The Flash
I need to geek out about The Flash. We started watching the show with episode one, and after so much bleak and dark DC comic adaptations, The Flash is an absolute delight. It’s fun. It dives unapologetically into the comics universe, and doesn’t shy away from the more “out there” aspects. For example, one recent instance gives us a cameo of Grodd. That’s right, they added a superintelligent CGI gorilla to the show. And damn if it didn’t work.
I should say up front that the show isn’t perfect. I could do without Flash’s speed being a bit variable depending on the needs of the script. (He’s fast enough to pluck a bullet out of the air, but can’t circle around and take a gun from Captain Cold?) And they haven’t done a great job with their female characters. Barry’s mother is fridged in the first episode, and the other two women are significantly defined by their romantic relationships, unlike the rest of the cast.
But there’s so much The Flash does right:
- Barry and Joe: When Barry’s father was arrested for the murder of Barry’s mother, it was Detective Joe West who took Barry in. Now that Barry’s grown up, he and Joe have this amazing relationship of love and respect and communication and trust. Joe still looks out for Barry, but he also treats him like an adult. Joe finds out Barry’s secret in the first episode…and they geek out together over some of the things he can do. When Barry demonstrates how he can vibrate to disguise his face and voice, Joe just bursts out laughing. I love these two!
- Cisco: Cicso Ramon and Dr. Caitlin Snow are employees at S.T.A.R. Labs, working for Dr. Harrison Wells. Cicso is the geek who shows up wearing T-shirts and builds freeze rays and so on, but part of his goofy charm is his need to nickname the various villains who show up from week to week. Comic book names can sound pretty ridiculous, but by turning it into just a thing Cisco does, it works. It also creates opportunities for banter with the other characters. Cisco is more than a two-dimensional geek, and gets to be a deeper character in some episodes, but he’s also just a lot of fun.
- Dr. Wells: I love the ongoing mystery here. Tom Cavanaugh manages to give us a character who seems to be a villain, but how villainous is he, really? He’s got secrets and lies aplenty, and he’s willing to do whatever it takes to accomplish his goals. And yet he has moments when you want to cheer him on, like the scene with Grodd at the end of episode 14.
- Diversity: Central City’s police chief David Singh is an openly gay man. So is the villain the Pied Piper. Joe and Iris West are black. Cisco is Puerto Rican. The writers don’t make a big deal out of and of this; that’s just who the characters are. Could the show do better? Sure…I’d love to see some episodes pass the Bechdel Test. But as these things go, I think they’re doing pretty well.
- Other: The special effects work, which is impressive, given the small-screen budget. The music is great. They brought in John Wesley Shipp, star of the 90s Flash TV show, to play Barry’s father. He has wonderful crossovers with Oliver Queen from Arrow, in which Oliver shoots Barry in the back. As one does.
Short version: This show makes me happy. It’s right up there with The Librarians in terms of fun and entertainment.
What do the rest of you think?
Tara
March 2, 2015 @ 12:12 pm
I was SUPER SAD when they retconned Barry’s comics origin to include a fridged mum and I had been hoping that wouldn’t be factored into the TV adaptation since both The Flash and Black Canary had been the only legacy DC heroes who put on the mask because it was the right thing to do–rather than over the bodies of dead women, and then they decided to do the same with Ray Palmer and I face-palmed SO MUCH OMG.
That said, while I took a long break from Arrow this year over Sara Lance, my love of the CBS Flash from 1991 meant that I couldn’t help it–I was addicted from day one. And OMG JOE. JOE IS SO AMAZEBALLS. I am also really glad that they’ve brought in Linda Park, because she was one of my fave characters from the post-Crisis run of the comics, and I like how they’re handling her and Barry.
Also OMG AMANDA PAYS AS TINA MCGEE!!! My geek head EXPLODED.
As much as I hate hate hate the fridged mum, I am really curious to see how the TV series will handle the Flashpoint Paradox (which granted I only know from the animated adaptation). Also, Dr H (G) Wells makes me happy, and even tho I’ve given up on the Rip Hunter theory, I am still really drawn in by the story.
I was sad that we didn’t have the partially transparent head of Victor Garber in the Firestorm ep, but honestly, the disembodied voice of Victor Garber works too. And their Firestorm is everything I could have wished Firestorm to be in so many ways.
Tara
March 2, 2015 @ 12:14 pm
Make that “the partially transparent disembodied head of Victor Garber”.
