The Flash Season 1 So Far

The Flash Season 1 So Far

When I was watching Arrow Season 2 a character played by Grant Gustin called Barry Allen was introduced. Being a comic book noob I immediately about what a nice likeable chap he seemed. Then he did some cool stuff, he saved Oliver’s life and gave him his mask, which is let’s face it, way better than face paint. He had showed us his worth, he was part of team Arrow. Then he went home and got struck by lightning.

 

I thought that it was rather abrupt but he would probably come back later in the series. Fortunately I stumbled across a YouTube video explaining that he was actually The Flash, the iconic Justice League character with the ability to run at great speeds. I then learnt he was getting his own television show and so my inner nerd eagerly awaited the pilot episode. I am pleased to say I wasn’t disappointed.

 

Barry Allen saw his mother murdered by a man in a yellow suit when he was just a boy. The man could move so fast, it seemed impossible and his father was falsely accused and arrested. When Barry Allen is struck by lightning he is put into a coma for several months. Once he wakes up he discovers he has developed super powers. He can now run at speeds unlike any other man on earth and with the help of his new friends at Star labs, he tracks down other people who have developed powers and saves the people they threaten.

 

While it does share similarities with Arrow it is its own show doing its own thing. It is slightly more light hearted for the most part and while it has moments just as dark as Arrow, here we have more jokes and banter which is an enjoyable change of pace. It seems more appropriate here with the over exaggerated superpowers. As Catlin says in the Arrow Flash crossover it has all seemed a bit like a game. It is however a game with incredibly high stakes.

 

As I said previously Barry Allen was just so damn likeable. Being a comic book noob I have no idea what he’s like in the comics but here he was great. The show in general has a slightly lighter tone than Arrow and the same applies for Barry. It’s still a serious show and it has its dark moments, but Barry is so full of optimism and hope despite that he watched his mother get murdered. He loves to help people and as a view you can’t help but get wrapped up in his crusade. Barry reacts to developing super speed in a similar way to what I would, he enjoys it. But he doesn’t just take advantage for his own needs, he uses it to help other people and to do good in the world.

 

My favourite aspect of the show is the Dynamic in Star lab. The team of Barry, Catlin and Cisco. They’re just like a group of reminds messing around in a lab. Cisco especially is incredibly cheerful and upbeat, but more than that he’s very relatable like Barry because he’s just like a normal young adult. He reacts enthusiastically to seeing all these super powers. He gets wrapped up in it all, despite what terrible things have happened he doesn’t take everything too seriously. It makes him very human, like it’s his way of dealing with everything, just like how he names all the villains.

 

Catlin meanwhile starts off seeming cold and distant. We later learn of the tragic death of her fiancé Ronnie Raymond and we understand completely. However the more time she spends with Barry and Cisco the more her icy exterior melts away to reveal someone who is also optimistic and hopeful, she’s just been hit hard by Ronnie’s death. She becomes more light hearted too, almost playful at times. Whether she and cisco are debating how many bugs Barry follows when he runs or something simple like taking shots, they alongside Barry despite everything crazy that’s going on keep their humanity and enjoy the downtime they get.

 

Perhaps the most interesting character is Harrison Wells. I will discuss him with spoilers later on but there is an air of mystery around his character. Despite this, he shows very clear remorse for the particle accelerator accident, which caused the event that gave people super powers and abilities (People referred to as Meta humans). He himself is confined to a wheelchair because of this. While he does act like a father figure to the three other residents of Star labs, he appears to have ulterior motives and they become more and more apparent as the series goes on.

 

The other interesting dynamic is between Barry and his surrogate father Detective Joe West. Joe unlike Wells has no ulterior motives, he cares about Barry and he’s a good cop, one who only cares about doing good thing to help people and to protect his family. Not only that, watching some of their back and forth banter is a joy and the heartfelt emotional moments just as much so. There’s not a lot else to say about him, he’s a good guy.

