Genre: Superhero, Action, Sci-fi
I was so so excited to watch The Flash. I’ve been wanting to watch it for so long. And it did not disappoint. I started watching The Flash, knowing that he could run super fast and nothing else. I know that little bit from watching the random Justice League cartoons as a child. I don’t remember Justice League being quite so complicated. If you still believe that comic books are for small kids, you should read The Flash. I haven’t, so I’m not sure how well they’re following the comics, but I’ve read that there have been some deviations. Then again, this could just be a parallel universe not documented by DC, so really, they could create their own story from scratch using familiar characters.
I found The Flash very interesting. The story is old (though new for me), and basically goes along the same lines as any other superhero story – tragic childhood, science experiment gone wrong giving a whole bunch of people super powers, the good guy hunting down bad guys with the help of his team. I guess when you have to explain how normal people get super powers, apart from a science experiment fiasco, how else do you explain it? But despite the predictability (sometimes), I liked The Flash, mostly because I fell in love with the characters. My 3 favourite characters (in order) would be:
1. Barry Allen – LOVE this guy! He’s incredibly sweet and I just couldn’t find anything to not like about him. He’s enthusiastic, energetic, adorably awkward and cares about everyone. And he’s an awesome best friend (even without the super powers). If Barry Allen were real, I would quite possibly fall hard for him. Even without the super powers. Especially without them. Grant Gustin did a spectacular job being Barry.
2. Eddie Thawne – When this guy came into the picture, I was sure he’d be a jackass. He actually turned out to be super sweet though. My favourite scene of his would be where he asks Joe if he’d like a key to his apartment. Couldn’t stop laughing.
3. Harrison Wells – An awesome mentor. The team functioned better with him in it. I couldn’t not like this guy.
I didn’t like Iris at all though. She just comes off as really annoying, untrusting and even a little bit naggy. Slightly immature too. Didn’t feel like she deserved two super awesome guys being in love with her. The sad part is that if I’m being honest, in her place, I’d probably behave similarly. And it’s really unattractive, so I’m going to try to be different. I’ve got my work cut out for me.
I thought that the story would be the typical Flash and his team catching random crazy metahumans for the entire season, but it switches up after a while and the core plot gets more complicated. There’s a lot of sciency explanations thrown at you, and I wish my knowledge of physics was better to understand if even a tenth of what they were saying made any sense whatsoever. But you don’t have to understand the science to enjoy the series, just the impact of it. There’s time travel and worm holes and (later) parallel worlds, so some of it might speed right over your head. Time travel always scrambles my brain up a bit, but the season tied up most of the loose ends with reasonable (for a world where superheroes exist) explanations quite nicely. This show is one of those where later on you won’t be able to start watching midway because there would be too much you’ve missed. These kinds of shows are interesting, but if you’re like me and have short term memory loss between seasons, it can be very frustrating too.
If you’ve been watching and enjoying Arrow, then The Flash is a spinoff, so there are a few crossover episodes. I hadn’t watched the Arrow, but I found no trouble understanding anything. Still, you’d enjoy these more if you’d watched Arrow too, obviously.
Flash vs. Arrow
I think Arrow has better skills, because all Flash has is his speed, but Arrow has skills he picked up from scratch and different kinds of arrows which makes it cooler. The Arrow’s skills are more real, so I like them more. If I could pick my super power, speed would not be it. I hate running as it is (though I could really use some speed to finish skimming through the never ending pile of books in front of me). But as a person, I love Barry more. Oliver seems more mature, sure, but he’s too broody for my taste. Again, sadly, my personality would probably match his broodiness more than it would Barry’s jumpy enthusiasm. Gotta work on that too.
Rating: 8.5/10 (7.5 for Barry, 1 for everyone else)
Should you watch this show? Who doesn’t like superheroes? Be prepared for a mini brain workout in a few episodes though.
Sapphires & Stars 