The Flash S:01 E:03

Posted on by Bubbawheat

Episode: Things You Can’t Outrun
Original Airdate: 10-21-14

This episode gets into a lot of the Star Labs team’s backstories, specifically the day of the reactor explosion. Something that I realized I didn’t talk about in last week’s episode was the final scenes with Dr. Wells. The first one shows that he has knowledge and is quite possibly from the future though his motives are ambiguous, the second one shows without a doubt that he has a much darker side, and here it shows that he actually orchestrated the particle accelerator explosion in order to create the Flash. I’m very curious to know what part he will actually play as the show goes forward, though I’m not curious enough to look through analysis from people more knowledgeable about the comics that may already have some theories that hold weight. Aside from that point, there is a lot of forward momentum with all of the characters. The freak of the week was fairly mediocre, but he wasn’t a very large part of the episode to tell the truth. We get a lot of moments where the characters have to face their truths. Iris faces the truth of her relationship with her dad’s partner and finally comes clean with her dad, who of course already knew. Caitlin Snow faces the truth of her fiance’s death during the particle accelerator explosion where she originally blamed herself as he wouldn’t have been there if she wasn’t there, but in the end he died a hero. And though the show doesn’t support this theory, since there are many meta-humans who were thought to be dead, there’s always a chance that he will show up later in the show as a meta-human himself. And Joe faces the truth of his old friend Henry Allan who he thought had killed his wife all these years and now realizes that he made a horrible mistake and essentially asks forgiveness. This is the kind of thing that makes a great series and why I have high hopes for this show, it takes something like a superhero and it makes it relate-able on a more human level as a metaphor. It reminds me of Buffy on its best days, it has already made some great relationships between the characters, and it shows much more subtlety than Gotham. It’s quickly becoming my favorite show of the season.

The Flash S:01 E:02

Posted on by Bubbawheat

Episode: The Fastest Man Alive
Original Airdate: 10-14-14

One of the things that Flash took from Smallville that was a great idea was to have this big event that quickly and easily explained how meteor freaks slash meta humans appear throughout their respective towns for them to battle over the course of the show. But where Smallville fell into the “freak of the week” hole, the Flash manages to avoid feeling like it’s falling into that trap here in the second episode. While on the surface, the episode is about the current “freak of the week” Multiplex, there is enough meat on the bones that further the other ongoing plots and also develop several of the characters and their interrelationships. I’m already a fan of Danielle Panabaker’s Caitlin which is a departure from the 90’s Tina though there is a very small hint of a possible relationship between her and Barry down the line. But at this point, it’s just a hint. I also like the love triangle between Barry and his kinda-step sister who he keeps blowing off to be the Flash while she is yet another superhero friend going into a journalism career, kinda. What this episode really does well is explore the adoptive father-son relationship between Joe and Barry and it works very well here aside from the cliched moment where he yells that Joe isn’t really his father. And the special effects continue to look amazing with Multiplex’s many doubles all looking realistic. And while I imagine this is something true for all versions of the Flash, I like to think that it’s another nod to the 90’s series how they work out his increased appetite. All in all, another great episode.

The Flash S:01 E:01

Posted on by Bubbawheat

Episode: Pilot
Original Airdate: 10-7-14

Even though I haven’t been watching Arrow, this was the show that I’ve been most excited for this season. I’m a big fan of the Flash and everything I’ve heard about this show before now has been pretty positive. They want to take it in a more sci-fi direction, they have John Wesley Shipp as an homage to the 90’s short lived Flash series which I’m glad I caught up with a few months back, and they have Danielle Panabaker who I remember from when she was in Sky High. It has a lot more of what’s missing from the rest of the superhero TV shows this season: fun. Yes, there are some serious moments, but there is a lot more fun in this show than Gotham, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., or even Arrow from what I gather. Those other shows do have their fun moments, and Flash has a serious side too, but this is the right way to do a superhero on TV right now. It’s the closest thing to a Marvel movie brought to the small screen, which is funny because it is a DC property.
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