Monday, June 1, 2015

The Flash (2014) - Season 1

The Flash

Number of episodes: 23

Broadcasting Station: The CW

Official Page











Trailer


STEPH SAID

Rating:

Review:

I don't know what I expected coming to this series. Everything I thought I knew about The Flash came from Smallville – I found out later that Smallville's Impulse is not Barry Allen, but Bart Allen. However, I was excited due to Barry's appearances in Arrow.

As opposed to Arrow, The Flash is an upbeat, heroic show; it has cheerful characters that only care about saving people. In each episode Team Flash confronts a human with super powers – a  Metahuman – that has gone rogue and is endangering life in Central City. Flash's team give each “Rogue” a funny nickname and do their best to incarcerate them in a special prison. Tension builds up as the season progresses, though. The rogue of the week takes a more secondary place in storytelling, and Barry starts dealing with the man who killed his mother: an enigmatic antagonist, known as Reverse-Flash, who always seems to be one step ahead of Barry. The “rogue of the week” storylines are fun, but they feel like fillers, unimportant. The Reverse-Flash storyline, on the other hand, is more compelling, interesting, and full of unexpected plot twists.

Many other things improve Flash’s, already good, standing. I personally love their ongoing jokes about the Metahumans’ prison. I mean, how do they eat? How do they go to the bathroom? Also, having Wentworth Miller playing Captain Cold is a plus, no matter how you look at it. The introduction of time traveling so early in the series could lead to a catastrophe, but I have decided to give it the benefit of the doubt. Nevertheless, the Arrow/Flash Crossovers are the best part. The Flash vs. The Arrow fight, and Cisco betting on it, was everything I could’ve hoped for.

Barry, Joe, and Harrison Wells are amazing characters. The latter was especially intriguing, mysterious, and alluring. Most of the other characters were difficult to like at first, especially Cisco. When I met Cisco in Arrow, he felt cheesy and purposely nerdy. Like, nerdy viewers will like him just because of his shirts. But, let me tell you, he grows on you. I have come to like him quite a lot. Eddie went through the same trial, and also came out victorious. I didn’t even know how much I had come to like him until I saw the choice he made in the finale. 

Unfortunately, I can’t say the same thing about Caitlin, Ronnie or Iris. Ronnie and Caitlin suffer from the same lack of development. You can expect that lack of depth when it comes to Ronnie because he is only in the series for a couple of episode. But, Caitlin was in the series since the story started in Arrow. Yet, Caitlin doesn’t evolve through the season. She is a blank, I-lost-the-love-of-my-life, genius, pretty scientist; that is all there is to know about her. And, Iris… well, she is an entirely different case. Her constant whining and nagging is just annoying, and it distances her from the audience and from the Flash’s mood. Not one of her actions in this season moved me or compelled me to like her. She was in a completely different universe from every other Flash character. However, that is the only negative thing I can say about the Flash as a series. Is not a small part, but everything else in the series makes up for it.

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