THE FLASH Comes Back Around

Article first published as Blu-ray Review: 'The Flash - The Complete Third Season' on Blogcritics.

The Flash – The Complete Third Season has arrived! The show’s junior year begins with Barry Allen having altered time to save his mother’s life. Unfortunately for Barry, that comes with a whole host of unforeseen consequences. Barry seeks to reverse the new timeline, dubbed Flashpoint, but despite his best efforts, things don’t exactly go back to normal. There are many consequences for him to deal with, testing the superhero in new and challenging ways.

I like The Complete Third Season‘s premise a lot. Many shows and movies have dealt with time travel, but few have gotten into the realistic intricacies of it. The fact that Barry Allen, a.k.a. The Flash (Grant Gustin), changes something doesn’t meant it can easily be undone. In The Flash, time is portrayed as a fragile thing, and while much can be set back to the way it was, there will always be differences that cannot be undone. Barry learns his lesson early in the year not to screw with the past again, though he has to deal with the fallout from his actions for a long time to come.

The character-driven story goes hand-in-hand with the neat science fiction element. The best superheroes aren’t perfect, and learn the hard way that their actions have consequences. Even if they do something with the noblest of intentions, the world doesn’t always let them off the hook. This is a very hard lesson to learn, but an authentic tale to tell. The weight of it gives a new angle to Barry that I enjoyed very much.

Hanging over the whole season is another time-travel related problem: tossed briefly into the future, Barry sees Iris West (Candice Patton), the love of his life, perish at the hands of Savitar, the Big Bad this year. Obviously, Barry wants to change this future, and has a very hard time doing so. This opens up the dichotomy of time also being hard to change, and even after learning a lesson, there may be a desire to repeat the mistake. This complexity, combined with the above, makes for a very pleasing run of episodes.

There are many other highlights in the twenty-three episode season. I loved the musical crossover episode with Supergirl, “Duet,” which made good use of the strong singing talents of both casts. Patton did an excellent job portraying an Iris that could accept her fate. Cisco’s (Carlos Valdes) flirty relationship with new frenemy Gypsy (Jessica Camacho, Sleepy Hollow) is fun, as is the inclusion of H.G., the third major character played by Tom Cavanagh in three seasons. Adding Julian Albert (Tom Felton, the Harry Potter films) to the cast nicely shook up the dynamic. A visit to Gorilla City made for a cool way to play up the different worlds The Flash deals with. And it is very hard not to be delighted by Caitlin’s turn as Killer Frost (Danielle Panabaker), evil as she may be.

The Complete Third Season does expose a glaring problem with setting multiple television series in the same universe, though. Savitar is a truly terrible villain, and the possibility of losing Iris is just about the worst thing Barry can imagine. Yet, Barry doesn’t call upon the Green Arrow, Supergirl, or any of his other super-powered friends for help (save a one-episode appearance by Snart (Wentworth Miller)). Given how serious the situation is and how desperate he becomes, Barry should be making use of any avenue available to him, so it doesn’t make sense that he doesn’t recruit his pals from the other shows. The mid-season crossover event was OK, but there really should be more integration in a story with such intense stakes.

The Flash – The Complete Third Season comes with a wealth of extras, including TEN featurettes! Unfortunately, one of them is the 2016 Comic-Con panel for the show, and as covered in other recent reviews, sticking it on the last disc of the set isn’t very helpful; we really need next year’s panel, or, at minimum, put it on the first disc to view before the episodes. But the other featurettes, covering a variety of topics, are good, and there are also deleted scenes and a gag reel.

The Flash – The Complete Third Season is available now on Blu-ray, DVD, and digital.

The Legends Continue

Article first published as Blu-ray Review: 'DC's Legends of Tomorrow: The Complete Second Season' on Blogcritics.

New to Blu-ray, DVD, and digital is DC’s Legends of Tomorrow: The Complete Second Season. A spin-off of fellow CW series The Flash and Arrow, Legends finds a group of misfits, both heroes and villains, who are not notable to history banding together to protect all of time. The Complete Second Season is basically a continuation of the first year, but with several of the team members swapped out. A new set of villains, pulled once again from the two parent shows, helps make the adventure fresh.

I loved the premise of DC’s Legends of Tomorrow from the start, and appreciated many of the characters in the ensemble, but was underwhelmed with season one. Thankfully, season two does much to correct that right away. The first year was saddled with an uninteresting story arc that weighed things down. The Complete Second Season does have an ongoing plot thread, but it travels to many more time periods, takes itself less seriously when it’s appropriate to do so, and deepens the characters, making the show into the fun romp it should have always been.

