What I’m Watching: The Flash

The Flash: Season 7, Episode 3 “Mother” (B-)

I’m not sure if this is what was intended to be the storyline for the season finale, but it all felt a bit too easy. Theoretically, Eva realizing that she wasn’t actually the woman she thought she was should have made her less emotional, like the calculating Barry we saw in the previous episode, but instead it seemed to keep her human, since Iris was able to point out that she never wanted to be evil but had unintentionally done just that. I am intrigued by the idea of Iris having more long-lasting powers since I don’t think that negatively impacts any of the characters, because they all still have their roles to play on the team. It did feel particularly clunky to have Ralph in a suit that masked his face while he vowed to be back again soon, which just felt like a stall tactic for anyone who knows that actor Hartley Sawyer most definitely will not be back at any point, and they’ll have to recast the part if they’re going to bring back the character. I wouldn’t mind seeing Sue and actress Natalie Dreyfuss on a more regular basis, especially since she was clever enough to pretend to be someone she wasn’t when literally everyone in Central City was doing the same thing given their mirrorverse possession. I like that the original Harrison Wells came back and that he can travel through time at will, which should enable him to return too when they most need him. Whatever happened at the end with those energy beams isn’t likely to have good consequences, and I’m intrigued to see what threat next emerges for Team Flash after a successful if unlikely victory against the last one.

What I’m Watching: 12 Monkeys (Season Premiere)

12 Monkeys: Season 3, Episode 1 “Mother” (C+)

I already have a strict policy about how I watch streaming shows, and I wasn’t about to let a whole season – let alone the penultimate season – of this show go by over the course of just three days. I can’t understand why Syfy decided to air the same thing over one weekend, but I’m going to let it last me throughout part of the summer. That said, I wasn’t too enthralled by this opening hour, which had an intriguing introduction with Jones narrating how they’ve gotten to where they are. The problem is that this show has always been best when it’s dealt with time travel and, in my opinion, visited the recent past or the near future. Heading too far into the future enables the presence of advanced technology which permits villainous characters to go back in time, kill someone to prevent what they know has happened, and then trap someone in an impossible loop from which they have no hope of escaping. What makes even less sense is that Cole, wearing a protective device that allowed him to be present with his former self without causing a paradox, was actually with Cassandra when he told his former self to give up looking for her. I’m not a fan of all this business with the Witness, and I just hope that this new nightmare is over soon so that we can get back to our characters doing what they do best – traveling through time to try to stop evil forces from prevailing. Putting Jennifer front and center again can’t hurt either.

Emmy Episodes: UnREAL

It’s always my policy to watch every Emmy-nominated episode each year, which leads me to sample a handful of shows that I don’t tune in to on a regular basis. This year, I’m making a special effort to spotlight each of those installments to offer my perspective on shows that I don’t review each week.

UnREAL: Season 1, Episode 3 “Mother” (C+)
Nominated for Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series (Constance Zimmer)

I’m more than happy to be officially done with this show, at least for the season, now that I’ve gotten to Zimmer’s submitted hour. This absolutely is not my kind of show, and usually I’m at least a little bit interested in where the plot is going to go and what’s going to happen, but I really don’t care much here. The title of the episode has a lot more to do with Rachel than it does with Quinn, and what a monster of a mother she has, so determined to control her life that she withholds financial support if her daughter refuses to engage in therapy with her, which is totally unethical in every way. It’s true that Rachel is good at her job because of how twisted her brain is, and that her natural impulse is to stir up the drama in a way that her hapless colleague Shia just doesn’t have. But back to the Emmy nominee at hand – this is definitely a smart submission for Zimmer. Giving Chet another chance seemed like a step backward, but I don’t think she expected him to have a heart attack while they were having sex. Getting talked down to by his wife was a harrowing moment, and one that Zimmer handled very well in her portrayal of Quinn. It’s the meatiest role on a soapy show, and therefore I think Zimmer might have a decent shot at taking home the Emmy for her performance. I’ve enjoyed her better in other projects, but I suspect that she’ll be a returning nominee given the positive reception to season two of the show.

What I’m Watching: Veep

Veep: Season 5, Episode 4 “Mother” (B-)

This was one of the weaker episodes this show has produced, and it’s a disappointment since it doesn’t hold a candle to some of the hilarity that it has sometimes featured. We all understand that Selina is not a good person, and therefore it’s to be expected that she would put more weight on her reelection to the presidency than on the health of her dying mother. This episode laid her awfulness on thick, and it was a bit much to take. The breakdown that it led to when Selina got very bad news about her reelection as she was about to deliver her mother’s eulogy worked, but I don’t know that we needed a whole episode to deal with this. This show has also been making a few Holocaust jokes recently that I haven’t found too funny – I think it can do better. I did like that Andrew showed up to the funeral and tried to get Charlie to invest in his company and that Mike fell prey to it without even being directly asked. Tom and Charlie’s mutual disdain for each was fun too. The Nevada crew having to flip-flop their position as soon as they realized that all of the recounted votes were going to go to O’Brien was entertaining, particularly when it came to the hapless duo of Jonah and Richard, who were not able to comprehend what they were supposed to do in the slightest. At least they were better aware than Bob, whose congratulatory remark to a devastated Selina couldn’t have been more demonstrative of his incoherence.