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I think thats one of the things that keeps me from really sympathizing with Regina, despite her past suffering. I've never really understood how exactly the bad things that happened to her really lead to her becoming the Evil Queen. I can guess (she lashes out at Snow/the world because she feels she cant lash out at her mom) and I dont need to have everything spelled out, but we need some idea on how we got from point A to point B. I dont mind villains who have tragic backstories or circumstances, but we have to see WHY that affected them, and how that lead them to being the way they are. That can lead to a tragic character, or at least add some moral grayness to the story. I have no idea how Regina being abused or losing her boyfriend lead to her becoming a mass murdering dictator. Considering how much A&E adore Regina, I still feel like we dont really know Regina and why she ticks. Its like they became so afraid to make her look bad, it actually hurt her character. Even in the Star Wars prequels, as lame as they were, I could understand how Anakin became evil and how his traumas affected him. It wasn't handled well or anything, but I could see how one thing could lead to another, in ways that Regina never did.

Sneaky, X-Files. Tease us with a cool MoTW story, and then trick us into a mythology episode, including dealing with the whole gross "Cancer Man raped Scully" story, which exists now because...someone Chris Carter hates all of us. I just hate the mythology stuff, its so stupid, pointless, and increasingly gross. If CC had any sense, he would have ditched this alien conspiracy crap by season 5. So we meet William, and as it turns out, William is a prick. I get that he is a teenager, but not only was he dating and lying to two girls at once, reading sleazy pick up artist books, he decided that giving his girlfriends horrible nightmares, luring them to an abandoned ship, and forcing them to see monsters and beat the shit out of each other, because I guess he thought that sounded hilarious. Plus, he didn't seem all that upset about his beaten girlfriends OR his dead parents. No idea why they decided to go this way with him, beyond getting the X Files involved. The last scene was nice though, so maybe he could get better one day. It would be nice for him to reconnect with Mulder and Scully, for their sake if nothing else. That being said, there were some good parts. I loved Mulder being Bob at the coffee shop (because he doesn't have the time to explain Fox) Skinner being classic Skinner (why do I only get updates on your cases when I am getting complaints from other agencies?) and great acting from Gillian and David. I think if they had ditched the mythology stuff and made this a straight up MoTW (and maybe left it ambiguous if the kid was William, or just had Mulder and Scully projecting) this could have been a really good episode, instead of a "meh" episode. I was excited for an X-Files take on Creepy Pasta, which seems like something that would be perfect for a modern take on X Files, but that got abandoned pretty quickly. So, it wasn't awful like the first episode this season or anything, but it wasn't anything special. You know, if the show wants to bring stuff back from the past and deal with unanswered questions, why dont they explain that alien ghost from the first season? Why would you bring up an alien ghost and never explain it?!

I was dying throughout that whole scene. And then when he was trying to talk through the asshole dad ghost, and the asshole dad ghost wouldn't say his name because he didn't believe that it could be anyone's actual name! Penny is always great, but Penny as a snarky ghost trying to deal with the spirit world is even better. This season has been great so far, no bad episodes yet. All the characters are gelling, the story is interesting, and its hitting that sweet spot between fantasy, drama, and comedy.

Wow, that got surprisingly dark. This show is normally so fluffy and fun, but when they go dark, they sure go dark. I did like getting some more insight into the characters and their issues, and their fears were all pretty in character. Stones vision was super creepy with witch Cassandra. They better not seriously be killing off Jenkins. That just seems so...wrong. He cant die, it isn't The Librarians without him around! They better find a way out of this next week, or you will be getting some very angry tweets from my direction! I totally thought that Flynn just left, you got me, show. I did think it was a bit strange that he didn't say goodbye to anyone, even Eve, but hes rather flighty and seemed nervous about the tethering ceremony, so I bought it well enough. Touche, show. Its now officially on, Nicole. I figured we hadn't seen the last of her, but damn. Impressive plan she came up with. This was mostly a pretty serious episode, but I did laugh at Stone playing chess with the magic sword.

