The Flash has finally premiered and I can't state how excited I was to watch it (again). The pilot episode was originally leaked on various online websites, like Couchtuner and Video On Demand Locker (VodLocker) and I loved every minute of the episode. If you've been following Arrow you'd have met Barry previously as he made appearances on the extremely popular series. But now that Barry has his own series this fan favorite hero from DC Comics can get a superpowered dose of everything that comes with a Superhero TV series showcasing "Meta" abilities.
Barry's scene with Oliver Queen is beyond amazing and I love the fact that DC is doing this with these characters in both their series, in this manner. Paying homage to the old comics that brought these characters together in the original JSA. Whether or not we're going to see a new rendition of Green Lantern is more and more prevalent. Especially with Amell lobbying the studio to introduce the character in his series. Chances are with the various tidbits we've seen in The Flash, Lantern may make an appearance first here, if at all.
With the discussions about Gotham vs Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. wearing fans down it's great to see this series start out amazingly well.
Let's look at this weeks #TheBreakdown for The Flash Season 1 Premiere "City of Heroes" and try and get some perspective on new and existing characters in this episode.
Barry Allen / The Flash: This actor embodies Barry Allen exceedingly well. He's charismatic, comes across humble and feels heroic all at once. He also conveys a sense that he's broken but is inherently kind hearted.
While I expect a moderate amount of angst toward the immediate love interest in Iris West, I'm hopeful that there will be more crossover with Felicity from Arrow to either provide more tensional angst between both Iris and Barry as well as Oliver and Felicity's characters.
At the end of the premiere when I heard Wells say "Run Barry, run!" I originally jumped out of my seat. It was an awesome moment but then the moment was killed by my stupid brain for bringing to the surface a memory out of comparison. Because Barry's forward facing close up of his running around the tornado I couldn't help but see an image of Jim Parsons, as Sheldon Cooper, in a Flash costume, during a scene from The Big Bang Theory. It made me laugh, but I do realize that some of the execution was a bit cheesy to say the least; rather the look of the special effect. If they stray away from too many closeups like that, which I doubt they would, It will look infinitely better. Otherwise those shots are just awkward and takes you out of the moment. Because your mind can't help but see something that looks relatively crappy, if I'm allowed to be overtly harsh.
These shots in the sequence, on the other hand, are damn near inspirational.
The perspective from the start of that scene was phenomenal and awe inspiring. Coupled with the music, one of my favorite DC superheroes truly came to life beautifully.
This was an excellent start for this series, it wrapped itself around his origins, which we had already seen a glimpse of in Arrow and it effectively gave you some of his back story involving his mother and managed to involve Professor Zoom, Thawne, In that moment. All of this in one neatly organized pilot episode.
Iris West: Iris is Barry's love interest and the daughter of the man that raised him when his mother passed away. She eventually becomes Iris Allen, Barry's future wife. She's also Wally West's Aunt (Kid Flash, who later takes over as Flash).
So far we've seen her in a relationship with Eddie Thawne, how long that development will last is anyones guess. For now its a source of stryfe for Barry but without the knowledge that Thawne might be the man that killed his mother it will be a simple emotion of longing. Nothing more.
Candice Patton is exceptionally believable as Iris and has amazing chemistry with Barry. For those not completely familiar with the characters history, she will be similar to Lois Lane for Barry. At least in the love-from-afar & angst department--until they finally get together and subsequently marry. I can already see a long drawn out courting ritual similar to Smallville. However, I hope they take radically different approaches to this scenario.
Detective Joe West: Joe is Iris' father and a surrogate father for Barry after his mother was killed. Joe by the end of the pilot is completely aware of Barry's identity as Flash and we'll see a very different take on this parental dynamic then we have in the past with Smallville and even Arrow's Quentin Lance with his daughter who plays Black Canary.
The dynamic should be amazingly interesting with his role as a cop working along side Barry who is in Forensics.
Eddie (Eobard?) Thawne / Professor Zoom / Reverse-Flash: This character is interestingly difficult for Barry to thwart and is a bit of a master mind in making Barry's life exceedingly difficult (at least in the comics), even in an animated form both of these characters (Barry & Thawne) out shined most of DC's animated outings with The Flashpoint Paradox. I'm exceedingly interested to see what this series will cook up with this character.
