Its
crazy how easily I could've missed out on one of the best series of
the past year and a half. The Flash aired its first season on the CW
as a spinoff from Arrow which is a show I had no interest in
watching. If Donnie hadn't told me to check it out I never would've
because that channel is not a channel I watch. Yeah, back in the day
I watched Felicity, Dawson's Creek, and Smallville but that was it.
Oh, and I think Buffy. It also didn't help that I watch everything
online or Youtube. This is going to be full of spoilers so if you
don't wanna know stop reading. But if you're one of those people that
can read 'em and not care then knock yourself out.
This
show is about a forensics guy named Barry Allen (Grant Austin) that
was struck by lightning after an experiment in the city went wrong
and can move ridiculously fast. Others were also given powers and he
fights against them with the help of Dr. Wells (Tom Cavanagh) who was
in charge of the experiment at S.T.A.R Labs, Dr. Caitlin Snow
(Danielle Panabaker) who is a bio-engineering expert, and Cisco
(Carlos Valdes) their mechanical engineer. His father was arrested
for the murder of his mom after a “man in yellow” killed her and
no one believes it. He was adopted by his fathers friend Joe West
(Jesse L. Martin) and lived with his daughter Iris who he likes but
never tells. Here are the 10 Reasons Why You Should Have Watched The
Flash.
Great
Personal Interaction
In
most TV shows you see two main characters that do most of the heavy
lifting. In others its that plus two others who are likely doing so
just so they can date later on. In this show there are more than six
interactions between the characters that actually have an effect on
the show and each other. You can't have Barry pissing off Iris and
not have Joe know about it. You can't have Cisco working on something
without Barry knowing or Dr. Wells finding out. There are no wasted
characters on this show and everyone crosses paths with one another.
A show based on a character that runs fast would fail miserably if
not for the great interaction between everyone.
Supporting
Cast That Matters
This
is not one of those shows where if the main character isn't on screen
you count the minutes until they are back. Smallville was like that.
The supporting cast sucked except for Lex Luthor. I would watch this
show even if The Flash wasn't there. I know that sounds strange but
if they just focused on S.T.A.R Labs I'd be into it. Though Barry is
very important to this show everyone has something happening that
carried the show each week.
Dr.
Fucking Wells
When
it turned out that this guy was the main villain it genuinely shocked
me. I did not read The Flash comics so I knew the bare minimum about
his story and didn't care. Lots of people knew what was up with Dr.
Wells. Turns out he is from the future and has fought Flash and came
back to ruin his life (kill his mother!) to change the course of
history. He got stuck here so he insured that Flash would happen and
try to guide him until the day he could use him to go back home.
For
the longest he was this smart guy that fucked up and ended up killing
Caitlin's boyfriend and ending up in a wheelchair. Fast forward to
him standing out of his wheelchair and checking future newspapers to see
if what he was doing was working. The look on Barry's face when he
finds out that the man that was teaching him about his new powers was
the same man that killed his mother will wreck you. Dr. Wells is one
of the best villains in television history.
22 –
1
As
good as a show is when you have 23 episodes in your first season
chances are there are gonna be some missteps. This happened on
episode eighteen called All Star Team Up. The Atom showed up and that
episode stunk. In this episode that felt like a pilot for an Atom
series and a woman that controlled robot bees there was some very
important information where Cisco had flashbacks from an alternate
reality where Dr. Wells vibrated his hand through his heart, killing
him. But 22 out of 23 is amazing. There are shows with 12 episodes
that waste about five of them.
Cool
Special Effects
For a
series on television that manage to do quite a lot with their special
effects. I'm not sure how much each of these episodes cost but they
make great use of whatever it is every week. There are shows with a
character where you wait for that moment when they use their power.
Like The Hulk with his transformations towards the end of every
episode. Besides the villains, which I'll get to, they found ways to
make a kid that could run fast interesting constantly. It wasn't like
“Oh, he needs to clean the room. Now its clean!” This son of a
bitch broke sound barriers, controlled tornadoes, and ran up
buildings shattering every window and it looked cool every time.
Consequences
Though
there were some weekly new villains (not every week like Heroes did)
what they did had consequences on later episodes. They weren't just
locked up and forgotten about. Things that they did this week would
have an effect on next week. If a villain was taken down a certain
way it was brought up again if it was useful this week. This show did
not have happy endings every week. There were cliffhangers a lot of
times or when you thought everything was happy Dr. Wells would murder
someone. Hell, Barry could just snatch his father out of jail and run
him somewhere but his father tells him not to because he knows that
if he did something bad could happen.
They
Made Flash's Villains Cool
One of
the things I knew about Flash was that his villains sucked. He had
guys that shot a cold gun, a heat gun, a guy that moved in mirrors, a
boomerang tosser, and a goddamn gorilla. It was one of the reasons
why I didn't want to watch the show. Imagine my surprise when the
show had been so good that by the time Gorilla Grodd showed up I
cheered! They took villains with apparently silly powers or ones
you've seen before and made them deadly. If you can make a smoke
power cool you win. I notoriously hate smoke powers.
Actual
Emotion
I
swear if I was the type of person that cried I would have at least
ten times while watching this show. The moments between Barry and his
father, Joe, or Dr. Wells are some of the most touching scenes I have
ever seen on television. Even though this is a comic book based
series where you expect just punching and kicking they fit in a lot
of scenes with folks crying about something.
Iris
Finally Stopped Sucking
Candice
Patton plays Iris West on the show. Barry has been in love with her
since they were children but had never mentioned it to her even
though everyone else could see it. She started writing about Flash
before he even had a name calling him “The Streak.” Everyone told
her to calm her shit because it would attract danger and she was like
“I know what I'm doing!” and would end up in danger. I couldn't
stand her. You know how on Dexter you wanted Rita gone so Dexter
could be...Dexter? It was like that level of hatred for me. When she
was in danger I would say “Do it. Kill her!” Thankfully she
didn't die because in the last four or five episodes she calmed her
shit and became a reasonable person.
They
Made Me Care About The Flash
Like I
said, I did not give a damn about this character. “Ooh. He runs
fast. Whatever.” I am now interested in everything this character
does. They got me. They didn't Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D it and start
sucking halfway through or ruin history like Gotham or end on a
whimper the way Constantine did. When the show took a break for a few
weeks I lost my shit because I was used to getting a weekly dose of
cool. This isn't just a good show based on a superhero. Its a good
show period.
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