The Good Place Review: “Most Improved Player”

In the wake of what have been a few pretty eventful episodes, “Most Improved Player” gave The Good Place a chance to take advantage of its great cast and provide a satisfying next step in Eleanor’s journey to becoming a better person. Most of the episode revolves around Michael (Ted Danson, who after being pushed to the side for the first few episodes, has become the series MVP in the show’s most recent episodes) interviewing Eleanor and her friends to figure out who knew what about Eleanor being an imposter and Janet’s death. What “Most Improved Player” highlighted about The Good Place is that with a cast as talented as the one the show has, sometimes just letting them play off of each other, can produce the best results.

Putting Michael at the center of the episode was a smart move for the show. For not being a human, he’s arguably the most human of any of the characters on the show. Here Michael was playing his greatest hits list of personality traits. His reserved sympathy for Eleanor was affecting, his misplaced reverence for Jianyu’s way of life wrung what little comedy out of that part of the show that is left, and his overall frustration with the situation as a whole provided most of the episode’s best laughs. The running gag about Janet answering every character’s request by bringing everyone a cactus instead of what they asked for, could have gotten old quick, but the the pure frustration that Ted Danson was able to convey every time made it one of the episode’s funniest aspects. Darcy Carden also deserves a lot of credit for so convincingly selling the joke every single time.

As far as addressing the events at the end of last week’s episode, “Most Improved Player” set up a lot of strong points of conflict going into the final episodes of the season. The show has shown little signs over its course that Eleanor is becoming a better person, but here the show really sold the idea that she definitely isn’t the kind of person that belongs in the Bad Place. Not only does Eleanor openly acknowledge remorse for the bad things she did during her life, she repeatedly shows that the bonds she has formed with her friends in the Good Place, mean more to her than her own comfort in remaining there. The episode smartly contrasted Eleanor’s kind of “bad” with the kind of “bad” displayed by the representatives of the Bad Place when they arrive to take her. That she is physically repulsed by how they act shows that Eleanor’s desire to stay in the Good Place is less about the physical comforts of her environment and more about the people she has been spending her time with. Overall the episode did a lot to show that Eleanor, is far from perfect, but she’s still a protagonist worth rooting for.

Other Thoughts:

• Adam Scott’s guest starring role as the representative from the Bad Place was a perfect bit of casting. Here’s hoping more Parks and Recreation alumni can find their way onto the show from time to time.
• Some of the other funny gags from the show included Michael accidentally revealing to Tahani, through the lie detector cube, that he was lying when he said her testimony was helpful, or the punishments on the train to the Bad Place, such as the temperature in the train raising one degree every time Eleanor thinks of how hot it is in the train.
• At the end of the episode it is revealed that the Eleanor who was supposed to be in the Good Place, has been in the Bad Place this whole time. It’s a great note of conflict to end the episode with, but shouldn’t Michael be questioning why the Bad Place representative only mentioned the second Eleanor after Michael pulled our Eleanor off the train?
• The show has done a nice job of building the relationships between Eleanor and both Tahani and Chidi. That Chidi was willing to put himself at risk to save Eleanor, and that Tahani’s real anger with Eleanor is because she thinks Eleanor wasn’t her true friend, were two of the more affecting aspects of the episode. 

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend Review: "Where Is Josh's Friend?"

If you are unfamiliar with the show Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, it is a musical-comedy about a woman who moves from New York to California to pursue a man she had a summer camp fling with as a teenager. As the season one theme song suggests, the show and its main character, Rebecca Bunch (series creator Rachel Bloom), are more nuanced than the title suggests. Along with Jane the Virgin and freshman show No Tomorrow, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend has helped The CW carve out a place in the TV landscape for smart hour-long comedies about sincere, yet flawed, women navigating surreal worlds. Crazy Ex-Girlfriend brought The CW its first Emmy award (in a technical category), its second Golden Globe award (the first win came from Jane the Virgin the year before), and a Critics Choice Award. All this to say, this is definitely a show worth catching up on if you haven't already. So unless you want spoilers for season two, go do that now.

The best compliment I can give "Where Is Josh's Friend?" is that Crazy Ex-Girlfriend no longer feels like a show in search of itself. To be fair that transition happened some time in the back half of season one, but it would have been easy for the show to second guess itself moving into season two. I'm glad it didn't, because the version of the show presented here is moving confidently in some interesting direction. Rebecca, after being let down by Greg, is as committed as ever to making her "fairytale" with Josh a reality. Josh on the other hand cares about Rebecca as a friend, but any romantic attachment he feels for her is purely sexual. Now Josh and Rebecca just need to figure that out for themselves. Rebecca chasing Josh was such a huge part of season one, that I understand why the show wants both characters to naturally come to that conclusion on their own. That's a necessary process Rebecca is going to have to go through in order to be able to move on with her life.