We've seen in the opening the Reverse-Flash kill Barry's mother. However a few random moments in this episode where Thawne was relatively useless throws me off. I'm not sure if it's intentional that we're thrown off on purpose or if Eddie Thawne is not Eobard Thawne, the Reverse-Flash.
Harrison Wells: I'm curious if his name is a play on the famous writers name H.G. Wells? While Herbert George Wells is not the same as Harrison Wells. H.G. is notably famous for writing The Time Machine. At the end of this episode Wells is using a very specific device that I think is directly from the comics. The Cosmic Treadmill. Even though it doesn't look like much of a treadmill. Wells is looking at April 25h, 2024.
I'm not familiar with the name Wells which makes me think he's new and not from the comics and I was not 100% sure--so I looked him up. When it comes to my colleagues, Charles Rouse-Rodriguez is more in tune with Flash and Green Lantern comics then I am. Even though Flash is one my favorites from the Justice League I have yet to read all of the (over 30,000) comics I have collected throughout my life, more specifically the multiple long boxes I have based on Barry's adventures. I can also hear my friend and colleague yelling through the internet, "WALLY! Screw Barry!"--his preferred portrayal of The Flash.
From the looks of the series, so far, I'm venturing a theory that the explosion, which looked nothing of the sort, was intentional. One argument I've read online is that if Wells actually had the Cosmic Treadmill he'd have known about the explosion...Which is a decent argument, 'relatively' speaking. But you guys know me better than to just follow random arguments and complacently accept them without debating them. I'm thinking Wells either needed the explosion to occur to generate a power source or singularity to use the Cosmic Treadmill. He may have been repeating the process to attempt gaining the speed force himself. Either way he has a fixation with Barry and we'll likely be finding out one puzzle piece at a time throughout the season. Episode 3, "Things You Can't Outrun" will be focusing heavily on Wells. So I expect a few revelations about the character.
Tom Cavanagh was extremely natural in this role and gave a great performance. When he was scolding Barry over wanting to go and be a "hero" you can tell from his angry remark:
"You're not a hero...you're just a young man who was struck by lightning."
That there was more to Wells than we thought upto that point. He almost displayed hidden scorn (a micro-expression, like a facial tick you can't avoid when you despise someone intensely but are faking politeness). It was a great performance to watch and Cavanaugh was exceptionally comfortable in this characters shoes.
Cosmic Treadmill and Time Travel: Like I stated above I'm fairly certain the room with the device that peered into the future is this series' revision on the Cosmic Treadmill device used in various Flash comics. Greg Berlanti has also gone on record to state that time travel is an important part of the comics for Flash and it will play a role. Right away from the minor cliffhanger in the pilot episode nonetheless, we get to see this come into play.
We also see a few teases, from Wayne and Queen merging their companies to "Red Skies Vanish" alongside "Flash missing vanishes in crisis" which tells me there are a variety of flashpoint and possible Infinite Crisis scenarios coming into play. I'm sure there may be a variety of possibilities for red skies, but for me that rings in my mind as a Solaris reference. Either way, we already know that this show is going to go balls to the wall with live action interpretations of other super powered beings and utilize some time travel scenarios. For now I'm happily sated with all I've received in a pilot and what I know is coming in just the next two episodes.
Meta-Humans: Obviously we are going to be seeing a variety of superheroes and supervillains coming forth within this series. More so because it opened the door with the STAR Labs explosion. We already have had a variety of character leaks prior to the premiere (including the leak of this episode in June). The level of speculation is extraordinarily high and I think the studio loves that we're going nuts trying to figure out who and what's coming next.
Clyde Mardon / Weather Wizard: In the Comics Clyde died of a heart attack (or was possibly killed by his brother) and Mark Mardon is the Weather Wizard and used his brother Clydes' (who was a scientist) wand to manipulate the weather.
Here we have Clyde gaining the ability to manipulate weather directly after the anomaly that exploded out from STAR Labs' Particle Accelerator destroyed the aircraft he was fleeing in. The same anomaly that struck Barry in his lab.
