Television

CW posted a fun little trailer announcing the return of their superhero shows starting next week.  I did think it was odd since LEGENDS OF TOMORROW isn't coming back yet, and they didn't include BLACK LIGHTNING which also debuts this week. I know it is a different canon (for now), but I haven't seen a lot of advertising muscle put behind that show, so it just seems like CW doesn't have a lot of faith in it.  Making it part of the Arrowverse could have been a real good way to give it some legs.

From Entertainment Weekly:

Wakko, Yakko, and Dot are coming back to television. On Thursday, Hulu announced they have partnered with Amblin Television and Warner Bros. Animation to create and premiere a brand-new version of beloved cartoon franchise Animaniacs. New episodes will premiere on Hulu in 2020.

Christmas comes to Riverdale in this second season mid-season finale. It's time for peace on Earth, and for all the loose threads of the Black Hood saga to finally come to a satisfying closure, with sensible revelations that will allow everyone to finally rest easy.

Yeah, right.

Let's start with Jughead. His life was supposed to take an upturn when his father, FP, was released from jail. But FP has gone right back to leading the serpents, and running drugs for Penny Peabody -- but only because Penny had dirt on Jughead that she was using to blackmail him and all the serpents into doing her bidding.

That stops tonight. Maybe. Because Jughead's finally gotten tired of it, and to protect his father and the rest of the South Side Serpents, he'll go to any measures to remove Penny Peabody from their lives. Get ready for a vision of Dark Jughead (okay, "darker" Jughead) as he extracts his "pound of flesh" with the Serpents rallied around him.

When a woman's 911 call reveals the Sinnerman's work is still being carried out despite his incarceration, Team Lucifer determines that the Sinnerman must have an accomplice. Lucifer's plan is to take the Sinnerman out fo custody and torture him into revealing the girl's location, but he has to play along with Chloe's method of going by-the-book and following up leads. Her investigation takes them to the world of roller derby and a skater with whom the abducted girl, Maggie, has had fights. And while she knows nothing of the abuction, Helena Handbasket does know where Maggie parks her car, leading #Deckerstar straight to a booby-trap.

From TV Insider:

Last month, we told you that Leslie Moonves, CEO of CBS Corp., had told a group of investors that "All Access will be the home of a new version of one of the most iconic television shows of all time – The Twilight Zone." There were also reports that Get Out director Jordan Peele was in talks to executive-produce the revival.

On Wednesday, CBS All Access confirmed that Peele will indeed serve as an executive producer of the series, which will air exclusively on the CBS streaming service, along with Simon Kinberg and Marco Ramirez. The three will also collaborate on the show's premiere episode.

It's a night of funerals, betrayals...and war!

Sofia Falcone's plans for Gotham have finally put the city on the brink of a gang war with Oswald "The Penguin" Cobblepot. And to put an end to that and keep the peace: Daddy's home! Yes, Carmine Falcone is back in Gotham, and he's there to give his little girl a spanking and cart her cute little butt back home with him. But a drive-by shooting  changes everything.

Operating on the assumption that Penguin's men were behind the attack, Sofia turns to Jim Gordon to arrest him. But without proof of Penguin's involvement, there's nothing he can do to him. But when Penguin confronts Jim in the middle of the GCPD, Jim can do one thing! He can rally the police behind him and take the war to Penguin's thugs. And this he does with great success.

It should be a great day for our Riverdale High students. Jughead has just received word that his dad, FP, is being released early from jail, thanks to overcrowding and Cheryl Blossom's character testimony. And Betty's going to be there for Jughead all the way, helping him with his dad. Which means neither of them can look into the "Devil House" where Betty was led earlier by the Black Hood -- which they've just discovered is the same house where the Riverdale Reaper murders occurred forty years earlier -- so they ask Archie and Veronica to look into it for them.

That will put quite the crimp in #Verchie's schedule, as they've been using every spare minute making out and hooking up. But since Archie dropped the L-word on Veronica after a bout of canoodling, they both need something to distract them. It seems Veronica wasn't able to say it back, and her introspection as to why leads her to realize that she's never heard her parents say it to each other once.

We're still in the "I can't even..." stage of processing last night's mid-season finale of THE FLASH. That was a very, very naughty place to leave the fans hanging for the winter break, @FLASHtvwriters!

