The Flash (CW)

Does that Detroit newspaper still employ you as an entertainment journalist?

I saw The Equalizer this afternoon and they aired a promo for this during the usual pre-trailer commercials.

Me too.

PILOT
I liked everything except the villain. These "metahumans" are the new freaks-of-the-week.

B+

4.5 million people watched the pilot. That's the CW's highest rated premiere in 5 years.

I'm just going to transfer my post over from the other forum.

Pilot
Grant Gustin is good, I think he can be the focus of a show like this, I don't think he's quite the leading man material that Amell or even Welling were, but I think he'll be good. The actors playing Iris and Joe West, and Eddie Thawne are all good. I'm excited to see more of Thawne since he is obviously eventually going to be revealed as Reverse Flash/Professor Zoom, whatever they end up calling him, Barrys mother's killer. Good special effects, this show will be able to handle that kind of load much better than 'Smallville' ever could largely because it's not 2001 anymore, the FX like Barry running or the tornado can be made on a much smaller budget than what the big screen normally sees. The connection to Arrow, I like that the two shows have the potential to overlap here and there, maybe they'll be able to start a third show in the next year or so that can criss-cross the universe further. I liked all of the DC easter eggs like Grodd, Reverse Flash (more on that in a second), Ferris Air, etc. All of these nods, along with the obvious connection to the Arrow-verse makes this feel like a living and breathing world. I was never a huge fan of the Flash growing up, but I'm glad they seem to be staying true to the Flash lore for the most part now in terms of his introducing and his mother's death. He is a fascinating character with such a rich history, I'm really excited about the prospects for this series.

Even as far as pilots go, it traversed a lot of ground in a pretty short period of time. I glanced at the clock around the 20 minute mark, they'd already established who Barry is, they'd shown some of his background, introduced all of the background characters, showed Barry being struck by lightning, he was already out of his coma, and had already kind of figured out his powers. Ironically enough for a show about The Flash, I think they could have been a little slower about this and spread the introduction like this over two episodes. Maybe end the first with Barry entering the coma, and the second being about his self-discovery and taking down his first villain. This is a more general complaint about this series and 'Arrow' rather than this particular episode, but it bothers me that Warner Bros. in making their cinematic universe is not including these series as a part of its whole, so we will likely not see Grant Gustin or Stephen Amell on the big screen in their roles, so I don't like the idea of becoming attached to this character and his story when probably a completely different actor will be used in any films featuring the character.

Ranked:
1. Pilot

My point wasn't that Barry shouldn't have the full use of his powers right off the bat, my point was that they arrived at that very quickly. The show is just moving fast. They're announcing all these villains they're bringing on board, we're going to have almost the complete Flash rogue's gallery by season's end. It's an exciting idea, we're kind of used to seeing more of a slower burn for these kinds of shows. It'll be somewhat refreshing seeing a change of pace.

I really liked this. I love Arrow and was expecting to enjoy this, but not this quickly. Really fun pilot, and Gustin is great.

I don't think 'Arrow' moves all that quickly.

I think 'Arrow' moves quickly in the sense that it tends not to linger long on things. Its characters go through tragedy and recover quickly rather than dwelling it on for 2-3-4+ episodes. But, I don't think the story itself moves all that fast.

FASTEST MAN ALIVE
I like that this episode focused on Barry adjusting to life as a superhero both physically and mentally. And the "meta-human" was much better this time. Although, I hope they eventually establish a main villain who isn't "Mr. Wheelchair."

A

SEASON ONE RANK
1. Fastest Man Alive
2. Pilot

I have a feeling Mr. Wheelchair will be the Lionel Luthor of the series. He'll blur the line between good and evil and eventually become a twisted "3rd father" to Barry.