KILLING EVE – SEASON 3

REVIEWED: SEASON 3 (ALL EPISODES) |WHERE TO WATCH: BBC iPLAYER

Villanelle, the stylish killing machine, is back, but this time she is a more world-weary and introspective character who decides to look up her family. Not surprisingly, we discover she was dumped in an orphanage by her parents and she duly burned it down and disappeared, with everyone concerned happy to believe she is dead. Her return to the run-down family farm in Russia comes as a bit of a shock and, of course, she slips into the family situation like a lion in a donkey sanctuary.

We are getting ahead of ourselves, that’s all in episode 5. The first episode shows Sandra Oh’s Eve has survived being shot by Villanelle at the end of Season 2. Her body might be recovered but her life has taken a downhill turn – her husband, Niko Polastri (Owen McDonnell), is in an asylum and she has left the pressures of MI6 to work in a kitchen surrounded by idle chatter.

New to this series is Dasha (Harriet Walter), an older female assassin who teams up with Villanelle to take their orders from The Twelve. The bad news is that Kenny (Sean Delaney), who has also left MI6 and is now working as an investigative journalist, is unceremoniously chucked off the top of the office building. As the head of MI6’s Russian Department and also Kenny’s mother, Carolyn Martens (played imperiously by Fiona Shaw) does not show any emotion for his death, which shocks her daughter Geraldine (Gemma Whelan). Kenny’s death unites Carolyn and Eve to discover who killed Kenny and why.

Meanwhile, Villanelle is tasked with training a stupid young man how to be an assassin. Dressed as clowns, they gatecrash the target’s party, but the trainee makes such a botch-up of the murder that she disdainfully dispatches him too. There is no clowning around with our Villanelle.

Eve’s husband cheerfully returns to his home in Poland but he is theatrically pitchforked by Dasha, and it is only in episode 6 we find he is recovering from the attack in a London hospital. Unable to speak, he uses a computer to tell her to “piss off, forever.” That should make Villanelle happy.

Villanelle, however, is pissed off with the Twelve – promoted to being a Keeper still means she has to take orders. Konstantin Vasilliev is still on the scene, and Carolyn suspects he has something to do with Kenny’s demise.

Suzanne Heathcote, as head writer of this series, puts an emphasis on family dynamics and where everyone fits in the scheme of things. For example, when Konstantin’s daughter Irina tells Villanelle she hates her mother’s new boyfriend, her advice is “If it’s that bad, kill him.” We know she used the same reasoning with her own family, and Irina gleefully puts her advice into action.

Jodie Comer’s Villanelle continues to have a love / hate, cat and mouse “relationship” with Eve, but this series exposes a vulnerable side to her that shows she is not at the top of her game. The same can be said of this series itself, as it meanders down (literally) dead ends and lacks the focus and aplomb of its former glory.

BIOSHOCK: THE COLLECTION

BIOSHOCK: THE COLLECTION / DEVELOPER: VARIOUS / PUBLISHER: 2K / PLATFORM: PC, PS4, SWITCH, XBOX ONE / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

2K Games are really spoiling us this week, with the simultaneous release of the Borderlands Legendary Collection and BioShock: The Collection on the Nintendo Switch, which sees multiple games in each franchise being released on a portable console for the very first time. We checked out Borderlands the other day (right here!), so it would be rude not to have a look at BioShock as well!

This collection includes all three BioShock games, originally released between 2007 – 2013, and all of its single-player DLC (BioShock 2‘s multiplayer mode is no more). The first BioShock game, set in the underwater art-deco city of Rapture whose inhabitants have been driven insane by genetic mutations, is considered by many to be one of the all-time greats, and its sequel, which revisits Rapture eight years later, reaches many of the first game’s highest points. BioShock Infinite is a different beast, with a much heavier story that takes protagonist Booker DeWitt to the floating city of Columbia where he finds a society ravaged by warring factions, racism and power-hungry leaders.

