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The 10 Best Episodes of TV in 2016

Below is my list of the 10 best episodes of television in 2016. I can't say I compiled this list with as much objectivity as I perhaps should have, but it is a list based on personal preferences and emotional attachments within the story. This list somehow contains three episodes from shows on the CW, so make of that what you will. This post does contain spoilers for all shows.

#game of thrones #the walking dead #arrow #the 100 #rectify #11.22.63 #westworld #january2017

The 100: ‘Nevermore’ - Review

The 100 shifted its focus away from Arkadia and Polis this week for an episode reminiscent to that of season one, with original fan-favourites finally reuniting and working towards the common goal of saving Raven's life.

Back at the trading post, Raven starts projecting much of what we as fans are thinking on to Jasper and Bellamy. Seeing somebody calling them out on their bullshit may have been cathartic to some viewers, however the character analysis she presented for each of them fell somewhat short with me. Given that Raven’s being controlled by ALIE, she can only offer a simplistic view on their situations as she cannot empathise on a humanistic level. The intention was to goad Bellamy and Jasper about their problems in the hope of inciting a hostile reaction and ultimately gain information on her whereabouts. Starting with Jasper, Raven mocked his loss of Maya and the pity party he's been attending ever since. She called him a coward and a waste of space, even asking why he's still even alive. Jasper, being vulnerable and in a state of constant loathing, reacted to Raven when she pretended to not know Maya's name. Once Jasper had left the room, Raven’s focus switched to Bellamy. She began the grilling with probably the best delivered line of the episode, "Just you and me, huh?". She proceeded to make light of the time she and Bellamy had sex, back in season one, by declaring it as "not much to talk about". It was a nice moment of twisted levity before she really attempted to zero in on his inner demons. After reminding Bellamy of his part in the deaths of both the Mountain Men and those culled on the Ark, Raven decided it was time to take it up a notch and blame him for his mother's death. Whilst Bellamy’s decision to take Octavia to the Ark dance was ill-judged, it only ever came from a good place. His mother made the mistake of having a second child and when he tried to give that child, his sister, a glimpse of happiness, their Mother was snatched away from them. Everything came crashing down because Bellamy wanted to do a good thing. ALIE’s attempts to rile Bellamy with the deaths of the Mountain Men should have remained largely ineffective considering he was saving his people. Having said all that, it was a good moment to see him confronted over the deaths of those who died in the Ark culling. He was absolutely to blame for their deaths, albeit indirectly through negligence and no small amount of selfish ignorance. I’ve spoken previously about Bellamy’s reasons for murdering the Grounder army and why that situation ever played out, but it was again nice to see him made accountable for his actions. Raven wrapped up by declaring Bellamy “a follower”, and “a knight” to his Queen, Clarke. For the most part she is right, and that’s why it would make sense for him to remain by Clarke’s side, platonically or otherwise. Whilst Bellamy only thinks within the confines of her own personal grievances or cowardice, Clarke thinks about her people and the bigger picture. Clarke functions fine without Bellamy, but he seems to need her to keep himself tethered and rational.

#the 100 #raven reyes #lindsey morgan #nevermore #april2016

Arrow: The Life and Death of Laurel Lance

This started out as a rant directed at the Arrow writers and their incompetence, instead it’s become an appreciation post dedicated to Laurel Lance. Why? Because she fucking deserves it.

Five years later Oliver returned to Starling City, alive, and began reopening old wounds for Laurel. She would look at him and be reminded of his betrayal and for what he did to her family, yet she still gave him forgiveness. Over the course of the next few weeks and months we were given a glimpse into just what kind of attorney Laurel had become. She took on gangs and cold-blooded murderers to the point where they were placing hits on her. Laurel was never obliged to do anything for Oliver or his family, not after the pain he caused her. Despite of this, she not only became Oliver’s lawyer when he was accused of being the ‘Hood’, but also defended Thea in her vertigo case. She also encouraged Tommy to make amends with his father, even if he wasn’t deserving of said forgiveness. She wanted what was best for everyone and strived for it. She found herself being hunted by an assassin after she took in the child he was supposed to kill, once again putting herself in the crosshairs. Time and time again Laurel would prove herself to be one of the few lights in a dark, corrupt city. Eventually, when Laurel realised that Tommy wasn’t still this immature boy capable of breaking her heart, she started getting closer to him. She finally committed to what Tommy had been chasing for a long time. That relationship came to an abrupt end, however, with Tommy becoming jealous that Laurel was too much in love with Oliver, alter-ego or not. And yet again, she was abandoned by somebody she loved. Still, she soldiered on because that’s what Laurel Lance does. During the undertaking, Laurel went to CNRI and stayed there. She again risked her own life to save the files of her defenseless clients. Her innate need to help and make a difference ended in tragedy when she became trapped in a falling debris. Tommy arrived in time to save her but it cost him his own life. This was the start of a grieving process that saw her pin the blame of Tommy’s death on the Hood. Grieving minds do not make clear judgments and Laurel would not be human if she were any different.