This episode did a great job of starting to establish new stories for the supporting cast as well. Paula, after spending most of season one obsessing over Rebecca's love life, has decided to channel that energy into going to law school. Paula has demonstrated on multiple occasions that she is excellent at her job, and she's excellent at arguing even the craziest points. It's a strong new direction for her character. Greg also gets a meaningful storyline to pursue this season. The fact that Greg is an alcoholic makes sense after the show presented the evidence from season one (in the form of a flashback montage), but I have to say, it's not something I particularly noticed. Greg spends a lot of the show defeating himself so that he can never be disappointed by life, and the idea that a lot of that might stem from his alcoholism, gives his character a meaningful path forward on the show.

Other Thoughts:

• "Love Kernels" was an excellent first song (music video? that's essentially what they are) for the season. It was self-satirizing, catchy, and hilariously broke the 4th wall a few times. 
• "We Should Definitely Not Have Sex Right Now" was much less effective. The show generally includes at least two musical performances an episode, and sometimes that means if forces one in like this, that feels unnecessary.
• The new theme song isn't nearly as catchy as the theme song for season one, but I understand why the show wanted to change the song as the story progresses.

The Good Place Review: "The Eternal Shriek"

This week's episode of The Good Place, took a very progressive step forward, by finally having Eleanor reveal to Michael that she was put in The Good Place, by mistake. How that will affect the show moving forward, remains to be seen, but last week's episode proved that it was time for the show to move in a new direction, so this was a smart move on the show's part.

"The Eternal Shriek" starts where last week's episode left off, with Michael announcing that he is leaving The Good Place forever and going into retirement. Believing this to be a win-win situation (her secret stays safe, while Michael gets to relax for eternity), Eleanor is content to let Michael retire, until she learns (from a hilarious monologue by Ted Danson) that retirement for Michael will essentially be his version of going to The Bad Place. Feeling guilty, Eleanor decides to "murder" Janet since only "she" can operate the train that takes Michael from The Good Place to retirement. Chidi, who does not approve of the plan, accidentally hits the button that terminates Janet while trying to keep Jason from pushing the button (because apparently stupid people love touching buttons?). After a huge screen appears in the sky playing a video of Janet saying she has been murdered on repeat, Michael learns that he at least is not the only thing wrong in the community and postpones his retirement. Eleanor seeing how much Chidi's guilt over "murdering" Janet is affecting him decides to spare him the eternal agony and admit to Michael in from of the whole community that she is the reason everything has gone wrong in the community.

There are two very important sides of Eleanor we see in this episode. Whenever she encounters a problem, her go to move is to lie until the problem goes away or someone else fixes it. She always comes up with justifications for her lies, but the reality is that this is the biggest roadblock preventing her from earning her spot in The Good Place. As long as Eleanor lies about deserving to be there, she could never actually deserve to be there (per the rules of the show). There's also the side of Eleanor that has genuinely started to become a better person who cares about those around her. She doesn't want Michael to experience the torture of retirement, or Chidi to have to suffer through the guilt of keeping a secret for the rest of eternity. Her choice to reveal herself, is the most selfless action she has ever taken. It's a necessary step forward for Eleanor as our protagonist, and a smart change of direction for the narrative of the show. Obviously the show can't get rid of Eleanor as the main character, so seeing how Michael and all of the other residents of the community react to this news will be an interesting way to spend the back half of the season.

Other Thoughts:

• The show pairs Tahani and Michael together a lot when it doesn't know what else to do with those characters. It's a pairing that has been pretty fruitless so far, but last night Tahani's increasingly misguided attempts at cheering Michael up made for one of the episode's best running gags.
• Janet rarely gets more than a few good lines in an episode, but this episode gave her a lot of great jokes. From her best approximation of human crying at the news of Michael leaving, to her default programming to realistically plead for her life when someone comes near the button that destroys her, Janet rivaled Michael as the comedy MVP of the episode.
• I'm glad Janet's "murder" was really just a hard reset. She's not the most vital character to the show, but she is often a great source of humor for a show that frequently relies more on "smart" comedy than laugh out loud jokes.
• Jason still isn't working for me. I understand the role he is supposed to play on the show, but the show would have to put in a lot of work to transition him from just a plain old idiot to a lovable idiot. At this point, the show hasn't done anything to prove that the character is worth all of that time and effort (especially given that the show is already halfway through its 13 episode season).  

