2x10 Double Dose

[6.0/10] This should be up my alley. I love a good villain team-up and Livewire and Parasite make an odd sort of sense. Livewire’s plan for Parasite to siphon all of Supes’s strength and for her to deliver the crushing blow works, and their sap and zap combo works well visually. But this one just falls flat. Neither villain’s motivation is particularly interesting, and the plan doesn't have any particularly noteworthy wrinkles.

Livewire just wants revenge. Parasite just wants to keep feeding on Supes. The inevitable villain backstabbery adds something, I guess, but on the whole, this is just too straightforward storywise to merit much excitement. There’s barely a story at all. It’s mainly just a series of fight scenes, which can be its own kind of cool. The problem is that there’s only so many ways to shock or steal someone’s powers until it gets a little boring, and the show doesn't really pick and choose here.

Ther’es also the uncomforatbe sexism and sexual assault vibe to this one. Parasite is constantly making unwanted advances toward Livewire. You can write that off as him trying to steal her powers, but the show clearly codes it a a “no means no” type of situation which makes the whole thing feel darker and more uncomfortable than it should. Frankly, that’s true for pretty much everything involving Livewire in this one, from her using her “feminine wiles” to lure the janitor, to her taunting the other inmates when she springs Parasite, to her coded language when repelling Parasite. It’s a weird undertone to include and it doesn't work for me.

There’s also the weirdness of Supes choosing to fight them by...covering himself in plastic? It’s a strange turn in the plot that lasts about two minutes, to little effect. Parasite combining both Livewire and Superman’s powers has a touch of intrigue to it, and Superman setting the sprinkler system on him is at least a little clever, but after so much fireworks among everybody, it’s hard to muster too much enthusiasm by the end.

Overall, this is an underwhelming villain pairing with a few nice moments, but which includes too many odd elements and doesn't take as much advantage of the synergies between the baddies as it could.