I thought the episode was excellent, even though it’s a “bread and butter” sort of episode.
Trying to put my finger on it again - somehow this show really captures the free spirit of some of the early 60s DC stuff. I mean, at the same time that Marvel was doing the schtick of juxtaposing ordinary life with the fantastic, to make the fantastic seem more real, people often forget that DC was also having a rebirth of its own, starting with the Flash and moving onto a whole roster of wonderful characters and wild scenarios.
That side of comics is really well represented here. It all has that Proustian whiff of the mental freedom that comics can give you when you’re young - a sunny day, the smell of the paper and ink, maybe the smell of cars and petrol in the petrol station you just bought the comic from, the freshly mown grass of the mall, and sitting down to the 4 colour charm - and inside, the mind, ranging wildly across all sorts of whacky, wonderful concepts, and the sheer delighting in the thought of having powers beyond the norm - the intrinsic fun of the superhero mythos. This series captures that particular sense of fun and wildness almost better than any other tv/movie representation there’s yet been.
The Flash doesn’t just walk the line between awesome and absurd, it struts that line with head held high, daring you to not enjoy the trip. This is really the best balanced superhero show out there. I will say that Marvels AOS is figuring out how to walk that line as well. Both shows make for a very entertaining evening on tv.
At the end of The Flash episode, he says a cute little comment like “I thought I needed to go bigger. Now I see that the answer is to go smaller” when he was talking about how to improve his suit. I’m assuming we’ll see him work towards that back over on Arrow (which I’m also not watching. I missed 3 episodes in the middle of the season and have no way to catch back up on them… no CW VOD? WTF?)
With all the moody, hyper-violent, lethal superheroes out there now, the old-fashioned hero sensibilities and pure joy of having super-powers that The Flash flaunts is just a lot if fun. There’s always a joy to it, an exhilarating and exultant quality that no other show quite captures. Yes, it takes me back to being able to buy a comic, a Coke, and a candy bar for a quarter (rot your teeth and your brain at the same time!). Okay, two comics and a candy bar (no tax!).
“So I’m just curious, have you guys not heard of me or what?”
That’s the kind of thing no one else, that I’ve seen, is really doing in superhero shows. The tone, smart ass humor but also really why ARE they still trying to get away with this stuff with the Flash around, is just perfect. I also give a lot of credit to Brandon Routh. He’s game, he manages to walk on to this one episode, with Felicity the scene stealer, and generate immediate enjoyable moments between his character and Cisco. It feels like those two guys have been working together forever, not just on one show.
Routh’s better than a lot of people give him credit for. Superman Returns had major script problems, but they weren’t Routh’s fault. I enjoyed both his Clark and his Superman, and he also had a nice guest run on Chuck in which he excelled. He’ll make a solid Atom, but they need for that character to get small, fast. Otherwise, he’s just another version of Iron Man.
Yeah I don’t watch Arrow, so I spent the entire episode trying to figure out how come Ray Palmer looked like Clark Kent and was wearing Tony Stark’s suit.
(And does every scientist in the CW-verse also need to be a genius multi-bazillionaire or the employee of a genius multi-bazillionaire? I kinda liked the idea that there was a superhero who was just a college professor.)
Arrow is very good, but it’s a different vibe than The Flash. It tilts heavily on the grim dark side of things, so I could understand some Flash fans not caring for it.
I have no problem with guy with bow, and I’m actually a Green Arrow fan. But when I found out Arrow was a grimdark REVENGE! show I skipped it. To me the whole point of Oliver Queen is that, while he does what Batman does, he does it for entirely different reasons while being an entirely different person. Robin Hood is not dark and broody.
(Not that I dislike dark and broody as such, but that’s what Batman is for.)
The problem with the Arrow is its low budget Batman complete with ripped off plots. I liked what they were doing with the series early on, in spite of the teen angst everyone’s parents suck overload it was relying on. But now, its become a re-skinned Batman and that’s really not a good thing.
Another great episode this week. The crossover was fun, the villain enabled them to set up some amusing scenes, and most importantly, they’ve got all the pieces pointing to Wells in hand now. I’m not sure how many episodes are left this season (2? 3?), but I have huge hopes for a rocking finale.
Edit: and Wells going to see Eddie at the end was intriguing.
I don’t know what was more fun, seeing the villain live a ‘what if’ Barry life for a brief time, or seeing the Flash fight the women in his life. It was just so bizarre. The road trip for pizza was awesome. One thing about this show, they don’t dwell on the implications very much. Tons of people falsely imprisoned? Well, clear their names and release them! We’re good now, right?
That’s so they don’t kill the show’s happy feel good vibe. Scenes of the falsely accused trying to pick up the pieces of their lives would be realistic but not fun, so gloss over it instead and move on. I’m fine with that.
The lighthearted tone of this show certainly makes it easier to ignore the stupid parts. That’s probably why I never took to Arrow, which doesn’t have that advantage.
