Adam Graham's Blog: Christians and Superheroes - Posts Tagged "tv-review"

With Supergirl a bit mediocre, and Doctor Who turning in the worst episode of the Capaldi era so far, the Flash was clearly the best thing I watched all weekend as he faced Zoom after six episodes.

The good:

---I loved Barry's decision to go after Zoom but also understand the team's conflict over it. There's a real dilemma. Zoom had spent the first five episodes sending every Earth Two villain to take on the Flash and innocent people were being put at risk. While the Flash is outflanked here, I think Barry made a sound decision at least in principle for all the right reasons. He can't defeat Zoom without having some idea what he can't do.

---The comical battle between Flash and the fake "Doctor Light" was brilliant. Hats off to the creative team for using comedy effectively. This sort of "light" moment allowed Zoom's coming back to really hit the audience like a punch in the gut.

---The realization of Professor Zoom was so good, so satisfying. We know our hero is up against a big time challenge and we get an idea of the scale of the challenge. Rarely has the idea of a speedster villain been so well-played, when you're really given a sense of menace that speed could represent. This is leaps and bounds ahead of the Reverse Flash in terms of pure menace and I have to agree with characters wondering if Zoom's even human. And the way he manhandles the Flash despite some good strategy was stunning. Flash has got a monster on his hands and we can expect this to build to a rematch in fifteen episodes or so.

---Tom Cavanagh absolutely kills it as Harrison Wells from Earth 2. He does a good job taking this Harrison Wells and making him an entirely different character. I love the twist on the realization that the reason for his attitude and horrible behavior wasn't because he was a bad guy but because he was just desperately concerned for his daughter.

---Cisco stretching himself as Vibe is done in a way that is amusing with him trying to find some way to Vibe Wells.

---The character of Patti is also being well-handled both as her relationship with Barry is developing quite nicely and she gets close to the secrets. I would complain about how this really goes against a lot of the Iris plot as Barry's "One True love" throughout Season One, but I actually like Patti more than I did Iris last season. Iris is definitely being better handled this season, but I think it's probably a good idea to let us know Iris is before throwing her into any more romances.

We do seem to have that recurring theme of people hiding things from people they should trust in the Flash and it playing out with Patti and Joe. You have to wonder if they'll ever learn.

The Bad:

---Okay, Barry, there's a reason they call it a "secret identity." It's supposed to be a secret. His revealing his secret identity to Linda seems totally non-sensical. She doesn't deserve to know. They went on a few dates, she pushed too hard, and nothing we saw last season justifies her knowing, particularly when his current girlfriend doesn't know.

With modern superhero shows, we're moving away from the paradox of characters who stand for truth living a total lie to the people they care about the most as they open up about their superhero identity to people who are close to them in shows like The Flash and Supergirl, but this list shouldn't be everybody out there and I can't wonder if he'll pay a price that'll make him a little more cautious.

Summary: "Enter Zoom" is one of the best. It's a very entertaining story that pays off with a memorable defeat for our hero and shows the challenge he has ahead. It's the best show of Season 2 so far. 9/10.

"Gorilla Warfare" finds Barry still recovering from last week's battle with Zoom even while Gorilla Grodd returns to menace the city with an agenda of his own.

*Spoilers Ahead*

Positives:

---Barry's humanity is on full display in this week's episode. His brutal defeat at Zoom weighing heavily on him. It's not over the top or emo, but a very realistic hole.

---It's interesting that there seems to be a hierarchy of Barry emotional support as portrayed in the episode. With Iris around, Barry wouldn't really elaborate on what was bothering him but would tell Joe, but only Henry could really bring him out of his emotional funk in time to save the day.

---The Earth 2 Wells continues to impress. I was afraid after last week, he'd be taking off, but he gets a second wind with a new plan and his decision to masquerade as Reverse Flash to attract Grodd cemented his spot with Team Flash. Yet, there was a moment when he was pretending to be evil Wells where I thought he might not have been play acting.

---Vibing is not only a superpower, it gives us previews of coming new Superheroes. Our first glance of Hawkgirl looks great.

---While Barry has opened up quite a bit about what Reverse Flash did and how his betrayal effected him, Cisco has been a lot more closed but it effected him in an even more dramatic way as Earth One Wells had been a mentor to him for years while living a lie. The scene where he had Earth Two Wells repeat the line Wells 1 read before ripping out Cisco's heart in the destroyed timeline was riveting and there was so much going on there.

---The realization of Gorilla Grodd for television was really beautifully done as were the battle scenes with the Flash. The 1989 TV series could have never done this villain any sort of justice. But the technical handling of this was superb as well.

--Speaking of technical skill, two words: Gorilla city.

---The Flash isn't just an entertaining meal. It's a well planned banquet, with several plots managing to cook at the same time. While not focuses of the episode, there were brief moments that laid the groundwork for Patti getting really firm about finding out what's been going on as well as Iris trying to maintain.

Questions:

Not really a negative but given that Earth 2 Wells is around, it's confusing them to keep referring to the guy from Season 1 as "Wells" given that he wasn't Wells but a time traveler that killed the real Earth 1 Wells and assumed his identity. Might want to think of something else to call.

Overall: You wouldn't expect a lot of emotional drama in an episode where the most obvious highlight is, "Man punches gorilla into alternate universe where hyperintelligent gorillas have their own city," but that's where the Flash has succeeded because it's not just a superhero show, it's a program about characters who are actually decent human beings trying to do the right thing, but have real life struggles. Sometimes, the writers indulge these problems too much when the action demands focus, but this week the emotional issues with Barry had to be resolved and it all worked organically into the plot. After a few rough spots in the beginning of Season 2, the Flash is firing on all cylinders headed into the mid-season finale. Rating: 9/10