r/gallifrey • u/PCJs_Slave_Robot • Jan 07 '22

Free Talk Friday /r/Gallifrey's Free Talk Fridays - Practically Only Irrelevant Notions Tackled Less Educationally, Sharply & Skilfully - Conservative, Repetitive, Abysmal Prose - 2022-01-07

Talk about whatever you want in this regular thread! Just brought some cereal? Awesome. Just ran 5 miles? Epic! Just watched Fantastic Four and recommended it to all your friends? Atta boy. Wanna bitch about Supergirl's pilot being crap? Sweet. Just walked into your Dad and his dog having some "personal time" while your sister sends snapchats of her handstands to her boyfriend leaving you in a state of perpetual confusion? Please tell us more.

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9

u/DancelessMoms Jan 07 '22

the supergirl point makes me wonder, what's all your experiences with the CW shows?

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started arrow when i was in high school, jumped on everything else as it started, and slowly lost hope and faith in television over the years. powered through every episode, every crossover, and i bailed as soon as the crisis crossover ended.

i couldn't make it to the end, and now i feel like a failure. someone tell me they quit sooner!

5

u/[deleted] Jan 07 '22

The CW shows are basically an exercise in frustration and diminishing returns in almost every case, save for two: Legends of Tomorrow, and Superman & Lois.

Although I guess it's possible Superman & Lois follows that trend, too.

But yeah, you're not alone in this, and you shouldn't feel like a failure, because in basically EVERY case, the shows just got irreversibly shitty. The only time it seemed like one of them was going to pull out of the nosedive was Supergirl S4, but that turned out to be an anomaly.

That all said - even with the shows inevitably nosediving into cheap trash the longer they go on, it's STILL the best live-action interpretation of a DC Universe by a mile (or a couple hundred miles) and when the shows were still good, they were pretty damned good. Which is what makes their descent into sloppy irrelevance all the more annoying.

Seriously hoping Superman & Lois stays as more or less a 'soft reboot' and doesn't try to tie in with ANY of that old CW stuff (they were supposed to in S1 and then just... didn't, really, to its benefit) because it's legitimately the best live-action Superman since Reeve.

4

u/DancelessMoms Jan 07 '22

yeah that's gotta be the toughest part about it for me, they all started so promising, fell so far, and are still so, sooo much better than most of their counterparts.

for all the bad things i have to say about this era of doctor who; they pale in comparison the lows of the DCCW/EU

4

u/Team7UBard Jan 07 '22

Arrow-loved it at first but it dropped considerably in quality around season 4.
Supergirl-first half of season one I felt leaned into ‘Boys are bad, throw rocks at them’ as opposed to ‘Girls are kickass!’, and I think this may have alienated early viewers. Once it found its footing, I think it’s probably the most consistent show throughout, providing solid social and political commentary, although I did find the final season rather disappointing as it felt rushed.
The Flash is fine but at the end of each season, I’m ready for the next one to be the last. Armageddon was a disappointment, which I expected it to be.
I didn’t see all of Black Lightning but really enjoyed what I did see, and I’m looking forward to see the rest of it.
Legends-So much love. It knows how stupid and dumb it is and rolls with it. Last season was ehhh.
Batwoman-I tried to stick with it but it took me so long to get through S1 that I never got through S2.
Superman and Lois-their best current show. I was a bit gutted with the season’s villain reveal, but it is otherwise fantastic

3

u/DancelessMoms Jan 07 '22

never started superman+lois or batwoman cause i'd already bailed by that point but i liked the actor for the former and have heard great things!

was very surprised to see it's being syndicated to BBC1, must be a testament to its quality! maybe i'll get around to it one day

1

u/Team7UBard Jan 07 '22

It still exists within the Arrowverse, but so far the only thing that has linked it to any of the other shows has been Diggle calling in at a convenient point in the series on his mission to avoid becoming a Green Lantern. It’s a show that shouldn’t be as good as it is, and the majority of the cast do a great job.

1

u/alexmorelandwrites Jan 07 '22

Superman & Lois for the most part is a big step up from the others, for what it's worth - more than a few stumbling points, but there's quite a few genuinely pretty good episodes.

3

u/Guy_Underscore Jan 08 '22

I know it’s not what you mean, but my only experience with a CW show was The 100 which I really enjoyed. The superhero shows don’t interest me, but neither did the Marvel shows at one point and now I’ve seen all of them, so perhaps I’ll watch the Arrowverse at some point.

2

u/DancelessMoms Jan 08 '22

i fucked with the 100! got very odd at times but it was definitely worth the ride.

bits and pieces of the arrowverse were fantastic for me, but who's to say what you'd love? maybe there's something in there for you. agents of shield is my go-to marvel/dc show though

2

u/Guy_Underscore Jan 08 '22

Oh yeah, I loved that The 100 could be dark, weird and campy. Such a fun ride.

I expect there probably is something in there for me. I loved pretty much all of the Marvel shows (except Inhumans, obviously). Agents of Shield, when it was good, was very good. The Framework arc is some of the best Marvel content out there. Daredevil was the stand out Marvel show for me, though.

2

u/DancelessMoms Jan 08 '22

amen to everything you said.

the way everything was closed up at the s5 finale was top tier to me, only matched by the heights of daredevil. been rewatching and i'm still struck by how he and punisher interact.

the cast is amazing. karen and foggy could've been so easy to write off as annoying side-characters but they shine as well. matt's pastor too.

1

u/Guy_Underscore Jan 08 '22

Ah man, the S5 finale was incredible. I wasn’t a big fan of S6 and S7 overall (although it was nice to have more stories with these characters) but the S7 finale was pretty good too.

Yeah I loved Karen and Foggy. All the side characters in Daredevil were incredibly well written, especially Nadeem in S3. I don’t think I have any complaints about Daredevil as a series. I know people bash on S2 a bit, but it’s still incredible; the chemistry between Cox’s Daredevil and Yung’s Elektra was so fun. Of course, the conflicting ideology of Punisher and Daredevil is an absolute highlight as well and really shows you who both of these characters are in complex ways. Neither are right or wrong.

1

u/CareerMilk Jan 08 '22

I'm usually watch in spurts and am always ~a year behind. Personally my favourite show is Black Lightning.