Cash and Zoe breaking up was realistic, but sad. Cash is a decent guy, but he is really impulsive and that causes him to do things he regrets later. Zoe's friends telling her how self centered she has been was great, because its totally true, and has been true since Black-ish. Hopefully this will be a wake up call to focus more on other people, and not so much on herself and/or her boyfriend of the week. It was really sweet how Nomi still stuck around to comfort her after the break up though, even when she was pissed off at her. I love the Twins. But I think my favorite line was "Its 9! The sad day drinkers are still here" before cutting to the Dean sadly drinking an umbrella drink.

Well, I guess that makes me feel good that there are people actually trying. I haven't really kept up with most of the writers lately, so I guess the problems with this season lay in other places...

Jughead is almost two characters sometimes. When he is with Betty or any of the rest of the gang, I like him a lot. He and Betty are cute and have great chemistry, and his relationships with his other friends are actually interesting. Then we get to his Serpent stuff, and I just roll my eyes. I have no idea how we went from them as a scary gang Jughead was so desperate to avoid that he preferred being homeless to living with FP, to him being all Ride or Die for these guys. The writers have basically had to retcon the gang as misunderstood rebels against evil Northsiders who are also oppressed Native Americans (or something) to have it make any kind of sense. Anyway, I do so enjoy this show when it embraces the crazy. There is no worse Riverdale than a boring Riverdale, and this was NOT boring. It wasn't that perfect combination of story, character, and camp that we get when this show is at its best, but it had its moments, certainly more so than the last few episodes. Ronnie and religion is one of my new favorite things. Granted, I dont know how it lines up with any kind of Riverdale (I was about Veronica's age when I had my confirmation, and it was a year long prep process) but Riverdale gonna Riverdale. Reality is kind of like Riverdales weather forecast: Inconsistent, often nonsense, and basically dependent on Cheryl's outfit of the day. I can increasingly see why Jughead and Betty are so into each other, they escalate things so quickly! Jughead went from doing some odd jobs for his dads gang, to being a full member and mutilating and almost killing people, and Betty decided to explore her darker, sexier side, so she goes from sexy cheer-leading to public striptease at a biker bar and THEN she becomes a cam girl! That is a horrible idea on every level, and its making me feel pretty uncomfortable. I feel like it will come back at some point to bite her, but maybe now. Who knows on this show?

I think that A&E are still pretty engaged this season, while last season, they clearly had stopped caring. While last season it felt like they were just checking things off a to do list, and were pretty bored, this season they seem quite excited about their new fanfic where they get to focus all on Regina, Rumple, and shiny new villains, and stop worrying about those "boring" heroes. On the other hand, I feel like the other writers were more engaged last year (to an extent) but this year, everyone but A & E seem to be on autopilot. The writers are so obviously half assing it, most of the actors look like their eyeing the craft service table off screen, and even the costume and set design people seem to be just doing this to get a quick paycheck before heading to greener pastures. Everyone but A&E seems bored out of their minds. I mean, to be fair to the actors, it must be hard to act when their characters are so thinly sketched, and some of them really are trying, but everyone just seems to be not into this.

Poor Penny. Nobody cries at his memorial, and he never got to sleep with Margot like they both meant to get around to doing. "Hey Penny." *Freaks the frick out*

If anything, this whole show is a warning against improper gun usage.

Me too! I loved that movie when I was a kid! It taught me that the Russian Revolution has less to do with communism than it did with evil undead wizards!

To be fair to Barry, he sent him to some out in the middle of nowhere monastery where he wanted to just chill with the monks in the quiet, so presumably he could pretty easily lay low there, hanging with the monks and pondering the meaning of life or whatever. Not saying its not still pretty dumb, but it isn't like he dumped him in the middle of a major city or something. I am torn on The Flash this season. I do like the change in tone and the characterization is better (ignoring certain stupid, wedding related crap), but the overall plot is still rather convoluted, and seems to require the gang to be a dumber than they ever had been. So, while I do think its better than last season, there is still a LOT of work to do to really improve things.

