Loved It? Hated It? What did you think of "The Flash is Born?"

[PHOENIXZERO]

I'm pretty sure it was meant to be a Firestorm reference. Mick Rory was probably a pyromaniac.

[Gray1776]

I have seen him knocked out twice and nearly run over by a yellow hummer. Doesnt seem to fast to me.

[Gray1776]

"Joe and Wells' subplot was marginally better -- up until the end, and it does suck that Joe is back to square one again."

Didnt Joe and Wells digitize the records??? If not then what the heck was all that data on the computer screens over their heads?

I like the show but it was far from the best so far.

[President_Luthor]

Didnt Joe and Wells digitize the records??? If not then what the heck was all that data on the computer screens over their heads?

I'd like to think Joe (not to mention Central City PD) is in the 21st century and has the same info on computer -- police evidence database, even on his own home computer. Heck, he should(?) have some notes on his smartphone.

But I guess viewers are being led to believe that, now that the the mystery speed-tornado swept up the hard copy case file and made it vanish ... he doesn't have this evidence now. In hindsight, it is hard to digest on its own and I don't believe this is the end of the Nora Allen case.

What's worse is that, now that Iris' blog activities have made her a target, this will only reinforce Joe and Barry's belief that keeping her in the dark is the only way to protect her. (If we make the conversion into Smallville currency: Clark believes keeping his secret from Lana, and lying about the times she witnesses his heroics, is the best way to protect her.) It's a convoluted road I don't wish to revisit on The Flash. It hurt Lana and ultimately Clark's character development in SV -- it could also affect Iris and Barry's character growth if they allow it to.

Joe investigating who/what killed Barry's mother was a good subplot for him, but with the ending a good story arc is sidetracked so that Joe is stuck with the secrets-and-lies-to-protect-Iris melodrama subplot along with Barry.

I'd rather he kept the former subplot and ditched the latter.

[DeathBySpoiler]

Loved It? Hated It? What did you think of "The Flash is Born?"

Different strokes for different folks I guess, I really enjoyed this episode. I thought it was one of, if not the, best yet. There was some clunky dialogue IMO but I can get past that since the rest was good. I particularly liked the theme of bullies and how it was addressed throughout the episode - Barry acted emotionally like anyone else might have in this instance, I liked that.

Plus: Reverse Flash!

[nate-dog1701d]

What's worse is that, now that Iris' blog activities have made her a target, this will only reinforce Joe and Barry's belief that keeping her in the dark is the only way to protect her.

What has never made sense is that there's no point to keeping the secret when the danger is already realized. There's a decent reason for Clark to keep his secret from Lois for a while, but once she's dating Superman or once the bad guys start pinpointing her as someone Superman always saves, the idea of protecting her with secrecy should go out the window. She's already in the very danger he's trying to prevent. Same thing here. Iris has already become a target (somewhat, as I'd argue this instance had more to do with Girder already knowing who she was), so what are Barry and Joe protecting her from? Heck, if Barry explained who he was to her, she might even stop the blog.

[Dagenspear]

By far and away THE best bit of the entire episode, was the line, "Man of Steel". Thought it was a S(uper) tip of the hat.

From reading other posters' opinions, and that of the person who did the "review" of that ep, it is quite plain that of the people who have written on this site (as opposed to just voted), there is a good consensus that the ep wasn't the show's finest hour, by a long way. And all who have mentioned it, have agreed that Barry revealing his id was just totally stupid.
On the one hand we have Wells actually killing in order to protect Barry, we have Barry wearing a mask so that those around him don't get hurt, we have Barry specifically warning Iris off and so what better way to point blank ruin any continuity the show and its characters have by having Barry revealing his id to a super-powered nutter with an Iris fixation.

I think it's clear that it was supposed to be not smart. It was a moment of arrogance. And Barry thought he was down for count.

I also found it damn stupid that R/F murdered Iris, yet let Joe off with just a warning. Again, ZERO continuity right there. It's as if the writers haven't got a clue about anything that has gone on before.

Why would he risk it? It would just call more attention to himself.

I must also point out, that from a sfx pov, while it was cool seeing the windows getting blown out, hasn't Barry learned anything since the pilot ep ? In that ep, at just a few hundred miles per hour the Star Labs team was shown getting thrown backwards by the force of Barry's slipstream, it should have actually been forwards from a physics pov, however, we've witnessed physical events as a direct result of Barry's speed, surely in a city as big as Central City, Barry should be pulling people left, right and centre in his wake. I'm not saying I'd like to see Barry thinking about the consequences of using his speed in a crowded city, however CONSISTENCY of some sort IS required otherwise it just makes the show, and script, look stupid.

No doubt the production team won't be bothering to drop by this site, but for the sake of the future of the show I sure as hell hope they get (and take on board) constructive criticism re each ep from at least somewhere, because "The Flash is Born" highlighted just about everything that is wrong with "The Flash".

Really? Visual effects complaints? You might as well hate on someone's shirt being buttoned in one scene and buttoned differently in another.

