Not so Fast

    “My name is Barry Allen, and I am the Fastest man Alive.” That’s what you’ll hear every Tuesday night at 7 if you decide to tune in to the CW. The new hit series The Flash has been catching the world by storm.  Based on the DC comics property of the same name, fans have been waiting years to see a version of the scarlet speedster on screen. Although some may consider it a success, this current iteration is far from perfect; it has room to improve, and more importantly the opportunity to do so.

Created by Andrew Kreisberg and Greg Berlanti as a spinoff to their successful CW comic-book show Arrow, The Flash had a lot to prove coming out of the gate. Luckily for them, it shot out like a burst of lightning, and caught most by surprise. If I were to pay the Kreisberg/Berlanti duo any compliment at all it would be this; they know how to create the perfect cast. And what a cast this is! Relative unknown Grant Gustin portrays Barry Allen as a likeable and relatable young hero, whose boyish charm bares resemblance to a certain web slinger.  He’s funny, he’s skillful at almost anything he encounters, and he absolutely comes across as someone who’s hyperactive enough to be secretly concealing super-speed. Other notable performers include Rick Cosnett as Eddie Thawne, who is without a doubt one of the most impressive romantic foils I’ve ever seen on television. Instead of making him a simple one-dimensional rival for the affections of Barry’s crush Iris (Candice Patton), the showrunners write him as optimistic, sympathetic and fallible. Despite being a pretty-boy, (the near-flawless equivalent to everything Barry isn’t), Eddie is ultimately a good guy, which makes poor Barry’s heartbreak ever the more painful. Further praise should be given to Jesse L. Martin as Detective Joe West, who plays the perfect confidante to Barry’s crime-fighting crusade. Then the real magic comes in with Tom Cavanaugh as the mysterious Dr. Harrison Wells; for whom there aren’t enough words to describe the caliber he gives the show.

In addition; Kreisberg and Berlanti, (and to some extent their other writing partner Marc Guggenheim), had their work cut out for them when they had to set their spin-off in Barry’s native Central City, as it had to be a world that was both fresh and separate in style from the Starling City in Arrow. In this they have achieved success; Starling City is dark, rainy and urban, so naturally the alternate could not be the same. Central City exists somewhere on the tan and off-white side of the color wheel, and feels older and yet cleaner than its counterpart on Arrow. Starling has glass and modern architecture, where Central City feels built entirely with stone and cement. It’s this more colorful environment that makes the super-powered heroes and villains of the show stand out so well. The stark contrast between cities assists The Flash in severing itself from its source series, enabling it to try to form its own identity.

All things considered, it makes sense that the casual television viewer could find the series as nothing short of well done. However, consistent flaws exist here, and couple that with the sheer amount of potential the series has, it leads me to the conclusion that we as viewers and fans must ask more challenging questions. Questions such as; “Could this be better?” And it if can be, should it be?

There are several elements of The Flash that are shall we say, less than Flashy. With over 74 years of comic book history to pull from, to create a story structure and a plot, barely any of these are used. Only the death of Barry’s mother and the subsequent arrest of his father is anywhere close to the comic storylines used thus far. However, removing this crucial part of Mr. Allen’s backstory would be tantamount to deleting the sequence where Peter Parker gets bitten by a spider in the Spider-Man series, so the producers aren’t really awarded any points except for adequately translating it to screen. Instead of using the thousands of pages of different forms of setup to choose from, Kreisberg and Berlanti decided create their own plot structure, and then pepper the series with villains from the books adapted to suit their means, most of which are forgettable and disappointing. While some of their original content is fascinating (Dr. Wells’ story), some of the ideas are just bland, or feel like they’re being done solely for fan service, such as the currently in-progress Firestorm arc, which has been poorly handled to say the least. Other plot threads such as the Weather Wizard, Plastique and Flash/Arrow crossover stories suffered similar fates. They have been designed solely for story, and don’t feel like they’re happening to actually impact the characters or help them evolve in any way. 