Supergirl Review: "The Last Children of Krypton"

Supergirl's second episode at it's new home was mostly a continuation of what occurred in the season premiere. Superman was still around for this episode, but by the time he left at the end it felt like it was time for him to go. The opening montage of Superman and Supergirl helping people around the city, was a great reminder of the great sibling chemistry these characters have, but this is Supergirl's show. These episode did a lot that helped transition the show from CBS to the CW, but it's time for Supergirl to start figuring out what show it is going to be after the dust settles.

"The Last Children of Krypton" at least started to answer that question. Cat Grant is leaving, which means that those outstanding scenes between Cat and Kara, which have been a lot of the emotional backbone of the series so far, will not be present for majority of the second season. It's a shame, and I'm not sure Kara's new boss Skipper (played by Ian Gomez in a role that is almost the polar opposite of his beloved Cougar Town goofball Andy Torres) will be able to fill that role, especially given the gender gap. I'm willing to give that relationship time to establish itself though. The show will need to establish strong connections in Kara's personal life if it has any hope of continuing the momentum that it established over these two episodes.

Otherwise, it was a pretty standard outing for the show. Metallo gave the cousins from Krypton a much more worthy opponent this week than the army of drones they fought last week. So far the show has been able to keep the special effects standards up to par with the CBS episodes, and I would argue that the many fight scenes between the Metallos and our various protagonists were more impressive than just about any of the show's previous fight scenes. Now all that remains to be seen is how the show will handle the many impending changes on the horizon. If they handle them with the same care that they have handled these first two episode with, then it looks like Supergirl will have many bright days ahead.

Other Thoughts:

* James doesn't seem like an adequate replacement for Cat, but at least his new role will give his presence a little more meaning. These first two episodes functioned almost completely without him, so the show is going to have to do a lot to justify his continued presence on the show.

* After two episodes, it is very clear that "Winn DEO Tech Nerd" is a much better fit for the show than "Winn Kind of Unnecessary Catco IT Guy.

* For as much as the show seems to be banking on audiences being intrigued by the identity of this mystery man from space (Chris Wood), the show has done a pretty bad job of actually giving the audience a reason to care about that random storyline.

* The show has necessarily ignored a lot of the backstory established in season one, to make the transition to the CW easier, but how Cadmus transitioned from a secret government facility to a rogue anti-alien terrorist group probably could have used a little more explanation.

* Alex donning the anti-kryptonian suit from the end of season one makes sense, and was a smart way to keep her in on the action in this episode.

New Girl, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and No Tomorrow Mini-Reviews

New Girl:

After what has been a pretty slow start, and a very half-hearted attempt at a cross-over with Brooklyn Nine-Nine, last night's episode of New Girl was easily the best outing the show has had this season. Jess securing votes for Nick had a lot of decent comedic material, but more importantly it allowed the show to explore both the Jess/Nick relationship and the Jess/Cece friendship in ways that were affecting without being overbearing. Schmidt and Cece's interior design disagreements gave that couple a chance to work out some of their most obvious differences. That couple has been through so much, that at this point it's nice to see them have breakthroughs, without the threat of breaking up. The idea that Schmidt and Cece's home might have been the setting of an adult film, never really paid off, but Nick and Winston's secret vault was easily the funniest thing the show has done this season. That the rituals involved with the vault became more complex over the course of the episode made it all the more fun to watch. New Girl is best when it commits to the absurd.

No Tomorrow:

The first two episodes of No Tomorrow showed how the idea behind the show had a lot of promise, but that the show wasn't quite where it needed to be yet. There is still some fleshing out to do, but "No Doubt" was the first episode that felt more like a good episode than just a good idea for an episode. Evie isn't perfect, and it was nice to see the Xavier call her out on trying to take advantage of his fun lifestyle, while trying to hide the parts of him away that she doesn't like. If Evie and Xavier's relationship is going to be compelling beyond just a few episodes, it has to eventually move beyond these two people liking each other because they have fun together. "No Doubt" was a big step in the right direction. It was also nice to see how Xavier's lifestyle started to have an effect on the people in Evie's life. Kareema in particular started to move from "sarcastic best friend" status to being her own individual in this episode, which was nice to see for a character with really strong comedic potential.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine:

Like New Girl, Brooklyn Nine-Nine has had a pretty slow early run of episodes this season. Elements of the Florida based episodes worked, but as a whole the show felt disjointed without having the entire cast together. Leave it to the annual Halloween heist episode to get the show back on track. There's an argument to be made that the show should probably retire this tradition, but if the show can keep making episodes as strong as "Halloween IV," then more power to them. The "surprise" of Gina winning the bet wasn't all that effective because the show did something similar last season with Amy's out of nowhere win. It's something that the show will need to do differently if it does future installments. All of that being said, this episode was a lot of fun. Jake's original plan to steal the plaque by locking everyone out of the lobby and making them watch, was surprisingly ingenious for him. It also led to Holt hilariously smashing through his own office window, to keep Jake from winning. Realistically, Jake should have gotten to keep the plaque after all of that, but Gina still would have pulled one over on him anyway. Diaz's commitment to Amy's detailed plan (down to reading the suggested Babysitter's Club chapters) led to some of the episode's best moments, and took full advantage of a relationship that the show doesn't explore enough. Gina's win wasn't a surprise, but her at least her motivation for winning was different from past years, and her explanation (especially wearing Amy's clothes to hide in plain sight) was a lot of fun.

