Today, Flash. DC’s attempt at connected universe with Arrow. The series follow Barry Allen, played by Grant Gustin, and his team of merry side kicks, as they solve crime and catch other superpowered individuals. Because Barry got hit by a lightning and gained superspeed. Through the series he also investigates the murder of his mother, who was killed by a man in a flash, in hopes to get his father out of jail.
I’ll say this right off the bat, the series did not impress me. It didn’t annoy me as much as Arrow does, but it didn’t impress me either. It’s just same old, rhetoric cliches, with some innovation I have to admit, stereotypical characters and relations, and overall nothing unique to keep me watching.
But that’s my opinion.
Let’s look at the positives. Good CGI, okay action scenes, it all looks very pretty. The actors tend to overact… No the actors always overact and the cheesy, melodramatic dialogues don’t make things any easier. Like Arrow, it’s over the top. Even more so sometimes, though less soap operaish, so that’s a plus.
I give it a tentative, watch if curious recommendation.
Let’s see what the Pilot episode has to offer. Here comes City of Heroes and all of its spoilers.
The episode opens with the obligatory, dramatic, inspiring superhero monologue. Ranting mostly about believing in the impossible, it’s kind of what the series talks about throughout because Barry is the impossible, yada yada, I still don’t see a reason to hammer it in so much. Then Barry gives us his entire backstory in under five minutes. Okay, I can kind of overlook all this nonsense, it’s in the spirit of comic books after all, isn’t it?
Also warm blur filter over everything to make it extra fluffy.
Now this was a trend in Arrow too, but here it’s dialled up, exaggeration and overacting. I can’t speak to the quality of the actors when they are overacting and over-delivering all their lines, but subtlety is not something this show appreciates. In fact, it avoids it like the plague.
Again, the CGI is pretty good, and the shots glossy and well edited, sound design could have used some levelling though. Overall, the same deal as with Arrow, visually appealing, in this case bright and colourful rather than dull and broody, but lacking in substance. As glossy as you make everything, characters and plot will still be as flat as you wrote them.
They did set up everything briefly and competently, the main characters, Barry’s job, as a forensic something, never really got what, but then again I didn’t really care, some foreshadowing, the episode didn’t drag as much as I know this show can.
And of course, we meet the FRI, his step sister Iris, played by Candice Patton, over whom, have no doubt, he’ll swoon over the entire series.
The action storyline for this episode is two robbers shoot a guard, make off with lots of money, and it’s up to Barry to find out where they’re hiding. Just your typical criminal investigation setup.
The bigger plot point of the episode, is the particle accelerator, a machine, that they don’t really make clear what does other than expand our understanding of physics.
As I mentioned, Flash and Arrow share the same universe. Now, I watched Flash before Arrow, and there are a lot of references and carry ons from there, which slipped past me the first time I saw the Pilot. But that’s not what annoyed me. Later on, you get episodes and what-happened-befores, which refer directly to episodes from Arrow, so to get a full experience and truly understand the series, you need to watch both shows. You can see them separately, just from time to time an event will happen or a plot point will be mentioned out of nowhere or concluded off screen.
But moving on. Barry tries to confess and fails because he’s too vague and she doesn’t get it. Typical in this types of stories. And the dramatic music makes it all extra… dramatic.
They’re gonna do the same thing here as in Arrow aren’t they? Playing dramatic music over dull dialogue in hopes to make it mean something? Sometimes it works, most times it doesn’t.
And for some reason, in the middle of a crowd someone decides it’s a good idea to steal Iris’ bag, where her laptop and dissertation happen to be. I need to ask why. What sense does it make and what is the purpose of this scene other than jab at the audience that yes, indeed, Barry happens to run a lot because circumstances. Seriously though, you’d think people wouldn’t try to purse snatch in the middle of a crowd, at a highly scientific press conference no less, that should have a lot of guards. Speaking of, where are the guards?
Seriously, what’s up with that kid and his obsession with Iris’ bag. He fights Barry tooth and nail for it. But who do I kid, it’s only a scene to introduce detective pretty boy. That’s how they actually refer to him. His real name is Eddie, and he’s played by Rick Cosnett.
Meanwhile, the real cops are hunting the real bad guys, who as Barry deducted, are hiding out at a farm.
Cliches list, bad guys announcing their intention, check. Cop about to retire killed on duty, check. But we can’t make it too bloody, we’re kids friendly, so well have him drop dead from a bullet scratch. Those rabid bullets, you know.
The bad guys flee, but not for long. Their plane is brought down when the particle accelerator goes out of control, raining fire, brimstone and electric storms all over the city. It causes rather selective damage really, but that’s besides the point. Barry gets struck by a lightning, next to a chemical shelf, and for anyone familiar with the comics, that’s pretty faithful to the origins story.
Nine months pass, StarLabs are in ruins, Barry’s in a coma and we meet our main support cast. The comic relief nerd, Cisco played by Carlos Valdes; the cold but hot doctor chick Caitlin, played by Danielle Panabaker; and the mastermind professor in a wheelchair Dr. Harrison Wells, played by Tom Cavanagh.
And then Barry wakes up, no doubt in objection to Cisco playing Poker Face while he sleeps. Of course, he can immediately get up and walk around after nine months of coma. They explain, of course, his metabolism is very high, plus cellular regeneration nonsense, which gave him instant abs. Now I’m not sure biology works quite that way, but I’ll let it slide, believe in the impossible so to say.
No one calls his family of course, he goes to surprise them instead. But nine months have passed, Barry has much catching up to do, and his romantic interest is dating detective pretty boy. Bummer.
And his powers start manifesting in flashes of slowdowns. Of the world, since he’s moving really fast and all.
And here, the episode starts dragging as they go back and forth with dialogues, experimentations and evaluation of his speed. After a long while the plot kicks back in, with one of the robber guys having survived and gained supernatural powers over the weather.
The particle accelerator, it turns out, gave birth to a bunch of supernatural individuals, who we’ll be meeting and hunting down through the series.
And an obligatory cameo from the Arrow when Flashy goes to seek advice. “Wear a mask,” he tells him, the same advice Barry once gave him. Immediately, Cisco has a whole costume tailored to his specific needs. Because Cisco is awesome. And also possibly clairvoyant. But not really. He just happens to have all the gadgets exactly when they are needed.
The police corners the baddie, baddie kicks up a tornado to destroy the city, god knows why, Barry runs really fast in the opposite direction and unravels it. The end.
Meh. That’s pretty much my evaluation of the series. Meh.
Nothing more to say.
Just meh.