Not every episode is gold, and sometimes the effects and scale of action have to be lesser than they should be for budgetary reasons. But even some of the duller ones, like “Abominations,” have exciting elements that make the most of the money, like Confederate zombies! Yes, the show plays fast and loose with the premise; plenty of things the characters do or see should change history seriously and they don’t, while minor changes have large impacts. However, the season starts and ends strong, with swashbuckling and adventure, and overall, it’s a pretty entertaining run.

A big part of how much enjoyment The Complete Second Season has to offer are the antagonists. The Legion of Doom is comprised of three previously seen villains: speedster Eobard Thawne (Matt Letscher), who has a very powerful motivation in these episodes; incredibly dangerous magic master Damien Darhk (Neal McDonough); and the always charming Malcolm Meryln (John Barrowman). Even before they are joined late in the game by former Legend Captain Cold (Wentworth Miller), they have engaging chemistry that makes one gleefully anticipate every scene they’re in as a group. They set a high bar for season three to live up to.

Less successful is the way the team has changed. While the Hawks were good characters to jettison, Captain Cold’s presence is missed, and too different when he returns on the other side to be comforting. Neither Nate (Nick Zano) nor Amaya (Maisie Richardson-Sellers) are that gripping. The former would have been much more interesting had he not eventually gotten powers. The season suffers from the decreased presence of Rip Hunter (Arthur Darvill), though the benefit of his absence is the welcome increased importance of Sara Lance (Caity Lotz). I’d say this mostly makes the makeup of the group a wash, though the chemistry between those around for both years has strengthened delightfully, with Mick Rory (Dominic Purcell) having an especially compelling arc in how he relates to everyone else.

As far as bonus features go, I’d say this release has the minimum needed to be decent, but nothing particularly special. There are a handful of deleted scenes and a fun gag reel. The Comic-Con panel included is from 2016, so not a terrible way to get excited before watching the season, but far less valuable after you’ve seen the episodes, and since its on the last disc, that’s likely when people will view it. It would be far wiser to include the 2017 panel instead, but they did not.

There’s also a featurette on the “Invasion!” crossover between all four CW DC shows, Arrow, The Flash, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, and Supergirl. The Legends contribution to the miniseries is the finale, and the episode itself is pretty good. But the featurette itself seems to be talking about ideas that aren’t fully communicated on screen, and I found the full story to be relatively disappointing. It didn’t quite living up to what I’d hoped for, changing course too much between parts and shifting the makeup of the combined group hourly without satisfying explanation as to why.

Yes, this is a mixed review, but overall, I would recommend DC’s Legends of Tomorrow: The Complete Second Season. I’d say that just for Victor Garber’s performance alone, but he’s far from the only redeeming quality. This batch was better than the first, and I’m optimistic about where the show will go from here.

DC’s Legends of Tomorrow: The Complete Second Season is available now.

Own DC'S LEGENDS OF TOMORROW Today

Article first published as Blu-ray Review: 'DC's Legends of Tomorrow - The Complete First Season' on Blogcritics.

Warner Bros. Home Entertainment provided me with a free copy of the Blu-ray I reviewed in this blog post. The opinions I share are my own.

Once upon a time, two successful television shows, Arrow and The Flash, had a wealth of great, fun recurring characters between them. Unable to devote as much time as the writers would like to these personalities, given that they had lots of main characters to serve, too, it seemed that fans would have to wait impatiently for little snippets of them when they fit into the stories.

A solution presented itself, though. What if a whole bunch of the supporting players were lumped together and given their own team spin-off? And to sweeten the pot, how about add time travel into the mix, opening up a lot more possibilities and setting the story apart so it didn’t run into the continuity of the other series every week? Thus, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow was born, an Avengers-style team-up of heroes and villains.

Those chosen are a pretty strong crew. There’s Sara Lance / White Canary (Caity Lotz), Ray Palmer / The Atom (Brandon Routh), Leonard Snart / Captain Cold (Wentworth Miller), Mick Rory / Heat Wave (Dominic Purcell), Dr. Martin Stein (Victor Garber) and Jefferson Jackson (Franz Drameh), who together become Firestorm, and a couple of Hawk people that aren’t all that interesting, but are essential to the first Big Bad’s plot. Toss in Doctor Who’s Arthur Darvill as Rip Hunter, the man who as seeks their help, and it’s an incredibly ensemble right off the bat.

Barely has the season began when (SPOILER ALERT) the premise is blown apart. Originally, Rip tells these people that they are Legends in his time, and that’s why he’s sought their help. Instead, it turns out that they are forgotten footnotes who won’t be missed if something happens to them. This is a painful twist, but one that makes the following proceedings all the more emotionally moving, as each player suddenly has something to prove to both themselves and the word. It’s a really neat idea.

