'The Flash' TV Show: 5 Things That Make It Better Than 'Arrow' and Way Better Than 'Smallville'
With the successful superhero introduction of "Arrow" and "Smallville," The CW's newest superhero edition "The Flash" may become a hit.
There are five reasons why "The Flash" should be a success, including that it might be better than its sister show "Arrow" and way better than "Smallville."
The story: "The Flash" gets into the origin story faster than a speeding bullet -- unlike "Smallville," where the show's producers, Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, spent Clark Kent/Superman's high school and college years expanding on his origins and the release of his super powers.
We see Grant Gustin as Barry Allen introduced to his super powers in the pilot episode. Gustin's Flash is actually seeing things move faster than he can comprehend. Then he is almost flying, and also running and jumping at super fast speeds.
Drop hints early: 45 minutes in the premiere episode, The Flash is not sure what to do with his new-found powers. So he turns for help to Stephen Amell's "Arrow." Yes, Arrow appears. And both gentlemen are quietly impressed with each other's abilities.
Then there is Gorilla Grodd, one of Flash's nemeses in the comic book series. We don't actually see him, but we see a cage where Grodd escaped from in Dr. Harrison Wells's lab after the particle accelerator explosion. Another one of Flash's enemies also appears; it's Reverse Flash or Professor Zoom. He might have killed Barry's mother.
References to "Arrow," "Smallville," the comic book "Flash" and the 1990s "The Flash": "Arrow" has a small team of people who help him to protect Starling City. Clark had no one in the beginning; the Justice League team came later.
With those rules in mind, the show applies that and then pulls from "The Flash" canon. The Flash now wears a crimson suit, not bright red. This Barry is smart, funny and independent, not a cocky one. Then the show reintroduces audiences to the famous S.T.A.R. Labs.
Seeing the original "Flash," John Wesley Shipp, from 1990 is brilliant. Shipp plays Barry Allen's father who has been incarcerated for killing his wife, Barry's mother; a crime that Mr. Allen did not commit. He will definitely be a point of reference throughout the entire season and the show.
By the way, is Tom Cavanaugh's Dr. Wells a Lex Luthor-type of character from "Smallville?" Maybe. Wells seems unphased by anything despite his physical limitations.
In "Smallville" Clark's longtime friend Chloe Sullivan had the aforementioned Wall of Weird; it was a list of people who were exposed to a Kryptonite meteor which gave them so-called superhero abilities. In "The Flash," the citizens of Central City have been exposed to the particle accelerator explosion. The explosion in turn gave them powers. Dr. Wells called those people meta-humans.
Diversity: By changing the the ethnicity of Iris West (Candice Patton) from white to black, it carries "The Flash" TV series into a brand new direction. With this introduction the show gets two results: one, a new fan base might emerge that has not been exposed to the Flash before; and two, the show could explore different aspects of Iris and her father, Joe West (Jesse L. Martin).
The Iris West Allen character in "The Flash" comics is the one-time wife of the second Flash, Barry Allen. Iris is also the aunt to the third Flash, Wally West. And, Iris is also the grandmother to the fourth Flash Bart Allen.
"No tights, and no flights": The aforementioned phrase was what "Smallville's" producers adhered to. In other words, they never put Clark in tights, nor did they make him fly. In "The Flash," however, they totally ignore it and go big. They have hooked the fans on the first episode.
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