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The Flash #1.8 “Flash vs. Arrow” Recap & Review

The first part in the crossover event strikes a smart balance between fanservice and storytelling, in a fun, even if unambitious hour that lives up to the hype.

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FLA108c_0157b Summary: The first part in the crossover event strikes a smart balance between fanservice and storytelling, in a fun, even if unambitious hour that lives up to the hype.

Recap

Barry is thrilled when Oliver, Felicity, and Diggle come to Central City to investigate a case involving a deadly boomerang. Excited about teaming up with his friend, Barry asks Oliver if he’d like to help him stop Ray G. Bivolo, the meta-human Barry is currently tracking. Bivolo causes people to lose control of their emotions and has been using that skill to rob banks. Unfortunately, the superhero partnership doesn’t go as smoothly as Barry expected, as Oliver calls him out on his mistakes and even hits him with arrows. Joe and Dr. Wells think the Arrow is a bad influence, and when Oliver tells Barry he still has a lot to learn, Barry sets out to prove him wrong by attempting to stop Bivolo alone. However, when Bivolo infects Barry and sets him on a rage rampage, everyone is in danger, and the only one who can stop him is the Arrow. Meanwhile, Iris is furious when Eddie tries to get a task force to stop The Flash. However, the infected Flash violently confronts Eddie upon hearing about the task force, and is only stopped by an intervention from the Arrow. Iris loses faith in her hero, but the Arrow is able to take down The Flash, and the STAR Labs team uses a series of colors to undo the damage Bivolo caused on Barry. After the two team-up and take down Bivolo together, Felicity asks Caitlin to help her determine the identity of Canary’s killer through a DNA sample. Oliver briefly has a run-in with the mother of his child from “Seeing Red,” and gives Barry advice: guys like them do not get the girl. On an unknown road, a homeless Ronnie Raymond, Caitlin’s thought-to-be-dead husband, retaliates on two attackers with fire powers.

Review

The first part of the much-hyped The Flash/Arrow crossover event is rather surprising in its lack of ambition at first. This isn’t any sort of worldwide threat that brings two teams together, but it is one that organically weaves characters from not-so-similar worlds into one story. I talked in-depth about the differences in the worlds of the show back in “Going Rogue,” and much of that is still relevant here. Essentially, The Flash and Arrow are vastly different in tone and in concept, and it’s those differences that let them both work as shows. So the challenge of “Flash vs. Arrow,” which brings the realism of the parent show into the ridiculousness of the spin-off, is melding the two tones together without them clashing.

FLA108b_0124bThe route it takes becomes that aforementioned lack of ambition, but in a good way; rather than trying to craft a giant two-show-spanning plot, “Flash vs. Arrow” is just another high quality episode of The Flash, albeit one with with some very special guest stars. This is evident in that the Prism/Rainbow Raider storyline could have easily stood alone as a typical freak of the week, with enough potential to fill out the hour with more mean Barry scenes or subplots and still work. Turning Barry into an antagonist definitely gave the Arrow an important role, but the bulk of Barry’s attitude is more targeted at Joe, Eddie, and Iris, and STAR Labs could have feasibly trapped and cured him on their own if necessary (though it certainly would have been harder.) In this sense, “Flash vs. Arrow” feels like an episode of The Flash first with the Arrow cast incidentally guest starring, appropriately along the lines of Felicity’s appearance in “Going Rogue.”

While the second part of this crossover, “The Brave and the Bold,” handles the integration of The Flash cast into Starling City a bit differently, what “Flash vs. Arrow” does still strikes a remarkable balance. The Arrow trifecta don’t get in the way of The Flash‘s plots, but they aren’t superfluous either; Oliver teaches Barry some vital lessons about his short tenure as a hero, and we get tiny bits of plot movement for Arrow and fun moments for their characters as well. Oliver gets to have a few “mine’s bigger” moments (his reaction to the STAR Labs prison is uncharacteristically funny), and Felicity reaffirms that she’s just as much part of the STAR Labs team as she is Team Arrow, in a way. It’s something Dr. Wells even tries to use against her, testing her loyalties, though she of course doesn’t betray one for the other. Not that it matters, since Wells still reveals Oliver’s identity to the team, in a big dick move. Even though Wells provides yet another connection to Oliver’s father and some words of support, Oliver is totally in the right to find something off about him.