The season itself, comprised of sixteen episodes on this two-disc set, is a tad uneven. For every really cool event, there’s also a snoozer that no one will care about. But for me, already a fan of the six players and newbie mentioned above, I found the run to be overall quite engaging. There are some heroic sacrifices and emotional moments that make the occasional hokey action sequence or repetitive Hawk flashback worth it. Add in fun crossover cameos and a cool cliffhanger featuring Hourman (Patrick J. Adams, Suits), and this show is definitely worth watching. I am very excited to see where it goes when it returns for a second season.

The extras in this release are good. I like the tour of the Waverider, the ship the troupe travels on, which is a pretty spectacular set that begs for further examination. The history major in me also appreciates the featurette on real-life events, even if I wish it were a little more in-depth. The Comic Con panel is, like on most home releases, shortened considerably, which is pretty disappointing, considering most of us will never get the opportunity to travel to San Diego. Still, it’s nice that some of it is here. There’s also a bit on the character of Jonah Hill, who is much cooler in this show than in the recent film flop, and a gag reel, which many people like.

This means I’m pretty happy with the whole thing, and appreciate that the also-ran of the CW’s DC-lineup (which didn’t quite hit as strongly as the two shows that spawned it) isn’t also the black sheep of the Blu-ray market. I look forward to an even better second season, and if you skipped this one, give it a chance. It’s probably better than you think, superior to most broadcast network television.

DC’s Legends of Tomorrow – The Complete First Season is available now.

DC'S LEGENDS OF TOMORROW Aired A Couple Days Ago

Article first published as DC'S LEGENDS OF TOMORROW Review on Seat42F.

 

Thursday, January 21^st brings one of, if not the, most anticipated mid-season premiere on the broadcast networks. DC’S LEGENDS OF TOMORROW, a spin-off combining characters from the popular shows The Flash and Arrow, launches, expanding the comic book universe on the network, and making three simultaneously running series set in the same universe. It’s the culmination of the crossovers that have worked very well for the two shows, and a chance to see some fan favorite characters a lot more often. While Marvel is winning at the box office, DC is dominating the small screen.

The premise of DC’S LEGENDS OF TOMORROW is well publicized, so I don’t mind recapping it here. Rip Hunter (Arthur Darvill, Doctor Who, Broadchurch) comes back in time from a bleak future in which Vandal Savage (Casper Crump) is destroying the world. To prevent catastrophe, Rip assembles eight people remembered in history as legends to team up and stop Vandal before his rise to power. These include: Professor Martin Stein (Victor Garber) and Jefferson Jackson (Franz Drameh), who together become Firestorm; the resurrected Sara Lance (Caity Lotz), now the White Canary; Ray Palmer (Brandon Routh), a.k.a. The Atom; the immortal Hawkman (Falk Hentschel) and Hawkgirl (Ciara Renee), also known as Chay-Ara and Khufu, who have their own history with Vandal; and the villainous Leonard Snart (Wentworth Miller) and Mick Rory (Dominic Purcell), dubbed Captain Cold and Heat Wave because of their weapons.

The group is undeniably fun. By including antagonists alongside protagonists, there is natural conflict and varied motivations. The spectrum runs from the idealistic (Ray) to the in-it-for-themselves (Leonard and Mick), from those seeking redemption (Sara) to those just out for adventure (Martin). Some have a personal stake in the outcome, while others want to prove something to themselves. None stand out as “the” star, all coming from second-fiddle status on Arrow and / or The Flash, making DC’S LEGENDS OF TOMORROW one of the truest, most balanced ensembles assembled.

While not all of the actors are on the level of Garber or Darvill, both fantastic actors, they are well used in these roles. The writers have smartly figured out the characters, and played to the strengths of the individual performers as much as possible. Miller and Purcell are delightfully re-teamed after their stint on Prison Break as brothers, albeit with a totally different chemistry. Overall, it’s a nice assembly.

I wouldn’t say my review of the pilot is quite as glowing as how excited I am about the premise. With expectations high, DC’S LEGENDS OF TOMORROW has a lot to live up to, and while it gets off to a decent start, it still has some way to go.

The main flaw I see is that this series was created when a group of people thought “Wouldn’t it be fun to see ____ together with ____.” It’s a hodgepodge of characters, not at all like an Avengers best-of-their-class team up. This is a great concept, but it takes a lot of skill and finesse to make it work. The first two hours fall just a bit short of that, at times having some really good interactions, particularly between Sara and Leonard, but at other times, feeling more like the idea is better than the execution.

There is hope, however. While the premise seems a bit weak at the start, there is a twist late in the first hour that does a lot to righting the course of the story and making things that seem off make more sense. I can’t reveal what I mean by that, but if you can get through that rocky beginning, it will result in a good pay off. The second half of the pilot, which will air a week later, is much better because of it.