I could imagine that the creators felt the need to start fresh because The Flash had never been adapted before, and they were unaware of how to properly bring the fastest man alive to the small screen. But looking closer, one can see that this isn’t the case at all.

It’s difficult to NOT compare a spin-off to its parent series, especially considering the goal of a spinoff should be to stand on its own. Unfortunately, The Flash is virtually a cut-and-paste job of the formula that works so well on Arrow. The latter uses a “Team Dynamic” to assist its hero Oliver Queen with his crime-fighting, consisting of a bodyguard/father figure, a computer expert and a sidekick. In The Flash, a show that should focus on a stand-alone hero, we find a strikingly similar makeup. Here we have a genius/father figure, a computer expert, and a nerdy supervillain-naming particle physicist. On Arrow the team works because Oliver is capable and can handle himself; the team supports the hero. The problem on The Flash is we really don’t care about this team. The one in Arrow was slowly built up over the span of three seasons. Here, it exists from the get-go, like a safety net. Both series attempt to follow a procedural format, and in the first show, this works fine, what with criminals being beaten to a pulp before being left out to dry like dirty laundry. But doing this with villains with superpowers makes the antagonists feel like unimpressive stock characters. Overall it feels almost as if Barry doesn’t know what he’s doing, and needs these magic computer-whizzes to tell him everything over a headpiece, or he becomes completely lost and confused. I’d say that’s a problem for a superhero if I ever saw one.

Barry Allen’s lack of training before being thrown out to fight crime could be seen as analogous to Kreisberg and Berlanti’s handling of the show. The series, (which would likely be fresher under other hands), was rushed out prematurely before it really had a chance to discover itself. And now we have two series being run concurrently by two individuals who have too much to work with; and little time to do it. After the pair work on Arrow, they go over and write The Flash, and consequently the series suffers by having the writing feel subpar.

In fact, everything on The Flash feels second-hand. Arrow makes good use of a couple sets but in general shoots in a variety of many locations to capture the action. But conversely, besides a couple of city streets and the odd rooftop, everything that happens on The Flash can usually be restricted to the following sets; Barry’s Apartment, the West Residence, Central City P.D., the Coffee shop, and the ever-present STAR Labs, which is virtually a glorified version of the “Arrow Cave” on the parent series. Wash, rinse, repeat. This cycle has quickly become formulaic and boring, and now that the CW’s infamous soap opera angst has failed its trial run on the show, these sets now contain nothing but heartless open-ended comic book storylines that hold no substance. And all the while the show falls prey to unavoidable comparisons to another, superior one.

 Arrow’s comic book history has shifted so many times over the years, there is no definitive version to base the show off of, which is why Kreisberg and Berlanti felt the modern-day storylines needed to be freshly formed. While their gut instinct on that particular show may have been correct, The Flash didn’t require that. Potentially, it could have been truly phenomenal if the creators went for something far closer to the books and dissimilar to Arrow upon the former series inception. Sadly, this did not occur, and now we are stuck with a very different show, one rampant with a serious case of déjà vu. However, to criticize this series for not being what it could have been would be a fallacy. Unlike Barry Allen, we cannot turn back time, and must now deal with what we’ve been given. But that doesn’t mean we have to force ourselves to be satisfied.

It’s not too late to make adjustments. The Flash really does have a lot going for it; the super-speed and slow motion effects are exceptional, the character dynamics are functional, and the series is easily accessible for newcoming viewers. So why doesn’t The Flash work? Why is it that a series that has over 74 years of source material doesn’t know how to find its center? The answer is simple; The Flash doesn’t need to be Arrow, and it should forge its own identity. If future seasons focus more upon Barry, the hero we already love, less upon the characters we don’t, and possibly ditch the team dynamic, then it’s likely that this show could reach the quality of writing that exists on superior series such as MARVEL’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

While at first glance an entertaining and original show, The Flash is too similar to its parent series Arrow to leave a truly lasting impression. For fans that have been waiting so long for a live-action version of this beloved character, this is not the show they deserve. It’s hidden in here somewhere, and maybe in future seasons it’ll rear its head.

NOTE: This article written February 6, 2015.