[Dagenspear]

Marginally better than last week's ep (but the only way was up as far as I was concerned).

The good: The effects, superb as always.

The bad: Getting VERY tired already of the "STAR labs tells Barry how to defeat the fotw, Barry complies" menu. The show would be a lot better if Barry actually had to figure stuff out for himself. Right now it's as if he doesn't have a brain of his own. Without Cisco, Caitlin, and to a lesser extent Wells, Barry would be close to useless.

That's false. His superspeed allows him to do many things. What, do you expect him to know how to do everything?

The thing with Smallville, was the journey to who he would be, and of course Lex and Lionel also carried the show a lot.
"The Flash" just doesn't have a Lex/Lionel calibre character trying to discover what happened to him in the car, and in the process also trying to unravel the mystery of Clark or the Cave.

It doesn't need it.

Wells' story, although getting off to a flier in the pilot and the first couple of eps with lots of teasing, is starting to feel contrived now, and even off-putting, and I didn't think I' be saying that after I'd seen the pilot and first 2 eps. His very noticeable unwillingness to help Joe or even listen to/believe a word he had to say, in last night's episode, felt pointless to me as a viewer. As did the scene right at the end, because on his own, Joe has no chance of ever turning up even one clue regarding Barry's mother's murder. "Stop or I'll kill Iris because you're getting too close" ? Joe's light years away and always will be.

Uh huh?

Chemistry: As a viewer, I see very little chemistry between the characters. Smallville had bundles of it, Clark/Lex, Clark/Chloe (or insert your favourite squeeze), Clark/his parents, Clark/Lionel, Lionel/Lex, Lionel/Jonathan to name just some of the best ones (imo), but other than Felicity/Barry, scenes feel somehow cold.

Your opinion. And I respectfully disagree.

The downright ugly: I said the producers are showing Barry to not have any grey matter of his own, but the stupidity of Barry in revealing his secret id to Girder plumbs new depths even for Barry. And really, Caitlin and Cisco who were both there should have known better and told him not to. (As if Girder is going to stay in that "cell" forevermore).

He obviously thought he would. He's not as genre savy as most of us.

[Aurora Moon]

You guys make me glad i never watched Smallville. I dunno how the show can not be enough like Smallville, and be too similar at the same time .

Smallville is actually a pretty decent show, when the writers weren't focusing on the Clark/Lana melodrama. You could say Smallville was like a diamond in the rough, in the sense that when they got things right, the episodes were priceless and beautiful just like a real diamond. The best episodes were when Clark was dealing with his superpowers and slowly learning how to become the superhero we all knew he was going to turn into. His scenes with his parents, his friends, etc... it all made him seem like a real person and made Superman much more relatable to us all. The Lex-centric episodes were usually the best episodes too as well. Considering that you got to see things from Lex's view of point, and you could understand why he did certain things... and even sympathize with him.

But the writers for Smallville did make a lot of mistakes... such as focusing too much on Lana without much reasonable justification for why she should be in certain episodes. Basically, the writers were really Lana-obsessed and it showed a lot in the work. They made characters randomly talk about how great she was when she was off-screen, and turned Clark into an obsessive love-struck stalker. It was like they turned the Lana Lang character into a Mary sue that caused everyone around her to act wildly out of character. In fact this fanart picture of Lana Lang says it all.
I'll never get over the times when Clark was shown to be spying on Lana though his telescope periodically throughout season one. ugh. It's written off as some sort of normal teenage boy behavior on the TV show, but when you really think about that stuff the more creepy it just gets.

So I guess this is why we keep on comparing the Flash to Smallville... because we're hoping that the CW writers will learn from their mistakes with Smallville. After all, We all need to learn from what went wrong in Smallville and take only the good from it. Iris should not be a Lana Lang-type character where everyone creepily obsesses over her and talk about how perfect she is whenever she's off screen. Or just simply be there for the sole purpose of being a damsel in distress. Instead she should be somewhat more like Lois Lane... not as a Lois knock-off but as an person who can take care of herself and becomes a really good friend to the superhero.

And of course, considering the fact that Iris and Barry grew up together as siblings the whole love interest angle is even more creepy than Clark's obsessive focus on Lana. So I really hope that they move away from that and instead just make Iris an kick-ass best friend... like how Chloe Sullivan was to Clark Kent. Chloe was one of the best parts of Smallville, and one of the only reasons why I even watched the TV show.

To sum it up: Flash has the chance to learn from Smallville, and then become even better than Smallville was.

[Gray1776]

Girder appeared to hear the sonic boom as Barry approached. Other than that mistake it was a great episode.

[Gray1776]

There is a bigger issue. It is Joe's betrayal of his partner. To let him go into danger every day unarmed with the knowledge of what he will face out there (metahumans) is wrong and more than a little sick.