At the end of the day, I remain excited about this show. It has a bit of maturing to do, not hitting the ground running as strong as The Flash did, but with a better start than Arrow’s. The sheer adventure element is so much fun, and I do look forward to the character growth that will surely emerge, as well as the larger scale story that this series is tailor-made to tackle. The CW has very valuable property on their hands with their DC partnership, and I hope they continue to make good use of it.

DC’S LEGENDS OF TOMORROW premieres Thursday, January 21^st on the CW with the first half of the two-hour pilot.

Back in THE FLASH

Article originally published as THE FLASH Review "The Man Who Saved Central City" on Seat42F.

The Flash -- "The Man Who Saved Central City" Pictured: Grant Gustin as Barry Allen/ The Flash -- Photo: Cate Cameron /The CW

Last night’s season premiere of THE FLASH on CW picks up six months after the spring finale. The metropolis wants to honor “The Man Who Saved Central City,” meaning the titular superhero, but Barry (Grant Gustin) doesn’t feel like he’s the one who deserves the credit. After all, both Eddie (Rick Cosnett) and Ronnie (Robbie Amell) gave their lives in the fight, so Barry understandably is reluctant to receive praise. But the problem goes much further when he won’t allow anyone to help him be The Flash anymore and he encounters a villain, Atom-Smasher (wrestler Adam Copeland), whom he cannot defeat himself.

“The Man Who Saved Central City” is a great character-driven hour for Barry. His despair and urge to pull away in order to protect his loved ones is understandable, and one virtually every superhero goes through at one time or another. Thankfully, unlike, say, Arrow, Barry is much more accepting of the help others want to force upon him, and it only takes him a single hour to change his mind. Not that Iris (Candice Patton) and Joe (Jesse L. Martin) give him a choice in the matter.

Barry isn’t the only one who has split off from the group. Caitlin (Danielle Panabaker) now finds Star Labs too painful to be in, constantly reminded of Ronnie. She blames herself from not leaving town with him when he asked her to go. As such, she’s accepted a job with a different lab and hasn’t kept in contact with anyone. It only takes one visit and heart-to-heart from Barry, though, to make her feel better. After all, the whole team needs to stick together, and she’s soon back where she belongs.

These elements show us how different THE FLASH is from Arrow and other superhero ventures. It has become in fashion to have our heroes be moody loners, and in many cases, that’s fine. But it’s also refreshing to get a lighter touch sometimes, and Barry is the type of individual this fits well with. The show can be dark in sections, but a thread of optimism runs through it and is an essential part of this series.

“The Man Who Saved Central City” is pretty cool overall. I like that it waits to show us Ronnie’s death, doling out details sparingly at first, but not to the point where it gets annoying. I enjoy very much Barry’s dream sequence at the beginning where he’s stopping Captain Cold (Wentworth Miller) and Heat Wave (Dominic Purcell) with the help of his full team, making good use of recurring players. Cisco’s (Carlos Valdes) new job with the force is fun, and it’s gratifying to have Dr. Stein (Victor Garber) join the team. The idea that Barry is secretly rebuilding the city at night is neat, too, something most superheroes wouldn’t think to do.

Dr. Wells’ (Tom Cavanagh) presence hangs heavy over the season premiere. We see him in Barry’s dream, and in a video will. Both times he seems kinder, not the evil villain from the end of the season. Is THE FLASH seeking to redeem him? The video he leaves, which provides evidence that frees Henry (John Wesley Shipp) from prison, reaffirms this. I’m not opposed to such a reverse course as long as it’s handled well, giving reason to forgive him before his memory is improved upon. Will he still be around this season to keep the rebranding going, or was his name only in the opening credits for this one last hour?

Despite everything great about “The Man Who Saved Central City,” though, there are two glaring flaws that hurt the episode. One occurs when Joe, Cisco, and Iris openly discuss Barry being The Flash in the middle of the precinct. Aren’t they concerned about blowing his secret identity? Other officers have to hear them, and the last time I checked, only a small circle of people know that Barry is The Flash and it should stay that way. The second is that, right after getting out of prison, Henry leaves town with no explanation.

Henry’s excuse that he’ll get in Barry’s way of becoming who he’s meant to be is crap. Sure, he might be a distraction for a bit, but how does Henry being around impede Barry’s mission? Barry has lots of help, and none of them get in the way. Why doesn’t Barry push for further explanation? And where is Henry going? What else does he have to go to after fourteen years in jail? How is he going to start a new life elsewhere with nothing to his name?

Still, even with these missteps, THE FLASH is generally strong. It’s an entertaining show that has good story and characters. That makes it a show I look forward to each week.

THE FLASH airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET on the CW.