Tuesday, October 6, 2015

The Flash S2E1 The Man Who Saved Central City Recap/Review (Spoilers!): Not an Atomic Start



Expectations can be a tricky thing. The first season of The Flash was fantastic and for me became the best superhero television show currently airing. The first episode of this season seemed to try and jam pack way to much information into a one hour time frame. The actors performances where all good, I just didn’t like the story they decided to open up with.
The show decided to go with the isolation storyline for the time we have been away from the show. We have time hopped six months into the future after Barry closed the singularity threating to destroy Central City. This was the first issue I had with the episode. I wanted to see what happened at the end of last season during the first few minutes of the show. We flashed back to the events and found out Ronnie sacrificed himself to help close the black hole. Barry blames himself and choses to cut ties with the rest of Team Flash.
I might have liked the story arc a bit better if they would have started from the top with the death and then did a flash forward to our current time. I can understand why Barry would want to shut others out after the events of last season, but I think they either should have kept this arc going for a few episodes or scrapped it all together. It just seemed an unnecessary problem for Barry and the others to solve with everything else going on.
What brings the group back together is the villain for the week Atom Smasher. The only reason for the villain was to have a common foil for the group to band together and defeat. He was a very bland villain, except for when he name dropped Zoom.  The CG wasn’t great when the Atom Smasher grew to astronomical size. Barry was able to deal with him fairly easily when the rest of the crew got back together. Dr. Stein was a good substitute for Dr. Wells and will be a welcome addition to the overall team. Victor Garber is a great actor and I enjoy almost everything he’s in.
Along with the villain and the team getting back together Barry was able to free his father because Dr. Wells/Reverse Flash confessed on a USB flash drive. Now I can suspend my disbelief a bit and believe a dead man’s confession would be enough to free a convicted murderer (honestly though, what is to stop anyone from trying to free loved if they die suddenly by confessing to their crimes), but for him then just to up and leave was ridiculous. Why would he want to leave his son and Central City after he has spent so much time in jail? I understand wanting to give Barry space, and have space for himself, but to leave altogether, not so much. I’m assuming the actor who plays Barry’s dad is still going to pop in on the show this year, so why not leave him in prison or get an apartment in the city and have Barry visit.
Barry’s true dad leaving was anchored by Joe picking up the slack in the episode. The flashback scene with young Barry after he came to live with them initially was well done, along with mirrored event in the future. This is what finally snapped Barry back into accepting the help of his friends. I really liked the moment, but again I think it could have waited a few more episodes, or have true dad storyline for the second episode.
One great thing of the episode was the teaser for what’s to come. I’m extremely excited to see Jay Garrick and where they take the multi universe aspect of the show. I was hoping to get a bit more of that during this episode. The season opener was still a fun time, but it honestly felt like a filler episode during the middle of the year rather than one supposed to kick off a season. I guess it was an ok place to start it just needed to be trimmed to be more enjoyable.
Though I didn’t love the first episode, it still was an enjoyable hour of television, I was just expecting more. Maybe the expectations where to great after the hype of last year. I still think the show will have a good second season with the new additions and villains he will have to face. Though I admittingly know very little about the actual comic book. I do have a general idea of the multiverse from some of the cartoon shows. This is also where I know Jay Garrick from and why I’m excited to see a version of him in this show. I am probably in the minority for my view of the episode tonight, but I’ll stand by it. Still love the show, just hope it gets some firm traction for the second episode.
My Rating: Ok (Could have been better)

What did you think? Did you love the episode or think it was just ok like me? Thanks for reading, give my page a like on Facebook or Google plus and follow on twitter if liked the recap/review. 

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