TV: The Flash (2014)

geeky heroes are the best

'My name is Barry Allen and I'm the fastest man alive. A friend recently gave me the idea for a new name and something tells me it's gonna catch on.' I'm not terribly familiar with The Flash, only having glimpsed him in DC' comics assorted collection of heroes called Justice League. He was always the funny and sarcastic character who sped about in red to me. The pilot episode of The Flash begins exactly like it should weaving out the character's background and general life. We've got Barry Allen (Grant Gustin) who always seems to be perpetually late, working as a forensic for the police (very Sherlock-like scene) and also secretly in love with childhood best friend Iris West (Candice Patton). Iris' dad Joe (Jesse L. Martin) works for the police as well making it the typical set-up of familiar faces, as Barry's parents aren't participating in the extent they should, but his father played by John Wesley Shipp (actually played in the original The Flash (1990)) will most likely appear more frequently in future episodes.

I have to ask - do comic writers all enjoy writing heroes with tragic backstories? There's always someone who's dead, so it does make me wonder. Not that I didn't get weepy-eyed despite myself, sniffing loudly as Barry retold how his mother got murdered, despite the foreknowledge of this from watching Arrow (bordering on religiously). Barry's life is filled with complications, but it turns quite different when the scientist Harrison Wells (Tom Cavanagh) working for Star labs current project explodes over Star City (the technical jargon just flies past me). In the end Barry wakes up nine months later from a coma, and discovers he has powers, of course powers of speed. 

I do feel like putting on that Queen song right now, but I'll desist and carry on with the review instead. When Arrow showed up, for one is inclined to compare the two, it was conceived as a much darker show, gritty and reminiscent of Batman Begins. The Flash isn't like that. I find the differences good for where Arrow is seemingly dark - The Flash seems that it will be a more light-hearted fare. Doesn't mean it won't be a massive tear-jerker and have exciting moments for it seems like a potential thrill ride to be entirely honest. I think the way they've designed certain action scenes for Flash was brilliant, though the quality of for example the episode's villain weren't super gasp-worthy, I didn't feel like weeping over it. 

The general construction of this pilot was very well done, and I'm impressed by the way they handled it, since there are few shows out there who can manage to make a successful pilot (glancing at Gotham), and superhero films in themselves struggle often to make me believe in any of the characters. Here however it's done well, but there are loads of tropes. Being the 'nice guy' aka best friend to a girl he's known since childhood who's clearly oblivious to his feelings? Check. This doesn't necessarily make me want to bring out pitchforks, since it's not the main focus of the episode. There's a lot of characters and things being dropped, as it is the pilot I'm not expecting an incredible in-depth plot. You kind of already have figured out who's going to be Team Flash by episode one though, but that's just fun. Of course it all depends on how everything pans out, though I have high hopes in general. 

8/10