The Good Place Review: "What We Owe to Each Other"

"What We Owe to Each Other," is the most uneven, of what has been a very strong run of  episodes for The Good Place so far. In one respect the episode expanded the show and its characters in some much needed ways. Namely this was the first episode to spend a good chunk of it's run time exploring who Michael is, and what makes him tick. Ted Danson has been a little underutilized on the show so far, besides a few hilarious one-liners or perfectly executed bits of physical comedy. Here he gets to let his freak flag fly.

Michael is so eccentric and obsessive, that he's often one of the show's greatest comic tools. From his love of paper clips (paperclip shower anyone?), to the way he puts on a hoodie like a sullen teenager when he can't solve a problem, Michael (in large part due to Ted Danson's excellent performance) is a gold mine for jokes. His obsession with the show Friends was a recurring joke that kept producing some of the episode's funniest lines, such as "Ross and Phoebe" being the first pairing from the show that Michael could think of as an example of true friendship. Eleanor's insistence that Michael needed to learn how to have fun, turned out to be more of a good deed for the audience than for Michael. From his line about liking frozen yogurt more that ice cream because, "There's something so human about taking something great and making it a little worse so that you can have more of it," to his description of a plush Minion he won from a claw grab arcade game as an, "ugly yellow toddler," Michael finally got the showcase episode he deserved this week. I hope Michael doesn't make good on his promise to leave the Good Place, because I'll never get tired of hearing him call a pile of rocks, "devious little bastards."

Most of the other characters had much smaller stories in the episode. Chidi and Tahani discovered that they have enough in common that in another situation they possibly could have been paired together as soul-mates. Given how nice Chidi and Tahani are, and how neither had a chance to be paired with a genuine soul-mate, it's nice that they are developing a connection, even if it makes the whole situation even more complicated. Jianyu/Jason hasn't been clicking for me. I understand the element of humor he is supposed to inject into the show, but for the most part it doesn't seem to be working. The show has just traded the "Jianyu never talks" gimmick for a half-hearted "Jason isn't smart" gimmick. Janet continues to be a good source of comedy, even if the show isn't completely sure how to use her. Her "does not compute" bit was the show's funniest non-Michael moment, but overall it seems like she's best used as a "straight man" to counter Michael's often spastic personality.

Eleanor's story this week was pretty basic as well. Seeing her teach Michael how to have fun was a great use of both Kristen Bell and Ted Danson (who have fantastic chemistry together). The episode didn't go too in depth on Eleanor's moral lesson from Chidi (which essentially boiled down to "keep your promises"), but focusing on building the Michael and Eleanor dynamic was a more rewarding use of time, so I applaud the writers on that. Where the episode took a big misstep was in the flashback. Past flashbacks have provided a lot of understanding as to why these characters have the bad habits and insecurities that they do, but this week's flashback served no other purpose than to show that Eleanor was a bad person on earth. That's something we already knew about Eleanor. Had the flashback been funny or illuminating, then I could have been okay with it, but here it seems like a contrived piece of formula the show is relying on. It would be a big mistake for the show to stick to this formula of including a flashback in every episode. At most they should be an occasional device the show uses, but really we are starting to know the characters well enough that the show would be fine dropping them all together. Other than that, the episode was mostly good, even if it was lacking in content. 

Brooklyn Nine-Nine and New Girl Review: Jess Meets the Nine-Nine

"It's a crossover!" ~ Jess Day

Was it a crossover though? There are few TV plot devices I dislike more than a lukewarm crossover episode. Last night we got two of them in the form of the Brooklyn Nine-Nine and New Girl crossover episodes. Crossover episodes are tricky, I understand that. It's hard to make two very different shows mesh together to create a story that satisfies both shows; especially when the two shows are as stylistically different as Brooklyn Nine-Nine and New Girl. A successful crossover episode needs to be fully committed to the idea of bringing two shows together, but here the shows only seemed interested in doing the bare minimum to qualify as a crossover. It begs the question; why do a crossover at all?

