The Flash S01E01: City of Heroes
Barry Allen: how adorable? SO ADORABLE. I'm sorry, this is actually my primary reaction to the episode. SO ADORABLE.
I have more to say: the non-spoilery part
Slightly more articulately: This series has two things going for it: Grant Gustin's charm and a firm sense of the style and mood it wants to establish. Fortunately, the pilot makes good use of both these things. Barry Allen's sheer delight in his new powers and opportunities is contagious. The show has the same often hokey comic book dialogue as Arrow, weighted by exposition and lightened by bits of humor. The score is well-suited to the series -- it has exactly the right bright melodramatic sound to make the comic book set pieces feel like a deliberate style rather than inept writing. Right now, Barry Allen is the only character who feels fully fleshed out; the rest of the cast are mostly sketches (stereotypes), who work more or less well according to the skill of the actors. Tom Cavanaugh's Harrison Wells is excellent; Jesse L. Martin is almost able to overcome the limitations of his fatherly cop figure, and I expect him to become a highlight as soon as he's given more individual notes to hit. What works somewhat better than the flat characterization are the gestures towards a larger comic book universe -- not just the obligatory Arrow references, but the expansion of the metahumans/science fiction/fantasy themes.
The creative team has translated the strengths of Arrow to a new show with a complementary take on its superhero universe; unfortunately, it's also brought over some of the weaknesses. You'd think Arrow would have taught the creative team to eschew voice-overs, but no; at least these voice-overs are shorter, wryer, and more tolerable. (And, okay, the joy bubbling up in the closing voice-over totally made it.) Much worse, they are making all the same mistakes with Iris West as they have with Laurel Lance. Given that they've also fridged Barry's mother, this doesn't bode well for the show's treatment of women.
I have more to say: the spoilery part
The problem with Laurel is that the show has always treated her as The Girl, which is to say that her characterization is primarily driven by how the narrative requires Oliver to interact with her at any given point. She is treated as an obstacle or a prize, but not as a human being. The Girl is a plot function and she's a plot function who must be kept ignorant of the protagonist's secret identity, in order for him to demonstrate his nobility and his suffering as an object of identification for the audience, which is presumed to be straight men.
Iris sees Barry as a brother, and already I can see the sinister shadow of the Nice Guy and the Friend Zone in the background. Her first lines are mocking Barry for his enthusiasm about science, which is a terrible, terrible mistake. For male geeks, at least as they are stereotyped, this makes her more desirable as someone to be won over; for women, it's just the stereotype that women can't be nerds. In this case, it's doubly alienating because Barry's enthusiasm is adorable.
And naturally the episode concludes with her father asking Barry to keep his powers secret from her "to keep her safe". As with Laurel, this (a) makes NO SENSE WHATSOEVER, because ignorance just makes her an easier target; (b) will keep her peripheral to the central plot, making her extraneous to the narrative.
Other stuff:
cups brewed at DW
I have more to say: the non-spoilery part
Slightly more articulately: This series has two things going for it: Grant Gustin's charm and a firm sense of the style and mood it wants to establish. Fortunately, the pilot makes good use of both these things. Barry Allen's sheer delight in his new powers and opportunities is contagious. The show has the same often hokey comic book dialogue as Arrow, weighted by exposition and lightened by bits of humor. The score is well-suited to the series -- it has exactly the right bright melodramatic sound to make the comic book set pieces feel like a deliberate style rather than inept writing. Right now, Barry Allen is the only character who feels fully fleshed out; the rest of the cast are mostly sketches (stereotypes), who work more or less well according to the skill of the actors. Tom Cavanaugh's Harrison Wells is excellent; Jesse L. Martin is almost able to overcome the limitations of his fatherly cop figure, and I expect him to become a highlight as soon as he's given more individual notes to hit. What works somewhat better than the flat characterization are the gestures towards a larger comic book universe -- not just the obligatory Arrow references, but the expansion of the metahumans/science fiction/fantasy themes.
The creative team has translated the strengths of Arrow to a new show with a complementary take on its superhero universe; unfortunately, it's also brought over some of the weaknesses. You'd think Arrow would have taught the creative team to eschew voice-overs, but no; at least these voice-overs are shorter, wryer, and more tolerable. (And, okay, the joy bubbling up in the closing voice-over totally made it.) Much worse, they are making all the same mistakes with Iris West as they have with Laurel Lance. Given that they've also fridged Barry's mother, this doesn't bode well for the show's treatment of women.
I have more to say: the spoilery part
The problem with Laurel is that the show has always treated her as The Girl, which is to say that her characterization is primarily driven by how the narrative requires Oliver to interact with her at any given point. She is treated as an obstacle or a prize, but not as a human being. The Girl is a plot function and she's a plot function who must be kept ignorant of the protagonist's secret identity, in order for him to demonstrate his nobility and his suffering as an object of identification for the audience, which is presumed to be straight men.
Iris sees Barry as a brother, and already I can see the sinister shadow of the Nice Guy and the Friend Zone in the background. Her first lines are mocking Barry for his enthusiasm about science, which is a terrible, terrible mistake. For male geeks, at least as they are stereotyped, this makes her more desirable as someone to be won over; for women, it's just the stereotype that women can't be nerds. In this case, it's doubly alienating because Barry's enthusiasm is adorable.
And naturally the episode concludes with her father asking Barry to keep his powers secret from her "to keep her safe". As with Laurel, this (a) makes NO SENSE WHATSOEVER, because ignorance just makes her an easier target; (b) will keep her peripheral to the central plot, making her extraneous to the narrative.
Other stuff:
- I could tell they were going to make Harrison Wells a supervillain, though I was torn between thinking they'd wait longer than one episode to make it hit harder and thinking they'd do it at the end of episode one, as the equivalent of Arrow's Moira reveal, increasing the tension because the hero's in danger he doesn't know about and we do. The time travel/time viewer implications were a great, unexpected touch. We're really in wacky superhero science territory here, not Arrow's more earthly noir tone.
- It's indicative of the difference between Barry and Oliver that Oliver starts off isolated and Barry comes with a team already made. It's not surprising that his foster father is in on the secret by the end of the episode. (And it's yet another reason the decision to keep Iris out of the loop is a terrible idea.) Barry connects to people. His mother's death doesn't isolate him; his faith in his father strengthens him. He is the anti-Batman.
- I am just making the decision right now not to consider the plausibility of (a) any and all science; (b) plot issues like whether Barry would actually be in a lab as opposed to a hospital. My life will be easier this way.
- It is kind of hilarious how DC is modernizing everyone's costume by making it literally darker. No, no, not PRIMARY COLORS! NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!
- A full-face mask would be better, but I have to give Barry points for wearing a helmet that could plausibly make it difficult for at least random strangers on the street to identify him, OLIVER AND SARA.
cups brewed at DW