My name is Barry Allen and I'm the fastest man alive: THE FLASH tv show

so i think this show has earned its own thread.

this week, in the last episode before the season break, the reverse-flash made his first full appearance, partially solving the mystery of 'who killed barry allen's mother?' set up in the first episode.

the reveal of the reverse-flash, which comic book readers will have seen coming a long time ago, nonetheless came way faster than i was expecting it to. the show has maintained an appropriately breakneck pace over the nine episodes so far, bringing in new supervillains nearly every episode and throwing in gleeful references to the dc universe which might pay off further down the line.

they've even found time for a full-blown crossover episode with arrow, complete with the classic 'heroes fight each other' trope, after a supporting character from that show made an appearance earlier in the season.

i wasn't expecting much from this show - i watched the first few episodes of arrow when they aired and wrote it off as a try-hard imitation of batman begins. but the first episode of this grabbed me and i've really enjoyed every one since. i've even gone back and started working my way through arrow, which definitely gets better as it goes along.

i mentioned elsewhere on ilx about how weird it is that dc's tv and film universes are being kept completely separate and will eventually have different actors playing the same characters, while marvel's shows and movies are tightly woven together. in some ways i think the flash and arrow doing their own thing is actually for the best, because man of steel seemed actively embarrassed about being a superhero movie, but the flash is admirably unapologetic about how comic-booky it is. it has costumes and codenames and honest-to-goodness superpowers which actually look pretty good on a tv-show budget, and they seem to be having a fantastic time rifling through the dc comics playset without having keep big stories aside to be used in the movies.

so, who else is watching?

I didn't know this is being made again, quite like to see it. I remember the one from the 90s (?), how do both compare?

they've both got john wesley shipp in them! and amanda pays showed up in the most recent episode playing the same character she played in the earlier show.

i don't remember much about the 90s show, tbh, other than the slightly ridiculous suit and that the first show seemed reluctant to introduce supervillains until mark hammill showed up as the trickster.

I love this show, but then I'm a sucker for the flash and always have been. It existing has made Arrow better too, and they work really well as a pair.

Haven't seen the fall finale, but I've been expecting Revese Flash for a long time. The only question was, was it going to be Eddie Thawne?

well, that question does at least appear to be answered by the end of the episode...

they also did a good job of making the reverse flash look properly weird and villainous, too.

the first show seemed reluctant to introduce supervillains until mark hammill showed up as the trickster.

Which makes it great that Hamill's announced he's coming BACK to the new show as the Trickster, which is kinda amazing, really!

wait, what?! i must have missed that!

question does at least appear to be answered by the end of the episode

Kinda except the "why didn't he kill me?" question felt sort of leading, and there's definitely some barry/eddie animosity being set up at this point.

This is the most fun show on tv at the moment though, yep.

i wonder if iris' mum's missing ring from this episode will end up being a significant element in the time-travel plot they're setting up.

I've idly watched a few episodes of this - its not bad (I'm sure it's better than anything Snyder's ever done). It does feel a bit like Buffy-does-police-procedural as someone else noted. It doesn't feel particularly smart or emotionally engaging but as fluff goes it's not bad.

it does get the tone of the DC universe right - there's this mix of playfulness and archetypal stuff, which is what I appreciate most about DC

wait, what?! i must have missed that!

http://www.hitfix.com/whats-alan-watching/exclusive-mark-hamill-to-play-the-trickster-again-on-the-flash

cool, cheers ned

i'm like four episodes behind but I LOVE IT SO MUUUUUUUUUUUUCH

What's the take on jumping in without having seen a second of Arrow? My girlfriend is keen to check it out, but I'm anal and kinda want to watch Arrow first. What do I do?

i love how much time they spend experimenting with and geeking out over his powers - patiently approaching them with scientific curiosity instead of suggesting he's captain kick-ass over night. i love that they've made him a lovestruck dingus but one that could acknowledge genuine chemistry with that hacker from Arrow. equally earnest and enthusiastic - the energy is very "with great fun comes great responsibility." always hated tom cavanagh in tv lead roles but he's SO GREAT as the big bad, his smarm now clicks with his character's untrustworthiness. One of the "don't trust the prof" epilogues involved GORILLA GRODD. I dunno if they talk about it in a later episode yet but i love how on top of everything else A SUPERSMART GORILLA has been promised.

i saw only the first half of the first episode of arrow and hated it. it's honestly no more crucial than it would be to read a whole other comic just for the occasional tie-in

i am gonna check out the 2nd season arrow sometime though and then double back maybe

Yeah, I heard Arrow doesn't get really good until towards the end of the first season.

