Connect with us

Recaps & Reviews

The Flash #2.10 “Potential Energy” Review

The midseason premiere falls into familiar superhero traps as it fails to do anything new with a secret identity story.

Published

on

The Flash -- "Potential Energy" -- Image FLA210b_0078b -- Pictured (L-R): Shantel Van Santen as Detective Patty Spivot and Grant Gustin as Barry Allen -- Photo: Katie Yu/The CW -- © 2016 The CW Network, LLC. All rights reserved.Summary: The midseason premiere falls into familiar superhero traps as it fails to do anything new with a secret identity story.

Review

Secret identities are as much a staple in superhero stories as they are archaic. They were around in the earliest of days of the earliest heroes as an easy means to provide drama (or for Superman to be a dick to Lois Lane for no reason.) And it is easy to squeeze lots of drama out of a secret life — every relationship we form, personally and professionally, is based on a level of trust, and it hurts when trust is broken. That superheroes have to keep secrets for the good of the world, but with the pesky side-effect of hurting the people close to them, is one of the great philosophical questions in superhero media. At a certain point, is the secret identity worth it if the very people you’re trying to protect still get hurt?

The problem arises when the storytellers are desperate to keep that trope in place — again, it’s easy drama and fundamental to superhero narratives, so it makes sense why they would. The fear that a loved one won’t “understand” and reject us is a relatable, even powerful fear we all possess in some capacity. But once the loved one has proven themselves — or better yet, proven that they love the alter-ego as much as the person — it just doesn’t make sense that they wouldn’t be let in. With Patty here on The Flash, she’s proven that she thinks both Barry and The Flash are awesome, and she’s able to defend herself pretty well (sans the two or three times she’s been kidnapped.) Andoh yeah, literally everyone else Barry is close to knows his identity, including his ex-girlfriend.

The Flash -- "Potential Energy" -- Image FLA210b_0205b -- Pictured: Grant Gustin as The Flash -- Photo: Katie Yu/The CW -- © 2016 The CW Network, LLC. All rights reserved.Barry sort of uses the excuse early in the episode, which Iris thankfully shoots down. But then a far worse one plagues the rest of the hour, when Harry inserts the idea into Barry’s head that he shouldn’t tell his girlfriend he’s The Flash because it will “put her in more danger.” Now, Harry’s suggestion here actually makes sense in context — he’s racked with guilt about his daughter, and we see later in the episode that his view of Zoom is significantly more maudlin and pessimistic because of his experiences. Harry’s answer is rooted in desperation and frustration, and it’s more about Barry having a girlfriend at all (and bringing her into their trap!) that he’s commenting on. Harry doesn’t think Patty should be at more than arm’s length, or Barry’s nightmare will come true. This is one of the better parts of the episode, in fact; Harry has become isolated, and we see by episode’s end that “love” has pushed him closer and closer to the dark side.

But Barry doesn’t take it this way. Instead, he falls into the tried-and-terrible superhero excuse that somehow Patty not knowing Barry is The Flash, but still dating him, would protect her. Now, to be clear, it’s not as though it’s an impossible story to work; Peter Parker stories tend to work best when his secret identity of Spider-Man wreaks havoc on his life, because his “Parker Luck” is integral to the character. Many superhero films use the trope for comic relief, and Smallville used “Clark’s secret” as the primary driving force for plot and character motivation for the majority of the show. It can get grating when the characters stretch the excuses to not tell loved ones the truth about them, but there are times when the ends justify the means. It’s persisted as a trope because it can work.

But The Flash has just never been a series where the trope worked at all. The general protection of Barry’s identity to the public makes sense, but characters have clicked into place best after learning Barry was The Flash. Or, more accurately, characters who were in the dark (Iris and even Eddie in the first season) were the worse for it. What’s odd is that this is even acknowledged in the episode — Iris voices, for the second time, that honesty is the best policy for Barry. This time she’s more straightforward about how much it sucked being the last to know he was The Flash and how much she could have helped if she did know, which she addressed back when she first learned the secret. In the episode’s defense, we do get the counterpoint in The Turtle — he recognizes that The Flash loves Patty without any of the secret identity business, which proves loved ones are in danger either way. So Barry sort of learns a lesson, but it’s a variation of one he should have learned a year ago. And it still ends up not mattering, because Patty dips out anyway.

The Flash -- "Potential Energy" -- Image FLA210b_0134b -- Pictured: Grant Gustin as Barry Allen -- Photo: Katie Yu/The CW -- © 2016 The CW Network, LLC. All rights reserved.There’s just a lot about “Potential Energy” that doesn’t make the characters, mostly Barry, seem very smart. Team Flash plans a trap for The Turtle at the art show, but devised no way to stop being slowed down when they found him. Barry decides to bring Patty along on a “date” to that trap, but somehow doesn’t expect it to go wrong considering he’ll inevitably have to spring the trap. And he goes back and forth too many times on whether or not to tell Patty, having ample opportunities throughout the episode that he never takes. The ending is supposed to be devastating for Barry, that he was too indecisive or just missed his window to tell her. But it just falls flat, because Barry’s indecisiveness and terrible ideas are so uncharacteristically dumb. These kinds of things can be overlooked for the sake of fun sometimes, but not when they happen at every pivotal moment.

