Weeks ago, the last new Flash episode to air ended with Barry locking his future daughter Nora in the STAR Labs pipeline. It was a unilateral decision on Barry’s part, and “Godspeed” ends on the same note. Barry delivers Nora back to the future because he can’t trust her, but he’s really demonstrating that he hasn’t…

If you’re a Billions fan (and if you’re reading this, I assume you are), it’s probably safe to say that likable characters aren’t high on your list of necessities for quality entertainment. What makes the show fun is inextricably bound with the bad behavior of Chuck, Axe, and most of the rest. It’s a fine line between …

Billions has never been afraid to burn through plot at a faster than expected pace, but “Overton Window” takes that strategy to the limit. Up until now, Chuck’s quest to become the next Attorney General for the state of New York has been in the early, gearing-up stage. With his enlistment of Axe to his cause at the…

Sometimes the episode title is a tip-off that we’re not in for the weightiest hour of the season, and “Chickentown” definitely fits the bill. So to speak. I’m not saying that’s a problem—the perfect time to spring an episode that leans into laughs and a touch of self-parody is early in the season, when we’re still…

New characters are the lifeblood of a veteran series, so it’s no surprise that even with last year’s new adversaries Jock Jeffcoat and Grigor Andolov still in play, Billions has added another player as season four kicks into gear. And with Malin Akerman’s greatly reduced screen time (she has yet to appear, but will…

It’s the fastest sequel alive! Cicada II arrives even before the first Cicada has finished his run. I’d like to give The Flash credit for defying the formula and finally killing off the Big Bad before the end of the season, but I can’t really do that. Yes, by the end of “Time Bomb,” Orlin Dwyer is dead, but not before…

When last we saw Chuck Rhoades and Bobby Axelrod, both were licking their wounds and plotting vengeance—but not against each other. After teaming up at the midway point, Chuck and Axe spent the rest of the third season in separate storylines, each pitted against a new threat paired with an old ally. In Chuck’s case,…

Just when it appears the Cicada saga might finally be at an end, The Flash pulls the rug out from under us again. It’s not that much of a surprise, given that we got a glimpse of a potential future version of Grace-as-Cicada a few weeks ago, but the story isn’t over quite yet. If nothing else, however, we can hope the…

The title doesn’t lie. This episode does eventually get around to giving us the promised bout we’ve been waiting for: King Shark vs. Gorilla Grodd. But for its first half, at least, what should be a respite from all things Cicada and a throwback to the Silver Age shenanigans that made us fall for The Flash in the…

“Could we just have a do-over, please?”

There’s been a noticeable absence of the Flash in recent episodes of The Flash, but “Goldfaced” takes that to a whole new level. Barry doesn’t make an appearance in costume until the last minute of the episode, and for most of the hour he doesn’t have his powers at all. That goes for Ralph as well, and the other meta-…

“Memorabilia” is a relatively successful attempt at marrying convoluted comic-book physics with emotionally resonant storytelling. The workings of Sherloque’s Memory Machine may not be quite as sophisticated as those in Inception, but it’s still the sort of thing that the show wouldn’t have been able to pull of early…

After a break dating back to before the “Elseworlds” crossover, Cicada is back at the center of the action this week. He remains a weak link, with a simplistic motivation and an even sketchier plan (basically just...kill all the metahumans, right?), but despite that, “Seeing Red” is a solid hour of The Flash. It’s got…

The Flash returns from its winter hiatus with a rather subdued episode that at times plays more like a presentation on the topic of superhero ethics than a fully-realized hour of the show. One reason it feels a little off is that it’s strangely underpopulated; we know Joe is out of the picture because Jesse L. Martin…

The annual crossover event is fun for what it is and also for what it isn’t—namely another chapter in the overlong arc of the season. Aside from a brief mention of Cicada, we get a respite from the ongoing storyline in favor of an enjoyable brand of comic-book gimmickry that can only be sustained for a brief burst of…

The clip show is something of a lost art, although calling it an art is giving it way too much credit. Really it was a money-saving device through which TV producers squeezed out an extra episode by having the cast of a show accidentally lock themselves in the basement and kill time reminiscing about past exploits,…

After last week’s episode devoted to Caitlin’s father issues, The Flash returns with an episode devoted to...everyone else’s father issues. Okay, so that’s an exaggeration, but dads who disappoint their daughters are all over this very special Thanksgiving episode. (Tangent: Something is wonky with the show’s…

The disappearance of Killer Frost has been one of the less compelling running storylines this season, so it stands to reason that an episode focused on that plot strand would end up being a lethargic lull. It’s not that I don’t enjoy Danielle Panabaker’s work as Caitlin Snow’s alter ego; Killer Frost usually provides…