After the destruction of CNRI, Laurel became Assistant District Attorney. Unfortunately she lost that job as quickly as it came. After the Hood saved her from dying at the Dollmakers hands, she eventually realised that her blame for Tommy’s death was misplaced. It dawned on her that Tommy was at CNRI because she wouldn’t leave. He died because she wouldn’t forsake the hopes of her clients. This began a path of drug and alcohol abuse that would not only taint her credibility but undermine any clear or otherwise obvious observations she might make. For instance, her suspicions of Sebastian Blood were chalked up to addiction, by her father no less. Not only was she ridiculed or shamed by her father, but Oliver too. Laurel was at her most vulnerable and the people who were supposed to care, and supposed to listen, brushed her to the side. Sure, she was somewhat responsible for Tommy’s death but she was never worthy of the blame. She was never worthy of the mistreatment and general abandonment that had plagued her life. Quentin, a man who climbed into a bottle after Sara’s death, should have only ever given love and support to his last remaining daughter, not vitriolic judgement. Regardless, when Sara returned and rekindled her relationship with Oliver, Laurel reacted badly. Oliver told her that she needs to stop blaming everyone but herself for all the negative things that were happening in her life. He was wrong. Having your sister come back to life and hook up again with your recently resurrected boyfriend would mess with your head, especially when you’re simultaneously being labelled a drunk and an addict. Later, after proving her suspicions of Blood to be true and after breaking the case in Moira’s death, Laurel convinced Oliver to go after Blood and not give himself into Slade. Despite the heartbreak, drugs, and alcohol, Laurel had convinced Oliver to take his fight to Slade, rather than give himself up and commit suicide. Once again, in the midst of grieving, Laurel proved herself pivotal in saving Starling City. Following Slade’s defeat, Sara left Team Arrow and Starling City, passing her black jacket on to Laurel.

Laurel’s journey as a vigilante faced a rocky start. Despite Oliver’s insistence, Laurel joined the fight to once again take down Count Vertigo. Unfortunately she is twice injected by the drug and becomes the victim of her own worst nightmares. Having been told by a vision of Sara that she is unworthy of the position she’d assumed, Laurel fought back and proclaimed she was done trying to be. She didn’t need to be worthy of replacing Sara because she would go on to become something far greater. She would become the Black Canary. She then went on to assist Team Arrow in multiple missions that would not only attempt to save Oliver from the clutches of Ra’s Al Ghul, but to save Starling City itself. With the help of Thea and Diggle, she cleared the streets and stopped a city-wide pandemic. After more months had passed, and with Oliver and Felicity in Ivy Town being pathetic, Team Arrow, firmly inclusive of Laurel, had started taking on a group of 'ghosts’. Damien Darkh had started to infest the streets of Star City. Once again, Laurel was defending the city and its helpless inhabitants whilst Oliver was away being irrelevant. She and Thea eventually hunted Oliver down and requested his help since the city he supposedly loved was falling victim to yet another super villain. After Oliver’s return, Laurel soon finds out that Thea had died from her encounter with Ra’s Al Ghul yet was resurrected using the Lazarus Pit. In an attempt to both cure Thea’s blood lust and bring her sister back from death, Laurel travels to Nanda Parbat. It was her decision to exhume and revive Sara that gained so much criticism, both in and out of the show. When you find out somebody close to you had been brought back to life with only a personality dysfunction to contend with, would you not consider doing the same? When you’ve had to grieve for your sister after she’s been snatched away from you so cruelly, would you not desperately want to be reunited with her? So many people will say no, so many people will get on their high horse and pretend to be sickened by her decision. What these people don’t have that Laurel did is the experience and grief that can warp your judgment and ideologies. Laurel thought what she was doing was best for not only herself, but for her sister and her family. And guess what? Despite the criticism, and with the help of Constantine, Sara went on to become the girl she was prior to her death. Laurel made the right decision. Her sister would now go on to help bring an end to the tyranny of Vandal Savage. After weeks of being benched, Oliver soon remembers just how much he needs Laurel’s help. Diggle, Thea and Felicity are captured by Damien Darkrhkhr and with Laurel’s help, Oliver is able to take out the ghosts and render Darkrkrkh somewhat inert enough to escape safely with all friends in tow. Soon enough, with Darkhrkh in jail, it was finally time for Laurel to once again work her magic in a court room. Having failed numerous attempts to counter his plea for dismissed charges, Laurel bravely allows her father to testify against Darkrkrkrkr. As so many others had found in recent years, Damien’s resources and expertise were simply no match for Laurel Lance.

