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

uh-oh

Production on DC Universe's Swamp Thing has unexpectedly shutdown as the show will be shortened, according to Wilmington, North Carolina's Star-News newspaper. According to several unnamed "sources within the local industry," Warner Bros. Television suspended work on the show Tuesday, April 16 and said the show was being re-written to end with episode 10. The series was announced as a 13-episode first season, to finish filming in May 2019.

According to the newspaper, Swamp Thing actor Virginia Madsen posted (but later deleted) a message on Instagram saying: "I’m beyond sad. What a terrible decision. We have been cut to the core by those who have never set foot into the Swamp. And despite the rule I am going to use the hashtag. #swampthing."

Star-News goes further, saying that the "currently in-production project is being shut down earlier than expected as its producer, Warner Bros., evaluates the future of its DC Universe streaming service".

This was updated by a different story that said it was nothing more than creative differences between DCU (who is ultimately Johns I think) and the creative team.

Of course, the same thing happened to Titans but was less widely reported because it was the first one to hit.

This week's Flash was an ABSOLUTE stinker. Nora gets worse as the weeks go on, with her mimed running my greatest pleasure in the show these days, but hats off to the makeup crew for Future Iris which made the Arrow flash-forward scenes look like Weta studios.

I couldn't possibly have allowed myself to believe that quality televisual adaptations of both Doom Patrol and Swamp Thing could coexist. It's neither right nor natural.

I'm shockingly almost totally caught up with the CW shows for the first time in about two years. Haven't seen the newest Flash ep but I'm definitely pretty over Nora and (lol) her 'running'. Is it possible that the actress* has never attempted anything riskier than a brisk walk? Supergirl and Legends remain this season's MVP shows.

*It occurred to me recently that, despite having watched hundreds of hours of their antics, I know almost none of these shows' actors by name unless I was aware of them before. An argument for the old-school 'montage of character scenes with the actor's name superimposed' style of credits, I suppose. Or an argument for me to pay attention to things. I don't know.

Haha no

Flash is Grant something
Danny Trejo was Cisco's girlfriend's dad
Arrow is Steven (might be a ph) Amell (which might not be spelt right)
Felicity is Emily Betts Rickard (because a guy I used to work with obsessed with her after the Fappening)
Malcolm Merlyn was played by John Barrowman
Supergirl is Melissa Benoist (ditto Fappening)
J'onn is David Hardwood (because he was in lots of things)
Cat Grant was Calista Flockhart
Ray Palmer is Brandon Routh (because he was Superman)
Rip Hunter is Arthur Darvill

I think that's me. After 8 years.

Some other recurring characters

Tom Felton was Draco Malfoy in Harry Potter and a love interest for Killer Frost for over a season
Russell Tobey played The Ray, who appears in a lot of the alternate Earth eps
Chris something who was one of the main cast in American Pie was the big bad in Flash this season.
Biff Tannen is Steel's dad in Legends
Steven Amell's brother (Robbie?) played the Ronnie Raymond half of Firestorm
Clancy Brown has played some general who is always out to get heroes in the first couple of Flash seasons
Vinnie Jones was being set up as the bad guy (but not followed through with) in the prison episodes of Arrow

I think outside of that it's guest slots

Yeah see I was honestly unsure until just now whether the star of Arrow, a show I've watched for the better part of a decade, was Stephen or Robbie Amell. I know Laurel is a Cassidy because David is her dad. I don't really have this problem with other shows or movies.

David Hardwood (because he was in lots of things)

, as the actress said to the bishop

Regardless of whether I know their names, it's been a fun ongoing game for me to mentally rank the broad range of acting ability displayed on the CW shows. Like Chris Klein this season has, I believe, set the bar at an all-time low that I think is going to be really hard for anyone to surpass, to the extent that I'm marveling over the fact that he ever had a film career at all (aside from Election, where he was perfectly cast as a dipshit portraying a dipshit). All of the shows' leads are pretty dece imo. Upper tier in the ranking if not quite at the tippy top.

The actor who plays Flash’s dad, John Wesley Shipp, played the Flash in the 90’s tv show (1990-91) which I thought was kinda neat casting

His girlfriend(?) from OG Flash was also cast in a role on this show. Not to mention Hammill reprising his role as Trickster.