I literally laughed out loud when Grace was saying how awkward it was to be hanging around a girl who slept with their boyfriend, and Callie got a super awkward look on her face! I mean, of course Grace would assume that Brandon's sister wouldn't be a possible ex girlfriend or anything*! The love triangle between Poppy/Jesus/Emma is already boring and annoying. Jesus doesn't seem to have any idea that Emma is jealous, or has any reason to, and Poppy doesn't seem that flirty towards him or anything, so it just makes Emma look like an asshole. Poppy seems a bit preoccupied with other, more important things, than finding a new boyfriend. I did enjoy the senior prank stuff, and how the kids (minus an apparently comatose Jude) worked together on it. The sibling/family stuff will always be more interesting to me than the latest dating drama or social issue of the week. Lena getting into the spirit was a good call, and she looked GREAT in that outfit! And I continue to enjoy Grace and Brandon, much more than I have any of his other love interests. They're conversation in the car was very mature, and I understood both of their point of views. Brandon wants to be supportive to Grace, but Grace doesn't want to be pitted, or to become Brandon's whole world. I am not at all looking forward to her inevitable tragic death. Do ICE people work on commission or something? Is that why he is so pissed about not getting to arrest and deport this random, harmless 20 something? Is he upset that Callie made them look like assholes? Is that why he is apparently stalking her now? Does he want to try and deport her, despite being not in any way an immigrant? Or did he just hear all sketchy authority figures are required to be obsessed with screwing with this one teenage girl? *I know, adopted sister. But still.

I really liked how the Eddie/Louis plot ended up going, and how it tied into Dave clearly going through some stuff. His family problems have been a bit of a running joke throughout the show, so it was nice to tie that into the story and actually have something positive come out of it.

I am glad they are continuing to try to figure out what DeVoe wants with the bus metas, even while they have already seen part of his master plan in action. Because I originally thought he wanted them to be his minions, but unless he has some mind control thing going on, I dont see most of them being interested. Then I thought that he wanted to body snatch them to mix and match powers for himself, but it seems like the body snatch stuff had more to do with sending Barry to jail. He is up to something with them though. I cant wait to see that. I can totally see Harry being all snarky and competitive with Ray, while Ray is just being super cheerful and excited to play with SCIENCE.

Maybe they can meet up for drinks and gripes with the poor guy in charge of tourism and public relations in Star City.

I liked him too, and I thought his brief scenes in Storeybrooke were interesting. He seemed like he really had given up villainy and was just trying to quietly live his life, which isn't how it goes with most villains on this show. The actor was quite good as well. Really, I think if they wanted to put Regina with someone, a fellow reformed villain would have been a good choice. Better than Robin, who she fell for because "destiny said so" or something. I think they also could have had more of a push and pull romance, with more passion. I never got passion from Robin and Regina (even when they were literally fucking next to corpses) and he seemed to just instantly become her doormat. It made their relationship seem really stale and dull, and never got why they were willing to give up so much and cross so many lines to be together.

I totally agree. It was hard to watch Anissa be so crappy to her girlfriend (and hopefully she tries to apologize for how she went about things at some point) but I appreciate that she has flaws that she can work to overcome over the course of the series. Sometimes writers fall into the trap of making people from underrepresented backgrounds into perfect angels who have no flaws, and that doesn't make for a very dynamic character. It doesn't really make them seem like real people. Anissa is human, and thats what makes a good character, no matter who they are. People have good and bad aspects to them, no matter their background, so its good that they are giving her layers and allowing her to be a person instead of just a role model or something. * *Of course, you would think writing a black woman as a person would be...like...obvious, but some writers are idiots.

Cisco and Ralph reminded me of the cowboy and the Roman soldier from Night at the Museum. Like, a lot.

