The Blacklist

Season 2

Main Characters

• Raymond "Red" Reddington (James Spader) is a criminal mastermind, making it to #4 on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives, who suddenly turns himself in after 20 years of evading the FBI.

• Elizabeth Keen (Megan Boone), a Special Agent of the FBI, who was specifically requested by Reddington during the process of cooperating with Assistant Director Harold Cooper.

• Donald Ressler (Diego Klattenhoff), a Special Agent of the FBI, he was the lead agent on Raymond Reddington case before Elizabeth Keen.

• Tom Keen (Ryan Eggold), Elizabeth Keen's husband; a spy who was hired to keep an eye on Elizabeth keen.

• Samar Navabi (Mozhan Marnò) is a Mossad operative who has had past interactions with Raymond Reddington. With the death of Meera Malik, she is assigned by Deputy Director Cooper to the task force as an investigative agent and Mossad liaison.

• Aram Mojtabai (Amir Arison), worked for the NSA for 14 years before being hand-selected by Harold Cooper for his diverse skill set. He is comfortable with counter-surveillance as he is with writing code or cracking databases.

• Harold Cooper (Harry Lennix), is the Assistant Director for Counter-terrorism at the FBI.

Review

In Season 1 finale we see that Berlin is after Reddington and season 2 starts off with the continuation of that but the whole season doesn't not revolve around Berlin. That's just for a small time. We see that there is a new highlight in this season other than Berlin and there are the usual events which is Reddington providing information on the blacklist and the FBI trying to solve the cases. But we also see more on Agent Keen's personal life and her relationship with Reddington and how everything is affected after the events that occurred in Season 1. Although it seems pretty obvious that Reddington is Agent Keen's father, so far they haven't showed that in the series which means there are chances he may not be.

The story is good and is consistently interesting. We've a new Agent in their Special Task Force, Agent Navabi who is a replacement for Meera Malik. This character is more convincing in her role than the character Meera Malik was. So this is a good addition to the series. Compared to season 1, this season had less action sequences. But all the action sequences throughout the series are good. James Spader as Reddington is very good and the character is awesome but Megan Boone as Elizabeth Keen needs to be more expressive.

Although Raymond Reddington is the most interesting character, after some time, his dialogues and plans seem a cliche. It feels like he's all bark cause his actions aren't as convincing as his threatening. That said, he does live up to his words and is a man of his word. The chain of events that happen in this season has taken the story into a different direction now. The series is good and I would definitely suggest this to everyone.

Rating - 4/5

The Flash

Season 1

Main Characters

• Barry Allen / Flash (Grant Gustin), a Central City assistant police forensic investigator who is struck by lightning in his laboratory after an explosion at the S.T.A.R. Labs particle accelerator and doused by chemicals affected by the accident which gives him superhuman speed. He uses his new-found power to help the people of Central City as the masked superhero known as the Flash. 

• Iris West (Candice Patton), the daughter of Detective West and Barry Allen's best friend and longtime crush.

• Dr. Caitlin Snow (Danielle Panabaker), a bioengineer, is the medical support for Barry's team who works for Dr. Harrison Wells at S.T.A.R. Labs.

• Cisco Ramon ( Carlos Valdes), a mechanical engineering genius who works at S.T.A.R. Labs for Dr. Harrison Wells. Cisco is the youngest member of the team of scientists at S.T.A.R. Labs.

• Dr. Harrison Wells (Tom Cavanagh), the mind and money behind Central City's S.T.A.R. Labs Particle Accelerator, who becomes a pariah after the lab explodes. He serves as a mentor to Barry Allen after he exhibits his powers, but Dr. Wells is keeping secrets from Barry, including his plans for the speedster.

• Eddie Thawne (Rick Cosnett), a recent transfer to the Central City Police Department. He is partner to Detective Joe West and Iris West's love interest.

• Joe West (Jesse L. Martin), a cop who acts as a surrogate father to Barry after his mother's death and father's imprisonment, and who is the father of Iris West.

Review

The flash tells the origin story of how Barry Allen was struck by lightning in his laboratory after an explosion at the S.T.A.R. Labs particle accelerator and doused by chemicals affected by the accident which gives him superhuman speed. He uses his new-found power to help the people of Central City as the masked superhero known as the Flash with the help of Dr. Harrison Wells; who serves as a mentor to Barry Allen, Cisco Ramon, a mechanical engineering genius who works at S.T.A.R. Labs and Dr. Caitlin Snow, a bioengineer, is the medical support for Barry's team who works for Dr. Harrison Wells at S.T.A.R. Labs.

