Yesterday, the first episode of The Flash Season 2 aired. I loved the first season, but did the second season hold up?
So far, not really.
Sure, it was a good episode. Zoom was teased well, and there were some funny moments (Flash Signal anyone?).But I just felt like it was a bit.. so-so. There wasn’t anything that stood out especially. It just felt a little slow, like it was reintroducing all the characters and concepts for a new audience. And while I was excited for the show to get a bit darker, Barry suffering from survivor’s guilt was already done in basically every superhero movie or show ever. The dialogue in the first scene was atrocious, with Cold acting hammier than normal, and Firestorm’s “whoo-hoo” before flying away was pretty dumb, so I was really glad when that turned out to be a dream. Also, and I don’t mean to sound cynical, but I hated all the teamwork in this episode. Everyone was just chiming in, offering suggestions, it felt weird. I think the team should be cut back a bit. Iris doesn’t contribute anything meaningful, Caitlin is sort of redundant what with Cisco and Stein both being a part of the team, and Joe doesn’t always need to be present. Personally, I’m ready for Caitlin to become Killer Frost if it means her not being a part of the team anymore. Nothing against the character, I’m partial to superheroes not having a big support staff, as eventually not everyone gets the amount of character development they deserve. As for the show’s villain, Atom Smasher, I don’t think they really did justice with him. I can accept them making him a villain, but did he need to be such a one-dimensional villain? He was just smashing things and punching people, and then it wasn’t until he died that he showed any real personality. If they hired a half-decent actor, or, y’know, an actual actor at all, I would have been happier. Adam Copeland literally said in an interview that Atom Smasher wouldn’t just be a mindless, destructive villain and that he’d have layers and character depth. Which he didn’t. All of this, though, pales in comparison to the worst part of the episode: Henry’s departure. It was so forced, so nonsensical. Henry leaves his son who has spent his entire life trying to save his father, for reasons that aren’t really expanded on at all. It’s something about not thinking Barry can be the Flash when Henry’s in his life, which doesn’t make since Joe’s been as much as a father as Henry, and Barry functions just fine with Joe.
Now that that’s all over with, let’s focus on the good parts of the episode. There was definitely good comedic parts, such as the Flash Signal and Martin Stein’s naming of Atom Smasher. Jay Garrick’s appearance was cool and sort of subtle. Instead of popping out of a portal like I expected, he just walks up to them, leaving more mystery of exactly how he got here and how long he’s been here to be explored later. Speaking of that, it was a good call not throwing Earth-2 into the ring right off the bat (Sorry for the mixed metaphor). Atom Smasher’s identical (dead) duplicate created some mystery for the casual viewer, and Atom Smasher just saying that Zoom promised to send him home leaves a lot open to be explained later. Firestorm’s sacrifice was well done, though he is quite possibly still alive, on another world. Martin Stein blends seamlessly into the team, and his interactions with Cisco were funny. Iris is somewhat less annoying than last season, but it still the second worst female character, after Felicity from Arrow (Not counting Gotham, since nobody does). Cisco seeing into another dimension when Atom Smasher first appears further teases his super powers, and will no doubt become essential to defeating characters from Earth-2. Finally, Eobard Thawne’s speech at the end of the episode was delightfully creepy. Giving Barry the thing he wants most in the world, knowing that it will be taken away shortly after, was a memorable scene. Frankly, I was almost a hundred percent sure that Henry was going to die right before he can be exonerated, which I feel would have been better than him leaving for no real reason. All in all, I’d give the episode a 7/10. It seemed slow and kind of boring, but there were enough good or emotional moments to save it.
On a side note, sorry for not updating my Fantastic Four post in a while. I’m still fine-tuning some details (That’s code for being lazy). I’ll try to finish it soon, though.
Asteroid DC 