The Flash And The Arrow

I must write this post before I watch too much of the Arrow. I have already watched 9 episodes of the first season and I've got to say what a refreshing change from The Flash. The weirdest thing is that it has essentially the same writing team as The Flash (I checked) but the characters and events in the Arrow are so much more sensible. I don't have contempt for Oliver Queen even when he makes a bad decision. His bad decisions come from being human not from being stupid. Like his decision to trust Helena, for example.

Even when I watched the Flash there was some cross over from The Arrow I could see then that I'd enjoy watching The Arrow even before I knew that he was a real character and there was a show called the Arrow. In the first episode when Flash goes to see Oliver to find his way, the Arrow made an impression on me. Then Felicity came to see Flash and oh yeah, that was love at first sight for me.

When I saw the episode name Flash vs. Arrow, I kind of cringed because I don't really like to have hero against hero. But that episode was amazing! And once again the Arrow earned my respect. Another episode where the Arrow came to help the Flash. Every time he appeared on the Flash he dominated the scene, both from an actor's performance viewpoint and the character's screen presence.

So, I am really happy that this show exists, that it has 4 seasons on tape and that it's amazing.

The whole approach here is different. I can't help but compare it with the Flash for obvious reasons. Here Oliver Queen gets as much screen time, more in fact, than the Arrow. Here, his name is still "the Hood" even after 9 episodes. Here his team is building slowly, growing organically as such a team would in real life. He still has only Diggles to help him. I am eagerly waiting for Felicity to join him. Soo, I hope.

Well, I will cut it short and just say, I am really, really enjoying the Arrow and I recommend it highly to the viewers of this genre.

The Flash Season 1 Finale - The Bullshit Continues

SPOILER ALERT: Dude, I am gonna discuss the whole plot of the season 1 finale of The Flash, so major, major spoilers. 

As I mentioned in my last post on The Flash, I find Barry Allen stupid. But not all of his stupidity comes from his character, quite a lot of it comes from the writers of the show. This episode is an excellent case in point. So I will discuss the episode with special focus on Barry.

In this season finale Barry goes back to 15 years ago to save his mother from being murdered. Back to the Future 2 style. Before the move is made it is discussed and discovered that if he goes back and saves his mother's life, the timeline will change drastically, his father would not go to jail, he would not live with Joe, he would not meet Iris, etc. etc.

Some of the characters say he should do it, some say he should not, and there are a number of sappy scenes for all them, so many that it gets annoying. Only saving grace there is that the actors are all good and don't hem it up despite the opportunity to do so.

We get to know from the beginning that this is a very risky experiment and if Barry can't go as fast as needed he will die instantly. Then as preparations progress we find out that not only will he die but the whole world as we know it may be destroyed. Despite all of this Barry decides to do it. I mentioned in the last post on The Flash that he can't make a difficult decision. This is a case in point.  Although he makes a brave decision to risk his life but he risks the whole world for a personal gain.
Other than destroying the whole world, there is a risk that the alternate timeline could lead a to a terrible world for mankind but he doesn't care about that.

But, on the other hand, there are no paradoxes in time travel therefore if his blood was on the scene that means he did go back that means he will go back. The decision has already been made. Fine.

Then we come to the point which irritates the hell out of me! Just because it's a sci-fi show doesn't mean it has to be scientifically correct in every technical detail, especially on the future technology. So, the writer/director will take creative licence and that's fine. But on conceptual level it should not try to fool the audience with mumbo-jumbo. Time travel is a concept with which even the non-geek audience is familiar and at least the geeks know what a causal loop is.

Now, listen to this. Just before Barry is getting ready to go back in Time, Cisco tells him that there will be THREE of Barry Allen's there that night. One, the young child, the other as The Flash who gets the young Barry out and fights Dr. Wells, and the third, this one who's listening to Cisco just before going back. I will number them so we can discuss them without running into our own backs. Barry1 - the small child, Barry2 - The Flash fighting the man in yellow, Barry3 - who is just about to go back and save his mother. All clear? Now raise your hand if you can answer the next question.

