The Flash


KnightWing

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What I'll agree with you on, because I thought about this afterwards, is that there was practically no weight to the invasion. Barry and Oliver freaked out a bit, but in a universe that began with the very human Green Arrow show, much of the alien invasion was summed up in Cisco and Felicity geeking out over it. Which is to be expected, but in the Legends episode that was all they had to say. I think if the threat level and danger was built up with tension over the four episodes, it would've been better for it. Like in the Avengers, you don't actually ever think the Chitauri are going to take over the world, but there are definite moments of tension as the battle rages on, and it doesn't telegraph an easy way out. The crossover was more interested in letting the audience know how geeky cool it was that they were doing it, rather than follow through with the dramatic needs of the story. I don't think I even knew that the president had died and just assumed they were talking about a president of something else, rather than OF THE US, mainly because they hardly reacted to it.

Other than that, I still had great fun with this. There's a severe lazy streak with the writing in the Flash this season, but when it counted for the crossover I felt there was enough visual and energetic "OOOMPH" to justify itself. Last year's crossover was pretty nonplussed about it, and it showed in the scenes with all the characters.

(holy shit, are you fucking kidding me, you're actually calling themĀ "The Legends")

My thoughts exactly.

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As far as mid-season finale Christmas shows go, this ranks third at the bottom because the ones for the first and third seasons were so kickass cool. But this episode was alright. Lotta Jay and Barry action which was great. It was fun to see the Earth-3 scene and to see CGI John Wesley Shipp.

Other stuff I liked was all the Wally sub-plotting, although the whole "I'm worried about you/Let me be my own man" thing is a tired cliche. But I understand it. Joe should've decked H.R. tho. I liked the ending with Barry and Iris. Tom Felton is solid as always.

I disliked Barry unmasking himself again, because that always comes with a searing sense of disappointment. Like he's never backed into a corner when he does it, he unmasks so frequently for the crappiest reasons. I think I like Julian being under control because if he were evil it'd just be following one of the many tired trends of the series.

As a villain, Savitar really does not impress. I don't dislike him, but there are no personal stakes that we can feel between him and Barry. The mention of an evil future Flash does have me intrigued tho. Wasn't there an evil Flash in the comics? Was that Cobalt Blue, or Walter West or someone?

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In fact, I recently askedĀ FlashĀ co-showrunner Aaron Helbing if Barryā€™s huge swing of a Christmas gift was meant to indicate that the longtime friends indeed had already consummated their nascent romance,Ā off-screen.Ā ā€œThatā€™s open to anybodyā€™s interpretation,ā€ HelbingĀ hedged. ā€œTheyā€™re two consenting adults who love each other, soā€¦.ā€

The Flash is kinda weird about sex.Ā 

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In fact, I recently askedĀ FlashĀ co-showrunner Aaron Helbing if Barryā€™s huge swing of a Christmas gift was meant to indicate that the longtime friends indeed had already consummated their nascent romance,Ā off-screen.Ā ā€œThatā€™s open to anybodyā€™s interpretation,ā€ HelbingĀ hedged. ā€œTheyā€™re two consenting adults who love each other, soā€¦.ā€

The Flash is kinda weird about sex.Ā 

Well, she is his sister, sort of.

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In fact, I recently askedĀ FlashĀ co-showrunner Aaron Helbing if Barryā€™s huge swing of a Christmas gift was meant to indicate that the longtime friends indeed had already consummated their nascent romance,Ā off-screen.Ā ā€œThatā€™s open to anybodyā€™s interpretation,ā€ HelbingĀ hedged. ā€œTheyā€™re two consenting adults who love each other, soā€¦.ā€

The Flash is kinda weird about sex.Ā 

Well, she is his sister, sort of.

I get how the show is a bit awkward about it because it's clearly meant for all ages, but Chris and I talked about how the show is so sex-shy that they kind of slip it in here and there. I really liked Cisco and Caitlin's genuine concern for Barry going too fast with Linda in season one, because it was both funny and totally logical (I'm an ardent worrier of the whole "Man of Steel/Women of Kleenex" thing, so when Smallville said that Jor-El "trained" Clark in the Fortress of Solitude how to control his sex-spasms I screamed 'BULLSHIT").

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Last night was good.

On one hand, I'm still screaming, "Stop messing with the time stream" but, on the other hand, I like that Team Flash is being proactive, that Barry has learned from his mistakes and isn't hiding shit from almost everyone (I expect drama WHEN he finds out), and that they realize that while keeping Savitar from coming back is a priority, so is keeping Caitlin from going Killer Frost again.

That all said, the hints about Music Meister and a Gorilla Attack have beyond thrilled and excited.

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Yeah I thought the return of the show was very solid indeed.

-Loved the Flash and Kid Flash dynamic duo throughout. Establishing Kid Flash to Central City, and the fact that Wally's ambition wasn't shown as a bad thing was really cool.

-Love that the Killer Frost subplot is continuing and it's a good way to keep Julian in the show

-Like Will said, I like the maturation of Barry in telling everyone about seeing Iris die. And Grant Gustin and Candice Patton did terrific work in the scene in the Vault.

-I think the telegraphing of the season's events is actually kind of fun, with Gorilla Grodd, Killer Frost and the Music Meister.

Ā 

I'm trying to think of anything I didn't like...I mean, I didn't love the HR Museum subplot but it's clearly leading into the Flash Museum which is all good.