All three games hold up tremendously well today, to the point where you wouldn’t be surprised if someone told you they’d only been released a couple of years ago. Infinite has aged very gracefully indeed, especially its “sky hook” which allows Booker to travel between the airborne islands on a network of rails while picking off enemies below with a variety of weapons. It was a bone of contention for many players back in the day, but in 2020 it seems to feel more natural than it ever did before. On top of this, and as much of a cliché as it might be to say it, Infinite‘s story is more powerful and relevant today than it’s ever been.

Switch owners will be pleased to hear that the games all run beautifully well, with no stuttering or long loading times in sight, although Infinite seems to suffer slightly with some blurry visuals here and there (especially noticeable in areas with detailed backgrounds while in handheld mode). If you’re already a fan of the series and have been wondering whether this portable version lives up to its higher powered console cousins, there’s nothing at all for you to worry about. For newcomers, the fact that BioShock: The Collection contains three of the finest and most influential games of the last generation should make this an essential purchase.

BORDERLANDS: LEGENDARY COLLECTION

BORDERLANDS: LEGENDARY COLLECTION / DEVELOPER: GEARBOX / PUBLISHER: 2K / PLATFORM: SWITCH / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

Borderlands has been a near-constant presence since its first Xbox 360 / PS3 release back in 2009. Now encompassing four main standalone games, an enhanced virtual reality edition of BL2, a spin-off graphic adventure and a bunch of mobile spin-offs, the series has appeared on almost every imaginable platform with great success. One minor stumbling block has been the transition to portable devices, with the only attempt so far – the Vita version of BL2 – not quite managing to achieve its potential. Seeking to rectify this, the first three Borderlands games are now available on the Switch – the first time any of these titles has been released on a Nintendo console.

The new Legendary Collection bundles the 2019 remastered version of the original Borderlands with 2015’s Handsome Collection which includes Borderlands 2 and its follow up, The Pre-Sequel. All three games are complete with every piece of previously-released DLC (apart from BL2’s 2019 Commander Lilith and the Fight for Sanctuary add-on, which was never included in the Handsome Collection anyway), so you’re really getting a vast amount of shooting and looting for your money. A quick note for anyone planning to purchase the physical edition – only BL1 is included on the cartridge. You’ll find a Handsome Collection download code inside the box, which you’ll need to redeem on the eShop and download onto your console, so make sure you’ve got a hefty chunk of space on your SD card.

By now, most of us are familiar enough with the series that we probably don’t need to go into the ins and out of what the games involve (but, just in case you don’t know, it’s pretty much non-stop shooting and looting on a hostile planet, with tons of potty-mouthed humour thrown in). The big question, given the less-powerful hybrid nature of the Switch, is whether or not the games perform as well as their home console counterparts. The answer, put as simply as possible, is yes, they absolutely do!

In the 30 or so hours we’ve played so far (roughly 10 on each game, mostly handheld), there hasn’t been a single stutter in sight – no noticeable dropped frames, no pop-in, no sound glitches, everything doing exactly what it’s supposed to do. It might feel like there’s a slight lag in turning / aiming, and some unbalanced audio (especially in handheld, where levels are a bit all over the place), but it’s nothing that a quick fiddle around in the menus can’t solve. As a welcome bonus, motion control is available in all three games for those who enjoy that sort of thing. Connecting to other players for some co-op action currently doesn’t seem to be too sturdy though, which is a bit of a shame.

Overall, if you’ve been on the fence about double (or triple, or even potentially quadruple) dipping based on whether this version would be as solid as the others, there’s absolutely nothing at all to worry about. It’s the very same Borderlands we all know and love, and now you can take it on the go. What’s not to enjoy about that?

