The Flash Season 4 Will Stay Away From One Thing That We Love About The Show
In the Flash season 3 finale, we saw Barry Allen left Central city & his loved ones behind and went into the speed-force with his mother. After they defeated Savitar with the help of Jay Garrick (Henry Allen dopple-ganger), the speed-force became extremely volatile and unstable, led to massive earthquakes that wreaked havoc upon the common folk. It required a powerful speedster to stabilize the effects and Flash volunteered as he held himself guilty of creating Flashpoint timeline.
The DC fans witnessed the finals of the two most popular CW superhero shows a few weeks ago – Arrow and Flash. While Flash season 3 finale was along expected lines as it was bereft of any “shock n awe” moment, for once we thought that Flash show-makers grew a spine to kill off a major female character but somewhere deep down we knew that Flash can’t lose Iris West and it will be a happy ending.
On the other hand, Arrow season 5 finale was perhaps the best episode in show’s history, maybe in CW history as well. It was a thrilling, edge-of-the-seat ride that never failed to give goose-bumps. It has injected new energy into the TV franchise which lost momentum after season 4 debacle.
Well, it seems what Oliver Queen once said to Barry Allen is true, he said: “I don’t live in a city where villains have cute nicknames”. The Arrow finale made Flash look like an amateur superhero show meant for the uninitiated, whereas Arrow is a mature adult-superhero drama that has redeemed itself.
The first season of “The Flash” is the best till now as it had all the ingredients that the fans asked for. But then the show drifted from its roots and took all the fandom for granted. The show has already lost its original spark and zing that it had, it seems overstretched and hackneyed in terms of narrative and style. The villains carry too much emotional baggage which ultimately becomes the reason of their demise.
For instance, Savitar wanted to be “Speed God” just because Team Flash abandoned him when he was young. It’s understandable that Flash will have a speedster villain. Can we try something different ever? There are comic-book villains who have defeated Flash without speed-powers. But forget about all this…if there is one thing that we love about the show, it’s the time-travel elements. We all get excited and nervous when Barry fucks the timeline. But guess what, the show-makers have decided to stay away from the one good thing show had.
At Comic-Con 2017, the show-makers announced that show will not deal with time-travel anymore and explore other concepts. They are of the view that season 1 being the strongest, the show must return to its roots in the fourth season and use time-travel only when necessary.
The massive comic-book event like Flashpoint was rushed and introduced prematurely without a robust narrative to back it up. It made the season more complicated and mundane.
The idea is to have a less convoluted season where time-travel plot device is used only to enhance the story instead of being used as a tool to resolve every storyline.
Maybe it’s good that show-makers are taking a break from their strongest plot device and explore different concepts.
Recently, WBTV released the official synopsis of premiere episodes of all the superhero shows. For “The Flash” Season 4, it goes like this:
“Running up against an evil time remnant version of yourself is something no one should ever have to do, but that’s exactly what faced Barry Allen (aka The Flash) as he fought to save the life of fiancée Iris West from the God of Speed known as Savitar. Barry’s victory was short-lived, however, as an unbalanced Speed Force began to wreak havoc on Central City, forcing Barry to sacrifice himself for the greater good. With The Fastest Man Alive now trapped inside an extra-dimensional energy, and unknown dangers lurking in the shadows, it will be up to Team Flash to free Barry from his own personal Hell”.
It doesn’t talk about the possible villain or whether Barry Allen will turn to the dark side from the comics when he started killing fellow speedsters with a mere touch after returning to the land of the living.
But show-makers are promising a different kind of threat for Team Flash in the next season, something they haven’t experienced before, someone who is not exactly a speedster, hence unpredictable.
The natural corollary of Scarlett Speedster leaving the Central city vulnerable to meta-human attacks would be the promotion of Wally West from being “Kid Flash” to become “The Flash” of Central city. But recently when the actor was asked if he would inherit the mantle, he shot down the theory and said that the show will not follow the storyline of DC comics. He said:
“It’s not something that’s on my radar. I feel as though there is so much story to tell and Wally has so much growing to do. I’d like to see that journey continue. That’s what I think is important. We need to see how these characters realistically get to where they are headed for.”
The sound of the quote suggests that there will be a lot of personal upheavals that Wally will go through before making a transition from being a sidekick to becoming an actual hero.
Hoping for a great season ahead. The show returns with a brand new season on CW in October 2017. CHEERS!
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