Tuesday TV Touchbase (12/17/2019)

It's the Tuesday TV Touchbase wherein I post about what we're watching here in the ol' Fortress of Ineptitude. 

This week, let's start at the end.

The end of the universe, I mean.

The Flash - Crisis On Infinite Earths - Episode Three
Along with the first 4 of the 7 Paragons (White Canary, Batwoman, Supergirl and the Superman of the Kingdom Come Earth 96), Ray Palmer's "Paragon detector" identifies Barry Allen (The Flash), J'onn J'onzz, and Ivy Town scientist Ryan Choi as the remaining three. 

Seperate Missions Time!

Ray Palmer (The Atom), Iris Allen, and Ralph Dibny (Elongated Man) go to recruit Ryan Choi. Ryan ain't nobody's hero. If the world is coming to an end, Ryan just wants to be with his wife and his new born daughter, Simone. 

The name of his daughter is a nice shout out to Ryan Choi's creator in the comics, writer Gail Simone. I hope Gail was happy with the tribute or she may be grousing that the Arrowverse is using Ryan Choi and Gail isn't seeing a nickel for it. I really hope Gail gets her "nickel".  

Meanwhile, the Monitor restores Cisco Ramon's powers as Vibe who joins the Flash and Pariah who gain access to the  chamber Pariah found.

By the way, I love Cisco's reaction to the name of the big bad as "Anti-Monitor".  He wonders if they can workshop a better name. 

Inside the chamber is an anti-matter cannon. Pariah brings in Black Lightning from another doomed Earth whose power is sufficient to only buy time before the anti-matter cannon destroys everything. 



Only one hero has the power to stop this scourge.  

Way back in the original Crisis on Infinite Earths#8 is where the Flash has to use his super speed to defeat the anti-matter cannon, an act that ultimately cost him his life.

For 20 years. Then he got better because comics, man.

Since the premier of the CW's Flash TV series, it has been the accepted destiny that Barry Allen, the Flash, would die in the Crisis.

And he does. But it's not exactly who you think. 
  

Meanwhile and elsewhere, Constantine, Mia, and Diggle arrive on Earth-666. To get Oliver Queen's soul back from Purgatory, Constantine needs help from Lucifer. 

Yes, it's that Lucifer, the one from the Fox TV series and now streaming on Netflix.  

Yes, it's the Devil and yes, the Devil is a DC Comics character.  

I haven't followed the series but I have seen some episodes of Lucifer. What I've seen, I have very much enjoyed. 

Constantine, Mia, and Diggle find Oliver Queen's soul in purgatory but after a sudden appearance by Jim Corrigan (aka the Spectre), Ollie makes other plans and does not return with our gang.  

Everyone gathers on the Waverider. The tide has been turned but only just barely. The anti-matter wave has been stopped but now, only 1 Earth remains. 

And then after a betrayal that anyone who has read the comic sees coming, not even that remains. 

Our 7 Paragons manage to survive the end of everything after Pariah zaps them to Vanishing Point which is outside of time and space.  Whatever the Monitor had planned for them, the 7 Paragons still exist and with them, the hope that somehow, the death of everything might be countered. 

Except Lex Luthor has other plans.  

And now we only have to wait until January 14th to see how this turns out. 

ARRRRRRRGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!

God, I HATE this show! 

And I can't barely stand the wait to see what happens next.

The Crown
Andrea and I have fallen a bit behind in our viewing of Season 3 of The Crown, having only made it up to episode 4.

Episodes 3 and 4 are radically different in tone from each other. Episode 3 is titled "Aberfan".  In October 1966, Aberfan was a Welsh mining town that was buried in a horrific avanlanche from a coal mine, resulting in the deaths of many people including school children who were buried alive under tons of mud and coal sludge.  

The community is overwhelmed with grief at the loss of life and overwhelmed with rage at the lack of safety oversight by those in authority. 

Meanwhile, despite various entreaties to do so, Queen Elizabeth declines to visit the village before finally relenting to do so,  laying flowers on graves and visiting grieving family members.  

Elizabeth struggles with her inability to express emotion at a time when the people, her subjects, need to know she actually cares about them.  

