The Flash S01E01 Review: Fastest Man Alive

The Flash, Season 1, Episode 1: Pilot

So I began this blog back in 2014, which was also the year CW debuted the Flash. While some of my older reviews may be a little outdated, those were my opinions back then, and I'll still keep them around. But looking at the list of superhero TV shows, apparently I didn't review the first three episodes of the Flash, which means the list of episodes in the Flash's first season is either going to start at the fourth episode, or have ugly black non-hyperlinked episode titles. Clearly, the solution is to take a look back through memory lane to 2014 and review all the first three episodes. Will I ever do Arrow's first two seasons? Or maybe I'll branch out to somewhere older, like Smallville? Maybe after I get through the cartoons. 

Barry Allen has had a couple of brief minor roles in Arrow, the CW's flagship superhero TV series, and when it's announced that they were going to make a TV show out of the Flash, I was skeptical. Are they going to portray super-speed well? Why the hell is Killer Frost and motherfucking Vibe the supporting cast? Why Barry Allen and not Wally West? Who is this Harrison Wells character? I was certainly proven wrong, since Flash's first season (YMMV on the second and third seasons, but they're certainly messier) is easily my favourite superhero TV season ever. 

And it's clear early on that with Flash they knew what they were doing from the get go. Arrow had to stumble between working with the constraints of reinventing the ultra-liberal Robin Hood character from the comics into a weird mix of the Punisher and Batman. Gotham and Agents of SHIELD had to spend several seasons before it actually got its groove and realizes the type of stories it wanted to tell. But Flash? Early on, the pilot quickly establishes the type of show they wanted to tell, and the main characters in this setting. It's not the best episode, however, and back then I remembered being slightly off-put by how introdump-y it all was, with a barrage of characters being thrown at us -- Caitlin Snow, Cisco Ramon, Harrison Wells, Joe West, Iris West, Henry Allen and Eddie Thawne are all shot towards us rapid-fire, and that's not counting villain-of-the-week Clyde "Weather Wizard" Mardon or the obligatory Green Arrow cameo. 

But it worked well in context. Most of the side characters are ciphers with solidly-defined, if one-note at this point, personalities. We get through the whole motion of Barry discovering his powers and learning to control it, as well as a brief flashback moment to the overreaching plotline of the season with Barry talking about how he wants to hunt down the mysterious yellow speed demon with red lightning (can I just say how amazingly creepy they made Reverse-Flash's wraith-like screaming monster form in this season?) and the final shot with Harrison Wells standing up and looking at a newspaper from the future is an amazing plot twist that blindsided me, showing that Mr. Wells is manipulating events and turning Barry into the Flash for some reason or other.

Of course, the pilot focuses mainly on Barry. Or the show's take on Barry, anyway, which is a unique mix of the original Barry Allen (who, before New 52 reboots, was a pertty boring Silver Age hero that's all heroism with little actual personality that sets him apart) and Wally West (bubbly, inexperienced teen hero with mentors all around him). Grant Gustin's performance is constantly fun as we get to see the geeky side of Barry Allen, and the combination of a more simple Spider-Man esque 'great power, great responsibility' power-discovering moment and the mysteries surrounding the events that caused his transformation is certainly well done. There is a bit of Barry's mystery-freak bit going on, and a pretty neat slow-burn transformation as Barry and the STAR Labs team learns about how the Particle Accelerator explosion basically gave a lot of people superpowers. 

The love triangle between Barry, Iris and Eddie is established pretty early on and it's not something I'm too fond of -- Barry and Iris in the show has always carried this weird incestuous vibe to them (they were raised from kids!) so it never really felt that right to me, but eh, whatever. There's also this weird bit where Barry's forensic analysis includes a Sherlock-esque sequence which I don't think we saw outside the pilot. 

The villain of the week, Clyde Mardon, isn't very interesting although we do get the promise that unlike Arrow or Agents of SHIELD at that time, we're not just going to get random vigilantes or men with super-strength, but actual supervillains with colourful powers like the Weather Wizard. Clyde's a boring dude, although we get this hilarious line from Joe West regarding him: "why would god need to rob a bank?" 

DC Easter Eggs Corner:

• The event of Barry getting struck by lightning happened in the Arrow episode 'Three Ghosts', after he returns from Starling City after assisting Oliver. Cisco and Caitlin both also make brief apperances in the Arrow episode 'the Man Under the Hood'.
• Flash's origin story for both Barry and Wally has always involved a lightning bolt and a room full of chemicals, but the Reverse-Flash in Barry's past bit is relatively new, taken from 2009's Flash: Rebirth storyline.
• Clyde Mardon, in the comics, isn't actually Weather Wizard but his brother who invented the wand that gives the Weather Wizard his powers. Which is probably why he's so disposable and killed off at the end of the episode.
• The STAR Labs crew tests Barry's superspeed at an abandoned Ferris Air airport. In the comics, Ferris Air is owned by Carol Ferris, love interest of Hal Jordan/Green Lantern. 
• There's a destroyed cage at STAR labs with a sign saying 'Grodd', which, of course, is a reference to the classic Flash villain Gorilla Grodd who will make an apperance near the tail-end of the season.
• The future newspaper is full of easter eggs. Flash's Missing and 'Vanishes in Crisis' where a sub-headline claims that 'Red Skies' have vanished. In the comics, of course, Barry Allen died during the event Crisis on Infinite Earths where red skies was the trademark of that maxi-series. Small headlines note that a 'Wayne/Queen Merger' is complete, which references Bruce Wayne's Wayne Enterprises. 
• The concept of a catastrophic sci-fi event that gave multiple people superpowers to justify the rise of many metahumans is similar to the first episode of the DC cartoon Static Shock. 
• Iris describes the STAR Labs Particle Accelerator as an 'Atom Smasher', which is a reference to the Justice Society of America superhero. The crappy treatment of Atom Smasher in Flash's second season makes me sad. 
• Henry Allen, Flash's father, is portrayed by John Wesley Shipp, who portrayed Flash himself in the old 90's Flash TV show.
• Barry realizing he has super speed when a tray of food falls slowly is taken straight out of the comics.