Happy Wednesday BaddaBing BaddaBlog readers! This is Pop Culture Wednesday, the place where we talk about anything and everything related to western media. Today’s article is going to be about a television show who’s twenty-three episodes my roommate and I binged in two weeks. If you couldn’t figure it out from the title, I’m talking about The Flash. 

Those of you who have kept up with 4B know that I am pretty open with my love of DC Comics. That’s why, after entering my usual post-midterm existential crisis, I decided to start watching The Flash on Netflix. I will try to keep this review as spoiler free as possible, but inevitable some aspects of the show are going to have to be delved into. With that in mind dear reader, let’s hit the ground running. Also yes, this article is going to be riddled with speed and running jokes, enjoy!

The Flash is the story of twenty-five year old Berry Allen who is struck by lightening during a storm caused by a dark matter accelerator. The lightening puts him into a coma and, when he wakes up in nine months, he finds out that it also gave him super speed. After some convincing from his new scientist friends, he decides to use his speed to fight crime and also combat other individuals who gained various powers due to the dark matter accelerator going haywire. Berry, who eventually becomes more wildly known by his alias The Flash, also reserves himself to using his new found speed to solve the mystery of his mother’s murder. Fourteen years ago his mother was killed by a man dressed in yellow inside of a ball of lightening. His father was wrongly convicted of the crime and Berry vows to find the true killer and get his father out of prison.

I personally think the set up here is actually pretty good. It gives the main character both a motivator and is more unique than something as bland as Batman’s origin story. I also appreciate how much the show embraces the weirdness of its source material. Bizarre science-fiction concepts are embraced by the characters almost immediately, all of the bad guys are given super villain names, and generally everyone seems to be having a fun time fighting crime and having super powers.

The show is also very well written. Not only does it have great uses of foreshadowing, but it also manages to keep the standard super hero formula interesting from episode to episode. My only real gripe about the writing is that if you read the comics, you pretty much know how the entire season is going to play out with the over-arching villains. Although, if you are a fan of the comics, you are probably too busy loving how some awesome comic book characters are brought to the small screen to complain.

The biggest flaw with the show is that it took a while for it to reach its stride. Seriously. The first three or four episodes of The Flash have some pretty heavy handed writing and acting. I know that the writers wanted to really establish what made each of the characters unique and what motivated, but there is little to no subtitle in explaining this. Each character pretty much says “I’m like this because _______”. After those first few episodes things get better almost inhumanly quickly and by the end of the season I really didn’t mind those first few episodes, but I still had a poor aftertaste in my mouth.

In short, watch The Flash. If you are a fan of comic books you are going to be a fan of this. If you aren’t a fan of comics: a) What’s wrong with you? and b) You’ll still probably like it anyway. Is it the best thing on T.V.? I don’t think so, but it is still a damn good show that embraces it’s roots and is unapologetically weird and unique.

Alright, that just about does it for this review of the CW show, The Flash. If you enjoyed this please be sure to like it and leave a comment down below. As always, you can recieve notifications as to when new posts are made here by subscribing via email in the upper right tab. You can also stay up to date by liking the official BaddaBing BaddaBlog Facebook Page or by following me, @LucasDeRuyter, on Twitter. Have a great day everybody and be sure to come back on Friday for News for the Mighty, News of the Week.

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