The Flash (2014-2023) TV Series Retrospective

 Hey everyone, how's it going? I'm doing pretty well. I was originally gonna do a comic book review either yesterday or today, but I decided to do something different instead. Last night the series finale of The Flash aired on The CW in the US, and has, hopefully, dropped on Netflix here in Canada by now. And while I haven't been able to watch the show since we got rid of Netflix back in mid to late 2020 or early 2021, I would still like to talk about the show a little bit, because it was an important part of my life for six or seven years, and is one of the reasons I started blogging to begin with. There might be spoilers for some of the early seasons, but there won't be much from seasons 7, 8, and 9, since, I haven't actually seen those seasons, and basically only kept up through the Arrowverse Wiki. So let's get into it.

2014 was quite a year for superhero and comic book based movies and TV shows. James Gunn's Guardians of the Galaxy came out and was a massive success, showing that even Marvel's most obscure characters would be successful in the MCU. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (2013-2020) also aired it's tie-in episode to the newly released Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014). On the DC side of things, Man of Steel had been released the year before and development was underway on its sequel, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, though it wouldn't come out for another year and a half at that point. On the TV front, Arrow was starting its third season. But on October 7th, 2014 a new superhero show aired it's pilot episode, giving birth to a whole universe and that was The Flash.

We knew the show was coming because three of its main characters, Barry Allen (played by Grant Gustin), Caitlin Snow (played by Danielle Panabaker), and Cisco Ramone (played by Carlos Valdez), were introduced in the second season of Arrow, with Barry being introduced in what was basically a two part backdoor pilot in late 2013. But, the Flash wasn't a super popular character, and being that the show would lean more heavily into the comic book superhero formula that hadn't really been done in live action television before, apart from the later seasons of Smallville (2001-2011), I don't think anyone was sure if the show would be successful, despite the fact that superheroes were more popular than they had ever been thanks to the success the Marvel Cinematic Universe was enjoying at the box office. Developed and produced by Greg Berlanti, Andrew Kreisberg, and Geoff Johns, The Flash was a huge success, opening up to a big shared comic book universe on TV, which we hadn't seen since the DC Animated Universe shows came out from the early '90s to the mid 2000s, and had never seen in live action before. 

One of the interesting things about the show's first season, aside from appearances from much of Arrow's cast, is that the show maintained a strong connection to the 1990 CBS The Flash series with John Wesley Shipp, who had played Barry Allen/the Flash on that show playing Barry's father, Henry, and then later playing Jay Garrick/the Flash, and reprising his role as the Flash from the 1990 series, and Amanda Pays and Mark Hamill reprising their roles of Tina McGee and James Jesse/the Trickster as well. In fact, this show is the reason I ended up buying the 1990 series on DVD, because I wanted to check it out and see what it was like. 

The Flash had its problems, though it didn't quickly fall apart with the CWness of the show not coming into play as much as it did on Arrow. Its biggest problem was that it had too many characters. Particularly in later seasons, starting around season 4 or season 5. As a result, Barry would stop having as much of the focus as he had in the first three or four seasons, and he became less interesting as the show went on. Which is part of the reason I stopped watching the show near the end of season six. The other reason is because of something that was out of the hands of the show's producers.

In the pilot, it was hinted at that Barry would die/disappear during a Crisis event. As the seasons went on it became clear that an adaptation of the 1985 comic book miniseries, Crisis on Infinite Earths, is what the show was leading up to in the 10th season, which would air in the 2023-2024 television season, if the TV landscape held up long enough. But then Stephen Amell chose to leave Arrow, effectively ending that show, and due to Green Arrow having a pretty large role in the TV show version of this event, Crisis on Infinite Earths was moved up to midway through the sixth season of The Flash so that it could be how they wrote Amell out of the series. The problem was that, only Arrow was going to be wrapping up in the 2019-2020 television season, though Batwoman, Black Lightning, Supergirl, and DC's Legends of Tomorrow would follow it soon after. Suddenly the writers had to keep going on The Flash after Crisis on Infinite Earths aired. As a result it felt like they didn't know what to do with the series, since they hadn't intended to do Crisis on Infinite Earths so soon, and didn't know how to keep it going after that big crossover. At least that's how it felt to me by the time season seven started.

The best parts of the show for me were the characters. Barry, Iris, Joe, Cisco, Caitlin, the various versions of Harrison Wells (all played wonderfully by Tom Cavanagh) and the new ones that came in right before Crisis on Infinite Earths, as well as the ones that moved over to Legends when that show started midway through the second season of The Flash, were all likeable. And the villains, while actual threats, were delightfully evil, though many of them still fell into the trope of believing they're doing what they're doing because it's the right thing to do. The entire cast, be it main, recurring, or guest, did an amazing job and they were all fun to watch on screen. Cisco was one of my favourite characters, and I loved Danielle Panabaker as Caitlin. While some people found Candice Patton annoying as Iris, I honestly really liked her in the role, it's just the writers really didn't give her much to do for the first five or six seasons. From seasons 2 through 6 she was just Barry's girlfriend and then his wife. And I suspect that that has to do with behind the scenes industry politics more than Candice Patton's skill as a performer. 

Something else that I enjoyed about the show was the way it embraced the more cheesy aspects of comic books. While the show wasn't campy like Batman (1966-1968) was, it didn't shy away from the fact that it's a show based on a comic book and that comic books can be ridiculous sometimes. I mean the show did a musical episode in early 2017, during season three. 

   In 2014, just before the TV show debuted, DC Comics published a digital first comic book series called The Flash: Season Zero, which took place between episodes of the show's first season. I missed out on this comic book series as I wasn't going to the comic book store as much by the time the print version started coming out. 

Then, in November of 2016 a novel for the series was published by Titan Books. It served as a crossover with the novels based on Arrow. I also missed out on this book, though I do remember seeing it on the shelves at Indigo Books back in 2017. It was followed by Climate Changeling in 2018. 

Then, in 2018 a series of books based on The Flash began publication by Amulet Books. Again, I missed these books completely as I wasn't going into Chapters/Indigo Books very often anymore, and I don't remember seeing them available at the comic book stores. 

Of course, like most DC Comics properties, The Flash had a very small toyline accompanying the show. The show also had a series of Funko Pops as well. 

Despite me walking away from the show after six seasons, The Flash, particularly the earlier seasons, is one of my favourite shows. It opened me up to the wider DC Universe even more than Arrow did, and I remember a time when Supergirl (2015-2021) was on on Monday nights, The Flash was on on Tuesdays, Arrow (2012-2020) was on on Wednesdays, and DC's Legends of Tomorrow (2016-2022) was on on Thursdays and that's how I spent my time watching TV. Especially back before Star Trek returned with Star Trek: Discovery in 2017 and the Disney+ Star Wars and MCU shows started in 2019 and 2021. I loved seeing all of these characters in live action, on TV, every week. 

That's it for me for today my friends. I'll be back soon with another review. Depending on when I finish them the next review will either be of A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin, or Star Wars Rebels season 4. Or I might do a comic book review next. We'll see what happens. Until then have a great evening and I will talk to you all later. Take care.