Pilots fascinate me. A team of writers has forty-five (or less) minutes to introduce a cast of characters, an overarching plot, the general themes, and a storyline that can be wrapped up before the credits roll. The audience needs to get a grasp of the tone, the dynamics of the cast, and what to expect from future episodes. And for a show like The Flash, it also has to be something of an origin story, explaining how and why our protagonist got his superpowers.
It's a challenge no matter what the show, but The Flash manages to handle it with a surprising amount of grace. When you think about the amount of raw exposition that was introduced here, it's pretty incredible just how much we learned: that Barry Allen's mother died mysteriously, that his father was found guilty of her murder, that Barry is now a crime scene investigator, that he was half-raised by Detective Joe West and is secretly in love with his daughter Iris, and that she's dating her father's partner.
The gist of the story is that a demonstration of particle accelerator goes terribly wrong, putting Barry in a coma for nine months and endowing him with super-speed/super-healing abilities, after which he meets Dr. Harrison Wells, the man responsible for the accelerator's malfunction and who has subsequently became a pariah, and his team Caitlin Snow (fiancé killed, doesn't smile, looks like Thora Birch) and Cisco Ramon (no baggage, smiles a lot, looks like Jacob Black).
Realizing that the accident has caused an abundance of meta-humans all over the city, Barry decides to ignore the naysayers, use his powers for good, and take out another
So there's plenty of stuff here to like. Already there's an underlying mystery (who killed Barry's mother?), a Scooby Gang (Dr Wells, Caitlin, Cisco), a plethora of potential supervillains (courtesy of the particle accelerator), the requisite love triangle (Barry/Iris/Eddie), and the first hints of a complex Story Arc (the episode ends with Dr Wells opening a secret room, getting out of his wheelchair, and pondering what looks like a newspaper from the future).
But what sets it apart from the mother-show is its tone. This is so much lighter, more Smallville than Arrow, less Christopher Nolan's Batman than Sam Raimi's Spider-man. And for the record, I've deliberately decided to watch this without having seen all of Arrow's season two. I know it's there that Barry Allen is first introduced to this continuity, but I'm kind of looking forward to watching it as a prequel to this.
What I always find most fascinating about the pilots of genre shows is the existence of Starter Villains; antagonists that exist for one reason alone: to pose enough of a threat to spur the protagonist into heroism. Most new shows usually don't even TRY to make their very first villain interesting. They're always going to be dull, and it's yet this dullness that always piques my interest. I don't know why, perhaps it's just the recurring use of a character that's more threat than character; a quick device to gauge the hero's power.
This time around, Clyde Mardon is a bank robber that gets caught in the shock wave from the particle accelerator and develops the ability to control the weather. There's a half-hearted attempt at suspense when Barry insists that he survived the plane crash that supposedly killed him, and a quarter-hearted attempt at giving the guy a god complex, but ultimately he's there to create a hurricane that Flash can literally reverse (he runs counter-clockwise around it).
So Clyde was inevitably going to be the weakest link in the episode, but that's much more forgivable when taking into account the prevalence (and necessity) of the trope.
There are a couple of other nit-picks. Barry witnessing his mother's death was a hugely intense sequence (it reminded me a little of the Supernatural pilot), but it would have packed more of a wallop if it was allowed a little more time to breath; to explore the impact it had on a young child's mind. Likewise, the casual reaction Detective West and Iris had to Barry waking up from a coma was... well, very casual. Again, it felt rushed simply because there was so much to get through.
But the leading cast of characters are all pretty charming. Iris is a ball of sunshine and rainbows, someone you can easily understand Barry pining over, but who clearly has a life of her own outside the role of designated love interest. There's a real warmth and familiarity in their interactions together, despite the fact that Iris is totally oblivious to Barry's feelings for her.
And yes, I've seen the pre-show wank regarding shipping and fandom's immediate propensity to ship Barry with the girl who told him to pee in a cup, so all my defences are raised when it comes to Iris. I've already seen a few people play the "they're like siblings" card, though it's pretty clear that they're long-time friends who haven't quite mentally made the leap to boyfriend/girlfriend (heck, even Barry felt as though he was trying to articulate his feelings for the first time in his thwarted speech to her).
Among Barry's inner circle, I quite like the juxtaposition of Caitlin and Cisco's opposing personalities, as well as the obvious shadiness of Doctor Wells. Of everyone in this pilot, it was his shift from scientific superstar to outcast that really captured the nine month time skip, and his fall from grace (despite a couple of flat line readings from Tom Cavanagh) was nicely captured. And that final hook hints, if nothing else, that he's up to something.
Perhaps the only character I'm not totally sold on yet is Detective West, the type of man who is so overprotective of his daughter that he yells at her for walking down the street (seriously, this is a thing that actually happens). But his paternal instinct toward Barry and his knowledge of the Flash's identity immediately establishes a different dynamic than the police/vigilante tension over on Arrow, giving Barry an ally on the force that will no doubt make his crime-fighting career easier.
But it's Grant Gustin (his real name actually sounds like a comic book name) that has to carry the show, and he certainly embodies the nerdy-yet-sticks-up-for-what's-right model of a wannabe hero, someone who easily fits into the Steve Rogers and Peter Parker category of men who take responsibility for their abilities and act according to the conscience. Perhaps what I appreciated most was not his intelligence, but his genuine enthusiasm for knowledge. Any idiot can be intelligent, but Barry's level of joy and energy in discovering new things is a rare quality.
Miscellaneous Observations:
The special-effects on this were amazing, some of the best I've ever seen on television. Let's just hope that they didn't blow their budget on the first episode.
Speaking of special-effects, there were some cute visuals here and there as well: the soles of Barry's shoes melting after he was struck by lightning, and sparks flying from his jacket as he ran for Starling City.
Why on earth would a mugger chose to steal a laptop from a girl in a packed room? Muggers need to be sure of a quick getaway, though I suppose the crowd did obligingly provide an aisle for him.
Another Smallville nod: Barry has his very own Wall of Weird.
So my theory for Mrs Allen's murder is that time-travel was involved somehow. The particle accelerator caused the exact same effects (that is, water floating up into the atmosphere) during the thunder storm as it did during Barry's childhood, and the strange lights/sounds surrounding Mrs Allen had the red/yellow lightning streaks that the Flash causes when he hits high-speed.
Let's just hope that Mrs Allen didn't die because Barry decided to flit back in time to discover what killed her. Stable Time Loops are a bitch.
By some miracle, the red jumpsuit doesn't look totally ridiculous.
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| Except when he does this. |
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