I haven't watched Arrow at all and have had no trouble following The Flash.

I initially figured Flash was pretty much separate until they did a crossover episode so early in its first season and I didn't know what I believed anymore.

i'm on episode 5 or 6 of arrow season 2 at the moment and it's been consistently good for a little while but yeah, it was a bit of a slog to start with.

as implied by my ecstacy over the word "GRODD" i also love the little hints at DC lore to come, i.e. the dead Star Labs dude being named Ronnie Raymond

from what i understand barry allen made friends with arrow when visiting keystone city, then got powers, but lives in central city so they're more like facebook buddies than co-workers

if this and arrow keep up the good buzz i think there's a very good chance that DC will wake up and incorporate these guys into film justice league plans. Unless Ezra Miller is all over BatSupes they've certainly got the time to come around and realize film/tv synergy wouldn't be a bad thing

honestly grant gustin could be a bonafide celeb by the time the hypothetical flash movie is due to appear

lol would love to see Grodd on this show

I haven't watched Arrow at all, totally inessential viewing in respect to the Flash

as much as i love the dc lore/rogues gallery stuff, i think the thing that really stands out is how his power isn't a problem but the way OUT of his problems. even spidey in the films always acts like being spidey kinda sucks, barry allen's a well-intentioned dude who wants to help people and now can in ways that thrill him both physically and mentally.

true, he is refreshingly angst-free.

it's weird/sad because I always stress to my daughter that Superman is not the greatest superhero because he is the most powerful, but because he always does the right thing. He's an ideal. But most contemporary superhero films depict superheroes doing the right thing almost incidentally - their real motivations are usually guilt or anger or some "this time it's PERSONAL" vendetta type thing. I'm so sick of that.

xp
Funny you say that given the dead mother retcon that spawned half the series' major plot points thus far.

I mean I like the show but a lot of it serves to remind me why I don't read DC comics anymore

yeah he's still an orphan who can't tell a girl how he feels, it's just that being The Flash is a win rather than a burden.

I've noticed references to that (the case is unsolved or something) but most of that's gone by me or I missed it

maybe this is worth watching w my daughter actually, it's had a pretty tame tone iirc

xp

Yeah my niece loves it but she's a Glee transplant and was sold at Gustin, that being said I can see it taking dark turns in search of gravitas in future seasons.

yeah his mom was killed by the reverse-flash (not a spoiler if you know what the reverse-flash looks like), with his dad thrown in jail by the weepy-eyed detective who then raised him. so it is personal but it hasn't stopped him from being a pleasant goober boy scout.

xpost yeah i'm worried the tone could change on a dime, esp if there's a change in management.

he named his quiz team E=MC Hammer

i also love that cisco looks like he could have teleported in from any hacker show over the last twenty-five years

he also looks like he could be taylor lautner's dorky cousin

has jesse l martin always looked like he's about to cry? i never noticed that until this show. granted his character has a million to reasons to be catching feelings at any moment.

dude was a single parent to his daughter and his friend's son, said friend being put in jail for murdering his wife only it turns out the wife was murdered by someone with the same magical powers the kid now uses to risk his life constantly. meanwhile the kid really wants to fuck his daughter but can't because his daughter is fucking his partner.

I like this show a lot. It's generally been better than Arrow's season 3 so far (whose story arc for this season only really started in the 9th episode) and certainly off to a better start than Arrow's season 1.

It's fun and joyous and the supporting characters are all fantastic aside from poor Iris who really needs something to do that isn't obsessing over the Flash or being lovey dovey with Eddie. Yeah okay so bad stuff happens sometimes and Barry Allen's childhood was traumatic but it's nice that hasn't been used as a reason to make another tormented hero in the vein of Oliver Queen or Nolan's Batman. Nothing wrong with those characters, it's just refreshing to have some contrast/variation.

ahahaha "absolute hot"

"It's so hot, it's like, 'How much more hot could this be?' And the answer is, none. None more hot."

man those cops were lucky cap'n cold shot his freeze ray directly at their shields rather than their almost entirely exposed legs

gotta get the clock man to team up with 'em for the full prison break reunion.

and peter stormare's playing count vertigo over in arrow!

xp that closing shot of the last episode, with the non-reveal of whoever Wentorth Miller greeted with, "Hi, sis," my wife said "If that's Sara Tancredi I'm out."