(which may be my favourite thing I’ve typed thus far today.)
Alan DeHaan
March 2, 2015 @ 12:19 pm
Yeah the speed thing annoys me to, but it’s something the comics always did as well so…well they’re at least being true!
I groaned in the pilot, with the mother being killed. Rolled my eyes then went “Dammit Geoff Johns”.
But this show did something no comic ever did. It made me like Barry Allen. That’s something strong on its credit.
Andrew Fedge
March 2, 2015 @ 12:22 pm
The Flash is actually what got me back into the CW DC shows. I’d given up on Arrow in the first season because of the narrative “trick” of the constant flashbacks feeling less like they were showing us something important and more like they were just a way to drag out the story….. but with the talk about The Flash, I actually devoured all of the episodes … saw the crossover episodes, and they gave me enough impetus to binge-watch Arrow. Arrow is a much better show when binged (unfortunately I seem to have that opinion of lots of shows now). But yeah, The Flash just makes me happy. And they appear to have really done a good job with Firestorm, now, too.
All of which makes me really interested in the Vixen animated series they’re planning now.
Stephen A. Watkins
March 2, 2015 @ 12:37 pm
I’d agree with your general assessment. It’s by and large better than Gotham (which I want to like more because it’s Batman, and which I do like, but like with the caveat of knowing it’s not near as good as it could be). But the Flash lives up to my expectations for the character of Flash. I’m still several eps behind (on Hulu; just recently watched “Man in the Yellow Suit”). But from what I’ve seen so far I can’t disagree with anything said here.
Jim C. Hines
March 2, 2015 @ 1:08 pm
We’ve got the first season of Arrow on DVD, but haven’t gotten to it yet. I tried it once, but it didn’t really work for me. Having watched the crossovers, we may have to change that.
And I was amazed at how well they pulled off Firestorm. That’s another one I wouldn’t have thought they could do on live-action television.
Jim C. Hines
March 2, 2015 @ 1:10 pm
Joe is so great. I just want to hug him for being such a good dad and a good guy in general, you know? And watching him and Barry together, they have such great chemistry. (So much more than Barry and Iris. Sigh.)
I’m not familiar with the Flashpoint Paradox, but I’m definitely on board to see where this all goes. It feels like they actually have an end point, and they know what they’re building to, unlike a number of other SF shows I’ve watched in the past.
Tara
March 2, 2015 @ 1:35 pm
Arrow doesn’t really take off until it goes from Oliver having terrible VO to having both Dig and Felicity on Team Arrow. If you can make it to the half-way point, it becomes MUCH better telly. Also, Emily Bett Rickards is a joy and wonder and her line readings continually crack me up. Like Allison Mack before her, she knows how to make expository dialogue actually sound natural and imbues it with character beats.
I actually started watching the show solely based on my love for David Ramsey from his time as Deb’s boyfriend on Dexter, and omg he knocks it out of the park. “Team Arrow” is what made me care about the characters.
Gregory Lynn
March 2, 2015 @ 1:40 pm
I came to these comic book shows having never actually read any of the comics so I don’t have any of the expectations a lot of folks have.
I love The Flash and I think the comparison to The Librarians is dead on balls accurate. They’re both just fun shows without being completely trivial. There’s a lot of ridiculous stuff in them, but the ridiculous is just window dressing for characters that are real people that we care about.
brian ledford
March 2, 2015 @ 2:34 pm
Arrow is a lot more soap operish than the flash, but still fun. I’d say you need to be careful binge watching arrow – the overwraughtness can get to be a bit overwhelming past an episode or two. but YMMV. And the fight choreography is very good, especially for a show on the CW. And finally, John Barrowman chews scenery with the best of them.
Jason Wood
March 2, 2015 @ 4:21 pm
I love the Flash, precisely because it is so light-hearted and fun. I had not watched Arrow beyond the first two episodes when it originally aired, but started again after the cross-over episodes and enjoy it, binge watched it on Netflix, but it is a lot darker and moody than Flash. Once you get into it though it has its own appeal (my wife prefers Arrow over Flash). I was not a fact of Flash comics so a lot of things I get to geek out afterwards and have the fun of reading the after episode summaries online and saying “OH! So that’s what that means” or “OH! SO that’s who that was!” Can’t wait to see what comes next.