Poor poor Khalil. I figured something like would happen, but it was awful to see. At least he survived, and there is a chance he could walk again some day. Jefferson and the hygiene conversation was amazing. I hope Gami isn't up to something sketchy. I guess if he was doing something really bad, they wouldn't have shown us now? Maybe? Also, Tobias might have an amazing benefits package, because working for him is seriously a threat to your health. Anissa playing with her powers was really cool, but she was awful to her poor girlfriend. I continue to love this show!

If I think about this too much, I will probably find a crap ton of plot holes, but I dont care right now because that was super fun, and even surprising at times. They took a classic silly comic book plot and had fun with it, complete with silly puns (gum shoe!) and wacky tiny hijinks. It really did manage to get closer to that fun, season 1 vibe I know the writers are trying to get at. Lots of good stuff for Harry tonight, and it was nice to see all of Team Flash working together. Iris and Harry are a surprisingly good combination, and Harry in badass scientist mode is always awesome. And pretty sexy, not gonna lie. I also love finding out that he is incredibly salty towards Ray and his scientific acheimevements. Now I NEED them to interact in the next crossover. The ending shouldn't have been surprising, but it actually was. I think the Super Human Trafficking stuff has potential, and an evil warden supplying meta humans is an interesting idea, even if it means the return of Amunet and her silly accent. I know Barry will be fine, but its still pretty suspenseful! Also, as much as I make fun of how Barry is awful at keeping his secret, him sending the other inmate to his dream location was sweet. Maybe a bad idea long term, but sweet.

Thats what I figured even back when they were talking at the piano last time they saw each other. He knew that she was very interested in him, but she is looking for a husband, while he clearly isn't the marrying kind. Its sweet, that he recognized that she needs to move on from him soon to more marriageable pastures. Like when he was getting drunk with Albert after their father died, Ernst can be a cad, but he does try to be decent to the people around him, in his own way.

That looks great, I am super excited! Between this, Black Panther, and Infinity War, I should start depositing my paychecks directly to Marvel at this point. I am really interested to see how they deal with the aftermath of Civil War, and get into why Scott did what he did, and how it affected his life, his family, and the Pyms. And Hank shrinking the building and rolling away with it was a great visual effect. It looks like they are going to continue getting creative with the shrinking power and how they use it, which I really love. Cant wait to see The Wasp in action. She gets wings AND blasters!

I agree, and I think people have a tendency to not give people in the past the credit that they deserve. Its not that people were aliens (heh) back then, they just had different societies, but they still had brains and their own opinions. There were certainly different cultural attitudes in the past that most people today would think were awful, but its not like everyone had a hive mind and thought the exact same things at all times. As far back as ancient Greece, some thinkers were talking about gender equality and such. They weren't the majority, of course, but they were around, and people like that are often the ones who advance society. And it goes through basically every society going further back then that. So, it is questionable if the entire cast is totally down with things that would never fly in a certain time period with no issues, but I have no problem believing that some people had different or more progressive ideas in the past than what we might assume.

Yeah, that was a load of fun. Lucifer and Cain are actually a pretty great pair, they have surprisingly good chemistry, Lucifer actually seemed like Lucifer, and Cain/Pierce has actually gotten interesting, now that we know more of what his deal is. Also, how does Lucifer look even better in glasses than usual. And yeah, I saw that Kryptonite joke, show. Tom Welling looked like he was trying not to crack up right there on set. I know it will probably turn out that that Cain sacrifices himself for Chloe or Ella, but I would prefer it if he died and moved onto heaven by falling in love with Lucifer and decides to give up dying to save him or get him his answers about what happened to him. I am already a million times more invested in Lucifer/Cain than I am in Cain/Chloe or Chloe/Lucifer. Chloe has just become increasingly dull lately, now that she basically exists to be a wet blanket to Lucifer, a fangirl to Pierce/Cain, or the person everyone else is convinced is the best thing since tequila. Cant wait to see Amenadiel join the cosmic fun next week!