That'd be Lisa Snart, the secret identity of The Golden Glider.

Felt unusually poorly written, between the exposition-heavy dialogue (admittedly its the mid-season premiere), cold's unexplained relish for the corniest villain speak (really needed someone to call him out) and little bits like jesse l Martin saying he's going to give iris and Barry time alone, only we pan back after the convo and see he just went to the couch directly behind them.

I'm not really looking for people to point out corn, cliche and plot holes in earlier episodes. There was still bits I dug and it pushed the plot forward, this was just the first time I was distracted by flaws.

David Hardwood (because he was in lots of things)

, as the actress said to the bishop

Regardless of whether I know their names, it's been a fun ongoing game for me to mentally rank the broad range of acting ability displayed on the CW shows. Like Chris Klein this season has, I believe, set the bar at an all-time low that I think is going to be really hard for anyone to surpass, to the extent that I'm marveling over the fact that he ever had a film career at all (aside from Election, where he was perfectly cast as a dipshit portraying a dipshit). All of the shows' leads are pretty dece imo. Upper tier in the ranking if not quite at the tippy top.

The actor who plays Flash’s dad, John Wesley Shipp, played the Flash in the 90’s tv show (1990-91) which I thought was kinda neat casting

His girlfriend(?) from OG Flash was also cast in a role on this show. Not to mention Hammill reprising his role as Trickster.

Agreed on the awfulness of this week's ep. Hated Marvel's Civil War due to pitting characters with decades of shared experience against each other, hamhandedly to drive the "superheroes "fite!" plot. This last Flash had the same bad feeling of characters who should be able to rationally talk things through instead using ill-reasoned arguments setting up poor decisions to gain a predetermined end. But with the free rein given to Chris Klein's growlybear performance, it's just high expectations unmet.

And at least they haven't had a drum-playing octopus. Now watching Aquaman and hoping Marvel takes some lessons for Namor to avoid.

TS: drum-playing octopi vs. drum-playing ants

Ha! Well-played, sir. I gave the ant more of a pass because the comedy is integral to Ant-Man and the drumming ant was a robot. Definite Marvel bias in my suspension of disbelief.

That Harewood autocorrect was a good one, thanks sic.

I spotted John Wesley Shipp (who also plays Jay Garrick, in a possibly even more on the nose role) and Mark Hammill but kind of put them in stunt casting along with Helen Slater, Dean Cain and Lynda Carter in Supergirl.

I also did not know the David Cassidy thing.

Don't forget Teri Hatcher!

Yes, another from the in-joke stunt casting basket.

And at least they haven't had a drum-playing octopus. Now watching Aquaman and hoping Marvel takes some lessons for Namor to avoid.

marvel, no weirdness or fun in yr movie about the king of sunken atlantis who cuts about in a chainmail speedo and can fly using the little wings on his ankles

You insult my sartorial forebear and you insult me, good sir (violently wrenches chainmail wedgie out of buttcrack).

Catching up on the last half dozen Supergirls atm and...am I nuts or does Brainiac Actor have seemingly no interest in maintaining a consistent vocal inflection? He sounds like a Hanna-Barbera character at the moment, which is not what he used to do. I keep expecting him to let slip with a 'Zounds! Heavens to Murgatroyd!'

the beard hunter chowing down on a big lump of plughole hair is maybe the most upsetting thing i’ve ever seen on tv

The Flash finale kind of fizzled out tbh. The idea of the Reverse Flash masterplan (to avoid spoilers) was a good one but nobody in their right mind could tolerate Nora for a second longer and her role in the plan kind of made no sense with maguffin on top of maguffin. Chris Klein only became more unbearable as the weeks went on and whatever was going on with the mind probe was just impossible to follow.

Arrow wound up with a whimper too. By the end the future makeup actually got worse than I thought it was upthread and the wigs... But everyone's story is done and Ollie has gone off with the Monitor for the truncated final season which only goes up to the Crisis crossover. Hoping for Legends type insanity on other worlds. Will probably just get 10 shades of growlybears.

