I haven’t had a chance to watch the finale of The Flash yet (business travel is the worst sometimes), but I hear it was pretty fun! The CW has already released a very, VERY brief teaser for the next season with showrunners Andrew Kreisberg and Greg Berlanti about what fans can look forward to this fall when the series returns:
There’s really not much to see here as of yet, but let’s take the opportunity to chat about last night’s finale, what’d you think? Did The Flash‘s inaugural season live up to your expectations?
We’ll consider any that comments below are free to be rife with spoilers, so anyone who’s in my boat and hasn’t watched it yet, steer clear!
I have absolutely loved the first season of the Flash and am still looking forward to the second, but that finale was really bad. Something like half of its runtime was spent on Barry agonizing over a decision that literally every viewer knew he was going to make, and then the scene that’s supposed to be the big emotional climax of the season just fizzled with barely any explanation. After that we get a perfunctory speedster fight cut short by an obvious (if reasonably well done) twist, and then random cliffhanger out of nowhere seemingly just for the sake of having a cliffhanger and teasing the spin-off. It had all the problems of the earlier episode but none of the fun or momentum.
I would rather that it didn’t end on a cliffhanger, but Eddie Thawne turned out to be the big hero, which is a good twist. I actually was expecting Barry to save his mom and return it to the timeline unmolested by Reverse Flash.
Given that episodic serial television programs are now an established way of telling stories, will we begin to see continual seasons? Instead of a three month hiatus, the schedule is spread out over the entire year.
The entire series is filmed all at once, and either scheduled as a miniseries (like Agent Carter), or is released periodically. This allows the actors a bigger hiatus, Come in, spend two months filming, go do something else.
Perhaps instead of 26 one-hour episodes, we would watch 13 2-hour episodes, one a month. Like the successful NBC Mystery Movies of the 70s, you create a “wheel show” where each week is a different superhero series in the same time slot. First week: Arow. Second Week: Flash. Third Week: Super Who. Fourth Week: L.E.G.I.O.N. A two-hour movie, lots of excitement, lots of story, self contained, but with a seasonal story arc. The Internet explodes immediately, then simmers for a month, until the next episode. Repeat each week with a new episode. Repeats on cable (marathons?).
For the four “Sweeps Months” (Feb, May, Aug, Nov), you program a four-part story crossover! Flashbacks in each episode, filling in backstory! Introducing new characters! Backdoor pilots!
And here’s how you slap Marvel’s face: You schedule the show for Tuesdays or Wednesday nights. You partner with Fathom events to livestream the shows in HD in movie theaters! It’s like a decentralized Hall H! Writers, actors, talk for 30 minutes after the episode airs, via satellite. (No commercial breaks for the movie viewers, so the post-game fills the remaining time space.) You create a community of fans in cities across the country!
A great ride this first season topped by great episode with all sorts of come-ons for next. I do have 2 criticisms though:
1) The writers seem to be making Caitlin dumber. Case in point: she is a PhD working in high-energy/particle physics lab. She damn well better know what a singularity is. Yes, I get needing to explain it to the audience, but she should no have asked “What’s a singularity?”
2) The dilution of Barry’s speed. I can stomach some of it (barely, re: the Supersonic Punch and its 5 mile requirement), but there is no way I can suspend disbelief such that Mach 2 is the requirement for wormhole/time travel.
Again, though: great season!
Flash finale – superhero show as it should be, bravo – ’nuff said.
Like the season, didn’t like most of the finale, a little too drama ridden, liked the final 15 minutes, however. The “cliffhanger” isn’t much of one, because we know the flash survives. Looking forward to next season.
So a good freshman season.
Like any time travel story there are some big issues. I do not think that the did a good job explaining how all this avoided a time paradox. Reverse Flash killed mom, created the method that created Flash and the meta-humans, and basically is responsible in one way or another for everything that happened that season. Reverse Flash does not just die, but ceases to exist when his ancestor kills himself (Eddie dies, no kids, therefore no descendants therefore no Reverse Flash in the future). So if the guy that caused all the problems never existed he never could have killed mom, created the tech that made flash and the meta humans, etc., that world would have ceased to have existed and a new timeline, conceivably where the crew from Star Labs and Barry, etc., probably never met.
Eric Strehl-I noted the same thing with Catlin, how does a brilliant Ph.D suddenly not know what a singularity is?