Chuk
March 2, 2015 @ 7:12 pm
Joe *is* great and the actor just kills it most of the time. I loved how they handled Firestorm, too — the quick shot of him flying and Barry running toward the camera was probably my favorite few seconds of TV this year.
Marie
March 2, 2015 @ 10:26 pm
I agree this is the less angsty and gloomy series they need. Not that I don’t enjoy some of that, but not when it drowns the show. I suspect the two series have been trying to evoke the moods of the more known teaming of Supes and Bats with cheerful/optimistic vs gloom/corruption. And that is a slight weakness, especially for Ollie as his gritty antisocial period was way shorter than Bruce’s. I miss his wise-ass humor, tweaking more powerful, and lighter angst even in such gloomy stories in Dark Knight Returns.
I do think it would have been more interesting to swap genders for dead and jailed parents for Barry. (I thought Mrs Stein was good) But if his dad was dead we would have lost the chance to have Mr Shipp in a recurring and logical role. I don’t think of Crystal is solely in terms of her LI, as I remember Killer Frost. Iris has become a lame Lois, and I really don’t like her or think she’s interesting or competent, TSTL. (I’m hoping she goes and gets hired by the Gotham Gazette so she either smartens up or gets hit by consequences of being stupid.)
I was reading Flash back when Firestorm was the backup series, so the recent story is a double treat.
D. Moonfire
March 2, 2015 @ 11:53 pm
I also felt that Arrow helped when it got its voice in season two.
Me and mine loved The Flash, it was light-hearted and fun.2/mycollegeadventures05.txt
Heather
March 3, 2015 @ 9:51 am
It’s funny you mention the Bechdel test – the last couple of weeks I’ve been taking note on Arrow’s sudden passing with flying colors there. Laurel and Felicity have had some great non-Oliver-related scenes and then there was Thea’s confession with Laurel last week – and even Laurel’s talk with Nyssa…
If Arrow can do it I feel sure The Flash will get there – and he should certainly be able to do it far more speedily!
Matthew Thyer
March 3, 2015 @ 1:04 pm
I’ve been putting off watching the rest of Season 5 of Walking Dead because I just don’t think I can deal with the loss, depression and anxiety I know it’s going to introduce into my life. That and I know I’ll likely pick the script apart; I don’t need to waste my time deconstructing someone else’s writing with so many projects on my plate.
So I may give this a try. I’m not what you’d call a huge fan of super hero stories. However, so much else on the boob tube is designed to play on our fears and anxieties and its tiresome.
Quinalla
March 3, 2015 @ 2:12 pm
I’ve been pleasantly surprised with Flash too. I’ve enjoyed Arrow a lot, though I have to just get past the jerking around of at least one character’s actions/personality a season to suit the plot, (and I agree, get past the first half of season 1 and it gets in its groove, though it’s still not for everyone, the flashbacks annoyed me at first too, but they are actually fairly important unlike a lot of Lost flashbacks, ugh :P, and OMG Felicity and the actress who plays her is amazing), but Flash is so joyful and fun! And I didn’t think I would like a live-action version of Flash as his humor seems so better suited to animation (similar to Spiderman’s humor), but I actually like it a lot. I too wish they would do better by the female characters, but I’m hoping they will improve. But overall, big thumbs up for the show and it is one that I really enjoy watching with my 5 year old daughter who is into superheros like whoa as it is not as dark and violent and whatnot as so much else out there right now. Not that I don’t enjoy that stuff too, but its nice to have something go a different direction.
Carol
March 4, 2015 @ 1:50 pm
I really want them not make Dr. Wells completely evil because I’ve been enjoying Tom Cavanagh so much. Even though he’s been shown making and in the yellow suit… so they should have early/well meaning/good-ish Dr. Wells battle later/eeeeevil Dr. Wells (or evil future Thawne descendent/Reverse Flash) until the end of the series run, please? 😎
Arrow is generally good entertainment. It’s more uneven in it’s grim mood + WTF are they doing that for?!? vs sparkling moments of joy (usually Felicity, but sometimes Oliver and lately Thea (shocker!)) than Flash, but this is the foundation that gave us Flash, will be giving us Supergirl and also the Brave and the Bold-ish multi-hero thing that they’re cooking up.
As for Gotham, I just cancelled it off my PVR. Fish (why are we even watching her?) has put herself in charge of an organ farm (blergh). NO joy anywhere in this show. Constantine was much better than this pre-Batman dreck.