But then Flash wrapped everybody up too. No idea what it's going to do prior to Crisis unless it's just Monster Of The Week in which case YAY.

Supergirl continues to impress and confound in equal measure. The Lex plot has been great but the Red Daughter woefully underused. Haven't cared about the Lockwood thing - and the President cliffhanger was dreadfully mishandled - but the fate of Braniac going into the finale is superb. Needs to pivot back to MOTW and goofy silver age shit to make me love it but it'll do.

Legends otoh has gone from strength to strength to yet further strength. This season has been pretty incredible and somehow the race to the finale has been even better than an already unbelievably strong first half. Only minus points are for Mona's arc in the second half, mainly because I think she's rotten in *those* scenes (not helped by dreadful makeup) and is/was far better as the wide-eyed innocent dreamer.

Doom Patrol has kept the standards up too, even if I think Flex Mentallo is way OP in this version. The funeral episode might have been the highspot of the season.

Doom Patrol never dipped at any point really and was great all the way through.

I've enjoyed Swamp Thing a lot, bits are very Moore-faithful although it definitely is skewed for TV (and I don't really like what they've done with Blue Devil).

Krypton has been pretty weak although Braniac has been excellent. Lobo was as predictably bad as you might think.

I can't in any good conscience suggest anyone watch Pennyworth, however, fans of the sort of car-crash wrong only US TV gets England and the atrocity which is Paloma Faith's acting may get some small comfort.

I haven't even formally acknowledged that the latter two happened (see also: Gotham). Doom Patrol has been a delight. Swamp Thing...I do want to see it eventually, but its insta-cancellation (and I guess they also had to retroactively rejigger the season to compensate for a reduced episode order?) just leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

lobo? oh noes

I just googled for more info on this development and learned that they are now making a Lobo spinoff show, so that should be good and a lot of fun.

how did krypton make it to a second season before i’d even noticed the first had even made it to air

The question its existence prompts for me is: what prompted WB/DC to decide that 'television series about geographical area which will eventually spawn heroes sometime after the series ends' is a legitimate genre that people are clamoring for?

Have you watched Titans? Binged that this weekend. 11 episodes, comfortably padded, still went by fast. Liked the adult casting a lot, particularly Brenton Thwaites as Robin (who I kept thinking must be Robert Sean Leonard's younger brother) and Anna Diop as Starfire. The actor playing Gar / Beast Boy did a good job too, making his character relatable. Rachel / Raven, not bad, if a bit frustrating that the first season's arc centers around her character and seems to get halfway there. SPOILERS-ish: Trigon doesn't appear until episode 10 of 11. 12th episode was delayed for a 2nd season opener.

The Chief, in the Doom Patrol ep, was amoral, almost cruel in his "I give these lost souls a purpose for SCIENCE!". Is that a later interpretation? What little I read of Doom Patrol as a kid, he seemed more a Reed Richards paternal figure.

Yeaaaah, as you apparently haven't read Morrison's run on the title, I have some news and you should probably sit down...

I won't spoil any of Swamp Thing then but unless all the rejigging happens in the last episode then they don't appear to have done any. One very specific comics event, for example, is the cliffhanger to the second-last episode and there hasn't been any real setup to the (comics) resolution of it yet.

Krypton sort of has potential but the plotting is clunky as hell with far too many characters and plot threads. Everyone is (literally) everybody else's mother or father irrespective of their age. And although I never expected it, I was still disappointed they never used Braniac's Silver Age skull ship design.

btw how great was dalton as the chief? that guy just plays such great bastards

Braniac's skull ship isn't Silver Age, is it? Wasn't it from Gil Kane early 80s Superman?

You're right!?! It looks completely like a Binder Brainfart, but I suppose he was too busy with a lion's head and giant Jimmy Olsen.

1983, designed by Ed Hannigan

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/50/Brainiac544.PNG

Well waddya know.

It's baffling to me that the world seems to aggressively ignore that depiction of the character. It's a friggin' design classic.

I did Pennyworth a massive disservice - after the first episode it got insanely good, massively Avengers (not that one) influenced. The episode where they get the train to the village is absolutely superb.

https://media.tenor.com/images/86eb7c00905ba5fa58b0e0bc7c7c7486/tenor.gif

Pennyworth never quite reached the same heights again, but is well worth all your time.

