REVIEW: THE FLASH Episode 1: "Pilot"

Awesome! It's funny because people on this site have a penchant for giving EVERYTHING a 5/5 but I actually agree with the rating. There was nothing that I disliked about it.

I found it somewhat forced. The characters interact in overly familiar ways after just meeting, we go from the 'mystery' of the mother's death right to it having been another speedster, the relationship between Allen and his best friend/love interest (I forget her name), it just didn't click.

Add in the Smallville like format; this week on The Flash (Smallville) another villain who gained powers from the particle accelerator accident (meteor storm) and I was not particularly impressed.

I'll keep watching and hope for improvement, hell, I'm still watching Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and that's been average or worse most of the time, but so far I'm not feeling good about the show.

5/5? The Gotham pilot was closer to that rating, but you gave it a 3.5/5 instead (which is what I'd give this pilot, at most; I'd probably give it a 3/5 to be safe, because I did like it, but a lot of what I hated stood out like a hangnail). I enjoyed the episode, but I really hate how these characters talk, they all feel rather lifeless, and the actors don't seem to be having much fun with their roles (besides Gustin, of course, I thought he did good work), as their characters come across more like outlandish caricatures, rather then actual human-beings with real feelings and emotions at stake. The dialogue is largely what gave me this impression, the scientist characters are all pretty generic and stale; citing a lot of cheesy, "I'm so brilliant because of... blah, blah, blah" lines. I did like Grant Gustin as Barry Allen/The Flash, and the action/effects were pretty cool, but nothing else really stood out to me, the scene in the jail with Barry's father at the end was great though and the reference to Grodd was awesome as well.

However, that love triangle was atrocious and almost made me give up watching. Already I hate the character of Iris and in the comics she's Barry's key love interest, so I'd call that a bad start. I found it disgusting how she thought nothing of the fact that she's dating/sleeping with her father's partner, that revelation immediately made me hate her character and her conniving, "it's no big deal to be friend-zoned" smile. Sure, she's beautiful, and I'm sure the actress is very likeable outside of this role, but her character is just a void all-around thanks to melodramatic writing. At least Gotham has a set-in-stone relationship between Barbara and Gordon already established, which feels genuine and authentic, but the Iris/Detective "Pretty Boy" relationship just feels shoe-horned in to create unnecessary jealousy, teenage angst-type scenarios.

I'm not sure if I'll keep up with this show, as Gotham and AoS are enough to leave me satisfied, plus Constantine sounds/looks really promising as well, but I'll check out a couple more episodes before I dismiss it completely. I just don't get how shows like this and Arrow are better received than Gotham and AoS, those shows have far more interesting characters and mysterious stories to unravel that it's a shame when a show like The Flash comes along and is just content with being on the level of banal, soap-opera garbage like Smallville and Heroes. I hated those shows because they all started out promising, only to progressively get more and more repetitive as they churned along.

Grant Gustin was better than I expected although I think he'd be better if he were 5-10 years older. Pretty much every character on the show was weak. Some of the cops were okay, but they had limited screen time. The two teeny doctors and Dr. Wells were really bad. The FX were good when it was just red/yellow blurs zipping around, but when they tried to show Gustin running inside the blur it was really bad. Between the really young looking cast and the whole particle accelerator affected other people a la "freak of the week", this show looks like Smallville all over again; which would've been fine 10 years ago.

The shows only redeeming qualities for me are Gustin's acting so far and some solid writing. They just need better, and older actors.

The costume is still god awful. I like the concept behind it, but the leathery look with that ridiculous mask just doesn't make the grade. If they made the costume one solid texture and made the mask thinner without the chin piece it would be a lot better. It doesn't have to be a unitard, but make the top and bottoms the same texture and color, with a smaller belt.

I just feel like this show took a step backwards from Arrow. It won't last long if they keep introducing villains as lame as the weather wizard. I sure as heck don't want Flash's rogues gallery to consist entirely of teenagers that gained their abilities from the particle accelator blowing up. It's stupid and definitely can't exist in the same universe as Superman and the other superheroes.