#arrow #laurel lance #katie cassidy #black canary #april2016

The Walking Dead: 'Last Day on Earth' - Review

The season six finale of The Walking Dead boasted the arrival of the eagerly anticipated Negan, only to give with one hand and take with two. What should have been the most iconic episode of the series ended up being nothing short of a farcical anticlimax.

Enter Negan. The moment everybody had been waiting for. Many knew what to expect while some were lucky enough to have a nothing but a blank canvas with which to imagine him. He strolled out of the RV with a smile on his face and with his trusted Lucille in tow. He then commenced a ten minute monologue that by rights should have bored viewers half to sleep. It didn’t though. Anxiety reached an all time high and we were so close to finding out just what this infamous menace is capable of. Abraham’s attempt at meeting Negan’s gaze was brushed off with a quip about shaving, while Glenn was literally forced to get in line after the suggestion of putting Maggie “out of her misery”. He had everyone where he wanted them. They were scared and ready to submit to whatever terms he put to them because that’s all there is now. The new world order. Whatever you have, Negan takes. Of course, recruiting our characters to work for him was one reason to gather them up. The other was to teach them a lesson. You cross him, you get punished. There are no two ways about it. After the most intense game of ‘eeny meeny miny moe’ you are ever likely to witness, Negan proceeded to smash the holy hell out of someone using his baseball bat, Lucille. Whilst the cliffhanger itself was just awful, the scene was incredibly nerve-wrecking. One minor complaint for me is that the dialogue felt forced, or cheesy, at times. I guess when you’re taking lines straight from the comics, it’s hard for it to come across any other way. Jeffrey Dean Morgan of course delivered them as well as anybody could. The “pee pee pants city” line didn’t sound as terrible as I expected it to. Whilst the dialogue might not have done justice to how imposing the character should be, Jeffrey Dean Morgan certainly put any doubts to rest solely with his charisma and charm. The devilish grin he greeted Rick and company with, and the dominance he held over them, furthered the feeling that they were particularly screwed. It’s disappointing that we didn’t really get to see Lucille used in all her glory. A couple of hits before a point of view blackout makes the cliffhanger all the more offensive to literally everybody watching. It didn’t weaken Negan’s representation as a character, but it also didn’t illustrate just how sociopathic and dangerous his character can be.

#the walking dead #rick grimes #negan #april2016 #last day on earth

Arrow: Where Did It All Go Wrong?

Two seasons ago, I would tell people that Arrow was my favourite show on TV, not the best show by any means, but my favourite nonetheless. When the first season aired, Arrow forced people to consider the CW as a network that wasn’t so much an angsty, teenagers wet dream, but a respectable network telling a respectable story. The past two seasons have since seen the quality of storytelling drop to an all time low.

Showrunners - I need you to think of Arrow like a mountain. We start at the bottom with the Pilot episode and spend two years ascending to the summit, aka the season two finale, ‘Unthinkable’. After that, there’s nothing left but the descent i.e. seasons three and four. Unfortunately, at the summit we had to say goodbye to showrunners, Andrew Kreisberg and Greg Berlanti. These guys wrote us two very good seasons where continuity was relatively intact and more importantly, the show was neither repetitive nor uncreative. It always surprised and entertained. Once the second season had finished, Kreisberg and Berlanti moved on to The Flash and crafted a wonderful first season. After their departure from the show, Marc Guggenheim stepped up and took the helm as showrunner. Unfortunately, Uncle Guggie (as he is affectionately and somewhat worryingly know as to a certain set of fans) has an affinity for interacting with fans of the show by social media, specifically through Tumblr and Twitter. This is where the descent becomes rocky. Social media is a two-way street. When used for marketing a TV show, it offers fans the chance to see more of what they love and it sets up the potential for showrunners/writers to gauge what fans respond to. The most vocal collective of any fandom, and often the most volatile, are the ‘shippers’. When you pander to them and have your ego stroked in return, what’s not to like? Scroll through Guggenheim’s Twitter mentions, or his Tumblr asks, and you’ll see no end of interactions with Olicity ‘shippers’. Unfortunately over the last two seasons, we’ve seen these interactions become somewhat blatantly ingrained within the show itself. I believe this is what they call “fanservice”. Marc Guggenheim calls what he does “organic” storytelling, but there’s nothing organic about fans asking for more of a certain character or relationship, and suddenly getting it when there’s a change in showrunner, especially when it’s Uncle Guggie who’s installed in that position. What I’m essentially saying, through all the bitterness, is that the creative integrity of the show disappeared with Kreisberg and Berlanti, and we’ve now been left with no integrity and with fanservice in abundance.

