For more than three years, The Flash has been the crown jewel for The CW. The show has received critical praise for its first season and is on its way to become the biggest hit for the network, amassing record ratings in the process.
But, somewhere on that road to fame, the popular series seems to have lost its essence. The series that used to give us fun, characters full of life that we loved to see, has been replaced by heartbroken and stressed superheroes who have been stacked up against unbeatable enemies.
However, its fourth season seems to have once again infused life into The Flash and Barry Allen. Keeping this in mind, let’s see how The Flash Season 4 has got things back on track.
Family Once Again Is The Core Of The Narrative
Unarguably, The Flash’s biggest plus has been its depiction of the family. When it was first premiered back in 2014, The Flash was a refreshing show featuring a young, and raw Barry Allen get guided by his dear ones as he chased the Central City baddies. The parent show Arrow flourished in its darker tone; The Flash showed the light to Arrowverse. There was one key factor at the heart of that brightness, and it was ‘Family.’
Whether he visited his dad Henry in jail or recalled his late mother Nora, Barry Allen always made us cry. The other highlight of this show has been Barry’s equation with his father-figure Detective Joe West. Then there is that pre-relationship bond that he and Iris West had which is unforgettable for the countless sweet moments it gave to the show.
However, once Henry Allen died, the aftermath of Flashpoint and the thought of losing Iris, made The Flash get off track during the third season and it turned this show’s most hopeful characters into an unpredictable, moody wreckage. The family could no longer stop the danger posed by Savitar. In fact, the family became a weakness. This took the show away from its former cheerful self.
Now, jump to Season 4 and we see a delighted Barry Allen come back from the Speed Force with more happiness than ever seen before. Iris is now his wife and is going to be with him for every step of his journey. Not just that, the duo is flanked by their expanded Team Flash family of Joe, Wally, Cisco, Caitlin and Harry from Earth-2.
Further, Joe’s relationship with Cecile gives another dimension to the character which was previously unseen. Now that she is pregnant, it will make him display his best trait of being a father. Also, just like Barry, there is a lot more that Joe has to fight for now. All this implies that Joe will leave no stone unturned to protect his family.
The Flash manifests the basics of a closely knit family and uses this love to make the hero prevail over even the most hopeless scenarios.
The strong emphasis laid on family’s strength has made The Flash appealing to families across the world. The show displays the positives of a loving family, and it is wonderful to see the family angle back stronger than ever at the core of the show.
The Villains-Of-The-Week Are No Longer Depressing
There is no other superhero show that is as much fun as The Flash. While the Scarlet Speedster debuted and ushered in super-powered mutants into the Arrowverse, it was just a matter of time before we got an ample serving of colorful, ruthless villains – each one of whom had their own weirdo personalities and unimaginable powers.
The modern age viewers are likely to relate better to longer and continuity kind of storylines, rather than the repetitive adventure-of-the-week pattern. But, The Flash has proved to be an exception to this phenomenon as its episodes are never standalone. In fact, each episode seems to reveal something more about the overall plot. Also, while each season’s main villain might be frightening, the fun episodes allowed a much-needed respite, letting the show repeatedly underline the fun element.
However, three successive years on air can make any show look stale. While the original Particle Accelerator explosion is a matter of the past, it led to a steady reduction in the number of villains-of-the-week. Frankly, the dark season 3 might have been better if it had some of those episodes.
Now that it is unanimously accepted that the Season 3 veered away from the fun episodes of Central City’s villains, the Season 4 has allowed us to enjoy the new metas once again. Barry has returned from the Speed Force, and it sprinkled a wave of dark matter on harmless bus passengers, eventually leading to the creation of even more fun metahumans.
As witnessed in cases of Hazard and Elongated Man, the uniqueness of the new powers lets the impacted people to enjoy their powers. It is always fun to see how the superheroes and supervillains handle their newly discovered superpowers.
So far only a few of the bus metas have appeared, and we are confident about there being a lot more of them and are keenly looking forward to seeing them hurl their powers at Central City.
Talking of villains.
A Great Original Threat
The Flash’s debut had us all on the edges of our seats, trying to figure out who the mystery guy in the yellow suit was. The comic book fans were aware of the identity of the powerful Reverse Flash (Eobard Thawne), there was no clue about his real identity or intentions. This created a racy and gripping storyline.
But, the showrunners tried repeating this feat with the scary Zoom (a villainous speedster from Earth-2) during Season 2 and once more rehashed the formula when Savitar (yet another fast guy from the future) showed up in Season 3. Although it had its own defining moments, this turned out to be a feeble attempt.
All of them were speedsters, however, what remained unique about Reverse-Flash was his creativity. Contrary to Zoom or Savitar, Thawne had knowledge that was well beyond his metahuman powers and the time/location from where he had come. Since he was a real scientist, he had in-depth scientific knowledge which he was able to use against Barry and his team.
Pretending to be Harrison Wells gave him an opportunity to gel with the team members and know them inside out. Therefore, his speed was not his biggest power, but, it was his knowledge.
That’s where the Season 2 and 3 erred because they only revamped the same premise, but, these speedsters knew a great deal about their earths and the future. That was something which our team Flash didn’t know much about and therefore, these two seasons couldn’t give the same personal and balanced feel till much later.
DeVoe is not just the first mega-villain who is not a speedster, but, he has the ability to foresee each possible result, and that makes him the deadliest villain of them all.
The showrunners got their act together when they introduced The Thinker in Season 4. Clifford DeVoe is not only a mega-villain without the speed, but, he has the power to anticipate every possible action and outcome from any situation which makes him nearly invincible.
While DeVoe can’t beat The Flash in power and he can’t outrun him, but, he can out think The Flash. This would give him the same position where Eobard Thawne was as the mightiest enemies of the Scarlet Speedster.
This year, we are not faced with any mysterious speedster, but, just a battle of brains between two rival camps. DeVoe’s knowledge makes him a formidable risk to all the dear ones of Barry Allen. As seen in the earlier instances, that might have terrible results.
