My name is Barry Allen and I'm the fastest man alive: THE FLASH tv show

I initially figured Flash was pretty much separate until they did a crossover episode so early in its first season and I didn't know what I believed anymore.

i'm on episode 5 or 6 of arrow season 2 at the moment and it's been consistently good for a little while but yeah, it was a bit of a slog to start with.

as implied by my ecstacy over the word "GRODD" i also love the little hints at DC lore to come, i.e. the dead Star Labs dude being named Ronnie Raymond

from what i understand barry allen made friends with arrow when visiting keystone city, then got powers, but lives in central city so they're more like facebook buddies than co-workers

if this and arrow keep up the good buzz i think there's a very good chance that DC will wake up and incorporate these guys into film justice league plans. Unless Ezra Miller is all over BatSupes they've certainly got the time to come around and realize film/tv synergy wouldn't be a bad thing

honestly grant gustin could be a bonafide celeb by the time the hypothetical flash movie is due to appear

lol would love to see Grodd on this show

I haven't watched Arrow at all, totally inessential viewing in respect to the Flash

as much as i love the dc lore/rogues gallery stuff, i think the thing that really stands out is how his power isn't a problem but the way OUT of his problems. even spidey in the films always acts like being spidey kinda sucks, barry allen's a well-intentioned dude who wants to help people and now can in ways that thrill him both physically and mentally.

true, he is refreshingly angst-free.

it's weird/sad because I always stress to my daughter that Superman is not the greatest superhero because he is the most powerful, but because he always does the right thing. He's an ideal. But most contemporary superhero films depict superheroes doing the right thing almost incidentally - their real motivations are usually guilt or anger or some "this time it's PERSONAL" vendetta type thing. I'm so sick of that.

xp
Funny you say that given the dead mother retcon that spawned half the series' major plot points thus far.

I mean I like the show but a lot of it serves to remind me why I don't read DC comics anymore

yeah he's still an orphan who can't tell a girl how he feels, it's just that being The Flash is a win rather than a burden.

I've noticed references to that (the case is unsolved or something) but most of that's gone by me or I missed it

maybe this is worth watching w my daughter actually, it's had a pretty tame tone iirc

xp

Yeah my niece loves it but she's a Glee transplant and was sold at Gustin, that being said I can see it taking dark turns in search of gravitas in future seasons.

yeah his mom was killed by the reverse-flash (not a spoiler if you know what the reverse-flash looks like), with his dad thrown in jail by the weepy-eyed detective who then raised him. so it is personal but it hasn't stopped him from being a pleasant goober boy scout.

xpost yeah i'm worried the tone could change on a dime, esp if there's a change in management.

he named his quiz team E=MC Hammer

i also love that cisco looks like he could have teleported in from any hacker show over the last twenty-five years

he also looks like he could be taylor lautner's dorky cousin

has jesse l martin always looked like he's about to cry? i never noticed that until this show. granted his character has a million to reasons to be catching feelings at any moment.

dude was a single parent to his daughter and his friend's son, said friend being put in jail for murdering his wife only it turns out the wife was murdered by someone with the same magical powers the kid now uses to risk his life constantly. meanwhile the kid really wants to fuck his daughter but can't because his daughter is fucking his partner.

I like this show a lot. It's generally been better than Arrow's season 3 so far (whose story arc for this season only really started in the 9th episode) and certainly off to a better start than Arrow's season 1.

It's fun and joyous and the supporting characters are all fantastic aside from poor Iris who really needs something to do that isn't obsessing over the Flash or being lovey dovey with Eddie. Yeah okay so bad stuff happens sometimes and Barry Allen's childhood was traumatic but it's nice that hasn't been used as a reason to make another tormented hero in the vein of Oliver Queen or Nolan's Batman. Nothing wrong with those characters, it's just refreshing to have some contrast/variation.

ahahaha "absolute hot"

"It's so hot, it's like, 'How much more hot could this be?' And the answer is, none. None more hot."

man those cops were lucky cap'n cold shot his freeze ray directly at their shields rather than their almost entirely exposed legs

gotta get the clock man to team up with 'em for the full prison break reunion.

and peter stormare's playing count vertigo over in arrow!

xp that closing shot of the last episode, with the non-reveal of whoever Wentorth Miller greeted with, "Hi, sis," my wife said "If that's Sara Tancredi I'm out."

That'd be Lisa Snart, the secret identity of The Golden Glider.

Felt unusually poorly written, between the exposition-heavy dialogue (admittedly its the mid-season premiere), cold's unexplained relish for the corniest villain speak (really needed someone to call him out) and little bits like jesse l Martin saying he's going to give iris and Barry time alone, only we pan back after the convo and see he just went to the couch directly behind them.

