We now come to the final instalment of the arrow-verse: The Flash
Season 01 was amazing and even if it felt like they wrote themselves into a corner, it gave them the benefit of the doubt this season.
However, Season 02 is nowhere near as strong as the first season, but may have laid down the groundwork for a great Season 03.
The Good
Cisco: Cisco remains one of the best characters in the arrow-verse. His humour, crossed with exploring his evolution into a meta was a fun little side quest. I can't say more then keep being awesome.
Jim West: A buddy of mine once said that Jim West was currently the best dad on television, bad judgement aside. I agree with him. The actor brings a joy to the character that makes you feel with him. While I am not a fan of police procedurals, I would watch a show called "lance and west" as both actors always bring their a game and had extreme chemistry off each other last season.
King Shark! For it's budget, King Shark looked great. I kind of want a more jokey character, as my favourite version is the one that was involved in secret six, but I'm impressed they were able to bring him to the small screen in the first place.
Harrison Wells: Tom Cavannah knocked it out of the park while playing a completely different character. While Reverse Flash was a better overall character, seeing the earth 2 Harry was still a descent character in it's own right and showed his breath of skill. Keep this man employed as he's one of your greatest gems.
Getting There
Iris: She's easily the most improved character and the only reason she didn't make the good is because they had her go through an arc to accept Barry as a future mate and then Barry blew it all away. In spite of this, she makes a better sister then lover to Barry, and her high point is when the kids confront jim west on his wife and unknown kid.
Professor Zoom: He started strong, was built up well, but it always felt like it was supposed to be the Doppelganger for Barry's dad. His reveal kind of ruined the character, as he appeared as petty as he appeared on the outside. Reverse Flash honestly did a better job in the 1st season, but he was still pretty good.
The Speed Force: This is more giving it the benefit of the doubt. Using a method of storytelling much like the prophets from star trek deep space nine worked well enough, but I'm not sure whether it's a good thing or bad thing.
The Villain Cameos: I liked a lot of the new villains. A personal favourite was the turtle and it annoyed me they killed him off. Zombie girder was kind of fun as well. Black Siren better be a reoccurring character until Laurel comes back as I like her cartoony style. The meta that aged when he used his powers was heart wrenching.
Amanda Pays: We need more of her, end of story. She is inherently awesome.
The Meh
Barry Allen: Barry Allen is an idiot. A lovable idiot, but an idiot nonetheless. This season's wb drama involved stringing along a fellow cop, and monologue against the big bad causing disaster to all. Barry's last steps in undoing his mother's death sure as heck wasn't smart either. In spite of this, I really do like Grant, but he showed way more common sense in the crossover, while still keeping his dorky charm.
Caitlin Snow: after playing such a prominent role in the first season, I was somewhat disappointed with the change. She was the poisoned woman that everybody she touched ended up dying, sidelined hard for most of the season, and then used as the victim for the remaining part.
As much as I loved her doing Killer Frost, her alter ego, it's not enough to compensate. which stinks because when whenever the actor is allowed to actually act, Caitlin Snow is as good as Cisco as a character (as shown by when they were imitating their earth 2 counterpart).
Detective Patty Spivot: I liked this character, even if her name seemed kinda silly, but she's a living embodiment of Barry's idiocy. Her ark looking for her dad's killer was great, but as soon as it was done, she was put on a train and vaulted out of the story.
The Bad
Jay Garrick: I found him kind of annoying even before he was revealed to be Zoom. I get what they were trying to do, but the same thing was done on agents of shield with ward and better.
The sidelining of Barry's Dad: We get Barry's dad out this season in the first few episodes and he disappears until it was time to kill him off. I'm just glad they found a way to use the actor for a different character, as I have faith he will be a blast in this role.
Wally West: CW seems to have only one stereotype when it comes to young black male. While Jefferson Jax grew over time, their version of Wally west seriously cheesed me off. I grew up with the DCAU and Young Justice have some definite opinions on what the "Wal-man" should be.
They didn't just make him black, they made him racially offensive at the same time.
The thing is there is the perfect model for the character that has already been defined by our media
If your going to make wally jim west's son, he should have been based on the following character.
Carlton Banks from the fresh prince of bel-air.
If they took the aspects of this character, then put him in the ringer that was laid down by the season, make his tongue his self defence mechanism.
If they did this, I think I'd be a serious fan boy of the character.
The ethics: Despite being one of the lighter shows, I'd argue that it has one of the worst ethics. Flash has a tendency to kill their enemies or seal them off and it bugs me. Especially if the earth 2 enemy is usually a hero (atom smasher). hell they even pointed it out on the crossover when livewire and silver banshee were locked up in prison, rather then a supervault without due process. last season had a meta-human gitmo, but the first episode has a kill on a character.
Jesse Quick: the actor was flat in her acting and has hand's down the worst line in the show. That being said, I wouldn't mind her coming back, but please see if you can give the character a more solid base.
What I want.
Caitlin Snow needs a bigger role. She's a great character with great chemistry, and while I'd hate her to be a meta-villain, I kinda want to see her dorky self with powers.
Leonard Snart needs to unionise the meta-villains in this season. Yeah he's dead, but it was a temporal anomoly and it would change the entire theme of the show to have to deal with an ethical villain instead of yet another speedster. I hope he's allowed to return as a major player in the arrowverse once prison break is done.
Flashpoint should be the foundation that the arrowverse is made on. Barry's decision could explain why supergirl is now part of this world and be a great way to resurrect good characters (ex. Laurel).
Wally needs a full personality change as expressed above. I don't care about the ethnicity, but whomever he's acting as isn't the wal-man. I will see how it goes.
Iris needs to keep her improvements. I like her having her own arc that doesn't involve barry and have her play the lois lane role of discovering stuff that other people don't. I think she works better as a sister then a lover and if they just reconnected it, give us a season where iris doesn't have it hang over her head. Hell, make her a metahuman that can assist with her sleuthing.
Grodd: I haven't mentioned Grodd yet, but I kind of want to see earth 2 gorilla city, even if it would kill the budget. :p
and above all else, I want writers that are well coordinated and the stupid drama that seems for the sake of drama that is inflicted on all arrowverse tv shows. Supergirl used it the best, but you can tell even there it's still an issue and makes people act dumb.
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