Brooklyn Nine-Nine's half of the crossover was by far the lesser of the two episodes. The officers of the Nine-Nine have been switched to the night shift and while all of them are tired of the paperwork and long hours, Jake is back and ready to work his first case in over six months. The problem is, everything takes longer on the night shift, because all of the departments have less qualified skeleton crews working. This resulted in the episode's best scenes which involved Jake and Charles trying to solve a case, only to run into a series of escalating obstacles because of it being the night shift. The rest of the episode mostly consisted of the officers complaining about working the night shift. With the exception of a few comical moments like the revelation that Terry's night time alter ego has been dubbed "Sassy Terry," or Gina becoming a social media star in Australia. The "crossover" part of the episode was a scene where Jake commandeers a car Jess Day happens to be driving and promptly crashes it. That's the extent of the two characters' interaction with one another.

The New Girl part of the crossover worked much better because it felt more like a whole episode from start to finished. Schmidt is being honored by his high school (which later turns out to not be such an honor), Cece has to fight Schmidt's mom for respect and approval, and Winston and Nick had to put on a fake subway show to earn money for subway fare after spending all of their money on an expensive lunch. The latter storyline led to the most natural part of the crossover, where Charles Boyle happens to be one of the bystanders watching Winston and Nick "perform" in the subway. It's a scene that takes advantage of how all three characters would naturally act in that setting, even if it didn't really land as a joke.

The other crossover scenes consisted of seeing how Jess wound up encountering Jake, and the aftermath, where Jess met Gina and Holt while trying to complete the paperwork for the damages done to Schmidt's mother's car by Jake. This material all felt pretty forced, and Jess's revelation about how her last trip to New York changed her life without her knowing it, felt like a pretty big stretch. The clips at the beginning of the episode of all of the bad things that happened on that trip, were pretty funny and ridiculous. The funniest scene in either episode was hands down the scene with Jess in the deli shop slowly being annoyed to the point of blowing up at all of the other customers, which almost made the trip to New York seem worth it. Otherwise these episodes were mostly a bust. They didn't function well as individual episodes or as two parts of a whole crossover. I'd love to see these shows give a crossover another try, but only if they are willing to commit to the concept.

Other Thoughts:
* The scene at the end of New Girl's episode, where Coach shows up, was nice punctuation mark on the crossover. Damon Wayans Jr. has appeared as different characters on both shows, so there wasn't a realistic way to work him into the crossover aspect of the episode. It was also kind of a nice joke about how extraneous Coach has always been as a character on New Girl.

* One of the main reasons the show had trouble actually getting the characters in the same place at one time was because of the night shift plot that consumed all of the Brooklyn Nine-Nine episode. That plot also leaves some of the events of the New Girl episode unexplained. We know why Jake ran into Jess during the day, but why were Holt and Gina still at the precinct in the middle of the day? Why did Holt not have the authority to switch his officers back to the day shift once he took up his post as Captain again?

* The most frustrating part of the crossover was that the episodes actually had a perfect way to bring both casts together, built right into the story. Jake commandeering Jess's vehicle could have led to those two being forced to team up to chase the criminal Jake was after. Jess's disappearance could have led to her friends showing up at the Nine-Nine looking for her where that have to wait and bother/bond with the officers there. Winston himself is a police officer, which could have made his presence all the more relevant. Overall it all feels like a missed opportunity to have two very diverse groups of people interacting with each other.

* Holt forcing the group to smile and laugh made for an amusing scene, but the joke about Holt misjudging what the others would thing was fun to do at a party, was a joke the show has done many times before to much better effect. 

Supergirl Review: "The Adventures of Supergirl"

When I first watched Supergirl last season on CBS, I thought it was a decent, but flawed, superhero show. The casting was excellent and the lighthearted approach to superheroics was refreshing compared to the many darker comic book shows that populate television. Like any show, Supergirl took some time figuring out what kind of show it was. The main problem that plauged the show was its location on CBS.

Since the recent cultural superhero boom, the Big Four networks (ABC, CBS, Fox, and NBC), have struggled to figure out how to make good superhero shows. The one exception being ABC's fantastic Agent Carter, a show for which the network could never find an audience. From Gotham to Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., these networks have struggle to produce compelling superhero shows because they are creating content in a system that fears genre shows. Genre shows speak to a specific audience, and the network model wants shows that speak to everyone. On a show like S.H.I.E.L.D., for example, the writers are not only hindered by the network's avoidance of the "genre" label (which resulted in the early run of the show basically being superhero CSI), but by the studio (Marvel) which constantly makes the show change course to fit what is going on in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.  When the networks or studios start limiting shows creatively, audiences are smart enough to notice the difference.

