The Flash: The Flash Reborn review S4, Ep1
Missed last season of The Flash? No worries. The writers apparently don’t really care that much if The Flash Reborn is any indication.
That’s probably for the best considering the brood-fest that was last season. But for most of this season premiere the focus was on getting The Band back together. The Flash is back! might be more than a rallying cry for the gang, but a statement from the showrunners that this season is going to be more like the first two seasons.
[irp]
It wasn’t a coincidence that the action occurred during daytime hours. The lack of nighttime fights was a great visual cue that this is going to be a brighter season. Keep Arrow in the night like a good vigilante. Flash needs to be out and visible in the light.
This is a return to the glory days of the series minus one terrible haircut for Grant Gustin.
It’s been six months since Barry’s been sucked away into the Speed Force and Iris has been holding things down directing Team Name TBD. Julian is back in London having apparently gotten tired of working on a Killer Frost cure for Caitlin. Cecile has moved in with Joe and Caitlin is a bartender at a dive bar with a much improved smoking wardrobe.
When a mysterious (not so Silver) Samurai comes calling for The Flash, that’s all the incentive Cisco needs to bring him back. While Iris has tried to reject hope and deal with reality, Cisco has been hard at work finding a workaround to get Barry out of the Speed Force.
That was the problem with last season’s crummy cliffhanger. It couldn’t last long enough to be effective and there was no drama as a result. Cisco and Kid Flash give it a go, but they’re no match for Samurai’s super swords and Vulture wings. After some hard to follow science-y talk, Barry is back to Earth, but his mind seemingly didn’t make the return trip.
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While Barry does his A Beautiful Mind homage, Kid Flash dresses up like The Flash to battle Samurai. Switching costumes probably should have been Option A before risking another disastrous Speed Force Lightning Storm, right?
It takes Iris willingly allowing herself to get captured by the Samurai for Barry to snap out of it and don the red and gold again. Flash scaling windmills to stop Samurai looked pretty impressive as did the earlier fight with Vibe and Kid Flash taking on Peek-A-Boo.
Turns out the Samurai was just a robot. That can’t be good for Kid Flash’s ego. And we don’t get a long tease over this season’s villain with the reveal of The Thinker (Neil Sandilands). Apparently he needed The Flash back. Hopefully one of those reasons involves a better haircut.
And it definitely looks like a major subplot will be Caitlin playing Killer Frost by way of the Hulk this season right down to a you wouldn’t like me when I’m frosty line. I’m down for that since Caitlin is too useful to Team Flash to waste time all season gradually bringing her back in the fold. This way she keeps a good subplot and she’s got something else going on besides her love life.
The Flash Reborn was definitely an encouraging start for the season. This is a series that doesn’t need to stay in a dark place for extended periods. Next week looks to borrow several pages out of Spider-Man: Homecoming’s playbook and that’s a good sign of the tone this year.
Rating: 8.5 out of 10
Photo Credit: The CW