INMATE #1: THE RISE OF DANNY TREJO

INMATE #1: THE RISE OF DANNY TREJO / CERT: TBC / DIRECTOR: BRETT HARVEY / STARRING: DANNY TREJO, ROBERT RODRIGUEZ, CHEECH MARIN / RELEASE DATE: 7TH JULY

Director Brett Harvey’s portrait of Latino action god Danny Trejo, Inmate #1, leans heavily into its subtitle, “The Rise of Danny Trejo,” and that’s a good thing. While the film does take a look at the now 76 year-old actor’s work with the likes of Robert Rodriguez, Michael Mann and more, the real focus of this documentary is on Trejo’s life as a whole, and there are a lot of things which happened before his first role in Andrei Konchalovsky’s 1985 film, Runaway Train.

And, honestly, the stories of what happened prior to Trejo becoming an actor are far more interesting and pertinent to Danny Trejo the man than Danny Trejo’s acting career. His life growing up Los Angeles’ Echo Park neighborhood saw Trejo bouncing between various members of his family at an early age, eventually idolising his uncle Gilbert who would lead the young Danny into substance abuse and criminal activity.

The way Trejo speaks about his uncle might be one of the few times during Inmate #1 when the actor comes close to tears. While he’s usually jocular and friendly, his trademark laugh frequently ringing out as he tells many stories of his eventful life, there are points – especially when discussing family – where Trejo becomes sombre. When discussing the death of Gilbert, there’s an audible catch in his throat, as when discussing the fact that Michael Mann named his character Gilbert in the 1995 movie Heat, having actually met Trejo’s uncle when shooting The Jericho Mile at Folsom State Penitentiary in the late 70s. It’s a side of the actor not frequently seen, with maybe the exception of Laurie Collyer’s Sherrybaby, where Trejo almost essentially plays himself – a former addict helping people out.

That, right there, is the heart of Inmate #1: the many ways in which Trejo turned from addiction and crime to helping people. Throughout the film, the actor speaks at many, many events in order to bolster peoples’ spirits, and it’s amazing to see how he connects with everyone. Given his vast number of film roles – more than 400, as of this writing – over the last 35 years, he’s been in something that nearly everyone, from kids to great-grandparents, has seen, and everyone loves him.

The folks who love him are the ones with whom director Harvey speaks. While it’s very likely that the director could have assembled a rogue’s gallery and veritable who’s who in Hollywood to talk about Trejo, he instead focuses on the actor’s friends and family, all of whom share deeply considered insights into his life and career. These are folks who know the man, as opposed to those who just have anecdotes. The way in which Craig Balkam, Trejo’s head of security, talks about him, shows more thoughtful consideration than most documentary talking heads.

Throughout the documentary, Trejo is featured in and around where he grew up and where he now lives, and it’s readily apparent that the actor is deeply thoughtful about his life and where he came from, but also willing to live in the moment and accept his current success, and the way in which director Harvey presents everything means Inmate #1: The Rise of Danny Trejo is a remarkably thorough and well-considered film.

HEROIC AGE

HEROIC AGE / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR: TAKASHI NOTO / SCREENPLAY: TOW UBUKATA / STARRING: HIROSHI YAZAKI, YUI ISHIKAWA, J MICHAEL TATUM, CAITLIN GLASS / RELEASE DATE: 15TH JUNE

For fans of classic science fiction and mecha anime, Tow Ubukata’s Heroic Age should tick a few boxes. The story of a golden child, the eponymous Age, of rewards seeded throughout the cosmos by godlike aliens and the battle for those rewards by warring races, it contains much of that particular 1960s and 70s thinking; of ancient astronauts, a future beyond the stars and the coming of a golden age for humankind. Moreover, the animation is exactly what you might expect to see under “classic anime” in an illustrated dictionary, all rangy figures, mop-top hairstyles and giant robots.

The problem is that Heroic Age was made in 2007 rather 1972 and, while the anime of that time – Science Ninja Team Gatchaman, Mazinger Z and Space Battleship Yamato, as classic examples – is still fondly regarded (and in some cases has held up), the leaps and bounds made in both storytelling and animation leave Ubukata’s two-cour series looking flat and dated.

Of course, that may have been a deliberate choice, and that’s not to say the show doesn’t have its charms; alongside the intrigue laid early as to the origins of Age, the psychic princess Dhianeila’s radiating purity and the machinations of the mysterious Silver Tribe, an absorbing, if familiar, narrative is woven.

