This
blog entry is the second of several in which I plan to talk a little bit about
what I watch on television. In it, I write about the second of four programs
that share a single DC Television Universe—actually two universes that exist in
parallel, but that’s just one of the story elements. I promise to be as
spoiler-free as possible, but I can’t promise not to include any spoilers at
all.
This
time up... The FLASH
As
I mentioned in part 1, this iteration of The
Flash began in the series Arrow. It is the story of Barry Allen, a forensic
scientist employed by the Central City Police Department whose mother was
murdered “by a ball of lightning” when he was young and whose father went to
prison, having been wrongly convicted of committing that crime. Fourteen years
after his mother’s murder, a particle accelerator at Star Labs malfunctions and
spreads an unknown form of radiation over the city during a thunderstorm. Barry
is struck by lightning during this event and, after lying in a coma for nine
months, awakes with the ability to move extremely fast. He soon becomes a
costumed crime-fighting superhero known as “The Flash.”
I
remember hearing that, although The Flash
and Arrow were going to coexist in the
same universe, The Flash was not going to be as dark and brooding
a show as Arrow. Though that made
sense, given the differences in the two lead characters’ backgrounds and
experiences, it also gave me pause. Not only do I usually like shows that are a
little on the dark and serious side, but the fact that these two shows were
going to share a universe meant that superpowers were now going to exist in the
“Arrowverse.” When actor Grant Gustin, whom I had never heard of—I never
watched Glee—was announced as the
lead, my first impression upon seeing a picture of him was that, in my opinion,
he was too young to be an accomplished forensic scientist. So, when The Flash premiered, I went into it with
a healthy dose of skepticism, and the first several episodes left me with the
impression that the show would have fit in well with the Saturday morning
lineup of shows that I used to watch as a child.
I
almost quit watching it, but then, somewhere in the latter part of the first
half of the first season, the show started to get good. Grant Gustin grew into
the role in a way that I didn’t expect and I soon had no more difficulty
accepting him as Barry Allen. Eventually, time travel worked its way into the
storyline, and I do like a good time travel story. If you’ve read my ongoing Solfleet series of novels, you already
know that. Over time, pardon the pun, that aspect of the overall plot has
become more and more intricate, and it continues to do so. If I have one
complaint, it is this: Eobard Thawne/Reverse-Flash, Jay Garrick/the Flash from
another Earth, Wally West/Kid Flash, Jesse Wells/Jesse Quick, the evil
speedster in black—Too many speedsters, in my opinion, makes Barry Allen’s
character far less unique and impressive. Like Arrow, though perhaps to a lesser extent, The Flash has also introduced a number of other DC characters that
have taken a little too much of the focus away from the Barry Allen/Flash character—Cisco
Ramon is Vibe, Caitlin Snow is trying not to be Killer Frost, Firestorm was
there for a relatively short period, and, of course, there are the
aforementioned speedsters.
Unlike
Arrow, though, despite all of that, I’ve never felt
that The Flash lost
something along the way. As promised, it has never been as dark and brooding, but
I still enjoyed watching it. Like with Arrow,
I have never considered not watching it anymore—not since the early first season. Like I said in part 1 of this
series of posts, developing the supporting cast of characters is certainly not
a bad thing. It makes them seem more real...more human. I recently heard that
there are not going to be anymore evil speedsters after this season. I do hope
that is true, and based on the most recent episode of Legends of Tomorrow, it appears as though it is...but more about
that in part 3.
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