The Flash is one of the my favorite DC characters. We get to see Barry Allen/ Flash from getting his powers and learning how to use them with the help of his new friends at S.T.A.R Labs - Dr. Wells, Cisco and Caitlin who help Barry to understand and how to use his powers according to the situation. We get to see a lot of villains in this show with super powers who all got their powers after being affected by the Particle Accelerator.

The special effects of the series is good. It's exciting watch the flash run at super speed and fight people who have super powers. We finally have comic book series where there are a lot of characters with super powers and we get to see them in action. The story is consistently interesting and apart from solving crimes there are things going on in Barry's and his friend's life too which are important to the plot.

I like this fresh take on flash. The story, the characters, the special effects, the action, everything is good in the series. Even if you're not a comic fan you'll love this series. The way the series goes, I had expected a little more exciting ending of the series but it's still good. So how's The Flash Season 1 ? It's pretty good and I suggest you watch it.

Rating - 4/5

Arrow

Season 3

Main Characters

• Oliver Queen / Arrow (Stephen Amell), a billionaire playboy turned hooded vigilante, who is based on the DC Comics character Green Arrow.

• Laurel Lance / Black Canary (Katie Cassidy), based on the DC Comics character Black Canary, an attorney turned vigilante and former girlfriend of Oliver Queen.

• John Diggle (David Ramsey), Oliver's partner, confidant, and bodyguard.

• Thea Queen (Willa Holland), Oliver's younger sister.

• Felicity Smoak (Emily Bett Rickards), the IT technician at Queen Consolidated who has become part of Oliver's vigilante team.

• Roy Harper / Arsenal (Colton Haynes), a character based on the DC Comics character of the same name.

• Malcolm Merlyn (John Barrowman), Tommy's father; he is based on the DC Comics character Merlyn, an archenemy of Green Arrow in the comics and he is the biological father of Thea Queen.

• Ra's al Ghul (Matt Nable), whose name translates to "The Demon's Head" in Arabic, is the centuries-old leader of the League of Assassins. He seeks to purge humanity of crime and corruption, utilizing the rejuvenating Lazarus Pits to maintain his immortality.

• Nyssa Al Ghul (Katrina Law), a member of the League of Assassins. She is also the daughter of the late Ra's al Ghul. She is the ex-lover and close friend of the late Sara Lance. She was the one who brought Sara to Nanda Parbat.

• Ray Palmer (Brandon Routh), a businessman and the CEO of Palmer Technologies. Ray is also the former fiancé of the late Anna and the ex-boyfriend/good friend of Felicity Smoak. Using a powerful exosuit, he has begun to act as a vigilante around Starling City, self-named The Atom.

Review

So, it's the season 3 of poor people's Batman or as some people call it; Arrow. By the end of season 2 we see that Thea Queen leaves town with Malcolm Merlyn (her biological father). In season 3 beginning we see that Malcolm has been training her and making her combat ready, which is good. For sometime we get to see Thea being confident and capable of taking care of herself and then by half the season she's back to damsel in distress who's worried about something or the other and asking " Why didn't you tell me this, why did you hide it from me ? "

We've some new superheroes and villains in this season which is good. Ray Palmer/A.T.O.M buys queen consolidated and works on an exosuit with the help of Felicity Smoak. We don't get to see the A.T.O.M in action a lot as in this season it's still a work in progress but he does help the Arrow. Ray Palmer/ A.T.O.M is pretty much the male version of Felicity Smoak. Laurel Lance becomes Black Canary in this as if the first one wasn't bad enough.

The series begins good with Oliver Queen/ Arrow trying to save his city and the usual catching and stopping the bad guys, which is nice to watch. But now a lot of things have changed and that's affecting their lives. We also get to see the background story on Oliver Queen when he was stranded on the Island. This time it's all about his time spent in Hong Kong and doing things for Amanda Waller. This time his story about the past isn't very interesting.

Till half of the season everything seems to going fine and nice. We get to see bad guys beaten up, brought to justice and some new DC villains too. But once Ra's Al Ghul gets involved in the story, things get really weird. In this season Oliver Queen/ Arrow is more of trying to be Batman than The Arrow. The story takes a different turn and it's unnecessary. The involvement of Ra's Al Ghul in Oliver's life kind of ruined the story. Also, the character of A.T.O.M isn't great. Everyone who's watched Arrow knows that there's always someone or other saying " I was protecting you, I care for you, It's for your safety " and things like that, which also gets annoying after sometime.

What's always been bad consistently in the whole series is the action. They always feel slow and lousy. This time there were a lot of special effects also. The special effects were fine through the series except for the character The A.T.O.M. 

Overall the season was good till Ra's Al Ghul gets involved. I hope there's a better story in the next season than The Arrow being a wannabe Batman. So, how is season 3 ? It's all right !! One can still watch and enjoy few things.

Rating - 3.4/5