Frost, and Barry's frustration over the search for Iris.

There's no big bad, and there's hardly any action. The relationship between Chester and Allegra continues to be weird, with no real physical affection for each other, just endless awkward quips. It really seems that this show (or at least this particular segment of it) is just marking time. Really, the only thing I like is that they gave the Chillblaine character more to do, and that's about it.

However, I did notice something that I wasn't exactly surprised about but hadn't come fully to my attention before: XS (Nora West-Allen) is lesbian. [Apparently somewhere in Season 5 she had briefly mentioned she had a 'crush' on a girl, but I missed that.] In 8.15, it is explicitly stated that she will have a wife in the future (although the identity of the wife is left unnamed, even in 2049).

I found a clip from Twitter (gleaned from a DC Fandome interview) which explains the approach of Flash showrunner Eric Wallace (who has been in charge of the show since around about Season 4) to the diversity that this show has exhibited for the past few seasons.



Also, while perusing that same wiki, I found out that Nora's futuristic slang term "Schway" was pulled from an episode of the animated Batman Beyond series (it's not an original creation for the Flash show).
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I don't recommend 8.16 either. It is a filler episode between filler episodes.

They simply ripped off the concept of
Spoiler
Benjamin Button.

And they used Pytor Orloff (a character which appears in four issues of 1980s Flash) stupidly. In the comics, Orloff (created by Mike Baron!) is a Russian scientist who creates three Russian speedsters collectively called Red Trinity: Anatoly, Bebek and Cassiopeia. They have typical-looking "Soviet superhero" costumes for that time period. Which is to say, they are in nice tight spandex, and Cassiopeia (in the middle) looks gorgeous. So, they could have put at least one shapely female foe in a tight costume. That would have been cool to have The Flash try to defeat all three Russians. But instead, Red Trinity is nowhere to be found, and Orloff is merely a misguided "mad scientist" providing some filler bad-guy content.
red trinity.JPG
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Here's one thing I completely don't understand: how did the two pieces of equipment that Orloff steals (a gamma absorption, and a power amplifier) add up to sucking the 'youth' from every single person in Central City? He's not aiming it directly at them, so how exactly are they in peril? It doesn't make sense, even in terms of the fantastic science of the show.
And goddamn - STILL no costume for Allegra. And no codename (they even discuss giving her a codename and she blows it off).
She hardly does anything in this episode anyway.

Anyway, just skip it.
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Science after Trump doesn't have to make sense. Not that writers were that great before then as witnesses by bad science on Star Trek series.
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Haven't watched the last 3 episodes....yet (I will)
Quite a deep fall in terms of how excited I used to be about this show.
Vist my blog and its Youtube channel:
http://www.maskripper.org
https://www.youtube.com/c/MaskripperOrg

Masked women in action! Superheroines, burglars, villainesses are waiting for you...
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In case you weren't following Flash Season 8 (and I don't blame you if you weren't - it's a mess),
the last three episodes have something that we haven't seen in the Arrowverse since the Supergirl show went off the air:
a very beautiful woman in a tight superheroine costume.

You almost don't need to worry about the plot for Episode 18-20:
Spoiler
it's a convoluted battle between vague negative and positive forces
where almost anything can randomly happen and a LOT of CGI is used. It's also a situation where Cecile just keep having these vast random powers attributed to her like the show has absolutely no idea what they want to do with the character (for these episodes, she is wearing a necklace with a prominent silver "V" pendant on it...and although she looks great in her tight leather pants and plunging cleavage, the show never explains what the "V" is). Allegra still is mostly useless and never gets a costume. You also get a lot of guest stars (including some from the other Arrowverse shows),they use a bunch of flashbacks to kill a bit of airtime, and almost all the dangling plot threads (except for Frost) are wrapped up.
But the main attraction, as I've said above, is the female speedster (Meena Dhawan, aka Fast Track) in the tightest costume you've ever seen on this show. She looks gorgeous, and for some of it, she is also wearing a standard Flash cowl mask (attention Maskripper - you'll want to do a blog entry on that). I've also noticed a little detail: for the short time that Fast Track is "evil" (i.e possessed by the Negative Force), she is not wearing any makeup. But whenever she is "good", she is wearing attractive eye makeup and bright lipstick (similar to how Supergirl got the makeup treatment, to contrast her with plain jane Kara).

All of this is a good thing - it makes all of the segment with actress Kausar Mohammed (a Muslim lesbian, apparently) a pleasure to watch. Close-up, full body shots, action shots - it's all great. This is exactly how a beautiful superheroine should look on a modern TV show. Of course, this is only a temporary character...but you take what you can get, and you enjoy it for three episodes. And there is also some peril for her as she endures the charging-up in the "BLOC" machine.

Recommended to the forum for the Fast Track content. I've posted six shots from the 3 episodes to demonstrate the point.
fast track costume side.jpg
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fast track costume front.jpg
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another fast track front view.jpg
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This girl is going to look hot no matter what she wears.
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Danorian wrote:
1 year ago
Mr. X wrote:
1 year ago
dragontigerandhorse1985 wrote:
1 year ago

What does LSH stand for
Legion of Super Heroes.
Yeah, the group that Saturn Girl, Brainiac 5, Phantom Girl(Tinya Wazzo), and Dream Girl originally came from in the 30th century! Oh, and Mon-El did end up with them too, after originally, Superboy put him in the Phantom Zone to save him from lead poisoning! Brainiac 5 came up with a cure, so Mon could come out and be a hero in the future.
My Question, why did the Flash writers have to comopletely kill off Harrison Wells?
Tom Cavanagh was the best character actor that The Flash had as a recurring character player in seasons 1 thru 4.
I forget which season he agreed to get killed off and thought it was a huge mistake. IN fact, how the writers dealt with the issue of getting Falsh his speed back I thought was weak to say the most and least.

When Harrison Wells, the non skilled and non technical Wells chose to use the face changer to fool Savatar, thought that was excellent. He was also great in all the episodes, and very humorous as well.

The Wells who ended up losing his intellect, I also thought was a bad writing. Just my opinion but I think he and the Flash gang could have found a better way, with help of the inept writers, to let Wells help defeat The Thinker.

And the people behind running Flash made a huge mistake in getting rid of Hartley Sawyer.
He was one of the best additions to Team Flash and the so called experts wrote him out of the program. Huge mistake. He would and could have added much of the comedy relief needed and was lost with Wells getting killed off and then Getting rid of Sawyer.

MY suggestion to make season 9 successful if they make it is the following,
Return to the simplicity of the villians who appeared in season 1,
return to Team Flash as it was in season 1 and yes bring back Carlos Valdes.
If they killed off Killer Frost, find a way to bring back Caitlin Snow.
Bring Back Harrison Wells, from a world they have not yet approached. Keep him also a bit of a comical relief character as well as his loveable genius he was in Season 2. in other words, make Season 2's and. season 3's Wells rolled into one. THe genius and the comic version of Wells. Find a way to have Wells initially drive Cisco Ramon nuts and yet over the season best friends.

And, get Iris Pregnant and that she will give birth to Barry's Daughter. Her then now character will not traverse into who she was when she first showed up on Barry's doorstep in I think it was, what, season 4 or 5, can't recall
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https://www.thethings.com/will-hollywoo ... ey-sawyer/
This is why Sawyer got axed. Doubt he'll ever get a job.
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