The Flash: Season 5
Based on: DC comics character the Flash
Developed by: Greg Berlanti, Andrew Kreisberg, Geoff Johns
Written by:
Todd Helbing, Sam Chalsen, Eric Wallace, Judalina Neira, Jonathan Butler, Gabriel Garza, Kelly Wheeler, Lauren Certo, Thomas Pound, Sterling Gates, Kristen Kim, Joshua V. Gilbert, Judalina Neira, Jeff Hersh, Zack Stentz
Starring:
Grant Gustin (Barry Allen/The Flash), Candice Patton (Iris West-Allen), Danielle Panabaker (Caitlin/Killer Frost), Carlos Valdes (Cisco/Vibe), Danielle Nicolet (Cecile), Jessica Parker Kennedy (Nora West-Allen/XS), Tom Cavanagh (Sherloque & Eobard Thawne), Jesse L. Martin (Joe West), Hartley Sawyer (Ralph Dibny/Plastic Man), Chris Klein (Orlin Dwyer/Cicada)
The Flash season 5 trailer:
I jumped into this series a year or two late because I didn't think I was interested in the Green Arrow or Flash characters. Man, was I wrong. When I saw some of the epic crossovers going down in the later years, I decided that this was, in fact, for me.
For anyone unfamiliar, the "Arrowverse" refers to a shared on-screen universe of multiple CW network TV series based on DC comics properties. Arrow aired first, The Flash was a spinoff of that, and several others followed as well.
I see the CW's Arrowverse trashed quite a bit in the DC fan groups I'm part of on Facebook, though I don't quite understand why. I think it must be because of the lower budget, purposeful diversity, and potentially the writing. But I don't personally count any one of those as flaws, and I've just been increasingly amazed at this universe the more I watch.
The Flash is about Barry Allen's Flash, a superhero with superspeed powers. In the show, he teams up with several scientists to save their city from crimes perpetrated by powered or "meta" people. In season 5, due to various time-traveling shenanigans that I won't get into, Barry and his wife Iris are introduced to their daughter from the future, Nora. Nora joins this team of scientists to take down a particularly savage meta-human serial killer called Cicada.
I've honestly enjoyed just about every season of Flash mostly equally. I'm consistently impressed with the writing and acting, the natural character development, and especially how one season's conflict leads into the next. For example, both Nora's and Cicada's introduction this season are explained by the events of the season 4 finale, which in turn were influenced by events in season 3. I also really enjoy how the main characters evolve over the course of the seasons: Cisco and Caitlin evolve meta-human abilities and respond to them in different ways, Barry and Iris go through relationship ups and downs influenced by Barry's self-sacrificial choices, and Dr. Wells' character changes the most, being literally different characters as they pull replacements for him from throughout the multiverse (watch for yourself if you want to understand!). Only Joe West, Iris' father, meaningfully remains the same, which is necessary and refreshing in its own way as he provides a moral anchor for the rest of the characters throughout the series.
I admit that I did find Cicada themselves (a man and woman take turns with the persona over the season) a bit duller than other season antagonists. The first and second seasons had antagonists that were directly personal to Barry, whose defeats had respectively personal consequences. Season 4's antagonist was less connected to Barry, but the mind-games they played created more personal stakes. Cicada created some stakes in the manner of a father-daughter relationship that was affected, but more time-travel shenanigans got involved, and in my opinion, cheapened the overall effect. I understood the effect they were going for and it made some sense, but I felt that the dynamics ended up becoming overcomplicated and losing their personality. In the finale, I didn't feel a strong sense of consequence when Cicada was defeated. However, the show also used these complications to bring back a season 1 villain, whose return felt much more profoundly impactful and dangerous.
The one strong positive of this season in specific was Nora. Unlike Cicada, everything Nora did, especially her presence as a guest star over the whole season, felt far more personal. Barry and Iris, not to mention the rest of the team (like Joe, her grandfather) all got to know her. The full season gave her plenty of space to breathe, fill out three-dimensionally, and become a flesh-and-blood part of the team and the Flash family. All of this made a twist at the end far more impactful and devastating. In fact, in one of the final episodes, Barry and Iris have a bitter argument about her, fueled by emotions that have been building up since season 1. This argument was acted superbly-- this show doesn't often have such bitter spats-- and having watched Barry and Iris grow in relationship over the series, it felt incredibly organic and heartfelt. The accusations they threw at each other hit me just as hard and the hurt in their voices felt harshly real, in the best way. I remember watching this long argument with wide eyes and jaw dropped, genuinely unsure how they were going to resolve it and what was going to happen, especially since it was going to directly effect the course of the season finale and Nora's fate. I thought it was beautifully written and acted, and a wonderful testament to how character drama can be executed sparingly and powerfully.
It'll be a awhile before I return to the Arrowverse. I like to watch the shows concurrently as they had aired--so a season of Arrow, Flash, Supergirl, and Legends respectively at the same time, and that's like 80 episodes. So I tend to need several months if not over a year to breathe between. But I'm very excited to see where season 6 takes us.
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