‘The Flash: Season 1’ Blu-ray Review

I’m the DC fanboy of the team. Of the awesome group of people we have at Project-Nerd, probably nobody on staff is more on the DC bandwagon than I am. Yet, until this point, I had watched none of the current DC television series. I have my reasons. John Constantine shouldn’t be parading around with a PG filter, no cigarette hanging from his mouth, and a constant flow of quirky one-liners that make even Tony Stark look tame. Gotham shouldn’t be doing anything it’s doing with Batman canon, especially taking it to the butcher.

But I digress, this is about The Flash and what CW has been doing right for many years with DC properties. This is also about a series that is good enough it has brought me into looking at all the other DC shows I have been missing.

Introduced just this past year, The Flash’s pilot really takes the approach of a complete origin story. A young Barry Allen (Grant Gustin) witnesses a strange phenomenon that takes the life of his mother, leaving him in the care of Detective Joe West (Jesse L. Martin), the father of Barry’s best friend, Iris (Candice Patton). This change in his life leads Barry to become a forensic scientist for the Central City Police Department and then an eventual mishap at Starr Labs changes his life forever as he gains super speed.

Things seems to develop as planned, at least for Dr. Wells (Tom Cavanagh) and his team, Caitlin Snow (Danielle Panabaker) and Cisco (Carlos Valdes), who all become Barry’s support team with a destroyed Starr Labs serving as the base of operations. As the team comes together and finds out how to work as a complete unit, the Flash becomes the hero Central City needs, seemingly without a hitch.

The Flash S1 1

Life does continue to toss Barry conflicts though. His best friend, Iris, is dating her dad’s partner, Eddie Thawne (Rick Cosnett), and a very compatible Felicity Smoak (Emily Bett Rickards) makes some cameos to only remind us all that she is head over heels for her town’s hero, Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell). The added conflicts within Barry’s life take away from how seemingly easy and simple the conflict with other metahumans and Central City’s newest villains really play out. Although Barry must wrestle with some downfalls of being a hero, for the most part his world consists of: start to save the day, find a problem that the team solves, and then finish saving the day while defeating the villain. But even against expectations, I found myself ready for the next episode throughout the entire season.

The Flash is well written and has enough going for it to keep audiences engaged. Season 1 does suffer from what many ongoing television series do, and that’s introducing and wrapping up a plot point and villain in each episode. But over time the series gets better about handling that and starts to develop long term conflicts and enemies. The series also focuses on the science of things, with Barry’s diet and desire to get drunk for a night do come into play.

The biggest factor that holds The Flash back from being a great show is the acting and directing. The direction is a mixed bag, with most episodes not giving characters much to work with. This is clear when you see stronger actors, like Wentworth Miller and Dominic Purcell, and get mediocre performances in their appearances in the series. But with the directing being clearly wish-washy from one episode to the next, it’s hard to put blame on performances being average. Gustin, Patton, Panabaker, and Cavanagh all do a decent job, but none of them bring the wow factor. And even with Jesse L. Martin and Rick Cosnett giving solid performances, the fans cannot be saved from Valdes’ Cisco.

But don’t let my nitpicking at the acting take away from what The Flash has to offer, because as I pointed out before, the show works. Overall, expectations of a movie script and production should be tossed out the window, but an ongoing tale of a superhero who doesn’t get too serious while also not acting like a laughing stock awaits those willing to give it a try. It’s good to see superhero shows evolving from what we have had in years past, and thanks to that improvement, The Flash has inspired me to give these other series I’ve overlooked a second thought.

The Flash S1 2

Presentation

Like most modern television series hitting Blu-ray, The Flash: Season 1 falls short of blowing the audience away with its presentation but does absolutely nothing wrong. Hitting the shelves with an Mpeg-4 encode in 1080p, The Flash even sits closer to the side of reference than not. The video is crisp and clean, with all the episodes remaining very consistent. Unless intentional, because of a fast moving object on the screen, blurring is not an issue. Neither is microbanding or any other ghosting issues one can sometimes find with fast paced sequences on Blu-ray. The image is very three-dimensional, and although I did not watch the series on television, one can easily tell it is an upgrade from the broadcast quality.

Warner Bros continues its solid presentation with the audio as well. The Flash: Season 1 has a 5.1 DTS HD Master Audio track presented in English. The surround sound is strong and the speakers all get in on the action of the series. With this being a superhero show it is clear that bass as well as surround noises need to be on point, and for the most part they are. With fast sequences, the speakers keep the audience well aware of where the Flash is and where sound in general is coming from. The center channel is also very much alive with crisp dialogue that is never drowned out by the remaining sounds.

Overall, a win in the presentation department for CW and Warner Bros’ newest series, The Flash.

The Flash S1 3

Extra Features

It used to be if you saw an extra feature for a television series it was added to the end of an episode on air. As the demand to own series’ grew with DVD so did the demand for special features. That trend continued (and continues) into Blu-ray, yet so many times studios come short on features. Warner Bros, however, usually delivers, and they do so again with The Flash: Season 1.

The set includes a series of high definition featurettes and behind the scenes footage, as well as the Comic-Con International panel from last year (2014) that happened just prior to this new series starting. I also appreciate the deleted scenes and gag reel, although they are kind of light, and then adding a commentary track to the pilot episode helps us get an understanding of the world the team was looking to make.

  • The Fastest Man Alive!
  • Creating the Blur
  • The Chemistry of Emily and Grant Screen Test
  • Behind the Story: The Trickster Returns!
  • DC Comics Night at Comic-Con 2014 Presenting Gotham, The Flash, Constantine and Arrow
  • Audio Commentary
  • Deleted Scenes
  • Gag Reel

Final Thoughts

The Flash: Season 1 was a big hit on the CW and I expect the same with the Blu-ray release from Warner Bros. The video and audio are fantastic, and the list of extras is very strong. The fact that the show is also enjoyable makes this a great pickup for those considering it.

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