Worse than that, it’s a cop-out. It’s possible that things will change for Patty next week, but if this is the end of her story, it’s been a waste of time. Patty had an arc, and she’s been a fun character for the most part, but her presence still has to mean something in the scope of the show. Regardless of how we wanted the story to turn out — whether they stayed together, or Barry ran to Iris, or Felicity busted in and took him back — any relationship should still have an impact on the larger story of the show. Patty shot down some bad guys and provided some comic relief, but once the romance took off, she just filled the typical “worried girlfriend” space. So far, Barry hasn’t learned anything from their relationship that he didn’t already learn from Iris — that keeping secrets are bad, and…nothing else, really.

The same problem came from Linda in the first season, for the most part, though her relationship with Barry at least forced him to confront that he was too madly in love with Iris. So if this is it, then he’s back to where he started. Linda is a notable character in that her return this season had a massive effect on the ongoing story — introducing the concept of a parallel double —  so perhaps Patty will find her own relevance in a future return appearance. But that still leaves her relationship with Barry — and commitment to the meta-human task force, which she’s abandoning now that she completed her own personal goal — as something of a time-killer. If all Patty was supposed to be was a diversion, then it’s very unfortunate.

With all this time spent on the disintegration of the Barry/Patty relationship, the episode’s other plots are rather rushed. The Turtle is a unique villain with a very cool, well-rended superpower, and Aaron Douglas (one of those actors that seems to appear in every Vancouver-based genre TV show ever) fits the bill as a schlubby average joe-turned-crazy-thief. It’s also nice that we’re getting metahumans of different body types besides “skinny white guy.” But Turtle gets some weird late-in-the-game quirks thrown in — that he’s a “collector,” putting both objects and corpses on display cases — and it’s too late in the episode to make any impact, besides some shoehorned-in horror. Oh, and so Barry could say “Now you are our most prized possession,” which is an awful, awful line.

The Flash -- "Potential Energy" -- Image FLA210a_9625b -- Pictured: Keiynan Lonsdale as Wally West -- Photo: Jack Rowand/The CW -- © 2016 The CW Network, LLC. All rights reserved.Similarly, our full introduction to Wally West is a bit rushed. As much as Jesse L. Martin has the the most sympathetic and earnest cry-face on TV, Wally warms up to the guy way too quickly. But the tidbits we get about Wally and his motivations set the stage for an interesting coming of age tale. He has a poignant perspective on the West family situation — as much as we, Joe and Iris see Francine as a monster who kept secrets and ran out on her family, Wally sees her as his sick, single mother who made bad choices but also noble sacrifices for her son. For Wally, Joe is the absent father who lived a privileged life with his daughter and a different adopted son, while the his wife and other son had to suffer. That, of course, was Joe’s worst nightmare when he found out about Wally, and it’s even worse that his son had to turn to illegal activities (street racing, as all rebellious teens on TV shows do) to survive. Keiynan Lonsdale doesn’t get much to play aside from suppressed anger and teen apathy, which doesn’t make Wally terribly likeable in this outing, but it makes perfect sense for the character at this stage. It will be interesting to see Joe’s signature warmth slowly break down and lighten up Wally’s cold exterior.

There are plenty of good moments in “Potential Energy,” especially in Cisco’s hunt for his “White Whale” (and that doesn’t mean it’s half-whale/half-turtle.) And it’s at least more cohesive that the first season’s worst installments. As per usual with The Flash, it’s still fun — there’s never once been an episode of this show that wasn’t fun, or didn’t at least have awesome superhero moments or laugh-out-loud one-liners. But it’s frustrating seeing a show that’s essentially perfected the superhero TV formula seem to regress a bit and fall into old traps. “Potential Energy” is consistent with what’s come before, and it’s an enjoyable episode to watch for the most part. But like most flimsy excuses to keep a secret identity, it falls apart as soon as you think about it.

Odds & Ends

  • So, Reverse-Flash (in his Matt Lescher form) is back! As much as this confrontation ought to be pretty cool — I assume Zoom will try to steal his speed or something, pitting the two villains against each other — I’m more on the edge of my seat just to see how the heck they explain his return.
  • It’s barely touched on in the episode, but it turns out that Jay is dying, apparently. He’s disappointingly just kind of existed for most of the season, acting as a sad wet blanket since his introduction, so hopefully this will open up new avenues for he and Caitlin.
  • The Wests called Barry “The White Shadow,” which is hilarious.
  • Jay is 6’4″?!?!
  • I like that it’s basically become a character trait for Patty to always have her gun on her — even when she’s at a formal event or just sitting around at home — and that she always immediately unloads an entire clip when she fires.
  • Are we to assume that Flash is still always blurring his face and voice in public like he did in season one, and we as the audience just don’t see the effect anymore?
  • Given we last saw Wally show up at the West house for Christmas, and then jumped to this episode where he clearly holds a grudge against Joe, I have to wonder what that first meeting was like. Wally wouldn’t have come over if he was already mad at Joe, so was it seeing Joe’s wonderful life with all his happy family and friends what sparked Wally’s frustration?

Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

News

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

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

Published

on

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!

Continue Reading

News

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

Review of the Flash Season 5 Blu-ray set.

Published

on

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.

Continue Reading

News

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

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

Published

on

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!

Continue Reading

Trending