The CW has taken a different approach to genre shows. Being the number five network has given The CW a perspective that the Big Four don't have. When you are the lowest rated network, creating self-aware genre shows that other networks are too afraid to create, suddenly becomes a distinction that sets you apart from other networks. Producer Greg Berlanti has created in immersive DC Comics superhero world at The CW between his shows Arrow, Legends of Tomorrow, and The Flash, the latter of which did a very successful crossover episode with CBS's Supergirl (which is also produced by Berlanti) last season. These shows have their fair share of flaws (especially Legends), but unlike other network shows, they are self-aware, and fully committed to their comic book origins. When CBS was unhappy with the outcome of Supergirl's first season, it only seemed natural for the show to move to The CW (a sister network of CBS, that is co-owned by Warner Bros.).

Being the first episode of Supergirl since moving to The CW, "The Adventures of Supergirl," had some important questions to answer. Would it still feel like the same show? Could The CW keep up the quality of the show with more limited resources than CBS? Would the show be able to improve upon the show that CBS had established? While some of those questions will take time to answer, the overall impression left by "The Adventures of Supergirl," is that this is the best version of the show to date.

One of the biggest flaws of the first season, was the way the show avoided ever showing Superman. Yes, Supergirl is the star of the show, but the idea that she would never see her only living relative, or work with him once she became a superhero, became increasingly ridiculous as the season progress. "The Adventures of Supergirl" tackled that problem head on by introducing Clark/Superman (Tyler Hoechlin) early on in the episode, and keeping him around to help Kara/Supergirl (Melissa Benoist) at various moments during the episode. If the show had any fears about Superman stealing the show, this episode proved that the writers can balance having Superman around and still have this be Kara's show. Hoechlin and Benoist have a very strong "brother/sister" type of chemistry that works perfectly for these characters. It was fun to see Clark play mentor to Kara, while Kara got to roll her eyes at how much more humble and charming Clark is than even her. Seeing the sway that Clark has over Cat Grant, or Kara's reaction to Clark thanking the DEO agents for their work provided some of the episode's best moments.

The show made some other changes as well. The DEO has moved to a new location, which gave the show an opportunity to make some meta jokes about how the show moved from CBS to The CW. Despite ending last season having finally deciding to explore a relationship, Kara has decided that her and Jimmy should remain just friends. Winn has moved careers to the DEO to put his tech skills to good use, which is a much better way for the show to keep his character relevant. After receiving the offer to take on whatever role she wanted at Catco from Cat Grant last season, Kara finally landed on becoming a journalist. Sure anyone could see that coming from a mile away, but it also allowed for a really great moment between Kara and Cat, who admitted that she envisioned this future for Kara since the day she hired her as her assistant. Since Cat will only be a recurring character this season (which I suspect will be a huge loss for the show) instead of a series regular, these kinds of moments will be few and far between, so it was nice to see the show take advantage of her presence here. There are sure to be more changes to come in future episodes, as the show gets used to its new home, but for now, the show feels more like itself than ever before.

Other Thoughts:

* Right now Superman is only set to appear in last night's episode and next week's episode, with the option to make future appearances. I hope the show finds room to have him come back every now and then, as the relationship between Clark and Kara was a very strong element of "The Adventures of Supergirl."

* I never had any strong feelings either way about Kara and Jimmy as a romantic couple. I don't necessarily think we've seen the last of that coupling, but if we have, it's no great loss to the show.

* There were some worries that the show might be lacking in the special effects department this season, since CBS has more money to work with than The CW, but this first episode looked like it was up to the standards of the first season. Whether or not the show will be able to sustain that quality for the entire season remains to be seen.

* The show introduced Lena Luthor as a character in this episode. I have a feeling we haven't seen the last of her. Clark made a comment that he's learned the hard way not to trust a Luthor, but by the end of the episode Kara and Clark both seem to believe she's as innocent as she says she is. The episode gave us no reason to think otherwise, but I wouldn't be surprised if Lena become to Kara what Lex is to Clark.

* Alex and Hank were pushed to the side for much of the episode. I'm assuming this is due in large part to the episode's focus on the Clark/Kara relationship, but it's nice to see that the show is able to prioritize instead of just arbitrarily trying to service all of its characters.

* The episode starts with the revelation of the mystery man (Chris Wood) in the Kryptonian pod, but never gives any real answers about who he is. Hopefully the show gets around to that sooner than later, but this episode had enough going on that it didn't need to rush that particular answer. I would not be surprised if this character ends up being the key to destroying the new villain we saw being created at the end of the episode. Could he be a villain himself?