 

Being a thing on television means that naturally there is a romance in the show. It involves Barry as he sees his friends Iris West’s and Eddie Thawne’s relationship develop. This is one of the weaker aspects of the show, especially at first. It did pick up once Iris starts blogging about The Flash as we start to see a wedge driven between Iris and Eddie, as Eddie feels threatened by the Flash. However it does pose the question of what to do with Iris as she seems the least relevant character. While she does write a blog and blog writers are some of the world’s most interesting people, I can’t help but think they could’ve done a bit more with her. That being said, now she knows about Barry we could see a lot of tension being built and this arc may start paying off after the mid-season break.

 

The show looks great. When Barry runs he looks and feels fast. The other powers look powerful and all the effects do well to add to the illusion to the viewer that these powers could actually exist. I also like how they use science to explain the extraordinary abilities some of the characters exhibit. While it is obviously made up, it adds to the realism of what is a very unrealistic concept.

 

I’m going to discuss some spoilers in the next part of this post so you have been warned.            

 

The Reverse Flash

The Reverse Flash, referred to as the man in yellow has proven himself to be the most dangerous antagonist in The Flash. If nothing else, this guy is menacing. He is a lot bigger and more imposing than Barry and with those bright red eyes he is truly terrifying. He has history with Barry, having killed his mother and he claims that he and Barry have being don’t this a long time when they are fighting in a football stadium. This does not make much sense until you consider time travel does play a role in the comics (Who’s a comic book noob now?) and it seems likely that this will be expanded on during the latter part of the season.

 

The Reverse Flashes identity has been a talking point throughout. There seems to be two main suspects:

 

Eddie Thawne:

I wouldn’t have really expected Eddie until I found out that the name Thawne is an important one in The Flash universe. A man named Eobard Thawne is a reverse Flash and thus suspicion of Eddie could be accurate. However he is very much in the dark at the moment, only just finding out about Meta humans from Joe in themed season finale. On top of this the detective has shown no signs of being a Meta human. At this point all he shares with the Reverse flash is a hatred for the Flash and a name and while his character will almost certainly be expanded upon, at least for now he doesn’t seem to be the villain here.

 

Harrison Wells:

My jaw dropped to the floor when I saw that post credit scene from episode 9. We has just seen the Reverse Flash beating the Hell out of Wells and here he was with a yellow suit and then he even made the same voice. This would point to Wells being the Reverse Flash, however if there’s one thing we’ve learnt about Wells it’s that there’s a lot more to him than you think. We saw that multiple times in the first half of the season, the newspaper from the future with the headline Flash missing in Crisis is proof of that. He is clearly from the future but why he is doing what he does remains a mystery. It seems unlikely he will be an outright villain however, he often talks about a better future and he may see the ends justifying the means.

 

We do see that he is certainly not heroic however. Why he sits in his chair is still unknown. You could say it’s to divert any suspicion but surely him being able to walk would not make these highly intelligent characters assume he’s a man with super speed. There’s more though as he doesn’t have any issue with killing or sacrificing a Meta human for his own needs. But there’s more than that as he takes the blood of the dead Meta Human who drained Barry’s power to learn how he did it. If he is the Reverse Flash why would he need to know how to how as he is already faster than Barry.

 

Whatever his better future is though, it clearly involves The Flash in some way. We know the particle accelerator accident would affect Barry and he is always pushing Barry to be faster. Of all the characters on the show, this is the one I look forward to seeing his development the most.

 

Firestorm:

Firestorm is a character we’ve seen very little of. What happened to Ronnie Raymond to make him like this is a mystery but we do know he has become a powerful Meta human who has powers involving fire. We see him set himself on fire and without him The Reverse Flash would’ve killed Barry. Anyone who can take on the man in yellow will clearly have a far bigger role as the series progresses.

 

 Unfortunately there’s not a lot else to say at this point as while something does seem to be going wrong inside his head, we haven’t had enough of him yet to piece anything together. It is however worth mentioning that when Catlin finds him she is willing to break her morals for him and it could be interesting to see what lengths she will go to in order to help him. It is possible it could cause a rift in star labs if not more.

 

I have been very impressed with The Flash so far and I am looking forward to it returning. Even more impressive is my restraint in this post for only using a very small number of puns.. The show can’t return quickly enough … Damn it.