Aeons ago, the all-powerful Golden Tribe desired to leave our universe and, before they left, they sent a summons to four developing races to find a successor. Three answered, dubbed the Silver Tribe, the Bronze Tribe and the Heroic Tribe, and they vied for power before the Heroic Tribe were punished for being too warlike. The sole survivor of that tribe was raised by the Golden Tribe before their departure, and it is he who the fourth tribe – the Iron Tribe of Earth, who eventually also answered the summons – are seeking to restore balance to the universe.

The animation is functional rather than impressive, and obviously made on television budget, looking for all the world like a show from thirty years before, but the voice cast do a fair job of enlivening a wordy script (which could actually use a little more exposition, rather than using the opening titles to lay out the story, dripping more information with each titles sequence regardless of whether that information has been revealed in previous episodes).

Split across four discs, the Manga Entertainment Blu-ray release has the usual lack of special features, relying on the strength of the series itself to shift the product, although the lack of availability in the UK in recent years may also act as a selling point.

Heroic Age isn’t a bad anime. Across its 26 episodes it tells an expansive story full of peril and hope, and there would be much to recommend it as an example of its type. Unfortunately, that type had its own heroic age almost fifty years ago and, with other / better examples of the genre available to digest, The Heroic Age can only ever be completist’s fare.

Special features: textless songs, trailers

XENOBLADE CHRONICLES: DEFINITIVE EDITION

XENOBLADE CHRONICLES: DEFINITIVE EDITION / DEVELOPER: MONOLITH SOFT / PUBLISHER: NINTENDO / PLATFORM: SWITCH / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

If you’ve played the last two editions of Smash Bros. and wondered to yourself who the heck this Shulk guy is, well, you’re in luck, as one of the best (yet criminally overlooked) open-world JRPG series gets its origin story remastered on the Switch. Originally released in 2010 on the Wii, and then as the first exclusive game to come out on the 3DS XL, it’s had an indirect sequel (Xenoblade Chronicles X on the Wii U) and a direct sequel (the amazing Xenoblade Chronicles 2 on the

Switch). It’s also part of the Xeno meta-series dating back to Xenogears on the original PlayStation in 1998. History lesson over, let’s jump straight into the first Chronicle.

The story is a sci-fi / fantasy with plenty of religious overtones, evidenced by the opening scene as two giant titans, the Bionis and the Mechonis (representing good and evil), battle to the death, their bodies eventually becoming inhabited by various life forms. Biological creatures reside on The Bionis, whereas the Mechonis is home to the mechanical Mechons – nice easy names that everyone can remember. The protagonist, Shulk, is a researcher of a legendary sword called the Monado, which has been vital in the defence against the Mechons. However, few can control or understand its power…

Gameplay is in the style of an MMORPG, in that battles are in real-time, powers have cooldowns, and you just control one character at a time, offering basic real-time instructions to other members of your party. The mechanics of battle, however, are somewhat unique, favouring status conditions and positioning over the elemental combos that the sequel offers. There’ll be attacks that only do damage from the back or side, so you need another member of your team to be used as a distraction. You inflict various status, such as “topple” which leaves opponents more vulnerable, and if you chain the status attacks in the right order, you’ll do some serious damage. Lack of control over the rest of your party can be frustrating at times, when for someone reason they’re just not hitting the attack you require, but battles are so fast-paced with the need to constantly swap between different attacks that there wouldn’t be any way to control your partners. The exception is when your party

hits a chain attack, where time slows down and you briefly control each party member to pull off a devastating combo. Obviously, eventually Shulk becomes the guy who wields the Monado. Once this happens, other than becoming a lot more powerful, the sword’s precognitive powers become vital parts of gameplay, giving you the chance to tell a comrade to move out the way before they’re killed in battle.

