The Flash
Episode Title:
“City of Heroes”
Channel:
CW
Director:
David Nutter
Writers:
Greg Berlanti, Geoff Johns and Andrew Kreisberg
Genre:
Action, Adventure, Drama, Fantasy, Sci-Fi
Runtime:
45min
Rated:
TV-PG
Original Air Date:
October 7, 2014
The
Flash
is a spin-off of the popular CW show Arrow.
They share some of the same writers and showrunners, and it shows.
Although this is still based on a comic book, and as such will always
feature some corny dialogue, it's no where near as painful as some of
the dialogue written for the first season of Arrow;
Kreisberg and crew have learned a lesson there it seems. Also, while
the mission and action are important, what keeps viewers tuning in
every week is the relationships between the hero and those around
them, good and evil. Smiting a monster a week is all well and good,
but in a long running show the characters are important, and the
writers seem to realize that already.
When
Grant Gustin did his guest stint on Arrow
I wasn't a huge fan, I didn't hate the guy, but there wasn't much
there to make me excited to see him playing the Flash. In “City of
Heroes” he did a great job, I believed and bought into just about
every emotion they were trying to evoke from the audience. Aside
from the overdone hand on the glass in the scene with his father at
the end, that was a pretty impressively acted moment.
The
villain in this one was hopefully a throw away that we don't see
again. Not that the power isn't interesting, controlling the weather
could be used in all sorts of nefarious ways, but the actor playing
him was just about as one-note as they come. Also, maybe it's just
me and admittedly I don't know a lot about Barry Allen, his backstory
or his personality, but it seemed to me that he might be just a
little too Peter Parker. I hope going forward that they can show us
how this lovable geek it different from the other comic lovable geek
we've already come to know.
One
last note. I'm very excited about how hopeful this show seems.
Barry is idealistic and ready to really make a difference. With the
other comic related fair I watch on television the situation is
already dark and covered in grime, and the hero is just trying to
clean it up in one spot after another. The
Flash
has me believing that Central City is no where near the cesspool that
some of its contemporary cities are, and Barry stands a chance to
keep it from becoming so.
Conclusion:
This was actually a really good pilot. I felt like just enough time
was spent setting up and origin and introductions, leaving enough
time for Barry to take out a low level baddie and spread some feel
good vibes. The tone of the show is so different from Arrow
and Gotham
that it's a breath of fresh air, every comic book city doesn't have
to be a dark and dirty sinkhole of corruption.
Rating:
7.5/10
No comments:
Post a Comment