Olicity - Since the majority of my issues with the showrunners sit with the Olicity story, I’ll air my grievances with that first. Diggle and Thea described it as the elephant in the room for a reason. So, Oliver and Felicity. The stem of so many problems, and bearers of some of the worst writing I’ve been unlucky enough to witness. They break up and get back together. Every episode. Well, almost. I’m not familiar with the ins and outs of writing relationships. I’m not familiar with the ins and outs of writing in general. Anyway, one break up and reconciliation is acceptable, it’s a realistic thing. It happens. The problem is we’ve seen this charade possibly four or five times since the start of season three. I can’t figure out whether the writers genuinely consider it to be captivating storytelling, whether it’s just a measure to keep that certain set of fans engaged, or whether they really are just lost for ideas. The Felicity we saw in seasons one and two was fun, she was independent. She was no doubt liked by nearly everyone. I don’t know how Emily Bett Rickards feels about having to go from playing that character to one whose ability to be happy, or to simply function, depends on what ‘lies’ Oliver is keeping from her this week. It’s almost offensive how everything good about her character has been replaced by whining and dependency. Look, I don’t hate the relationship. I liked it at first. The slow burn relationship developing between them in season two was perfectly delivered. Felicity was the light that took Oliver out of the darkness. Amazing. It was damn near poetic. Now it’s just pathetic. They’re in love? Cool, let’s roll with that. Let’s tell that story. Genuinely, when the two of them returned to Star City at the start of season four, why could that relationship not just hold? Oliver now spends 50% of every episode mulling over his emotions, constantly feeling sorry for himself, and in the same vein, Felicity spends the majority of her time moaning about it. Hell, even Diggle and Thea must be getting bored to death of the episodic, lovey-dovey pep talks they seem to spew. The constant will-they/won’t-they scenarios are dragging the show down to a pitiful level. Let’s pick a path for this relationship and just stick with it.

#arrow #oliver queen #felicity smoak #march2016

The 100: ‘Terms and Conditions’ - Review

This week’s episode of took us away from Polis and gave us an in-depth look at the civil war brewing inside Arkadia. Kane earned himself a death sentence, Pike’s still a dick, Bellamy is still being Bellamy, and Raven is losing her damn mind, literally.

We established early on this season that ALIE’s core command is to “make life better”. Her method of achieving that was by reducing the human population. She did a pretty good job the first time around by nuking the world, so why continue when the problem's fixed? Where does the removal of pain and the City of Light fit into her grand plan? Without painful memories and emotions, we lose ourselves. We lose the moments and feelings that have shaped us throughout our lives. Raven has been through so much already, even before she landed on Earth. Her life has been hard. Her parents were non-existent, the boy she loved was killed, her leg and spine are in pieces, and to top it off, Wick literally vanished. Yet she still gets on with her life because she has a resolve that cannot be broken. ALIE has recruited many people to the City of Light but none of them have had the strength of character that Raven has, and this is where ALIE’s plan will start to crumble. Removing the pain of Finn’s death would be removing Finn's from memory completely, and all the good memories associated with him would go too. That doesn’t sound like a solution to giving humanity a better life. Jasper’s desperation to not feel pain and his subsequent interrogation of Raven sent her into a spiral of confusion and horror as it dawned on her that her memory of Finn was deteriorating repidly. Watching her face as she struggled to remember anything about him, happy or sad, was heartbreaking. She clutches her necklace and barely recognises the sentimental value it should hold within her. Sure, the pain disappeared but so did everything else with it. Thankfully, the scene allowed Raven to question ALIE’s motives and we’ll hopefully see her pulling the City of Light apart before she becomes as mindless as Jaha. Raven is the smartest and most headstrong character on the show. If something is broke, she will fix it. I think we can deduce that the pain-free promise of the City of Light is all just a charade, a recruitment tactic. ALIE has bigger goals than just making life “better”. If anyone could take down the ALIE and her City of Light, it would no doubt be Raven.