The Good Place Review: "Category 55 Doomsday Crisis"

The Good Place has reached the five episode mark, and that feels like a good sample size to start assessing whether or not this show is worth dropping or keeping around. Based on how each episode has improved upon the last, I would say it fits firmly in the latter group. When shows start with big concepts, like this one did, it's hard to keep them on track. "Category 55 Doomsday Crisis," was proof that not only can this show hand the many plot lines it has started, but it can do so while also developing its characters into increasingly fascinating and complex people. 

Front and center in this episode was the friendship/mentorship/soul-mate(ship?) of Chidi and Eleanor. Chidi has been a great "straight man" on the show so far (his consternation at the antics of both Eleanor and Jianyu/Jason has been one of the show's most reliable sources of jokes), but nearing the midway point of the season, it was time for the show to develop him better as an individual. In this episode, we learn that not only does Chidi sometimes resent Eleanor for being a burden in his afterlife, but he mourns the fact that he won't ever actually get to experience what it is like to have a soul-mate, since that was something he did not experience in life. 

Eleanor, as a result of her time with Chidi, has started to show signs that she is a better person. It's a fine line for the show to walk. On the one hand, if Eleanor never becomes a better person, then the premise of the show starts to feel pretty hollow pretty quickly. On the other hand, Eleanor's moral growth can only move so fast without seeming completely unrealistic. This episode was a perfect example of how the show can balance both aspects of Eleanor. The frozen yogurt scene at the beginning of the episode showed how Eleanor subconsciously did something good by not holding up the line of customers, but also how she can be selfish by not bringing Chidi the frozen yogurt she said she would, and then insisting he should go get it because she was too tired. 

While Jianyu/Jason only appears briefly at the beginning of the episode to tell a surprisingly accurate (and unsurprisingly absurd) story that illustrates utilitarian philosophy put into practice, Tahani got much more to do in this episode than she did in the last one. I'll admit I'm a sucker for stories where the somewhat unlikable "rival" of the main character is shown in a sympathetic light that makes viewers see them as a person. Jane the Virgin did a fantastic job of turning Petra into one of it's more lovable characters, after spending an entire season making her the villain of the show. While Tahani has never been the villain of The Good Place, it's great to see more layers of here character here. Her flashbacks presented a very real fear that she would always be overshadowed by others (namely her sister), and does a lot to explain why Tahani has an almost competitive drive to be the best at being a good person. 

Michael was given an appropriate amount to do here, and Ted Danson has continued to be one of the show's most reliable joke machine's . Janet on the other hand hasn't been very effectively used since the third episode, which took full advantage of a character whose personality can literally be reprogrammed. Why she was working at the frozen yogurt store at the beginning of the episode, is beyond me, but that's a small complaint coma in an otherwise great episode. Here's looking forward to what the show can cook up next week. 

The Flash Review: "Flashpoint"

Perhaps the best compliment I can give "Flashpoint" (the season 3 premiere episode of The Flash) is that it wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been. That sounds negative, but last season's cliffhanger - which had Barry go back in time to stop his mother's murder - was pretty frustrating. Season one of The Flash was great at balancing emotional moments (Adult Barry's tearful goodbye to his mother, everything between Joe and Barry, etc.) with fun and lighthearted moments (Barry figuring out how to use his powers, everything with Cisco, etc.). Season two was more brooding, and lacked most of the fun elements that made season one so great. While "Flashpoint" was mostly unnecessary as far as plot goes, thematically it was able to infuse a balance of fun and serious elements that was mostly absent from season two of the show.

The episode definitely had its flaws; namely that it was trying to cram too much into one hour. A lot of the emotional beats felt rushed. It's great that Barry finally feels like he can let go of the death of his parents (mostly because that means maybe we won't have to deal with so much brooding Barry this season), but the episode only gave us a couple of brief interactions between Barry and his parents, that didn't justify all of the trouble it took to make that storyline possible. Having Wally's imminent death (the show conveniently never takes the time to explain why Wally's superhuman healing isn't kicking working in this case) be the deciding factor for Barry to go back and reset the timeline the way it was (or close to the way it was), didn't really resonate either. At most, Barry's connection to Wally is that Joe and Iris deeply care for him. The show has never established enough of a connection between Barry and Wally to give this scenario the emotional impact it needed. Had it been Joe on the death bed, especially given that Barry has witnessed another earth's Joe die, it would have made much more sense.

That's not to say that the entire episode was bad. For the most part we got to see Barry be happy, which is a nice change of pace. Seeing all of the differences in the regular Star Labs crew was fun, especially in the case of Caitlin who finds herself sucked into her regular role on the team despite not knowing any of her old friends and leading a simple life as a children's ophthalmologist. None of it was worth exploring for more than an episode, but it did manage to capture the fun of using the same characters in unexpected ways, that last season's Earth 2 episodes never got the hang of.