The show and subsequent storyline did not explain the issues but the interviews prior to the episode did. Two timelines called Earth One and Earth Two will bring about Eobard Thawn still being a thorn in Barrys side and also will allow for Ciscos superpowered alter ego and Kaitlin becoming Killer Frost. Other interviews show we have Wally West coming, him being the one from the New 52 comics and somehow related to Iris and Joe. the helmet as seen in the finale is Jay Garrick’s sliver age Flash.
the problem as it appears is that once Eddie killed himself the whole timeline would have reset meaning that Barry would not become the Flash for I believe fifteen years so he would not be able to super speed to counteract the quantum singularity, and what was with the appearance of just the older flashes helmet.
I think everyone is ignoring some of the subtle things that happened at the end of the episode. The entire show we are blasted with worm holes, singularities and time travel. In this type of universe nothing is ever truly done. While Eddie’s dead body is sucked up into a black hole, we have to wonder (suspending our disbelief in so many ways) where it might end up. This whole thing, even mentioned in the episode, opens this show up to parallel universes, alternate timelines and so on. And the Golden Age Flash helmet popping in out of nowhere…..Awesome!!!! Bring it!!!!!!
Ralph, you shouldn’t be able to go back in time and change your own past in the first place, should you?
I think the whole paradox thing involving Thawne might be explained next season in that at that moment, it spawned an alternate universe in which Thawne never existed. This is probably going to lead to a Multiverse within the Flash series. We already got hints of that when Reverse Flash told Cisco that he has the ability to see the vibrations of different realities. They’re setting up for a Season 2 involving multiple different Universes. And with Eddie being sucked into the wormhole, I’m sure something will come of that.
We finally watched it last night, and I have to say I was pretty disappointed in it overall. The lack of logic on-hand was utterly stupefying, and that cliffhanger of an ending reminded me of one of the most annoying tics of Smallville (giving you only half of a ending until the next season).
The only moment that really worked for me was when Eddie did the very thing I kept telling Hannah they should do (jokingly) “why don’t they just kill Eddie?”. Though the paradox that now creates is something I hope actually gets addressed next season, but I have my doubts…
On the whole, I’d give this first season a B. I found lots to enjoy (Tom Cavanagh especially) and I thought it was better than any season of Arrow so far, but the “CW-ness” often detracted from the show and I thought it lost some steam when it came back from the break.
To all the DISPPOINTED posts. Get over it. This was one of the best show of the season. Did they go a little overboard with the “mom drama” yes. But Arrow, Supernatural, Grimm, Constintine and a number of other shows took theirs way to far this season. Flash gave us something fun to watch. Remember it is not real life it is a comic. They can do paradoxes and other things without having to explain it. Learn to relax and enjoy. I for one am looking forward to next season.
I thought overall the first season was GREAT!! I think they have done the best of any of the comic related stories with an origin and having some fun during the season. Tom Cavanagh was AWESOME as Wells/Thawne throughout the season and I’m hoping he DOES end up being the thorn in the Flash’s side we need him to be. Looking forward to less of the LOVE INTEREST aspect with Iris and more of the battling week to week to stop the master criminals/metahumans created by Wells. I’m also old enough to remember the old series and say this is great. Hope they continue with good writing.
Who is Hannah?
Vichus,
Hannah is my co-editor here, and better half.
Couldn’t Eddie just have gotten a vasectomy?
everyone watching the show must have caught that singularity snafu. where did she get that phd? sears maybe. either that or the technical consultants were all high schoolers and not the brightest at that. of course, if you think about it, what is a singularity? maybe she’s actually smarter than the rest of us and realizes, “we don’t really know what they are.”
and doc, i agree, i’m all for saving the world, but a vasectomy would have done the trick.
The first season of The Flash far exceeded my expectations for it… and I had pretty high expectations for it for a TV series. Watching it throughout the fall and spring, for that 1 hour every Tuesday evening, it wasn’t like watching a normal TV show, but more like watching a movie (excluding commercials). I’ve been a pretty big fan of Arrow since it started airing a couple years ago, and The Flash may have actually surpassed it just in the first season alone. The writers for the show really knew what they were doing.
The budget used for the special effects is usually pretty low for TV shows, so I expected the special effects for it to be much lower quality than what it was, and it looked to be more like special effects you see in higher budget movies (example: Marvel’s – The Avengers). From the beginning of the season to the end of the season, you could see the special effects changing and becoming better as it progressed. Looking forward to seeing The CW’s superhero universe grow more, and see what they can do in the next couple of years, and looking forward to DC’s Legends of Tomorrow series premier, as well as The Flash season 2, and Arrow season 4.
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