"Aberfan" is a hard and wrenching episode to get through.  

Which makes the next episode a bit of a relief. 

"Bubbikins" is the title of episode 4 and centers around Prince Phillip. 

Phillip has made a mess of things. While appearing in a TV interview in the United States in 1967, Phillip complains the Queen has not received a raise in pay in 15 years. John Armstrong, an English reporter who is already a bit of an anti-monarchist dashes of a news paper article on the Prince's pleas of poverty. 

Yeah, that doesn't go over well.  

So Phillip decides the best way to fix this mess is to show the nation how hard the royal family actually works. So a BBC documentary crew follows the royal family around. 

The thing is the hardest day for any royal is still a damn sight easier than it is for any working stiff in the United Kingdom. 

So yeah, that doesn't go over well either. 

Meanwhile, Princess Alice, Phillip's mother, has been been living in Athens, Greece, running an orphanage. A military coup has put her in danger.  

Queen Elizabeth ask her husband if they should invite Alice to stay with them. Phillip is indignant at the proposal, believing she will prove to be an embarrassment to the family while the documentary crew is there. Absolutely not, says Phillip. His mother shall not come to stay with them at the palace.

Elizabeth is the friggin' Queen so she sends for her anyway. 

Princess Alice is a quiet woman but when given the opportunity to talk, she has a lot to say. And she has a propensity for not necessarily deferring to royal protocol when saying what she has to say.

Like telling anyone who will listen that she calls Prince Phillip "Bubbikins". 


She also has a bad smoking habit.

It's stuff like that makes Prince Phillip go nuts in trying to keep his mother away from reporters and cameras. He has also gone through considerable effort to keep himself away from his mother.

Thankfully, Elizabeth and Phillip's daughter Anne is keeping an eye on her grandmother. 

Princess Anne was recently in the news for her refusal to shake Donald Trump's hand at a recent visit to Buckingham Palace.

Anne's independent streak is explored in episode 4. 

After the debacle with the documentary, Phillip thinks the best face the royal family can put to the public is Princess Anne.  So it is arranged for John Armstrong to come to Buckingham Palace for an interview with Anne.

At the appointed hour of the interview, Anne avoids the interview and arranges for John to meet Princess Alice instead.  When Alice begins to tell her story, John realizes there's something special here, something unique. 

Armstrong's interview with Alice is published in The Guardian and is a very positive and glowing portrait of a royal who has endured much, sacrificed much. 

Reading about this own mother in the newspaper causes Phillip to re-think his feelings about her. The episode ends with Phillip and Alice walking across the grounds of the palace, talking, getting to know each other again, a mother and her "Bubbikins".

Stumptown
Well, the mid-season finale did NOT go the way I thought.

Dex and Liz don't remember having sex. I've seen this trope played out lots of times in TV shows and movies and I'm not saying that in real life being so blinding drunk might make people not remember they had sex. But it's never happened to me. I have forgotten to have sex ("Yeah, baby! I'm going to rock... your..." then passes out) but I've never forgotten that I had sex.  

The case of the episode involves Dex taking a case from an old high school nemesis whose daughter has been pinned for drug possession charges which the girl denies are her drugs. Dex exposes the scam, the girl is vindicated and what about Dex and Liz? 

Grey gets mad at Dex when Dex cannot account for happened between her and Liz. 

But the wheel turns and it turns out Liz was up to no good and Grey turns against Liz. 

Oh, man! I really liked Liz. And then she done both Dex and Grey wrong.  

As the episode ends, every one is at a crossroads and life is a mess. 

We've got a month to wait for this to get sorted out.  

That's that for this week's Tuesday TV Touchbase.

Tuesday TV Touchbase will return on January 7th.  
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Tomorrow on the blog begins a Countdown to Christmas with posts about Christmas movies I've seen, my favorite Christmas songs and even some holiday themed comic book stories.

There may be other posts on other topics. But for the most part, I'm So Glad My Suffering Amuses You will focus on holiday programming.  

It'll be like the Hallmark Channel but lesbians are always welcome.   

Until next time, remember to be good to one another.