Flash S04E01 - The Flash Reborn

by Dorlan on October 15, 2017

Flash is back on our television screens and probably the most important question is, how was the premiere episode of the fourth season?

Well if I had to describe it in one phrase it would probably be „unused potential”. Without further ado, I’ll try to explain to you, why I wasn’t thrilled about this episode.

To understand why I think that this episode was underwhelming you must recall last season finale, where we saw Barry sacrifice his own life to save Central City and his loved ones. It was supposed to be a huge deal and I was hoping that they would use this opportunity to make characters grow and cope with a loss of their saviour. Instead, this is almost not explored at all and before you know it, everything is rushing back into the old comfortable setup that we know and frankly are getting a little tired of.

Caitlin who wanted to find herself decided that serving drinks was the best way to cope with her dual personality and Cisco who couldn’t let Barry go just happens to have his way of freeing Barry from speed force. This, of course, convinces Caitlyn that she poured enough drinks and decides to help him. Meanwhile West family deals with the loss in their own way. This all would be well and good if they didn’t smash all that into the first fifteen minutes.

After that they use the device, Barry comes back a little crazy, which was kind of funny, but by the end of the episode everything is fine and The Flash even manages to take out the Samurai that threatens to destroy the city.

This episode was almost more rushed than the Flashpoint one last year. And that says a lot about how writers handle the conflict and suffering of characters. They think that showing glimpses is enough to keep us interested, but in the end, it only makes the characters look bland and not worth caring for when they literally can’t even go one whole episode with their situation.

Overall the premiere episode was way weaker than it should have been. There was a lot of things that could have gone for few episodes and in that process, create some real character development. None of that was realized and most of it was dropped for baiting us with more Killer Frost, which should have been over by now because that arc was explored last season.

One more think about the new archenemy The Flash will have this season, Thinker. He was responsible for this week’s events but it’s hard to guess what he will be like after the short glimpse that we got of him in the end.

Overall this episode wasn’t very exciting and we can only hope that it will only get better and won’t try to mimic the fourth season of Arrow that was extremely weak.

Our Score:

6/10

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