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Barry always keeps secrets that come back to bite him in the end. I hope next time he see's something he goes right to the team and goes "ok guys we have a problem" instead of brooding about it for a few episodes and then lashes out at everyone and almost ruins his relationship with the team. Arrow was always bad about this also. It feels like lazy writing to always go back to it.Ā 

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Caught up with last week's before the new episode tonight. Last week's was kind of silly, but the characters an ongoing storyline had me liking it. IDGAF about HR, but I liked Cisco. I'm really enjoying what they're doing with Iris and continuing to establish Wally as Kid Flash. Not much more to say than that, but while the season's not anywhere near the show's highest of highs, it's settled into an enjoyable one that you can either take or leave.

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I caught up on the second half of the season today, and think it's a step up from the first half: the Flash/Kid Flash team-ups are the most fun the show's been in awhile, the sweet side of Barry and Iris' relationship works, Gypsy was a villain of the week played by someone with actual charisma, the writers are making an effort to build up a Caitlin/Julian relationship as opposed to when they slappedĀ Caitlin and "Jay" together, and the team trying to alter the events on the wayĀ to Iris' death is at least a twist on the tired time travel. The lying and "I'll have a talk with him" are still at critical mass, and despite a moment or two HR is still completely unnecessary, but there is an uptick in quality compared to where the show's been.Ā 

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Gorilla City part 1 was okay. The CG backgrounds were blatant, but I really loved Grant Gustin's super-heroic acting throughout (which I'll get to in a second). I continue to enjoy Wally's story and although I don't feel a ton of heat between him and Jesse, I liked seeing Wally overenthusiastic about being a speedster with her. Grodd and Solovar were awesome.

Ok, so I have a theory.

This whole season IMO Barry's been written as a much more assured, heroic, Silver-Age Flash, which is good. But with the Flash Family expanding, and a potential for Impulse to show up next season, I'm considering the season finale.

What if, instead of killing off Iris, Barry dies? The first few episodes of next season are Wally as the Flash? It's a momentous part of the Flash canon, and I can see all the attempts to save Iris as a swerve from the writers to kill off Barry (most definitely temporarily) and do the Wally as Flash story.

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Before talking about this most recent Speed Force episode, I wanna say that I think the last few weeks of the Flash have been really solid. Love the dynamic of the Flash Family, and I've really been enjoying Jesse Quick a whole helluva lot more than I did last year. I never disliked her, but before she did nothing for me. Here, she's shown off more personality and Violet Beane's been putting in solid performances. Wally's been terrific all season. I think the one thing this show could do less of is have the focus be on Barry trying to save everybody and strike more of a balance. He's been treating Iris like a massive damsel in distress, which is fine for his character. But by this point everyone is so established I'd like more agency. Like for this episode, we should've gotten more from Wally's perspective rather than just have Barry and Jay save him. But the overall balance of characters has been much better than past seasons.

Now for this episode, I didn't love how the show fell back into complacent wrap-ups that put characters elsewhere. Didn't like the "Oh ACTUALLY Jay's gonna stay put here for the time being" and "Oh ACTUALLY Jesse's leaving" after putting so much effort into having her stay. Flash as a show does that often, and I felt they've been getting away from it lately, only to fall right back on it in a big way. I do like how everything being Barry's fault is continually hammered into the characters, but most of the Speed Force scenes, honestly, reeked of rehashing the Kevin Smith episode from last year. By far and away the best scenes were with Captain Cold. WHY IS HE NOT BACK IN THE SHOW YET??? This was the most spotty the show's been in a while, but the average has gotten better for this second half with Savitar and I'm genuinely curious where it all leads, still looking out for my theory to be proven or not.

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OH TOTALLY. It's beyond the meme that literally every single thing is his fault.

Cisco's brother.

Caitlin's powers.

Savitar going after Iris.

Jay saving Wally.

Jesse leaving.

Which is why I think a heroic sacrifice in the finale would redeem him in a big way. Again I think the show is aware of how bad his decision-making has been, which reached an apex last week with Wally straight-up calling him out. But the fact that Iris consider breaking up with him should be a wake up call.

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Has nobody noticed that they still never fixed the original timeline. I mean, Julian isn't supposed to be there. He wasn't there until after Flashpoint. It just keeps screaming at me every time I see him that Barry has just accepted this guy that he never knew before into the group. There is something wrong with him being there.Ā 

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I'm calling it. That was the best episode since the first season.

Berlanti and Kreisberg put together a terrifically fun script where nothing is too serious, but Barry and Kara (who's chemistry is still wonderful) are dope-ily gawking at the madness they're witnessing. The singing is fantastic by everyone. The roles all the players had were hilarious, and I'm glad they thought outside the box and didn't just restrict the episode to only have Flash and Supergirl characters. Not-Joe, Not-Stein and Not-John Barrowman's song was awesome, the Superfriends duet was great (although did they cut the scene of the two performing on stage? That was in all the promotion, but only a second of it appeared on-screen) and Barry's second proposal to Iris via-song was fantastic. I think playing the Music Meister as an interdimensional being works just fine ironically compared to the more "straight" cartoon version, although I still would've loved to see NPH in the role. Also the Kid Flash/Martian Manhunter/Vibe team up was a fun surprise.

I was not disappointed in a thing. It would cheapen it slightly if they did this kind of thing again, but right now I'm too high off of just finishing the episode to care.

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