[Dagenspear]

Smallville is actually a pretty decent show, when the writers weren't focusing on the Clark/Lana melodrama. You could say Smallville was like a diamond in the rough, in the sense that when they got things right, the episodes were priceless and beautiful just like a real diamond. The best episodes were when Clark was dealing with his superpowers and slowly learning how to become the superhero we all knew he was going to turn into. His scenes with his parents, his friends, etc... it all made him seem like a real person and made Superman much more relatable to us all. The Lex-centric episodes were usually the best episodes too as well. Considering that you got to see things from Lex's view of point, and you could understand why he did certain things... and even sympathize with him.

But the writers for Smallville did make a lot of mistakes... such as focusing too much on Lana without much reasonable justification for why she should be in certain episodes. Basically, the writers were really Lana-obsessed and it showed a lot in the work. They made characters randomly talk about how great she was when she was off-screen, and turned Clark into an obsessive love-struck stalker. It was like they turned the Lana Lang character into a Mary sue that caused everyone around her to act wildly out of character. In fact this fanart picture of Lana Lang says it all.
I'll never get over the times when Clark was shown to be spying on Lana though his telescope periodically throughout season one. ugh. It's written off as some sort of normal teenage boy behavior on the TV show, but when you really think about that stuff the more creepy it just gets.

So I guess this is why we keep on comparing the Flash to Smallville... because we're hoping that the CW writers will learn from their mistakes with Smallville. After all, We all need to learn from what went wrong in Smallville and take only the good from it. Iris should not be a Lana Lang-type character where everyone creepily obsesses over her and talk about how perfect she is whenever she's off screen. Or just simply be there for the sole purpose of being a damsel in distress. Instead she should be somewhat more like Lois Lane... not as a Lois knock-off but as an person who can take care of herself and becomes a really good friend to the superhero.

And of course, considering the fact that Iris and Barry grew up together as siblings the whole love interest angle is even more creepy than Clark's obsessive focus on Lana. So I really hope that they move away from that and instead just make Iris an kick-ass best friend... like how Chloe Sullivan was to Clark Kent. Chloe was one of the best parts of Smallville, and one of the only reasons why I even watched the TV show.

To sum it up: Flash has the chance to learn from Smallville, and then become even better than Smallville was.

Most of this isn't really true.

[Aurora Moon]

I actually have screenshots and evidence backing up my opinion. I have screenshots of Clark being a creepy stalker to Lana, when he spies on Lana though his telescope, etc on a dozen separate occasions. I also have screenshots of people like Chloe, after Chloe was pretty much shat on all over by Lana in the same episode, blindly talk about how great Lana is despite being greatly wronged by her. To me, those were the worst character moments EVER!
I also have screenshots of the best character moments ever, like when Lex risked his life to save the life of hostages at the plant, etc. Or the great father-son moments between Clark Kent and Jonathan.

So.... if you like, I can post those screenshots to prove my point about how Flash shouldn't become just another Smallville.. but learn from the TV show and become better than it?

Or are you going continue to say "ha, all the stuff you said isn't true!!!"

[Carmine-Infantino]

I actually have screenshots and evidence backing up my opinion. I have screenshots of Clark being a creepy stalker to Lana, when he spies on Lana though his telescope, etc on a dozen separate occasions. I also have screenshots of people like Chloe, after Chloe was pretty much shat on all over by Lana in the same episode, blindly talk about how great Lana is despite being greatly wronged by her. To me, those were the worst character moments EVER!
I also have screenshots of the best character moments ever, like when Lex risked his life to save the life of hostages at the plant, etc. Or the great father-son moments between Clark Kent and Jonathan.

So.... if you like, I can post those screenshots to prove my point about how Flash shouldn't become just another Smallville.. but learn from the TV show and become better than it?

Or are you going continue to say "ha, all the stuff you said isn't true!!!"

Sadly, the whole Barry, Iris and Eddie triangle is a necessary part of the story and has nothing to do with smallville, which they should avoid at all costs. In the comics the Allen's (Barry and Iris) have a long, tragic, bloody, timey whimey feud with the Tawne family. The Iris/Eddie pairing is necessary setup for the "future".

[Dagenspear]

I actually have screenshots and evidence backing up my opinion. I have screenshots of Clark being a creepy stalker to Lana, when he spies on Lana though his telescope, etc on a dozen separate occasions. I also have screenshots of people like Chloe, after Chloe was pretty much shat on all over by Lana in the same episode, blindly talk about how great Lana is despite being greatly wronged by her. To me, those were the worst character moments EVER!
I also have screenshots of the best character moments ever, like when Lex risked his life to save the life of hostages at the plant, etc. Or the great father-son moments between Clark Kent and Jonathan.

So.... if you like, I can post those screenshots to prove my point about how Flash shouldn't become just another Smallville.. but learn from the TV show and become better than it?

Or are you going continue to say "ha, all the stuff you said isn't true!!!"

No. There's no point in arguing because haters will always hate. There's nothing I can do to change that. And I was referring to the fact that none of that is true. It's your opinion. You don't have the right to state something as fact, when it isn't. It's also your opinion that Clark was being a "creepy stalker".