This Week in TV: Assassin Gorilla Invades the 80’s

Patriot

Pilot Review (Ep 1 & 2)

Just like a good magic trick, this show slowly pulls you in and shows you the trick and now you are entranced making you wonder how they did it. Patriot is a new action/dark comedy show from Amazon Studios. The main premise of the show is about a hitman going undercover at a mundane company with oversea ties to carry out a mission to save Iran from nuclear demolition. While this may seem completely over the top they play it straight and completely drop the show in normalcy for the full effect of blandness. Every character is completely mundane as you meet them in the first episode except for the assassin John Tavner played by Michael Dorman. As we continue to meet the characters little pieces of them are revealed and maybe everything is not as it seems

The show overall strives with its cinematography which just showcases the cities of Michigan and Luxemburg brilliantly. They are so alike and yet so different yet visually you could watch this show and get most of it with the sound off. Every shot is well staged, in the first episode, we get a scene where Tavner is trying to get one Dennis McLaren (Chris Conrad) to urinate in a cup so he can pass a test. The entire scene is played for full comedic value while being tense and full of drama. The director and writer Steve Conrad brings such an interesting mix of cool story, fun visuals, and intriguing plot together very well

The final scene at the end of ep 2 had me so going to heading back into this show very soon.

The Flash

S03 E13 & 14 Attack on Gorilla City/Attack on Central City

Over the last 2 episodes in The Flash, we had the return of Gorilla Grodd. When we saw his last season he had been banished to Gorilla City on Earth-2 but it clearly was only time till he became a problem again. In the first episode we have Team Flash going to Earth-2 to save Harry and in the meanwhile defeat the Gorilla King Solovar and escape back. In the second episode, we see the return of Gorilla Grodd back to Earth-1. These episodes most likely are the most expensive episodes the show has done. From the long panning shots over Gorilla City or impressive battle scenes, it is clear that they have invested time and money into making this work. While it is quite obvious that they are cutting corners in some scenes to allow them to focus on pulling off scenes that one could not imagine seeing on your TV. 2 of the spotlights for me was the Gladiator Battle at the end of episode 13 and Team Flash versus the army of gorillas in Central City.

While the episodes may have been jam packed full of Rocky, Planet of the Apes, Batman and a million other references and easter eggs there was truly a lot happening for some of the side plots. One of my favorites was Cisco and Gypsy, they have this will they won’t they that is thrilling. Cisco’s love for the bad girls is entertaining and it’s funny to see what they will do. The end of the episode gave us some little idea that it could happen but maybe not. It was really fun to see Gypsy (Jessica Camacho) return and she even brought a new speedster to the show even if for only a couple of seconds. The new speedster is Accelerated Man from Earth-19 and practically nothing is known currently but he does have some form of the speed force. He may not even be featured in the show moving forward but it is nice to see the show explore the different parts of the multiverse even just a little bit.

Made with Love Trailer

Here is a trailer for what seems to be an online series about young people trying to make it in the modern world. Through the digital world, they are trying to make their lives work and it seems really interesting so check it out.

Arrow

S05E15 Fighting Fire with Fire

Spoilers for Arrow this episode!

Oh man! What an epic episode! There was a car flip and a showdown between everyone minus suits and vigilante and that was only the opening of the episode. Mr. Terrific seem to capture about the same screen/story time in this episode and boy did it deliver. We see his developing and testing his T-spheres which are a nod to the comics where he has the same items. After the new suit reveals last week it is turning all well for Curtis. Until the end of the episode where we learn his husband isn’t trying to reconnect but divorce! Oh, the sadness. It hit me in the feels after he was so motivated to reshape himself in these last few episodes!

Now onto the main show. We have been taking the focus off the Green Arrow and so far it has been ok. Mayor Queen was in the spotlight on impeachment charges and the team was focused on Vigilante. The wrench in the socket is the final reveal of Prometheus…. Spoilers… It’s DA Adrian Chase!!! WOAAAHHHH. Personally, I thought he was Vigilante and it seemed to make sense but this flipped that on me. Turns out he most likely is the missing son from earlier in the show and now that we actually care about the character it is going be cool to see how and when the team finds this out. It seems they are taking a page from the Flash and truly building their villains as multi-dimensional characters which we haven’t seen in this show since season 2 and Deathstroke. And now that leaves vigilante, who is he? Honestly not sure yet but I do believe he is a third party we haven’t met and most likely will be partners with the team by season’s end as the enemy of my enemy is my friend.

The Goldbergs

S04E16 Kara-te Kid

This episode we got an awesome homage to the karate Kid from 1984. Everything from crazy household chores as training to an intense crane kick filled finale showdown everything was so cool. Even the costuming was on point with recreations that many characters were wearing in the film. The episode also features the summation of one of the longer running jokes in this season about an older kid with the same name as our main character Adam Goldberg, the elder version is played by … and adds a great intense but fun loving dynamic to the episode. Everything spanned around the karate Kid and we see Erica and her new fling arguing if they are the Dutch (the film’s antagonist) in their relationship which is great. One of the geekiest moments came when Adam decided to rename himself and has everything from GI Joe names to Escape from New York superheroes and every 80’s reference you can think off.