I'm not really looking for people to point out corn, cliche and plot holes in earlier episodes. There was still bits I dug and it pushed the plot forward, this was just the first time I was distracted by flaws.

am i the only one a little bit creeped out by barry being in love with a woman who could kinda be considered his sister? i know they're not related but they did grow up together and it feels weird to me.

I wouldn't say I'm creeped out, which is probably a credit to the actors, but their family dynamic is definitely weird as fuck.

prison break dude is terrible in this

but no one would be good with those lines tbf

they're both prison break dudes, but either way you're otm

don't recall being annoyed by cold the first time, though

he was chewing the scenery in his first appearance but he seems to be having more difficulty digesting it this time around

i was like "is everyone involved too busy high-fiving over the prison break reunion to notice how inexplicably goofy they're coming off right now?" - and as i had no beef with the girder clearly i'm not asking for that much emotional grounding

if cold had expressed a jealousy of the flash - "Everybody thinks he's so cool but i'm the most awesome guy ever" that would have explained his cartoon bad boy shtick a little, but if all he cares about is being heist-puller #1 there's no reason to be acting like poochie on every network

heat wave's hammy pyro bit at least is part of a long history of hammy pyros on tv

i think the problem is that wentworth miller just isn't a good enough actor to pull off the over-the-top moustache-twirling villainy he's aiming for (or president keyes otm in other words)

yeah if it was more fun i would have been likely to forgive its randomness too

on the bright side, goddamn i can't believe how much i enjoy tom cavanagh in this compared to everything else i've ever seen him in

he's like a used car salesman who knows it's a lemon but truly believes the world will be a better place if you buy it

yeah, he walks the line between being a gee-whiz scientist and a sinister weirdo really well.

i am worried this show will be like heroes, where it will build to such a climax this season (esp if they reveal the prof's whole deal to barry) that next season won't have the same narrative thrust. hope they can find a way to give some resolution to the reverse-flash thing without turning the prof into a straight villain. i love his balancing act too much to wanna lose it.

also torn whether i want to see grodd now now now or know that a talking gorilla is still out there...waiting

xp i think that's a legit concern. i was surprised that they got to the reverse flash reveal so quickly but now that they have i guess they'll be building towards a season finale featuring the time-crisis that's in the headlines of wells' newspaper from the future?

and presumably a fight between barry and the reverse flash which goes back through time, possibly creating the lightning which struck barry on the way to the scene of his mother's murder?

Looks like there's a means to an end thing with that reverse flash.
So I wonder if there was something worse in an alternative future that he had to retcon engineer things for.
Definitely looked like without the Flash being present in the show's current day or later in that timestream some calamity happened.
Seems really drastic that they'd have to kill Barry Allen's mum to ensure he was motivated to become The Flash though?

Not 100% sure that really is a reveal that the Prof is the Reverse Flash. Just because he knows about the suit and character doesn't necessarily mean it's him. Not least because there's a charade name already in use in the series directly related to the identity of (one of) the Reverse Flash(es) in the comics...

Barry Allen's mum dying is a big thing in recent-era Flash - him trying to prevent her death is the entire premise for how Flashpoint plays out.

I thought the Reverse Flash looked like that Chris Hardwick cop dude

The question its existence prompts for me is: what prompted WB/DC to decide that 'television series about geographical area which will eventually spawn heroes sometime after the series ends' is a legitimate genre that people are clamoring for?

Have you watched Titans? Binged that this weekend. 11 episodes, comfortably padded, still went by fast. Liked the adult casting a lot, particularly Brenton Thwaites as Robin (who I kept thinking must be Robert Sean Leonard's younger brother) and Anna Diop as Starfire. The actor playing Gar / Beast Boy did a good job too, making his character relatable. Rachel / Raven, not bad, if a bit frustrating that the first season's arc centers around her character and seems to get halfway there. SPOILERS-ish: Trigon doesn't appear until episode 10 of 11. 12th episode was delayed for a 2nd season opener.

The Chief, in the Doom Patrol ep, was amoral, almost cruel in his "I give these lost souls a purpose for SCIENCE!". Is that a later interpretation? What little I read of Doom Patrol as a kid, he seemed more a Reed Richards paternal figure.

Yeaaaah, as you apparently haven't read Morrison's run on the title, I have some news and you should probably sit down...

I won't spoil any of Swamp Thing then but unless all the rejigging happens in the last episode then they don't appear to have done any. One very specific comics event, for example, is the cliffhanger to the second-last episode and there hasn't been any real setup to the (comics) resolution of it yet.

Krypton sort of has potential but the plotting is clunky as hell with far too many characters and plot threads. Everyone is (literally) everybody else's mother or father irrespective of their age. And although I never expected it, I was still disappointed they never used Braniac's Silver Age skull ship design.

btw how great was dalton as the chief? that guy just plays such great bastards

Braniac's skull ship isn't Silver Age, is it? Wasn't it from Gil Kane early 80s Superman?