Barry1 - The child lives there in his current time line, wakes up by the noise and comes down.
Barry2 - Went back in time to save his mother.
Barry3 - Where did Barry3 come from? 

Why are there 2 grown up Barry's or Flash's there on the scene? One is going back from the current year, but where's the other one coming from? My understanding was that the Flash going back now is The Flash fighting the man in yellow. How do they ADD a Flash? There's no mention of another time journey by a Flash and no explanation why there's a third Barry there on the scene.

I hope someone has the answer to it because it irritated the hell out of me when I was watching this episode!

For a bonus question try this. In the episode "Out of Time" when Barry goes back in time by a day, there is NO OTHER BARRY. He is the only Barry in that world and he has to live his day exactly that same again. So what happened to the Barry who is actually living his life on that timeline? They mention particularly that the Flash "Did not turn back the time" but "Traveled back in time" which means that that timeline should have a Barry/Flash already there that the Barry/Flash from future can see. That's how it works in all the sci-fi in the universe and that's how it make sense. But no, not for The Flash.

And then, they change the rules completely in the finale and add an extra Flash. What annoys me even more is that they keep mentioning Back to the Future, so they do know these things, or should! In BTTF 2 you can see the Marty from BTTF1 and the Marty from BTTF2 avoids being seen by the other Marty. Makes perfect sense. When Marty and Doc go to the future, they can see and hear the future Marty. Perfectly clear. Here however, the rules of Time Travel in the Flash are neglected and played with.

I have 3 theories to explain this kind of writing, feel free to choose one or add a new one if you like.

1. The writers are not real geeks and do not really know about these things even after watching sci-fi like BTTF before.
2. The writers are idiots who can not comprehend anything as complex as time travel.
3. The writers think we are idiots who do not understand something as complex as time travel.

In the end, he doesn't save his mother. He waits off-screen and lets the man in yellow kill her. Okay, that made me admire him as that is THE MOST difficult thing in the world to do and he does it to save the timeline. But then I remember that he risked the whole world and the future of Mankind to say goodbye to his mother and it makes me mad again!

When he goes back, he crashes Dr. Wells' time capsule and doesn't let him go back. What a stupid moron! Instead of letting him go back he stops the one person he cannot beat and traps him in this time. What an amazingly stupid thing to do! And there's no point to it except his personal feelings! There's no real reason for stopping him from going back!

A fight ensues, as expected. At the climactic point, Eddie, Iris' boyfriend, shoots himself as he knows he is the ancestor of Dr. Wells/Ebart and this way he kills himself to kill Ebart. Once again a moronic decision by someone who is supposed to be an intelligent person. Does he not recognize that it would not "Kill" Ebart, it would "ERASE" him completely from the timeline, which means all of his influence on the events of the past will be erased - no particle accelerator, no accident, no Flash, and that's just the obvious things. A change of that magnitude would endanger the whole world! And it does!

So, you can see why I am not pleased with this slipshod way of writing science fiction.

Don't worry, it looks like this will be my last post on The Flash. I finished watching season 1 and have no desire to carry on in season 2. However, what I do like in The Flash, is the cool fast motion effect and how the show reminds me of Sheldon in Big Bang Theory doing Flash. :)

P.S. I am going to watch The Arrow next. That's been my gain from watching this stupid show - I found out about the Arrow and the adorable Emily Bett Rickards! :)

The Flash - Stupidest Man Alive?

Spoiler alert: This post contains major spoilers for The Flash season 1.

Okay, so I am watching the first season of The Flash the first time and I have some stuff to moan about.

The show is well directed and it's easy to watch. While it's not as amazing as Firefly (nothing ever is or ever will be) where you actually care about the characters but at least you can watch the characters with interest. So, let's talk about some of them.

The Flash. I know he's doing a great thing by being The Flash and fighting crime and what not but seriously if you look at him he's stupid, naive and he's a pussy. It looks like he has trouble figuring out the simplest of things and that he has never taken a tough decision in his life. Dude, your mom died when you were young, murdered, didn't you learn anything in the 15 years?

