Monsters of Television

“What is it you really want? Revenge, or satisfaction?”

Young Justice is back. Yaaaay?

I kid. Sort of. I actually rather enjoyed “Satisfaction” (some issues aside). At this point in the season, and thanks in large part to the hiatus, I’ve managed to internalize and (somewhat) accept the time skip and the myriad of problems it ended up creating for the series.

So what did work? The fate of Original Roy is actually surprisingly compelling, and despite not having much invested in this character or story, the episode managed to create a real sense of drama. I think some of this is largely due to the fact that the series didn’t drag this out very much. We dive right into what it means for the Original Roy to wake up with 8 years and an arm gone, and that keeps this story fresh.

The other reason I think it works as well as it does is that despite it being about Original Roy, we’ve seen Clone Roy (I’m so glad Original Roy is going to be Arsenal so I can just type that after this episode, and Red Arrow for Clone Roy) go through this sort of single-mindedness and impulsive behavior before, and so to see Original Roy do the same beats, much of the character work has, in effect, already been done.

If I were feeling charitable, I’d complain about the series repeating itself, but I do honestly think that since we’re dealing with a clone storyline, that it feels justified. It also feels different enough in that Clone Roy’s behavior while modified a bit by Vandal Savage’s programming, had the benefit for remembering the years of support that his colleagues and mentors gave him while he was in action. Original Roy doesn’t have any of that. He’s legitimately lost in a way that Clone Roy never was.

It doesn’t mean the episode is perfect. Original Roy’s battle with Mercy in the Lexcorp parking garage drags on a bit, begins to feel pretty repetitive by the time it finally reaches its conclusion. But I think the big part of that is that the episode is just horribly padded. I’m not sure why in the world we get detours to Ivy Town to see Conner and Wendy at a college campus and maybe begin the inkling of a romance and then the bridal shower/lunch for Rocket in Dakota City.

It’s the last part that kind of irked me, really. I mean, you gather all the of the team’s (and then some) female characters only to have it be a toss aside gag as they all team up against Captain Cold (“I’m completely doomed, aren’t I?”)? It’s such…why? I don’t get it. It’s an idea for a subplot that the writers never fully fleshed out so decided, instead, to make it this B-plot. (Does it qualify as B? It has more scenes than the other bits in the episode. Maybe the B stands for ‘barely.’)

The one bit of the brief non-Roys stuff I dug was seeing Artemis’s grave. It’s not so much Wally dealing with Artemis’s mom (guy has no poker face) but that Sportsmaster and Cheshire are now going to be on the hunt for Black Manta and Aqualad. I like this development because it brings these various disparate elements into conflict with each other, and the show needs this.

FINAL THOUGHTS

• “And Ollie grew that dopey goatee?!” Let me say that I’ve always love Ollie’s goatee, and the lack of the goatee in both the new 52 comics and in the forthcoming Arrow makes me very sad.
• “And that, my dear, is why I spent top collar on a customized desk.” I’m starting to like YJ’s Luthor, and want more of him.
• So in the memorial grotto, we’ve got Artemis (awkward!), the original Blue Beetle Ted Kord, Jason Todd as Robin (man, Bruce burned some Robins in 5 years (but not as many as the new 52 GOOD GRIEF)), and…someone woman I did not recognize. Anyone know who it was?
• As a head’s up, I’m writing about both Young Justice and Green Lantern: The Animated Series for TV.com. YJ will continue to appear here in an expanded form, but GL will only appear there. I’m also writing about Arrow for them once it starts, if you’re interested in that.