Flash

I'll just wait for Gotham and Pennyworth to be over and then I will see. But the very fact that an Amazon series was originally in the pipeline and Arrow ended up getting this spin-off is quite perilous... So far, The Flash has been running for seven years and has revived memories of its 1990s predecessor, which is a good idea. Crossovers are interesting in their own right, that's not a problem. Otherwise, I really don't have the nerve for it. (15.07.2014)

It suffers from exactly the same problems as Arrow's earlier episodes (before it became a well-deserved TV comic book leader), but here they're less detrimental. Because where, at first (and in a way to this day), Arrow’s super serious, fateful and dark style clashed with the typical “teenage telenovela bravado" approach of the CW Television Network, The Flash takes a much lighter, classic superhero stylization (it is, in a way, only a slavish variation on the first Raimi Spiderman), which can better withstand the traditional CW ills. Gustin is also quite likable despite the handicap of having facial expressions identical to those of Tereza Kostková. So if Arrow feels like a (mostly successful) effort by CW for a serious approach without superpowers, which DC chooses for its film projects, The Flash has profiled itself in the style in which Marvel pushes its film projects. And (so far) it's not detrimental at all, and in the better moments/episodes it even works in exactly the way it wants to; that is, as a consciously naïve, relaxed comic book of the most classic superhero style in television garb. It just needs more variety in the way the individual episodes are created and, above all, more excellent episodes in the style of the eighth "Flash vs. Arrow". (09.10.2014)