After the first episode of Batwoman, I can't work out whether it's incredibly bad or just terrible.

I've seen a ridiculous amount of this show since my teen son loves it, but ... I can't imagine willingly watching it alone if I had a choice. The effects are low-rent and it's all just so silly and ... then again, I've never been a Flash fan outside of early JLE (or watched any other TV comic book superhero show that wasn't Lois & Clark) so what do I know?

(Also I've always been more of a Marvel zombie at heart, so.)

Oh, who am I kidding? I did love some DC comics here and there.

gave up on Flash several seasons ago, is he still trying to save his mother?

Hey nerds, has anyone watched the new Stargirl series?

(I didnt know where else to post abt Berlanti-verse stuff.)

I’ve watched first 2 eps & its v good so far.

Stargirl feels kind of fun, in a very inconsequential way. I suppose the telling point will be how Johnsy it gets.

I'm off the bus with all of them except Legends of Tomorrow.

I intend to watch all the arrowverse crossovers…have done Invasion and am about to finish Crisis on Earth X…there is no way that I'm going to plow through like 15 seasons of each of these shows…

1. I literally cannot remember the last mainstream, produced for mass appeal— or however you describe the contemporary equivalent to standard network fare— scripted tv show I watched…like maybe in the early 90s? It is very strange to watch something in that style, despite having evolved considerably, and yet which is suffused in DC lore…

2. and as a result of that last point, it does seem that these shows are embracing the shit that the MCU and the Snyder DC/Murderverse are embarrassed by… there are secret identities, masks…I often encounter variations of "well these characters and this universe is GROUNDED" and I don't see that at all here… but I can easily imagine someone unacquainted with DC in the 70s/80s watching these shows explicating some obscure lore or going batshit with the alternate worlds and saying "man this is too much!" if there are people who get into this shit without a a prior immersion, I suppose that's an achievement…

3. Each time the narratives touch on Oliver Queen as a rich guy or Arrow as the king tough guy, I"m thinking "you guys really wanted to do a Batman show but Warner Bros wouldn't let you, huh?" To me, GA is the crusader of the left, pointer of the finger that used to be discussed on I Love Comics. And I agree that it is super suckass that Berlanti and Co. went along with the Geoff Johns directive that Barry' mom was killed… Barry allen was a good character because he was well adjusted (that is, before the Iris murder in the early 80s)…

Animated special Beebo Saves Christmas airs tonight: https://www.avclub.com/beebo-saves-christmas-is-the-strangest-holiday-offering-1848129179

This show is so astonishingly mediocre, yet my son and I can’t stop watching (and making fun of it)

(The Flash, specifically.)

couldn't find a DCU thread but I bothered to watch the Flash movie last night. First off, I was a fan of the TV show for a few seasons until it got so repetitive I got bored with it. I was also fully aware of all the strikes against this movie: took forever to come out, Miller's psychotic behavior over the past two years, criticisms about CGI-ing in Reeve and Reeves as Superman, the fact that it was a massive bomb at the box office.

So I was surprised to like it. It's really funny and fairly light-hearted. This was something I liked about the first Shazam movie too and it's more along those lines but with a bigger budget. The CGI is fucking dire but I didn't really care. It's cool to see Keaton back even if they kill him off twice unceremoniously. I thought it was hilarious they did a CGI Nick Cage Superman with long hair. Miller is great. Excellent surprise ending. Best end credits scene of any superhero movie in recent memory. I vote this the second best DCU movie after the first Wonder Woman.

that actor came to my town and terrorized a little kid and their family. very scary.

I was a fan of the TV show for a few seasons until it got so repetitive I got bored with it

Haven't seen the movie, I'll probably watch it at some point when I can stream it for free, but this was my experience as well. We really liked the first two or three seasons and it was nice to have a show to watch with our son, but even he wanted to give up about season 4 or 5 since the arc of every season was the exact same.

yeah miller has been terrorizing hawaii, vermont, and martha's vineyard for some time and seems to have avoided any actual consequences for any of this. I suspect Miller is on loads of cocaine at all times.

He's sort of like--what if Manson had actually been a successful musician?

I'm sorry-- They are like Charles Manson