The Flash was a great show. WAS. Seasons One and Two were fun, upbeat seasons of television that I enjoyed, a lot. Season Three was okay, but it started to fall into the traps that most shows do when they've been on the air too long. The villain plot, and the plot progression felt all too familiar. I still enjoyed the season, though. I thought Savitar was an alright villain, even if his reveal came WAY too late. It was when the credits rolled on Episode 22, Infantino Street, that I was truly excited to see how the show would handle Iris's death. I was really happy they made such a gutsy choice.
Then, I watched the finale, and I was bitterly disappointed. Not only was the idea to have Iris not actually die after SPECIFICALLY alluding to that at the end of the last episode completely dumb, but also having H.R. die instead felt like the writers had a couple of hours to throw together an episode, and this was the messy, clumsy effort they put forth. It didn't help that the way they did the switch was so bizarre, as the tech was introduced much farther back in the season. The fight was well done, but Iris killing Savitar felt out-of-left-field and dumb. The finale left me feeling something I hadn't really ever felt watching The Flash: upset and disappointed.
Flash forward five months to now, when the season premiere for Season Four aired. I had an open mind. Sure, Season Three was disappointing, but I won't give up hope. This could be a redemption for the show. (SPOILER ALERT: IT WASN'T) I was intrigued when the opening scene showcased a new Team Flash in action, taking down Peek-a- Boo. This scene was an interesting intro to the season. It all went downhill from there. This started with the extremely forced dialogue from Team Flash in STAR Labs. My main problem here was that there was ZERO subtlety. I'm not saying that it should be so subtle that you have no idea what's going on, but every show should utilize this technique, at least a bit. When the episode progressed, and there was dumb character motivation, like Iris going blindly into the wings of the villain, even there was NO indication WHATSOEVER that Barry was even remotely sane enough to recognize her, let alone SAVE her! And then, the logic for Barry being able to make it out of the Speed Force made NO sense, and only felt like the writers were rushing through it to make us forget the flawed logic, and to move on. Then, Barry's recovery was SO rushed. I couldn't even tell you how on Earth he got back to normal. When the credits rolled, and the new villain was introduced, I was so uninterested that I had no emotional reaction whatsoever.
I might stay tuned for one or two more episodes, but this may very well be when I stop watching The Flash. What was once a great, fun superhero show is a faded shadow of its former self. If this show really is following Arrow's quality per season, that means next year could very well be the redemption. Who knows?
6/10
Then, I watched the finale, and I was bitterly disappointed. Not only was the idea to have Iris not actually die after SPECIFICALLY alluding to that at the end of the last episode completely dumb, but also having H.R. die instead felt like the writers had a couple of hours to throw together an episode, and this was the messy, clumsy effort they put forth. It didn't help that the way they did the switch was so bizarre, as the tech was introduced much farther back in the season. The fight was well done, but Iris killing Savitar felt out-of-left-field and dumb. The finale left me feeling something I hadn't really ever felt watching The Flash: upset and disappointed.
Flash forward five months to now, when the season premiere for Season Four aired. I had an open mind. Sure, Season Three was disappointing, but I won't give up hope. This could be a redemption for the show. (SPOILER ALERT: IT WASN'T) I was intrigued when the opening scene showcased a new Team Flash in action, taking down Peek-a- Boo. This scene was an interesting intro to the season. It all went downhill from there. This started with the extremely forced dialogue from Team Flash in STAR Labs. My main problem here was that there was ZERO subtlety. I'm not saying that it should be so subtle that you have no idea what's going on, but every show should utilize this technique, at least a bit. When the episode progressed, and there was dumb character motivation, like Iris going blindly into the wings of the villain, even there was NO indication WHATSOEVER that Barry was even remotely sane enough to recognize her, let alone SAVE her! And then, the logic for Barry being able to make it out of the Speed Force made NO sense, and only felt like the writers were rushing through it to make us forget the flawed logic, and to move on. Then, Barry's recovery was SO rushed. I couldn't even tell you how on Earth he got back to normal. When the credits rolled, and the new villain was introduced, I was so uninterested that I had no emotional reaction whatsoever.
I might stay tuned for one or two more episodes, but this may very well be when I stop watching The Flash. What was once a great, fun superhero show is a faded shadow of its former self. If this show really is following Arrow's quality per season, that means next year could very well be the redemption. Who knows?
6/10