Even though he doesn’t get as much screentime as he ought to, Diggle gets some of the best bits from the episode. In fact, every single scene we get has David Ramsey nailing the comedy, particularly his fries-chucking reaction to Barry’s superpowers and subsequent discussion of them (how fast does Barry go to the bathroom?) Everyone lightens up in this hour, simply because this is The Flash, but this is also proof that Ramsey can handle comedic material as well as anything else. He gets loads more to do in Arrow‘s follow-up episode, thankfully, but even his limited screentime here makes his appearance worthwhile.

Like essentially all of Arrow’s third season has been thus far, it’s a lot of set-up for Team Arrow–Caitlin may be able to yield more clues to Sara’s murder, and we’re merely reminded of the mother of Oliver’s secret child, rather than anything new happening with her. Still, throwing in those tidbits that will surely come into play by season’s end makes it clear that Starling City isn’t on pause while this is going on. This pair of episodes may have been hyped as crossover events, but they’re hardly a detour, especially where The Flash is concerned.

FLA108a_0144bThis is evident in that we finally get some solid momentum on the Barry/Iris/Eddie triangle. One of the most underdeveloped and somewhat forced aspects of The Flash so far, the dynamic finally shifts around to an interesting place. It’s hard to say what Iris will have to do now, but the faster we can move past the lovestruck faux-Lois Lane and into something more relevant, the better. As for Eddie, he finally has something to do in general with this Flash Task Force. Rick Cosnett is generally good in his thus far thankless role, and pitting him as something of an antagonist—whether it’s intended to line him up with his comics counterpart or not—is only going to be better for him. The only downside of this Task Force plot is that it hasn’t been set up too well until now; there really isn’t any reason for people who believe in The Flash to not trust him, given he’s known to be prone more to silly good deeds than violence. But, again, bringing the known violent vigilante Arrow into town is what ultimately sparks interest in the Task Force while the whammied Flash cements it, which makes “Flash vs. Arrow” still integral even without much appropriate set-up.

This love triangle business is also commented on by Oliver, who’s effectively a cipher to compare and contrast the differences between The Flash now and Arrow‘s first seasons. A fun thing with watching The Flash unfold over these past months has been seeing its characters grow away from what initially appeared to be their Arrow expies; Joe is not Quentin, Iris is not Laurel, Caitlin is not Felicity, etc. The Barry/Iris/Eddie triangle had some Oliver/Laurel/Tommy aftertaste to it, and has been one of the only things that hasn’t really evolved since the pilot. Oliver highlights this, cynically informing Barry that guys like them simply never get the girl. Yet, Oliver’s comparison is to his current non-relationship with Felicity, a crux of season 3.

Like Barry and Felicity compared their romantic situations in “Going Rogue,” Oliver is using his inability to be with Felicity as an example of why their double lives make it impossible. This is where Arrow‘s darker hue plays into the episode, casting Barry’s decision to be a hero—which thus far has only given him joy and meaning—does inevitably darken his life. But Oliver’s declaration doesn’t exactly hold up when put under scrutiny; again, Barry’s situation is much more akin to Oliver/Laurel/Tommy, which was a disaster because of loads more tragedy, melodrama, and bad decisions than anything involved with Barry and Iris. And, unlike Oliver, Barry isn’t a broken man burdened with the desire to save his city. Barry is just a guy with superpowers who wants to do good, and he has the advantage of being fast enough that he can still devote equal time to being both Barry Allen and The Flash. Much as Oliver provides useful wisdom throughout this team-up, he seems remarkably narrow-sighted in his last bit of advice, perhaps telling of where is mind is throughout season 3. That’s something that gets touched upon a bit more in “The Brave and the Bold,” but in “Flash vs. Arrow,” he adds a layer of doubt in Barry’s mind. It sucks for Barry, but it’s good for the impending drama that doubt should yield.

FLA108b_0468bBut beyond the romantic drama, what we’re looking for in a crossover is double the good ol’ superhero action. “The Brave and the Bold” gives the pair of heroes more to do in terms of working together, but “Flash vs. Arrow,” as the name suggests, focuses on the other tried and true superhero crossover trope: see what happens when they beat the crap out of each other. The long battle is totally up to par with the effects and fight choreography thus far, with various points letting both Arrow and Flash get the upper hand and get beat down. The Arrow takes down The Flash, technically, but it’s only thanks to STAR’s efforts at curing Barry of his mind alteration. With this in mind—and considering how beat-up The Arrow must have been after all those brutal superspeed punches from Barry—it’s right to assume, like Cisco said, that it ended in a draw. This is the action centerpiece of the episode rather than taking down the villain, which leads into a gag where we completely skip Prism/Rainbow Raider’s actual capture. It’s a weird beat in the episode, even if it’s intentional, but the implication that the two heroes working together captured him so easily that it wasn’t even worth filming is a funny bit.

