A few niggling thoughts and nitpicks about LEGENDS OF TOMORROW

I've seen up to the fourth episode of The CW's new superhero adventure series Legends of Tomorrow, and while it's been quite entertaining and contained one big surprise in episode 3 that I didn't see coming (although it can probably be unwritten because this is a comic-book show), the entire concept fills me with concerns and questions. So, what better place to air them than here?

Review: The CW's LEGENDS OF TOMORROW

★★☆☆☆

Ain't hubris a bitch? After the astonishing successes of Arrow and The Flash on The CW, most of the creative team behind those shows go for a hat-trick with DC's Legends of Tomorrow—essentially a small-budget Avengers wannabe, combining several of those previous show's best recurring characters, and a few of their lamest. It's a big, bold, brave decision to make something like LoT; it also takes a special kind of stupidity on the evidence of this ridiculous premiere.

The Best Television of 2015: No.9 - The CW's THE FLASH

A young forensic analyst called Barry Allen (Grant Gustin) becomes 'the fastest man alive' after a laboratory explosion endows him with super-powers, prompting him to fight crime and keep his city safe from other 'meta-humans' with more sinister agendas.

What made it so good? It helped that The Flash is a top-tier DC Comics character, sure, and it's made by the same folk behind The CW's excellent Arrow, but I still didn't expect The Flash to become this enjoyable so quickly. I think the main reason for its success is down to the casting: Gustin's the kind of handsome hero you can identify with as 'a normal guy in extraordinary situations', Jesse L. Martin as Barry's stepfather Joe is an undervalued joy, Carlos Valdes took one of those 'geek comic relief' roles and made you not want to chew your hand off in embarrassment, and Tom Cavanagh aced a tricky dual role as Barry's trusted mentor/secret arch-nemesis.

Watched: ARROW, 4.1 – "Green Arrow"

I enjoyed season 3 of Arrow for what it was, but it was the least impressive run of the three. The Ra's al Ghul storyline outstayed its welcome, the addition of billionaire Ray Palmer (in an ersatz Iron Man side-plot) proved to be more of a distraction and prolonged setup for Legends of Tomorrow, and then there was the ridiculousness of everyone now becoming highly-trained mask-wearing vigilantes.

Watched: THE FLASH, 2.1 - "The Man Who Saved Central City"

The Flash was one of the best new shows of 2014, and managed to surpass its mother show Arrow with relative ease. (The heroes of Starling City had an off year, let's be kind.) I was very much looking forward to The Flash's season 2 premiere, but it concerned me that so much of the show's emotional arc for Barry (battling a supervillain who's faster than him, while trying to exonerate his imprisoned father for the murder of his mother), has been dealt with. Could The Flash be one of those shows that played its best hand early, to guarantee itself hit status, and will now struggle to maintain that standard? Time will tell. It's certainly too early to say anything based on "The Man Who Saved Central City", which was predominantly concerned with the aftermath of season 1's finale...

Review: The CW's iZOMBIE

★★★☆

From the creator of Veronica Mars, here comes another breezy detective caper with an intelligent, courageous female at its centre. iZOMBIE, as if the title didn't give it away, is an altogether more high-concept series (loosely based on an obscure 2010 comic-book), about an overachieving doctor called Liv Moore (Rose McIver) whose life's dealt a curveball when she survives a zombie attack during a party and discovers she's become one of the undead. Cursed with permanently pale skin and a desire to eat brains, Liv's promising medical career takes a back-step into mortuary assistance—helping coroner Dr Ravi Chakrabati (Rahul Kohli) examine bodies she can surreptitiously raid for yummy grey matter. Complicating her eating arrangement, feasting on dead brain has the unexpected side-effect of giving Liv visions from the deceased's memories—which proves useful in the case of unsolved murder victims...

The CW launching a superhero team of ARROW/FLASH side characters?

The twin successes of ARROW and THE FLASH for The CW has resulted in a huge surge of interest for comic-book properties on U.S television. It also helps that Marvel's big movies continue to be popular, and are inspiring their own small-screen spin-offs. Today, The CW announced their intention to create a superhero Avengers-style team-up show, again developed by Greg Berlanti, Andrew Kreisberg and Marc Guggenheim—the core writers behind Arrow and The Flash…

And this one will combine Arrow's Ray Palmer/The Atom (Brandon Routh) and Sarah Lance/Black Canary (Caity Lotz), with The Flash's Firestorm (Victor Garber) and Leonard Snart/Captain Cold (Wentworth Miller). No idea why Robbie Amell wasn't included in that list, seeing as he plays the physical half of Firestorm. Is he being recast, or was that a mistake?

THE FLASH, 1.14 – 'Fallout'

★★★★

I don't read THE FLASH comic-books, so it's possible a lot of this season's twists and reveals aren't so exciting for DC Comics aficionados, but as a layman I'm having a great time watching this sprightly first season. It really seems to have hit its stride just lately, too, with a run of really good episode—but "Fallout" was particularly strong. In some ways all you want from a superhero television show is likeable characters doing cool things within entertaining storylines, and The Flash is now reaping the rewards of its careful build-up.