Outside of battles, there is a gigantic gorgeous world to explore, broken down into large areas. You’re generally rewarded for exploration by ticking off side quests and finding useful items. Side quests themselves are fairly meaningless in terms of story content and fun – they’re usually just fetch quests that don’t offer any kind of character development or challenge. They are, however, very easy to pick up, and will just auto-complete once you’ve achieved the objective, rather than making you go back to the person who issued the quest.

It would have been so easy for Monolith Soft to do what a lot of remasters have done, and just sharpen the image a bit. However, that’s not generally how Nintendo-published titles work, and they’ve gone above and beyond with this one – character models, voice work, environments and even the soundtrack have all been revisited to make a stunning game. The original XC was one of the most beautiful games on the Wii, but it was unfortunately violated by modern TVs; this edition finally does it justice. On top of all this, they’ve added some quest-related quality of life improvements as well as Xenoblade Chronicles: Future Connected, an extra epilogue story that takes place a year after the main game.

“Definitive Edition” this most certainly is. It’s not the best the Xenoblade game on the Switch, but that’s more of a compliment to its sequel than a criticism of this release. Xenoblade Chronicles is a masterpiece of an RPG in every way. If you haven’t played it yet, or even if you have, you need to play this version.

PIXEL RIPPED 1995

PIXEL RIPPED 1995 / DEVELOPER & PUBLISHER: ARVORE / PLATFORM: OCULUS RIFT, PC, PSVR, VIVE / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

A couple of years ago, Pixel Ripped 1989 saw young Dot take down the evil Cyblin Lord in a retro-themed adventure that took its influences from classic games of the 80s and brought them bang up to date in virtual reality. Brazilian developers Arvore are back with the sequel, Pixel Ripped 1995, which, as you might be able to guess, is set in 1995, a time when the 16-bit era was coming to an end and fancy new 3D games were blowing everyone’s minds.

Playing PR95 is like being part of someone’s fever dream. One minute you’ll be sitting on the living room floor, playing a Link to the Past-style RPG on TV while simultaneously causing havoc with your toy ray gun to keep your mother at bay, then suddenly you’re inside a pixel world that’s under attack from the returning Cyblin Lord. A lot of time is spent playing games on a TV screen, but PR95 constantly flits between real and game worlds, often combining the two in some wonderfully creative environments that need to be seen to be believed.

PR95 is about more than just playing retro-inspired games – it’s also about how you play them. By casting players as a videogame-obsessed child, completely immersed in a super-authentic 90s VR world, there’s every chance anyone over the age of 30ish will be transported back to their youth. Playing spooky platformers in the middle of the night while trying not to wake your parents, feuding with a rival kid at a definitely-not-Blockbuster (almost certainly the closest any of us are going to get to revisiting the glory days of video rental stores), playing beat ’em ups at a ridiculously accurate beachfront arcade (that carpet!)… It’s one thing to use old-school influences to make a regular “flat” game (indeed, many games have accomplished this with great success), but to create such an effective homage in VR is something else entirely.

The game’s five levels pay tribute to an insane amount of games from yesteryear – some that you might expect, some that you might not, and some that you totally knew were coming but turn up in unexpected ways. Not wanting to stray into spoiler territory, it’s enough to say that treats are in store around pretty much every corner.

PR95 is a wonderfully fun and inventive nostalgia trip. It might have been nice to break away from the TV screen and into a full-on VR world a little more often, but still there’s nothing else quite like it and we urge anyone with a fondness for the olden days to give it a try.

BATWOMAN

REVIEWED: SEASON 1 (ALL EPISODES) | WHERE TO WATCH: ALL 4

With the coronavirus halting production on three of the CW’s DC Comics-inspired shows, storylines were curtailed and will have to be picked up at the beginning of the next season, in January 2021. For Batwoman, Ruby Rose’s resignation from the titular role will be another obstacle to overcome, although just how much of a problem will depend entirely on her successor.