“Flash vs. Arrow” might not be exactly what we expected, but it delivers on what The Flash has been good at this entire time: fun. It’s a sillier, heart-on-your-sleeve installment, but it’s consistently aware that the goal is to have classic superhero fun. The teleplay by Ben Sokolowski & Brooke Eikmeier is poppy, with nearly every other line something quoteable or funny. Glen Winter’s direction is dynamic and vibrant—important in an episode so heavily hinged on color—and the entire episode is on “Power Outage” levels of fast-paced. Yet it’s not without its dramatic edge, with every character having something to do or new to learn even with the expanded size of the cast. This is an episode that smartly did not go too big, and honed in on what’s made both these shows work so well. As either a self-contained installment or the first part of the crossover, “Flash vs. Arrow” is a rousing success, and shows that the combined Flash/Arrow universe has no signs of slowing down.

Odds & Ends

  • The ending reveal with Ronnie/Firestorm, while obviously important for The Flash‘s narrative, seems kind of out of place. Arrow has done a lot of these endings this season, where the tag is essentially showing off the villain of the next week almost completely out of nowhere. It’s not really bad or anything, but it’s a somewhat cheap way to throw in an “OMG!” cliffhanger when there isn’t one organically worked in.
  • The opening logo for the crossover episodes are fun. Along with Arrow‘s Cupid opening, I like that they’re not afraid to play with these superficial elements from time-to-time.
  • I wanted to groan when Barry says, “A case of the feels,” but that’s totally something Barry would say. And hey, it was actually totally relevant to the episode, too!
  • Love that Barry stops a bullet in the teaser by shoving an entire machine in front of it, rather than just pushing the guy out of the way.
  • In addition to all the comic book fanservice, lest we forget that Felicity “shirt on fire” fanservice. Totally unnecessary as fanservice often is, but it did nicely establish that Barry and Felicity are on such good platonic friend terms now that it’s not a big deal for them.
  • Yeah, I know, comics and all that. But someone could have at least commented on Roy G. Bivolo’s name being Roy G. Bivolo, or claimed it was a fabricated name, or something.
  • Good foreshadowing of the crux of “The Brave and the Bold” with Joe’s comments about The Arrow’s methods, particularly torture.
  • Nice as it is that Captain Singh openly has a boyfriend…there had to be less awkward way to add in that detail.
  • Let’s be real, guys. Stephen Amell is on everyone’s “Three List.”
  • “Cool! …I mean awful.”
  • “I had a cousin that got struck by lightning once. He just developed a stutter.”
  • “Did you guys break up?”
    “No.”
    “Oh.”
  • “Don’t you sleep?”

A SECOND OPINION

by Matt Tucker

In a sense, it’s sort of unfair to critique only a single half of a two-part event when you don’t have the second part to provide full context; a fair argument could be made. Yet, one of the more surprising aspects of The Flash side of this crossover is just how fairly self-contained is the story of the episode. Sure, Team Arrow exits Central City with very little to show from its investigation of a boomerang used to kill someone in Starling City, which leaves threads and seeds for the Arrow side of things. It proves to be somewhat of a superficial framing device, though, when this hour is done.

A mostly fun hour is to be had. John Diggle’s reaction to the new reality of Barry’s powers and other metahumans was the highlight, and he got a few zingers of lines. His argument with Cisco over who would win in the fight between the Flash and Arrow was a clear nod to the debates we comic nerds have been hashing out for decades, and deserved to be longer.

They also sharply delineate the differences in tone between the two shows with a severe cloud of seriousness seeming to travel above Oliver at nearly all times while the zippiness of Central City remains. The exchange about giving “silly codenames” to the metahumans the S.T.A.R. Labs crew face was meant to elicit laughs, but it’s a perfect microcosm of the approach on both shows. Each has inherently silly things about it in concept, and each takes a different tack on making them entertaining and relatable. Both are successful, and the episode manages to acknowledge both as existing in a consistent world.