ARROW, 3.12 - 'Uprising' • THE FLASH, 1.12 - 'Crazy For You'

ARROW – 'Uprising'

★★☆☆

It amuses me how Arrow regularly applies ideas from Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy; cleverly disguised by mixing plot-points together or splitting one character's role between various members of Arrow's cast. The recent arc with Oliver Queen challenging Ra's al Ghul to a fight to the death, which left him (apparently) dead overseas while his precious city was left to the mercy of a burly English supervillain? Tweak a few details and it's just The Dark Knight Rises—which likewise featured a resolution where citizens helped Batman's allies take back their city by force.

THE FLASH, 1.4 – 'Going Rogue' • ice and smoak

★★★★

Crossover alert! Arrow's beautiful boffin Felicity Smoak (Emily Bett Rickards) makes the trip from Starling City to Central City in "Going Rogue", ostensibly to visit her friend Barry (Grant Gustin) after hearing he's out of his coma. As a confidant of The Arrow, Felicity's let into S.T.A.R Labs' inner circle about Barry's new powers, during a time when jewel thief Leonard Snart (Wentworth Miller) decides to up his game and defeat the city's new super-sonic do-gooder...

THE FLASH, 1.3 – 'Things You Can't Outrun' • the gasman cometh!

★★☆☆

This was the first episode of THE FLASH I'd describe as workmanlike; which isn't necessarily a bad thing for a show of this nature (expected to produce two dozen episodes a year), but if the majority of The Flash is going to be of similar quality, I won't be reviewing every episode.

THE FLASH, 1.2 – 'Fastest Man Alive' • attack of the clones

★★★☆

Like countless second episodes, "Fastest Man Alive" half-existed to reiterate the concept behind THE FLASH, in a manner that wouldn't test the patience of those who saw the pilot. (Which is usually the majority of people watching.) It managed to accomplish that rather well, with dialogue recapping that wasn't always subtle, but felt reasonable. In some ways, the story was also a mini-version of the pilot—with Barry (Grant Gustin) testing the limits of his super-sonic movement before having to fight 'metahuman' Danton Black (Michael Christopher Smith), a one-man clone army.

What did you think of The CW's super-fast superhero drama THE FLASH?

Last night, The CW's new superhero drama THE FLASH premiered. It hopes to equal and perhaps even surpass the success of their other comic-book series Arrow, but do you think it stands a chance? I already saw and reviewed the pilot over the summer, but it would be great to hear your thoughts below!

Trailer: ARROW – Season 3 (SDCC 2014)

ARROW debuted its third season trailer at San Diego Comic-Con yesterday, which gave fans their first look at new guest stars like Brandon Routh (Superman Returns) as Roy Palmer/The Atom, Karl Yune as Maseo Yamashiro, and Peter Stormare as Count Vertigo; plus the return of Caity Lotz as Sarah Lance/Black Canary, new flashback scenes with Oliver in China, and Roy in costume as sidekick Arsenal. Warning: contains spoilers for season 2 in the first minute's recap.

Updated with a longer version, previewing famous DC Comics villain Ra's Al Ghul.

Pilot preview: The CW's THE FLASH - super-fast, super-fun

Months ahead of its 7 October premiere on The CW, I take a look at the pilot episode of their new superhero drama THE FLASH.

Post-mortem: ARROW - Season Two

Having recently completed its second season on The CW, I remain singularly impressed by ARROW. While it's clearly an ersatz Batman, it has enough to differentiate itself from the Caped Crusader's more famous milieu. Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell) has more allies, isn't so downcast/disturbed, and unlike Bruce Wayne has a family who are alive and able to complicate his dual life. A plain-spoken elderly butler pales next to a Machiavellian middle-aged mother, and a petulant half-sister who bears grudges.

Trailer: The CW's THE FLASH

Considering how awesome Arrow's become, hopes are high for spin-off THE FLASH—which, ironically, is adapting a superhero with considerably more public awareness than Green Arrow. How will this new show fare? We've already spent a smattering of episodes in the company of police forensic expert Barry Allen (Grant Gustin) during Arrow's second season, and the former Glee actor came across well.

Pilot review: The CW's STAR-CROSSED

written by Meredith Averill | directed by Gary Fleder

The title may refer to a Shakespearian quote from Romeo & Juliet, but The CW's new romantic sci-fi drama is clearly more indebted to Stephenie Meyer's Twilight and the network's own Beauty & the Beast. Jokes are always made about the number of vampire shows choking the airwaves, but the broader sub-genre of 'supernatural romances' must outnumber them 10:1. Haven't we had our fill of these things?

Review: ARROW, 2.1 – 'City of Heroes'

written by Andrew Kreisberg & Marc Guggenheim | directed by John Behring

The CW's superhero drama Arrow was a big surprise last year; building on an entertaining pilot to became one of the best new US network shows in an admittedly weak season. And all this despite the usual issues trying to tell a half-serialised storyline over 23 hours, leading to a slack middle. Now it's back for seconds, more confident about its identity, its abilities, and aware there's a fan-base supporting it. (Although the 2.74 million people who watched this premiere live represent one of the lowest ratings in Arrow's history, which is a worry...)

Pilot: The CW's THE TOMORROW PEOPLE, 1.1 - 'Pilot'

What's it about? The Tomorrow People is a US remake of a cult British sci-fi drama of the same name, that originally airing on ITV between 1973 and 1979, before a revival between 1992 and 1995. The CW remake retains the core premise of outwardly normal young people "breaking out" (i.e. exhibiting psionic powers like telekinesis, telepathy and teleportation).