After what felt like the longest layoff in television history, The Flash is back! Strap in for a recap of the best superhero show on television.
1. We need a montage!
While, unlike Rocky, there wasn’t a montage, we did get an extended training sequence, focusing on both improving Barry’s speed and his reflexes. This is an important step in the show’s development, as he has been going up against relatively one-dimensional villains, mainly because the answer to most of the show’s problems has been “just go faster.” Well, now, they are giving him the tools to use his speed in ways that don’t necessarily involve running, but using his reflexes and trusting his speed to allow him to do things (like redirect a freaking missile) that he couldn’t do otherwise.
As the show’s stakes get raised, there needs to be an indication that the greatest powers Barry was given are his brain and his heart – the speed is just the tool that allows the person Barry is to grow into the hero he is meant to be.
2. Silly science versus silliness
The Flash knows the way into my heart, and that is through Ghostbusters references – so, having Barry get the Rogues to ‘cross the streams’ was a really nice bit of pop culture influencing the show. It was also a nice grounding device, because of course #millennials like Barry and Cisco would have grown up watching Ghostbusters and the like. Even if the concept behind “absolute heat” seems dumb as shit, this is the definition of comic book logic, and therefore, works fine for me.
What I have a slightly larger problem with is the desire to turn everything into something logical. This is best exemplified by making Firestorm into F.I.R.E.S.T.O.R.M., some long and clunky and not even totally accurate acronym (I didn’t write it down, but I remember there being at least one bullshit compound words in there. Look, I can’t blame the writer tasked with creating the stupid acronym for struggling with how to do so, I blame the show’s desire to need to take the most sci-fi element of the show and downplay the -fi part of that element.
Also, why did it take Barry to hear S.C.U.B.A. to think of acronyms when he was at S.T.A.R. Labs?
3. The world of The Flash is forming nicely…
Nitpicking aside, the show is doing an incredible job of building the world of the show, and by populating it with enough little elements to feel real. I mean this with both character moments and general world building. Of course Joe would love jazz and, even as the world’s greatest TV dad, would probably overreact at times and let his inner cop come out, even when dealing with his daughter accidentally breaking a record.
But having “Space Ghost” be Barry’s favorite comic is a nice deflection of the question of “do Marvel comics appear in the DCTU?” or “would he, like Barry Allen of the comics, read Jay Garrick Flash comics?” Instead of dealing with those incredibly tricky questions, they took a nearly forgotten DC property (at least, forgotten in comics form) and, by acknowledging its inherent cheesiness, furthers Barry as a character, too. I say all of this acknowledging full well that the comic was relatively obscured and I could be totally wrong about what type of book it was.
But the biggest character to show growth this week is Eddie – by him stepping in to save the Flash, we get to see what makes him a good cop, not just a good foil to Joe and Barry. We also got to see a few asshole cops, and a scared shitless college student, and other characters that absolutely make sense in the world of the show. Central City really feels like a place that has an identity, much like Starling City does on Arrow, and that is a huge help for the show going forward.
4. …Except for the Rogues
I am absolutely torn on the Rogues. On one hand, we just witnessed the best Rogues/Flash battle, visually, I could ever hope to see on screen. Seriously – between the special effects, the story, the way he defeats them, everything – that battle sequence was absolutely perfect.
Continued belowThe problem is that, in a world where the best parts of “The Flash” comic come to life in front of our eyes, perhaps the greatest part, the Rogues, come off like lesser versions of their comic characters. The Rogues are villains, but they aren’t monsters. Part of what makes Captain Cold a better villain than Mr. Freeze is that he has none of the baggage – he wants to steal shit and mess with the Flash. He has a begrudging respect for him, and is always one of the most human villains in the DCU. The rest of the Rogues share that, to lesser degrees at times, but they aren’t out to kill. They want to steal stuff.
So, to see Heatwave burning that painting was super frustrating, as was his general psychopathness. Now, granted, he’s not usually one of the “main” Rogues, but still – if you’re going to call them the Rogues, then they should act Rogue-ish.
Now, sure, they can build towards that, but I think that fans of the show would embrace a more comic-realistic version of the Rogues, as it would fit with the tone of the show – no snark (but plenty of Snart [rimshot]), all positivity. The show is so bright that it would benefit from its villains being similarly different from the grim and gritty world of Arrow. These feel, to a degree, like Arrow villains imported over. Let’s correct that, Flash team – let’s make villains that fit your own show better.
And introducing the Golden Glider might not be the best way to do.
5. The Iris problem
I have seen this said in a lot of different places, and I agree wholeheartedly: the show has an Iris problem. The chemistry between Barry and Iris is non-existent, which means that her, very real, chemistry with Eddie reads as the story we should be rooting for. Even though we “know” she should be with Barry, it is way more fun to watch her with Eddie.
In a weird way, though, she is the show’s secret weapon of character development. When she’s with Barry, you see how loving Barry is; when she’s with Joe, you see Joe’s amazing fathering skills; when she is with Eddie, you see him as a good guy, and doubt he can ever turn into a villain. So, maybe the show doesn’t have an Iris problem as much as a Barry and Iris problem. Look, if the more successful TV adaptations have taught us anything, it is that there are times when diverting from the comic source material is a good thing. Maybe it’s time for this show to do just that – let Barry find love elsewhere. Say, maybe, with a beautiful blonde from Starling City?