Agreed on the awfulness of this week's ep. Hated Marvel's Civil War due to pitting characters with decades of shared experience against each other, hamhandedly to drive the "superheroes "fite!" plot. This last Flash had the same bad feeling of characters who should be able to rationally talk things through instead using ill-reasoned arguments setting up poor decisions to gain a predetermined end. But with the free rein given to Chris Klein's growlybear performance, it's just high expectations unmet.

And at least they haven't had a drum-playing octopus. Now watching Aquaman and hoping Marvel takes some lessons for Namor to avoid.

TS: drum-playing octopi vs. drum-playing ants

Ha! Well-played, sir. I gave the ant more of a pass because the comedy is integral to Ant-Man and the drumming ant was a robot. Definite Marvel bias in my suspension of disbelief.

That Harewood autocorrect was a good one, thanks sic.

I spotted John Wesley Shipp (who also plays Jay Garrick, in a possibly even more on the nose role) and Mark Hammill but kind of put them in stunt casting along with Helen Slater, Dean Cain and Lynda Carter in Supergirl.

I also did not know the David Cassidy thing.

Don't forget Teri Hatcher!

Yes, another from the in-joke stunt casting basket.

And at least they haven't had a drum-playing octopus. Now watching Aquaman and hoping Marvel takes some lessons for Namor to avoid.

marvel, no weirdness or fun in yr movie about the king of sunken atlantis who cuts about in a chainmail speedo and can fly using the little wings on his ankles

You insult my sartorial forebear and you insult me, good sir (violently wrenches chainmail wedgie out of buttcrack).

Catching up on the last half dozen Supergirls atm and...am I nuts or does Brainiac Actor have seemingly no interest in maintaining a consistent vocal inflection? He sounds like a Hanna-Barbera character at the moment, which is not what he used to do. I keep expecting him to let slip with a 'Zounds! Heavens to Murgatroyd!'

the beard hunter chowing down on a big lump of plughole hair is maybe the most upsetting thing i’ve ever seen on tv

The Flash finale kind of fizzled out tbh. The idea of the Reverse Flash masterplan (to avoid spoilers) was a good one but nobody in their right mind could tolerate Nora for a second longer and her role in the plan kind of made no sense with maguffin on top of maguffin. Chris Klein only became more unbearable as the weeks went on and whatever was going on with the mind probe was just impossible to follow.

Arrow wound up with a whimper too. By the end the future makeup actually got worse than I thought it was upthread and the wigs... But everyone's story is done and Ollie has gone off with the Monitor for the truncated final season which only goes up to the Crisis crossover. Hoping for Legends type insanity on other worlds. Will probably just get 10 shades of growlybears.

But then Flash wrapped everybody up too. No idea what it's going to do prior to Crisis unless it's just Monster Of The Week in which case YAY.

Supergirl continues to impress and confound in equal measure. The Lex plot has been great but the Red Daughter woefully underused. Haven't cared about the Lockwood thing - and the President cliffhanger was dreadfully mishandled - but the fate of Braniac going into the finale is superb. Needs to pivot back to MOTW and goofy silver age shit to make me love it but it'll do.

Legends otoh has gone from strength to strength to yet further strength. This season has been pretty incredible and somehow the race to the finale has been even better than an already unbelievably strong first half. Only minus points are for Mona's arc in the second half, mainly because I think she's rotten in *those* scenes (not helped by dreadful makeup) and is/was far better as the wide-eyed innocent dreamer.

Doom Patrol has kept the standards up too, even if I think Flex Mentallo is way OP in this version. The funeral episode might have been the highspot of the season.

Doom Patrol never dipped at any point really and was great all the way through.

I've enjoyed Swamp Thing a lot, bits are very Moore-faithful although it definitely is skewed for TV (and I don't really like what they've done with Blue Devil).

Krypton has been pretty weak although Braniac has been excellent. Lobo was as predictably bad as you might think.

I can't in any good conscience suggest anyone watch Pennyworth, however, fans of the sort of car-crash wrong only US TV gets England and the atrocity which is Paloma Faith's acting may get some small comfort.

I haven't even formally acknowledged that the latter two happened (see also: Gotham). Doom Patrol has been a delight. Swamp Thing...I do want to see it eventually, but its insta-cancellation (and I guess they also had to retroactively rejigger the season to compensate for a reduced episode order?) just leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

lobo? oh noes

I just googled for more info on this development and learned that they are now making a Lobo spinoff show, so that should be good and a lot of fun.

how did krypton make it to a second season before i’d even noticed the first had even made it to air

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)