The great thing about this first hour is that the inclusion of Oliver Queen turned the spotlight on Barry Allen to reveal more about him, which is the best outcome of these kinds of stunts. Rather than just passively working together, the Arrow’s presence offers character growth for the Flash, both as a hero and as a man. Oliver’s decidedly gruff style does, frankly, get a bit wearing here, but the entire interaction forces Barry to look inward. Exposing Barry’s naivete and inexperience when it comes to his hero work, in a way offering a check on the geeking and self-congratulation over the clumsy and lucky ways Barry has been able to use his abilities to his advantage over the last few weeks, is an essential lesson for the character — and the series — to be able to evolve. The Flash should never lose the fun it has, but Barry does need to become smarter about the way he approaches metahumans.

Initially seeming to be premature to hold a crossover, it actually serves to be a valuable time in the new series’ life for the outlet to offer such lessons. It’ll be interesting to see if the series takes these lessons to heart, or if it proves to be merely lip service.

It was somewhat of an odd choice to have Oliver and Barry capture Bivolo off-screen in the end, presumably in an effort to place the true conflict on the titular battle in the fourth act. One can’t help feeling a bit cheated, and it represents the biggest example of what feel to be several missing pieces throughout the episode. It’s the only one that glaringly plays with the continuity and consistency of the hour, so “missing” is, perhaps, a tad strong of a word for everything else. There just feel to be a number of interactions that could’ve benefited with more meat. One can only assume that length of airtime and pacing are the culprits for that.

In particular, there’s really little reason for Oliver to make the comment that something is a little off about Dr. Wells except for the audience’s sake. We already know that, but we have the benefit of seeing him do weird and devious things. Oliver’s conclusion, gut feeling or not, needed more on-screen to be able to sell it.

Selling it isn’t a problem for that hero battle, and a such contrivances usually go, this one proves legit. There’s often an initial groan involved in many comic team-ups because they invariable require the two heroes (or teams) to engage in some kind of physical altercation first before joining forces to take down the bigger threat. The motivations for these confrontations are often sketchy, at best, offering little to mask the naked idea of “wouldn’t it be cool if X fought Y?!” that spawned the team-up to begin with.

Here, though, Prism/Rainbow Raider’s whammy of Barry is rooted in enough character pathos to justify the conflict between the two heroes, and not just a random brainwashing pitting them against each other for the sake of looking cool. Oh, but it did. Both fought up to the level of their abilities, and it was a smartly choreographed and fantastically edited tete-a-tete as a result. Leave it to Glen Winter to show us the superheroic goods.

Seeming a little light on first viewing, the hour actually offers a fair amount of consequence. The Flash’s encounter with Eddie not only emboldens the cop to get a new anti-Flash task force pushed through with the captain, but it solidifies an antagonistic relationship between them that has far-reaching implications for the future. This also puts Barry’s alter ego at odds with Iris, something that gives Oliver’s parting words to Barry more weight and should complicate things for a while. It’s this consequence, and the clean resolution to the Bivolo story — not to mention the Firestorm tease with the very much alive Ronnie at the end — that made it feel like a Flash episode that happened to guest star Stephen Amell, David Ramsey, and Emily Bett Rickards.

It was an enjoyable Flash episode, for the most part. If they had just managed to make the threat, either Bivolo or the man with the boomerangs (Digger Harkness) or both together, one that truly stretched the two episodes and made it one cohesive story, this crossover would be better for it.

1 Comment

1 Comment

  1. dee

    December 7, 2014 at 12:14 pm

    I like the sneak peek of the next week’s villain at the end. It gives the feeling of “elsewhere in the city this is going on”. It makes Central city and Starling city seem bigger then the main storylines.

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Blu-ray Review: The Flash: The Complete Sixth Season

Review of The Flash Season 6 Blu-ray set from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment

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The Flash: The Complete Sixth Season is now available on Blu-ray, DVD, and Digital from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment, and we have been provided with a copy of the set to review on the site!

The set features all 19 episodes of The Flash Season 6 plus extras — the Blu-ray includes all of the Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover!

Here’s what’s up:

Packaging & Design: Starting with this because it’s probably the first thing you’ll notice. The box art for this set has changed since the original press release — the fired Hartley Sawyer’s Ralph Dibny is no longer on the packaging. While I understand the show distancing themselves — Ralph was indeed an important part of Season 6, with his Sue Dearbon story, and I’m not 100% sure how I think they should have handled it. As it is, it looks odd with just the other four members of Team Flash on it. Though, to be fair, Nash Wells isn’t on the cover either.

With that said, The Flash sets usually have some of the best designed packaging and menu art and this set is no exception.

