Superheroes are hot. Where in the past reading comic books and talking about it was something that was pretty much reserved for geeks (and I am proud to be a geek, thank you very much), these days superheroes have become incredibly popular in todays culture. This is partly because of the enormous succes of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. With Marvel expanding and integrating pretty much all of their superheroes, it is something that has become really unique. Marvel’s biggest rival, DC, has so far unsuccessfully tried to do the same with their superhero franchises. Last year’s Batman vs. Superman, a movie I quite enjoyed, was not received very well by most of the moviegoing audience. This year, they get to try again with Wonder Woman and Justice League. However as unsuccessful as they are on the big screen, DC has been very succesful on the small screen. Arrow has been one of their most popular shows, and when a show has that many fans, it is almost inevitable that a spinoff series at one point will get a green light. And so we now have The Flash, but is that series as good as Arrow?
The Flash focusses on Barry Allen, a young man who through an accident, becomes the fastest man on Earth. As a young boy Barry loses his mother in a strange incident. His father is accused of the murder, and is sent to jail. In the first season, Barry tries to find out who is behind the murder of his mother. He receives help from the mysterious but kind dr. Harrison Wells and a team of friends at S.T.A.R. Labs. But as the season progresses, and Barry gets more comfortable in his role as the new protector of the city, The Flash, he will find out that not everything is as it seems….With new and more powerful enemies appearing every day, The Flash will certainly have his hands full. Will he find out who is the real enemy though?
Arrow is a show that is very dark, and even though it has it’s funny moments, overall the series has a very serious tone to it. The Flash is the complete opposite of that. The best way to describe the show is just by simply one word: fun. The Flash just simply puts a smile on your face whenever you watch it. I would not go so far as by calling this show a comedy, there are too many serious events happening to call it that. But it does have a very light tone to it, and that is refreshing especially when considering that The Flash has it’s origin in Arrow. The cast of characters is one of the show’s stronger points.
Barry himself is played by Grant Gustin, an actor that I myself had never heard of before, but I doubt that there is someone out there who could have been better suited to play the part. Grant just seems born for the role, and it really shows in the way he plays the The Flash. The other actor who is worth mentioning is Tom Cavanagh who plays the role of doctor Harrison Wells. His sense of calm, and mysteriousness is for me one of the highlights of the entire show. The other castmembers are also very good in their own ways, and only add to the strength of this series.
This first season has a lot of great and wonderful episodes. Sure there are a few episodes that are not as good, but pretty much every tv series has it’s ups and downs. Another thing that is a lot of fun is the fact that many characters from Arrow make guest appearances. It really is great to see how these two shows work so very well together, and now with both Supergirl and Legends of Tomorrow joining the same universe it can only get better. The Flash is a perfect example of how a spinoff series can definitely grow to be as good and sometimes even better than the original. For those of you that thought Arrow was too dark at times, I highly recommend checking this series out. You can watch it even if you have never seen Arrow as the series only references some small things that happened in the aforementioned show. Basically this is just a fun series, which should appeal to pretty much every superhero fan out there.
I give The Flash season 1 a 9 out of 10 score.
Awesome review! I just finished season 1 of the flash about a month ago and loved it. Like you said, it was a really fun series, and the story was pretty interesting. One thing I noticed was that at times the dialogue was a bit forced/ awkward , especially between Barry and Iris
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Thank you 😊 Yeah, I agree with you on that point. The series wasn’t perfect, but overall though it was a very enjoyable watch, weak points aside 😊
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Great review 🙂 🙂 I haven’t watched this series. I have watched the Supergirl series, I’m obsessed with it. Mostly because I love Supergirl so much ❤ ❤ I love the comics too x x
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Thank you very much, I hope to see Supergirl soon as well, looking forward to it 😊
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Your welcome 🙂 🙂 Yay ❤ ❤ x x
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I think I hit saturation point for super hero shows (and movies) a while ago. While I used to look forward to them now I just kind of roll my eyes and wonder if I need to watch another one (not that there haven’t been some good ones but there’s been a lot of very ordinary ones to). Flash is one I haven’t checked out at all though if its decent I may need to eventually get around to it.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on it.
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Haha, I know exactly what you mean. For me that happened after seeing dr. Strange. It was good, but I did get the feeling that I pretty much know the formula for Marvel movies these days. That said though sometimes things can surprise you, and this series is one of those surprises. Thanks for your comment 😊
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I still need to try to see the Dr Strange film at some point because that looked a little bit interesting but I’m kind of over the big action super hero stories and the bringing all the heroes together and just kind of wanting some new characters and new ideas.
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The Flash guest starred on an episode of Supergirl, and that was probably my favorite episode. I really liked his character, and he seemed to really liven things up. Just that one episode was enough for me to put the series on my plan to watch list 🙂
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Yes, that is exactly what I meant in my review, this whole series just breathes the word fun. There are some dark parts, but overall it is just a lot of fun to watch this series 😊
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Your first line made me think, “Well, the show did air on the CW, so it’s a given that the characters are attractive…”
I didn’t watch all of it given that I would only watch episodes when I was visiting my (ex) girlfriend, but I did love the series.
Thanks for sharing!
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I actually really wanted to watch Flash but I know I have to get through some of Arrow first. I need more hours in the day!
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Haha, yeah, If only that could be done: more hours in a day, that would be so very cool. I started watching the Flash together with Arrow season 3. If you Google Arrow/Flash watch order, you should get a list in which order to watch the episodes of both series 😊
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Good review!
I haven’t even heard of this series tbh. Actually, the last TV series I watched in its entirety was Preacher. Still, you do make this sound like a fun watch.
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Thank you very much 😊 It really is a fun series, and at times I found it to be even better than Arrow. Haha, yeah, well I know the feeling. Tv series take up a lot of time, so I was glad to finally be able to finish a series again lol 😂
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Outside of anime, this is probably my one must watch show. I really love The Flash, and even when it does some questionable things, I forgive it. The entire cast is just so amazing, and that’s where the real fun lies.
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Totally agree with you. Sure not everything is perfect,but then again, every show probably has it’s flaws in some way or another 😊
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Nothing is ever perfect. This is fine, too. I just kinda get tired of the way people have started second guessing the writing after the fact.
When they have a hit show, then they can say something, is pretty much where I’ve gotten to be lately.
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I haven’t really watched The Flash but since I’m watching Arrow I do feel like I need to. I *had* to watch episode 1, though, since it was an Arrow crossover and wouldn’t really be able to understand the rest of the plot otherwise… But didn’t really get hooked. It might have been helpful to watch a few others to make the most sense of the story as well but I admit I didn’t hahaha (sneaky CW!)
Great review! I do feel more interested in the show now that I know it’s so upbeat and fun throughout 🙂
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Great post! Oh and I’m nominating you for another award! look out for the post…. ❤
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I’ve enjoyed the series as a whole so far. Good cast, good writing, and I love the overall upbeat tone of the show.
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I totally agree. I honestly do like dark toned shows a lot (Arrow,Battlestar Galactica etc.), but for this series the upbeat tone just works 😊 Thank you for your comment, and the follow 😀
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