You're right!?! It looks completely like a Binder Brainfart, but I suppose he was too busy with a lion's head and giant Jimmy Olsen.

1983, designed by Ed Hannigan

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/50/Brainiac544.PNG

Well waddya know.

It's baffling to me that the world seems to aggressively ignore that depiction of the character. It's a friggin' design classic.

I did Pennyworth a massive disservice - after the first episode it got insanely good, massively Avengers (not that one) influenced. The episode where they get the train to the village is absolutely superb.

https://media.tenor.com/images/86eb7c00905ba5fa58b0e0bc7c7c7486/tenor.gif

Pennyworth never quite reached the same heights again, but is well worth all your time.

After the first episode of Batwoman, I can't work out whether it's incredibly bad or just terrible.

I've seen a ridiculous amount of this show since my teen son loves it, but ... I can't imagine willingly watching it alone if I had a choice. The effects are low-rent and it's all just so silly and ... then again, I've never been a Flash fan outside of early JLE (or watched any other TV comic book superhero show that wasn't Lois & Clark) so what do I know?

(Also I've always been more of a Marvel zombie at heart, so.)

Oh, who am I kidding? I did love some DC comics here and there.

gave up on Flash several seasons ago, is he still trying to save his mother?

Hey nerds, has anyone watched the new Stargirl series?

(I didnt know where else to post abt Berlanti-verse stuff.)

I’ve watched first 2 eps & its v good so far.

Stargirl feels kind of fun, in a very inconsequential way. I suppose the telling point will be how Johnsy it gets.

I'm off the bus with all of them except Legends of Tomorrow.

I intend to watch all the arrowverse crossovers…have done Invasion and am about to finish Crisis on Earth X…there is no way that I'm going to plow through like 15 seasons of each of these shows…

1. I literally cannot remember the last mainstream, produced for mass appeal— or however you describe the contemporary equivalent to standard network fare— scripted tv show I watched…like maybe in the early 90s? It is very strange to watch something in that style, despite having evolved considerably, and yet which is suffused in DC lore…

2. and as a result of that last point, it does seem that these shows are embracing the shit that the MCU and the Snyder DC/Murderverse are embarrassed by… there are secret identities, masks…I often encounter variations of "well these characters and this universe is GROUNDED" and I don't see that at all here… but I can easily imagine someone unacquainted with DC in the 70s/80s watching these shows explicating some obscure lore or going batshit with the alternate worlds and saying "man this is too much!" if there are people who get into this shit without a a prior immersion, I suppose that's an achievement…

3. Each time the narratives touch on Oliver Queen as a rich guy or Arrow as the king tough guy, I"m thinking "you guys really wanted to do a Batman show but Warner Bros wouldn't let you, huh?" To me, GA is the crusader of the left, pointer of the finger that used to be discussed on I Love Comics. And I agree that it is super suckass that Berlanti and Co. went along with the Geoff Johns directive that Barry' mom was killed… Barry allen was a good character because he was well adjusted (that is, before the Iris murder in the early 80s)…

Animated special Beebo Saves Christmas airs tonight: https://www.avclub.com/beebo-saves-christmas-is-the-strangest-holiday-offering-1848129179

This show is so astonishingly mediocre, yet my son and I can’t stop watching (and making fun of it)

(The Flash, specifically.)

couldn't find a DCU thread but I bothered to watch the Flash movie last night. First off, I was a fan of the TV show for a few seasons until it got so repetitive I got bored with it. I was also fully aware of all the strikes against this movie: took forever to come out, Miller's psychotic behavior over the past two years, criticisms about CGI-ing in Reeve and Reeves as Superman, the fact that it was a massive bomb at the box office.

So I was surprised to like it. It's really funny and fairly light-hearted. This was something I liked about the first Shazam movie too and it's more along those lines but with a bigger budget. The CGI is fucking dire but I didn't really care. It's cool to see Keaton back even if they kill him off twice unceremoniously. I thought it was hilarious they did a CGI Nick Cage Superman with long hair. Miller is great. Excellent surprise ending. Best end credits scene of any superhero movie in recent memory. I vote this the second best DCU movie after the first Wonder Woman.

that actor came to my town and terrorized a little kid and their family. very scary.

I was a fan of the TV show for a few seasons until it got so repetitive I got bored with it

Haven't seen the movie, I'll probably watch it at some point when I can stream it for free, but this was my experience as well. We really liked the first two or three seasons and it was nice to have a show to watch with our son, but even he wanted to give up about season 4 or 5 since the arc of every season was the exact same.

yeah miller has been terrorizing hawaii, vermont, and martha's vineyard for some time and seems to have avoided any actual consequences for any of this. I suspect Miller is on loads of cocaine at all times.

He's sort of like--what if Manson had actually been a successful musician?

I'm sorry-- They are like Charles Manson