The Episodes: Also seems I am repeating myself but the Blu-ray presentation on The Flash is loads better than what we see on TV and is pretty cinematic. All 19 episodes of Season 6 are here, and — spoiler warning — because of COVID-19, they were cut off at 19 episodes, so that means some storylines aren’t completely wrapped. With that said, this season saw Eric Wallace taking over as showrunner, and with him came a new tactic that he referred to as “graphic novels.” The first “graphic novel” included the character Bloodwork (Sendhil Ramamurthy) as characters are facing death, and the second, after Crisis, dealt with a new “Mirror Master.”

I will say that The Flash under Eric Wallace has a great vision and I love his enthusiasm, which you can actually hear on the “Kiss Kiss Breach Breach” commentary. He’s as big of a geek as we are, and I mean that in the absolute best way. The only thing I’d have to say negative about Season 6 is that the mirror storyline has gone on way too long — and I wonder, if they had known all along that we’d end with 19 episodes (an impossibility, because who would?), it might have been a bit shorter.

This “graphic novel” set-up, however, does offer the chance to binge the season in parts, which is pretty cool, and the Blu-ray bonus disc of all of Crisis on Infinite Earths is a good thing to throw in the middle to tee up Graphic Novel #2.

The other thing I will say about Season 6 is that I really liked some of the new characters that are set up. Chester P. Runk, Sue Dearbon, Kamilla, and Allegra — all fun characters that add to rather than detract from the series.

The Extras: The set includes a bonus black and white noir version of “Kiss Kiss Breach Breach” with commentary by Eric Wallace. Commentaries don’t happen too often these days, so I’m so glad they put something on this set. There is also a gag reel and deleted scenes. And, of course, all of Crisis which has a lot of great Flash content!

Is It Worth It? If you’re a Flash completist or want to see the most recent season in high definition, sure. You might want to start at the very beginning, though. Still, I think The Flash is on its way back to its former glory and Season 6 is the start of that journey. Can’t wait for Season 7, and for now, this set will be revisited often.

Get your copy of the Blu-ray from Amazon.com at a discounted price and support FlashTVNews!

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Blu-ray Review: The Flash: The Complete Fifth Season

Review of the Flash Season 5 Blu-ray set.

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Disclaimer: Warner Bros. Home Entertainment provided FlashTVNews with a free copy of this set for review in this post. The opinions shared are my own.

The Flash: The Complete Fifth Season hits Blu-ray and DVD this week, containing all 22 episodes of Season 5 plus bonus episodes from the Elseworlds crossover. In addition to the entire season, there are few extra features for all to enjoy, though some are duplicated from other sets that were made available this year. Here’s the review.

The Episodes: As mentioned, all 22 episodes plus extras are on this set. And as I tend to write every year, the show isn’t quite at the high level it was in its first season, but there are definitely standouts in Season 5. A big theme for the season is family, and the conflicts between parents and their children. Caitlin and her parents are a part of that. The season’s villain is a part of that. And the biggest part of that is Nora West-Allen (Jessica Parker Kennedy), the daughter of Barry and Iris brought back from the future. Kennedy is fantastic in the role, though it is at times disappointing to see so much attention on a new character when we are here for the ones we’ve seen for 100+ episodes.

The Flash Season 5 contains the series’ 100th episode which is a great journey through the five years of the show. Sadly absent from Episode 100, though, is Joe West (Jesse L. Martin) who was recovering from an injury for a good part of the season. Martin’s presence was certainly missed though it is nice that the show upgraded Danielle Nicolet (Cecile) to series regular this year.

I’ll be honest: I wasn’t very invested in the Cicada story, at least not as much as I probably should have been. And I was even less into the latest Wells, “Sherloque,” which was a joke that stopped being funny within about 2 minutes, with no offense meant to the writers or Tom Cavanagh. It was nice to see the talented Cavanagh in another role, though part of me still is wondering why it was not Matt Letscher, though I’m forgiving that because, again, Tom Cavanagh.

I’m also not sure what to make of Vibe’s eventual fate, unless it is a way to make things less easy for next year’s crossover. In any event, watching these episodes still has me excited for Season 6, and The Flash is certainly a series that is worth the Blu-Ray upgrade.

The Extras: There’s a fantastic featurette about the origins of Killer Frost which is really well put together. I was, however, surprised that such attention wasn’t paid to XS/Nora as she was also a major arc for Season 5. Was there only room to cover one story? I’m also surprised there wasn’t some kind of 100th episode spotlight, especially since Warner Bros. did have press kit people on the line interviewing the cast.