Whenever he's faced with a villain, he rushes in. Even when he knows the villain has powers that can kill him. Yes, they want us to think he's brave, but that's the kind of bravery that's called stupidity. He makes no plan, he just bumbles in like an idiot. This is demonstrated very well in the episode "Flash vs. The Arrow."

Second, his body moves very fast, but his brains seems to work like a malnourished moron. In any situation, he'd do the thing that an idiot should do. Take the episode where he travels back in time by a day. Harrison Wells tells him specifically not to do anything different as that would have serious repercussions and he just goes and does something so big that it can't but have the granddaddy of repercussions. I mean, doesn't he read science-fiction, he's a geek, right? And it's shown in previous episodes that they have all watched Back to the Future. WTF, dude?

The supreme irony is that even after changing his behaviour so drastically from the first instance of the timeline he expects everything else to happen as it did the previous day. What a jackass!

Take the episode "All Star Team Up". He's up against the main villainess, she unleashes her robot bees at him. What does he do? Instead of using his super-speed to cuff her, take control of the computers, and win the day, he starts running around like a schoolboy to escape the bees. And then when he comes to a glass window, instead of using his super-speed to break the glass and get away, he's like "Oh, Cisco! I am trapped! There are bees all around me!" Gimme a break! Didn't he learn just in the last episode "Tricksters" how to go through solid material? And now he can't go through a huge glass window that a 5-year old would break by hurling a chair at it? Jeez!

Enough about the super moron. Let's talk about Iris. Absolute bitch!

Right from episode one I can see that she's a selfish bitch. Selfish, self-centered, near-sighted, stupid bitch! Way too many examples to give so I will try to restrain myself.

Barry has feelings for her. They both grew up together and still she doesn't see it. That takes some serious neglect of the other person because girls are a wizard at noticing these things. Look at how she treats Barry, how she treats Flash, how she treats her boyfriend, you will see what a selfish bitch she really is. Still, I don't blame Barry for loving her, because love is blind, and we just proved that Barry Allen is stupid.

In the episode "Out of Time" she confesses she has feelings for Barry and kisses him WHILE she is in a live-in relationship with her boyfriend AND AT THE VERY SAME MOMENT her father is tied up at the mercy of a super bad villain type person. Awesome girl!

Her blog - what a stupid idea! Endanger yourself and your family even after multiple warnings from multiple people. Even after finding out that the newspaper gave her a job only to exploit her as a "Flash person" and knowing she has told Flash to never contact her, she doesn't leave the job on moral grounds. Selfish, manipulative.

I think by episode 18 everyone should be able to see her true colours when she's like a dog with a bone about how her boyfriend should tell her everything. Even giving him an ultimatum. WHILE at the same time, she never tells her boyfriend about Barry's feelings for her and actively tries to hush it up a couple of times. Double-standard, cantakerous bitch! (I realize I am using the B-word too many times. Can you suggest some juicy synonyms?)

The character I like in this is The Arrow. The actor (I can't be bothered to look up his name now) has brought him to life as a mature, experienced vigilante, who has done it all and seen it all. I was dreading the episode "Flash vs. Arrow" from the title but I loved it when I watched it because I got to see The Arrow in action. And it was worthwhile. He also understands human nature and plans for it.

And my favourite person on the show is "Felicity". I say person because I love both - the character and the actress! Having worked with actors now I am aware of how much a good actor can change themselves to adapt to a role. Therefore I don't know how much she's really like "Felicity" but I love how she portrays her. Felicity is a breath of fresh air in all the drama. She's gorgeous, she's funny, she's witty and she has mad hacking skills. She's just adorable!

(And now you know why I chose that picture with this post!)

When she first appeared on the show I didn't even know who she was but I loved her at first sight. And the more I got to know her the more I loved her. Emily Bett Rickards. Yes, her name I googled even before the episode was over! She plays Felicity so well, I can't tell where her own personality finishes and where Felicity starts. It maybe the producers picked someone who was like the character or it maybe she's completely opposite of Felicity but she does a hell of a job as Felicity. When I finish Season 1, I would probably re-watch only those episodes where The Arrow and/or Felicity are in the picture.

So, a rant and a rave in the same post. Breathe!