Rose never truly felt like Batwoman or Kate Kane – the Bat’s civilian identity – and was hurt badly mid-production by a stunt gone wrong, and so there are understandably mixed feelings about her leaving the show. With Batwoman having done the best job of tying up its season-long storyline, the new actor shouldn’t have too much trouble settling into the role; besides, Batwoman is very much a show that is not about its eponymous hero, anyway…

From the off, Batwoman built an ensemble cast, a lesson learned halfway through the first season of Arrow, but unusually that ensemble included the show’s principle villain, Alice. Rachel Skarsten, who did DC time in the past on the short-lived Birds of Prey show, is the Lewis Carroll-themed bad guy, and quite honestly she’s the best screen version of the Joker since Cesar Romero. Alice isn’t supposed to be the Joker, but you can forgive the showrunners for taking that route, playing up the crazy arch-nemesis in place of the cult-like High Madame of the Religion of Crime from Greg Rucka’s Detective Comics run.

Skarsten is wonderful, and brings a gravitas to a role that could easily, in the hands of a lesser actor, become an exercise in over-acting, and the full season run gives her ample opportunity to show all facets of Alice’s character, with sterling work also done by Ava Sleeth as a young Alice in flashbacks. Skarsten’s performance demands a strong lead to stand opposite, but the heavy lifting on the opposite side of the scales is done by Nicole Kang and Camrus Johnson, as Kate’s sister Mary and this show’s version of Felicity Smoak, Luke Fox, respectively.

Less engaging are Dougray Scott as Kate’s father Jacob (leader of the weird private police force that runs Gotham) and his lieutenant, Sophie Moore, played by Meagan Tandy. The show clearly wants you to care for Moore but they do a terrible job of going about it, and Scott’s wandering accent grates.

Alice is the CW’s customary season-long villain, but there are Arrowverse introductions for Batman villains like Magpie, Nocturna, Duela Dent and Hush, all fitting seamlessly into Batwoman’s rogue’s gallery in the absence of her famous cousin. Oh, yeah, that; Bruce Wayne has been missing from Gotham for years, and Batman with him, and there is a hint given as to why late on in the series, but this is a mystery that dangles throughout, with Kate Kane trying to fill some very big shoes.

None of the CW’s DC shows arrive fully-formed, even one that got a backdoor pilot as part of 2018’s crossover, Elseworlds, but there is a lot to like about the freshman season of Batwoman. With Arrow finishing its eight-year run mid-season, the Arrowverse needed a darker show, and Batwoman steps up to the plate. Like its contemporaries, it could do with a little more cross-pollination with the other CW shows – although the Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover is a satisfying mid-season feast – and it falls into the trap of building a world that you’d think would be very much of interest to the greater powers in that world, but Batwoman is off to a strong start. It needs to hit the ground running with its new star – whoever that may be – but, as long as Rachel Skarsten is there to carry the show, it’s in good hands.

SUPERGIRL – SEASON 5

SUPERGIRL – SEASON 5 / DIRECTOR & SCREENPLAY: VARIOUS / STARRING: MELISSA BENOIST, MEHCAD BROOKS, CHYLER LEIGH, KATIE McGRATH

For the second year running, the fifth season of Supergirl was The Lex Luthor Show. Ordinarily, and especially in a show with such a strong heroic lead, that would be a problem, but Jon Cryer’s turn as the greatest criminal mind of our time has been nothing short of delightful, erasing any lingering doubts about the casting of Ducky from Pretty in Pink as Superman’s big bad. Such is Cryer’s skill in the role that it’s impossible not to revel in his sheer joy, and those moments when the veneer is off and his temper and pettiness shine through are surprising (although equally valued).

With Luthor working on his machinations regardless of, but also taking advantage of, what’s going on around him, the season-long threat to the Maid of Might is Leviathan, a tenebrous organisation pulling the strings behind some sinister threats to National City and the whole world. Leviathan manipulates smaller threats to our heroes – like J’onn J’onzz’s brother Malefic and a shadowy group of assassins – while moving their chess pieces into place for the grand finale, which is mostly wrapped up by the season’s abrupt ending (but with tantalising threads left dangling for season six’s opening arc).