We open simply enough: Barry and Iris are going through the wedding gifts, opening the cards, and -- like most people -- making a huge return list. The reference to Mick Rory's gift of forty toasters from a fire sale was priceless. But the action quickly picks up when the two leave the department store with their credit, only to be assaulted by Clifford DeVoe -- The Thinker -- who captures The Flash and whisks him away.

I have been pretty excited about the return of ROSEANNE.  Ignoring the last season, ROSEANNE remains one of my all-time favorite comedy shows.  Part of me wants to be jaded about all the revivals and remakes we get on TV, but I actually loved the X-FILES and PRISON BREAK revivals, not to mention WILL AND GRACE has been getting a ton of positive buzz.  As long as these shows are being done with love and respect for the audience, I am all for them coming back.

Since the mysterious Sinnerman has been granting favors and stealing Lucifer's gig (not to mention somehow being able to get the drop on him, leave him in the desert, give him back his wings and steal his "devil face"), Lucifer has decided to up his game and get back to granting favors himself. But when he grants a favor to a young man named Joey whose greatest desire is to work for the mob, the result is finding Joey as the victim of a homicide that falls into Lucifer and Chloe's lap.

Gotham's nightmare is over. Professor Pyg has been brought into custody, and is safely tucked away in Arkham Asylum. But who is the serial killer who threatened Gotham's cops?

The answer lies behind titanium plates surgically implanted in Pyg's jaw and cheeks. X-rays show he's had extensive surgery to alter his appearance (and make it really painful to punch him in the mouth). Gordon tasks Lucius Fox with deconstructing the images to get to a pre-surgery composite sketch, while he goes to Arkham to interrogate Pyg further. And when Gordon finally manages to get under Pyg's skin, the mask slips just enough for Gordon to see inside.

The writers take some chances in the telling of this episode of Riverdale, beginning with the opening presentation, done in a crime documentary style. It then splits the episode into three vignettes, all happening simultaneously.

The Black Hood has left a note on the door of Pop Tate's diner, giving the citizens of Riverdale 24 hours to live a sin-free life. That doesn't seem so much to ask.

Following suit in a long line of men who have been fired from their positions, due to allegations of sexual harassment, Producer Andrew Kreisberg (ARROW, THE FLASH, SUPERGIRL) is now among the shamed.

Vicitms of sexual assault have been empowered to speak out against their attackers, ever since news broke about Harvey Weinstein. It used to be that men in powerful positions were able to make their accusers go away quietly. Those days are officially over and there are probably a lot more men out there who are shaking in their boots right now.

While bouncing around on the internet today, I happened to be skimming GameFAQ's and saw under the Doctor Who board the hot topic of the day was "So now that Robert Mugabe has been overthrown, can we get some lost serials back?"  I was curious to find out what this was all about, and I found a few stories that had talked about this over the years, so I thought our readers might like to hear about it.

Tonight, Team Flash comes face-to-face with the foe they've been warned about ever since Flash encountered Abra Kadabra, the magician from the future: DeVoe. That would be Clifford DeVoe, whom we will come to know as The Thinker, a classic villain for the Golden Age Flash in the comics.

After an intense search for DeVoe, once it was learned that Ralph Dibney was hired by DeVoe to investigate the mayor, they've finally located the one they believe they are looking for, and are shocked to find him in a wheelchair. But then, so was Harrison Wells / Eobard Thawne (it's complicated) in the first season, so we know that's not an impediment.

By the episode title, you'd think this is the MOONLIGHTING-esque ending you've been waiting for in this series. But, of course, you should know better than that.

The story opens with Lucifer (TOM ELLIS) and Chloe (LAUREN GERMAN) laying side-by-side on the floor, engaged in obvious innuendo to the audience. However, what they're really doing is preparing to play Monopoly with Chloe's daughter, Trixie (SCARLETT ESTEVEZ). This leads Lucifer down the path of thinking that he has become boring. And, in truth, throughout much of the series, Lucifer has been portrayed as less "Luciferian" than one would expect from someone with his millennia of experiences; he misjudges frequently and makes mistakes. You'd think the Devil would be more calculating than that, but I suppose the writers are trying to play up his vulnerable side when he's around Chloe.