The Flash (TV Series, Season 5)
Jun. 10th, 2019 09:56 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chuckroBarry Allen’s daughter from the future (who inherited his super speed) has come back to meet him. Unfortunately, she shares his propensity for terrible life choices and has accidentally broken the timeline.
At least early on, bringing in Nora West-Allen as XS (a lovely blending of the Jenni Ognats XS, Bart Allen’s Impulse and Dawn Allen) meant that Barry could be vaguely sensible because there was someone less experienced to make the show’s characteristic terrible life choices. (I mean, he still did some really dumb things this season, but it was only in the last few episodes and the occasional “Whoops, forgot I had super-speed” moment.)
At his introduction, I was thinking that Sherloque Wells and his terrible accent couldn’t last for long. How wrong I was! They keep finding new an exciting ways to present Wells as a brilliant jerk with a heart of gold. They’ve managed to let the same actor have the same arc repeatedly over four different seasons as three different guys!
Given his presence in the Earth-X crossover last year but lack of appearance otherwise, we knew that Wells-faced Thawne was due back eventually. That said, exactly how he ended up imprisoned in the future…makes no sense and will likely never be adequately explained. Thawne dissolved from time once and was destroyed by the Black Flash once, and I think the only explanation we can guess at here is that a “time remnant” of him (possibly the post-Flashpoint version) was saved by the Negative Speed Force. Ralph actually using the term “timey-wimey” made me very happy, because the theme of this show is less that the timeline is malleable (no shit!) and more that it’s been broken a dozen times over and is barely held together with spit and baling wire at this point.
(Ralph leaning on the 4th wall in general gave the season some if its best lines. His willingness to pay attention to the greater plot when everybody else is engrossed in the monster of the week will hopefully serve him well in the future. It certainly gives him a purpose on the team this season, since he does relatively little stretching.)
The speckling of DC lore into the background of things delighted me, as usual. Ryan Choi invents the future; G. Simone & Associates are an architecture firm; Ralph loves to drink gingold; John Wesley Shipp guest stars specifically as the ‘90s Barry Allen (from Earth-90).
Weather Witch was kinda all over the place, given the needs of each of the three episodes she appears in. Her turn towards remorse in her second appearance makes no sense given her initial presentation, and then she hints at killing (or at least abandoning) Silver Ghost when she returns again.
I read afterwards that Joe’s extended time in Asia with Wally was the result of the actor being on medical leave; but of all of the excuses to have a character missing, it really made a ton of sense to me. He took three months with his newborn daughter (the paternity leave he really deserved), plus he got to spend it with the adult son he didn’t know until a few years earlier. And between breach tech and the various speedsters, he can see Cecile (and she can see Jenna) any time they want. That’s the vacation of a lifetime and Joe West sorely deserved it.
They very clearly have always intended to bring the Crisis on Infinite Earths to the Arrowverse and now it has a set deadline: Next year’s big crossover. Going into that, Sherloque is gone; Nora has been erased; and Cisco gave up his powers; but Wells-faced Thawne is properly on the loose again. This puts us back to a reasonable status quo going into the next season.
Also, as a side note: The Elseworlds crossover introduced Gotham and specifically Kate Kane / Batwoman to Earth-1. Whether or not that actually takes off as a new series, I’m putting it out there that Gotham and Batman didn’t exist in the Arrowverse until Dr. Destiny started messing with reality.
Overall: Though the show maintains its usual flaws and the pacing was a little wobbly, I still enjoy it. It’s comic book TV. Superheroes fight supervillians and a man-shark fought a giant telepathic gorilla. Good times!
At least early on, bringing in Nora West-Allen as XS (a lovely blending of the Jenni Ognats XS, Bart Allen’s Impulse and Dawn Allen) meant that Barry could be vaguely sensible because there was someone less experienced to make the show’s characteristic terrible life choices. (I mean, he still did some really dumb things this season, but it was only in the last few episodes and the occasional “Whoops, forgot I had super-speed” moment.)
At his introduction, I was thinking that Sherloque Wells and his terrible accent couldn’t last for long. How wrong I was! They keep finding new an exciting ways to present Wells as a brilliant jerk with a heart of gold. They’ve managed to let the same actor have the same arc repeatedly over four different seasons as three different guys!
Given his presence in the Earth-X crossover last year but lack of appearance otherwise, we knew that Wells-faced Thawne was due back eventually. That said, exactly how he ended up imprisoned in the future…makes no sense and will likely never be adequately explained. Thawne dissolved from time once and was destroyed by the Black Flash once, and I think the only explanation we can guess at here is that a “time remnant” of him (possibly the post-Flashpoint version) was saved by the Negative Speed Force. Ralph actually using the term “timey-wimey” made me very happy, because the theme of this show is less that the timeline is malleable (no shit!) and more that it’s been broken a dozen times over and is barely held together with spit and baling wire at this point.
(Ralph leaning on the 4th wall in general gave the season some if its best lines. His willingness to pay attention to the greater plot when everybody else is engrossed in the monster of the week will hopefully serve him well in the future. It certainly gives him a purpose on the team this season, since he does relatively little stretching.)
The speckling of DC lore into the background of things delighted me, as usual. Ryan Choi invents the future; G. Simone & Associates are an architecture firm; Ralph loves to drink gingold; John Wesley Shipp guest stars specifically as the ‘90s Barry Allen (from Earth-90).
Weather Witch was kinda all over the place, given the needs of each of the three episodes she appears in. Her turn towards remorse in her second appearance makes no sense given her initial presentation, and then she hints at killing (or at least abandoning) Silver Ghost when she returns again.
I read afterwards that Joe’s extended time in Asia with Wally was the result of the actor being on medical leave; but of all of the excuses to have a character missing, it really made a ton of sense to me. He took three months with his newborn daughter (the paternity leave he really deserved), plus he got to spend it with the adult son he didn’t know until a few years earlier. And between breach tech and the various speedsters, he can see Cecile (and she can see Jenna) any time they want. That’s the vacation of a lifetime and Joe West sorely deserved it.
They very clearly have always intended to bring the Crisis on Infinite Earths to the Arrowverse and now it has a set deadline: Next year’s big crossover. Going into that, Sherloque is gone; Nora has been erased; and Cisco gave up his powers; but Wells-faced Thawne is properly on the loose again. This puts us back to a reasonable status quo going into the next season.
Also, as a side note: The Elseworlds crossover introduced Gotham and specifically Kate Kane / Batwoman to Earth-1. Whether or not that actually takes off as a new series, I’m putting it out there that Gotham and Batman didn’t exist in the Arrowverse until Dr. Destiny started messing with reality.
Overall: Though the show maintains its usual flaws and the pacing was a little wobbly, I still enjoy it. It’s comic book TV. Superheroes fight supervillians and a man-shark fought a giant telepathic gorilla. Good times!