I guess we’d better talk about Pike. It’s understandable why he’s seeing everything through shit-tinted glasses. A lot of people forget what he’s been through, or at least what he says he’s been through. His sense of survival is, however, becoming more warped with every passing episode. He made a snide and unappreciated remark to Kane about the time they gave Finn up to the Grounders. We obviously know the what really happened, but when you’re trying to force your agenda on a society, you have to twist and stretch the truth until it resembles some form of useable propaganda. Pike, though, believes a lot of the bullshit he spews and it’s disconcerting. He doesn’t care about who Finn was or what he stood for. To him, Finn is an example, or mental warfare even, that he can use to strengthen his anti-Grounder regime. Despite his faults, Finn campaigned hard for peace. Yeah, sure, he committed a massacre but it didn’t change the fact that he ultimately gave his life to achieve that peace. Pike was presented with this opportunity at the beginning of the episode but the cowardice is strong in this one and he retreated back within his walls. Much of what I liked about Kane’s plan in this episode is how he would plot in the shadows and then practically rub it in the face of Pike and Bellamy at every chance he had. After overhearing Pike’s plan to attack the Grounder blockade, Kane sends Sinclair to tamper with their vehicle, knowing that somebody would be there ready to arrest him for being a traitor. So, as Kane sat pretending to read what I like to imagine was Catch-22 or Our Mutual Friend, he was actually luring Bellamy into a false sense of victory with the arrest on Sinclair. It was at this point that Pike and Bellamy believed they were making headway in their attempts to enforce a full-blown dictatorship, but really they were falling blindly into Kane’s trap. Sinclair was taken to lock up where, together with Lincoln, they delivered a long overdue beatdown on the guards as a way of causing distraction. With the final pieces in place, and in a blaze of furry glory, Kane took Harper’s advice and shock lashed Pike’s fascist ass. He had carried out an impressive ruse, and he would have gotten away with it too, if it weren’t for those meddling kids! Incredibly, merely seconds after finding out about Kane’s plan, Bellamy had raced to the gates in time to stop Kane from delivering Pike to the Grounders. Thanks, Bellamy!

#the 100 #bellamy blake #raven reyes #charles pike #marcus kane #march2016

The 100: Why Lexa and the Fans Deserve More

Jason Rothenberg branded last night's episode as one you “don’t want to miss”. The problem is that I wish I did miss it, or at least the last 10 minutes. There are so many things wrong with how it all went down that I can barely put all my thoughts into a coherent post, but I will try my best…

#the 100 #lexa #commander lexa #clarke griffin #alycia debnam carey #march2016

The 100: The Exploration of Human Fragility

The 100 has never been a show to shy away from outlandish science and wildly imaginative plot points. It’s one of the many reasons it’s so absorbing. The show revels in its ability to tell bigger and better stories with every episode that passes. Season 3 has witnessed the shows biggest jump into science fiction yet, however it has been somewhat overshadowed by something the show does better than anything else: Character development and the depiction of emotional trauma.

We’ll start with Bellamy as he’s been the main point of the post thus far. Our earliest look at Bellamy, chronologically speaking, was when he was a young child accompanying his mother whilst she birthed his baby sister. The awfully shit thing about being born on the Ark is that you don’t get to have the gift of siblings. Bellamy was lucky though, despite the fact he could only ever interact with Octavia when she wasn’t hidden under floorboards. Anyway, eventually she is taken away by the over-zealous Ark guards and is tossed in prison. His mother, well she’s floated. And suddenly Bellamy has no one. I promise I’m not recounting his whole story here and there is a point to what I’m saying. Everyone in his life is taken away from him in one way or another. Flashforward to Season 3. Life is seemingly good. He has his sister, and his girlfriend, Gina. The faux-happiness doesn’t last long though because this is The 100 and we can’t have nice things. Octavia tells Bellamy she can’t stay, Gina gets Azgeda’d, and a whole bunch of his people get blown to pieces, in the same place where he saved his people just months before. The place where he assisted Clarke in taking the lives of over 300 people, including children. You have to say, this sort of thing could turn even the Dalai Lama into a rampaging sociopath. We haven’t even touched on that fact that he blames himself for the Ice Nations attack. Having mentioned Clarke, where is she in all of this? She entered Bellamy’s life, became a big part of it, and then she disappears. Bellamy is no way her problem, I’m just stating how she was a big key to Bellamy’s recovery and an even bigger part of what keeps him grounded. She dealt with her demons in her own way, yet he couldn’t face his without her because she’s the only person who was in the same position as him, emotionally at least. Their relationship has always been complex, but Clarke’s always been there to offer rationale when he’s lacked it most.

#the 100 #bellamy blake #jasper jordan #the100 #march2016

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