The Flash Duet Television 

Five Thoughts on The Flash‘s “Duet”

By | March 22nd, 2017
Posted in Television | 2 Comments

The long-rumored, much anticipated (or much dreaded) musical crossover between The Flash and Supergirl is here! Read on, my darlings, for my song and dance routine about this weird episode of television.

1. Starry-eyed over Barry and Kara

Look, I know that this episode ended with everything happy in the love lives of our titular characters, but fuck it, I’m still shipping them. The chemistry between them is amazingly infectious, and their current significant others are sort of downers, aren’t they? Barry never seems happier, or less stressed, than when he’s with Kara. They understand each other, and they could do adorable song and dance shit all the time. I know it makes no sense for the shows themselves, but I’d love for the CW-verse to end with Barry and Kara, after “Crisis on Infinite Earths,” when everyone thinks they’re dead, but they’re just chilling in their apartment in the Speed Force, practicing their best Sondheim.

2. Millie’s Two Dads

The fun of doing episodes like this is that you get to showcase your actors in new and fun ways. Sure, some people just wind up being pretty much the same (*cough* *cough* Mon-El and Iris *cough* *cough*), but then you get to make Jesse L. Martin and Victor Garber as the handsomest couple this side of eternity, you get Jeremy Jordan as a ham of a piano player and Carlos Valdez doing slides across the floor. We all knew that Grant Gustin and Melissa Benoist can sing from their time on Glee, and John Barrowman seems like the type of guy who sings the harmony on “Happy Birthday” at every chance he can get, but there are some serious singers in the cast. Exhibit A:

I’ve watched that video far too many times.

But I like how this episode let people sing without having to give them horrendously stupid in-show reasons for them to sing. Of course, you can really only go to this well once, especially because if Music Meister ever shows up again, I may puke blood.

Let’s get into that for a second: So, he threatens their lives (remember, they were a hair’s breath from actually dying) to show them how important love is? That is some lazy writing which, coincidentally, sort of helps the show going forward (more on that later). But seriously, in a universe full of really, really pointless villains who get no depth at all, was this the worst one yet?

3. Wally’s hair

Is it just me, or does Wally have a solid 2 inches more hair than he did last week? I’m not complaining, it’s a dope look, especially with the open cowl, but it just seemed like way, way more hair than I remembered.

4. Superfriends action

Seeing Vibe, Martian Manhunter, Killer Frost, and Kid Flash kick some ass together was so much fun, even if it lasted less than 2 minutes. This is some serious DC fanboying on my end, but I love that the shows are figuring out how to make all these characters’ powers work well together in ways that they simply weren’t doing early on. The taking out of Music Meister was as well choreographed as any fight sequence in the CW history, and it felt so damn good. I hope that the next big crossover will have much more of this type of action.

5. Oddly important to the endgame of each show’s season

I did not expect this episode to really matter all that much, what with it taking place in a fantasy musical world, but both Iris and Barry and Kara and Mon seem to be in genuinely better places in their relationships as a result of it. And, while for Supergirl that might not mean all that much, that is huge for The Flash. Having Barry and Iris at odds before the big showdown with Savitar seemed like an unnecessary obstacle in what is already a crowded field of obstacles. After this episode, both shows can (somewhat) drop the drama and get down to the endgame.

So, what did you think of all the singing and the dancing and the pretty laydies and the glaven? Let me know in the comments!


//TAGS | The Flash

Brian Salvatore

Brian Salvatore is an editor, podcaster, reviewer, writer at large, and general task master at Multiversity. When not writing, he can be found playing music, hanging out with his kids, or playing music with his kids. He also has a dog named Lola, a rowboat, and once met Jimmy Carter. Feel free to email him about good beer, the New York Mets, or the best way to make Chicken Parmagiana (add a thin slice of prosciutto under the cheese).

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