Welcome to Last Night on TV, our new daily column that looks back at what happened on television the night before. If we’re going to stay up all night and watch TV, we might as well talk about it the next morning.
Last night on TV, The Flash twisted the dagger into the backs of everyone who is Team Patty; Christopher Campbell checks in on Agent Carter; Brooklyn Nine-Nine goes on a cruise with Craig Robinson; and New Girl survives just fine without Zooey Deschanel.
The Flash is Always In a Hurry
This week The Flash writers room continued to twist the knife on Team Patty. It wasn’t enough to have last week end with a big teary goodbye between Barry and Patty, this episode had several more. Though at least it seems like this will be the final blow in the Barry/Patty relationship. Let’s pour one out for Barry’s best chance at happiness.
The rest of the episode really played with two major threads: Cisco’s powers as Vibe and the return of Reverse-Flash. We learned a few interesting things about Cisco’s powers, including the fact that his vibing can see cross-dimensionally and forward in time. That may come in handy later, assuming he doesn’t get vaporized by the time-space continuum. With the return of Reverse-Flash (this time as actual Eobard Thawne, played by Matt Letscher), we see one of the most glaring cracks in The Flash‘s normally sturdy narrative armor. Like its main character, the show is always in a hurry. Think about the arcs that exist in this single episode. We get all the way from Reverse-Flash returning to Barry throwing Reverse-Flash through a wormhole back to his time in 43 minutes of storytelling. We also get Cisco realizing new depths of his powers, only to nearly die, then come all the way back and be completely fine by the end of the episode. It’s a silly question for a show powered by Speed Force, but what’s the rush? The fact that Reverse-Flash was ultimately left alive (and back on his path of evil) is the redeeming element here, as he could come back yet again if the show needs him.
Understandably, next week appears to be a return of focus to Zoom. Remember Zoom? We’ve officially reached the halfway point of the season, so it’s time to refocus the show’s bigger narrative on Zoom and his reign of terror against Team Flash. With next week’s “Fast Lane” and the following week’s “Welcome to Earth-2,” things should get knocked into 12th gear.
Agent Carter Makes Jabs at Comic Book Movies
Christopher Campbell: Unlike Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., the period-set Agent Carter can’t make a lot of fan-service references to the Marvel Cinematic Universe events and characters, which come later in time, but that isn’t going to stop it from winking at the audience. Two jokes on last night’s episode, “Better Angels,” were superficially groan-worthy, but only the one where Jarvis mentioned that he’d rather not spend the rest of time as a disembodied voice was a cheap nod to what he indeed becomes in the Iron Man and Avengers movies — well, until he regains a body as Vision in Avengers: Age of Ultron.
The other seemed like a throwaway jab at comic book movies, but underneath the meta swipe is an interesting Easter egg for Marvel fans. Howard Stark was directing an adaptation of “Kid Colt Outlaw,” an actual title for the publisher during the post-war rise of Western comics. Never mind that the first issue didn’t arrive until a year after the episode is set. The interesting part is that Stark refers to the character as having been a real person in history. In our world, he’s as fictional as the Hulk. But in the MCU universe, he’s now canon.
We also know that regular screen pair Cary Grant and Irene Dunne existed in that universe thanks to a mention of the former by actress-turned-supervillain Whitney Frost and a claim of conquest of the latter by Stark, which if it’s to be believed shows he wasn’t above sleeping with someone nearly 20 years his senior, and famously happily married. Wouldn’t it be great if Agent Carter didn’t waste its new West Coast location, though, and had actual portrayals of old Hollywood stars? Even if they were just on screen and recognizable but not acknowledged.
Anyway, as for the main material of the episode, we’ve now got an invisible man (and he’s black so he’s like the Wells and the Ellison!), Frost being all Lady Macbeth with her zero matter boo boo and too much Chad Michael Murray being too dismissive of Carter in spite of all she’s done so far. There was also enough of Carter sleuthing, punching and appearing far more glamorous than the Heather Chandler-looking actress intended to be a ’40s Hollywood star to keep fans happy. Lastly, to return to the topic of allusions, there’s a non-famous, non-Marvel name dropped — Abner Brody — and that’s totally in tribute to Indiana Jones characters, right?
Brooklyn Nine-Nine Goes Cruisin’
This has to be one of my new favorite episodes of Brooklyn Nine-Nine. I’m not ready to put it on the Mount Rushmore of Nine-Nine yet, but it was great. Just as I was praising the show last week for resisting the urge to make everything about Jake and Amy, I’m equally impressed with their ability to pull off a Jake and Amy-centric episode. Mostly because it involves the return of the Pontiac Bandit Doug Judy, played and sung by the wonderful Craig Robinson. As is usually the case when Doug Judy shows up, it brings out the best in Peralta.
In the B-story back at the station, Niecy Nash shows up as Capt. Holt’s more outgoing sister and we get a single episode arc for Holt that brings out the best in Andre Braugher. Once again it’s a testament to Dan Goor and Michael Schur’s ability as showrunners to juggle numerous story threads at once and have them all work out with a splendid mix of humor and heart. We can be simultaneously charmed with Capt. Holt opening up to his sister and Jake and Amy having a long-awaited “I Love You” moment.
The Jake and Amy party appears to continue, as next week’s episode is about Amy meeting Jake’s mom, who will be played by the inimitable Katey Sagal. It also promises the return of Bradley Whitford as Jake’s dad Roger. And any time we get bonus Bradley Whitford, it’s all good.
New Girl Survives in The Post-Jess Wasteland
Season 5’s post-Jess, pre-Megan Fox era has begun. This is the first of two episode in this weird holding period between the departure of Jess and the introduction of Reagan (Fox). The big question was how the show would handle a lack of Zooey Deschanel quirk. The answer was made clear this week: more Winston being Winston.
The addition of Cece to the house full-time was a nice move by the show, providing plenty of opportunities to put a little bit of tension between Nick and Schmidt. This is a strategy the show has been employing all season, knowing full well that such tension allows for Jake Johnson and Max Greenfield to do some of their most vibrant comedic work. So when Nick decides to turn the loft into a hostel, it’s Schmidt who ends up getting the worst of it. And thanks to a fantastic guest appearance from Fred Armisen (and Jess’ wardrobe) and The League‘s Stephen Rannazzisi, we get plenty of humor from an otherwise simple formula. Loft chaos is the best kind of chaos on New Girl.
The real winner in this episode is Lamorne Morris. Any time the show takes its focus away from Jess and Nick or Schmidt and Cece and focuses on Winston, the audience wins. This time we get the added benefit of Cece’s less than optimistic advice to lead Winston down a very dark and funny path. These two together could work well, for a time. It all proves that the show can survive just fine — at least for now — without Zooey Deschanel. It’s true that she’s the beating heart of this show from week-to-week, but we’re five seasons in with these other characters and they all have plenty to offer on their own. I’m fascinated to see how things work out when they add Megan Fox to the mix, but I’m feeling better about it after this week.
Schmidt-ism of the Week: “Do you only do Pacino?”
What did you watch last night?
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