The Flash - Series Premiere - Review: Chosen By Lightning
Recap and review of The Flash - Series Premiere - City of Heroes:
This...this was tremendous. "City of Heroes" is an absolutely wonderful pilot, fitting a wealth of rich characterization into its brief runtime, while also laying the groundwork for the season ahead. The Flash is a show with a strong, confident sense of identity from the word "go," and it results in a pilot that could end up being this season's best on network TV.
Of course, a big reason this works as well as it does is Grant Gustin. For a show like this to have any sort of resonance, the leading man has to strike a balance between believability and warmth. It's not enough that Barry Allen is a good man; we have to actually believe he can handle himself out there against the bad guys. We have to believe that he'd be a good man even without his powers. In short, we have to believe in Barry Allen. And while Barry doesn't do a whole lot of ass-kicking in this pilot, I absolutely do believe in him. Because I believe in Grant Gustin. There's a likability there that goes beyond his quirkiness, his Boy Next Door demeanor, or his innate warmth as an actor. His portrayal of Barry is one of keen resolve, of determination. This is important, because without it, he'd just be this sinewy kid who'd likely get torn to pieces against even a modestly skilled Villain of the Week. But because Barry strikes us as someone with resolve, we can believe that he would hold his own against these threats he faces, even if he isn't the biggest dog in the fight, nor the most skilled in combat. His take on Barry Allen anchors this pilot, to such a degree that I'm not sure we'd even have a series if they'd cast someone else in the role. I know I'm bordering on slavish devotion here, but I just couldn't be happier with how this turned out, and how terrific Gustin proves to be. But this wouldn't be much of a series if Gustin was all it had going for it. Thankfully, executive producers Greg Berlanti, Andrew Kreisberg & Geoff Johns delivered a hell of a story for "City of Heroes", delivering a pilot that is both briskly paced but with flashes of depth.
Credit: The CW
The story, such as it is, centers on Barry Allen, a forensic assistant for the Central City Police Department. He's a science whiz who's dedicated to the pursuit of justice, mostly due to the trauma of his childhood: at age 11, his mother was murdered and his father was wrongfully imprisoned for the crime. Barry grew up believing in his father's innocence, having witnessed parts of the crime before escaping the house: his mother was encircled by a bolt of red-and-yellow lightning, with a man at the center of that lightning flash. However, nobody believed what Barry saw, not even Detective Joe West (Jesse L. Martin), the man who would go on to raise Barry as one of his own after his father was convicted of murder. Flashforward to the present, and Barry is in his 20s, working crime scenes alongside Joe, and nursing a crush on Joe's daughter, Iris (Candice Patton). And just like that, within the first five minutes of the pilot, we pretty much know everything we need to. And all without an overly intrusive voice narration either (granted, there is voiceover narration from Barry, but it's only at the beginning and at the end, and it doesn't intrude on the narrative in any harmful way. In fact, the reason for the narration becomes a plot point late in the episode, creating one of the more rewarding moments of the pilot). So, with the characters and backstories established, the pilot leaps right into the plot.
Credit: The CW
Barry is able to help Joe track down the Mardon Brothers, Mark and Clyde, who'd committed a number of robberies in Central City. However, Barry is largely preoccupied with enthusiasm for the reveal of the Particle Accelerator engineered by S.T.A.R. Labs mastermind Dr. Harrison Wells (Tom Cavanagh). While the machine works for forty-five minutes, wowing the media, and Barry in particular, things quickly go awry when an anomaly in the accelerator pairs with the inclement weather overhead to create a storm of energy that results in the creation of an unknown number of "Metahumans," with Barry chief among them, as the kid gets struck by lightning. Simultaneously, Joe is closing on the capturing the Mardon Brothers, but Clyde is able to escape on an airplane that breaks up during the storm. In a way, this sequence details the creation of the episode's opposing forces, as Clyde Mardon will become the villain comic book fans know as Weather Wizard, while Barry will become The Flash. Although Barry won't don the uniform until the end of the episode, the show is quick to establish its procedural nature, as we get a Case of the Week in Clyde around which all these different character stories are wrapped.
Credit: The CW
This is an intriguing way of doing things, as the show is much more interested in character than straight plot: over the course of the hour we focus on Barry's unrequited love for Iris, his complicated relationship with father figure Joe, his commitment to exonerating his actual father (John Wesley Shipp), and Dr. Wells's bitterness over the loss of his career, reputation, and mobility from the Accelerator accident. We even get to know Barry's teammates at S.T.A.R. Labs, from engineering whiz kid Cisco (Carlos Valdes) to bioengineering expert Dr. Caitlin Snow (Danielle Panabaker), who lost her fiance in the Accelerator storm. Each character feels lived-in and three-dimensional by the end of the episode, even if we don't know all that much about them specifically beyond surface details. We don't particularly get all of Wells's backstory, but his shame, regret, bitterness, and desperation are all palpable, so that it makes sense why he doesn't want Barry using his powers to fight crime. If Barry dies, there goes his only chance of synthesizing the regenerative properties of Barry's DNA to restore use to his legs. It's an understandable motivation, and it adds to the intriguing twist that closes out the episode.
Credit: The CW
Yet the show wouldn't be worth much if it didn't find a way to bring these disparate elements together, which is what the climax ultimately does. After being told by Wells that he's no hero, Barry flees to Starling City to seek the help of Arrow (Stephen Amell), who is revealed to be the person Barry has been narrating all this to. Arrow suggests that the lightning bolt didn't strike Barry so much as it chose him, adding that Barry is in the unique position to serve as a symbol to his city, a "guardian angel" figure who can also serve as protector. It's this pep talk that gives Barry the push he needs to commit fully to being a superhero. It leads to a pretty stellar conclusion, with Barry rescuing Joe from Clyde, who's using his weather-control powers to create an F5 tornado that could destroy Central City if Barry fails. It's a great action climax that gives off vibes of a superhero blockbuster. I imagine this is what people wanted Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. to be like -- a superhero movie for the small screen. And it largely succeeds at feeling like something bigger than a TV show, with Barry fighting Clyde head-on, and exposing his identity to Joe in the process, opening up a wealth of potential conflicts for down the line.
Credit: The CW
It can be difficult to strike a balance between action-adventure serial and self-serious procedural drama, but I think The Flash finds the right compromise between the two. It's fun, but it's not nonchalant. It's serious, but it isn't dour. The show clearly has a very comic bookish sensibility, and that's to its credit, as the show finds hooks for next week in both plot and character. How will Barry and Joe's relationship change now that Joe knows his secret? And what is up with the post-credits twist concerning Wells? I find myself wanting to watch next week because I'm interested in seeing where the characters go every bit as much as where the story goes. And that's unique in a premiering series. But that's the benefit of being a spinoff: the show clearly knew what it was before it even entered production, because it took its cue from Arrow. And so the show is confident in its pacing, its storytelling, its characterization, and overall tone. So it's not that big a surprise that The Flash is as good as it is.