The most effective part of the episode, by far, was the exploration of Barry and Iris's feelings for each other. Season two took a weird approach with their relationship. Not wanting to make it look like Iris was getting over Eddie too quickly, they made her eventual realization that she has feeling for Barry seem almost like something she didn't really consent to. It ended up feeling more like she was giving up on not liking Barry, than like she was actually falling for him. What was great about this episode is that when it stripped away all of the baggage that Iris and Barry have, the two characters seemed perfect together. No, that's not realistic, but the chemistry between the characters/actors has never felt more powerful than it did in this episode. We already know from season one's "Out of Time" that Iris does actually have feelings for Barry whether she understands them or not, so this episode's exploration of that relationship was refreshing. I've never been sure if I like the idea of Barry and Iris together, but after "Flashpoint" I have hope that it could be very well done if the show is careful.

If Iris and Barry finally finding some understanding in their relationship is the only good thing that comes out of "Flashpoint," I can live with that. Based on that last scene where Barry finds out Iris and Joe aren't on speaking terms, because his actions have altered the timeline, it seems there will still be plenty of changes to discover in next week's episode. Until then I'll just enjoy the fact that this week's episode actually had characters smiling and making jokes, which is a welcome change of pace for the show. Hopefully the show can do more of that this season.

The Good Place Review: "Jason Mendoza"

Last season (September 2015 to May 2016) I decided to hone my reviewing skills by dedicating myself to at least one show through the entirety of its season. That show was The CW's excellent and underrated iZombie. Since iZombie, won't be on again until winter 2017, I've been looking for a show to fill its spot in my weekly review schedule. My original plan was for the replacement show to be the cult musical comedy Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (Also on The CW. You REALLY should be watching that channel.), but since that show also hasn't started yet, I've been reviewing the first few episodes of The Good Place for now. I don't know if I will review every episode of The Good Place going forward, but for now its mix of both episodic and serialized storylines makes it a fun show to take a closer look at each week.

"Jason Mendoza" picked up right where the last episode left off. After telling Eleanor that he also does not belong in The Good Place, Jianyu - whose real name is actually Jason Mendoza - explains that he was mistaken for a Buddhist monk upon arriving in the afterlife. In reality he was a drug dealer and an amature DJ from Florida. Jason, to put it kindly, isn't the brightest person, something that Eleanor is able to figure out pretty quickly. He hasn't even realized that he is in the afterlife until Eleanor explains the situation to him, and he has the mentality of a teenager.

I was quickly growing tired of how underdeveloped Jianyu was as the always silent monk whose one gimmick was to unintentionally infuriate the otherwise "perfect" Tahani. The episode made some efforts to add a little depth to his character through flashback glimpses of what Jason's life was like before he died, but at this point he's still coming off more as character type than an actual human being. That being said, I trust the show will spend more time developing Jason now that he is so central to the story. While "dumb" humor isn't always my favorite, Jason's enthusiastic declaration that he was ready to, "learn about ethnics," when he came to Chidi's ethics class, was the best joke of the episode.

For the show to continue to work, it needs to keep bringing people into the fold, and expanding the underlying problem that is plaguing The Good Place. So far each episode has done a good job of at least doing one of those two things. This was a very solid episode and the show is still in the early part of its thirteen episode season. I look forward to seeing what everyone does next.

Some other thoughts on the episode:

• Tahani was given very little to do here, which was okay for the most part because she's such a big personality that she's better in small doses. Still her exchange with Michael about suspenders was one of the episode's funnier bits. Janet was also very deep in the background, after a very funny episode last week. 

• Not everything about Jason makes narrative sense. He was too dumb to realize he is in the afterlife, but he somehow understood he didn't fit in and needed to stay silent to hide himself? It's a bit of a stretch. The show will have to find a consistent sweet spot of just how smart or stupid they are going to allow him to be.

•  In Eleanor's case Michael, mixed up the details of her life, but had her name correct. In the case of Jason, Michael was wrong about both his name and the details of his life. Is the real Jianyu stuck in The Bad Place?

• The show often deals in broad personality types with mixed success. While chef Patricia's intense personality was an amusing running gag, she's a character/joke I don't need to see again.

• Points to the show for naming the restaurant "The Good Plate," and for not having Michael get the joke until he said it out loud in front of everyone at the restaurant opening.

• Last week Eleanor accepted the job as Michael's assistant, but as of this episode she has yet to start it. This episode had a lot going on, so I'm glad the show didn't try to squeeze that in too. 

• At the end of the episode Tahani learned that the hole Eleanor created was actually getting bigger, instead of repairing itself like Michael said it would. I'm not a fan of cliffhangers, but it has been smart for this show to end each episode with a problem that can be picked up in the next episode.