This is TV’s second crack at DC Comics’ Fastest Man Alive, following the 1990 version of “The Flash" that hit CBS the year after Tim Burton’s “Batman” set records in the cinemas. They even got John Wesley Shipp, who played Barry Allen in the CBS version, to play Barry’s pop this time around.
The new version is from “Green Lantern” writer Greg Berlanti, who also wrote for Warner Bros. a few years ago a movie script about The Flash. Berlanti’s Flash movie was scrapped around the time “Green Lantern” proved a critical and box office disappointment.
The longtime showrunner of The WB’s “Dawson’s Creek,” Berlanti has already created several other superhero TV series, including ABC’s “No Ordinary Family” (which starred Julie Benz as a superspeedster), The CW’s “The Tomorrow People” and The CW’s “Arrow,” which shares its universe with “The Flash.”
As with “Smallville,” all the freaks-of-the-week who menace the future Justice Leaguer owe their superpowers to a single event. But instead of a Kryptonite meteor shower, the precipitating incident is the same supercollider mishap at Central City’s STAR Labs that gives Barry his superspeed.
Freak One is The Weather Wizard, the comic-book icon who can use tornadoes to rob banks.
I like the “Flash” pilot better than I liked the “Arrow” pilot we saw two years ago, though I'll say this incarnation of the Scarlet Speedster is nowhere near as entertaining as the similarly powered Quicksilver we got in this year's "X-Men: Days of Future Past." One standout in the CW series is Tom Cavanagh, who used to play the bowling alley lawyer in “Ed.” He is highly watchable in a supporting role as the superscientist head of STAR Labs.
... I like "The Flash" at this stage a lot more than I did "Arrow" after its solid but unremarkable pilot episode. It helps that many of the key creative people worked together on the previous show and have learned some lessons about what does and doesn't work in a superhero TV show. But the lighter and more optimistic tone is unexplored territory that could be tough to navigate at any speed. For the first hour, anyway, "The Flash" makes it look easy.
... Its sprightly first hour is one of the most solidly entertaining pilots of the fall season, and it did the most important thing that first episodes must do: It made me eager to see what comes next. ( …
... Among the fall’s three new comic-book shows, “Gotham” and “Constantine” were both bound to go the dark and violent route. “The Flash” goes another way, which might not endear it to the comics fans but could attract an audience just looking for something fun. …
... an effervescent and super-engaging addition to television's increasingly grim comic-book wars …
... Frankly, it’s all neither here nor there in an attempt to be everywhere. Barry takes off so fast that a viewer hardly gets a chance to know him — or care much about where he’s headed. …
The San Francisco Chronicle says:
... Depending on your POV and perhaps your age, the show, premiering Tuesday, is either rather bland or exactly what you’d expect from the CW, which has occasionally tried for a post-tween audience with shows like “Arrow” and “The 100.” …
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette says:
... On the surface, it’s just another superhero drama in classic CW style: good-looking characters, a possible love interest for the hero, decent special effects, etc. But “The Flash” purposefully avoids the dark tone of “Arrow” … Viewers bored with superhero shows might not take to “The Flash” regardless. It’s not a revolutionary show but at a certain level it is a step away from the angst and a return to the positive, uplifting feelings evoked by the 1978 Christopher Reeve “Superman” movie.
... You don’t have to be a comic book fan to enjoy “The Flash,” but if you are one, there are so many Easter eggs in the pilot — especially the one at the closing moment — that you just might go into nerdgasms. “The Flash” isn’t stopping for anyone. …
... Let’s see if they can keep the broodiness at bay and come up with plots that have more than good vs. evil at stake. …
... one of the most enjoyable, agreeable and infectiously exuberant new shows of the fall, a welcome respite from the angst-heavy gloom that burdens so many comics-inspired superhero action shows these days (including Arrow and Fox's Gotham). …
... How nice to see a superhero who counts optimism among his powers. … When Barry discovers he's survived a lightning strike, his response, surveying himself in the mirror, is "lightning gave me abs?" When he finds out lightning also has given him super-speed, his response is "Awesome." …
... Gustin comes across as instantly likable, and even relatable …
8 p.m. Tuesday. The CW.
