While 2016 feels like most of the DC television shows have improved on their previous season, The Flash still manages to drag more than ever. While other shows like Arrow feel on top of their game, the aftermath of Flashpoint continues to feel more repetitive rather than interesting and fresh. The plot keeps touching on story lines that are worn out and only feel worse when the show keeps forcing them so hard. While Flashpoint has definitely pushed fast forward on many fun ideas that viewers have expected for awhile now, it feels more and more like a bad choice for the wrong reasons.
The concept of Alchemy has been pretty interesting so far because he has wreaked a lot of havoc only through restoring people’s abilities from Flashpoint. The show’s interactions with him have primarily been when people come to his lair to stop the voices. It’s been a solid mystery behind the character so far and is probably the most unique thing to come out of Flashpoint’s impact. “Shade” finally shows the villain in more action than he has been before and revealed the source of his powers, some white glowing stone that has multiple uses. Between restoring abilities from Flashpoin and firing off a magic energy beam that can hurt Barry, it also wraps Wally in some cocoon. The Flash loves to incorporate speedsters as villains, but Alchemy has been something new that they definitely need to give viewers more of.
Yet, despite an interesting interaction with Alchemy, the rest of the show feels like it’s dragging out certain stories at the wrong times. Caitlin has been dealing with having powers and the fear that she will become Killer Frost. The biggest problem with the CW superhero shows is that it always feels like everyone has to become a hero, and that’s beginning to seep into The Flash. Characters like Cisco and Caitlin are great to have on their own and bring a big aid to the show in their own way. The choice to have Cisco transition into Vibe made a lot of sense because his powers didn’t necessarily have to force him into being a costumed hero in order to have an impact. Cisco was still able to make an impact by vibing things and only using his powers violently when it was a last resort. With Caitlin, they continue to tease that she is going to become a villain, and regardless of the outcome, things just haven’t been as smooth. Although Caitlin definitely has the most motive to become evil, it doesn’t feel as though the show has explained it that way.
On top of this, “Shade” finally has Caitlin admit to Cisco what’s going on, and it feels completely mishandled. The Flash introduced Cisco’s Vibe powers last season, and it was a huge conflict for the character because he was unsure how people would react and didn’t know how to fully digest things. Yet, this season Caitlin is dealing with the exact same situation, arguably even worse, and Cisco decides that he has the right to force her secret out into the open. While the avoidance of dragging her secret out for a prolonged period of time is nice, this felt more abrupt and aggressive than the situation deserved. It also felt out of character for Cisco in the first place but Caitlin still ends up being the one who apologizes.
The Flash has felt like this for the entire duration of Season three so far though, and on a week to week basis it feels like it takes one step forward and two steps back. Fortunately, the season is still so early into things that there is plenty of time to build towards a stable and interesting story that has a fresh feel to it. The seeds have definitely been planted towards a large shift in the show’s dynamic, but The Flash is definitely all over the place in it’s execution. There is definitely a lot going on in the show right now, but hopefully once things smooth out a little more all of these moving pieces will create one of the most complicated situations viewers have seen Barry in yet.
Other Thoughts:
*So who does everyone think Savitar is? The obvious choice would be Julian…. but would they really dare pull that type of a stunt for a third season in a row? Still deciding on whether or not I think he looks cool.
*Well, can’t wait to hear where Julian was for all of this… whether he is in on things or not, it’s a cheesy red herring.
*Iris taking out Wally in one punch, dayum girl.
*Damn you HR…. being so hit or miss each week. I can’t tell if you’re tolerable or not.
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