Weather Wizard is part of a group of villains that are constantly battling with the Flash. It's interesting to see he'd get killed so unceremoniously in the pilot. I imagine that what we saw as a "kill" may not have been fatal. We'll have to see down the road. Plus Chad Rook was awesomely deranged in the part in a manner that made you pay attention to an otherwise low-tier villain.
Caitlin Snow & Cisco Roman: Both newcomer characters that added a great air to the series. It's almost cliche to have the tech sidekicks and the mentor that are on the sidelines helping from afar while the hero goes out and deals with evil. But they made sense and worked well. I had random notions fill my mind about Cisco, as I watched him on the screen, but after researching my random thoughts I think I'm going to keep them to myself for now. I can admit when one of my theories are really nothing. If more transpires from him with better references I'll revisit the idea.
Cisco did have a Bazinga T-shirt on, a likely nod to TV character Sheldon Cooper, the character who coined the phrase "Bazinga", loves The Flash and played in the costumed scene I posted above.
Grodd: Aside from the interesting reference to the massive Gorilla, why was there a large primate caged near a particle accelerator? Grodd is a longtime adversary of many of the characters from the Justice League throughout the comics. However he was a major villain mostly against Flash. I haven't found any credits for him yet online and I am hoping at some point that he does get a chance to make an appearance. But he's such an intense villain, only swayed by rage, he'd likely be a central character in the future once we've been taken deep into the Meta-Human rabbit hole. For now I imagine this reference is as nod-worthy as it is weird for its choice of location and placement.
STAR Labs: We already knew that STAR Labs was going to be heavily showcased in this series and I definitely expected a certain amount of labeling, but it was everywhere. This series took on a very specific avenue of attack for the popular landmark and plot focused lab that is common throughout the DC Universe. Here it's a focus for the origin of the Flash and holds more sinister secrets that will be unfolding throughout the future of the series.
Part of my belief that the explosion was not an accident is the secret access point inside of the Lab where Wells viewed a newspaper of the future. It was perfectly intact.
I'm eager to see this particular aspect of the series unfold and how STAR Labs will be repurposed down the road as a solid and credible facility for cutting edge scientific research.
Ferris Air & Gambi Cleaners References: Most of you should know by now that Ferris Air was the company where Hal Jordan worked as a test pilot. That one was almost a given. Wells took his small team with Barry to test his abilities at one of their air fields.
Gambi Cleaners is a fun Reference to Paul Gambi who is a tailor for The Rogues with members that included Captain Cold, Mirror Master, Heat Wave and Weather Wizard among others. We already know that Captain Cold and Heat Wave will be making appearances, played by Wentworth Miller and Dominic Purcell (respectively). We already know that Firestorm and Clock King will also be making appearances. and because not all Meta's will obviously villains, we can presume firestorm for the good guys but until he appears and has his ordeal we won't know if he starts out that way.
Gambi in the comics made various costumes for the villains aboves so they can go up against The Flash. It would be interesting to see him in the series at some point.
The series premiere fired on all cylinders and was extremely fun to watch. I was delayed in writing this piece due to other work but I have now essentially viewed, noted and researched as much of this first episode over 5 times before getting this piece completed.
I do have a little bit of a professional gripe and I only argue about this because it's part of what I do for a day job outside of writing and editing for various websites. I produce & edit film and footage for TV and local news. Which allows me to be quite picky of how something is edited together. The scene where Barry causes the mustang to flip easily shows how Barry's side of the vehicle is crushed in. In a normal crash whoever is sitting in that passenger seat (if not thrown forward toward the dash violently) would have had their skull crushed. But that's not the gripe. You can see the stunt vehicle is literally crushed in on that side as the crash progresses but a moment after, when it cuts to Barry getting out of the car, it's not at all crushed. That's an editing error that causes my pedantic little heart to rage.
The Flash pulled no punches and came out of the gate very strong. It setup the pace, the tone and the universe we recognize for the Flash effectively. I'll be working toward breaking down each episode of this series every week (hopefully next time by the morning after) its airing. Mostly to pull out new information but always for entertainment.
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by @EmanuelFCamacho
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