There are Elseworlds, villains, and Comic-Con featurettes that you can find on the other DC TV shows this year, which I can only imagine is a cost-cutting measure to include them everywhere.

The set also has deleted scenes, with the most notable being Superman running with Oliver Queen from “Elseworlds Part 1.” It’s a shame that was cut. There was also a “My Name Is Barry Allen” from “Elseworlds” with Stephen Amell replacing Grant Gustin as Grant replaced him in the aired Part 2 — this was surely cut and unfinished so as to not blow the reveal that Oliver was Barry in Part 1. It’s still really cute and fun.

Finally, there’s a gag reel. While they are introduced with credits like The Office, they’re still a bit… meh.

Packaging and Design: Seeing Barry and Nora running side by side is the perfect way to sell this. Very nice looking.

Is It Worth It? I’ll always recommend picking up Flash Blu-Rays from the beginning, but this is certainly worthwhile, especially to prepare for Season 6 to premiere on October 8. You can purchase this set (and support this site!) here.

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Blu-ray Review: The Flash: The Complete Fourth Season

Review of the Blu-ray set for The Flash: The Complete Fourth Season

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The Complete Fourth Season of The Flash hits Blu-ray and DVD this week (Tuesday, August 28), and we’ve got our hands on a review copy!

Before we get to the review, here’s how the season is described:

In Season Four, the mission of Barry Allen, aka The Flash (Grant Gustin), is once more to protect Central City from metahuman threats. First, he’ll have to escape the Speed Force. With Barry trapped, the job of protecting Central City falls to his family – Detective Joe West (Jesse L. Martin); his fiancée, Iris West (Candice Patton); and Wally West/Kid Flash (Keiynan Lonsdale) – and the team at S.T.A.R. Labs – Dr. Caitlin Snow/Killer Frost (Danielle Panabaker), Cisco Ramon/Vibe (Carlos Valdes) and brilliant scientist Harrison Wells (Tom Cavanagh). When a powerful villain threatens to level the city if The Flash doesn’t appear, Cisco risks everything to break Barry out of the Speed Force. But this is only the first move of a life-or-death chess game with Clifford DeVoe aka The Thinker (Neil Sandilands), a mastermind who’s always ten steps ahead of Barry, no matter how fast he’s running. Shocking surprises come fast and furious in all 23 action-packed adventures featuring The Fastest Man Alive.

So, how’s the set?

The Episodes: It’s going to be very hard to ever replicate the greatness that was the first season of The Flash. Unfortunately, one thing that The Flash Season 1 did so well that still didn’t connect for Season 4 is a strong villain. While I have more appreciation for The Thinker after rewatching some episodes and checking out the extra interview features on this set, I still don’t really feel that empathy and care for him that I had for, say, Eobard/Wells.

Season 4 also tried to course correct with more humor to varied success. Sometimes it worked; others the show was far too amused with itself. (I don’t need to see any more Wellses no matter how much I love Tom Cavanagh, for example, and “psychic pregnancy” will never not be too campy for me.)

There’s some good stuff, though. The best version of Barry’s suit so far premieres in Season 4, and Barry and Iris finally get married this year, even if every time they got married, they ended up interrupted. There are some episodes that worked to innovate, and there are also things like Barry in jail which seem to go on for too long. But at least with a DVD or Blu-ray you can fast forward, right?

Season 4 is also where we meet Ralph Dibny. He grows on you until you finally stretch your appreciation levels. By season’s end, you love Ralph as much as everyone else might.

The Extras: Of all the DC TV shows, The Flash usually gets the best treatment as far as extras go. We’ve got deleted scenes (including some WestAllen!), bloopers, and the all-encompassing Comic-Con video… and some other great extras, including Sterling Gates and Eric Wallace with Katee Sackhoff offering commentary on Amunet (who I do enjoy more after seeing Sackhoff speaking about her, but I still don’t understand why the silly accent was a thing). There’s also a really nice feature about the Elongated Man, and all four episodes of this year’s DC TV crossover are represented.

There’s also talk about The Thinker, and as I said, I appreciate the storyline more but I still didn’t have that emotional connection with the character that I feel I needed. The other bodies thing at midseason made that all even worse.

Packaging & Art: This is one of the best looking Flash Blu-ray sets so far. Dynamic design on the box art and on the discs. I like it.

Is It Worth It? As I said, nothing will be Season 1 again, but if you’re a fan of The Flash there are a lot of extras to make this worth it. Order yours from Amazon.com at a discounted rate and support this website!

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