Around Melissa Benoist’s Kara Danvers are the usual cast of heroes, although there is some churn in their number, with heel turns, goodbyes and welcome returns for some of the show’s most notable characters. CatCo undergoes even more corporate upheaval, Lena Luthor is still not sure which side she’s on (except to know that she’s right, all the time) and there’s still time for Alex, Nia, and Kelly to undergo some soul-searching growth as the season rolls on.

With a whole host of new threats thrown at our heroes by Leviathan and trying to thwart a hiding-in-plain-sight Lex Luthor, there’s little time for the soap opera dramatics that have become an overused hallmark of the show’s previous seasons, and the action moves faster for that. Don’t worry, though, there’s still room to inject yet another love interest for Kara, because what would be the point of the show otherwise?

The happy news that Melissa Benoist is pregnant, coupled with the delays caused by the coronavirus, means it will be almost a year before Supergirl returns for season six, having been scheduled for mid-season 2021, whenever that may be. That year-long break to wrap up the current storyline will test the audience but it will also give the showrunners an opportunity to try something different with the format. Five years in, Supergirl remains one of the CW’s best shows, with likeable leads, appropriately testing villains, and an almost complete lack of Superman combining to present Supergirl as a major hero in her own right. It’s not a great show – few are – but Supergirl is an investment that pays a healthy dividend on your time.

THE FLASH – SEASON 6

THE FLASH – SEASON 6 / DIRECTOR & SCREENPLAY: VARIOUS / STARRING: GRANT GUSTIN, CANDICE PATTON, DENIELLE PANABAKER, CARLOS VALDES

With the Coronavirus pandemic affecting TV and film production, three of this year’s DC Comics shows on the CW were forced into premature finales. While all three managed to finish on a chapter point, there are still unresolved threads that will begin next season’s storylines when they return in the New Year.

Completing its sixth year, and now the longest-running DC show on the channel after Arrow finished for good in January, The Flash gave us a season of two halves, with major villains split either side of the line-wide Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover, and was all the better for it, overcoming its main issue from previous years, a season-long villain constantly thwarting our heroes. Sendil Ramamurthy as Bloodwork, and the twin threat of estranged husband and wife Joseph Carver and Eva McCulloch, presented all manner of problems for a Flash team that was also struggling with its own issues surrounding power loss, abandonment and survivor’s guilt. Throw in the Elongated Man’s search for Sue Dearborn – his future comics wife – and there was no shortage of angst and action for the heroes this year.

And that’s where your mileage may vary; the CW shows, and The Flash and Supergirl in particular, lean heavily on emotional torment, using it as a crutch to frustrate heroes with insane levels of power. Thus Barry Allen worries he is losing his speed and his wife, (not Killer anymore) Frost frets over whether Caitlin’s mother will accept her and Cisco Ramon wrings his hands over whether voluntarily giving up his powers was the right thing to do. It’s not all doom and gloom at Star Labs, though, with Wally West popping back for a refreshing cameo, Ralph Dibny being, well, Ralph Dibny, and the temporary addition of Chester P Runk to the team while Cisco journeys to (a sadly off-camera) Atlantis.

The season’s big bads are satisfyingly different, too, unlike anything the team has faced before, and thus needing new ways to escape their death traps and sinister machinations to be discovered, although the threat of Eobard Thawne hovers ominously in the background. Tom Cavanagh revels in playing yet another version of Harrison Wells, playing a huge part in the crossover and popping up to offer his weird science opinions when they are most needed.

The unnatural end to season six serves The Flash well, and by its return in January any weariness from the cast’s constant emotional tumult should have worn off; starting a season with the resolution to one’s ills will be a refreshing change. There is little in season six of The Flash for lapsed or new fans – if you’re not on board by now, one hundred and thirty three episodes is a daunting back catalogue to consume – but it’s a good, well-made (if hamstrung by its own limitations) genre TV show, and God knows we need as many of those as we can get these days.